Planning: Inspiration

In order for me to get started on the magazine I decided to look at some existing magazine cover, contents and double spread pages that fall in the same genre as mine. I wanted to familiarize myself with everything a fashion magazine contains and is about, as this will help me understand my audience and what they expect from a fashion magazine. My magazine as mentioned earlier is about  a guideline on casual wear from what to wear to work and at college and furthermore for women between the age of 16-30. As, the casual wear worn by the women now a days do not belong to my culture and adopted by a foreign culture I felt that it was necessary for me to have some ideas and get inspired by already existing magazines. This will help me to learn the codes and conventions and would help me make decision during the construction of the magazine keeping these in mind. 

Below are collages on the cover, contents and double spread pages:

Cover Pages

Contents Page

Double Spread

Planning: Finalizing Model

"Soha Ali" is going to be my model. As my magazine is on casual wear I am confident that my model will pull of the attire given to her and I will be able to get the photographs I want that are alluring and  justice will be brought to my ideas. She is not that skinny unlike most of the models as I want to encourage healthy eating and break the stereotypes of of size zero models.

Planning: Mood board

Planning: Size of the Magazine

I looked at the sizes of the magazines over the internet and magazines at a book store. Generally, most of the magazines of all genre had a similar size, there was not much of a difference. The only difference that followed was that some magazines had more width than height and vice versa. I collected some information to help me decide the size of my magazine.
There are two standard sizes for the magazines approximately.

• Standard size: 8 x 10
• Digest size: 5 x 8

Samples of some magazine sizes approximately:
Vogue: 8" x 10"
People Magazine 7" x 10"
GQ: 7" X 10"
Rolling Stone: 8" x 10"

 

 

I wanted to have a general idea about the sizes of all the magazines so I could easily decide the size of
my magazine and to get to know what sizes are preferred mostly by the audience. By having a look at the other magazines including the magazines belonging to my genre I understood what the size my magazine should be. My size of the magazine will be 8" x 10" because this size  according to my opinion is the best size as it is a standard size of various magazines and it balances out the width and the height. If I had kept the width too small than the height and vice versa the magazine would have looked inequitable.

Planning: Name of the Magazine

In order to finalize the name of the magazine I had to find a name which best fit the genre of my magazine. I looked at a lot of  different words which seemed convenient for the magazine. I tried to jumble around with words so that I could come up with an original name. I had to think of a name that would be able to attract the upper and middle class females, the name had to be sophisticated keeping in mind my target audience will not buy a magazine with an unpleasant name. Due, to this reason I tried to come up with original and practical name. When I tried to play around with different words I came up with:

• Modage: Modern Age

                                              As my magazine's genre is Fashion and its sub genre is Casual Clothes it indirectly represents the modern era in the Fashion industry in an indirect way. This name automatically gives an idea as to what the magazine will be about such as the latest fashion trends.

• Forefront: Position of great importance

                                                                      Fashion is of great importance and many people acknowledge this fact and what else could be a better name than forefront which in itself explains the position of Fashion in the world.

• Leading edge: Innovative aspect in a field

                                                                      Fashion itself is about innovation and playing around with different accessories and coming up with your own style statement due to these reasons the name perfectly fits the genre of the magazine.


The name that I have finally selected for my magazine is "Modage' because I think its more captivating as compared to the rest of the two names, and foremost the meaning behind the name will be easily comprehended by the audience effortlessly.

Research: Target Audience

Research: International and Pakistani Brands

I researched into some of the most famous international and Pakistani brands. I felt that my research will be incomplete if I don't look into the already existing international and national brands.
Here is a slideshow of the most famous international clothing brands:
Slideshow created on: kizoa.com 

Here is a slideshow on Pakistani clothing brands. The mentioned brands in the slideshow are based on casual wear.

Slideshow created on: kizoa.com

•