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.