Music Magazine Completed Front Cover

Drafting of Music Magazine

This is a frist drafting of my music magazine made using InDesign. To start the process i uploaded an image which i felt would work well on my cover, I choose this one because of the prominent space for the left third and the eye contact targeting the masthead. I also designed the masthead for my pop magazine, i initially wrote the word 'Voice' and capitalised it to make it stand out. I wanted a simple san-serif style font type and selected a few which would be effective and conventional on a pop magazine. The one i thought looked best for a pop genre magazine aimed at teenage girls was 'Century Gothic' it looks simple yet dominant on my cover. I used tools on InDesign once i had choose a font type and altered the angle of the 'V' this makes it look unique and suits the overall style i hoped to gain. I wanted an evident line beneath the masthead to underline it and make it clear.

This is the second draft for my music magazine cover. The adaptations i have made from my previous draft was inserting my main cover lines. This was done by adding 3 separate texts and editing them to make them have there own unique style but yet have a theme that occurs so it looks conventional for a pop magazine, this is shown by the colours i have used making each text pink but adding elements of blue to make it different and more enticing to the audience. I have placed them below my main image and central to the page due to it being the main focus and aspect of my cover it is important it stands out from the other cover lines i will add next.

After editing around i decided to change the layout from my previous draft. I have changed my main cover line making it more bold and interesting. It has an overall theme of pink and blue with elements of orange because these are covers that reflect the pop genre also by having 3 colours it makes it stand out more and shows a good ratio of each colour.I have created a consistent theme with the font styles too so it looks presentable but with samples of unique text to make it different and eye catching. There are still improvements to be made from this draft but the overall layout and styling i am happy with and feel it fits the conventions well so far.

 From my previous draft i have now added a image that suits the pop genre. It relates to one of my cover lines being 'Win tickets to the 1D stadium tour'. Having a pink banner at the bottom is conventional for a pop magazine and makes the cover line stand out. I also added a barcode as this is essential for a magazine.

This is a draft showing all my cover lines in place. I feel the layout looks well structured and there is a good colour ratio which makes it stand out and suits the pop genre accordingly. The masthead stands out the most which is good as it attracts the audience. The main cover line is also dominant and will promote the artist well. All cover lines are music related and will reflect the content inside. I feel when the final image is placed it will look like a real media product.

 My final draft shows the finished product with the image in place, the image shows a direct look to the audience and portrays a stereotypical pop artist. I feel the text works suitably around it and the layout works out well with all text being easy to read and each stands out.

Proposal for Music Magazine

The audience i will be targeting my magazine at are those who are fans of the pop genre and listen to pop music. I will aim to target teenage girls aged 13-16. It will be a magazine only accessible in the UK and therefore the audience will be spread to those who live in the UK region and like pop culture.

The image i have proposed for my cover is a teenage girl who acts as the pop artists, the style will be fun and girly showing this with the expressions and poses. It has a white plain background so that this becomes effective and easy to work with when placing text and features onto the cover. I photographed the images at home in a room with good lighting, and used lighting effects to brighten it further.

The genre of music i have chosen is pop, i concluded this would be the best genre to appeal to because of the popularity and the mass audience it could be targeted at. It is a genre with a wide spread of content that could be featured and many people will be enticed to buy it for the genre it is.

The content i will include in my pop magazine is typically gossip in relation to pop artists. It will feature interviews, facts, new releases, quizzes and competitions. It will initially be like the mainstream pop magazines, except mine will include more music related topics as well as gossip and will include less fashion content. The target audience will have a selection of everything they hope to find in a pop magazine plus more. I have chosen the main topics of 'Pop, Gossip, Boys' because those are the conventional features of a pop magazine for the target audience i have chosen to aim at.

From researching other pop magazines i have come up with a selection of cover lines which would fit with the content of my magazine. '1Dful Prizes to be won!' this would entice the reader because the '1D' relates to One Direction, suggesting there will be prizes in relation to them to be won in the magazine, '1Dful' is a catchy way of saying wonderful and will capture the audiences attention when they see '1D'. 'Pops Hottest Couple' 'Big confessions' 'Exclusive look at ...' cover lines like this will be used on my magazine because they reflect the gossip aspect, they will entice the audience because they are short lines which do not explicitly reveal what is included and therefore the magazine has to be purchased to find out the full aspect. 'Harry Styles reveals all! '"I'd date a fan"' a cover line like this will attract fans of one direction because of the quote and the secrecy they would want to read more. I will also have puff and plugs like '101 facts' 'Plus...' 'Free poster with this issue!'. For the main cover line it will include the name of the new pop artist in which i have photographed for the main image, it will have cover line of 'Pops Newest Edition'. Other pop artists names will be menioned to attract a wider variety of people who are fans of a selection of celebrities, such as Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Little Mix, Olly Murs.

The title i have decided on is 'Voice' the reason for this is because I wanted my masthead to consist of just one word to keep it simple yet effective. Having a one word title dominates the cover and will catch the audiences attention. The style can also be altered more effectively. The word voice has a direct correlation to music. For a pop magazine it sounds fun and shows the music aspect to the magazine. I rejected other title ideas such as 'Factor', 'Teen Pop', 'Pop Party', 'Love Pop' due to the fact that they sounded to conventional for a Pop magazine. I wanted the magazine cover itself to have the pop vibe without being to perceptible with the name. They were also ones that would be commonly used for a pop magazine and therefore i decided to steer away from that.

The fonts i opt to use on my cover will be a range of san serif fonts. I have decided to dismiss the use of serif fonts on my cover because they do not emulate the current feel of a pop genre magazine. i have chosen to use fonts like Century Gothic, Arial Black, Calibri, Chalkduster and Veranda, i think these font styles will create a fun and relevant feel to my cover and make it look young and creative.

I will aim to publish my magazine in spring/summer, this reasoning for this is because of the colour and themes i wish to use. I want the initial colour scheme to include bright colours. I will use the colour pink because it is a stereotypical female colour and will show the fun/bubblegum pop aspect to my magazine. To add additional colour i will include blue or green because it will compliment the pink colour and stand out on the cover, the cover lines will alternate in each of these colours. The colour white will also be obvious on my cover. Due to it being published during this time i will feature topics which corroborate this. It will be published on a monthly basis, i think this is realistic in terms of the content that could be included. By doing it monthly it could have a wider and more elaborate update on the previous issue, for example new music releases, up to date gossip, chart music and tour dates. it could also change with the seasons and events that occur during the year.

The dimensions of my music magazine will be the average A4 size. 19 width x 27 length. 

For my contents page i will continue will the general theme of my cover, using the same pink, blue and white colour scheme. The images will include my own photography from concerts, a photo of my featured new artist and possibly images that relate to my content like make up or prizes that could be won. The price of my magazine will be £2.50, i have chosen to price it as this because as i researched other pop magazines i found that both 'We love Pop' and 'Top of the Pops' are priced at £2.99, therefore i opted to be cheaper in order to compete with existing magazines. 

Initial Ideas and Flat Plan

Photography

Photography

Photography Ideas

For my music magazine i plan to photograph a female teenage girl to act as my pop artist for my pop genre magazine. I will take inspiration from Ariana Grande, portraying the typical fun, happy and girlie style. I will intentionally style my model with bright make up and wearing bright coloured clothes which are girly and fun. She will be wearing a skirt or dress to convey the fun aspect. The background of my image will be plain white, this will allow the cover lines to be easily placed and seen clearly. 

Cover Image Photography Research

These examples of magazine covers have prominent aspects of effective photography. There are examples of rule of third, lines and angles, colour and focal points that have been used purposely to direct the audience to the image and its conventions.

The Vanity Fair magazine features Lady Gaga, she is placed in the third section of the page, therefore insisting the audience to be drawn to that area of the magazine, this also allows the left third to be the main focus for the cover lines. Her face is central to the intersection of the thirds which immediately captures the audiences attention to that point. Her eyes are focused forwards creating eye contact to the audience although it is done discretely, due to them not being widely open and prominent on the image. The contrast of the colour of her face to the colour of her body clothing creates a focal point to the face and therefore making it a more effective element of the image. The colour is used as a theme for the magazine as a whole making it dark and grey, her styling initially creating this theme. The image appears to be taken from a low angle, due to the whole positioning of her body being shot and the angle of her eyes looking down to show eye contact to the camera.

The photograph used for The Source magazine is showing a close up with the main focus being the face and expression in relation to the gun that is used as a prop. The rule of third is not as obvious in this image due to it being central, although the eye line is focused on the intersection of the upper third. The gun and the central of his face acts as a line due to it being positioned to be acted as a line down the page.

Research Evaluation

From my research I looked into various magazine genres, ranging from rock, rap, dance, indie and pop. From a personal preference I felt I wanted to create a pop magazine. My reasoning for this is that i found there is a distinct gap in the market for a solely based pop magazine. Pop magazines also show a distinct genre and it can be easily identified to be a pop magazine if its done correctly, therefore i wish to convey this during the process if making my magazine. The pop magazines that currently exist are not dominantly pop related, they tend to focus on gossip, pop culture, beauty and fashion. I want to create a magazine that will include new music releases, chart updates, tour exclusives and competitions for concerts. Although i found that these topics can be found easily on the internet via social media sites, i feel that because of my audience being young this may not be easily accessible for them but they still want to be up to date with whats new in the pop industry, therefore my magazine will suit those who still like to buy magazines to find out exclusive information. I found many existing pop magazines that are widely read by many young teenage girls. The most well known are 'We Love Pop' and 'Top Of The Pops'. From analysing these magazines i have found the general style and layout of the conventional pop magazines, including the colours, font styles and placing of cover lines and additional text. I found that every conventional existing pop magazine used the colour pink as a main colour, they also used black, white and brighter colours like blue, yellow, orange and purple. Most magazine i found incorporate 3 main colours into their magazine to make a 'house style'. To show that my magazine will be a conventional pop magazine i will be using the colour pink and also adding two other colours that will work well and show it to be a pop magazine for girls. I found that all magazines have an inclusion of popular boy bands, in particular One Direction therefore to connect with my audience i will include them in my magazine. I found that they typically used many cover lines and make the page filled with content, this is something i will attempt without making it too over powering. I found that the main image must be related to the main cover line and make it apparent that they connect, it must be bold and stand out from the other cover lines. It will also have relation to the double page spread. I found that researching into typical DPS it includes a large image which is the main focus and a quotation as the main title. Also pull quotes are used to add additional stances to gain the readers attention, these are aspects i will incorporate into my magazine double page spread. I found that the contents pages include the front cover as a way of navigating the main cover lines, this is something i will replicate as i think it looks effective and is conventional of a pop magazine. I will also include a editors note as this is something i found is commonly associated with pop magazines. 

Target Audience

The audience I will be aiming my pop magazine at is young/teenage girls. They will be the typical girls who attend pop music concerts and listen to music via YouTube and engage in social media. They will listen to artists such as One Direction, The Vamps, Katy Perry, Little Mix, Jessie J and the typical chart music.

They will be readers of existing pop magazines such as 'We Love Pop', 'Top of The Pops' and 'Teen Now'.

I found that they are likely to be young girls aged between 10-17 depending on the genre they listen too and how interested they are in this genre.

I created a survey to find out what the audiences will want from a pop magazine and what the expect.

How much would you pay for a music magazine? ²£0.50-£1.00 ²£1.01-£1.50 ²£1.51-£2.00 ²£2.01-£2.50 ²More	3 2 1 4 0
What colours do you expect to see on a pop magazine? ²Pink, Yellow, Blue ²Purple, Blue, Green ²Black, Red, White ²Pink, Blue, Purple ²Other	3 1 0 5 1
What content do you wish to find in a pop magazine? ²Gossip ²Style and Beauty ²Reviews ²Quizzes ²Competitions ²	2 1 2 2 3
What entices you the most on a front cover? ²Puff and Plug ²Cover Lines ²Image ²Tagline ²Other	4 2 4 0 0

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WDCTM57

Words associated with pop

I have put together a random selection of words that i believe are associated with the word pop. This is the process i used to think of a name for my pop magazine.

Existing Pop Magazines Analysis

I have found that the typical content for existing pop magazines are obviously gossip based on the pop artists, such as behind the scenes of music videos and tours and celeb crushes. There is also a vast amount of beauty and fashion associated with pop magazines, like celeb style steals and make up tutorials. There is a wide range of competitions and quizzes to be involved in, like winning concert tickets, signed merchandise, meeting the celebrities and products like make up and fashion items. All pop magazines have a feature of posters that can be cut out and stuck on the readers bedroom wall, most of these posters being of boy bands and male pop artists.