Preliminary task

Aswell as the main task that I had completed I also had to make a preliminary task. The preliminary task that I decided to complete was to do a magazine for my school. the magazine will consist of a front cover and a contents page for a magazine of my choice.

Colour Scheme

The colour scheme I choose was black and Purple. Both these colours are bold and

stand out. Purple and black are often associated with the genre of music that my

magazine is covering which is punk. The choose white text font on the purple background

as it was the colour that stood out most and was easiest to read whilst reading the

magazine. I decided that it was also unique as not many magazine have such bold

colours and this will allow mine to stand out and people will instantly know what it is just by

the colours.

pictures for my Double page spread

I chose these pictures for my double page spread as the article that my double page spread was based on were top men in music. These are basic pictures but when they are alongside the written piece of the article they fit in well. All three of the pictures are different and I used one just so I could get a shot of someone with a guitar in my magazine. These pictures turned out well and made the page look better. I choose this layout as it worked well for my pictures that I had and it looked professional. The layout gave room for both my  pictures and my writing and gave me a lot of room about to write about the people featuring on my double page spread. I decided to do my double page spread based on Top 20 men in rock and I narrowed it down to the last 3 people and choose pictures of my friends that looked more rocky than the others that I could have chose from. The pictures I chose were off people that most suited the genre that I will be doing based on the outfit and overall look of the people

Contents page

I choose these pictures because I found them quite humorous and one was relevant to my magazine. The first two pictures were down by accident but I put them in because I think it will attract people t read my magazine as they will be intrigued about what’s actually going on in the pictures. The pictures with the two people with arms around each other was to symbolise togetherness and also they are both wearing colourful jeans which is relevant to my magazine as they are associated with my genre of music that my magazine is based on. My contents page is easily readable and eye catching as it has pictures that you want to find out what they are about and has colours that stand out. The layout is basic and easy to read it is also simple so people can easily find what they are looking for in my magazine. The font is easy to read and doesnt strain your eyes so it makes it perfect forthis kind of magazine

Pictures for front cover

I have decided to use this picture for my front cover as it showed off the band that I will primarily

be writing about and the main story in my magazine. I chose this picture in particular because it

follows all the codes and conventions such as the fact that they are all focused on the camera

and have a direct gaze with it and they are central in the shot. All the people in the band are

wearing clothes that you may associate with punk such as the bright colours and the skinny

jeans. It also follows the normal codes and conventions of pictures on front covers as it has the

lead singer in the middle at the front and has the rest of the band looking past her towards

the camera and form the other magazine that I have analysed a lot of band shots are taken in

this way. 

Front cover

I chose this particular design as it is the kind of layout that most magazines that I researched use as it is easy to read and follows the usual codes and conventions of most other magazines. I chose this layout as it clearly shows the title of the magazine and the band that are the main picture on the front page. The front page didn’t turn out as well as I first thought it had but it still looks good and follows all the normal codes and conventions of a magazine. I tried to kept the front cover simple and try not to over clutter it so kept the font a suitable size and in doing so this allowed me to get the band shown clearly.  

Codes and conventions of my magazine

After looking at the codes and conventions of popular music magazines I decided to apply these features to my magazine as I realised that these were what made a magazine noticable and rememberable. To start of with my magazine has a very noticable title at the top that stands out amongst the rest of the wordss and the use of a guitar as a exclamation mark is used so that it sticks with the genre and adds an interested twist on the page. In the middle of the page I have a picture of the artist tha is features on the cover and the dress code that they have gone for fits with the style of magazine as they are dressed abit punky and thats the feel that I went for. All four members are staring right at the camera and this gives a feeling that the performers are staring at the camera and the customer. There body language is laid back and calm giving a relaxed feel to the people and gives the impression of them having  alaid back attitude. The band are positioned diectly in the middle of the page and the page also contains the contents of the magazine. Below I have listed the codes and conventions that my magazine shares with normal music magazines and I have 7 of the codes and conventions that normal magazines have.

1.The title

2.The Artist

3.The dress code

4.Direct Gaze

5.Body language

6.Central position in picture

7. Contents

Codes and Conventions of a typical music magazine

 

Whilst researching music magazines there were some

characteristics that became apparent that wer very popular

and were used quite alot on the magazine to make it fit

in with the genre. There were 8 conventions that I found

common and these are listed below:

 

•1. The title

 

•2. The artist

 

•3. The dress code

 

•4. Direct gaze

 

•5. Body language

 

•6. Central position in 

 

      Image

 

 

•7. Artist name

 

•8. Contents

Research

The main magazine that I looked at was Kerrang as that is the magazine that is most similar to my own and I looked in particular at the front covers with bands on the front cover as these will be the ones that are most similar to my own magazine. I also looked at other music magazine that are not the same genre as Kerrang. I looked at Q and at billboard magazine as these are two well respected and popular magazine that have a lot of readers. I have looked at the typical codes and conventions of these magazine and made my magazine to accommodate these codes and conventions. Each magazine has put its own spin on the codes and conventions that are typical on a magazine and so have I. 

Readership of music magazines

Most of the old music magazine were aimed at males as

they were the ones mainly associated with the music but

with the music industries change in the last decade it has

ended with both males and females buying magazines

about the same amount due to pop music being so popular

these days. There is a drop in the sales of music magazines

and only Kerrang out of all the major music magazines

managed not to drop their sales

What are magazines?

Magazines are publications that are printed with ink on paper, generally published on a regular schedule and contain a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three. Magazines can feature different articles of news that are based on the target audience for that particular magazine e.g. music news for music magazines and sports news for sports magazines. The magazine that I will be concentrating on will be music magazines.