Planning: My target audience + how i will appeal to them

Details on my target Audience:
AGE: 16 - 25
GENDER: Predominantly male, some female
SOCIAL CLASS: Lower/ Lower Middle Class
SEXUALITY: Predominantly Straight, but none specificable
LOCATION: UK only.
OTHER: fans of a specific two genres (Hardcore/Thrash metal) from the UK.

How I Plan To Appeal To My Audience:

FONTS: I plan to use a simple font such as Helvetica Bold that is simple, stands out and is easy to read. This is because then my audience who prefer more pictures to text can see the text much easeir(they would not read my articles or my magazine if it had difficult to read, fancy text).

LAYOUTS: I plan to use a simple, easy to navigate style of layout for my contents page like NME magazine. If my audience could not understand my magazine's layout if it was complex, they wouldnt buy it.

COLOURS: I plan to use Black, White, Dark Red and Grey. This is because of the genre of music which i have researched in my own time and with my own knowledge i know that most of the shirts and album covers are this colour and as both genres are rather heavy and dark stules of music, these colours would appeal to them via their music.

LANGUAGE: I have chose to use simplistic vocabulary and an informal style of writing, including swear words. This is because my audience is of a lower class and is teenagers and young adults, which means they won't fully understand complex words and are used to talking in an informal style, so if was to write similar to how they speak, it would attract and audience as they can understand what i am writing. Also, the working class is more common to swear than upper class so i have included a few swear words so they can relate to the articles and also for emphasis.

PICTURES: 90% of the pictures i have planned to include are of mid action live shots. This is because the metal and hardcore genres aren't extremely experimental and arty, and they go more for a hard-hitting, heavy emphasis. Because of this, i have not included arty portraits of the bands as it would detract audience attention. They would prefer more live shots of the bands in action so i shot a live gig for my double page article.

Drafts: contents page & double page

this is my rough layout draft for my contents page.
I chose the idea of basing my contents on NME magazines thirds layout.

in the left third i wanted a band index with a list of band included in my magazine in the left third, a 'band index', somewhat similar to the one included in NME magazine.

In the center i wanted to have one main article with its details below and at the bottom of the center i could have a subscription details box with a front page screengrab on it. At the top of the center i chose to put the title of the page as 'CONTENTS' for simplicity for the reader, although i did not include my logo as i did not see it as necessary at the present time.

In the right third i chose to include some important sub articles under 4 headings: News, Reviews, Live and PLUS(anything else that is music related but doesn't relate to one specific band) this idea was also ripped out of Kerrang and NME.

Overall i chose this style as my audience  is of a working class background in which simplicity and an easy to navigate contents page would appeal to them.
I did not add colour to this draft as i had not conducted my colour research for my audience so i did not know what colours would be implemented for the best effect

This is my rough layout draft for my double page spread.
I attempted to implement the idea of a 60/40 picture to text ratio for easy to read,smaller chunks of text.

on the left third of my two pages i  had one main picture covering half of the length of the page and one third of the page. this was to attract attention of the readers by the best, most action filled shot i took at the gig.
The bottom half of the left third contains one column of text, and one row leading off of this column. Also there is two sub pictures next to the column of text so that the readers can look at these pictures when they are noticed in the text or mentioned.

In the center third of the two pages i had two conjoined columns of text which contained the main chuck of text split by the page breaking, which meant that the text flowed into the next box so readers attention was kept on the main text. Also, above the text columns is the title of the page 'Your Demise' i split the two words between the pages but they were conjoined so that they knew who they were reading about.

On the right third of my two pages, half of the right third was to be filled with sub pictures for the main article so that after reading they can look at the pictures related to the article. On the other half of the right third in the upper section was a small album cover and the secondary text(the album review). As this is not the main focus of the double page spreads article i put it in the top right corner so that it doesn't get caught up in the reading of the main article. Below this is two sub pictures related to the album review.

All these ideas originally came to me in the idea that i wanted a simple amount of text and more pictures as my audience is lower class, which means they don't want to just be reading text, also they are young and less sophisticated than 30+ year old adults (16-25 white males is my age and gender range) so more pictures would be more appealing to them.

Double Page Spread Analysis'

This is a double page spread from NME magazine. . NME is a magazine aimed at predominantly male 16-30 white audience interested in the 'indie' genre.

The first page  is comprised of one large picture of 'The Chapman Family' (the band included in this article) with the overlapping text of their name [The Chapman Family]  in large bold letters. the picture on this page consists of the whole band in an average house. It is a very quirky, interesting image as one of the bands members is completely out of the picture which intrigues the audience into reading if they don't recognise the bands name to wonder what the picture means. The bands name is in a very large, bold and simple font, suggesting an aura of professionalism, classy outlook and some mystery towards them.

the second page of the double page spread is all of the text for the article. to attract the reader to reading this article, many strong words and phrases are used in the large font that consists of the description of the band. phrases such as 'They hate lazy indie' and 'get shot at by local kids'  are exciting and intriguing words as powerful  as 'shot' and 'hate' which make it sound like an action filled article so it grabs the reader's attention.  Another example of attracting the reader is a pull quote which says: 'ive been shot at for the way i look before. it's no big thing for me' which is an exciting and masculine statement which makes the people in article sound appealing to the readers so they are encouraged to reader on.

[i did not use any of these ideas as i believe they only work for a solely based interview double page spread and mine was reviews so this layout did not suit the style.

on the left third of Kerrang's double page spread it is comprised of mainly text. this covers only one third of the page and the rest is pictures which is similar to the design i have with my article because teenagers and young adults have a lower attention span on walls of text and pictures would not grab their attention for long so the picture to text ratio is 70/30.

the centre and right third is comprised of one main picture and five sub pictures. these are brightly lit background which bright colours attract their younger audience to read the article if they find the pictures appealing.

The layout of this magazine links in very well with its genre. Again on this magazine there is a lot of pictures which shows that the readers of the magazine may be more interested with looking at pictures then reading long articles and lots of complex text. Their is little colour used on the actual background and on the text. The only colour is on the pictures and this makes them stand out. This may mean that they are the main part of the double page spread and may mean that the editor wants these to be the most important part of the page. The language which is used is quite informal and not very complex, this could link in with the target audience which would be teenagers and people who are into rock music.

i would not use this layout as it focuses too much on the little amount of text included which is suited for my audience but it is done to an extreme which makes the article a quick boring read.

contents page analysis

This is NME magazine's contents page. NME is a magazine aimed at predominantly male 16-30 white audience interested in the 'indie' genre.

I used this contents page as a basis for my magazine as it is well laid out and easy to navigate.

The headnote includes the logo of the magazine and the date which are the first things noticed by the route of the eye. the logo is included in large letters along with a bold 'contents' so you know what page you are on(the contents page).

In the left third of the page, there is a NME exclusive feature known as a 'Band Index'. This band index is in smaller sized font which means it is the last area that the route of the eye will establish, yet a very important feature  of this magazine. It lists all of the bands mentioned in this issue and tells you what page they are on. this is so that its very specific 'indie' audience can read about the bands they want as NME covers quite a few genres and they may not appeal to the individual reader. I found this an effective tool as it allows the reader to focus on what they want to read and they can find out what bands are in the magazine quickly before buying it. [I used this feature in my magazine as i used NME as a base to establish round and it is a very useful tool when dealing with very specific audiences like my target audience (16-25 year old predominantly white males interested in UK hardcore and metal bands only).]

In the centre of the page, NME puts their main article. The main article has one large image, a large bold text title and some smaller text describing the article. This is effective as there is only one image on the page and one large article, route of the eye guides to the image and then the article after the logo meaning the main article is read straight away which is effective to drawing in readers as it is usually the most appealing article to readers. Beneath this is a black box containing subscription details and a screenshot of the front cover of the magazine. This is effective as it is noticed after the main article is noticed which could convince them to subscribe to NME.  The simplicity of one main article is appealing to a male audience as it allows them to read through and navigate the magazine easier as in the magazine world it is shown that women's magazines are much more complicated in their layouts while music magazines(lower/middle class white males 16-25) like NME have much simpler layouts suggesting an easy navigable layout. [I also copied the idea of centre articles(i chose to have two main articles as they were both important and it looked very barren with just one picture) because as i am aiming at a white mostly male 16-25 working class audience, i decided copying a similar audiences magazines simple and easy to navigate layout.

On the right third of the page, the rest of the popular articles are listed under: News, Reviews, Live. This is effective as you can navigate and get details on popular reviews or live shows and read some summaries of the latest news in indie music. Once again this is an example of making the contents page simple and easy to read. This is the second place where the route of the eye takes the reader , so after reading the main article it leads to all the popular articles so they can quickly, in a few minutes have all the details on everything in the magazine by just reading summaries. In this issue there is an exclusive heading which is about Reading and Leeds, and 'Previews' of it. This is a popular festival with the readers of 'NME' magazine and the 'indie' genre and this would catch the readers eyes. also, there is a less important 'PLUS' section which lists things not directly covering certain event or bands (features include questions to NME, letters about the magazine and a compilation of pictures from readers with famous 'indie' bands or their members. [I used the first idea of listing the categories of News,  Reviews and Live as it is an easy way to navigate to the most important articles for my readers as they might want to read only live show reviews etc. how ever i did not use the PLUS category as i didn't have anything non related to bands, i should of included something like this but at the time i did not think of it as appropriate]

This is Kerrang magazines contents page. Kerrang is a music magazine aimed at 14-30 predominantly white males into the genre of 'rock' and 'metal'.

the layout of this magazine is a bit more complicated than NME as the route of the eye is a lot less simple.

The title for the contents page of Kerrang isn't very noticeable because it is in a small, yellow font in the top corner. although this is against convention and there is no logo, the way the magazine is presented shows it is of Kerrang origin. I would not base my magazine contents page title/logo off Kerrangs as it is too small for effect or to be noticed.

The left half of this contents page includes the main article and a foreword by the editor. the foreword is just describing events from the previous issue such as download festival (UK metal festival) and the main article's large picture, and two articles below it(sub-articles)  although this grabs the attention of readers it is unprofessionally laid out and the reader would not know where to look after the contents page. i would not lay my contents out like this as it is  distracting to the reader and they would not be able to navigate this complex layout unless they were long time readers of the magazine.

However, the right half of this contents page is much better laid out. There is a quote from a famous musician that is potentially worthless and not needed for any reason ( i believe it is there for comedic value yet is not valid or easily noticed). The next section to be noticed is the 'THIS WEEK' section which details all the articles not pictured in a short sentence. this is effective as it is quick and easy to read the summaries of the articles. However, the layout of all the articles listed with pictures is ineffective as it seems to have no proper order.

Overall, even with the effective but bland colour layout and consistent fonts, i would not choose a layout like Kerrang!'s due to an unprofessional and ineffective, hard to navigate contents page which would confuse its younger audience as the route of the eye is complete dysfunctional.

looking back at your premlininary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

this was my preliminary task's front cover. i tried to be arty by using illustrator to create a logo.
i used inconsistent fonts and a very large 1/4 face shot. this convention destroying magazine did not go too well and was of a low quality as it didn't really show any appeal or anything and was generally bad and looked extremely unprofessional or arty. The title font was completely unreadable and the all capitals with punctuation marks made this look more like a cheap fanzine than an actual college magazine.

in my new task i learnt about inset spacing so everything looked neater and did not overlap, i learnt about using consistent fonts for professionalism, and placing texts in the center of boxes. After my research i learnt  how to properly arrange things for route of the eye to work properly so it is easier and less straining to navigate and read. I decided to go against the convention of a 3/4 body shot again but with a full body shot this time, but as this photo shoot was more planned and used for a certain effect eventually it turned out to a higher quality than my preliminary task, as i had learned new skills in magazine design and i learnt about new  tools in Adobe InDesign such as Inset Spacing.

In my preliminary task, the college magazine contents page, i didn't know about proper arrangement, route of the eye, colour schemes, consistency and photo choices. Also my logo was inconsistent. Overall, i did not know what i was doing, i tried to free form a magazine without actually having a base idea, it was all rushed and i hadn't researched into professional magazines of that style so i pretty much slapped everything together and it was a piss poor performance. The unequal sizing of the pictures, the route of the eye was not proper so you didn't know which order to read the contents in. Also, my colour scheme wasn't correct and looked horrific.

in my music magazine task, i kept with consistent fonts(every single font used is Helvetica Bold) this gives a more professional outlook. i also learnt to keep a colour scheme going on on the page (black and white boxes, not all different covers).  my photo choices were better as they were actually taken in planning for this magazine and are of musical pursuits which are related to my magazine. my logo is consistent with my front page one which means it looks professional compared to my preliminary task. This time, I learnt well and decided to base my magazine on the NME contents page so i could relate to a professional magazine and have a base idea to work against which made it look much higher quality.

example of the basis to my music magazines contents page. the idea of the Main Articles in the center, the 'band index' in the left third, and the lesser important news, reviews and live shows on the right third, also the subscribing note at the bottom of the center articles. using a professional magazine as my template allowed me to make a better looking magazine.

overall, looking back at my preliminary task i have learnt about how to  make a magazine more professional using inset spacing, layouts, consistent fonts and CMYK photos.

in what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

my music magazine challenges a convention. firstly, the front cover picture is not a 3/4 body shot. i challenged this convention as i believed that a full body shot suited my magazine a lot more than the usual and i used it for a more appealing effect.
it developed a convention of having the main article headline in the centre at the top. i moved it into the middle as it helps to see the actual front page photo.
i adhered to one convention by keeping my logo at the middle in the top of the page as it provided the most effective and professional look.

in my music magazine contents i challenged a convention. i used more than one main article in the middle as i wanted to focus on more than one and it gives a professional look.
i developed a convention of including all the articles on the contents by adding all of the pages as a 'band index' for easy access to look at the bands the audience want to.
i used a convention by putting my logo at the top and have a CONTENTS label for it as this helps keep the magazine professional.

in my music magazine double page spread i challenged a convention. i put the double page title in the centre of the left page instead of at the top as i wanted to influence the route of the eye so they read the article straight away.
i developed a convention of keeping the article in the middle of the page by spreading it between the two pages. this gave it a more professional look.
i adhered to a convention of starting the article on the left of the page because it looks professional and standardized and route of the eye works better for me.

choices of photos + justifications

i chose the photo for my front cover as i needed one of a full band lineup in an actual shoot and this gave the desired dark effect i was going for. also it fit my magazine style(teenagers) and they represent the audience well.

i chose to use this photo as a front cover piece as it is the only mid action close-up i had and could be used for many purposes as it fit into my articles well. i had to remove/fill the black space but it worked well.

i used this photo for my contents page as it is a medium length 3/4 body action shot which grabs the readers attention and could be used for effect as the man represents someone well known in the audience community. i left it raw as it was only a preview of the photos to come.

this photo is a re-edited and cropped version of the photo above. i used this as a gray as it isn't meant to grab the audiences attention straight away but the size makes it noticeable.

i used this photo as crowd photos are filler photos but can also attract the audience who went to that gig, as they may want to spot themselves(research into this i did at home which i have no file for showed that peoples eyes were drawn towards photos like this to search for themselves). it was mainly justified as a filler photo.

this photo was chosen for my magazine as it shows a mid action shot of the guitarist. i kept it small as it was a filler photo but it does attract people to it as the guitarist is wearing a bright shirt.

i chose this photo to be used as it was a mid action shot of a bassist, and bassists aren't usually pictured in many magazines(not a convention just a pattern) so i thought i would break this pattern and add this picture. it draws the audience to it as it was an interesting shot itself.

i used this photo also as a filler but the fact it is mid shot is also interesting as people will look at whats happening in the mid action photos. it is slightly dark but in my final product the levels had been altered to make it clearer.

this photo was simply included because it is part of the narrative of the review(stage invasion) and people will want to see pictures of the detailed events.

this next photo was added as it captured more than 3 band members and people will look at the photo if they recognise the members, it also helped to fill space in the magazine.

this photo was included due to the fact i have an interview style area with opinions from the audience and this included a band member and one of the audience, so it fitted perfectly with the plan for my magazine,

double page spread part 2

after realizing that my title was not in a suitable location and route of the eye would not flow as well as i had hoped, i had to move it so i re-sized my pictures to fit the new location of the title and moved the title to a place where the route of the eye would lead to the article(above the article, below the main picture). Also, i used shift and the re-sizing tool on my titles so that they were in proportion but larger and more noticable to the eye,

Once i realized that my magazine did not look up to a true professional standard, and the route of the eye was incorrectly placed. I then replaced the re-sized picture and added my titles in, meanwhile placing my main two columns of the text back to where they were as i deemed them fitting to stay where they were as i got a member of the class to look at my article and they managed to follow the text, they did not obstruct route of the eye, which meant that the article still worked as normal.

This became the final product. i noticed a large area of black space which i minimized with my best efforts by adding my logo in at the end of the article in large letters, which also makes it recogniseable to my readers so they know where the article is from. I considered the idea of enlarging my texts or removing pictures but i did not find any suitable ways to do these without ruining my overall desired look and looked unprofessional to my own eyes. In retrospect, i do believe that i could of improved it by rearranging the article and text from the start but i did not know this until i did more research into double page spreads.

Double Page spread Process

firstly, i placed all my text onto my page in the desired layout and used the drop text tool to make my text flow naturally. Also, now my boxes are aligned, i started to realize that i had large white gaps as my photos did not fit into the correct areas appropriately, so i decided to come up with a solution:

 I solved this problem by adding black boxes whilst in zoom of 200% or more, so i could close up all the white gaps that were irregularly sized. This meant that every space that was blank was covered eventually. I encountered one more problem whilst covering these spaces in which were pure black.

after i noticed this space in my text box i noticed had a large black space i couldnt remove, so i decided to add my logo into the box afterward to fill the room and say it was a 'HOMESICK EXCLUSIVE'. This was to add my logo to the page which seemed appropriate, and also it helped somewhat fill up the page's black space.


The next problem i encountered were that my boxes had become uneven and the text would not align correctly which made my double page spread look unprofessional. To combat this i re-aligned and resized the boxes with text in until they fit perfectly.

After i corrected these problems and added my pictures back in to fit. i have removed all problems that i encountered during it using zoom, boxes, space filling and resizing. I believed that i had finished but i encountered some more problems which i have addressed in Part 2 of this post.

Font Choices

FOR MY MAGAZINE, I CHOSE ONE CONSISTENT FONT:
Helvetica.
there are many variations of it in my magazine, for example:

 this is an example of my use of a helvetica, bold and oblique, slanted to the angle of 24 degrees clockwise. this is a rendition of a popular clothing design brand and band logo( Supreme and Your Demise) which people will recognise.

 

another example is my titles were Helvetica Bold. i used this as it isa common font in the design world as apart from its clarity, it also looks standard and professional

how i edited one of my photos.

first off i opened the photo in photoshop.. then i went into image > image mode > grayscale (as you cant use RGB colour with black and white) so i could convert it to a dominant grayscale.

next and finally i pressed CMD and L to access the levels to alter my photo, and set the levels to what i saw fit, which was: Black: 0, Gray: 1.38 and White: 183

this gave the desired effect i wanted for my photo which was to highlight the foreground and give it a more vintage feel.

how does your magazine represent particular social groups?

with my magazine, my social group i have represented is teenagers.

my use of language is a major factor in this. i have used a lot of informal language such as 'riffs', 'wicked', 'radical'  in my magazine which is a use of teenage vocabulary and slang of the present use of my audience. also, i have used vulgar language(but blanked out) for my teenage audience such as f**k, c**t and s**t,which i, myself as a teenager use frequently and my audience used it as well as the artists they listen to. this helps them connect with the article and writer so they are most intrigued.

i also represented the alternative dress+fashion sense by including people of my audiences age and fashion sense. if they see people who dress similar to them they will be interested in the article the person is in. similar fashion senses represent my audience.

what new technologies have you learnt and used in this magazine

in this magazine i learned and harness the new technologies granted to me by the Mac: Abode InDesign and Adobe PhotoShop


with InDesign i learned about many new tools:

Bleed
the bleed tool allows you to go over the magazines margin, which means it will let you go over with pictures which gives 5mm less constriction, something professional magazines use a lot to make it flow more natural on the pages. This allows the picture not to cut off and leave small white gaps as it continues off of the page.

Inset Spacing
the inset spacing tool allows you to make sure the text you put in the box does not touch the edges, a more professional look for the magazine. if the text is spaced in equally in all boxes it gives out a much neater and composed look to the text and stops it flowing over at the side

De-hyphenate
the de-hyphenate tool allows you to remove all unnecessary hyphens(long words that have prefixes and flow over the side of the box do this) which makes all words look a lot less messy. after looking into Front, NME and Esquire i had noticed they only use hyphens in words that are double barreled and de-hyphenate everything else, so i did this too.

Drop Text
This allows text to flow from one box to another. this is used by magazine designers to make sure the text keeps flowing naturally and doesn't look broken down. When writing an article it needs to flow mid sentence into the next box so the reader follows the text into the next box and doesn't just stop reading, it helps keep their attention focused on the articles.


Page Break
the page break tool is used combined with the drop text tool to keep the presentation of the text professional so you can align the text as desired. i used this tool to make sure two of my columns of text were aligned so they finished at the same point. this made my magazine look more like NME magazine which makes sure its text looks neat and is easy to read in columns.


PHOTOSHOP:

image mode
image mode allows you to change the photo to a more printable colour set(CMYK + GRAYSCALE) which is useful asit is required that you change from RGB to CMYK or GRAYSCALE. but i also used the image mode 'GRAYSCALE' for the effect of black and white in my photos, as you cannot change CMYK colour photos to black and white so choosing a gray scale would help to emphasize a black and white effect with more boundaries to influence.

levels

the levels tool edits the amount of black, white and grey in the picture. i used this in combination with grayscale to give a stronger black on my photos for effects to make my photos look more appealing and professional, also if the blacks fade away the background it can allow a focus on the centre or main object in the image, so people will actually notice what is in the picture.

An example of the levels tool being used. it has put more grey emphasis on the people in the picture so they are more noticed that in the original black and white picture.

content aware fill
i used the content aware fill tool because it can erase people/undesired object by replacing it with content similar to the surrounding of the area. i used this on my front cover to remove undesired areas, such as overlapping branches(which i did not recognise before entering the photo onto the cover) which would of given a more DIY, unprofessional photographic affect which would not appeal to my audience as there is already a market for unprofessional


BLOGS
By using www.blogger.com i have been able to show my progress with my College magazine and my Music magazine. I was able to post photos, videos and document attachments to my posts to show photo choices, screenshots of progress, a video explaining my technologies used and even though i did not use a document attachment i could use it to post my base draft texts. This technology was aware to me before but i have learned how to maximise its effect and use it to track my progress and evaluate my coursework.

This is the upload screen for Blogger. I have used this technology to upload attachments other than text to my blog so i can show my progress easier, i can also upload screenshots of this Mac to show processes of how i perform tasks, and constructed my final product.

SURVEYMONKEY
another technology i learned of is surveys. the technology i used was a website called  www.surveymonkey.com. this website allowed me to ask people, via facebook. this meant that people on my facebook friends could answer my survey and helped me decide what my audience(people aged 16-23) wanted to see(genres, articles, colours) and allowed me to plan via graphs. here is an example of a graph i took a screenshot of for my blog.

above: a graph from SurveyMonkey showing the percentage of people who liked each genre. i chose to base my magazine on the top 3 genres: metal, hardcore and pop-punk
i used this technology to make the ease of appealing to my audience as i can find out what my audience want in the magazine via SurveyMonkey.

FACEBOOK
Facebook was another technology i used in conjunction with SurveyMonkey as it allowed me to get 20 survey responses from people in the age range i wanted (16-23) of both male and female. the technology of social networking websites allowed me to survey people of a certain age group, similar interests and other connecting factors.
MAC 
another technology that i learnt about was the Mac. it has many applications of software that i used (InDesign, PhotoShop, etc) for my project. It has a function of selective screengrabbing, by using cmd shift 4, you can select what parts of the screen you want to screengrab and then they become a picture file. useful for when you are explaining the processes of how you constructed the product,

Front covers of other magazines analysis

This is Front magazine. it is a lads magazine with music related subjects. it is aimed at purely male audience of 18-25

it uses the appeal of its 18-30's male audience sexual desires by including an exposed woman on the cover who is fairly attractive. many sexual references are made on the front covers. 'get paid & get laid' and 'i shagged a pirate' which appeal to the sexual imaginations and intrigues them. the vulgar language suggests they are of a a working class background. the colours used are black, white, pink, red and blue. these are either manly or sexualized colours. the layout is simple and easy to read as they believe that the most attention will 

be paid to the pictures not the writing unless its easy to read

Front magazine use bright colours and sexy pictures of women to attract their audience which is young adult men (18-30) as the font and picture draws them towards the magazine and convinces them to buy it as its in their interests. .

this has taken influence on my magazine as i have used the idea of simple and easy fonts to keep my young audience's attentions on the article.

 This is NME magazine. It is an 'indie' genre magazine made for a predominantly straight white male audience aged 18-30.

The cover uses a white background with two standing out + recognizable famous figures to draw the attention of its readers. the contrast of white on black allows the focus on the people.

The logo is recognisable and would be the next object in the route of the eye which would instantly let fans of NME know that this is an official NME magazine.

There is a headnote is a large yellow + white bold font which attract the eye to read that after the logo.

The headnote is short and snappy which instantly grabs their attention to read on.

The main article overlaps the picture and is the next on the route of the eye. the fonts are red + white which stand out on the black jackets of the people in the picture so it is easily read. it has the largest font which puts the main article at the biggest attraction to the reader, making it the most important figurehead of attracting the reader. They also have a pull quote from the actual article which says 'I was worried the Monkeys would think i was having an affair' the choices of the words 'worried' and 'affair' grab the readers attention as they are exciting verbs.

There are 4 side articles which use bold, red fonts to catch your eye after the main article. they use adjectives like 'special' and 'exclusive' to keep the reader's interest. also, a slight use of over dramatics 'Vs' which makes it sound like there is something dramatic going on which would intrigue the reader.

The magazine appeals to its target audience by using large fonts and short sentences to keep them interested as most male orientated magazine are not 50/50 on text and picture output, they go for a more 60/40 style so short sentences are used to make them read the articles and catch their eyes..

This is Rocksound magazine. It is an 'alternative' magazine aimed at predominantly straight, white males of 18-30

(This is a spanish print of it, but i cannot find the original UK print so i will translate from it)

The cover uses a photo of a famous iconic singer looking up with a shallow depth of field photo. this photo allows the focus of the reader's eye to stay on the 3/4 body photo of the famous person pictured here(Oli Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon).

The logo is the next object in the route of the eye. even though it is partially overlapped by the photo, it is still easily recognizable by fans due to its commonplace white font with a red outline. unlike other magazines, the whole logo is in lower case. This is against conventions but it is used to make an easier recognized logo.

The title is the next thing the reader will notice. the title overlaps the lower body of the famous person in the photo.  The title says 'Bring Me The Horizon' in a messy scribbled font(which they use for their own logo, recognized by fans) with a red and white colour fil. This is to represent the English flag, as the band hail from Sheffield, England. It promotes their Nationality and will attract an English audience. Below the title, there is a subtitle saying 'Suicidal Tendencies'. This is a reference to the connection between the band's album 'Suicide Season'  and the famous Punk band 'Suicidal Tendencies'.  The word 'Suicidal' is a rather strong, dramatic word which would interest the male audience.

After this, a few bands included in the magazine are listed on the upper left of this title. They are some of the bands included in this magazine. Using simply the band names in red + white fonts(to contrast with the background) suggests this is a male audience due to the short sentences or just one word descriptions of the content inside. There is also a smaller picture below the band name 'Staind' which suggests they are a popular band and people will be attracted to read on if they recognise the picture.

On the right side of the main picture in the right third there is a diamond shaped white box with PUNK written in large letters with the bands 'Lagwagon', 'Cripple Bastards' and 'H20' listed underneath. This suggests that these 3 bands are of the Punk genre and people who like that genre should read on. the articles are not described which could be used to attract the reader to look into these as they do not know what could be included inside, although this could have a reverse effect not giving any interest at all.

There is a headnote which says 'compilation with free download' and lists the bands included.  The use of a free giveaway entices the reader to buy the magazine to not only read but get a free CD download included.

finally,  the bottom third has an 'also' tag which lists bands included in the magazine. this is for people who want to read about specific bands in the magazine and can see if they were included.

Rocksound magazine appeals to its target audience with short sentences, a simple design and the use of darker style imagery as this is what appears on  album covers.

youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-17JVA6uFc


this is my two minute talk about my magazine and the reasons behind parts of its design.

who would be the audience for your magazine?

These two people: Suzy and Jimmy are two examples of my audience.

Suzy
most of the female audience for my magazine are similar to Suzy.
the female audience are of between 15-21
they are of alternative dress and fashion styles.
many have piercings in their facial area, and stretched ears are commonplace.
most have dyed hair (usually red/peroxide blond)
most have a music taste comprising of metal/hardcore and pop-punk, with some hip-hop.
they go to a lot of local and national gigs.
i have reflected this audience by adding metal/hardcore and pop-punk gig coverage with a lot of local and national gigs to appeal to them. i used darker alternative colours and commonplace band styled logos(for my front cover) and a fashion label style font for band names(helvetica bold in a red box) which is of supreme(a clothing label.

Jimmy
most of the male audience is described by Jimmy.
usually between ages 15-25
they are of an alternative/well dressed fashion.
usually have facial hair.
not many have facial piercing but a lot of the males in my audience stretch their ears as a body modification.
their music tastes consist of death metal and hardcore and hip-hop(major underground 90's American)
they generally frequent many local and national gigs.

i have reflected this audience via text based around clothing brand logos. and i cover local and national gigs. i used the colours of artists that they would recognise(blacks, reds, whites). also the people in bands that i have photographed are fitting of the male audience so it would appeal to them as they can aspire to be them.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and address my audience by using models of my band for the front page, of a similar age and dress style(alternative and metal clothing).  This makes it appeal to my audience as the can relate to and look up to the models their age, dressing like them but in bands. The audience can relate to the models if they dress similar(same fashion) and music sense, it can inspire them to dress like the bands shown.

I used the colours gray, dark red, black and white in my magazine as during my research of heavier genre magazines(Kerrang, Terrorizer, Rocksound) and a common theme of colours is black, white and dark colours. They are predominantly black. This is reflected in my magazine in the fact i have a heavier genre than these magazines, i use the predominant black white and grey with a dark red for emphasis on this genre.


I used a simple, consistent easy-to read font(Helvetica bold) as it is a common place font in music magazines(convention of most) for its simplicity. This makes the magazine more appealing to my audience as they are predominantly white male teenagers, and if they struggle to read the fonts, they will disregard my magazine.

The price for my magazine in £1.50. I believe that this is an appealing price as my target audience is predominantly teenagers(15-25) and for my survey, I found out that 80% of the surveyed were aged 15-19, and in my prior knowledge, people of that age are not very wealthy. Also, a result from my survey is that 54.50% of my surveyed audience would pay £1 - £1.50 and 45.50% would pay £1.50 - £2.00,  so i chose the common factor between these two: £1.50. Also, research into other music magazines, mine would be much cheaper(NME: £2.10, Kerrang: £2.20, Front £2.50) which would make my magazine appeal to other audiences, as price is a main factor in buying magazines in this generation.

I also used relevant bands and photos for my magazine. i took pictures of two popular bands, one of which is from nearby: Cruel Past. And another popular UK band: Your Demise. People would consider buying my magazine in my target audience as they recognise these famous bands and are intrigued to read the magazine for the information on them. My front cover photo is appealing to my target audience as it uses dark colours(the night) and the clothes are similar to what my audience would wear. Also the contents page and double page spread photos are all from famous bands live gigs, something which my target audience are extremely fond of going to, prior knowledge from my research.

what publishing company would be most suited to my magazine

With my magazine publication 'Homesick' a magazine for the review and promotion of metal and hardcore predominantly UK based bands, I believe that Bauer Media would be the best company. Bauer Media has taken on magazines such as Kerrang! Which have a very similar target audience to mine, as the genres cross over. I would choose this company as they are experienced in what they do and they already have a magazine similar to my own.

Bauer Media was formed in 1875 and has established a huge following for their music magazines they produce (Q magazine was the highest selling music magazine for over 5 years so far) and Kerrang! magazine had 52,272 sales last year. i believe this company would be the best publication company for me as they have had prior experience with a magazine in a similar genre and other music magazines so i would be comfortable with them publishing my magazine.

BBC worldwide uses new technologies such as high quality glass print presses and the internet based BBC iplayer. they appeal to mass audiences with a range of publications: Good Food, Radio Times, Top Gear, Gardeners World. The wide range shows their experience in publishing many other products worldwide, but i am focusing on the UK completely. So i would not choose BBC worldwide as i am only distributing in the UK, and also after my research they have little to no music publication experience, a main factor in my decision of publishing company.

Another publishing company i researched for a choice was Conde´ Nast Publications, founded in 1909 by Conde´ Montrose Nast.  I am unfamiliar with this publication company as i am not acquainted with their publications - such as Vogue, Teen Vogue and Glamour, also Vanity Fair. these are fashion magazines which are directly opposed to my kind of genre and audience(alternative metal and not really into that fashion style) they also produce lifestyle and hobby magazines - to most of my audience, music is their hobby, and they are teen/young adults so lifestyle isnt a concern. i am not choosing Conde´ Nast publications because they have no prior experience in any of the areas that my target audience would generally also appeal to.

double page spread, photo choices

This is the first of the images i have selected for my double page spread, as it shows the strong vocalist presence of the band pictured. i may edit this picture as i could allow more focus on the lead Singer than the background images.

The second image i have selected to maybe use is this image. it features many members of one the band involved in the gig, and the lighting enhances the effect of the photo, if i use this photo i will edit and tone down the light as it gives a strong presence to focus on the background.

Another image i may use is the guitarist as it is an action shot it gives the feel of excitement from the gig and catches the eye of the reader. if i used this,i would edit it and take the jacket of the stupid photographer invading my photo space.

This next photo i might choose to use for my double page spread. i selected this photo as it shows stage diving which is an interaction between stage and crowd. people will look at this picture if they went to the gig and it will catch their eye as they will try to spot themselves in the photo.

i selected this photo as it is a mid action shot of the vocalist. if i used this photo i would edit out the close cut mic in my photo path as it obstructs the view and looks unprofessional.

i have selected this photo as it is crowd on the stage. this in an interaction between the crowd and the band, and once again people will try to spot themselves in it. i would put this in small and in black and white so it isn't a main priority.

i have selected this photo as it is a mid action shot, and it depicts a band member. he is quite famous so if people see his face(which is clearly shown in this picture) they will look and see him and recognize  him from his band and if they like them they will read the article.

i selected this photo as it depicts the bass player who is famous and spotlights him in mid action, so it will grab the readers attention as they wonder what was going on.

i selected this photo as it depicts more than one of the band members in mid action, and i can edit out the mic stand and half bodies if needed. the crowd are in it too

 This next photo was selected for my photo project as it portray the lead singer from a new angle that people in the crowd recognised. this would appeal to my audience as people recognise the lead singer. if i used this photo i would edit out the microphone.

This photo i have selected would be used in my double page spread as it shows the lead singer, the bassist and the crowd in mid action and is eye catching to the crowd. i would not edit this photo as it looks better raw than tampered with.

i have selected this photo for my double page spread as it is another mid action shot and appeals to the audience as they are intrigued what is going on in this photo.

this photo has been selected as it is intriguing to the audience, and portrayed an interaction between crowd and lead singer. if i were to use this photo it would be a side photo for it and i would edit out the pillar and microphone

i have selected this photo as it is also a mid action shot and portrayed 3 of the band members so people would recognise the members and be intrigued at the article. if i used this photo i would edit out the mic and put it small and in b+w filter

i have selected this photo as it is a mid action shot and portrays the bassist and in magazine the bassist is usually ignored, its not a convention just a pattern. i would not edit this photo and keep it large.