Masthead Ideas

Recently, I have been using photoshop, trying out a couple of ideas for my Masthead:




I prefer the lower picture as it fits the kind of house style that I'm aiming to achieve, with a broken and distressed effect.

For my final masthead I was thinking of taking photos of a hand or a pair of hands holding up a vinyl record to emphasize the theme of music and to give the masthead the vintage-like, distressed look.

The Monthly Connection: Front cover

The Masthead-
The font will be simple and bold with the words "The Monthly" much smaller, as "Connection" will be bigger and spread across the page as the main word. The font will be black, white or a primary colour.

The Main Photograph-
As this photograph is the most important in the process of selling the magazine, it must be as eye-catching as possible. I've compiled a collection of photographs which I may choose to mirror for my own photograph.





Conventional music magazine photographs with an attractive musical artist posing and clad in extravagant clothing.









































OR


I think the idea of a photo in an environment which is not usually considered conventional for a music magazine photoshoot, for example in a garage or on a pavement. Spontaneous poses with the subject looking natural - no obvious photo manipulation. The subject would be wearing bright, eye-catching clothing, contrasting with a neutral, normal expression.

Nylon Magazine Hose Style

These are all page headings on the Nylon Magazine website. This is the style in which I want to present my Magazine.
The font has an element to it that looks like it's been sketched and scribbled over. The pictures look obviously manipulated and cut up.

I've also noticed one element which features itself on the majority of Nylon Magazine's pages: Three black, curvy threads that look hand drawn across a page. For example, In the first heading pictured at the top.
These scribbled lines are a feature of Nylon magazine which makes it distinctive as "Nylon".
I've decided to emulate Nylon magazine in this respect and take on the 'scribbling' idea for my own magazine; I'm going to 'draw' three black from the top to the bottom, about two centimeters from the outside of each page; I'm also going to have the page numbers looking hand written.

Nylon Magazine

The house style which appeals to me most is Nylon magazine. It does not just focus on music but covers a wide range of music related pop culture. This is the kind of unconventional music magazine I am aiming to produce as I believe there is a gap in the British market for this style of music magazine.

I am now concentrating on Nylon Magazine's house style to give me ideas for my own:

I like the simplistic approach that the magazine has as it makes the text, pictures and minimalist ornamentation of the page stand out so much more than it would on a busy design.

Planning - A Conventional Music Magazine Checklist and House Styles

           Checklist:

Front cover - 

           Masthead, photograph of musician, barcode, date, price, information on what is featured in the magazine.

Content - 

           Pictures of musicians, a contents page, advertisements, interviews with musicians, information about musicians and music.

In music magazines, continuity seems important, for example, each magazine has a 'house style' which is evident in every issue. A house style is important for two main reasons: a house style design is usually appealing, attracting the particular audience the magazine is aimed at; and the house style is a template in which every page is designed around, therefore, each page doesn't have to be designed by scratch.

I'm going to look at some of the music magazines which I find most attractive to see what elements make up their house style, I will then build my house style around those particular elements.

Planning - Name, Target Audience and Magazine Content

I've been considering names for my magazine and I believe that a name must reflect, in some way, what the magazine is about (for example, "Kerrang" is the sound that an amplified guitar produces, therefore "Kerrang" is a good name for a rock magazine).

The magazine I want to produce will consist of an eclectic taste in music and include information on the most popular musical artists of this era and will also feature some new or obscure, up and coming artists. The magazine will be an account of the latest news concerning popular music, music events and I'd like the magazine to be mainly focused on today's pop culture. I will aim it to the typical music magazine age demographic: 14 - 25 of both genders.

Some words that reflect the type of magazine that I'm aiming to produce:

- Eclectic,

- Obscure,

- Connection.

To set my magazine apart from others, to make it more appealing to potential buyers, I've decided to give it a longer, more gripping name.

I've decided on, "The Monthly Connection", Abbrev. - "The MC"

This is similar to "The NME" - "The New Musical Express"

School Magazine Cover Finished

After completing this cover, I feel I've been properly familiarised with photoshop and am now confident that I can use it again.

The main problem I encountered was because the photograph I took was taken at an angle. When rotated upright, a corner was cut off the subject of the picture. I covered the mistake by making the corner look intentional with some font and some strategic copying and cutting.

I used the airbrush tool and the smudge tool to make the picture look smoother, neater and more appealing and then used the burn tool to darken the eyes of the subject as well as each individual eyelash, a tedious task but with a noticeable and dramatic effect.

School Magazine Contents Page

Made on photoshop, this contents page was based on a contents page I found on the internet (pictured below), I used as a template and replaced the original pictures and text with my own.

School Magazine

We've been given a new task and so we've been told to bring our music magazine planning to a stand still for the moment as we have to produce a school magazine cover and contents page, I'm going to begin by taking pictures (medium close-up) of students working around the school, for the front cover photo and a few contents page pictures.

Photoshopping & House Styles

After my rough, yet, earnest attempt at photoshop (which I am, for some reason, unable to load up onto my blog) I am ready to look at the 'house styles' of some magazines for the inspiration of my own.

I first analyzed lots of covers of three different magazines and determined the typical layout and features each magazine present, I then (badly) sketched a mock of each magazine to display the typical layout, without any specific content included, I just presented the average cover for each magazine.



After producing these three examples, I sketched (again, badly) a prototype of 'the typical music magazine' which my own magazine will be based on.



Again, the actual wording on this particular example should be disregarded as it's only the layout that I am concentrating on at the moment.

Photoshop

We've learnt some basic tools on photoshop and so I'm going to attempt to edit some photos of a music concert I've been to recently and I will later post the results.

Cover Examples

I have found examples of three different magazine covers displaying the same band on the front of all three, this is to determine how each magazine differs in thier layout and presentation style.




Comparison

The most important part of the magazine, the title, is presented similarly in all three magazines, the titles are all of the biggest font on the page and are bold and stand out, although the exception with Kerrang! is that the main picture of the band has been brought out in front of the title, overlapping and covering half of it, whereas NME and Q have thier titles in the very foreground. This indicates that Kerrang! magazine seems to be more concerned with appealing to fans of the band they are featuring than focusing on, whereas, NME and Q may try to appeal more to thier regular readers. Q magazine displays little other features than the main band feature but I've noticed that Kerrang! covers are always busier including information on competitions, other bands and free posters. NME, like Q, has just a close-up shot of the lead singer of the band.

Front Cover Research Plan

I've deliberately left the front cover design and comparison research as the last chapter of my research as I intend to go into an in depth investigation; 

Collecting examples of NME, Q, Kerrang!, MOJO and BBC Music issue covers, 

Compiling an account of features found on any standard magazine 

And to pinpoint each magazine's unique design.

I have already compiled a sufficient collection of front cover examples, I will next make a list of elements found on all front covers, this is to make sure I don't fail to include any of those vital features, for example, a dated issue. I'm going to produce this list - along with a labeled diagram - on paper as, I personally, would find that easier, I will then scan the work to this blog. I've not decided on a format in which I'll present the cover design comparison and I've not decided on whether this comparison will be presented with some information about each magazine's unique design or produce a separate report, exploring each magazine design in depth.

After this task - and hopefully receiving reply emails from the magazine companies and collecting in the questionnaires I distributed - my research section should be complete and I can move on to planning my magazine.

Questionnaire

I will distribute this questionnaire around my 6th form year, older family members and some colleagues at work. Overall, fifteen questionnaires with five going to each group.



MAGAZINE QUESTIONAIRE


Your age?
(Mark applicable)

15-24 | |
25-34 | |
35-44 | |
45+ | |


Which music magazine are you most likely to purchase?
(Mark applicable)

-NME | |
-Q | |
-MOJO | |
-Kerrang! | |
-BBC Music | |



Why would you buy that magazine and why not the others?
(Note a few keywords for each magazine)

-NME: ____________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

-Q: _____________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

-MOJO: ____________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

-Kerrang!: _________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

-BBC Music: _______________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

Target Audiences

P.S. No replies from any magazine yet.


NME: Sammy Jacob, Programmingdirector, NME Radio - "We will be targeting the audience of NME magazine" ... "We will fundamentally target the 15-24 demographic and I expect that 75 per cent of our audience will be male"

Kerrang!: www.UKAOP.org.uk - "The core target audience for Kerrang! is 15-24 year olds with a 60:40 male/female split. Kerrang! has a weekly circulation of 70,000, and a regular readership of approximately 542,000."

MOJO: No information found about target audiences on the internet but after reading two MOJO magazines and comparing them to NME and Kerrang!, it seems the target audience are of a somewhat older age demographic as NME or Kerrang! but MOJO seems to focus on an audience whom prefer more obscure, unknown and 'older' music as opposed to NME which, these days, is based around the indie genre and Kerrang! which has always been solely about rock/metal.

Q: No information found about target audiences on the internet for Q magazine either, but as an almost life-long subscriber to both Q and NME, I find both magazine's target audience practically identical, although, Q may target an audience interested in a wider range of genre.

BBC Music: www.BBC.co.uk - "BBC Music Magazine has remained steady this year, keeping its crown as the UK's best-selling classical music monthly, and proving that it is successfully adapting to the fast changing consumer trends that we are seeing in the classical music market at the moment."
I've managed to acquire one of these elusive magazines from the counter at a piano dealership, it seems to target a mature audience of which must be deeply interested in classical music.

Next Step...

I've e-mailed NME, Q and Mojo but have not managed to acquire an e-mail address for a suitable department of Kerrang! and so I've sent an e-mail to BBC Music Magazine instead, which may actually be better for my research than Kerrang! as BBC Music is focused on classical music.

Next Step...
While I'm waiting for replies from the magazines, I'm going to compile some information on the audiences each company targets their magazine to.

Draft Letter To NME, Kerrang!, Q and Mojo

I have found that it is near impossible to locate an accurate account of sales for each of the four magazines, therefore I have decided to research in depth.
I have composed a letter to send to each of the magazine websites.



______ Magazine,

I am basing my A-level Media project on ______ magazine and am conducting some research on it. It would help my research enormously if you could tell me your average monthly sale figures in the UK.

Greatly appreciated,

Abi Williams,
Jersey College for Girls.

UK Music Magazines I Know Of

Echoes -
Essential black music.

Froots -
Roots, folk and world music.

Jazzwise -
Leading jazz.

Kerrang!* -
World’s biggest selling rock music.

Mojo* -
Rock, alternative and world music.

Music -
The BBC’s best-selling classical music magazine.

NME* -
Long established rock and pop.

The Wire* -
Adventurous, modern music.



*I own and have read at least two issues of this magazine

Magazine Decision.

I have decided to tackle the magazine task as I've read more magazines than I've seen movies.