Hand drawn ideas + drafts

Slogan and name ideas:
These are some ideas I came up with whilst thought showering the ideas. I will test a few out I like, at the minute I most like UpBeat and Rewind but backwards.





















Double page spread layouts-

Another three possible layouts I will be experimenting with but at the minute I prefer the third one.

Double page spread mock with found images

This is a basic layout and I'm hoping to achieve a more professional look with my final article. I like the coulour scheme and photo in this page but will add more images to break up the masses of text. I may also use a different colour for the headline becasue it makes it seem only as important as the smaller text and I want the headline to be more eye-catching.

Draft of contents

This is another idea for my contents page. I quite like this layout although in this draft I have forgotten to include the page numbers. I will be adding finishing touches to this draft soon. I like the coulour scheme as it's bright and eye-catching but I think I wil try it with  apage border around to see if it look sany better. I will probably use the same strip of colour with the website and page number at the bottom as I think its effective. I will also try using a background colour to fill the page and see if it works better. I also wuite like the 'lit up' kind of effect on the contents outline as it stands out more while leaving the magazines ident visible.

This is the same layout etc. but with a purple background, it doesn't look that good in my opinion as it's too bright and in your face so I will try other colours.

I like this orange background colour as it's not too bright and blends in well with all the other colours. I will definitely consider this scheme and will try it out on a front cover.

This is the same as above but with page numbers. This looks much better and I will probably decide between this and my other contents page design. The only major thing I need to add is page numbers next to the straplines in each section of the stories in the magazine.

This is my contents mock now I have named it 'REWIND' with a few amended cover lines. I will look to dramatically improve it after the draft stage of this page.

 The two following drafts are the same as above but shows how I have experimented with different possible background colours to suit the magazine.

Music genre

The genre of music I have chosen is chart/current music. I chose this because I like this type of music which will make it much easier for me to write about and produce if I have an interest in this type of music. I am going to present this genre of music in a positive light and promote this type of music. This genre of music is heard by everyone on a regular basis because the chart music is around everyone especially teenagers through to mid twentys year olds with it being on music channels having countdowns to the number 1 for the week every week taking over whatever is on music channels. The genre of music also surrounds us because people such as Robbie Williams and Cheryl Cole are always on t.v or in the news for one thing or another. This familiarity the public have with Pop and R 'n' B music stars will help me create a magazine based around these stereotypes. Q is going to be influential in helping me decide upon layouts for pages and what their photos are like and where they are taken. This will help me create a more specific magazine to the genre I have chosen with it being a currently published magazine. This genre typically expects artists to wear fashionable and new clothes to which audiences get ideas for their own fashion.

Market research of media companies

These are three leading media companies who produce some of the bets music magazines around. Their magazines and radio shows have huge audiences and are recognised globally so I researched into them to see how they target their audience and interact with them.

IPC Media produce 2 popular music magazines (NME + UNCUT). Their websites in total reach 14 million+  users every month which further adds to me including my magazines website address somewhere on the page to help attract more customers. A staggering two thirds of women almost in the UK alone read a media print from the IPC media company and 42% of men in the UK totalling almost 26 million adults in the UK. This company focuses on three main audiences which are men, mass market women and upmarket women. I can certainly use this to improve the audience of my magazine to achieve a more recognised magazine and attract more customers. This company certainly can provide me with an insight into how to make a successful magazine which could sell well. IPC set up a management development department in 1965 to steady its revenue so that its various categories wouldn't be in competition with each other for the same type of markets. This led to a shuffle in groups. In 1968 six divisions were put in place: IPC Newspapers, IPC Magazines, IPC Trade and Technical, IPC Books, IPC Printing and IPC New Products.

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

Bauer is another example of a successful institution who produce 80+ media brands. The most notable music magazines they produce is definitely Kerrang and Q. They also cover a wide range of interests such as lifestyle and football to name a few and their products reach 19million UK adults. Kerrang has a radio show and t.v channel as well as it's famous magazine and it also has a website as do all the leading music magazines. Q also has a t.v channel and radio station and contains all sorts of music genres. Bauer media has been managed by four generations of the Bauer family. Originally a small printing house but the Bauer publishing group has grown into a worldwide media company recognised globally. The Bauer publishing group contains 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started in the UK with the Bella magazine in 1987.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

Conde Nast is an American based magazine publication company who were founded in 1907. Condé Nast created the magazine marketing idea which emphasized on magazines focused on a particular class or interest. Many Condé Nast magazines have a main focus of fashion although the company's publications also include food, home and other topics. By 1998 the group included 17 of these magazines and many of them the largest in their markets. It had a production total of over 13 million issues a month and it estimated that readers would be five times larger. Charles Townsend is the current CEO of Condé Nast, Robert Sauerberg is the current president, Louis Cona is the chief marketing officer and David Carey is the current group president. Thomas J. Wallace was promoted from his position as editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveler  is now the editorial director. One of Condé Nast's oldest publications, the 106-year old US edition of House and Garden magazine stopped publication of this magazine after the December 2007 issue.

http://www.condenast.com/

Digital mock-up using found images

This is a mock-up of a contents page using images I have gathered from the Internet of existing music artists. I tried to keep a similar look with the colours to the front page which was difficult with the background of the front cover being a picture not a coloured background. The grey on this page for the background is similar to the grey on Eminems hoody in his picture I used for the front cover. I tried to keep all the text easily visible and all the images appropriately sized. Although this draft looks ok I want to produce a far better contents page when making the real one because I think the page is a bit boring and dull compared to my loud and busy front cover. At the minute I'm thinking of using this kind of layout with the subheadings to the stories because it looks more organised and easy to find the bits you want to see first at a glance. I like the colour scheme as it keeps with the house style colours continued from the front cover but I may change the colour scheme in later drafts depending on how it looks. I definitely want the website address on every page somewhere because it is a necessity of a successful magazine, especially with everything transferring to the Internet in recent times which would also show that the magazine is updated with new technologies it's readers use. I got this idea of it running along the bottom with the page number from my earlier college magazine which worked well although I will have to change around the layout of certain images and pieces of text to find out which looks best. I also like the effect of drawing my own masthead to the page with the paintbrush tool on Photoshop because it looks like it has a creative touch which makes it a bit unique compared to all other magazines which have standard font styles all similar to one another. I also like the circular shapes inset on the photos with a page number linking it with a story on the contents page, I will use this in my final design because I think its very effective.

LIIAR Interpretation of the brief

I am going to produce a music magazine which will contain a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread. This magazine will be linked with a specific genre of music which I need to decide on. I will be considering many things when designing, producing and planning my music magazine. I will do this  using the LIIAR technique.

Language

My magazine will contain language that is easily understood by all levels of music lovers to enable everyone in society to engage with my magazine. I want all classes of people to read my magazine and have no one singled out. Therefore I must include appropriate text which everyone understand whilst remaining adult and professional. A professional look is vital to my magazine as I want it to come across as existing music magazines do. I won't use words only related to one genre of music because I don't want any kind of bias attitudes towards music genres and will reflect all artists interviewed and presented in this magazine fairly. When constructing my magazine pages I must include all important conventions such as a masthead, strap line, puff, cover line, barcode, price, date, issue number, and photo captions.

Institution

As well as maintaining a professional look throughout it is vital that I reflect the company my magazine will be modelled on in a positive light. If I don't manage this I could be sacrificing the reputation of my magazine and attract criticism. 

Ideology

Before producing my final piece I will be considering what beliefs I want to convey in this magazine. These beliefs will be shown from the front cover pictures background to it's model's fashion sense. All factors must be considered to get across the beliefs I want my magazine to carry. I will decide what genre and layout techniques I will be using to produce a music magazine which will result in an accurate perception of my beliefs about the genre of music I am displaying.

Audience

Whilst considering what age range my magazine will be aimed at I must take into account how much income this age band has to spend on a magazine which will in turn effect how often I release my magazine to keep readers updated whilst not putting them out of pocket financially. To get an accurate idea about how much existing magazines cost I will research into this and use it to my advantage when pricing my magazine. As I progress the development of my magazine I will refine my audience slightly to focus on an even smaller age range and a particular sex more than the other to target more readers associated with this genre of music. Knowing the audience of my magazine will also be vital in dictating what kind of colours I use and what layout they would most prefer.

Representation

Another important factor which must be considered is how I am going to present people in my magazine. I will use stereotypes mainly but will mix it up a little and not stick to a predictable representation. I will make sure I represent society as equal and not sway any texts favourable of a certain sexuality or race, religion etc. This is crucial to keeping a good reputation and keeping customers.