Full Analysis Of Moodboards

Music Magazine Survey Results

Rough Drafts Of Magazine

Front Cover Progression

Contents Page Progression

Double Page Spread Progression

Image Contact Sheets

A collection of photographs that I took to use in my magazine. Not all ended up getting used.

Magazine Construction Schedule

When I first started working on my magazine I had a very good Idea of how I wanted it too look. I’m experienced with Photoshop so I knew that I wouldn’t take too long on each product. However I wanted to make sure I had all three products looking finished by the deadline.

For the first week I worked on my front cover, this was something I was very sure on how I wanted to look so I didn’t need that long to get the basic layout and design.

Then for the second and third week I worked on my contents page. I wasn’t 100% on how I wanted my contents page to look and I changed my ideas just before I started working on it. There was a lot of content that I wanted to put on my contents page and I knew that It would take time to get it to a point where I was happy with it so I worked on this for two weeks making sure that It was acceptable in my standards.

For the fourth week I worked on my feature article. Just like with my front cover I had a very clear idea of what I wanted this to look like and I was very confident with the design so I only really worked on this for a week.

The remaining weeks we had left I alternated between all three products, wanting to make sure that I had the three at a high standard that I was pleased with. This meant fine tuning all the small details and perfecting little things that I had missed.

I didn’t take my photos until later on in the construction process so for a while I was working with a lot of blank spaces, it took a week to add all my images and edit them. I also had to reshoot my cover photo sue to lighting issues so I had to put that off for a while also.

The final week I printed all my drafts so I could get an even closer look at them. This way I could see how they would look on paper which allowed me to make necessary changes that I had to make.

Having Photoshop on my home computer was very beneficial to me as I had the opportunity to work on my products outside of college hours as well.

Locations, Costumes & Props Report

For the locations of my photographs I knew that I wanted to take them in different places, but all outside with a modern and grungy setting.

I took the two of the girl I called ‘Gemini’ for my contents page in front of a large crate made of corrugated metal. It was a fairly plain background but it gave the grunge effect nicely as it was a fairly old and rusty crate.

I asked her to wear dark clothing so she wore black ripped jeans and a black and white top.

My model for my cover and feature article who I names ‘Abbi Gee’ I used because she fit in with the alternative rock theme, she had dark hair and a nose piercing so she filled the profile I was looking for in a model. Costumes were simple as it just had to look like a rock look. In the end she just wore two different coloured chequered shirts which had a really nice look to them.

For my feature article photo locations I walked around Lowestoft to find different settings. I decided to take the vast majority of the photos outside of a night club as it was in a fairly old building and had the rebellious, grunge type atmosphere. It had a set of metal stairs on the outside which looked modern and worked as a really nice place to take the photos. I mainly used the ones I took around the stairs but I also experimented taking one outside a large and old front door. Taking the photos outside also meant I didn't need artificial lighting or the flash on the camera which would’ve made the photos not look as natural.

For the cover photo I knew I was going to cut around it so the background just needed to be plain. I took that in a room that had lots of windows and white brick walls so It was light enough and easy to remove that background.

Other photos I used were taken at concerts an edited in Photoshop to look more professional. I only used photos that I had taken when I was closer to the artist or had a good camera. All of the bands used are classed as indie or alternative rock/pop so it fit with my target audience. I also took a picture of a fake autograph for my featured artist to add to my double page spread.

I also took a photo of an autographed picture I have of actor and musician Keegan Allen. The photo had my name on it so I used the clone tool in Photoshop to remove my name and made the autograph darker. I also added effects on this as well as it looked washed out a little from where I'd taken the photo.

Fonts Moodboard

These are the ideas I have for fonts on my magazine. I want to have a variety of sans serif and serif fonts to go with my mixed house style that I am planning to use. The sans serif fonts like Hero and Impact look modern. I tried to include some unique fonts that could be used for my masthead. As well as fonts like Caution and Charanga that give off the rebellious rock vibe,

Colours Moodboard

This is a basic idea of the colours I want to use on my magazine. They are simple and work well together. The black and white are very generic colours which mean the red and sepia-like tones will add that splash of colour to it. I feel that these colours will appeal to my audience as they aren’t stereotypical colours. They’re all colours that can be associated with a variety of things.

Advertisers Moodboard

This shows the kinds of advertisers I want in my magazine. I’ve attempted to aim at younger audiences but also have slightly mature things like amazon and sky for the older audiences. Things like Nikon and Ticketmaster will be good as people that go to concerts and festivals would be interested in these.  I’ve also included music related things like Skullcandy headphones and ITunes.

Target Audience Moodboard

This summarises the target audience that I am aiming my music magazine at. My magazine is aimed at people that are into alternative things, whether it be music, clothes or anything really.  You can see that it’s aimed mainly towards females. This mood board shows that I want to branch out to different kinds of personalities, from the rebellious kind to the quieter blogger types. This is an alternative magazine for all people that love this style.

My Original Ideas Statement

 My magazine will be a music magazine which focuses on the alternative rock genre. I will also bring elements of country and indie music into the magazine to introduce these similar types of music to the alternative rock fans.

My target audience will be aimed at people around the ages 16-25. I plan on making the magazine reach these ages as I can cover more mature subjects and still have the modern element, so it will have a good range of topics and artists. I also plan on a good mix of a formal and informal house style. This way I appeal to both ends of the age range I have set for my target audience. I want to be able to bring new types of music to my audience’s attention and appeal to large and small fan bases. I will do this by covering different artists, some that people may not have heard of.  Alternative rock can be a wide genre and there are lots of styles that it can delve into. I plan on exploring different ways in which I can use this genre of music to make my magazine unique. I’ll be taking inspiration from magazines such as Mojo and NME as they both reach the kinds of audience I’m looking at attracting. I also could include some television and film content in order to appeal to wider audiences.

The colours I would like to use on my magazine would be more aimed towards the female gender as I want my magazine to be more for a female demographic. I would like to use black and whites with a few other colours that just add to the overall style of the magazine.  

What I've Learnt From The Textual Analysis

From analysis pages from other magazines I’ve learnt new things about the style of the kind of magazines I want to make. I analysed various pages from Mojo, Q, Kerrang and NME which all explore different elements of rock or indie music.

It’s become clear to me that most magazines have a certain three of four colour schemes that they stick too. Q, Kerrang and NME all have used the colour red amongst black and white to stand out, this is something that I want to take into consideration as red is a bold colour and all three of those colours contrast each other nicely.

I’ve also learnt that the magazines that are seen more as indie/alternative (eg. Q, Mojo and NME) all have elements of a formal house style in their magazine. Q is aimed at a predominantly older audience and is more formal than informal. Then you have Kerrang which is aimed predominantly at younger audiences so it’s mostly informal. By looking at these magazines I have realised that I want to make a magazine that reaches out to younger and older audiences so I will want to have a mixture of informal and formal style.

One this that these magazines have in common is their masthead. They all are at the top of the magazine and are in the same colours that they are always in. All of the magazine mastheads I looked at are iconic to their brand. Both Mojo and Kerrang’s were so well known that they can have their main image covering part of the masthead because their audience don’t need to see all of it to recognize it.

The thing I learned about images is that they are probably the first thing audiences notice so I need to use a few relevant ones. Both feature articles I looked at had the main image taking up about an entire page of the double page spread. Audiences don’t want to have to read lots of text and pictures make it very clear who the article is about. They also attract the artists fan base to the magazine.

I know now that I need to feature artists that will be connected with the alternative rock genre. I also know for the images that I take myself I need to make them fairly serious as all these magazines use the idea of seriousness in their photo shoots to connote to the style of music that they focus on. Serious codes of expression connote to serious music.

In my magazine I need to feature three to four fonts to make my magazine varied and to keep the design interesting. I’ll need to vary my fonts from serif to sans serif due to the mixed house style I’m aiming for.

My magazine needs to follow the conventions of magazines. My front cover need to feature a main image that takes up around two thirds of the page. If the image is of a band then I would have to re-think my design though.  Cover lines need to be at the sides of the front cover so they can be seen clearly.

Information On Magazine Publishers

The Magazine Industry

 The Magazine Industry;
In Britain there are more than 8000 titles published in the magazine industry. Each one of these titles is categorised. These categories are to separate the different types of magazine, where you’d find, their target audience and what they contain. There are seven main categories. Consumer is the main category and the most popular. There are over 3,200 consumer titles. These consumer magazines can be general or specialist and can be found in most news agents and online. General titles aim is to entertain and inform whereas specialist are directed more towards a certain activity or hobby. The business magazines are meant for people at work. This is similar to how customer and staff magazines are directed particularly at certain audiences. Customer magazines are given to customers by organizations as a form of marketing. Staff magazines are used in companies to help aid and teach their staff.

Newspaper supplements is another categories, these are the magazines you get free in a newspaper. An example would be a TV listings magazine.

Part works magazines that readers collect to gather a certain knowledge base on a topic. These normally have a set amount of issues. They often have a certain theme and come with a set of objects or free gifts for the readers to collect.

Academic journals are aimed at a target audience of university students. These magazines will be the kind to discuss complex topics that only the university students would understand.

The biggest consumer magazine publishers in the UK are Bauer, Time Inc, BBC and Hearst. These are responsible for the publishing of a vast majority of the consumer magazines. Bauer and Time Inc are the big two both making up 20-25% of the market. Consumer magazines are said to sell £2 million each year.

In average 1.4 Billion magazines are sold every year. This is lower than what it was in 1970, but has increased by 2 million since 1992. 85% of the population now read magazines.

Advertisers also use magazines to reach out to audiences. They usually spend £745 million on magazines in order to do this.

In the past decade around 500 new magazines titles have been launched, however it is said that only around 3 in 10 actually last for more than 4 years.

Full Analysis Of One Music Magazine: Mojo

Magazine Textual Analysis: Feature Articles

Textual Analysis Of Magazines: Contents Pages