My chosen Sub-Genre

I am going to choose a Pop style magazine, this is due to that being one of my favourite styles of music and the one I believe I can best create. I am going to link to Billboard as I prefer their colour palette and the layout they choose. In addition to this I will follow along with the traditional codes and conventions Pop magazines follow.

Music Magazine Sub-Genre Research

Pop:

The target audience for a Pop magazine is usually aimed at teenagers. These magazines are also aimed towards younger adults ( 22-33) which is shown from the way Billboard have designed and created there magazine. Billboards magazine are very unique in there layout, all there magazines are presented with a single image of a person on the front. This Image is surrounded with information and puffs. This differs to over magazines such as 'Sugar' who have used the same singular image but its in more of a background setting with a lot of cover lines over crowding the image. This layout and style differences show that 'sugar' is aiming towards the younger audience with the style of imagery and unprofessional layout, whereas 'Billboard' has a more professional vibe which will appeal to a wider range of people. This would suggest that the production value of 'Billboard' would be higher and 'sugar' would have a lower value.
Rock:

The audience profile for Kerrang is a 50/50 split between Male and Female, these genders are shown generally in the age range of 15-24. This varies from Classic Rock where the gender split is similar but the age range is 24-42. The wider range of age and gender is evident in magazines such as 'Kerrang'.  This age range is mainly younger adults to teenagers, this is predominately shown by the more modern style music which is less likely to be known by older adults.Further more the more Jumbled Cover lines won't appeal much to older adults who like simple, single photo front. This jumbled Front cover and the fact that younger people will view magazines on the Internet might show that the production value is lower for Kerrang. The majority of Rock magazines follow the same conventions for there colour palette, these colours tend to be White or a bold colour for the cover line. Furthermore the font used for rock magazines tend to be different throughout the magazine, this appeals less to me and the target audience. Kerrang has a lot of promotional puffs for the content of there magazine where Classic Rock is linking more towards the main topics.
Heavy Metal:

I believe that the heavy metal music genre is aimed at the older target audience as this genre, this is due to the year the songs came out.'Kerrang' and 'Q' are predominantly linked to the older are age, even though some of there content is aimed a younger adults to. Given the fact that these are aimed at the older audience, this could suggest that the production value is lower due to the demand and lack of popularity.The artist who are shown on the front cover are usually related to the heavy metal genre. These artists are popular to allow and pull in interest of the viewers.I dislike the layout of these style of magazines due to the overly crowded page which to me appears unprofessional and doesn't link with other magazines. Further more the amount of artists on the front page and pictures differs a lot from pop magazine where they take on only one to two artist with less photos around the subject.  As for colour palette I believe it is less appealing to the target audience due to the dark colours. Although its a heavy metal magazine which link with darker colour their is no brighter backgrounds or bright coloured mastheads which differs to magazines such as Kerrang.
Indie:

 

The primary target audience for Indie music magazines I believe is from ages 15-30 plus. Indie style music is shown at concerts, this shows its popularity. Furthermore they are growing in popularity every day. This would reflect there production value, I believe that their production value would be low due to the fact their income and fame is from festivals.As for colour palette  we can see a more subtle range of colours, some covers have only white or  singular colour text. Whereas some like on the right can be seen to have two colour for the text and a different colour like gold is used for the masthead. However comparing to over magazine they highly differentiate which connotes a calm and subtle magazine and audience. This along with the very simple and bland layout with a singular star vehicle connotes that maybe the production value is a lot lower on the magazine side of things. Whereas their concerts have a higher value as that is were their main interest comes from.
Hip/hop and rap:

 























The target audience of Hip Hop/Rap is popular with the younger audience. This is shown by the popular magazine 'Vibe', who use trending artists that are appealing to the growing teenage audience. Although the style of music differs the layout of the page is very similar to other music magazines like Billboard. Typically their is one artist in a medium close up format in the centre of the page. In addition the colour palette is very bold and inviting, by this I mean that the colours link with each other and the artist. For example the left magazine shows the artist is black and white, therefore the magazine cover lines are white to contrast the black background. As for the yellow this is a random pick of vibrant colours, but it still contrasts well with the darker background palette. As for the magazine on the right, it appears less professional with the colours, however all of the colour are linking with the black,white and green. The red does seem out of place but in fact that is the colour on all of their magazine mastheads. From this I can say that the matching colours and organised layout connotes the magazine will have a higher production value that others and therefore they have more money to improve the magazine and contents within.

Evaluation - Front Cover and Contents Page

Front Cover:

Overall I am very happy with the outcome of my front cover for the College Magazine. I believe the use of the Blue with the contrasting White fonts work very well together. In addition the bright trio of colours for  'Graphics Tutorials' pulls in the viewer and makes the Front cover more interesting.

Pros:

• Colours work well together
• Vibrant paint splashes
• Simple yet affective
• Free Membership

Cons:

• Could be more interesting
• Different font for Cover Lines
• More school orientated Picture

Contents Page:

I believe my Contents page has come together quite nicely and has followed on very well from my original Flat plan I did. In addition the slight tweaks I have made I believe are good ones. My favourite part is the contrasting grey margin where I have put the contents of the magazine, this is due the way it separates the page neatly without being too bold.

Pros:

• Effective margin
• Simple yet intuitive 
• The images work with the magazine

Cons:

• The images look out of place
• Not much information about the magazine

Peer Evaluation:

Front cover

Pros:

• Nice intuitive Puff
• Clear colour palette
• Picture suits the Task
• Mast head font links with contents

Cons:

• Boring Font for Puff
• Mast head is in two lines
• Free gym membership doesn't fit with context
• Cover lines cover face and come close to edge

Contents Page

Pros:

• Nice grey border
• Continued colour palette
• Font matches mast head
• Good amount of pictures

Cons:

• Need a variety of pictures
• Doesn't link to much with the Front cover

Preliminary Task - Construction

 Photo Analysis:

This is one of my favourite images I took for the front cover. The reason for this is due to the simple plain effect of a student, furthermore the student looks happy which follows the them of the school.

To use this image I will cut out the student and put a multi gender background colour of Blue or teal. This will be the soul image on my front cover to keep the professional look I am going for.

In addition to this I will crop the image to fit the Mid-shot I need for the task.

This photo is going to be used on the contents page of my magazine, the reason for this is because it shows a student educating themselves with a book from the library. In addition this photo shows the audience the resources people can gather from the school site.

Also this image of the student will also be used on the contents page. This is good due to the student holding an award they have received for a school activity/ subject. In addition it has the graphical background which shows what the school had to offer.

These will be my final 2 images on my contents page. They are both of students working in the mac suite on a subject. The first image is a mid wide angle shot of the students and my second image is of one student in a point of view perspective.

For this image I have focused on the subject and not the work, this allows for a good image whilst not intruding on the work on the computer.

I believe this will further appeal the the graphical inclined students as the picture involves computer works on iMacs. In addition the background is very formal and has students working.

These are my first flat plans I have designed, these will be used to help me design my final magazine. Although these are my concepts, I will hopefully use the same style, Colour palette, font and layout. However during the production of magazine I might realise an alternate font might suit the style I am going for.

For the Front cover I have used a simple grey and cyan colour palette, this is so it can follow my multi gender target audience.

When looking at my survey monkey 25% of people said they liked graphics or art, to incorporate this into my magazine I used a colourful paint splash with an incising offer ' Graphics Tutorials'. In addition to this I added a Free Gym membership voucher to appeal to the 50% of my target audience who voted for sports.

All of the school activities are fairly similar in votes, and for 'other' people said they liked doing graphics and art either in or outside of school. I hopefully will take pictures of all of theses categories and also follow a graphical route when designing my magazine.

I will use these results from my SurveyMonkey and use what my target audience want for my flat plans and final design. Hopefully If I can incorporate at least 2/4 answers to my magazine then it will appeal to the audience I was aiming it at.