Music Magazine First Draft: Front Cover

Front Cover:
With my front cover i tried to copy the style of major music magazines: Kerrang and NME, with a wide range of colours predominantly Red, Yellow and Black. This is because Kerrang and NME both appeal to 16-24 year olds therefore such colours are appropriate for my target audience.
I believe also that my magazine has asthetic appeal as all the colours compliment each other and give it a smooth proffesional look. On top of this i have placed my images in such a way to imply that this magazine contains relevant music information, yet it should not be taken too seriously, with the images appearing as if they have been thrown on.
Since my magazine is going at a weekly circulation, i felt it apt to set the price lower than my competitiors but high enough to warrant being considered as a proffessional piece. I have also offered incentives for people to buy on the front cover (free cd and i-tunes download).
Overall, i feel very happy with my front cover as i believe it shows off the magazine to customers, whilst giving the reader a serious glimpse as to what is inside.

Music mag research

For my music magazine, i thought that it was important to first of all look at the competition and then comment on the magazines to point out interesting features that i could include in my own magazine.

Music mag research

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What type of music will be featured in the magazine? (Content)

Now that i know what the target audience for my magazine will be (16-24) year olds, i can set about the content in the magazine. For this, my partner and I decided to create a survey for our group in order to find out which genre of music most affects our age group. The survey featured a list of 5 genres of music in which they would tick there favourite two genres:

• Pop
• Rock
• R&B
• Rap
• Indie

The participants were then asked to list there top 3 favourite bands, this way we could asess the type of music that people would like to read/hear about.
The results were as followed:

1. Pop
2. Rock
3. Indie
4. Rap
5. R&B

In the section of favourite bands the results were:

1. Kings of Leon
2. Katy Perry
3. The Killers

From these results, we now have a clear base and content to work from in order to produce an appropriate magazine.

Who is the magazine aimed at? (Target Audience)

After a quick survey conducted in our classroom we found that the easiest group to focus on would be 16-24 year olds, as it is the age group we are in and therefore gives us more information to work with for our magazine.

Main Project

The next step for my media studies coursework is to create a music magazine to go on sale to the general public. There are many things to consider with a music magazine i.e.

• Who is the magazine aimed at? (Target Audience)
• What type of music will be featured in the magazine? (Content)
• How do publishers attract customers to buy their magazines? (Appeal)

My own knowledge of music magazines is that the design tends to be focussed around the age group that is aimed at, e.g. Kerrang magazine is aimed at 16-24 year olds and therefore features a range of colours and cool fonts to make the reader want to pick it up, whereas a magazine such as Mojo or Q tends to use duller more serious images and fonts in order to both attract to their audience of 24-40 year olds and also represent the content inside.

School Magazine Final Draft

These are the final two drafts for my School magazine project, my front cover and contents page.
In these final two pieces I decided to look at the feedback people had given me from my first drafts and base my changes around the comments. The biggest difference between this and the original draft is the more professional look and appeal with brighter colours, fonts and pictures.

Overall I am happy with my final draft of my magazine, now I have the experience of making a front cover, I believe that this will help me in future when it comes to designing my music magazine front cover and contents page.

Feedback

Feedback from our first school magazine draft.

Feedback

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School Magazine First Draft

This is our first draft of our magazine HGS Uncovered.

We decided at first to just experiment with certain fonts and pictures to see what we could come up with.
We settled on using one picture as a stable background for the front cover with relating information around it. In this case, the image is representative of the fact that there are 'New Clubs for All Years'.
This shows the type of content that would be included in a school magazine.
My criticisms of the page would be that it looks too cluttered and some of the font is difficult to read.
For our next draft, we need to arrange the logos and text better, while also looking at making the magazine look more professional with a proper masthead and information.

Names for our School Magazine

eXtra curricular

Lifting the Lid

HGS Uncovered

After a few discussions, my partner and I decided to narrow down a list of possible names to just three and see which name best fitted the style of a school magazine.
First of all we felt that 'eXtra curricular' was more reminiscent of a name for a gossip magazine, which ours is not. We settled on HGS Uncovered for several reasons, the first being that it retains the formality of the school (HGS), but also shows a more relaxed tone, which should encourage kids to pick up and read.

Who Co-ordinates/Edits the articles?

The articles will be co-ordinated and edited by the Editor, in a school magazine this could be a range of different people from a teacher to an elder pupil, and this is because it requires responsibility as you have to select which articles should go in the magazine, while also editing the articles for any mistakes or misleading information.

Who Writes the Articles?

In a school magazine, the articles are predominantly written by students of the school who have a particular interest in journalism, with the teachers or elder students acting as editors.
The writing style is usually very casual and relaxed, but will have a formal layout and use standard english.

Who are the Audience/Consumers?

For a School Magazine, the audience/consumer is the pupils or parents of that school.
Therefore, when designing the magazine we need to be conscious of the language and content included as we want to be able to fit our magazine to the target audience.
Our main target audience will be 12-16 year olds, as they are the main proportion of the school and are more likely to be affected by activities and events in the school.

What Type of Articles go into a School Magazine?

A school magazine’s primary function is to relay information on up and coming events and the school itself. For example, Hitchin Boys’ School releases a magazine at the end of every term, featuring various articles that relate specifically to the school and the pupils of the school.

Typically, articles in a school magazine will be very formal, with a standard use of English and no popular terms or colloquialisms. Also, the articles in the magazine will be predominantly read by the pupils aged 12-16, therefore the information and language used in the magazine will be aimed at this age group.

Design of Magazine front cover.

Before I start the design of my front cover, i need to take into account several issues:
1. What Type of Articles go into a School Magazine?
2. Who are the Audience/Consumers?
3. Who Writes the Articles?
4. Who Co-ordinates/Edits the articles?

Preliminary Exercise

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium-close up plus some appropriatetly laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.