Here is the finished result of my music magazine. A front cover, a contents page and a double page spread:
I then researched further into the Japanese and another trend that they have in the media are the use of mascots to create moral and a representation of support for different people or objects that they want to advertise. For example, in America they use mascots to represent famous football teams and use them as something for the fans to look at as a representation for their hometeams. In Japan mascots are very cartoony which is relative to the anime style that Japan is very well known for:
The more popular animes and mangas in Japanese are very well known in their cartoon style to be very childish and girly to create an innocence within their style of animation and storylines that are incorportated into the animes. For example, a very girly and innocent anime that is very popular is Fruits Basket:
In this screenshot of Fruits Basket, mainly female characters are dominant with most of them expressing child-like and melodramatic expressions. A common expression is used with the central female in the image with the baby-blue dress with the big eyes, the sharp chin and the 'D' shaped smile. Then on the left of her, the other girl still has the sharp chin and the 'D' shaped smile, however in this case she is expressing the melodramatic happiness with her eyes closed with is also a common expression that is used in anime.
So when it came to the final draft of my music magazine, I wanted to incorporate the Japanese style much further by using the technique of a mascot instead of over-using the 'Japanese sun' with the red and white background. I then researched into popular Japanese mascots:
A common feature that I discovered in my research of Japanese mascots is that they incorporate a lot of the common features in animes. For example all of these mascots represent the childish innocence that a lot of anime characters have. However, instead of using people for mascots, they use animals or their own creation of an animal. For example (top image) a monster-like creature is used, but a basic square/'D' expression is used, but instead of using big round eyes, it uses small round black dots to create a cute but very simple expression. Then the second mascot(s) were used for the Olympics when China were the hosts of the event. They used anime techniques with the childish expression on their faces, however their poses also add to it by putting their hands out to represent the desperation for a little competition as if they are saying 'Bring it!'. Then the yellow mascot looks like they are running, so they represent the athletic side of the sport. However, due to it being a worldwide competition they then use the panda mascot with their hands on its heart to represent the unity of the Olympics, of how the world is coming together. Once again, they have used cute animals to conform to the common features of the Japanese mascots.
After all of my research I then created my own mascot on Photoshop. I used the common feature of an animal so I chose a bear to make it look like a teddy bear so it represents a bravery of a bear but in a cutesy and innocent way. I then decided to use the common expression of eyes closing in anime, so I made it look like my mascot was closing its eyes. I then incorportated Japanes text inside its stomach to make it much more oriental.
I then added it to my magazine cover and contents, but for the contents I changed the mascot to red to make it co-ordinate with the colour scheme well:
Then with the added research of Japanese mascots, I then incorporated the idea heavily into another idea I had for a double page spread. I then researched into Kerrang!'s double page conventions and that merged with the Japanese mascot I then created my second double page:
However, I then asked people I know which double page spread they liked the most, and they liked my original design rather than the 2nd one due to it looking more professional and having more conventions. They also commented on the headline on the second double page spread being very cheesy and they didn't understand how it related to the article. I then took these comments on board and it also made me think that the panda mascot I used looked a little too childish, so I then changed my double page spread with the second idea but incoporporating conventions into the second double page spread design such as as pull quote and adding introductory text so it filled up dead space. Here is the final version: