From Miss D

Well done so far- this is interesting and shows careful thought.

Front cover layout with colour

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The "essential information" will be the free download.

Title

I then experimented with colour and chose a colour scheme for my magazine whice reflects the indie genre of music.

From Miss D

Katie, I would like to see some construction now as there seems to be some good ideas but nothing material to comment on.

Magazine colours

I then looked at other indie music magazines on the internet to see what colour schemes they use throughout their magazines.

This magazine as called "losing today." It uses a dark background with plain, bright and bold coloured fonts. This makes it look modern and stand out as well as reflecting the genre of music well. However the writing is not wrapped around the faces on the picture very well and the cover looks very cluttered. I want my magazine to look neeter, sharper and for the writing to wrap round the faces well.

This one is the same magazine however this issue is alot simpler and focuses mainly on the picture on the cover. The image dominates the page and is used as the entire background. They again use a bold and bright font and colour which looks modern and individual.

This magazine is called "sentimentist." The title of the magazine is plain and in black and white however they introduce colour in the cover lines and names of featured artists. I would like to use this look to influence my magazine.

I particularly like this issue of "sentimentist"because of the bright colours used and the effect used on the picture which make it look like a poster or cartoon. However the title is still very simple. I would like to use this look on the cover of my magazine because i think it draws your attention to it.

Again this is a very simple cover focussing on the image. They do not include much information about anything inside the magazine accept for the names of artists and a short caption or pull-quote to summarise the article and draw in the reader. The name is again simple and the colour is brought in by the cover lines.

This issue is extremely simple. It focuses completely on the image on the cover and the title and cover lines are all plain. I do not think this magazine has enough colour or would stand out on a shelf so i do not want my magazine to be quite this simple.

Experimenting with colour

Although my focus group liked the black on the pink for my title i am going to use a different colour which better reflects the indie genre of music.

I experemented with different colours which were darker and also lightened the background from black to grey.



I decided i like the black writing and will experiment further with it to create a colour scheme for my magazine.

From Mrs S

I know you've been working on this, so you need to upload some stuff now.

From Miss D

I like the ideas and the reasoning behind them but i would perhaps question whether the pink and black reflected indie music? I would maybe feel more muted colours would suit- look at some of the magazines from last year to give ideas.

Looking at the Music Industry

I looked more into the industry and the background of magazines similar to mine. I looked at sales and circulation figures as well as finding out more about the magazine.





· NME ( New Musical Express)
· Published weekly since March 1952
· First British magazine to include singles chart
· In the 1960’s it was selling as many as 200,000 copies per week
· Its commercial height was in 1970’s when it became the best selling British music magazine
· They later failed to keep up to date with the pace of the music industry however due to the rise of interest in music, its sales still grew to 300,000 copies per week.
· In the 1980’s they released the first influential C18 cassette tape which was available to readers at a low price by mail order.
· In the 1990’s they began to cover new indie music bands
· In 1999 they saw a dip in sales and this continued into the millennium
· In the 2000’s the magazine changed to full colour and in May 2008 the magazine had a re-design
· Circulation of the magazine has fallen since 2003 and in the first half of 2009 they sold 40,940 copies compared to 72,442 in the first half of 2003. This was a fall of 44%.

· Q has been published weekly since 1986
· Used to subtitled “the modern guide to music and more”
· It was originally called “cue” but it was changed so as not to be mistaken as a snooker magazine
· In late 2008 its image was revamped with less text and increased focus on issues other than music
· Every issue has an individual message on the spine
· Their sales figures are also falling as they sold less issues in 2008 than in 2007

http://classic.mediatel.co.uk/abcroundup/2008/08/article08.cfm

Title Colour Scheme Planning

For these titles i used filter effects to develop them. I included the colours purple, red and blue in the shaddow colours.

I then asked the focus group which ones they liked the most and would like to see in the magazine before experimenting further.

Title Planning

I then experimented with different colour schemes for my title using the colours and font my target audience wanted.

I asked the focus group which colour scheme they liked best and would most like to see in an indie music magazine before experimenting further.

From this i can see that they liked the pink on black colour scheme followed by the pink on blue and black on pink. This shows me that i need to use modern, bold colours in my magazine.

Planning

Key words which could influence my magazine name:

Individual, new, upcoming, cue, musical, my music, rhythm, beats, my style, sound, choice, youth, crunk, vibe, impulse, dance, jolt, new age, voice, uncut, jaged, jealousy, national.

I could use the first letter of a word as my magazine for example “Q” or I could use a word with two meanings for example “Q” which is the same as “cue” which means introducing so it implies that the magazine introduces new artists and talent. I could also use a name like “NME” which stands for new music express or use an artists name.

The words i particularly like from this are:

Jolt meaning a sudden impact,
Upcoming because this reflects the artists in the magazine,
Individual because it will make my magazine seem different from other magazines in the industry,
My music because it makes the magazine more personal,
National because it will make the magazine seem large and successful
and Young or Youth because it reflects my target audience.

I will use these words to come up with a name for my magazine.

Some i thought of were:
My international music
Individual Jolt
Upcoming youth

I have decided to call my magazine "My Individual Music" as it can be shortened to "MIM" and the words "My" and "Individual" make it sound individual and personal, and "Music" shows that it is a music magazine. Also, the word "Individual" reflects the genre of the music and artists featured in the magazine.

From Mrs S

I'm very impressed with the amount of work here. there's a lot of good analytical detail. Good work.

Planning

Front cover:

For this I need to make sure that the title and image immediately draw the reader into the magazine. They must reflect the “indie” genre of music which my magazine will be focused on. Therefore it will need to include the font BankGothic Md BT, and mainly use the colours blue and bright pink and also some purple, black and red. It must have the price £3.00 on the pug and advertise a free gift in the form of a download as well as showing that the contents are an important issue in the magazine. The image on the cover must be of a young upcoming female artist in their performing style and also slightly reflect the change in seasons. The name of the magazine must reflect the young quirky style of the target audience so that it appeals to them. I will use front cover design 2 for the layout.

Contents:

The contents must fill the whole page and show the range of contents on offer as well as including images of featured artists and pull quotes from articles. It must reflect the style of the cover to make the house style flow throughout the magazine. Therefore it must use the font BankGothic Md BT, and mainly use the colours blue and bright pink and also some purple black and some red. I will use contents design 3 for the layout.

Double Page Spread:

This must be an interview with an upcoming artist including a photo-shoot. It must have more images than text and the writing must be in columns to fit with the codes and conventions of a magazine. The images must be in line with the columns to achieve a neat and even look. The house style must also be continued throughout the double page spread and it must use the font BankGothic Md BT, and mainly use the colours blue and bright pink and also some purple black and some red. I will use double page spread design 4 for the layout.

From Miss D

Well Done Katie- some good evidence here of thoughtful analysis. Look closely at fonts and image types/framing in the real media artefacts- remember you need to demonstrate a range of shot types and distances as well as varied font types and sizes for effect.

Contents Design 3

Evaluation of Design 3:

This design uses all the neccessary information and codes and conventions of a magazine contents. There are no free spaces and the contents fills the whole page as my target audience asked for.

Contents Design 2

Evaluation of Design 2:

This is the contents page from NME music magazine. There is alot more space in this one and the contents are described alot more briefly. Also, everything is alot more spread out.

Contents Design 1

Evaluation of Design 1:

This is the contents page from the magazine "Q". It is very full up and there are no empty spaces. I will need to reflect this in the contents of my magazine.

Front Cover Design 4

Evaluation of Design 4:

This layout is used by the magazine NME which is also very successful.

Front Cover Design 3

Evaluation of Design 3:

This is the layout used by Q which is a very successful music magazine.

Front Cover Design 2

Evaluation of Design 2:

I will use this design for the front cover of my magazine because all of the spaces are filles and all the relevant information is included.

Front Cover Design 1

Evaluation of Design 1:

This design includes all the neccessary information but has a few blank spaces which could be filled.

Double Page Spread Design 4

Evaluation of design 4:

On this design there are even more images as my target audience wanted more images than text. They also break up the text making the article easier to read. Therefore i will use this design for the layout on my double page spread.

Double Page Spread Design 3

Evaluation of Design 3:

I like this design as i think it would appeal well to my target audience as it contains lots of images and is broken down well.

Double Page Spread Design 2

Evaluation of Design 2:

I decided that as my target market said they would linke more images than text, this design was not suitable because their is more text than images.

Double Page Spread Design 1

Evaluation of design 1:

I decided that this design looked too seperate as all of the writing is on one page and all the images were on the other.

Real Media Artifact: NME contents

Real Media Artifact: NME Front Cover

Real Media Artifact: Q Double Page Spread

From mrs S

Good analysis Katie, useful stuff.

Real Media Artifact: Q Contents

Real Media Artifact: Q Front Cover

From Mrs S

I agree with Miss D, some really useful info here. Good stuff Katie!