Explanation of Target Audience

I believe that the appropriate target audience for my magazine should be between the ages of 15-30. I know from personal experience that people in their late teens; as well as adults, enjoy the rock/alternative genre of music. Taking this into account, I belive it is apt for me to model my music magazine around this target audience, encapturing a sense of youth into the music magazine- but also a sense of maturity (to cater for the older readers). The reason why I decided on 15 years rather than early teens (12-13) is that I believe that the conventional 12-13 year old in society today; would not be as into rock/alternative music as the older teen would be. Also (as some rock music is controversial at times), it is more appropriate to increase the lowest range of the target audience to an older teenager rather than children entering their adolesence.

Music Magazine Moodboard

This is my mood board for the music magazine I will be producing. The purpose of this mood board is to help represent what content will be on the cover and contents, and what genre of music magazine I will be going for. I, (as you can see) am into rock/alternative music, and this mood board is reflective of that. I believe it's important for me to make my music magazine on bands that I'm interested in as there would be more validity to the information I decide to put inside. I believe the best publishing institution for my magazine would be IPC Media. The reason for this is because they publish NME magazine. I personally really enjoy reading NME, and I believe that this is one of the main reasons for my choice to go with IPC Media. Another reason being that I like the layout of NME, and I believe I will take some inspiration from that, to form my own music magazine cover.

Compare the covers of two music magazines

These are the two magazine covers that I was analysing:

In this essay I am comparing the covers of two music magazines, NME and Total Guitar. Both follow the conventions of the typical music magazine, with both being aimed at an audience who enjoys the rock/alternative genre of music.

The target audience for both magazines are that of people who like rock/alternative music types, but it is not constricted to a certain age bracket- as people from all ages can like the bands advertised on the cover. With the band ‘Muse’ being the cover star of NME, and Billie-Joe Armstrong from ‘Green Day’, you could say; (stereotypically); that both music magazines would attract a younger audience (though that would be subject to certain stereotypes).

Both magazines use bold colours and fonts to attract the attention of a perspective reader, purely because of the persuasive nature of a magazine cover itself. NME and Total Guitar differ in the way colour is used. Total Guitar uses a wide range of colours such as bright pinks and yellows, contrasting on white and grey- whereas NME chooses to use orange, black and white throughout. Although the use of colours isn’t as dramatic in NME’s cover, the main picture used on the front cover stands out- popping out of the page. Also the angle that the photo is taken, and the way that the band members are positioned, make it look as if they are coming out of the page. This can be suggestive of it being more personal to the reader. The picture on Total Guitar also stands out, with the picture taken from a low angle, which makes the cover star appear taller and more dominant.
NME and Total Guitar use superlatives frequently in the cover lines. In NME they use “The world’s most insane band ever unveil their most ridiculous tour ever” and in Total Guitar they use “Europe’s best-selling magazine”. The use of superlatives on the magazine cover makes enhances the persuasive nature of the magazine, with the strong words such as “most” and “best”.

What I have learnt from looking at, comparing and analysing the magazines is that rock/alternative music magazines or almost any music magazine in general follows many conventions. NME and Total Guitar use bright colours to attract the attention of the audience, and the pictures of the cover stars (Muse and Green Day’s Billie-Joe Armstrong) also can have the same effect of a perspective reader. In my own magazine I will use bright colours and eye catching pictures to bring in a certain audience. I believe this is essential, to make my music magazine cover more persuasive.

School Magazine Draft

  This is my draft for the school magazine. I much prefer my front cover to my contents page, as I believe my contents page is lacking in visual interest (i.e pictures). Although it is structured in the way the title is placed on the page, and the font is professional looking- I believe pictures will be an added "something" to make my contents page more appealing. I also think that the use of page numbers next to the text on the cover will make the actual magazine itself far easier to nagavigate. I will take all of this into consideration when I present my final piece.

Pictures I will include on the front cover and contents page of the Sixth Form magazine

The pictures I will use for the Sixth Form magazine will be representational of the school, but also give an insight into what the articles inside the newspaper will be about. I believe this is paramount to add to the cover and contents page of a magazine as this is what; (ultimately); would draw in the attention of any perspective reader. 

On the front cover and contents page I will include pictures of the sixth form itself, showing people what the working environment for the sixth form students is like- but also the common room and the leisurely facilities available. Of course this is what (I think) anyone should add to a new Sixth Form magazine. Purely because someone would be more inclined to read more into the magazine if they knew what the school itself was like. 

I will also include pictures of students 'getting up' to their school work and extra curricular activities. This will not only present to whoever's reading, that the students are hard working and determined; but also show what a typical routine for a "sixth former" is like. 

I believe that the pictures I choose to include in my magazine, will serve one main purpose- to inform, and help to do one thing for the Sixth Form- represent. 

Photoshop Practise.

Throughout the duration of this AS we will be delving more into Photoshop, really unlocking its capabilities- but to get ourselves into "the swing of things" if you like, our task was to produce our own copy of this practise poster.

 I have a fair amount of experience with Photoshop itself, but I had never made a poster spread using the programme, so this was all new to me. All in all, this piece of work took about an hour and a half to produce, from a blank canvas; to what you see here. With step by step instructions it makes it far easier to complete the task in hand, and I think it'll come in useful when I produce the both the preliminary task magazine (the school magazine), and the final piece (the music magazine).

The bit that was the most tricky was definitely erasing the background from behind Amanda Seyfried and Gerard Butler's figure. It was intricate, and it required a lot of patience and time. Thankfully, due to the previous experience I had, I found it less difficult than I thought. The only real problem I experienced was getting rid of the grey and white blocks that covered the page. Katie, just get rid of them?! Yes. But how to do that will forever remain a mystery to me.

 I will include a step by step guide on how to achieve the finish product in my next post. But for now- bask in the glory, that is my practise poster.