Main Task - Fonts

For most of the fonts used in my magazine I used a website called Dafont. The website offers many different fonts in unique styles. For the masthead I used a font called 'Pulse' which goes very well the name of the Magazine which is also 'Pulse'. The font features a heartbeart monitor graphic which coincides with the title and gives the reader a visual aspect of the title, 'Pulse'. It also goes with the tag line of 'The heartbeat of rock'.

For the main font used in the magazine I have used the font of Arial. It is a basic, neat and easy to read font which i feel is the most suitable for my magazine. This font is used for the contents and the text in my main interview with the band. I chose it because readers of rock magazines will just want a simple font which is easy on the eye; like we see in Kerrang magazine.

Main Task - Flat Plans

Before going ahead with designing and making the magazine I did some flat plans to decide what is the best way to lay out my pages and other issues. For the magazine masthead i chose the name 'Pulse'. I feel this name coincides with the magazine genre, rock, really well. The word 'Pulse' is normally associated with the beating of the heart and for many fans they follow to the 'beat' of rock. For example, they want to know all the good new bands, go to gigs and hear the latest news. This is why I went with the tagline of 'the heartbeat of rock' as it will really

apply to many readers of the

magazine. It suggests that 'Pulse' is what all rock fans should buy by saying it is the heartbeat of the genre. The font I used fits in very well with the name as it has the pulse meter running through the text to fit in with the tagline and magazine name. This will add a uniqueness to the magazine and enable the pulse meter to become a logo or symbol for the magazine.

Analysis of Magazines - Double page spread

NME Magazine

This double page spread is mainly focused on a article about a band called 'The Teenagers', which is a band that fits in with part of the target audience, teens. The image of them is all about them looking cool and giving off the idea they live a lifestyle that the readers will be able to connect with. By this, one of the things I am referring to is their pose. They look very laid back and relaxed and have a look associated to many teenagers, the look of being 'past caring'. Another noticable point is the pictures on the wall behind them. They are pictures of woman posing sexually and this is something that most teenage males will have an interest in and it will mean they are more likely to connect with the band and take more of an interest in them because they will see they are alike.

The page seems to use a colour scheme of white, black and blue and this really helps certain features stand out such as the title, the pull quote and the information box about the band. The black box on the right side of the spread also helps the reader to see the clear divide between interview and a section on other bands. From the layout, it is hard to see if there is any sort of plan to it but it could be seen as using a 3 colum plan with the image, article and side box.

The other images featured on the page are quite similiar to the main image. They are quite serious pictures and give off an idea of what their music may be like or what their music is about. For example, 'The Rascals' look like a band of young lads and their name and picture conveys that their music may be about girls and drugs as this is the stereotypical view of teenagers who like to have fun.

Analysis of Magazines - CONTENTS PAGE

Q Magazine

The Q contents page seems to use a layout plan with 3 columns.

The main image is of a band the Courteeners. They all look very casual and calm showing the 'coolness' of the band which gives off a vibe of what their music might be like. This is shown with their blunt facial expressions and the their postures with hands in pockets. This fits in with the mood of Q as it is very much mainstream and doesnt feature bands with weird styles.

The white menu down the left side shows the actual contents and makes the red, grey and black font colours stand out against it so it is easily readible.

The usual content page conventions are also shown along the top banner with the issue number, websites and date, also, we see the Q logo and the usual font they seem to use for titles.

For this issue they also mark a Oasis special in its own gold box and gold font. Showing readers its importance with it being seperated from the rest of the listed articles and having its own gold colours. Other parts of the features are also split up in the groups such as the review section and the every month section. This is shown with the review section having a grey tint instead of white.

Analysis of Magazines - FRONT COVER

Q Magazine

The cover of this magazine is very eye catching in many ways. The main image is the dominant feature and very male orientated in terms of who it would appeal to, and of course, males are a big part of the target audience for Q. Her pose is quite sexy and it fits in with what the magazine labels her as -'sexy beast', instantly drawing in a male audience. There is also a reference there between beast and the panthers next to her looking fearsome. The predominant colour of the cover is grey but it is notable that the main colour scheme used is black, grey and red. This can even be applied to what Lily Allen is wearing on her lower half. The red is obviously part of Q's well known logo but is used elsewhere on the cover to make words like 'wicked' and 'exclusive' stand out.

The boldened black font is used for the bands featured in the magazine and this is done because it will be one of the main interests of the reader and something they will check for on the cover. Furthermore, with top rock bands such as U2 and Oasis featured, the magazine will want to make this standout as much as possible with it being a major draw in. We also see the bar of white on black writing at the bottom of the page, showing other bands/articles that will be in the magazine. By using a light grey background, all the black text stands out even more so than it would do on a darker coloured background. This would of been thought through by the designers and is a big benefit of using the colour scheme they do.

The layout of the magazine is quite simple and isnt as 'busy' as some of the other magazine front covers you would see. It only features 1 image and shows the other main articles in the top right of the magazine. The juxtaposition of these maximises the visibility of them to the reader because of their placing next to the main star, Lily Allen.

Kerrang Magazine

The Kerrang cover is much more 'in your face' than Q. It features several different images and alot on what bands are featured in the issue. The main image is Matt Bellamy, front man of Muse, with the feature article being an interview with him. He has a very stern, serious pose which very much fits in with the music Kerrang features, serious music for serious people. His pose is made more clear with his face filling up most of the page and the focus being on this. However the page features 4 other images on the cover with 3 coming in a section showing that there are free posters in the magazine. The other is of a guitarist from a band that is featured in the issue using a very rock orientated pose with his look, guitar and clothing.

The Kerrang logo/title banner is also very much in with the theme of rock. The black text stands out against the white and black is the main colour associated with rock and metal music. The font appears as it has been smashed like a pane of glass. This brings across the theme of anger and also Kerrang has a slogan of 'Life is Loud'; Loud music is stereotypically known to smash glass.

Along the bottom of the page there is a bar showing all the bands who appear in the issue. This is an aspect Kerrang uses in every issue and with it being bright and yellow it is easy for regular fans to be able to see this and check the bands. This is also the same across with the banner at the very top of the page but that shows the bands who are featured in a bigger way.

Target Audience

To see the readership for the top music magazines I used http://www.nrs.co.uk/. This showed me how the readership figures were split up across the socio economic classification and also between different age groups.

Kerrang has 239,000 readers from the ABC1 group and 178,000 from the C2DE group. This shows that the difference is not very substantial between the two groups displaying Kerrang as a magazine with a very broad audience. So, for example, a doctor and a builder would be typical readers of kerrang even though they are completely different on the demographics. This shows Kerrangs versatility as a magazine and is perhaps why it is so popular. However in terms of age there is a clear divide. With the 15-44 group the readership is 378,000 compared to 39,000 for the 45+ age group.

Q magazine has more of a divide between the social economic groups. In the ABC1 bracket, there is a readership of 444,000 whereas the C2DE group only has 222,000, half of that of the higher bracket. This shows a big difference between the groups and you could view this information in a what that it displays Q of more of a 'upper class' magazine. We see a similiar divide in the age groups like there is with Kerrang. In the 15-44 age range there is a massive 572,000 readership compared to 94,000 for 45+ ages. This is what we saw with Kerrang and it shows that overall, music magazines of this genre do not appeal to the older generation of music fan. With both magazines there is a vast difference between the gender readerships and the number of male readers is much higher for both the magazines.

After analysing the information off www.nrs.co.uk it is clear my audience will be the 15-44 age group and dominantly male over female. For the type of magazine I will be doing, I would also say it is quite versatile with the social economic classication not really applying to it because of it appealing to all groups.

My typical reader would be male, around the age of 21 who enjoys to go to gigs regularly. His favourite music genre is Rock. His psychographics will be an individualist as this mindset is normally associated with NME/Kerrange type magazines. He is a student so his demographics will be about mid way on the classification.

Main Task - Introduction

For the coursework, the task will be to design and produce a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine of any genre. The genre I will focus on is rock which is the genre of well known music magazines Q and Kerrang. The task is a development of the preliminary task and will require the same skills in using the software to create the magazine page and then analysing it.

Contents page flat plan

I kept my final contents page exactly the same as the flat plan. I wanted to keep it simple and i had achieved this. I chose to set it out like this because it is easy for the reader to pick out what they want to and there is not too much to distract them.

Front page flat plan

My front page was mostly unchanged from the flat plan except from a couple of small changes. The main conventions had the same juxtaposition such as the date, price, magazine name, headline article. I kept these the same because i felt they were in eye catching positions and with them configured in this way, the cover looked good. I changed the position of the college logo because there was no space to put it where it originally was and i didnt want it to draw to much attention as it is only there to show it is the official college magazine.

Magazine front cover

1. The main aspect of the front cover is the picture with it being the stand out feature covering the whole page. The main title stands out against the pale background just like the main magazine title being a bright, vibrant yellow. I also had to include all the main conventions of a cover page such as the date, price and college logo. I used the Sussex Downs logo to show it is the official college magazine but placed it in the corner. I also put the news inside on the front cover to show people what is featured inside and attract them to other news featured.
   

Front Page Image

The image has been cut down for the front page so only one person features in it. I chose this picture because it is quite humorous and fits in with the magazines style. The background is a pale colour so the featured person really stands out against the mellow background. His pose is cheeky and fits with the main headline being 'Freshers'.

Feedback

I decided to show my magazine cover/contents page to some friends (my target audience) to get some thoughts from them about the magazine. The feedback i got was very positive and most people liked the look of my magazine. They said that the pictures used were very appealing with fellow students featured and that they fitted the genre of the magazine which is a student one.
They also thought that the articles to be featured in the magazine were very well chosen with Freshers being something most of the college will be interested in, meaning lots of sales.

Contents Picture

I used this picture on my contents page because it is happy and conveys the idea of students happy with college life. It is quite a smooth background so looks professional with not too much going on. Also, with it being a portrait, i could fit it in half of the page and use the other column to say the contents of the magazine.

Introduction

Our coursework task is to create a magazine front cover for a College magazine. It is a student magazine which will inform college pupils with college news and upcoming events. The issue i will be doing will focus on the Freshers party, however, it will also feature other news such as the election for the college president and sports news which will be shown in sub headings on the front cover. Being a college magazine the target audience will be 16-19 years old.