Monday, 30 January 2012

The double page feature my magazine

The feature for my dps will be about how a young girl, soon to be 18, who as had a tragic and hard adolescence has now become the biggest upcoming artist for 2012.


The index of the article:
 Arianrhod is the biggest upcoming artist for the New Year and has America at her feet. So where do all the emotions her songs are filled with come from?



Some of the pictures taken for my dps:


The style/look

I want the magazine to look very delicate -simple but strong, similarities to both NME and Q. It is inspired by the design of both those two magazine layouts but also an online indie magazine. http://www.indiego.at/ The style and look of the magazine is not only based on the ratio and location of text and picture on the page but it is also a lot of weight on how the picture looks, by using mise-en-scene. The inspiration for both the indie style and design is therefore coming from several places; NME, Kerrang!, Q, http://www.indiego.at/ and a indie blog http://thepetfanclub.blogspot.com/.
So I want my front page to be powerful, similar to the NME front cover I analysed, as well as I want my dps to be slightly similar in proportion to the NME’s dps – it comes back to simple but powerful. And for my contents page I want it more like Q’s contents – lot of pictures as well as information on what the picture is of and what is further inside the magazine.

My target audience

Lilly is 19 years old and has a deeply passion for fashion as well as for music. When she was about 15 years old she started reading music magazine discovering artist, band and different genres of music. As she grew older she developed a certain interest for Indie Pop and Indie Rock and the fashion that followed. She started buying several magazines containing this genre, reading the magazine from start to finish, also finding her favourite artist within Indie, who she followed by internet and twitter and of course had all their songs on her IPod. The fashion within this genre inspired her, so she started sowing her own cloth, similar to the ones she saw in the magazines and those she saw on the Internet of what they were wearing to all from concerts to on a daily basis. Lilly really like making her own clothes and accessories - she liked her individuality and she were also really good at it.
Therefore choose to study further at Leeds university, where she could both get the music as well as the fashion. Lilly is now living and breathing music, going to gigs, hearing the music as well as having an eye open for inspiration for new designs for her clothing line. She is still reading several music magazines a month and uses her music 24/7 for both pleasure and inspiration. 
                             
Pictures from http://www.indiego.at/ 


The name of my magazine

Since the magazine is based on the indie pop genre I was thinking of names reflecting back to the music type which would make it easy for my readers to understand the genre of the magazine. My thoughts around a name went all from “Creation” with the C in big and bold letters but with some suggestions I ended up playing around with the word Indie. Where I ended up with the letters InD, with the i in the beginning highlighted with big bold letters, as the D follows the i in same size and font where the N is the placed either inside the i letter or the D letter in white. 
This is what I ended up with: 


The style of music

 My magazine’s music genre is Indie Pop and Indie Rock, which I have chosen as it is one of my own personal favourite music genre. The design and style is based on information found on Internet and gathered through research and analysis of NME, Kerrang! and Q. I personally think of Indie Pop/Rock as an alternative music which can both be very aggressive but also very tranquil. I like that every song has a story or a meaning behind it, matching every mood I might be in. As well as the fashion within Indie, simple but with certain details to the outfit. 


Style sheet

The style sheet i've made shows what types of fonts, type of photography and what colour scheme i plan to use in my magazine. I want my masthead to be simple but stand out so it is easy to see, therefore i have chosen helvetica in bold. I want the front cover to be keept clean and simple with minimalistic colours (cream white, peach and gray) and with simple fonts so the concentration and attention will be dragged to the picture. On the contents page, i want to use many different colours as well as many fonts that should create a connection between the font and the image. I.E. Two guys posing to be "bad ass" - i would use more a bold and hard font to reflect on their "hard" attitude. I want the double page spread to be simple with mostly use of red, white and black. Simple pictures with attitude and a simple font for the text. 

Secondary research - Media packs

NME
With the information from Nme’s media pack I found out that their main reader is male with an average age of 25, matching their target market, which is male 17-30. Their readers are attracted to the magazine as 80% of them feel that music is an important part of their lives, where NME introduce them to new artist, bands, albums etc. They know that another way to attract a wider rage of readers is to widen the information they give though the magazine; by listing the new and upcoming artist with the magazine genre, also having old and original artist with their biggest hits or their newest song, building the readers knowledge and interest to know either more about the artist or hearing about them for the first time. Another way the attract readers is giving information of upcoming concerts and articles about past.  As 26% of their readers are students and 34% are working full time they have to find a balance between giving the students articles and news that they will find as interesting as a full time worker will.  Other information from NME’s media pack show us that their readers are also very faithful to the magazine, by 62% reading at least 3 out of 4 issues and 49% have been reading NME for at least 3 years. Concluding, 84% of their readers find that the magazine gives them what they want and therefore give it an average of 46 minutes reading each issue.

Kerrang!
With the information from Kerrang!’s media pack I understand that their way of attracting readers is their way of being an integral part of the scene rather than just commentating. Their also aiming for a age group that is rather hard and expensive to reach but as well as their magazine not only brings the reader information about music but also films, games and further technology they build a wider rage of interest for the different readers. They balance their magazine to contain of bands and scenes that will appeal to different types of readers in different age groups, as to give the reader variety, news of their favorite bands but also introducing them for new artist and bands. Kerrang! is known by its reader it be especially concentrating on rock music and rock gigs etc. It is the biggest weekly music magazine in the world and they have a enormous readership of 421,000 people where 70% is solus readership.

Q
With information from Q’s media pack and by looking at the design of the magazine it is easy to understand and see that they aim for a different and more sophisticated age group than NME and Kerrang! is targeting. Their median age is 29 years old. Something all the magazines has in common is that they main reader and main target is male, which 68% of Q’s readers are male. Which isn’t such a high number compared to NME for example, who has a male percentage of 74%.  Otherwise Q is uk’s biggest music magazine, having influence and trust in their shaping the readers view of artist and scenes.  As I mentioned before their magazine style is very sophisticated, with award winning photographs, best interviews and writing. Further seen when they describe a functional target audience, who is 29 years old male figure who got inspired by music in the mid-‘90s, by artist like Liam and Noel, Blur and the Britpop scene. As well as knowing his type of music genre and favorite artist, buying up to 6 albums a month, also being open for new artist and bands represented from his trusting source, Q magazine.