Drafting text/page layouts

This is my first draft for my magazine and the front cover. I wanted to keep it simple so that the main focus was on my image.

Contents Page

This is also my first draft for the contents page of my dance magazine. I wanted the contents page to follow through from the front cover with the same type of stories and featured artists. Also i wanted to stick with the same colour scheme and have a clear and simple layout so that people can understand it and read it well. I took inspiration from Q magazine with where they place their photos on a contents page.

This is my final draft of my contents page i have added some more names to the people who work for the magazine and i have changed the mini magazine showing the front cover.

Features Page

This is the first draft of my feature page for my dance music magazine. I have used a bright background so that it stands out and looks eye-catching. Also i think you the photos look clearer when placed in front of a dark background. What's more for the feature i have used quotes, a banner, images etc so that it looks more professional and easy to understand.

This is my updated feature page for Up-Beat. I have changed the circle to a star shape for where it said "cover star" and i have added captions to the photos. Also i have made the colums smaller and thinner so that it didn't look to much to read for the audience.

Planning/sketching page layouts

This is the front cover of my music magazine, which clearly shows my target audience and social demogrpahic. It also shows the colours, artists and tagline which will feature in the magazine.

This is what some of my images will look like for my magazine and how they will be presented. Also the pictures that will be featured will be normal and not show-off so therefore the audience should like him and not feel jealous. 

Shooting/selecting images

Planning/sketching images

 

This is the orginal image                                                                        


Firstly i had decided to go with a monkey image to edit. I then copied the picture onto fireworks and cut around it and placed it onto a clear background

This is the edited image

Analysing front cover images

To make sure my magazine was up to scratch, i looked other music magazines such as Q Magazine and Mixmag to get an idea of how good and professional they look. Also i liked both these covers because they stood out and both The Prodigy and Daft Punk are the most famous dance acts. The Mixmag gave me an idea to do my front cover image with the person having a mask on to cover their face and not have an identity. This would then make it more mysterious and premiscious for the readers and the audience. Furthermore both the magazines helped me focus more on the background image and the positioning of the artist. With Q Magazine they have positioned the frontman of the Prodigy closer to the camera. Whereas in Mixmag Daft Punk are positioned next to each other because there is no front person in the band, they are both equal.

Researching and designing mastheads

My genre for my music magazine is dance. I have gone with this becasue i think that there is not many dance music magazines about so therefore it will be different and appeal to a lot of people. Pictured below is a spider diagram with a list of things to do with the genre.

Then i made a list of potential names for my magazine

Up-beat

Synth

The Synthezier

Electro

The Dance

Glow-sticks

Dance DJ

I then looked at some well-known brands which have it's own identity:

For example with the Nike brand it just has a logo which then people instantly recognise.

I then looked at a dance magazine called Mixmag where i had to studied it and answer questions like "what is the genre?" and "three words to summarise the magazine?".

I have choosen the name Up-beat because i really like the name and think that it goes well with the genre of dance and electro. Also i think it is catchy and stands out from the rest of the magazines.

This is the masthead i have choosen for my magazine. I have decided to go with this because i like the design and colouring. Also in the background of the word up-beat is a picture of the volume bar. Unlike other magazines which are left allined and quite small, i wanted mine to be completely opposite and have it featured at the top of the magazine and centred so it stands out more and will be recognised as the title for the magazine. Also i wanted the text to be block-style and see through with a blue outline. I have the blue outline because i think it looks vibrant and eye-catching. Next i have put the picture of the volume bar in the background of the masthead because i think that it can stand for the volume to be loud so then it will get you dancing for when you listen to this type of music. Also the word "Up-Beat" makes you think of dance/electro music because of the synthezisers and beats used in dance music.Furthermore the word "Up-Beat" makes you think of happy and fun things, which could be linked with a younger readers, they are my target audience.

Here is another masthead i have created for my dance magazine, which i also created another title and background picture. However i decided to go with my up-beat design because i think it suited the genre and design for which i was aiming for. Also it fits well with my social demographic age group and is recognisable  to my audience of the genre of music for my magazine.

Investigating the conventions of:

For this part of the blog i have studied a front page, contents and feature page to find out what makes them appealing for the audience and also labelled them to help me cover the basics for my magazine.

front covers:

With this magazine they have covered a lot of popular bands and artists on the front page, which would make it appealing to the fans and the audience. However they have not included a promotion which could helped to sell more and gain some new fans.

contents page

For a contents page it needs to follow up with the front page and have interesting and new stories. It also needs to look professional and have these key concepts featured inside.

feature page:

Likewise with the contents it needs to follow up to the front page with the stories and the bands featured.Also it needs to contain and keep with the genre of the magazine, furthermore by making it look organised and having these key concepts it can look realistic and professional.

Exploring values/ideologies of different music magazines

For this part of the blog i have studied two magazines on their websites to find the values and ideologies for them both. Firstly in NME i have compiled a list to show this:

• indie
• values history music
• new media technology like NME radio, NME tv this is like the cutting edge of technology.
• non-mainstream music
• annalysing music
• fun,outgoing
• wider interests like music, film, tv,
• merchandise-clothes,cd's, posters
• it is professional and business like where you can download tracks
• political views and interests.For example "David Cameron liking The Smiths".
• Social networks like twitter, facebook, myspace.
• IPC Media is used

http://www.nme.com/

Finally i looked at Smash Hits magazine and studied the values and ideological views of the magazine.

• pop
• it values modern music
• links to a teenage lifesyle with the clothes, music and other magazine websites.
• mainstream music
• music videos
• music charts
• teenage design
• new media technology with Smash Hits tv and Smash Hits radio
• It is also aimed at a female and male audience but feels more feminine because of the colour scheme
• fun
• not political

http://www.smashhits.net/

Researching target audiences of different music magazines

Different magazines have alternative audiences, with the social demograhpic depending on the type of topic and opinions they have.

This states how both NME and Uncut, who have the genre of music, can have alternative audiences. With NME focusing on brand new bands and artists while on the other hand Uncut concerntrate more on older and longer running artists and bands.

I reserched the target audience and i found out that males would be more interested in my magazine than females, by 80% for males and 20% for females. This is because males are more keen in this type of music than females. Also men buy more magazines to do with music than females. Also the social demographic for Up-beat is C/D this is becasause it is a younger audience who do not have money and are much more interested in music and reading about the lastest news.

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Investigating the market

Market research into types of magazine sold at WhSmiths

Name of magazine	Genre
NME	Rock
Kerrang	Rock
BBC Music magazine	Classical
Mixmag	Dance
Echoes	Mobo
Vibe	Hip hop
Q magazine	Rock
Uncut	Rock
Rolling Stone	Rock

I have decided to go with a dance genre for my magazine becasue there isn't many being published. Also there is a gap in the market for this type of magazine because there is a big following of this music.

These magazines feature indie/rock music which are aimed at an teenage/young adult audience. Most of the magazines feature this type of front cover with a band and front person closest to the camera and the rest of the band behind. However in my magazine i wanted to have a different take on mine, with just a solo person on front.

oh hey ya'll

Welcome to my blog

Prelimary task (front page and contents)

Our first task was to make a mock up front page for a school magazine. I chose to do a school magazine

Our second mock up task was a contents page for our school magazine. Following the colour scheme of our front cover.