Saturday, 19 March 2011

My Music Magazine


Front Cover

Double Page Spread



                   Contents Page

I had to use Photoshop to create these 3 pages, which involved many skills. I had created many drafts for each page, and came out with these final pages.

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Magazine Analysis


Magazine Analysis

The company that produces the magazine is NME. Their target audience is mainly targeted at 16+ year olds, who enjoy the music ambience and reading stories about their favorite celebrities. The cost of this magazine is £2.30 and is published weekly.  They circulate their magazine in a variety of ways, Radio, Online, Magazines, Mobile, and on TV. They mainly circulate by magazine, which is sold weekly and is a good way of keeping in touch. Also the website offers instant free access to the stories, which is better. There is no information about NME on the NRS website.
         
The Cover
The title is in big, bold black font NME, its called NME that stands for New Musical Express. I think they named it this as it’s all about ‘new’ music and it’s published weekly so it’s ‘express’ and fast. The strapline says New Musical Express, which is the meaning of NME. It is in white but in a smaller font and in all capitals.
The main image on the front cover is an image of James Allan the main vocalist of the band Glasvegas. There is a red and white lighting in the image. He is gazing at the camera; he is wearing white jeans, which reflects on the background. He is topless with writing on his body with a
quote from the film Bladerunner that he has changed at the end. His facial expression is serious which relates to the quote on his body. There are also images of other people above the story lines. The connotations of the font are that as it is big and bold, it is eye-catching and makes you interested in the magazine. The connotation of the red background is of blood, as it says bulletproof in big writing. The magazine looks similar to most NME magazines as they all include a big image on the front, and the title is also always big and there are always images to illustrate what is inside the magazine.  This magazine includes free posters, which is its unique selling point, as not all magazines have this.

Inside
In total there are 66 pages in this magazine. Out of the 66 pages there are 15 pages of adverts. The main types of products being advertised are shoes, clothes and gig tickets. In the magazine the main articles are about bands/artists new albums and stories about them e.g. Glasvegas – the man went from drugs back into music. In this magazine there are 7 double page spreads, which are mainly interviews with the acts talking about their stories. In this magazine there are no advertorials, where you are not sure if it is an advert or an article. This magazine achieves its house style by using similar fonts throughout the whole magazine and the front cover red colour matches the double page spread inside. Also most of the other pages use a white background, which keeps it all uniform and not weird. The language is also the same, it doesn’t change from informal to formal. 

Thursday, 24 February 2011

Flat Plan Draft

Front Cover
             
Contents Page
                
Double Page Spread

Sunday, 13 February 2011

Questionnaire

i completed a questionnaire to find out various information about what customers would like from a magazine. these results will then enable me to create my music magazine with the popular answers
















Question 1:
I think this question is very important as it helps me to decide which gender prefers reading magazines.
I found that out of 6 people 4 were Male. This will help me to design the magazine to be male friendly, but also female friendly to gain a wider audience.

Question 2:
I think it is important to know the age range, as it would help me to make the magazine more relevant for the popular age group. I found that the most popular age range was 16-20, so i will design the magazine to look more mature for the audience, as it shouldn't be childish or too formal.

Question 3:
I think asking what music genre is most popular is important as it would help me to create a magazine with the popular genre that would appeal to people most. I found that R&B was the most popular genre, so i will make my magazine R&B to appeal to the majority.

Question 4:
Asking how often someone buys a magazine is important as it would tell me, how much information to put in the magazine, if some does not read the magazine regularly, or if someone does read it then it would have less stories as people would keep up to date, and it would tell me how many issues to publish. I found that most people bought a magazine every week so I know that I do not need that much information as people are regularly are updated.















Question 5:
Asking how much someone would pay is important as it would tell me how much to set my prices at, so that people would buy it. Most people would pay between £2-£4 so i will make it £3.49 to appeal to everyone as it is a reasonable price.

Question 6:
Asking what makes you interested in a magazine would then help me add those ideas into my magazine to make it popular. I found that the stories and the front cover is what interests people most so i will make these stand out the most as it would attract more people.

Question 7:
Asking what catches your eye first would help me to use these ideas for my magazine, to make it stand out. I found that the articles on the front cover catch peoples eyes first as thats what makes them want to read it. So i shall also have interesting articles in my magazine that stand out on the page..

Question 8:
Asking what people would prefer to see on the front cover is important as it's one of the first things you see. Finding this out will enable me to also use the convention of the magazines. I found that people preferred to see a female on the cover. i will decide to use a female to get attention, however i will use smaller photos as well of male and females to show a range of genders.