Other layouts and the final product

Next, i created further layouts which contained colour, images and text. I had chosen my favourite layout from my initial designs and adapted it into an actual draft of my cover for a start. I then applied this to my contents page and main headline. After creating this, i moved on and created yet another draft changing the colours, the font and the layout slightly but kept the content the same on each page. I kept the parts from the first drafts that i liked and those i didn't, i changed slightly to make them better. For example, I changed my headline 'Jack's Back' on my cover to make it bigger and placed it in a different place on the second draft as i thought this looked better. I did the same for the contents and main headline drafts also. In each of the drafts, i changed the images to see which would suit the purpose most and also the colours of the backgrounds to see which i preferred so that in my final product i could take parts from each draft that i liked and merge them into one.

Initial ideas for layout, the research questionnaire and photoshoot planning

Firstly, i came up with some intial ideas which i would then develop into my final magazine. I started by creating three different drafts for my cover page. I planned where the title, images, headlines and barcode would go differntly in each to see which layout i liked best. I used no colour or actual images, i just simply wrote 'headline' where i wanted a headline to go, for example. I did the same thing for both the contents page and double page spread.

I created a questionnaire to gain feedback from my chosen target audience in order to make my magazine suitable to them. I asked ten people altogether, 4 of them being aged 16 - 20, 2 of them 21 - 25, 2 of them 26 - 30 and 2 of them 31 - 35. I asked 5 females and 5 males to answer the questions in the questionnaire. I found that over half of the poeple asked read magazines on either a weekly or monthly basis but i found that over half of them read music magazines very rarely. The majority of these poeple said that photos were mostly likely to draw them into a magazine cover and that they would be most willing to pay £1.00 - £1.99 for the actual magazine. 10 out of 10 of the poeple asked said that it was important for the magazine to have a catchy title. The colours black, white and blue were most likely to catch the eyes of the audience this age and draw them into wanting to read the magazine. The majority of the poeple asked said they prefered Indie music to any other genre which was the genre i wanted to aim my magazine towards. Most of the people said that the expressions on the poeple's faces in the images should by casual and natural. I found that it was prefered for the people in the images to be wearing casual clothing and that a colour scheme in the magazine is very important. A running template is important and the image on the cover should go with the main headline. I found that these poeple preferred other images to be present on the cover and that a number of images should be situated on the contents page. It is very important for a number of images to be situated on the main headline pages and that this article should have a catchy headline to draw readers into wanting to read it. It was preferred for the article to be an interview and the majority of the poeple asked liked mixed bands. The mainheadline should be in the biggest font on the cover page and the headlines and sub-headings should be in different colours to one another to make them stand out. On the contents page people preferred for there to be a list of contents as well as images to support them and it was agreed that music magazines should be aimed at both sexes. I took all of these things into account so that my magazine would be suitable for my chosen target audience.

I then made plans for my photoshoots. These included: the names of the models involved, the locations, the equipment used, the costumes required, the props required, the dates and times the photos were taken and shot types and ideas for content. I filled each of these things out 5 times in order to show the different images taken on certain dates. The plans were accompanied by the final images to show how they matches my intial plans and what i was going to use in the magazine. I tried different angles, shots and locations in the images to give me enough choice on what to use in the magazine and which ones would more suitable than others.

Music Magazines - Target audiences and exsisting logos

I have recently conducted research into the Target Audiences of music magazines such as 'Rolling Stone' and 'Kerrang' (mentioned earlier). When analysing these, i referred to the possible age, gender and genre of music the potential audiences may be interested in. I also referred to the Socila Demographicsm stating whether i thought the audience may be unemplyed or educated, working people. This is what i found...

For 'Rolling Stone' i found that the overall target audience was both men and women ages twenty to forty who are possibly employed, eduacted people.

For 'Kerrang' i found that the overall target audience was men and women aged twenty to forty who are possibly unemployed and are interested in a Rock/Metal genre of music.

From this i then had to distinguish what my target audience would be for my music magazine. I dicided to make my target audience men and women aged sixteen to thrirty five, who have an interest in an Rock/Indie genre of music and are emplyed, educated people. The reason why i have chosen my audience to be like this is because i have access to a wide range of people aged 16 - 35 and also i analysed magazines which followed either a Rock or Indie genre of music. I preferred how the magazine looked for employed, educated people but have chosen to merge some elements from each magazine together.

I then looked into exsisting logos of music magazines which followed the samre genre of music as i wanted to do. I found that colours such as red and black were frequently used and so was a block capital style.

There was a number of names which i wanted to call my magazine. These were the following:
Indie Cindy
Moshpit
Rock on!
Rock and Roll-over!
Banned
Fusion
Ultimate Fusion
Obsession (It's all about the music!)
Happy Hour
Electric Blue
Electric Blu
Burst
The Amplifier
Loud & Proud
DSA (Don't say anything...Unless it's about music!)

I asked fifty different poeple aged between 16 - 35 which they felt would be the most suitable for my magazine. I found that they preferred 'Obsession' the most, with 'Electric Blu' being a very close second choice. I made a chart to show this.

Analysing Music Magazines

THIS BLOG IS ABOUT AS MEDIA STUDIES COURSE WORK 2009.

I have just finished analysing my chosen two music magazines: 'Rolling Stone' - August 2007 adition and 'Kerrang' - January 2009 adition.

I firstly started off by anotating the pages i had chosen to analyise, selecting parts of each page that i wanted to bring up and talk about. I then started analysing these pages from each magazine: the cover, the contents page and one of the double page spreads (main stories). I had to talk about colour, font, images, content, layout and mode of address used on each page. This took up about 2 pages on each page i was talking about. I also referred to the 'Principle of Thirds' when talking about the layout.

What now? Well, i've started coming up with names for the music magazine i am about to create. I have thought about what genre i want it to include (indie, rock) and have decided it will be aimed at both male and females. I haven't yet thought about anything else to do with my actual magazine yet i still have to summarise my findings, write about the target audience of music magazines, make a questionnaire about the magazine i am going to create for others to fill out, take possible photos that will be featured in my magazine, come up with drafts and make a powerpoint presentation on all of the above to evaluation my reasearch in order to make my finished product.