Magazine Pictures

I took some photos when i went to a gig to see a band called You Me At Six, and i thought they would be perfect to use for my magazine. Some of them didn't turn out as well as i'd hoped, but i picked out the best 20 to put on here.




















If i was going to make my features page spread about a live performance, these images would be perfect to use. But from my research i found out that my target audience prefers posed images for a features page, so i intend to take some posed images soon to put on my features page.

Magazine name!

I've finally come up with a name for my music magazine! I've decided to call it Noise Pollution! I chose the word "Noise" because it's usually what people (especially the older generation) describe heavy metal music as so i thought it would fit the magazine perfectly. And i chose the word "Pollution" because it's quite a negative word, and heavy metal music can be seen as a 'negative' genre of music because of the lyrics and the vibe they give out.

Mindmap For My Features Page

In the lesson yeserday we created a mindmap to show what's going to go on our features page. Here is the mindmap i made:

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Survey Monkey Research

I made another survey to get an even better idea of what my target market want in a music magazine. I made the survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/, and asked people to fill it in for me. To make sure i got more results, i posted the survey on http://www.facebook.com/. A total of 22 people took my survey. Here are the results from my survey:
                                 Question 1

                                         Question 2

                                 Question 3

                                         Question 4

                                         Question 5

                                 Question 6

                                 

Reader Profile Research

I looked at some reader profiles for music magazines, such as NME and Uncut.
NME Reader Profile: http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/fd4e20nlh1xefkowjxdha4xu.pdf

Uncut Reader Profile: http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/ie8ggqzju8kgqdditq67k9hj.pdf

Reader profiles are created so people know exactly what the target market are like just by looking at it; it tells you all the information you need to know about the target audience. So I made my own reader profile to do with my own Music Magazine

From my reader profile you can instantly tell that my target audience loves to go to festivals and gigs because of the pictures of the crowds, bands playing live, and festival logos. You can also tell that they are into websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube.

Features Page Flat Plan

In the lesson today, i made a flat plan about for my features page. The images that will appear on the page will all be posed. As the main genre that will appear in my magazine is heavy metal, the band that will appear on the features page will fit in that genre. The text on the page will be in a sans-serif font, bold font. However from the research i did on a Kerrang! features page on Bring Me The Horizon (look at the post before to see it), i saw that they used a serif font for the drop caps and some of the pull quote; this gave the page really nice look so i might try using that in my features page. I'm planning on making the writing white, which means that it will stand out because the background will be nearly all black.

I decided to not make the layout too busy, as it would be too much to look at. I think the layout i chose will appeal to the target market more because most of the page is taken up by images, and doesn't have so much text.

(write about layout, typography, images, text)

Features Page Research

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Typography

In class we looked at different Typography; how it affects the look of the page and how it attracts people.

We looked at the "10 Rules Of Typography In Print Based Media" by Paul Felton. These rules are:

1) Use no more than 3 typefaces in a document.

2) Always place headlines at the top of the page and in a larger font.

3) Only use size 10pt or 8pt for body copy.

4) A typeface that is not legible is not truly a typeface. (windings, etc...)

5) Use 'kerning' which ensures there is equal amounts of white space between each character.

6) Use 'stressing' discreetly within a text (underline, italic, bold).

7) Only use capitals for a whole text body - not for individual words.

8) Ensure all letters are aligned on a baseline.

9) Use 'flush-left, ragged-right' type alignment (all type sits on the left hand margin).

10) Do not make lines too short or too long.

These rules can be broken, but if you do break one, you must explain why you have done so!

I've had a look at different typography from different music magazines to help me when designing my music magazine.

Kerrang

The font in the Kerrang! masthead is a bold, sans-serif font that looks like it's been smashed or broken. It's quite a 'rebellious' font, which appeals to the target market as they are usually quite rebellious too. Also, the genre of music that is in the magazine

Rock Sound

The font in the Rock Sound masthead is a simple, bold, sans-serif font. However, the writing underneith it that says "New Music First" is in a serif font. The mixture of serif and sans-serif makes it look more interesting to the reader. They usually change the colour of the masthead in each issue of Rock Sound.

Metal Hammer

I think the Metal Hammer masthead is really interesting and clever. I like how the word 'metal' has been written in the word 'hammer', it helps give the magazine a brand identity as it is easily recognisable.

I had a look at all the different typefaces on http://www.dafont.com/ to see which sort of ones i could use for my music magazine; here's a few that i found:

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Brand Identity of Rock Sound and NME

Rock Sound

Rock Sound is a music magazine for people who enjoy listening to rock and/or metal music. They tend to change the colours on the front cover in each issue but the colours they use the most are red, which, black and yellow; these are the house colours of the magazine. These colours give the magazine a brand identity, and help people to recognise the magazine when they see it on the shelf in the shop. The masthead of the magazine (pictured above) is a banner masthead. It's in a bold, sans-serif font which makes it stand out to the reader. They don't usually use any of the house colours in the masthead; they change the colours in each issue depending on the colour scheme on the page. Part of the masthead is usually covered by a bit of the main image (you can see an example of this in the picture below). This is because the magazine is so well known that they don't need to show all the masthead for people to recognise it.

This magazine is targeted at a younger audience because most of the colours they use are bright. However, they do use a lot of the colour black (usually in the background), which is usually associated with this genre of music as it is a heavier colour. The language that is used is informal, if they were targeting this at older people they would use more formal language. They tend to have younger and newer bands which teenagers mostly like in the magazine, such as Young Guns, Paramore, and Bring Me The Horizon. However, they do have a couple of bands that are older, so older people can still feel free to read the magazine, such as Killing Joke, Cradle of Filth, and Soundgarden.

Looking at Rock Sound i can tell that it isn't a very serious magazine. There are some serious parts to it, but the target market doesn't particularly want to read a completely serious magazine as they would find it boring. Teenagers prefer something that will entertain them and make them laugh, but still give them the latest news about their favourite bands. This also fits in with their brand identity, as they have a reputation for being quite fun.

Throughout the magazine there are various advertisements for gigs/events that will appeal to the target market. Also, they have a specific gigs/events page near the back so the readers can find out about upcoming events. This gives them a brand identity as people will know them for the place to find out about what gigs are going on.


Most of the typography on the front cover are bold and simple, but some of it is a fun font that shows it's not all serious; this also helps it appeal to the target market more.

NME
NME is a music magazine for people who like listening to indie/rock music. The house colours of NME is red, white and black. They use their house colours a lot more compared to Rock Sound. If you look at the front cover that is pictured below, you can see that most of the page is red, black and white; the only other colour that is on the page is a tiny bit of yellow. The colours in the NME masthead is the house colours, it's also simple and easily recognisable. When someone is looking out for NME in the shop shelves, they will always look for the red, black and white one, this shows that the house colours give the magazine a brand identity that everyone recognises. On the front cover there's usually a large image of a band member/band members to draw people's attention in. The subjects in the images are usually using direct address, which makes it more personal and eye-catching.

I would say this magazine has a slightly wider target market than Rock Sound; the target market is probably teenagers and young adults (up to about the age of 25). I can tell this because they use bright colours and informal language, but they've still made it look sophisticated and use a simple layout.



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Research: Music Magazine Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire for my music magazine, and gave it to 15 people to fill in so i could get an idea of what my target audience wants.

Here is my results from my questionnaire:

Question 1 - How old are you?

Everyone who did the questionnaire was under 20; this is because my target audience is 14 - 20 year olds.

Question 2 - Are you male or female?

7 of the people who answered the questionnaire were boys, and 8 of them were girls.

Question 3 - What are your three favourite colours?

Blue - 10

Red - 8
Black - 12
Yellow - 4

Pink - 5

Green - 6

Question 4 - Do you download music? If yes, where do you download it from?

10 out of 15 people said yes to downloading music. Most of them downloaded it from iTunes, but some of them also named some such as torrent sites, youtube converters etc...

Question 5 - How often do you buy CDs?

Once a week - 0

Every month - 1

Every few months - 8

Once a year - 1

Never - 5

Question 6 - How often do you buy music magazines?

Once a week - 7

Once every two weeks - 0

Once a month - 5

A few times a year - 3

Once a year - 0


Question 7 - Which music magazines do you buy?
Kerrang! - 9
Rock Sound - 6
Mojo - 2
Metal Hammer - 5
NME - 7

Question 8 - What are your top 5 favourite bands?

A big range of bands came up in the results, such as:

Rammstein, Black Sabbath, Killing Joke, X-ray Spex, You Me At Six, Enter Shikari, We Are The Ocean, Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Emarosa, Bring Me The Horizon, City & Colour, Alexisonfire, Skindred, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Bullet For My Valentine, Megadeth, Machine Head, Incubus, Paramore, Deftones, A Day To Remember, Avenged Sevenfold, Alice Cooper, Boys Like Girls, Rise Against, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pendulum and The Prodigy.

Question 9 - What genres of music do you prefer?

Rock - 11

Pop - 5

Metal - 12

Drum & Bass - 6
R&B - 4
Classical - 0


Question 10 - How much would you expect to pay for a music magazine?
Everyone said they would expect a music magazine to cost between £1.90 and £3.10.

Question 11 - How often do you go to music

events?

Every week - 0

Every month - 3

Every other month - 0

Every few months - 4

Once a year - 3

Once every couple of years - 0

Never - 5

Question 12 - Do you play any instruments? If yes, please state which one(s).

Guitar - 4
Drums - 2
Bass - 3
Violin - 1
The other 5 people said they didn't play any instruments


Question 13 - What do you use to listen to music?

Computer - 8

iPod - 11

Phone - 9

Radio - 5

Stereo - 4

Question 14 - What content would you expect to see in a music magazine?
Gig Reviews - 15
Interviews - 13
Instrument Reviews - 5
Posters - 13
Latest News - 9
Letters Page - 8
Quizzes - 6
Cartoons - 7
Voting for Awards - 6
Adverts - 6
Band Merchandise - 12
Free Items (e.g CDs, stickers, etc...) - 9


These results show me that the colours that appeal to my target audience most are blue, black and red. These will be the house colours for my music magazine as it will appeal to them more. The things that most people would expect to see in a music magazine are Gig Reviews, Interviews, Posters, and Band Merchandise; so these will be the main things that appear in my music magazine. This would make my music magazine appeal to my target audience more, so therefore more people would want to read it. The main genres of music that people who answered the survey like are rock and metal; bands that fit into these genres will appear in my magazine. These results show that most people buy magazines weekly, so each issue will come out every week.