Fonts

For my magazine front cover, I will be using a font called Gargoyles from http://www.dafont.com/ for the brand logo text (CMS).

I have chosen this partly because I personally like the looks of it, it is bold, yet simple and makes an impression which is what I wanted in order to make my magazine's logo memorable. I also chose it because it looks a bit like the font used in the title of the Grand Theft Auto games, which aside from being a very good looking logo, is also one of the things I found out that my target audience is likely to buy and be familiar with as it is one of the items shown on the NME reader profile media pack. So using a familiar text might encourage people to purchase the magazine. Before selecting this font I also asked a few friends who fit the profile of my target audience about which font they would prefer, Gargoyle or several others I had picked out as possibilities, and they all agreed that it was the best choice.

The font I had originally chosen for my main sell text and subheadings on the front cover is Black Chancery.

from http://www.dafont.com/. I chose to use this font because, as with the other I asked some people to pick the font they liked best from Black Chancey, Fashion Victim, Rezland, Xenogears, Deckers and Velocity (all fonts from http://www.dafont.com/) They decided that Black Chancey looked the best. However I then decided it looked too serrif and gothic and I wanted to keep the main sells quite simple to express a serious tone for the magazine, as I thought that would be more appealing to my target audience who I believe would be more interested in a serious music magazine than, for lack of a better word, a poncy showoff of one. For this reason I chose the more basic and serious looking font of Excelsior Sans.

Which is quite a serious font but also has an element of disorder which gives the implication that the magazine is serious about music, but also fun and entertaining. Equally it's a nice looking font without being too drastic so as to divert attention away from the main flash, I also thought it themed well with Gargoyles, the font I'm going to use for my masthead. Lastly I asked the same group of friends if they preferred it to Black Chancery, and the majority of them said that they did so I assume I am on the right track to pleasing my target audience.

Any regular text will just be written in Aerial, as it is a nice simple, easy to read font that gives a professional feel to it as it is used in newspapers. Byregular text I mean the text under the main sell subheadings, the contents page and the article on my double page spread.

Flat Plans

Above is the flat plan for one of the front covers I designed. I attempted to make it conform to a standard rock magazine look and style in order to appeal to my target audience. The masthead is similar in design to that of the Kerrang! magazine cover I analyzed, I chose this because it gives a bold and strong impression that you would not be able to achieve by using a smaller masthead or one at a different angle. The name of my magazine will be CMS, which stands for Central Music Scene, which I thought was quite catchy and simple, and would appeal to my target audience as well as being something that would stick in people's minds when it came to establishing the name as a well-known brand.

The layout I have chosen is quite simple so as to not confuse the information on the page, making it appealing to the eye yet also easily readable which I think will benefit my target audience. The layout also draws focus to the right hand side of the page where the main flash is, with the entire middle section of the magazine covered by an image of a band 'Feedback' whose name I did not put on the cover as I wanted there to be an implication of prior knowledge for my magazine to show that it is specifically aimed at those who are already up to date with the indie/rock scene. The quote from the article which is part of the main flash was chosen as it gives an immediate impression of the content of the article, and also the tone of the band in question, creating the promise of an exciting read.

I chose my main sells specifically for my target audience, to be interesting and scandalous in turn, and aiming for the impression that the magazine is full of similarly worth-reading content.

I kept the colour scheme of the cover relatively simple, using a black/red/white theme which I think not only looks good, but exagerates the meaning behind the magazine quite well. Red and black tie in with the loud, aggressive sound of rock music, while the white brings order and refinement, making it look tidier and easier to read. I had originally thought about using red font on a black background, but then after studying some similar styles I decided that coloured fonts on dark backgrounds are quite hard to read, so changed it to black on red.

Above is another possible layout for my magazine front cover, I did not end up chosing this one for severl reasons: The masthead being an angle does not have as much impact as I had hoped for my music magazine, the colour sceheme, although contrasting nicely is not as rock-esque as I wanted, and the main flash was too simplistic in my opinion, only having one person makes it seem slightly boring. So after considering both covers and their impact on my target audience, along with getting some opinions from members of my target audience I decided to use the first cover upon which to base my final design.

This is the contents page I drew for my magazine, which I also tried to make fit in with usual music magazine contents pages, while at the same time different in order to establish individuality. I took a feature from the Kerrang! magazine contents pages, using an editor's note at the beginning to add a personal tone to the magazine, making the reader feel more at home and establishing a familiarity. The layout I have used is dissimilar to that of other music magazines in that it will only have one image, which will be outlining one of the more important articles. The reason I have chosen this is because I think having an visually-cominated contents page draws attention away from any wording, and will (from personal experience) start a reader off just flipping through the pages to look at the photgraphs and imagery instead of reading the articles. The way in which I have laid out the articles was done with the reader in mind, as I chose to use similar subheadings as several other music magazines in order to break up the information and make the page more reader-friendly.

These are the two pages I designed for my double-page article, the top page will be on the left, and the bottom will be the right. I decided to base my article around the layout of the NME magazine article that I analyzed, on the grounds that having an image dominated the first page creates questions about what the article is about, so makes the content seem more worth reading. The theme of my article will be an interview with the band 'Feedback' who will answer questions sent in by the readers, I think this kind of article is engaging to the reader, and further makes them feel connected to the not only the people behind the magazine, but also to the band in the article as if they were having the conversation with them. The columnular layout I have chosen for the main body of text was also a decision made with the target audience in mind, in an attempt to present it more formally as if it were a newspaper column, which is generally more plesant and easy to read than having the text mismatched and unordered.

Analysis of existing magazines

Above is one of the magazine front covers I decided to analyse. The masthead 'Kerrang!' immediately gives the impression of volume and power. It sounds like onomatapia, the sound that metal would make if struck, which gives an idea about the content of the magazine as soon as you read the title. It is in a bold black font that again gives a powerful impression. The font itself is interesting as it has pieces missing and cracks running through it, further adding to the idea that it is a powerful magazine with great impact.

There are two obvious sections of the magazine that are made apparent by the use of the colour scheme. The top half containing the main flash has a black and white theme, with both all of the text and the image itself conforming to this scheme, it is a contrasting colour scheme so makes the section stand out. The bottom section of the magazine that includes the main sells are in a red/white colour scheme, I think this is designed to make them as eye-catching as possible without taking the focus away from the main flash.

All text apart from the masthead and the word 'Paramore' is written in white, this is because the logo of Kerrang! magazine is always the same, and to make the Paramore article stand out from the white background of the image.

There is not much text on the front cover, nearly all words are just band names but there are two slogans 'Unfold the puzzle of life' and 'Hayley starts a riot' both require some former knowledge to understand fully, as Puzzle was a show that Biffy Clyro did, and Riot is the name of a Paramore album. This implies that the magazine is aimed at a knowledgeble readership who are already informed about the contents of the magazine, and not so much newcomers to the scene.

The target audience that can be assumed from the images on the front cover of this magazine are young men, as they are predominantly in the images. They all seem fairly middle class, stylish and concerned with their appearance. All of the people in the images (excluding Hayley from Paramore who is American) are also British, possibly suggesting that the magazine has a more British target audience.

The image in the main flash gives the impression of an up-and-coming attraction, as the cover is layered to put the leader singer and iconic figure of Biffy Clyro, Simon Niel in the foreground of the image. This also creates a 3D effect and makes the cover look more exciting. The frontman is also dressed in white, which fits with the theme of the main flash and contrasts against the background and the other two band members who are dressed in black to further make him stand out. The photograph is posed with the two men in the background taking fairly neutral poses and Simon striking a more intricate pose, drawing eye focus to him. I think Boffy Clyro was chosen for this front cover because there are an increasingly popular and charismatic band, whom Kerrang! magazine has almost made their unofficial mascot by becoming very involved with their work and featuring many articles in different issues of the magazine around them.

The main flash it would seem is about Biffy Clyro, centered around a live show that they did. The main sells are a story about Paramore, articles about various bands, and a free poster. The bar code, date and issue number are included, as is the price which is £2.10

Above is the contents page I chose to analyse. Starting off in the top left corner, the page has a note from the editor which is written in a fairly informal and person tone, which gives the reader a more personal feel for the magazine and allows them to identify with the people behind it. I think I should use this when designing my own magazine as it appeals directly to the target audience.

To the right of that is a box with the word 'Contents' in, displaying the issue number and date. This is the crucial information 0n the page and is placed in the way that it is so that its clearly visible, but not the main focus of attention (Which is wanted for the articles) Underneath this there is a quote from an article, with a story intended to shock. 'The nicest man in punk rock on getting caught by the fuzz' This creates intrigue and makes the reader want to read that article, it is also followed by the page number so you can flick through to it first if you want to then read back instead of having to look for it yourself and missing out other articles. This is clearly one of the main articles in the magazine as it is singled out from the others, it also breaks up the standard contents layout by presenting some stories in different ways, making the page more interesting to read. I should consider this when making my own contents page.

The images are in three columns, and are all roughly the same size apart from the top left image which is much larger and breaks the alignment slightly. This is clearly because it is another more important article, the larger size gives this implication without having to read anything, and also again makes the page layout a bit messier, fitting in with the theme of the magazine which is loud, and rebellious. All of the images have brief captions that summarize what the article is about.

The lower 2/3 of the page are set out in columns, which start after the note from the editor and main quote at the top of the mage.There are four columns in total, all seperated by thin black lines like in a newspaper format so as to seperate out the information and make it clearer to read. The first three columns are filled by images from articles, with their page numbers and brief captions for those articles, the fourth is a list of the remaining articles that perhaps don't have photographs in them, or weren't considered as important to use for the 10 seperated articles (The 9 featured with photographs, and the interview previewed at the top with the quote)

The fourth column and contents list is seperated into catagories: Feedback, News, Live reviews, Features, K! icons, Album reviews, Gigs, Swag and Famous last words. They are seperated like this to break up the information and make it easier to read and follow. It also gives clear sections to the magazine to group all relevant information together, this would be a good idea to use when designing my own magazine as it makes digesting the information in the magazine easier for the readers.

If I could chance anything about the page I would probably change the alignment of the larger image, as although it looks good being larger than the others and attracts focus to the more important story, it doesn't fit into the alignment of the others and is positioned too far over to the left, which I don't think looks right. I am going to aim to make my own contents page fit a better alignment to be more eye pleasing.

Above is the NME magazine cover that I chose to analyse. The masthead of 'NME' is the brand logo, which is widely known and used on all NME publications and other products to establish their global image. The text fits with the colour scheme of the brand logo, in red black and white to further the association with the NME brand, and in fact many issues use this coliur scheme on the front cover. Above the brand logo there is a banner with 'Studio news' about two bands, studio news is written in yellow to make it stand out from the rest of the articles as a different topic, I will consider doing the same thing with my magazine, using different colours to indicate different topics as I think it makes the information clearer and also looks good.

The page is set against what looks to be a magnified filing cabinet, and though I'm not sure the actual meaning for this I think it adds a somewhat serious and nostalgic look to the cover. Making it stound out from other music magazine covers which would most likely be a device used in the selling of the magazine. It makes me think I should make my front cover stand out and try to avoid it being mainstream, to give it more of a selling point.

The main flash is an article about The Last Shadow Puppets, the recent project of Alex Turner and Miles Kane. It has them posed back to back, wearing fairly plain coats with serious expressions to indicate that it's a serious article. The caption 'First major interview' draws the reader in because its saying the story is exclusive, so people will want to be the ones to read it first. It's also quite a nice catchy contraction 'first major interview...last of the shadow puppets'. It also uses a quote from the article from Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys 'I thought the monkies would think I'd had an affair' this quote is used from the main article because it is dramatic and scandalous, so perks the readers interest. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to include interesting quotes on my front cover, as it makes the reader want to buy the magazine to read the full article.

There are four main sells are down the left hand side of the main flash. The top being 'SXSW Special' with the caption '12 brilliant new bands we've found for you' this gives the reader the impression that the magazine is directly aimed at them. The personal language indicates that the people behind the magazine have done the work in order to make the reader happy, which is reassuring and would make them more inclined to buy the magazine. The next 'Tom Clarke Vs Faris Trotter' with caption 'Ding! ding! Round 2' This is an effective main sell as lots of people enjoy the prospect of celebrity conflict and drama, especially with the added connotations of violence which probably make it particularly appealing to the young male audience who are stereotypically violent by nature. I'll bear things like this relating to my target audience in mind when designing my own magazine. The next 'Rolling Stones exclusive' shows that, obviously, it is an exclusive and never read before article, giving the impression that NME magazine is a scourge of exclusivity and cutting edge articles. The caption reads 'Collaborating with Amy Winehouse?' which is scandalous in itself, and is emphasised by the world collaborating implying a more sinister motive or outcome, which is a good hook to interest the reader with. The final main sell 'Panic at the Disco album' with caption 'Pretty.odd Pretty.Ace' which is a humorous joke for Panic at the Disco fans, implying required knowledge.
The barcode is vertically posted in the bottom right corner, along with the date, issue number, NME website address and the price, which is £2.30.

This is the double page spread I decided to analyse (In two different pictures because it wouldn't fit in my scanner). The left hand(top) page is dominated by an image, while the right(bottom) page is dominated by text and is the bulk of the article. Starting with the left page, the big bold text introduces the article, the white text stands out from the image to make it the first noticible thing on the page. There is a brief explanation of the article underneath, which contains the phrase 'we need to find out' appealing directly to the reader and unifying them in a sense with the writer of the magazine, I should use personal hooks like this to appeal to my readership.

The image on this page is posed to emphasise the band featured (Kassabian) and their well-known 'who cares' attitude. There is a small caption on the top left of the page that reads 'Where did all the sofa go?' which is amusing and makes the reader feel more at ease, setting up the tone of the article and indeed the band.

The second page is a photograph of Tom from Kasabian with a picture frame around his face, which seems pretty coincidendal and ironic since he is framing his face with the picture frame, and in turn that photograph is being framed by the text of the article. The photo is underlined by an amusing quote that captures the general tone of the article nicely. I'll have to use quotes in my article to appeal to my target audience and stress that the article is worth reading by summing it up with a quote or two.

The text is started with a drop capital, signalling the beginning of the article. And the text is set out in four columns, with a very newspaper-esque feel to it, making it seem like a proper article and also making the information more readable

The language used in the article is very informal, as it shows all of the actual responses from the musicians. There is a lot of swearing and some adult language, but a lot of it, particularly the humour is immature. Further suggesting that the readership most likely to read this article would be young men. The tone of the piece is loud and fast paced, implied by the many exclamation marks and little pauses. Which further adds to the image of the band members being interviewed. I should think about using language and structure in my article in order to reflect the band I focus on, in order to appeal to my target audience.

Target Audience

In order to produce a successful magazine I need to locate a specific target audience who I will aim my publication at. Making considerations to the selected target audience when making decisions for my work will hopefully ensure that my magazine will be appealing to them, and find a place in the highly competitive industry of magazine sales.

I am going to aim my magazine at a target audience similar to that of Kerrang! and NME magazine. Above is an NRS survey showing the readership of, among others, Kerrang! and NME magazine. The survey displays the following data about readers of the magazines. (all numbers are in thousands)

Social Class ABC1: Kerrang 239-Nme:250

Social Class C2DE: Kerrang:178-NME:137

Age group 15-44:Kerrang:378 -NME:339

Age group 45+:Kerrang: 39 -NME49

Men: Kerrang:290-NME:296

Women:Kerrang:127-NME: 91

As can be seen from the highest values (in bold) the overall conclusions that can be drawn from this survey are that I should target my magazine at 15-44 year old males within the ABC1 social class.

Above is the reader profile for a reader of NME magazine, which I got from ipcmedia.com. The media pack shows what kind of consumer products NME readers will buy, and also has figures showing their interests and typical purchases. From this media pack I have gathered that the typical NME reader enjoys going to gigs and live events, likes to look well-dressed and as a result will spend quite a lot of money on clothing. They are also frequent internet users, and purchase a lot of digital equipment and consoles/games. The average age of the NME reader is 24, and the majority of them are in full time employment.

After researching the target audience of Kerrang! magazine, I have only found a small amount of information from official sources.

From http://www.authorstream.com/ I have found that Kerrang! magazine is considered to be 'a world where Jackass meets Playstation and Skate culture meets iPod' giving me an impression of what scene the magazine appeals to. This website also reinforced the data from the NRS survey that Kerrang! magazine is primarily aimed at young men.

I also read a brief comment on the publishers of Kerrang! magazine's website, Bauer Media. Which gave the following audience profile: "Individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty."

This gave me a view on the qualities of the Kerrang! readership beyond statistics and data. I now have a better idea of what a typical reader is like as a person.

After researching the readership of both of these magazines. I have come up with the following target audience for my own magazine.

A typical reader of my music magazine will be:

A young man between 16-25, of a middle class background (social class ABC1) who is either in full time education or employment. They will enjoy live music, new technologies, place importance on their appearance and will be willing to pay extra for quality and style. Their preferred styles of music will be rock and indie, and they will dress accordingly.

Introduction

For this task we have to make a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. I've chosen to make a rock/indie music magazine, and will develop on the skills I have learned during the making of my preliminary task. http://sdcmediaashuwwhittington.blogspot.com/

I will use information I have researched along with photographs of bands I have taken in order to make my magazine, and will concludeby evaluating my work.

Iwill first design my magazine on paper with flat plans, and then produce the final product using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop.


I have decided that my target audience will be young people, particularly males, of the 16-25 age group. And will think about my target audience when making decisions in order to keep my magazine focussed towards the taget audience.


I am going to research existing publications to create a magazine that will fit my target audience and genre.