The masthead is a very important step in creating a successful magazine cover. It must standout to the audience and also fit the genre. When creating these, I played around with font, letter width, letter height and colours. All of this had to be kept with in the conventions of the genre, to do this I looked at other mastheads within the genre and found that they all use bold text and was all in capital letters. I also used AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) to help me figure out the branding of the magazine. To grab attention, I use bold lettering. To strike interest, I will use cover lines that make the audience curious. To create desire, I will create an interesting cover star that has an envious lifestyle but stays relatable. Finally, all of this put together properly will make the audience take action and buy the magazine.

When creating a star’s image it is important to make them relatable and ordinary yet also extraordinary and nothing like you and me. This is called the paradox of the star. The repertoire of elements uses conventions to establish the genre that the star is in, this can include aspects of Mise-on-scene such as costume, hair and make-up.

In this first slide the artist is shown to be a celebrity and have a desirable lifestyle where as the second slide shows the artist to be like everyone else and quite normal.

Bryan Garris is represented in articles to be talented and successful vocalist and front man who’s found lots of success in the genre. This is shown in articles such as: ‘THE 10 GREATEST HARDCORE FRONTPEOPLE RIGHT NOW’ and ‘KNOCKED LOOSE TO HEADLINE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF OUTBREAK FEST’.

He is also portrayed to be more like a regular guy through certain articles but mainly through his twitter feed. One article talks about him having to leave a tour due to a family emergency which shows his vulnerable side. He has fun with his twitter followers where he isn’t very serious and jokes around with them but he does also address important issues like racism.

Denotations

• Tattoos
• Tiny Hat
• Chain
• Piercings
• Dickies
• Vans
• Flannel Shirts
• Band Merch

Connotations

• Organic
• Honest
• Edgy
• Crisp
• Familiar

I will follow these for my own star image as it follows the conventions of the genre and it will be recognisable for the consumer.

This is a mood board of my chosen genre for me to reference when creating my music magazine. It includes denotations, such as: tour posters, album art, magazine layouts, band photos and logos. The connotations of the images are edgy, angry, dramatic and arrogant. This will help inspire me for the branding of my music magazine. It will ensure I use all the same conventions and it has everything the audience is expecting of the magazine.

Colour Pallet

It is important to find out the demographic and psychographic of the people who will be reading my magazine so I can figure out my target audience. The target audience needs to be able to socially interact with and identify with the brand and the content. I need to understand what is entertaining for the audience and what information they care about so that I can strategically plan out the topics of the articles I write and also the advertisements I add in. I will have to use all the right colours, symbols, fonts and techniques to encode the right message for the target audience to decode. If they react positively then it’s a preferred reading and tells me as a graphic designer that I’ve done well.

For researching the different audiences for the different genres, we used the website YOUGOV.com. Sadly it didn’t have any artists in my sub-genre on the site so I went with the closest thing.

Artists and their Fan Base

Dating Profile

Using my knowledge of my choses genre, I created a dating profile for a typical Hardcore Metal fan. I included bands that he listens to, things he does to pass the time and things like his job and general day-to-day life.

Genre – Hardcore/Metal

Name Brainstorm

Out of all these names I like ‘Breakdown Metal Magazine’ the most as it has the double meaning in the word ‘breakdown’. Breakdowns are a key part of all metal but it also means a breakdown of what’s been happening in metal each month.

Hardcore word cloud

General Brainstorm

When I get to designing my magazine I will have to make sure that: there is clear branding which fits the genre, it has a USP (unique selling point) to make it more desirable compared to other magazines in the genre, and uses the gratification theory so that it is marketed to the right target audience and those people can interact and identify with it.

Mission Statement

‘Be the first to hear about the meanest, meatiest and filthiest riffs and breakdowns on the scene right now. New music, festivals, tours, you name it! BREAKDOWN Metal Magazine is the only magazine you should ever be reading for the latest metal news.’

I have learnt that target audience is very important when creating an effective magazine cover. The audience demographic and psychographic are the two key ways of figuring out the target audience. Once I have a target audience I can use that to choose the best font, colour pallet, images, MES, camera angle, body language, framing, and language to use.

This is an analysis of a magazine cover that I did with Max which points out all of the conventional features of a magazine.

• The Mast Head – This is the name of the magazine written in a big and clear font
• The Main Cover Line – This gives a small bit of information about what’s on the cover, it’s usually a head line with a small caption
• Pugs – These are small bits of information to draw in the reader in a small bright shape
• The Cover Star – An image of the artist or subject of what the main story is about which takes up the whole cover
• Insets – Other small images on the cover
• Plug – Tells you what the magazine is about in a short statement
• Cover Lines – Any writing on the cover, usually giving info about what’s inside
• Price & Barcode – In the bottom right or left corner to make it easier to scan

These features will be something I keep in mind when creating my magazine cover. They will be important so that the cover is effective and draws people in. The positioning of all of these is important too so that it’s visually pleasing for the audience.