flat plan of contents page

1. In my magazine there will be features such as interviews, reviews of live gigs and tour dates. I am trying to stick to the idea that i have portrayed in my ideal readership page which is for people who like live music and are interested in a rock music genre. Therefore my music magazine is aimed at a younger audience who are interested in rock music and specifically live gigs.

2. My double paged spread that i have been working on will take prioritie on the contents page with the pictures included being the ones of my artist 'Roxy Rouge'. This will be the first feature included on the contents page followed by others such as tour dates, other interviews and reports of gigs and new bands.

3. Considering i am aiming at a younger audience of around 16-25 i would need to include lots of pictures if they were just flicking through to grab the attention of them. Depending on each article i would have to consider how many pages i would dedicate to it but usually if it is a more important article then it would be a double page spread.

4. The artist i have created for my magazine is an established artist but throughout my magazine i would have a mix of unsigned artists, established artists and iconic. I would like to include recent updates of unsigned bands or bands which will be 'coming soon'.  My magazine represents all types of artist but specifically for the genre of rock.

5. The house colours i have decided to use are black, white and dark purple. Both black and white are used regularly in magazines as white writing on a black background is very effective and black has connotations of darkness and therefore the rock image i am trying to create. The dark purple is a bit of a personal touch as i like the colour and i feel it is a unisex colour as my ideal readership is just about half and half with both genders.

6.  For my style features i will include a collumn like layout with pull quotes from the artist in the house colour of dark purple. I feel this is very effective as it wil attract the reader in to wanting to read the whole article. I will use subheadings to show a clear seperation between the information and to make it easier for the reader to follow.

7. For my lnaguage style i will use a variety of styles of text but generally colloquial language in which will feel personal to the reader. In my double features page spread i used words such as 'chill' which give it a really casual feel to it. It's not so much that i will use abbreviations, but i would like to make it slightly humorous and sensational. There will naturally be questions involved in the interviews and exclamations depending on the answers given.

8. Following on with the colloquial language, i will use first names in interviews when adressing the artist which makes the reader feel like they know them personally.

9.  For my type face i have used sans-serif writing, as i am trying to represent people interested in rock music i feel writing including flicks may be a bit too femenine for the people i am tryin to attract. The big bold writing grabs the attention of the reader and shows the rock element in my magazine.

10. In my magazine i will include logos which are associated with particular bands in order to sell things such as tickets for gigs and CD's. I have also considered whether to include my masthead in my contents page and have decided not to as the reader will already know the magazine due to brand identity shown through house colours and typefae.

11. For my photography style i have decided to use both direct- to make the reader feel like they are connected personally to the artist, and indirect- to show the live images and to make it look more natural, following on with the live music theme. Most of the photography will be posed for, such as the ones used in my double page spread as it is an interview and photoshoot.

12. Generally the photos i have uised are on the right hand side as it is usually where the eye is drawn to when flicking through a magazine, and as my ideal readership are younger they are stereotypically leading busy lives and impatient. By using the photographs this way it will catch attention andake the reader want to read the rest of the article. The text fits around the images in an interesting way to make each page look different.

Pictures taken for my music magazine

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flat plan feature page

For my flat plan of the feature page i decided to include two main images and body copy around it, there will be a pull quote under one of the pictures to make it feel personal to the audience. The headline will spread across the two pages to show the connection of the double paged feature. The body copy will fit around the images to make it interesting to look at.

analysis of my surveymonkey questionnaire

My reader profile

After looking at NME's reader profile it inspired me in creating my own reader profile. As i have not decided on a title for my final product i have simple named it 'My Magazine' so i could concentrate on what images i think would portray the ideal reader i would like to attract. After collecting the results from the questionnaire i realised the majority were interested in rock music and so i have followed this by using images such as concerts, guitars and 'vans'.

Feauture page analysis and mode of address for Q magazine

Unlike Kerrang magazine, there is only one picture in this feature and it is posed for, this gives it a more sophisticated yet calm feel to it in comparison. The shot used is a high angle shot and i feel this is used to make the reader appreciate Lily Allen is an ordinary person as well as an icon, by using this shot it brings some sort of reality to the star. Lily Allen is a quirky, cool girl and Q magazine wants to attract people similar to her or to people who can relate to her, she is obviously very famous so by using her within the feature people are going to read on out of interest about her.
There is much more writing on the page than in comparison to Kerrang's feature page and this is an interview with the artist which makes it much more personal to the reader and is good for people who like to know the gossip side of the music buisness. The title is very eye-catching, it is created like a newspaper cut out stuck down randomly which gives it a rock image despite the posed photograph. The white on black is very effective and the feature page sticks to the house colours of black white and red. It has a white background which suits it perfectly as it could be in fear of looking cluttered due to the typeface of the title, it gives it a more elegant feel.

analysis of questionnaire

Through my questionnaire i have discovered the type of target audience i am interested in attracting; they are between 16 to 20 years of age, interested in rock music and like interviews in their magazines. They like to download music and i feel i can use this further and make my readers subsribe to my magazine monthly, as that is how often the majority of the people who took part by magazines. They have busy life styles and like to be in pubs around live music, therefore i know i need to include lots of details on cool, new, live music to keep my audience satisfied.

reader profile research

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/hvcjivb3x8p8oqk9bw285ffu.pdf

By looking at this reader profile for NME magazine i discovered just how well they know their target audience in the way of what they wear and even to what type of phone they have. The magazine has kay stats which indicates there is a majority of male readers at the medium age of 23. This is also shown by the images surrounding the stats where there are pictures of beer, cars and designer labels such as fred perry. The reader profile gives it's target audience a very positive stereotype and it advertises the magazine with quotes from readers such as "It's full of facts we should all know but don't BUT we do now thanks to Nme"

Feauture Page Analysis and Mode of Address for Kerrang Magzine

The images used in the feaures page are all spontaneous, they are not posed and they have done this for a reason. This is used to make a more natural feel and to make the readers feel like they are at the gig, it is trying to recreate the atmosphere and show how live it was. The camera angle is a low angle looking up at the artists to reinforce the iconic image of them. There is a shot of the audience to make you feel the atmosphere of the gig and to make you wish you were there. There are several shots amongst this feature page but there is a main image in the centre of the page with several others cut out and stuck round the side of the main image, this is to create the rough, spontaneous feel which Kerrang magazine tries to portray throughout.

There is little writing on the page but a particularly eye catching piece is 'an evening of rare laughs, fun and pissing about from the californian crew' this informal writing connects to the reader on a personal level and which is why i would suggest this is why it is for a younger audience. The writing is kept black, white and red sticking to the house colours of the magazine.

This article is about a band called Avenged Sevenfold and following them throughout a gig, this band are a rock band and this is presented through the tattoos, the head banging and the frequent show of guitars. This is a relatively old band and may be iconic to many, it also has in the corner a 'how was it for you' section in which it asks a member of the public who went to this gig how they felt about it, this shows it is for real, everyday people and that they have a say in whether the gig was a success or not which can be used as advise whether to see them live yourself or not.

Evaluation of priliminary task

Before starting our project on a music magazine we created a priliminary task which involved making the front cover and contents page of a school magazine. In this school magazine we had to think specifically who the target audience would be and how to appeal to them using house colours and the type face.
    I chose the colour royal blue as the colour of my masthead and title of contents page, i use this colour as it is striking and has connotations of royalty and power, seeing as my school is a grammar school i thought this linked closely and gave a good impression of the school and magazine. My magazine was kept simple using photographs i took in school time making sure i included a medium close- up shot of a student, one convention i decided to use throughout my magazine was the same typeface throughout to create brand identity and so it is easily recognisable to my target audience which is a niche audience of the students of the school and the parents. I decided in my contents to use a post-it note as tha background as it is a contrast to the royal image portrayed earlier with the blue, i decided to do this intentionally to relate to the students and give it a more relaxed feel, i continued this with the type of font i used which is a bold yet serif writing which has connotations of hand writing with a more relaxed feel.
      My magazine would be distributed in school with no price as it is for such a niche audience, this helped me to develop my thoughts on the later project on the music magazine to where i would distribute it and how much it would cost in consideration to the target audience. My target audience for the priliminary task are students aged 11- 18 so in this i had to consider what woud attract such a wide audience within this niche audience and the way i decided to do this was to use lots of pictures and use updates within the school which would affect all of the students.
      Overall for a priliminary task i felt it helped me develop my skills in IT enabling me to experient with different fonts and colours to attract my target audience. If i were to re-do my priliminary task i think i would take more time and consideration in taking the photographs needed for my magazine and would create a logo specifically for my school.

priliminary task contents page- my school magazine

Front cover of priliminary task- my school magazine

powerpoint on Kerrang magazine

The class was put in to partners or small groups and each given a music magazine we had to research. My partner and I were given Kerrang magazine where we had to look into things such as the house colours, the audience and the images used. This is the powerpoint we shared with the rest of the class so they were able to make notes about the techniques used in this magazine.

Kerrang! powerpoint

View more presentations from taliafield12.

preliminary task: research into similar tasks

Annotating Kerrang's front cover

Kerrang magazine takes a completely different approach to Q when it comes to music magazines. Kerrang attracts a niche audience as it is for people who like rock/metal music. This is portrayed by the busy front cover with action shots and uses serif text to make it look sharp and dangerous. The font used for the masthead looks cracked to show the danger and rock image they are trying to portray. Kerrang also uses the colour red in its house colours, as well as black and the white writing.

Looking at different music magazines

Q magazine.

In my research i decided to look in to different types of music magazines to see what techniques they use and how they will attract their mass or niche audience. Q magazine attracts a mass audience as it is for people who are interested in a wide range of music from U2 to Lily Allen. The single letter for the masthead is striking and unique, as there are not any other music magazines named one letter. The red background of the title attracts different types of audience as for me, red has the most connotations of a colour. Red can be seen as love or passion, to death and danger. In my research i realised a wide range of magazines use the colour red in their house colours for this reason. Q magazine uses white space in the background to show versatility and a sophisticated simplicity, your eye focus is on the image and using famous artists is a great way to make people buy the magazine as if the readers is particularly interested in the artist they will buy it to read on.

Introducing my blog

I have created this blog to post the research i will do in preperation for my AS coursework, where i will be designing; the front page, double page spread and contents page of my music magazine.