Music Magazine: Research and Planning, Task One

Music magazine front cover analysis

  The magazine cover I have chosen is the January issue of 'NME'. The name of the masthead is clearly visible in white which stands out from the cover image and the colour can be associated with anyone at any age, suggesting this music magazine has a variety genre of music. The font for the masthead is the simplest of all - 'Arial black', this is one of the most common font in the world as it is bold and very easy to read. The masthead is an acronym for "New musical express", but since 'NME' has been established since 1952 and has been publishing weekly, it is a very well known magazine therefore there is no need to explain the acronym. Right underneath the masthead is the date of publication and the price of the magazine, this will allow the readers to notice whether if it is the latest issue. If it is the latest issue, the target audience would most likely buy it in order to keep up with the latest news in the music industry.

  The cover image of the magazines are the famous Lana Del Rey who has become rather popular these past couple of years amongst teenagers and young adults. Just in case anyone doesn't recognise her, her name is written boldly in blue across the magazine cover. acting as the cover line, allowing everyone to know who the character on the cover it. Since she has been gaining popularity, people would love to find out about her background, therefore the extra cover lines of "I'm a psycho!" and "The true face of modern american icon" will definitely intrigue and attract the target audience since they would like to find out the "true face" of her, which will lead the target audience to buy this music magazine at the  low cost of £2.40 that can possibly be found in changes lying around the house.

  The colour scheme of this magazine is mainly red, white, black and sky blue, the colour sky blue is associated with youthfulness, suggesting this music magazine is targeted at young adults. Furthermore, "Red, white, blue's in the sky" is part of Lana Del Rey's lyrics from her famous hit - "National Anthem", this clearly has a link to the colour scheme found on the front cover of the magazine.

  Puffs and plugs can also be found on the left third and right side of the front cover, along with the bold word "free" which will definitely attract a great amount of target audience.

  These elements clearly suggests that the target audience for 'NME' are young adults is that there are other musicians of different genres around the page, such as Enter Shikari, Biffy Clyro, Nirvana and Bob Marley. Even though there are a variety of music genres, the musician names listed are mainly popular amongst young adults.

Music Magazine: Research and Planning - Activities

The five research activities I will work on are:

Web-based research and report into the target audience
I will begin by providing details of the target audience groups for a variety of music magazine titles, which will then lead me to narrow down my research to the target audience group of the genre of magazine I will be creating. I will be selecting a magazine cover and post this to my blog and write an accompanying 500 word analysis of who the target audience is for the magazine, how the cover has attempted to appeal to them and what conventions of cover design are evident.

Transcript of interviews with identified target audience
I will be interviewing a number of people who will fit into my identified target audience group, they will be answer me what elements they like to see in the music magazines they read. Their answers could be influential for the product I will be creating.

An annotated example of a music magazine double page spread
This will allow me to demonstrate that I understand the conventions of music magazine as there will be new elements in the double page spread as I have already done cover analysis in my previous project. I can identify the different types of feature that may appear across a double page and this will then be reflected in my own product.

An essay discussing the representation of people in my chosen genre of music magazine
I will be discussing the representation of both the musicians and the fans/readers. I will be focusing on mise-en-scene used in the cover images and photos used in double page spreads. This will demonstrate that I understand how magazines encode representations and this will then be evident in my photography for my music magazine cover.

A Prezie detailing the conventions of a chosen genre of music magazines
By using an online presentation tool, I will be looking at a variety of titles from the same genre and identify the recurrent elements of the genre - covers and content, which these conventions will be incorporated into my product.

Ideas from the suggested activities provided.

'Chronicle' Front Cover and Contents Page

Progression of Contents Page

1) The image I have chosen was not wide enough for me to place the students on the left side of the page to give me space for the contents, therefore I decided to move the image to the left and made the image smaller.

2) I then extended the right side of the image to fill up the space and used the same shade of blue to fill in the white area.

3) Two rectangles are created with drop shadows to create a nicer backdrop for the text, meanwhile the opacity is set to 30% to allow the image to still be visible.

4) I then added the title of 'December' with the font 'Jonze & Jozing', keeping to the theme of the front cover I have also used 'WhisperADream' as the font for the contents.

Progression of Magazine Cover

1) I began with a simple photo of two students standing in front of a form of art structure inside college, I have chosen this photo as the front cover image because it clearly shows how happy the students are to be in college.

2) The masthead is then created with the font "Jonze & Jozing", enhanced with drop shadow and stroke to create depth.

3) By erasing part of the masthead, it makes it seem like the student is in front of it, allowing the masthead to become part of the image meaning it will blend in with the photo and look as realistic as possible. I have also added a green parallelogram as banner and set the opacity to 60% for a softer look.

4) I have tried to put "The Christmas Edition" as the cover line on top of the green banner, however it seems too crowded so I changed it. The colour of the font is red with white outline, which are colours associated with Christmas along with the green banner. As if that is not enough, I decided to create even more of a festive cover with the fonts 'ChristmasEve' and 'PWChristmasfont'. With "Special Chritmas Edition", the readers will believe that this is an extraordinary edition which will interest them.

5) I then added the taglines on the sides of the cover, which will intrigue the readers to pick it up and browse through. The font I used is 'WhisperADream', which looks handwritten and casual so it will not intimidate the readers. The dark blue outline of the font not only will make the words stand out, it is also a similar colour to the student's jacket which takes up a big part of the image, this will allow the taglines to look as if it was part of the image. By using different sizes on the tagline, it shows the importance of certain words which will capture the reader's attention immediately. 

6) Finally I have added the small but essential details such as the date and the logo of the magazine, as well as the college name and the barcode. The use of plugs and puffs will gain the attention of readers, allowing them to know they have a chance to "Win an iPad".

Photos for Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page

 

Here are some photos I have taken for the front cover and the contents page of my college magazine, I wanted to capture student's life around college therefore these photos show signs of friendships as well as students being hard working.

Preliminary Task: Brief

Initial Ideas

Target audience: Students between the ages of 16 - 19

Content: Latest news of events around the college, enrichments and clubs, places to eat around/near the college, student's artwork

Ideas for cover lines: Jingle bell rocks / Christmas bizzar

Title: Latitude, Chronicle,

Font: Jonze & Jonzing

Season published: Winter - Christmas edition

Front cover image: Students around college, probably in courtyard cafe or outdoor

Frequency of publication: Once a half term

Dimensions of cover: A5 (Not too big but small enough to carry in bag to read anytime)

Images/colour on contents page: Photo slightly blurred under the contents, main colour of the photo, likely to be blue and green

Flat plans

These are my flat plans for the front cover and contents page.

Proposal

This college magazine is aimed at college students between the ages of 16 - 19 who study at South Downs. I have decided to go with the name 'Chronicle' because it means a chronological record of events, which can be related to the college as students will eventually go through a series of events during their time here at South Downs. Furthermore, this magazine will also include the events coming up during the term therefore it is perfectly compatible with the title 'Chronicle'. In addition, 'Chronicle' was the name of a film about three high school friends gaining superpowers and their bond was tested as they embrace their darker sides. This can be suggestively relates to students at South Downs because as they are growing up, they will be facing many difficulties in friendship and in college work, therefore it will be partially similar to the storyline of the film.

As mentioned earlier, 'Chronicle' will include dates of events coming up in the following half term, such as college trips, holidays, special events, this is act as a reminder for students of what is happening in the half term in case they forget. The contents of 'Chronicle' will also include a list of good standard University, information on the latest enrichments and clubs, up-coming events in and around college, such as local Christmas parties and charity events. Furthermore, it will provides places to eat around college so the lunch hours can be spent by exploring different type of foods.

Before I settled with the title of 'Chronicle', I thought about naming this college magazine 'Latitude', not only does it rhyme with 'attitude' which links to students with attitudes, it also have a connection with the world and it is somewhat cosmopolitan like. However, I have decided to use 'Chronicle' since that word has more connections with students.

My front cover of the college magazine will be a portrait photo of two students standing together in front of a hanging art piece while sporting a nice smile, this will be able to promote the college magazine because it shows how happy the students are to be in college and also showcases the art structures around college. As for the content's page image, I decided to go for a photo of the two students standing outdoor in the lovely weather showing the South Downs college logo on the building behind them.

I have considered a few fonts for the masthead, which are "Jonze & jozing", "Plane crash" and "Rough typewriter". "Jonze & jozing" was the first font I have found that I thought would be suitable ,

"Rough typewriter" would be a great font because it is the typical traditional font from years ago when schools used typewriter, the fact that the font is not straight will make the college magazine seems casual and laid back.

This issue will be a special Christmas edition, with it's contents to include ideas of Christmas presents for friends and families because many students will most likely be struggling with both idea and money wise. I have came up with a few ideas for cover lines to go along with the Christmas issue, the first one being "Jingle bell rock", not only is it a popular phrase used during the Christmas season, it is also the name of a well known Christmas song which will bring the readers associate it with this festive season. My second idea for the cover line is "Merry Christmas HO HO HO", this is a very straight forward phrase as a tagline because it is generally used by everyone to greet each other. The last cover line idea is "The special Christmas edition" This will attract the reader's attention because they will believe that it is an exclusive edition so they will definitely read it.

As magazines are now available is different sizes, I have decided to go with A5 as it is not too big yet small enough to carry in bags, therefore it is compatible meaning students can read it wherever, whenever. This magazine will be published once every half term in order to keep the students up to date on events around the college.