Audience feedback (Font ideas)

 These are people who commented on Facebook about which colours they thought would suit which ever font they liked.

Artist font ideas

A few fonts i liked

font ideas

Double page spread lay-out

Contents lay-out

Front cover lay-out

Mood Board

The reason i chose these pictures is because they tie in with my audience and genre.

The yellow things pulling faces and the masks show different emotions which is what rap/hip hop is trying to do, express emotion through what they're saying. The kids dancing represent youth (the age of the audience) as well as hip hop dance moves. The penguin and two guys with jewelery represent what most people see the general rap/hiphop artist would be like, this is also shown by the bling bling as most are presumed to wear mass amounts of jewelery. The pictures of the grafiti covered wall show different ways of expressing your emotion instead of singing. They have the same sort of theme but different ways of expressing the same message.

Further Ideas

Potential contents stories

1. Where do artists get their inspiration (Pictures of natural scene or wonders of te world)
2. Upcoming festivals and tours
3. What to look forward to in 2013 (albums, tours etc)
4. Subscribe page
5. New artists coming through the ranks
6. Who is Professor Green (The man behind the mystery)
7. Highest ever itunes download ratings for hip hop and rap artists

Front cover story

• Is there a softer side behind TANK?

RMA Correct Genre

Front Cover

• Very bright and bold colours - Purple, gold, pink, yellow, orange
• Most have direct address
• Coverline has chains around it (rap theme)
• Title is the same colour as the artists clothing and the title and cover lines
• Very associated with the artist not a huge amount of cover lines relying on artist to sell magazine
• Creating a theme is important

Contents

• Simply laid out with easy to read text
• Has 2 columns with the main article looking like a pull quote inbetween
• 7 stories in total each have 2 titles one is a sentence in their article and the other is the title of the article

Double page spread

• Picture fills one whole page
• Items of clothing match the colour of the title (like front cover)
• Pull quote
• 3 columns
• Title is is a fancy font
• Whenever the artists name is meantioned in the text or title is has a different font style to normal bold

Construction Table

Mrs D

Well done Callum. You have some great ideas. You need to refine your audience ages as 13 - 22 is a little broad. Your ideas for your mian article are great and fit with your research. Add what ideas you have for your contents and keep up the good work.

RMA analysis

From my real media artefacts i have learnt that linking the colour of the title and the main headline is very important, coverlines also should link in with the colour and the theme of the front cover. Another important thing was that the artist on the front cover needs to also link to the title for example if the title is in green the artist could be eating a green apple or wearing something that is green. This is also evident on the double page spread as well. Word choices are also what the music magazine use to try and pull in the reader, words like "exclusive, new" also violent words are used "destroys, kills". The biggest thing i have learnt from my RMA's are that making the contents simple and layed out in columns as well as the text on double page spreads as well. This is because you can have a extravagent front cover messy and cool fonts but for the more information rich pages like the contents and double page spread text it needs to be simple, readable and easy on the eye.

Initial ideas (proposal)

For my music magazine i would like to base it on the music genres rap and hip hop and it would target teenagers between the ages of 16-22 The gender i would like to reach is mostly male as they are the main consumer of this genre of music (link at the bottom shows). I would like to make the colour scheme with a dark background so the title, coverlines and the artist really stand out (i.e bright colours like red, orange, yellow, green). My artist will be named tank. This is to try and fit the generall trend wth the new artists like drake, tinie tempah and dizzy rascal. My main article will be a exclusive interview with the artist about his new album coming out as well as his UK tour. The fonts that i think will be used are bold and solid for the word tank and the title about the artist, but the title for the magazine will be a mixture between bold and play. This means that it will be bold and stand out but to emphasise the flow of rap and hip hop music there will be something different. For example maybe one of the letters is a different font or higher/lower than the rest. Something that shows that this magazine is worth reading.


http://www.survelum.com/survey-results/jeff-lafreniere-sur-99/

Mrs D

Well done for hitting your first deadline.

There is some good analysis here - but you need to sum up what you have learnt from your RMA analysis.

Research notes

From my planning and research i have learnt that using technoloy like the apple ipad is key in getting your magazine to sell to new markets. This technology means you can vary the range of people your music magazine appeals to. Another important thing is to make sure that if you offer a subscription service you cover lots of country's, using supermarkets is also a huge part of getting your magazine out there. They may only sell one of copies but if someone buys one and likes it they may be inquizitive and look on the internet for the website and encourage them to subscribe.

Pricing is also another important factor when selling your magazine. Unless you are well known and have a good fan base or following the magazine has to be priced fairly low otherwise people will go with what they trust and know as appose to something new.

Advertising is also important, and there are many ways to get your magazine known for example at festivals there is mass space for advertisement and if you want to advertise that is the best way to be direct and get to the fans and your target market. Using well known artists will also help increase your magazine's popularity, often people will buy magazines for who is on the front cover because it is a artist they like. This creates a attraction to that magazine for the artists fans as in most cases the article is possitive about their star.

Another way that is one of the most important things my research has told me is to use high street music stores like HMV. Since 2006 the amount of music stores has dropped dramatically this is resulting in people mass buying at these stores to keep them going and the figures between 2011-12 saw a 20% rise in people buying at these types of stores. This will only get bigger as people no longer neglect the stores. Using HMV you can use them for a subscription service meaning you give HMV a percentage of the profits for them to deliver the magazine and advertise it in store this is what NME and KERRANG! do to sell their magazine.

Product placement

The NME distrubute their magazine in a variety of different countries and so do many other music magazine subscriptions. They are currently offering subscriptions in places like afghanistan and zimbabwe and currently are servicing over 1/3 of the world in over 180 countries.

Magazines are very popular as last year 625,127 music magazines were sold in the UK. The music industry is growing and therefore so is the variations in music magazines. The most popular magazines seem to lean more towards the multi music category and dont just take in one genre of music most of them take multiple genres and mash them together. Although there are subscriptions through the internet places like HMV and other highstreet music stores are starting to do subscription services as well and they are helping music magazines like Kerrang selling more issues and subscriptions.

Most of the Music magazines i looked at varied heavily in price some lower key magazines selling for £1.50 and the lowest which was DnB weekly sells for £1.00. Many of the more recognised brand names in selling music magazines tend to be more expensive and that is why theyoffer the subscription services making them vastly cheaper. However paying your subscriptions and collecting it yourself from places like HMV make it even cheaper then going through places like NME direct.

Supermarkets are also getting more involved with music magazines as they are selling issues of NME and KERRANG and seeing them in store is a much higher possibility than 1 year ago. They tend not to sell the subscription service but do have the up to date copies most weeks. What is more important is keeping up with the technology that is constantly changing. The invention of the ipad and iphone now means the apple store can sell the subscription through the app called imagazines and this means it is easier for people to go download there favourite magazines rather than going to the shops and getting it.

Real media artefact 3

Magazine analysis

Front cover

This issue of the NME relies on the male on the front cover to sell the magazine. The main headline is in white and says “The record that changed my life” and we can only assume that the record he is holding is the one the title means. Note that the ineer part is red matching the NME red and many other coverlines across the page. The ultimate guid stands out alot as well because is is red like the title but in a square secluding it from the rest of the page. I talks about free gigs and what you need to know. Arctic monkeys reveal... also gets the reader interested as it says reveal but no more which amkes the reader want to find out what they are revealing. Language used can also appeal to the reader, "Frank turner destroys wembley, special live report" The word destroys makes it seem violent and appealing to teenagers make of female. the live report and special will also make people want to know what he did. Unusually the NME title is lower down as there is a title above it that stretches the width of the page. Doing this also makes it important added with the word choice "exclusive and Megastar" makes it very interesting.

Contents

Standard lay out for a NME contents page with the bold title "INSIDE THIS WEEK" and the columns with the more interesting articles. The contents has the bold page numbers next to the picture and the article to show their together as well as the lines hat seperate them. There are two different  font sizes and font styles for each of the articles for example the middle article has a big title in italics and below it has a smaller sized bold text. This shows a preview of the title of the article at the top and the one below is a snip or maybe a first sentence of what is in the text on that page. The biggest picture tends to be the most interesting and shows "Cedric" swinging from the rafters.

Double Page spread

The title of this double page spread is "Drake's progress" this is gold and this is the scene on the page. There are gold words instead of bold and two gold drop caps one bigger than another. The bigger one starts the text and the 2nd one starts with the last paragraph on the text "Drake". There is a small coverline and a line of gold which seperates the title from the text. There are three columns neatly layed out with a pull quote inbetween column 1 and 2. The quote is black bold with Drake in gold. The theme of gold mathecs to the picture of drake in the next picture as he is wearing a gold chain and a gold watch.

Real media arterfact 2

Magazine analysis

Front cover

The main focus of the magazine is the title there are no pictures of artists who are selling the mag. This shows they trust the headline to sell the magazine for them. NME is in red on the header and in the title. The buttons of the various artists give you a sneak peak about what some of the top 100 artists are. There are no cover lines on this magazine apart from one underneath the header which says 60years of the world greatest music magazine. The cover line matches the message from the title as their both historic and that’s why the title is what it is. It is recognising the 60 years the NME has been an issue as well as the top 100 songs during their reign.

Contents

The contents are very ordered and organised which was opposite from the front cover with all the buttons scattered across the page this shows they want to show what’s on offer easily instead of making it complicated and the. The bottom right hand corner has an NME subscription advertisement. The title of the contents is in bold “INSIDE THIS WEEK” and shows this is a information rich page instead of showing you pictures but pictures are next to each article inside the magazine to show you what it is about. The biggest picture tends to be the most important and on the contents page it is “We wrote a popular song by accident”. Each article on the contents has a title and a little bit of bold writing which is a snip of the article.

Double page spread

This is a picture of thousands of people at a festival and the bold red title attracts attention immediately. There is a drop cap W in the text which is also red and the sub titles in the text as well. The cover line underneath the title is black but has the white box around it like the title separating it from the picture. Other pictures on the page are overlapping and made to look like a photo with the white outline. In the text “The Carling Refresh Rooms” are in bold making them stand out from the text and drawing attention to them, in addition to this there logo is in the top right hand corner of the double page spread and above them it says NME promotion.

Real media artefact 1

Magazine analysis

The magazine is called “NME” which is an abbreviated version of new musical express. By being 3 letters long it makes the title easier to remember for the public. It also has a meaning of violence enemy “NME”. This makes it feel young and rebellious and will attract younger people of any gender.

The magazine is promoted by a variety of different artists like nicki minaj and dizzy rascal who represent more of a pop element. Normally the focus would only be one band or artist but this magazine is promoting their ultimate festival guide for 2012 meaning they are telling you all the music festivals that are going to be happening over the next year to come as well as possible headline acts and other people that will be performing. Most of the artists on the front cover are all looking at the camera with direct address and they are all wearing what seems to be there stage clothes or performing clothes, for example dizzy rascal with his chains and Liam Gallagher with his trademark sunglasses.

The main story is the same colour as the letters “NME” this is to show that it is the main story as well as it being the biggest on the page. The cover lines add different colours to the magazine and give the reader a sneak preview of what is inside. Being male dominated on the front the splash of yellow above the only female artist gives it a feminist feel and will still encourage women to buy the magazine

The language used on this front cover tries to encourage the audience to buy it, with words like "ultimate" and "new". Although at first glance the cover may be in your face and rebellious it does have a mature and sophisticated word lay out. By this i mean that although the pictures show people playing guitars and posing but the test is still ordered and in columns.

The contents page is very sophisticated in the way it’s laid out due to the fact that everything has its own column. This makes it seem the opposite of its appearance which is rebellious and violent which could be the outer shell and just done to pull in more buyers. Being laid out very simply the reader can see what is inside this week’s issue and go to where they want to. There is very little colour on this page all black text and white background with splashes of colour in the pictures. This is trying to draw your attention more to the pictures than the text.

The double page spread is very different as it has a picture of Mumford & sons on stage linking the two pages and bringing them together. Instead of a traditional banner along the top of the page there is a bright orange one to the left hand side, this pulls the reader there and makes them start there and work their way along as well as contrasting with the white plain background. Big number on the page show the reader the way it should be read as well as the headline acts being in bright colours to emphasise they are the focus of attention.

There are links on the double page spread to the front cover as one of the Mumford & son’s guitarists are on the front and dizzy rascal is also there as well. This will tell the reader that this is the main article as there are things linking it to the front. There are many pictures on the double page spread which make the image of the magazine seem very ordered as there are columns and lines separating stories. It feels like the magazine wants to show you what the festivals look like instead of boring you with stacks of text.

Prelim 2nd draft

Audience feedback prelim

Audience feedback

Front Cover

·         Too many headlines on the front page

·         Main headline needs picture near it

·         Too many colours, contrasting

·         Too many different font types

·         Picture is cut off at the bottom

·         Not laid out in columns or a organised pattern

·         No colour white background boring

Contents

·         Everything from the front page is repeated

·         Too many different font sizes

·         Style varies so much

·         New story’s on the contents not just the same on the front

·         Needs something to stop the story’s merging together

·         More colour and life to it

·         White back ground boring

Prelim 1st draft

Media Check List