First Draft of Contents Page

I have decided to call my contents page a play list because it links in to the whole magazine being a music magazine. It also is what you find on the back of album covers giving you a lineup of what songs are included in the album, and the contents page being a playlist gives the audience a line up of what the magazine is going to include. The contents page is also very different compared to other magazines which will help create a branded identity for itself.

The typography i have chosen for the "PLAYLIST" is the transformer movie font i had talked about in a previous post, I decided to use it because it stands out from the background and is very bold which will make the audience see it almost immediately once they open the magazine.

I have included a strap line at the bottom mentioning a competition on the double page spread which will make the audience want to visit the double page spread as soon as possible.

First draft of front cover

This is the first actual draft of my magazines front cover, as you can see a lot of the colours contrast with the background which helps it stand out to the audience. I'm quite happy with this draft because it shows how the layout which will obviously be adapted a bit with the final design. the rest of my magazine will also carry on this sort of house style because it'll show that the magazine is very genre based instead of being an all round music magazine. This will allow the audience to easily notice and pick out what magazine they want. The image on the front cover has not yet been decided, but will be planned and taken during the photo shoot for the double page spread which gives me a bit of time to decide on what kind of pictures I'd like on the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Initial layout

 This is the initial layout for the front cover of my magazine, I had made this layout before I had decided what my magazine will be called, the reason why it just says "magazine title" instead of the actual title I have chosen. The cover lines may need to stand out a bit more and I'll probably have to make a more detailed version of this layout in my second draft to show how my colour schemes will work. I think this layout would actually attract the audience because the title of the magazine would stand out the most so even people who aren't interested in the magazine will still see it. The image I will be using would have to be a strong convention of the dubstep scene; a male wearing a gas mask, this is so some people may find the image is quite controversial but that'll be good because it would create a brand identity for the magazine.

This image shows the initial layout of my contents page, I decided to call my contents page a "play list" because its a music magazine and its a what you generally find on the back of albums, which tell you what the albums content holds. I think this is a good way to interest the audience so they read on because its not like any other normal magazine contents page. The image (a set DJ mixing decks) in the background of the contents  page also relates to the genre of the magazine; being a dubstep magazine there had to be something to do with music technology involved in the magazine. I think this is challenging the conventions of lots of other magazine because usually they'll include an image of an artist that is going to be featured in the magazine. The line up of the pages will be in "impact" font but some of the exclusive or more important pages will be in bold and will be bigger with a small thumbnail of the stars that are going to be featured on that page.

This is my initial design for my double page spread article. The majority of the two pages will consist the image of the artist I am going to feature in the article. The background may be a separate image which I would manipulate to make it look like the image of the artist was taken in the setting. The article would be written on the right side of the page which is a convention of a lot of magazines  because people usually look at the image of the pages first so if they see an image they are interested they may read the article, also I want to include a small info box on the left page giving a brief outline on what the article is about. This will allow the audience to decide whether that want to read the article or not before wasting time and reading half the article without any interest.

Colour schemes

Looking back on my chart I can see the audience had said that they want the colour scheme to be bright colours on darker colours, so I have decided to choose these three different colour schemes I could use on my magazine cover and through out the whole magazine. I want to make sure that I adhere to what my target audience want and also I need to follow the generic conventions so the audience are attracted to the magazine a lot more. I don't want to limit myself to be using these three colour schemes over and over again so I decided I could use any of the left side colours contrasting with the darker colours on the right side. I probably will be using some other pastel colours but these contrasting colours would be the main colour schemes of my magazine.

Fonts for the magazine

These are a few font designs I could use for my masthead, I made sure I concentrated around the techno type fonts because dubstep is said to be a sub genre of dance music. These three fonts were the fonts that stood out to me the most, this was because of the thickness and boldness of the font so it stands out to the audience, also it relates to the thick and bold sounds of dubstep. I've decided I want to use the"dimitri" font for my masthead because its really different and I haven't seen any other magazines use it before, I will also like to use the "Transformers movie" font for my headlines because it'll stand out on the double page spread. I've also thought about the font I will be using for the rest of my magazine and I decided I will be using the "impact" style font because its really bold and it stands out well. Also when you type in capitals for sub headings it really catches the attention of the audience.

Masthead titles

I decided to do a small brainstorm of what mastheads I could use for the title of my magazine, I made sure that all of the titles relate to the genre of my magazine so it is clear to the audience what the magazine is about. I have decided I will use the title "Bass Culture" for my masthead because it relates to the audience, it will also make them feel as if their music choice isn't just something they enjoy listening to but in fact its some form of cultural and traditional trend that has been going on for many many years, which will make them feel as if they are part of some family or group.

Deadlines for planning stage

Deadlines

16^th January: House style

-Name of the magazine – related to the genre of the magazine

-Font(s) of the masthead and throughout the magazine

-Font of the masthead should relate to the genre of the magazine

-Colour scheme – look back on the charts

-Plan what pictures should be taken

-Deciding a price, possibly theme, and amount of pages

-Theme should target your audience and the genre

-Initial layout of front cover, contents page and double page spread on blog

23^rd January: Front cover

-Possibly second draft of front cover

-Planning the image (shot types, setting ect.)

-Take the photographs and analyse (must be before the 10^th of Feb)

-Planning the layering based on your initial layout

-Planning the placement/positioning (of masthead and cover-lines)

-Deciding the cover-lines – pull quotes etc

-Detailed layout of the front cover

30^th January: Contents page

-Possibly second draft of contents page

-Planning the images (shot types, setting ect.)

-Take the photographs and analyse (must be before the 10^th of Feb)

-Deciding the content

-Use pull quotes and bold fonts to make bits stand out

-Detailed layout of the contents page

6^th February: Double page spread

-Possibly a second draft of double page spread

-Decide what your main article will be about

-Have a beginning stage of your article

-Planning the image (shot types, setting ect.)

-Take the photographs and analyse (must be before the 10^th of Feb)

-Plan and create a headline/subheading and stand-first

10^th February all above must be done.

Target audience research for my music magazine

This graph shows me that ALL of my target audience are in fact in some type of education. This helps me understand that I might be able to include an article on or linked into school or college which could help me gain a wider audience because people might be interested in the article that is related to education. It also allows me to refine a list of gigs and other events to the weekend more because my audience may be in school during some events. I was expecting this answer, so in fact having proof that all of my audience is in education makes it a lot easier for me to write up cover lines and articles.

This graph has made things a lot more easier for me because it has already refined an age group that I should concentrate on. It helps me narrow down some of the contents I should include in my magazine. Although there are many advantages of having a certain age group to focus on it disallows me to attract a wider audience because the contents of the magazine may not appeal to the older generation.

I also asked the the people answering the survey if they search for any new upcoming artists, the feedback of the question shows that I my audience sometimes look out for new upcoming artists, this is a good thing because it means I can now include a few underground upcoming artists in my magazine so the people who read it would have some sort of outcome from it which will hopefully get them to get the next issue if there was to be one. This also means I can generally concentrate on mentioning new artists would could help in the marketing department because the audience that are looking for new artists would always get a copy of the magazine just to be up to date.

This wordle graph shows that the audience I am targeting is a very niche audience because all these artists are very well known amongst the dubstep scene, although there are a lack of variety of well known artists I think it'll help with making more detailed articles instead of image based articles. This means as well as including some articles about upcoming artists I would have to include some of the well known artists like Mt Eden, Skrillex or even Nero. This would help me gain keen readers that will always be a consumer of my magazine.

As you can see the wordle shows that a lot of people go out with their friends as well as people revising and   playing music etc.. This helps me understand  that maybe every fourth or fifth issue I should include something about a gig or an event that relates to the audience. I think it should be every fourth or fifth issue because it seems like a lot of my audience do tend to study in there free time due to the fact they are in a form of education.

I wanted to ask my audience what kind of colours will  they be attracted to. I wanted to find this out because it will help me design my front cover so it catches the attention of people passing by. As you can see the majority of people prefer bright colours on dark colours, contrasting colours and dark on bright colours. This shows the colours on the cover will have to be very different on every layer so it helps make each bit stand out which will automatically draw attention to the audience

All this shows that I will have to make sure I have to adhere to what the audience want, although some of the choices the audience have chosen do challenge the conventions of some magazines I will have to attract the audience in one way or another.