Masthead Designs

Before making my music magazine I have to think of some of the main features on the front cover. One of these being the mastheads. Apart from the main cover photo the masthead is one of the main features the audience see’s first when looking at a magazine. So getting the right one to fit with the genre is very important.

The task was design some mastheads that go well with are genre and are magazine title. My magazine name being Rolling Records I wanted a flowing font for the rolling letter and was going to edit the height of each letter.

Here are some of the designs that I have got for my magazine….

The first four designs that I got are off a website called dafont.

1. I like the way this font rolls like the word and how the bottom of the letters flick up. I think that I will use for the rolling word. I have thought that with using this font I could have the letters in different positions going along the page but being up and down.
2. The use of the bubble writing makes the letters big and stand out which I like. I think that the use of the filling out the bubble writing with a colour will look good depending on what colours I choose for my magazine.
3. This font is bold and simple the letters stand straight up which is what I like about it
4. I particularly like this as it looks like a record and links in well with the name. I might only use this font for the O of the records and the rest in the third font.

From looking at lots of different designs I have decided that for my magazine masthead for the Rolling I will use the first font and move the letters around. Then for the Records I am going to use a mixture of fonts three and and four have the main letters as three but the O as four giving it that records like feel from the design.

Production Meeting Agenda for 1st Photo Shoot

Before doing my photo shoot I had to get some ideas on what I was going to look like and what clothes I was going wear that links in with my music genre.

Below is my production meeting agenda sheet….

For my shoot I have got a few ideas that I can use and a few different costumes and work from this to see what is best. Ollie has managed to get me a union Jack guitar which I am definitely going to use as this is perfect prop for my Britpop genre. As from when doing my research most of the magazines have a union Jack somewhere.

I am mainly focusing my cover star around the Gallagher brothers from Oasis as I feel like when they were on stage performing they dressed well to the 90’s style and had an extra edge over other bands at the time.

From doing my PMA sheet, I now know exactly what I need for the shoot and who is getting what. I also have got some ideas for what different poses I am going to do. Overall I am more prepared and ready for my photoshoot.

Brand Mood-board & Star Image

Our task was to create a mood-board of my genre to get lots of different pictures of bands, lyrics, posters, other magazine covers,  concerts and designs to help me towards  getting some inspiration for my own music magazine. Also to get a good understanding of what it should look like and the content inside it .

Below is my mood-board….

Click on this image to view my mood board

Below is star image of Liam Gallagher…

It is important for a music genre to have a main star image. I had to do some research around my music genre and find someone who represents it best. For my start image I chose Liam Gallagher as I feel like he has an attitude like a rock star. He also fits perfectly around the paradox theory created by Richard Dyer. This theory states weather a star is extraordinary or ordinary and if there are absent or present. I feel like that Liam is more extraordinary and absent. Liam’s metanarrative over the years has changed due to things newspaper journalists have said about him making the public ether love or hate him more.

 Above is some ideas of clothes that my model could wear….

From doing these tasks I feel more confident with how magazine will turn out, especially with the front cover and what the cover star will look like before I do my shoot. I also know from this what other magazines in this type of genre look like and also what features they have in the magazine.

  My Audience Profile and Research

Before I create my music magazine I have to do some research on the type of people that like my chosen genre i.e target audience and that will read the magazine.Also to find out what their basic interests our and what they like to do apart from listen to music. I managed to find out this information on a website called ‘yougov’.

Above is the information I found out about Britpop fans…..

After collecting this information I then had to create a dating profile about a typical Britpop fan and this is what I made.

When doing this task I had to think about the ‘Reception Theory’ which was invented by a man called Stuart Hall. His theory states that the audience’s option on something is decided from what they read and think about it, and that the audience and the creators option should meet in the middle in order for something to become successful and work well. For my magazine to be successful and popular I have found out these options and things that my audience likes and put this information in my dating profile to create the perfect reader.

From doing my dating profile I have got a better understanding of my target audience for my Britpop genre. I now know what the typical person likes to do not to do and what they interests are. I can use some of this information I have found out and add it to my magazine.

Branding ideas + Mission statement

The music genre I have chosen to base my music magazine around is Britpop. I have chosen this Because I feel like I have a understanding for the music around the 90’s , and I enjoy listening to it which will give me inspiration when working on it. The Name I have chosen for my magazine is called Rolling Records. I feel like this will go well with the genre I have chosen and fits it well.

From doing some research I have collected some good information and ideas of what my magazine will look like and look forward to starting my magazine. One of the bits of research that I did was create a world cloud which was a group of words to describe my magazine and some of the features and information I will put in it.

Below is my word cloud… 

Some other research that I did towards my music magazine was create a mission statement for my customer and readers. This mission statement shows why the magazine exists and what are overall goals and achievements are. It also shows who are primary customer is and what they geographic’s are.

Mission statement.. 

“Rolling Records” aim is bring the peoples love and interests in the best of British Pop bands in the nineties together in a magazine. With exclusive interviews, information about bands, tours, festival and new album releases we have everything that the people want. We strive to be one of the most successful magazines out there and attract new people to this music that is loved be so many no matter what type of music they like. They is nothing else out there on the market like “Rolling Records”  

Front cover analyse 

This is my analysed front cover of a music magazine. The task was to annotate the key features and to find out why the company of the magazine designed it in that way and how by doing this attracts it’s target audience. They do this by using terms called Demographics and Psychographics audiences.

Demographic –

The consumer is categorised in terms of concrete variables such as age, class, gender and geographic location.

Psychographics –

The consumer is categorised in terms their interests, attitudes and options such as those who aspire to a richer lifestyle.

Below is my annotated magazine front cover 

From doing this analysis task, I have learnt what to do and not to do when it comes to designing my music magazine. Like using to right colours, text and photos to link with your target audiences. For example the colour scheme for my magazine is quite plain not using bright powerful colours this is because the target audience is suited more for a older generation. If it was suited for a younger one the colours would stand out more and brighter and they would be more photos.

In conclusion, I feel confident about what to do when it comes to designing my magazine and using the terms I have learnt that are demographic and psychographic how to find the right lifestyle these people live and what they interests, age and hobbies are.

Conventional design features of a music magazine

Here is my annotated music magazine cover with all of the main key features of it labelled.

These key features are…. 

• master head – the main person on the front cover
• main cover line – is about the main article inside the magazine
• cover line –  about the smaller articles inside of the magazine
• plug –  is trying to sell the magazine by using words like “best” or “exclusive”
• issue date/issue number – is the date it was released or the number of magazines released
• price, bar code – how much the magazine is
• pug – is the ears of the magazine as they are both on the top left and right corners normally includes a number on a promotion or about something inside which might catch the readers eye.
• inset – photo’s about extra  articles inside the magazine.

Conclusion

From doing this work I have learnt how a magazine front cover is laid out. So when I come to do mine I know what I need to put on it and where it goes. I have also learnt that for different genres the magazines are set up differently for example a K pop magazine has lots of bright colours with big writing and lots of images completely filling the whole front cover.