Finished Cover

This is the final draft of my front cover. I added a main cover story that I am going to base my double page spread on. My double page spread will feature the artist that is shown on my front cover. This idea has been used throughout different magazines that I looked at during my research.

Magazine Cover

This image shows four stages of my magazine cover. I started off by choosing my photo from the pictures that I had taken. When I had chosen the picture that I was going to use for my cover, I looked back at my research to help me decide what I was going to do to manipulate the image to suit the chosen genre.I found a magazine cover that was in black and white with a secondary colour for the information, I decided to take ideas from it and use the style idea on my own cover. I started off by changing my image to black and white and then adding my masthead. I have created a house style by using a secondary colour to highlight cover stories. I used this to attract attention to the articles and so that the cover appears more bold and attractive.

On the cover I have advertised free items and also a competition entry, I did this because I noticed it during my research that companies use this as a selling point to try and get more people interested in buying the magazine by offering things that the audience can get involved with. I have also used a company's logo on my magazine cover because it attracts attention of the people that are aware of the company instantly and will make more people look at the magazine.

I have also made my main image overlap the masthead, this is a common thing on the cover of music magazines so I have decided to use the idea myself to make the magazine look more professional and to make it look more like a magazine.                                                        

Cover Layout

This is the idea that I have decided to use for the layout of the cover of my magazine. I am going to do this because I have looked at the similarities of the magazines in my research and have taken ideas from them and this is what I came up with. I will make my magazine like this because with this layout I can use an image on the full cover and can also use text to advertise the articles that are featured through my magazine.

Concepts

My Idea
The main ideas for my cover is to advertise a new upcoming band that are going big, fast. The idea fro my cover is to have a picture of the two musicians stood against an old wall or another outdoor surrounding with their guitars. I wish to use this as my idea because I would like the image of alternative rock as the view of my magazine. This is because I have looked at images on NME and have noticed that the covers are very alternative, being a popular magazine I have used NME as my influence and have looked over various issues to look at how the house style varies through the issues such as the masthead changing colour when a certain artist is on the front. This shows how the magazine makes itself suitable to fit around featured artists. The clothing of my artist will also fit in with the alternative rock genre, they will be wearing the likes of skinny jeans and denim shirts.

Contents Page
For my contents page again I have looked at the ideas behind their contents page design where they have used an image for each of the key articles featured in the magazine. I am going to use this idea for my own contents page where I will feature images for my articles to make them more attractive to my target audience and also to fill the page so that it does not look plain. I think that this idea is good because it means that I can add text to my images to make my main articles (double page spread) stand out from the rest of my content.

Double Page Spread
I have looked at various double page spreads and have noticed multiple differences and similarities. All of them contain images but some of them have a lot of text where some have a few lines. This is the variation that I will have to decide when it comes to writing my article. The layout of the double page spreads also has its differences where a magazine could have a page for the image and a page for the text, or an image across both pages with text on top. When I design my double page spread I will have to look at my images to decide on a suitable layout for my double page spread and also so that I can use up all of the page so that there are no blank parts of the page.

Ideas Behind Covers

Metal Hammer is aimed towards audiences that enjoy listening to the metal genre. The genre of metal is stereotypically darker than other genres and the cover of this magazine reflects that by not being very colourful. The fonts are also quite aggressive in the way that they look. The main image that has been used is of the band Black Sabbath which are a very popular and respected band from this genre. The costume used represents the band as they wish to be seen by the audience and the mise-en-scene of the cover is dark and plain. The main image also covers the masthead of the magazine, this is because the magazine is well known and has a regular target audience so therefore because the masthead is consistent, the magazine is still easily recognisable. Cover lines are used under subheadings on the cover to inform audiences of the articles featured in the magazine. The mode of address for this magazine is serious because it fits in with the style of the genre.





Mojo Magazine is aslo a very popular magazine focused around the rock genre. The cover of this particular issue is based around The Beatles, because of this the cover has been done in mostly black and white because it is simple and matches the artist. The costume used on the artist as the main image is quite smart showing the style of the music as well as the style of the magazine, this also shows the target audience of the magazine to be older/mature. Again, the masthead has been covered by the main image, this gives the impression that the magazine has followed the same style for a lot of its time and is known enough by its audience to recognise the magazine without the title.

NME is a hugely popular music magazine which is focused around the alternative/indie genre. The cover of this particular issue shows that the masthead has been edited to fit in with the main image, the fonts on the cover have all been used to create a house style of this issue. The artist has been put into black and white to emphasise bright clothes and the bright cover that has been used. The masthead of the magazine is normally red but has been changed suggesting that this is a special issue and will be interesting to their audience. The costume in the main image is bright and outstanding, adding colour to the magazine and focusing the attention where it is wanted.

Picture Plans

Actors
Anton Jackson
John Masters

Props
Two guitars

Environment
Pier head/Docks

I am using this as location because I think that it is suitable for the rock genre as it is outdoors and will look worn and old, like the genre. This is because the brick walls will look good as a background and will make the artist stand out.

Costume
Skinny Jeans
Button Shirts
Trainers 

I am using this costume because it fits in well with modern rock genre and therefore will fit in well with my magazine as a front cover

Mood Board

This is a mood board that I have created around the music genre that I intend my magazine to follow. I have used the names of bands and also well known brands on my mood board because the bands are well known and if I decide to include a competition in my magazine, I could offer a prize from a company such as Gibson or Marshall. The bands shown in this mood board are all well known through the rock genre from iconic albums to hugely popular members of the bands such as Slash and Kurt Cobain. 

Typology

What is typography?
Typology is the fonts used in magazines and the colour/style of them.

Typography research

In lesson today, we looked at numerous different magazines to compare and spot the differences of the typography through the magazines and how they can use the same techniques with their fonts to attract the attention of audience members. After looking over the covers of the magazines it became apparent that the colour red was the most commonly used on magazine covers, often along with the colour yellow to attract attention to certain parts of the magazine. The purpose of doing this research was so that we can identify the uses of fonts and colours together to see how publishers use typology to their own advantage in making the magazine look good. The sizes and positioning of the masthead was also taken into consideration during our research. This is because the masthead was in roughly the same position throughout the magazines and it also gave first impressions as to who the target audience of the magazine is. An example of this is the "WE<3POP" magazine, the use of a hear image is quite a childish masthead which shows that the magazine is aimed at a younger audience whereas "PROG" magazine has a completely different style and looks more sophisticated, therefore is more likely to be aimed at an older audience.




As well as looking at fonts, we looked at how the font style/colour is used on certain magazines to create a house style. This is shown well on this issue of Metal Hammer where the masthead has been changed to gold to fit in with the style of the main image. But as well as that, the font around the front cover relating to other articles has also been done in gold, giving this cover its own house style for this particular issue.

From today's lesson looking at typology, I have decided to go for a red, white and black colour style for my magazine, I will use this house style throughout the magazine so that the style of the magazine remains consistent. I have chosen to use these colours as a house style because the colours i have chosen will stand out well with each other, they will also fit in with the rock genre so therefore it will be a good style for me to follow when it comes to creating my music magazine.