Style Model for Front Cover

I'm using this front cover as a style model, as it was voted for in my reader survey and I also like the simple desgin, that is very bold and easy to use as a style model.

Front Cover Screen Shots 1

Using my chosen font, the screen shots show the begining of the creation of my front cover by using my style model to style is a specific way to make it simple, but not boring, and I've kept to a limited colour scheme of 4 colours, like my style model, being black, white, red and blue.

Interactivity

The interactivity of magazines is getting increasingly essential for magazines to stay in business, as social media is taking over from the humble paper magazine.

This means many magazines now have websites, and social networking sites to keep in touch with their audience and to let them know they have a say on magazine content.

For example, James McMahon, editor of Kerrang!, asked followers on twitter to suggest people to appear on the front cover of their new music issue, along with applications for new apsiring writers. This is a brilliant use of interactivity, as it really makes the reader feel as if they have a choice on the magazine content.

Furthermore, Kerrang! (and probably many other music magazines) have a page in the magazines which includes letters and drawings from fans showing they listen to their audience and appreciate their hard work on their art/letters. 

Mode of Adress

This is how the magazine adresses the audience with language and imigary in a more colloquial manner. This makes the magazine more relateable, and makes it more likely for the target audience to buy the product.

The amount and type of colloquial language differs on the target audience, so Top of the Pops will be different to Mojo, which is different to Kerrang! etc.

Uses and Gratifications

Font Choice

For my masthead, I went to 1001fonts.com and used the C.A. Gatintas Font

Contents Page Update ; Screen Shots!

I added 2 pictures of Kellin Quinn and Alex Gaskarth from previous concerts to see All Time Low and Sleeping With Sirens, and I made them small, as they aren't amazing quality, so they will be better as secondary images.

Contents Page style model

Just a reminder for everyone, I'm using this Q contents page as my style model, as it was prefered in my survey, and it is a really effective contents page to use.

Contents page Update! Screen shots number 9.

 This screen shot shows more manipulation of my drawing and placing black boxes of where my images will be, I will be adding page numbers to these also when the pictures are there.

I also finished my regulars section and renamed and re-arranged a few topics and also using the grid on photoshop, I aligned my features up, to make them look more professional.

Furthermore, I added forms of social networking by statuses, video blogs, tweets and a tumblr blog as well as the magazines very own website. This is to include the audience a lot more in my magazine, as it is very difficult for a magazine to continue without any access on the Internet for readers. This can help the readers stay up to date a lot quicker than buying a magazine and will ultimately aid the magazine's sales.

Also social networking is a massive part in the lives of my target audience proved by my survey, as not a single person in my primary target audience had no forms of social networking at all, meaning taking up all means to access them is essential more the magazine's continuation.

Contents page update - screen shot number 8

I have added a reviews section to my contents page to make it more authentic and closer in relation to my style model of Q magazine.

I put black boxes in instead of my pictures that will be replacing them at a later date.

I also began editing my drawing by editing out the lines by using the smudge and stamp tools on Photoshop.

Contents Page Screen Shots 7

I finally came to the conclusion about by size dilemma with my contents page. I decided to keep my contents page even more close to my style model by making it A3 instead of an A4 contents page, so I have much more room to work with, without the page looking overly cluttered and busy.

I also changed the colour of the title to make it stand out a bit more against the colour scheme.

Contents Page Screen Shots 6

With everything on the page, and the image cropped, I thought the page looked busy, so I decided to hide all the regulars layers to prove if my theory was correct, this is so I can determine if I should scrap the idea of the image completely, or if I should attempt something else to further enhance my contents page.

Contents Page Screen Shots 5

On this screen shot, you can see I changed the background colour of the page to white, and I moved the text away from the edge as no text in a music magazine is on the very edge of the page. I also elongated the blue strips to make it easier to position them in the exact same place in line with the text, giving a more professional approach. 

This screen shot shows me putting in a picture that I had drawn to be a background image, which is used by the artist on his artwork. (CathcingYourClouds) though it needed more editing and cropping for it to look even better.

Contents Page Screen Shots 4

On these two screen shots, you can see that I have started the "Regulars" section for my contents page.

Contents Page Screen Shots 3

I added two photos that I got of Pierce the Veil when I saw them supporting Bring Me The Horizon on the 31st of October 2013. I made sure they were of good quality which narrowed down my selection greatly, as gig photos are harder to obtain because of the crowd and act  movements.

I then added a photo of Sights and Sounds I got at the same date as Pierce the Veil and added page numbers to the pictures, similar to my style model.

Contents page screen shots 2

I added even more features and I changed the font I used to suit the magazine more and to make it look more professional.

I have now finished writing all the features in my contents page

First contents page screen shots

I started with a transparent background and put the first few items of text onto my magazine with a basic layout based on the Q magazine contents page that I analysed.

I added even more text adding to the features, and used a white box to use in place of future images I will take.

Feature Article Flat Plan Part 2

This is the second part of my article flat plan, and the majority of the article will be on these pages, with another main image in the front, and text around the outside, again, set in columns.
There may be a small Q&A in the final parts of the article, though it will still fit with the style of the columns in the article.
This plan is a lot more basic than the others as this page is a lot more text and image based that requires the article to be fully written and checked and the photo's all to be of the highest standards.

Feature Article Flat Plan Part 1

This is the first 2 pages for my feature article, which I am planning to make fill 2 A3 pages, though, if the article's length doesn't cover it, the layout of the article will change.
The first two pages will have a main image with their name, a quote and a summary of the article, before the actual beginning of the article, as this is a convention of articles in a magazine. Also, the text will be in columns, as this too, is a magazine convention.
The image will show a lot of attitude in its connotations to show the girl is from the rock genre, where the style of posing, and clothing will show.

 

 

Contents Page Flat Plan

 

I used Q as a style model to make my flat plan for my contents page, I made it very busy with images, including the logo for the magazine, issue number, as well as plans for other pages, though, more could be added to the contents, to make it more realistic. However, this is the basic layout I will have for my contents page for my magazine.

Front Cover - 2nd Flat Plan

 

I re-did my front cover flat plan, to give a second opinion on what my front cover will look like, though, there could still be changes, this is a more up to date version on my current vision for my front cover.

Marjorie Ferguson

Questionnaire results analysed

Questionnaire results

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

 

 

Gender:
Male [ ]  Female [ ]

 

Age:
Under 12 [ ]    13-15 [ ]     16-18 [ ]     19-21 [ ]     22- 30 [ ] 
31+ [ ]

How do you mostly buy music magazines?:
Online [ ]    Shops[ ]    Subscriptions [ ]  Other [ ]  I don't buy music magazines [ ]

What methods of social networking do you use (tick all that are applicable):
Facebook [ ]    Twitter [ ]    Tumblr [ ] 

What is your prefered name of the magazine?

Rock Press [ ]    Riot! [ ]      Behind the Noise [ ]     Mosh [ ]

 

 

What would you prefer the main article content to be?:

Reviews [ ]     Interviews [ ]    Fan Q&A [ ]    Other [ ]

What is your prefered front cover style model?

Rock Sound [  ]

Alternative Press [ ]

Kerrang! [ ]

  

What is your prefered contents page? :

Rock Sound [ ]

Q [ ]

 

Kerrang [ ]

 

 

What is your preffered feature article from the ones I analysed previosuly?:

 

Rock Sound [ ]

 

Kerrang! [ ]

Podcast 2!

Music Magazine Publishers

Reader Profile

 

 

The font used for Riot isn't the final font for the magazine masthead ^-^

Reader Profile style model

I am basing my reader profile off the NME reader profile:

Flat Plan Number 1

This is my magazine cover flat plan, though it is only a first draft, and things will change, I have derived a basic layout of my magazine and know roughly where text, mastheads etc. will be positioned.

Rock Sound Article Analysis

Kerrang! Feature article

My weekly Podcast number 1... I have stuffy nose, and my accent sounds weird in this. What even happened, but nm.

Music Magazines Contents Pages

Please go on full screen to read it, the writing can be hard to see otherwise.

Music Magazine Front Covers

Front cover analysis from __Rumbleroar__

A slideshare analysis of music magazines

Magazine pitch

My magazine is going to be a rock magazine, with the primary target audience of 16- 21 year old people of both genders, though there are slight more males than females.

 

The secondary audience will be older men, who are the most common buyers of music magazines, and those slightly younger, but still like the modern rock genre.

 

To do this, I will first have to research conventions of a rock/ alternative magazine.

 

Next, I take images that will work with the magazines genre, but the way the models are dressed and their gestures, also, using concert pictures too.

 

Then, I will use adobe Photoshop to manipulate my images, and create a quality front cover, contents page and feature article, which would have previously been written on Microsoft word. The article must be 1 A3 page at least, but could possibly go over.

 

Finally, I will evaluate my magazine, stating what needs improved, and what has improved from making my school magazine



Preliminary Task: School magazine

The task that was set was a preliminary task to make a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. This will later be used to compare with the work of the music magazine that I will create at a later date. 

Front Cover of School Magazine

My front cover was made with Photoshop, using a photo and cropping it and smoothing the outlines. I also kept to a house colour theme, using only 3 colours, 2 of which were in the school logo, and I used a light blue background as a non-clashing colour.
My front cover is good, but when I make my music magazine, I must :

• Have better quality images
• Have more interesting tags
• Better text choices to make it look less ameture
• Better text proportions.

Overall, I feel my front cover was a good first attempt a front cover, but will need to be higher quality for my music magazine.

School magazine contents page.

My contents page, I feel, is somewhat better than my front cover, and I kept up the house style in this, only adding white writing to stand out on the dark teal background. I used images I had taken, which are of a decent quality and yellow writing. I feel as if the yellow writing could be difficult to see, and that would need to be different in my music magazine, but I feel as if the layout isn't too clutteres and is contemporary for a music magazine.

I feel as if this task has made me more confident when it comes to making my new music magazine and I know areas that need imrpovement before then.

 

Hai guys ^-^

My name is Ailish and this is my blog for all my Media Studies AS-level work ^-^

Hope you guys like it :D