Music Magazine Cover montage

Institution Research

Initial Ideas

My magazine will be aimed at a very niche audience of the Chiptune sub-genre. There are not any known chiptune magazines on the market, so this will make it very unique. There is not a huge amount of chiptune bands so it may have to have a blend of two sub-genres that are similar: Chiptune/VG rock, possibly.

Introduction to Main Task and Action Plan

The main task is to research and produce the front cover, contents page and a double-page spread of a music magazine. It will be of a sub-genre of my own choice, and must contain completely original text and images.

Action Plan:

- Week 1
  I will post my initial ideas, institution research and an analysis of two music magazine front covers of my chosen sub-genre.
- Week 2
  I will analyse two contents pages and two double-page-spreads and begin to develop a pitch.
- Week 3
  I will develop and create my pitch and research further into my chosen sub-genre.
- Week 4
  I will present the pitch and get audience feedback. I will create a mockup of my magazine pages, produce a "style sheet" showing brand identity and house style. I will begin organising models, props and locations for the photo shoot(s).
- Week 5
  I will design the front cover of my magazine.
- Week 6
  I will get feedback on the cover and make adjustments accordingly
- Week 7
  I will design the contents page and adjust it according to feedback.
- Week 8
  I will design the double page spread and adjust according to feedback.
- Week 9
  I will finalize the design of all pages and begin drafting an evaluation.
- Week 10, 11, 12
  I will develop my evaluation of the pages and post them onto the blog.

Music magazine research : Q Magazine

Q Magazine

Q magazine is a music magazine published by Bauer Media Group. It is a magazine that focuses on the most popular modern rock music. It was founded in 1986 by a different media group (EMAP) and sold to Bauer in 2008.

It has an approximate circulation of about 59000. A magazine is released on a monthly basis.

Content

The magazine focuses mainly on interviews with musicians, but includes things such as “best of…” lists and reviews. There are standard features common in each magazine, such as “Q50” which is a list of the vest tracks of the month, and “rewind” which shows an old article from the magazine’s archives.

The magazine occasionally comes with a compilation CD made by the journalists, such as “Q essential Jukebox” and “Essential Glastonbury. The magazine is closely linked with the Glastonbury Festival, and produces a newspaper and review magazine for purchase at the festival.

Publishing institution

Bauer Media Group publishes the magazine, which is a German company that produces over 300 different magazines. They produce similar magazines, such as Kerrang and MOJO. They also produce many other magazines of a different genre, such as AnglingTimes, Closer and Golf World.

Audience

The magazine seems to be aimed at younger adults aged around 18-28, and as the music in the magazine is fairly mainstream, so would the readers in the way they act/dress. The readers are likely to have a fairly high amount of disposable income due to the magazine being priced at £3.99.

Layout

The magazine always has a similar cover. There is always the “Q” Logo in the top right corner, and the general colour scheme uses red, white and gold. The central image is always of a musician featured in the magazine, and often overlaps the Q logo. The style is very solid and does not have canted images or text. The font used is always sans-serif and very clear and easy to read.

I feel that the magazine does not reflect the values of it’s audience that well, as a lot of the music in it’s contents might be considered “edgy” and “rebellious” whereas the magazine itself looks somewhat sophisticated and clean. 

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine cover is unusual compared to other student magazines. I previously looked at other examples as research, and generally the covers had a rebellious and edgy style. My cover is more sophisticated looking, but not too sophisticated. This gives a fairly relaxed feel without it being too obnoxious. The articles shown on the cover and contents page are based off what I would expect from a student magazine, even If some are not particularly realistic. The title is fairly short and easy to remember, and the mode of address is fairly informal and relaxed.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I feel that my magazine is relatable for teenagers/students that are both male and female. I have avoided any stereotypes by making the articles fairly wide-spread, with music, film, celebrities and things happening in the college. The images and connotations is not particularly unusual for a student magazine and do not challenge the generic conventions of student magazines.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The college itself would be the publisher and it would be distributed to students of Ludlow College. The price would be £1.99, as it says on the cover. It would likely be sold inside the college grounds somewhere, so only the students and staff would be able to get hold of it. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The magazine is aimed at the students of the college mainly. This means males and females in their late teens. There could also be sections more aimed at the staff of the college. The students buying it would most likely have a fair amount of disposable income and may have a job. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

The cover has a large image of somebody around the intended audience’s age, looking pretty and relaxed. This gives the reader a feel of how the magazine is going to be to read, as it may cause them to think the whole magazine is a nice easy read. The images on the contents page depict people having fun and being silly, which gives the sense of the magazine not being too serious.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Creating the magazine’s cover and contents has made me realise the work that goes into creating a magazine. I have learned how to use InDesign in quite a lot of detail, and have the ability to make somewhat good quality files with it. I am completely inexperienced with the program itself, but am quite familiar with similar programs by Adobe such as Photoshop. Because of this I recognised a lot of the tools and picked it up fairly quickly.

Cover and Contents page

Cover and Contents Mockup

These are mockups of both the front cover and the contents page of a student magazine.

Experimenting with photo ideas and angles

Colour schemes and fonts

When coming up with a colour scheme i put together different colours to see how well they fit together. I found that the colours shown below work well without appearing too obnoxious. The colours are quite gentle to the eye and not difficult to look at.

I needed to find a font for the various different sections of the magazine. I need something very clear and readable for the title and headers, and something easy to read and sans-serif for the main body text. The "OCR A" font may be appropriate if the magazine is more technology based, so i believe that the "Menlo Bold" is the most appropriate for my magazine.

The header needs to stand out above any body text or images. Out of the 3 that i chose below, I found that the "Britannic Bold" is generally inappropriate as it appears fairly old-fashioned. The "Gill Sans" font appears too thin, so it may be difficult to make it stand out on a complex background. This means that the "Krugenthep" font would be the most appropriate for my magazine as it is bold, chunky and fairly modern-looking.

For the body text, all of the fonts that i have found are fairly similar. I feel that the body text needs to be clear and easy to read. The "Geneva CY" font looks a little too chunky for body text, as does the "Verdana" font. The "Microsoft tai le" font is possibly a little too thin, so the "Helvetic Neue" font seems the most appropriate.

Initial Ideas

Title ideas

The title needs to be something fairly short, snappy and memorable. It would be a bonus if the title related to the theme of students and how they think.

• initialised title - eg. SBmag (student break) 
• Modernize
• StudyBreak

·       

House style

My student magazine will make use of either a quite powerful colour scheme of darker greys and aqua/cyan blue that will stand out against one another, or use a more sophisticated scheme of colours that are easier on the eyes. These could be softer colours such as white and light orange. I will try to avoid using colours together that might be hard to look at.

The magazine will be laid out very straight and solid, with no tilted or angled text or images. Shapes used will be squares and rectangles only. Few curved lines and a somewhat sophisticated but comfortable and relaxed look.

Fonts will be solid and blocky for headings, large and bold for the masthead and basic font for the main bodies of text.

Content

The magazine will contain different articles that most students will be able to relate to: Sections of music, film/TV, games, books, study, clothing, and things that are happening in and around the college.

Images

The central image on the cover will be a MCU of a student, possibly in or near the college. Facial expression will be very relaxed and melancholy, and the photo will be taken at eye level. One or two smaller images will be used around the edge of the cover relating to articles inside. The contents page will contain two or three photos relating to the most “important” articles inside.

Mode of address

I think that my magazine needs to be quite informal without being too informal. This means educated and semi-serious articles and writing style, but without use of over-complicated words. I personally find reading a passage with long complex words and structure to be difficult and even stressful, and with a student magazine it needs to be fairly relaxing and comfortable to read. 

Price

As this is a student magazine and will not have a huge amount of content, nor will the audience have that much money, it will be very cheap – about £1.