Front Cover Concepts

 These are images I found on a website called http://www.byrogliphics.com/. It was originally an idea i was hoping to include in my Art A-Level, but instead i chose to take this method and include it to my front cover. The reason why i have chosen to do this is because my initial photoes were rather plain and boring to look at, i got my model to play the guitar and there is some real emotion being shown in the images, but i still believed that they lacked the attraction that is supposed to grasp peoples attention. Therefore instead of doing ridiculous amounts of editing with unsatisfying digital paintbrushes and other photoshop fails, i will paint and sketch the photo instead, and use simple layering techniques to achieve an insperational front cover photo. With this method also, it can connote the simplicity and absence of technology of Acoustic Rock, which will give my magazine the continuity that will give it a more proffesional look.

I magazine

You can recognize the target audience of 'I magazine' by firstly; studying the advertisement the company published on television, where they portray several middle-aged people within the range of 20-50 year old readers. However, there are aspects of the newspaper that could be aimed at anyone from the age of 16+, as there are several stories included into the paper such as cinema releases and reviews that would attract the attention of teenagers. Therefore I believe that the target audience is simply 16+.

The piece of media was developed by The Independent at an attempt to deliver small portions of information that can be absorbed quickly and easily by young professionals. Therefore this paper is a quick, cheaper version of the independent that delivers the same amount of information to the public, but in a simpler form.

The price of I magazine can be considered competitive as it is the cheapest newspaper by only 10p compared to the Sun. The Times magazine however is 90p, and The Guardian is £1, therefore I magazine is the cheapest in comparison to all other successful magazines in the U.K, making it the leading piece of informative media in the competition.

It has been launched by being advertised on the television at both post and pre watershed. Also it has been advertised online with several Facebook groups that involve people into the inside information that is included in the newspaper.

Music Magazine Questionnaire

Music Magazine Questionnaire

Please draw a circle around your answers.

1.       Which genre of music would you most like to find on a contemporary music magazine?

Rap/Hip-hop                Pop                  Alternative Rock               Electronica                Dubstep

2.       How much are you willing to pay for a music magazine?

£1-£1.99                     £2-2.99                £3-3.99                      £4-4.99                  £5+

3.       On average, how often do you attend music concerts per year?

Never                  Once                  Twice              Three times             Four times +

4.       Would a free music poster interest you in buying a music magazine?

   

                                Yes                                          No

5.       In a music magazine, do you prefer lots of images and a small amount of text, or the opposite?

Lots of pictures, small amount of text                          Lots of text, small amount of image

Equal ratio

6.       Which of these magazines would you rank as the best?

Q                         KERRANG                 NME                  BLENDER                VIBE

Thank you for taking the time to answer this questionnaire.                

I've handed this questionnaire out to 20 sixth form students so I can make easier decisions towards my music magazine, such as which genre to base it on, which music magazine conventions to follow, e.g NME magazine has some slanted fonts, KERRANG has large 'messy' fonts. This questionnaire allows me to give the audience what they want.

PRELIM

This is the prelim task we where to set to experiment with a magazine cover. The aim was to have a magazine cover for a school magazine that would be aimed at students in the school. I tried to set a formal theme in the cover, using simple fonts and subtle changes of font size to highlight the important pieces of copy. In my music magazine i plan on using a lot more information and i'm going to try to direct my models infront of a simpler background or at least edit out some of the complexity. As i find that there is too much focus on the background with the open window and it draws your attention away from the pieces of text.

Front Cover sketch

This is an idea i sketched out in preparation of my photo shoot on friday, i've decided to change my genre of music to alternative and acoustic rock from hip-hop/rap. I've made this decision because I didn't want my front cover to have the stereotypical rapper on it with the tattoos and baggy jeans, instead i wanted a model that looks like your average joe, but the background is going to be filled with people, dancing and screaming at this single guitarist. I'm taking these pictures at an upcoming party, so hopefully i'll capture some of the atmosphere in the photos. I'll use these photos to show my target audience, as the main people that will be attending this party will be 16-24 years olds, which is the age limit i am aiming this magazine at.
Also at the party i may try to take some photos outside in the night, and use a strong, single source of light to try and capture a more 'chilled' atmosphere besides to the party scene i'm hoping to put on my front cover and end up with a good double page spread photo that is mostly covered in black, but perhaps in the corner of the photo i can have the model playing the guitar, only viewable by the single light source of a stage light or something. With this double page spread photo i can achieve a less hectic and busy photo than the front page idea. Or, i could use the same approach with the front cover concept, and show some photos of more fans and instruments to create a more exciting picture, in contrast to the relaxed photo. For the contents page i need the model positioned on the right hand side of the photo, with a plain background so it would be easier for the viewer to see the writing, i may have a powerline running across the page into the models were he could be playing a song, or simply posing.