Drafting of front cover, contents page, and double page spread

Content's page

Double Page Spread

Front Cover

Props and Costume ideas

Props that I would use

Since there are few props on display on the front cover of magazines that are in my genre, I decided that I would only add necessary ones. This is because the main aim of the front cover in guitar music magazines is to generate focus on the artist. Ideally what I would want to do is use many guitars, particularly one along the lines of the one above, as that shows the housestyle of red, white and blue. A guitar that helps mimic my housestyle, I believe, would make my magazine stand out more because there is more of a focus on the colours used. Similar to how established magazines use clothes to mimic the housestyle of a particular issue. 



Costuming

I would want my artists to have steryeotypes of an indie person, including dressing like one. Steryeotypically, 'indie boys' would wear flannel shirts, converse/Vans and skinny jeans. This would help to relate to my target audience who would wear similar clothes and would know that my magazine is aimed at them. These are all generally clothes that most guitar bands wear and my target audience are people who try to emulate them though what they wear because they aspire to be like them. 







The 'rule of thirds'

The 'rule of thirds' is a photography technique whereby  an image down into thirds (horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 sections. As the example below shows:

 The ‘rule of thirds’ now highlights four important parts of the image that should be used for placing points of interest in the image. The idea is that if points of interest are placed in the intersections along the lines, the photo becomes more balanced and will enable the viewer of the image to interact with it more easily. 

JAD Feedback

Good work Alex. You have met all deadlines set and your work is well presented. 

Only tasks remaining are drafting, focus group video and costume/props planning. Post these asap.

Also, add some analysis of 'rule of thirds' to your blog. this will help you with the design of your contents page and DPS.

Finally, add images to your analysis of key conventions. 

Masthead conventions

Masthead Conventions

NME Masthead

 

The NME’s Masthead is very wide and bold. It connotes a sense of masculinity with the bold font, the underlying shadows underneath the white border. The double border helps it to stand out and emphasize the red colour. The thin black line between each letter shows that each letter is separate and helps to emphasize it.

The colours used all contrast each other meaning that each aspect of the masthead is easy to see. I think that the fact that there’s no background colour works well because if there was a set background colour it could clash with the photograph colours. The colours itself seem to be generally aimed at men (much like the music industry is now) and there are no colours to suggest or encourage female readers to read the NME. Usually light blues, pinks and purples would be associated with female magazines.

Rolling Stone masthead

This does connote a more female image due to the curved font, so it suggests that Rolling Stone magazine is aimed at both men and women. Similar to the NME, the black shadow helps make the dark red stand out more. The title itself leads people to immediately think of the famous band and so would assume that the magazine will be about rock music. The font seems a lot more old-fashioned when compared to the NME’s for instance. It connotes that the magazine prefers to stick to tradition or seems to have old-fashioned content in it. The fact that there’s no background colour is good for the same reasons given in the NME analysis.

The darker colours give the idea that the masthead isn’t trying to draw as much attention and wants the reader to focus on what’s in the magazine rather than the title. 

Reader Profile

Loud! (Not the font I plan to use)

Matt, 19, is an avid guitar player, who takes a keen interest in Alternative, rock and indie rock music. His music taste will dictate most aspects of his life such as his friends, what he wears, how he spends his free time, what he watches on TV etc. He is inspired by bands/Artists such as Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Oasis, The Libertines, Alex Turner, Miles Kane, The last Shadow Puppets, The Crookes and The Beatles etc. He uses his musical taste to express himself to the world and wants to emulate his idols by wearing clothe similar to them. He follows his heroes to whatever festivals they play at and is a common sight at the iTunes Festival, Glastonbury, Reading and Leads, T in the Park etc. Matt is currently at university is a follower of the indie university music scene. He uses Last.FM, Spotify, ‘Loud!’ magazine and word of mouth to uncover hidden gems. As soon as he does he immediately shares this new band with his friends who are also as music-crazy as he is. Matt scoffs at mainstream Pop, Hip Hop etc. and religiously sticks to his guitar bands. He and his friends don’t have much money and will usually swap, albums, magazines guitar equipment etc with each other to get by. Matt is seen as the leading light in his peer group and often sets the fashion and music taste of the group, the music on his iPod is well respected amongst his group and outside it as well. 

Audience and planning video

Focus group questions

Front cover

Contents Page

                                                                  

Double Page spread

Questions to ask focus group

1)      Do you read music magazines? If so which ones?

2)      From the music magazines that you read, what would you say are your favourite features about them?

3)      From the music magazines you read, do you like the pages or is there anything you would personally change?

4)      I plan to make a magazine that has conventions of the NME but more niche. What are your thoughts on that?

5)      From the examples above, what features do you personally like?

6)      Bearing in mind my idea has NME-like conventions, what props do you expect the artists to have?

7)      What font would you expect to see?

8)      What sort of features do you expect to see on the front cover, contents page, double page spread etc?

9)      What colours would you expect?

10)   Would you prefer a more image-based contents page or text-based?

Music Magazine conventions

Front cover NME

This cover is a good example of one of the most unique convention of the NME magazine; it’s colour scheme. The masthead is always in the top left hand corner to create instant recognition with the audience. The masthead is always in the same bold font with the red, black and white colour scheme. The only time this would change is if it would be a special event, for instance Christmas.   

The front cover does generally copy the colour scheme of the masthead with the white background, the red and black text. Since frequent readers of the NME will know that the masthead will always be there, the artists do sometimes cover up parts of the masthead, such as the one on the right.

The magazine also uses colour to make important things on the page stand out. In the above example yellow is used such as ‘Jack White’s shock new album’ and ‘studio news’.

The artists that the NME use stick to the theme that NME’s content is based on indie, general guitar-playing artists. Customers will then always associate NME with guitar playing artists and so it will create a mindset where customers will buy the NME because its content will solely be on indie rock music.

The artists that NME uses are al generally quite young, I would say in between the pages of twenty and mid thirties, which reflects the age of the target audience that the NME appeals to. I would say that the target audience is generally male due to the large bold font, the dark colours and the fact that a majority of the issues have male artists on them.

The people on the cover are not generally considered to be incredibly attractive, unlike for instance a modelling magazine where that is an expectation.

Female front cover

Since that the target audience is generally male having a female artist would seem to go against the conventions of the NME. However in this example everything apart from the artist is still the same; the colour scheme, position of the masthead, font etc, so most of the conventions are still the same.Lily Allen is presented as an ‘indie’ artist due to the red flannel shirt, which is seen as an indie stereotype. The red shirt also helps fit in with the house style of the NME magazine (black, white, red and yellow).

She’s also presented in quite a male way, i.e. with the short and the shirt.

So in a way, this example is still sticking to all the NME conventions whilst being able to get away with presenting a female artist on the front cover.

Contents page

NME’s content page differentiates from the front cover quite a lot. The house style changes from red, white, black and yellow to black, white and blue. The font is a lot more varied; the example has italic, bold and thin font, suggesting that NME is trying to appeal to a wider audience.

There’s no mast head, however most of the issues always have the strap line ‘Inside this week’ it suggests a sense of familiarity with the reader letting them know that there is new, content every single week.

The main feature of the issue is placed in the middle to draw immediate attention and all the other stories are placed around it.

Double page spread

List of conventions of the double page spread:

v NME’s double page spread is mainly taken up by a large, dominating picture and title.

v There isn’t a lot of colour in the article, mainly black and white.

v The colour mainly comes from the artist’s clothes and the Reading and Leeds festival.

v The picture takes up one half of the page and the title and article take up the rest.

v The title’s font has a much more interesting font, with the mixture of the bold and the curly fonts.

v Even the colour of the text in the article doesn’t vary much from the rest of the article

v The conventions mentioned earlier still apply to this example, the fact that’s a young, male band, they’re wearing quite dark colours to contrast with the white font

v The page has some elements of the house style i.e. black and white theme colour and the red, yellow and black festival logos in the corner