Diary entry 5

This week, I completed both my contents page and my double page spread. I took one photo for my contents page using the school's backdrop, lighting kit and SLR - equipment I was already familiar with from personal experience. I wrote an interview article for my double page spread, borrowing stylistic elements from similar articles in Q magazine. I also improved some of my front cover, though for the most part I worked only on my contents and double page spread.

Diary entry 4

This week, we made a start on the first drafts of our front cover and contents page, based on the the drawn drafts we had done previously. Having already done the majority of the photography I need, I managed to make a fairly swift start and completed my front cover quite quickly, although of course more development could be done. I also completed a large portion of the layout of my contents page, though I may have to do some more photography to finish it.

Drawn drafts

Diary entry 3

This week in my lessons, I have begun designing a drawn draft of my front cover, contents page and double page spread. This has involved looking at my questionnaire results, my magazine analyses, and my initial ideas. I have been deciding the stories I will include, the colour scheme I shall use, and the pictures I will take.
Furthermore, we have also been studying how to give the magazine a professional look. This can involve really simple things such as correcting spelling and grammatical errors, as well as ensuring the photographs I use are of a good enough quality, well lit and composed, etc.

Diary entry 2

This week, I produced a questionnaire, which I distributed to my classmates and other members of my target demographic. I asked questions such as what price people would be willing to pay - so I know what price to include on my cover - and what puts people off magazine, so I could avoid any common pitfalls. After I had collated my results, I set about mind-mapping my initial ideas for my magazine, including what genre it would be for, it's name, the layout I would use, etc. This will be crucial in my designing.

Q Magazine Evaluation

This front cover from Q predominantly uses 4 colours – red (for the logo and some headlines), white (for some headlines and the background), black (for some text) and browns (for text). These colours mesh well with the photograph, whose colours are mostly brown and black. The red stands out against this, without looking obnoxious, whilst the other colours complement the photographs own colours. This clever use of cohesiveness between the colours of the photo and the text produces a stylish and remarkable colour. The photograph itself is an extreme close up – the level of detail provided by this proves very striking. Red text is used to highlight certain features – for example, the magazine logo – and contrasts highly with the black, brown and white. This prevents the magazine looking dull, and also draws the eye to key areas. The language used is mostly sensationalistic – for example “LIVES ORGY!” This makes the magazine seem very and therefore the magazine you should buy. The cover features several common conventions – for example, the magazine logo is situated near the top left of the page. The price is listed just below it – and on the opposite side of the page, at the bottom right, is the bar code. These are extremely common features to see on a magazine front cover. Other are listed on the page, though in smaller text than the key article. These are mostly names of bands, making the magazine appear packed full of music news. It also features some nicknames, such as “Macca” (referring to Paul McCartney). This suggests that the magazine is knowledgeable enough to know these, but also suggests closeness with the artists – after all, you only really ever refer to someone by their nickname if you are fairly close to them. All text on the cover is in capitals, making the articles stand out.

This contents page is a very intriguing design, mainly following conventions of the “blocky” style. The right hand side of the page is taken up by several images – some partially cut out from their background, and some overlapping. However, there is a clear line running through the center, adding a sense of style and order to the page. Each image is labelled with the page number for the article from where it is taken. The images are a mixture of types – ranging from long shots to close ups, live photos to studio photos. This adds a sense of variety to the articles from the magazine. The colour scheme is continued – the predominant colours still being white, black, brown and red, giving the magazine a sense of cohesion. At the top of the page is a smaller version of the magazine’s logo, and a headline showing which issue of the magazine it is. On the left side of the page is a list of the most important articles from this particular issue – there is a page number in black, next to the title in brown, with a smaller description in black. This difference in colour makes it easy to skim down the page and quickly find which article is where.

On this double page spread, the colour scheme from the other pages is once again continued. This cohesion is integral in giving a magazine a particular “look”. The right hand page is taken up solely with a long shot of Liam Gallagher. The mise en scene is very typical of his character, dressed in a sort of neo-mod style. To his right is a quote from the main text, written in red. This highlights a key point of the article, and gives a brief insight to what it may entail. The text itself is on the left hand page, and is split into columns. This is far more aesthetically pleasing than huge blocks of text, and much easier to read. At the top of the page, a quote serves as a headline – this gives people a taste of what the article may entail, and draws readers in. Underneath, in a smaller font, is a brief subheading, and then – separated by a thin line – the article itself. At the start of each major section, a large drop down letter is used to signal this change. A huge T – the first letter of the article – is written in red, and serves as a background for the article. This sets is aside from other articles, as they are generally simply written on a blank white background.

Mixmag Evaluation

This front cover adopts a house style colour scheme, featuring grey, black and orange/brown. These are fairly neutral colours, but set against the metallic grey background look very stylish. Rather than photographs, the cover features stylised drawings of artists – this, combined the metal-like background colour make them look like graffiti stencils, something associated with the demographic for this particular magazine. The colours are mixed and matched in their use in the text, to highlight certain words, such as “DJ”. This draws the eye to key areas on the cover. The language used is mostly sensationalistic – for example “WHO IS THE GREATEST DJ OF ALL TIME?” This makes the magazine seem very interesting and knowledgeable and therefore the magazine you should buy. The cover features several common conventions – for example, the magazine logo is situated near the top left of the page, and on the opposite side of the page, at the bottom right, is the bar code. These are extremely common features to see on a magazine front cover. Other articles are listed on the page, though in smaller text than the key article. These seem to be mostly feature articles and reports from events, rather than artist profiles, which are more commonly seen in magazines such as NME and Q. This is a feature seemingly exclusive to this genre of magazine, proving it’s differences from indie and rock magazines.

This contents adopts an image-dominated style, with the predominant section of the page given over to a photograph. The photograph is taken with a wide-angle lens, and shows a busy party scene. This is geared towards the target audience, as DJs generally play in clubs rather than at gigs. The black background to the page also matches with this, providing the atmosphere of a dark club. To the right is a smaller image, taken from the front cover. The images are labelled with the page number for the article from where they are taken – a staple convention. The rest of the right side of the page is taken up by a list of important features from throughout the magazine, with the page numbers in brown, the headlines in bold and the descriptions in a smaller, non-bold font. This makes it easy to skim down the page and quickly find which article is where. The colour scheme is continued – the predominant colour now being black, with white and brown still featured. This gives the magazine a sense of cohesion. At the top of the page is a smaller version of the magazine’s logo, and a headline showing which issue of the magazine it is. At the bottom right, there is a page number, a common addition. Finally, the lower section of the page is used to describe the cover CD, and includes the tracklisting.

The strong design on this double page spread, with its diagonals, is extremely striking. Echoed in the title, the 3 photos, and in the stencil-style font used for the drop down letters, it all combines to make a fantastically designed page.  This cohesion is integral in giving a magazine a particular “look”. The photographs are also tilted slightly, accentuating the diagonals. The colour scheme from early is broadly adhered to, with the text and background being black and white respectively. However, a rainbow of colour is introduced in the images, making them even more striking. The mise en scene of the photos is very typical of the genre, depicting laser lights and a crowd in a dark club. The text begins on the left hand page, and is split into columns. This is far more aesthetically pleasing than huge blocks of text, and much easier to read. At the start of each major section, a large drop down letter is used to signal this change. The title, “LOST IN SPACE” is plastered diagonally across the page in huge letters. This gives it a sense of urgency reminiscent of “SOLD OUT” stickers, slapped across gig posters.

NARC Evaluation

House style is used to great effect on this front cover – the photograph and writing all being black & white, with only one piece of text deviating from this. This brings attention to this piece of text – in this case, the band featured in the main article of the magazine. The photograph is a long shot of two men, both looking straight towards the camera. The mise en scene is that of a recording studio, and the naturalistic nature of the poses suggests the article is a relaxed interview with the band in the studio. The language used it very minimal, simply listing the names of bands featured in the magazine. This fits in with the very minimalistic colour scheme and fonts, to produce an extremely stylish cover. The cover features several common conventions – for example, the magazine logo is much larger, and in a different font, than the rest of the text. This makes it stand out, and makes it very obvious from a distance which magazine it is. The magazine’s slogan appears underneath the title, as does the issue number, date, and price. These are staple features of a magazine’s cover, and are crucial. All text on the cover is in capitals, making the text stand out.

This contents page adopts a “blocky” design, featuring various blocks of text and photographs. The image is captioned and features a page number for the article – a very common convention. The photograph is of the same band from the cover, this time seemingly in the process of recording. This reinforces the message from the front, that it is a relaxed interview whilst the band is in the studio. This cohesiveness is also present in that the house style is continued – the predominant colours still being white, black and pink, giving the magazine a sophisticated image. At the right, a box with the header “CONTENTS” lists key articles from the magazine. It doesn’t list every article – a very common occurrence – and each article is labelled with its page number in bright pink. The titles of each article are in capital letters, whilst the descriptions are lower case, and this combined with the pink numbers means it is very easy to glance down the column and see which articles are where. A letter from the editor takes up a large part of the page, introducing the reader to the magazine. Underneath this are details of the contact information for the magazine, inviting readers to participate in it’s online forums or submit letters.

The house style colour scheme of the rest of the magazine also continues through to this double page spread. Its use is still the same – black and white, with pink highlighting certain parts. In this case, it is used to highlight key quotes from the article, so that a reader skimming through would get the gist of the interview and hopefully read on. Photographs of two members of the band take approximately half of each page up – unusually, uncaptioned. The photographs are very intimate looking close ups – again, signifying that this article is intimate and honest. The text is split into one column per page, which is much more aesthetically pleasing than huge blocks of text. A large portion at the bottom of the page is taken up by the article’s title, half of which is written with the letters facing backwards. This is not only aesthetically pleasing, but contrasts with the photograph above it – the letters are facing left, yet the man is looking right. It also possibly suggests the band is taking their music – as Music is the word written in this way – back to basics. Furthermore, it gives the impression of the article emanating from the page, flowing outwards. This is extremely stylistic, and looks beautiful.

NARC Evaluation 2

This front cover features only two colours – black and white. This monochrome colour scheme, combined with the religious iconography-influenced photograph, is incredibly striking. Despite being very plain, the strength of the design and photography means the cover still looks excellent. The title is, very typically, situated in the top left of the page, with the magazine’s slogan written just underneath. At the top right are the issue number, the date, and the price. These are key, necessary features on the front cover of a magazine. The language used is sparing, only listing the names of bands featured inside the magazine. This fits in with the very minimalistic colour scheme and fonts, to produce an extremely stylish cover. All text on the cover is in capitals, making the text stand out where lower case may not. The photograph is a medium shot of one of the members of the band whom the magazine’s main article centres around. They appear to be looking up, towards light, with their arms outstretched. Their pose, the lighting and even the way they are dressed indicates some sort of religious significance – maybe this person is bathing in the glory of the magazine, as they appear to be looking at the title? It is extremely striking, all the more so because of it’s ambiguity.

This contents page uses a “blocky” style, splitting the text on the page into several sections. Unusually, the page is completely devoid of all images. This lends itself to a business-like appearance. This effect is furthered in that the key colours are still black and white, though pink has now been introduced to highlight certain parts. At the top left is the label “CONTENTS”, and underneath it lists every article from the magazine. This is fairly uncommon, as usually only key articles get listed. Each article is labelled with its page number in bright pink next to it. The titles of each article are also in bold, whilst the descriptions are lower case, and this combined with the pink numbers means it is very easy to glance down the column and find an article. A letter from the editor takes up a large part of the page, introducing the reader to the magazine. To the right of this are details of the contact information for the magazine, inviting readers to participate in it’s online forums or submit letters.

This page continues the house style colour scheme introduced in the contents page. The minimalist feel continues, with the pink still used to highlight important things. On this page, it is used to highlight the introduction, and a special box-out conclusion. This double page spread features a drawing, rather than a photograph – the full left page is given over to this, a very common practice. The text is divided into three columns on the page page, which is extremely common practice. A thin line is used to divide the introductory paragraph from the rest of the text. Across the top of the page is the title – written in a clear, sans-serif font, it looks very bare and striking, continuing the minimalist style of NARC. Just underneath the title are the credits to the writers of the article, a staple feature. At the bottom left and bottom right are the magazine’s logo, the issue date and page number – again, a staple feature.

NME Evaluation

This front cover very clearly uses house style for its colours – featuring only black, white and red. The photograph is also black and white, reinforcing this. Black and white were the signature colours of The Specials, and so any Specials fan scanning shelves of magazines would immediately recognise the colour scheme. The red is used to highlight certain parts – for example, the magazine logo – and contrasts highly with the black and white. This prevents the magazine looking dull, and also draws the eye to key areas. The language used is imperative – “the UK’s most revolutionary label” for example. This gives the magazine an authoritative voice, making it seem very knowledgeable and therefore the magazine you should buy. The image is very effective – a montage of images of the band, it’s positioned so that the band appear to be springing out the page at you. This is extremely eye-catching. The cover features several common conventions – for example, the magazine logo is situated near the top left of the page. The price is listed just below it – and on the opposite side of the page, at the bottom right, it the bar code. These are extremely common features to see on a magazine front cover. Other articles – in this case “BIG GIG HEADLINERS AND 2010’S FIRST WINNER ANNOUNCED” – are also listed on the front, though they are smaller than the key article. All text on the cover is in capitals, to make the magazine stand out. At the top and the bottom of the page are straplines, listing other bands featured inside the magazine. This allows the potential buyer to know what they will be reading about, without even opening the magazine.

This style of contents page is image-dominated, featuring a large image of a different article than the front cover. The image has a small caption – a very common convention – telling the reader who the photograph is of and where it was taken. The house style is continued – the predominant colours still being white, black and red, giving the magazine a sophisticated look rather than a colourful and possibly “kiddy” appearance. This continuation of colour scheme also creates a cohesive appearance throughout the magazine. A large, sensationalist headline draws your eyes towards a letter from the editor, introducing the reader to the magazine. There is a small inset image, featuring the band from the front cover. This increases the cohesiveness of the magazine, and also highlights this important article once more. On the left side of the page, there is an alphabetically arranged list of all the bands featured inside. This is a fairly uncommon feature, as more commonly contents pages feature a list of articles. However, this puts the emphasis on the bands instead – showing the magazine to care more about the music, rather than the events of the past week.

This double page spread adheres to a house style colour scheme, but substitutes the red found throughout the rest of the magazine for pink. This suggests a change of tone from the rest of the magazine, showing this band is a departure from the others featured more prominently throughout. The left page is almost totally taken up by a photograph of the band – with a small caption at the top left – which itself features black very heavily, blending in with the rest of the page. The composition of the photograph reflects the title of the page, “Pheonix Rising”, with the band member’s faces gradually being positioned higher and higher. The text is split into columns on the page, which is much more aesthetically pleasing than huge blocks of text. A key quote is written in pink in the middle of the page, to draw your eye to it. This quote also provides an insight into the article, so for anybody skimming through it could attract attention with a sensationalist quote.

Initial Ideas

Questionnaire analysis

I asked this question to judge how large the potential market for my magazine was, and how regularly it should be released. It seems the majority of my demographic would prefer a weekly magazine, such as NME – in the era of instant information on the internet, a quick, regular magazine is needed to stay up to date and relevant.

 I asked this question to judge which magazine I should use for my main style model. Depending on which is most popular with my demographic, I should try and replicate its style. Q appears to be the most popular in this case, closely followed by NME. Therefore, I should look at issues of Q to see which conventions I should take onboard.

 Although I will only actually be writing one article – one based on music – I need to include the headlines of many other articles. As such, I thought possibly including articles on film and TV – as NME do – could be a suitable idea. Opinion is split entirely down the middle on this, so it’s entirely down to me. I probably won’t include anything about film or TV, to keep the magazine’s focus on music – there was no overwhelming lean in opinion in favour of doing so, so therefore it would be safer not to.

 Some magazines such as Mixmag and Kerrang regularly feature free gifts, such as posters or cover CDs. It seems the majority of people would prefer my magazine to include such free gifts – possibly the minority against it are worried it could drive up the cost of the publication.

 So as to better judge what my magazine should look like and contain, I asked which points put some people off. By identifying these pitfalls, I can avoid them in my own magazine. My results have identified that a poor choice of artist is the most unappealing factor for consumers, and therefore I must be careful in which artists I advertise on the cover.

 I asked this question to discover which feature of a front cover attracts people the most successfully. It turned out that people consider strong design aspects and familiar cover stars to be the most appealing aspects of front covers, and therefore I will have to design my cover around this.

 Opinion on this topic, as with question 3, was split equally down the middle. Some magazines – such as Q – deal with a wide variety of music genres, whereas magazines such as MixMag deal with a much narrower spectrum. I will opt for the latter, as it would allow me to arrange stylistic elements of the magazine more suitably for one single genre.

 Including the price on the cover of a magazine is a staple convention, but I could only include a price that people would actually willingly pay. The majority of people would be willing to pay up to £4 for a magazine, and so I now know that a price of under £4 will be the most suitable to include on my front cover.

 For my project, I need only write one article, and therefore it is imperative that this article meets the wants of my demographic. Consumers appear to be far more interested in reading an article talking about currently popular artists, whilst the next popular result was articles detailing up & coming artists.

The colour scheme of a magazine is incredibly important, with certain colours being particularly associated with it. Red, used for the title in both NME and Q, was the joint most popular with white, followed closely by black. If I am to use a house style colour scheme, I will therefore use red, black and white, as these are the most commonly associated colours with music magazines.

Questionnaire

1. How frequently do you buy music magazines or read music websites?

2. Which site or magazine do you read most frequently?

3. Would you like a music magazine to cover other areas of media (eg film or TV)?

4. Would freebies (eg posters, CDs etc) encourage you to buy a magazine?

5. What would put you off buying a music magazine?

6. What do you look for on the front cover of a magazine?

·      Strong design

·      Familiar faces

·      Interesting titles

7. Would you rather buy a magazine which covers a broad range of music          (including some not to your taste), or one which is focussed entirely on one genre of music?

8. How much would you pay for a music magazine?

9. What do you like to read about in an article?

·      Retrospective

·      Up and coming

·      Current

10. What sort of colours would you associate with a music magazine?

Diary entry 1

This week, we first examined examples of different school magazines which are given away for free, and produced in-house at different schools. After identifying several common conventions, I set about creating my own magazine. I borrowed the school's Nikon DSLRs, and took photographs of students around the school, recreating the style I had seen in other magazines. After this, we produced the magazines themselves, and then evaluated them against the style models we used.