Fonts

The fonts I have used for my magazine are Sylfaen, Times New Roman and Viva Std. I used Viva Std because it looks formal and classy which is suited towards my target audience of over 15's as it will make them feel more mature. The writing is also slightly more masculine yet still quite uni-sex so both genders will not feel out of place reading this. The writing in the box uses Sylfaen so its easier to read, fairly simple yet different to the norm. I scanned through a number of other fonts when I was deciding what to use. The other fonts I took a look at Ravie which I decided not to use because it was to feminine and would suit a younger audience than for my target demographic and I also tried Garamond but this was far too plain and boring. I decided not to mess around with the leading and kerning too much because I don't want to make the writing difficult to read and plus the spaces in between the lettering is similar to that of Kerrang! and NME. My font is similar to that of Kerrang! and NME as they are both bold yet still quite formal.

Flat Plans

My front cover shows big bold pictures of a musician showing that they are the main focus in this article. The caption "What's Jesse Walton smiling about?" relates to the graphology of the musician showing hes smiling creating a semantic link between the two. The rhetorical question speaks to the reader make them think and hooks them into the magazine. The tagline "It's time for your fill" is surrounded by a sharp jaggedy object which creates semiotics that this magazine is going to be different and straight to the point. The lexis used in the tagline says that this magazine is like a drug and you need to get "your fill" as it will become an unsustainable addiction it also personlises it to the reader by involving them which relates to my target audience as they like to be involved with things. The triangles used in the logo, magazine title and throughout the rest of the page have been put there because of the sharp and jaggedy rock feeling as there not smooth like a circle. Also it relates to the rule of three a key theme that will run throughout the magazine and shows that this magazine is very informative by using the tell them, tell them again and tell them some more rule whilst remaining straight to the point this is important as my target audience will want to learn about the alternative rock genre that includes rock, indie and acoustic styles. The colours that I've used relate to my target audience as my research has shown that blues, whites and reds are the most popular colours of my intended demographic of 15s-45s. Throughout NME and Kerrang! front covers the colours white and red are used. I have decided to put blue in as well as it is a cool colour and slightly different to the rest of the rock music magazines. Similarly to the other front covers my masthead is the boldest thing on the page apart from the title, the main sell is the biggest image on the page and like both Kerrang! and NME I use numbers to show how much of something is to make readers think that they are getting a lot for their money. Like NME I use the bottom of the page to show other important added features. Compared to both Kerrang! and NME my front contains a lot less images and is more copy heavy, I have done this becuase I believe that if your interested in music you will want something that is more fact based.

My contents is different to that of NME for the simple fact it actually says contents on it and it shows a bigger picture of the main sell of the picture compared to mine. I keep the main sell, the logo and I put the contents title in a similar style to the magazines title and the magazine logo to have a running theme throughout the magazine. Unlike NME also I have decided not to put a band index in my contents but I use a more substantial contest showing directly where everything is. I do this to show that even though my magazine is slightly different it stills follows a slightly traditional format to made it as accessible for a wider range of my demographic as possible.

My double page spread follows a very simple format. Unlike Kerrang! my magazine shows its logo in the top corner keeping with the semantic field. The page is split in two so that it can provide for people who are interested in looking at the band and people who want to learn about the band. This is very similar to Kerrangs! double page spread as there one shows a huge picture of the band as well.

Analysis of exisiting magazines

The first magazine I have decided to put analysis on is the rock music magazine Kerrang!. Their colour scheme consists of purple, yellow, black and white. The yellow, purples and whites are very striking and powerful with a lot of attitude like rock music and the general stereotype of the people that actually listen to it. The black shows the darker side to rock music like emo. The fonts are bold, different and striking the use of bright colouring really helping them to stand out and emphasising what has been written there. The font is sans serriff and the magazine title has been cracked under the severe loudness of the music that is inside. It follows in the semantic field that life is loud which is Kerrang!'s tagline. The use of "your" makes it more personal to the reader and its context in the sentence makes you for some reason excited to know who has rocked your world. The use of the number "25" and the list of famous musicians names make it seem as though that if you buy this your getting a lot for your money. The main sell "rock stars who changed your world!" is the boldest thing on the cover as this is really going to interest Kerrangs! target audience.

The second magazine front cover I am using is the indie music magazine NME (New Music Experience). Their colour scheme is yellow, white and red. The use of the fairly plain colours to show that this magazine is more focused on the music rather than trying to dazzle readers with bright and interesting fonts and colours. The fomt os sans serriff which suggests and informality about the magazine and that its going to bore you with complicated and fancy lexis and vocabulary. The use of a rhetorical question again invites the reader in and it also introduces whats going to be in this issue. The use of the main sell which is Brandon Flowers from the US indie group The Killers will make people who are interested in the band more likely to buy this issue as they will see that they are th main focus here. The bold yellow lettering makes it brighter and far more visible on the black background and it helps to emphasise it. The font is plain and minimalistic to reflect its target audience of "indie kids" who try to dress differently and quite plainly.

The contents for the indie music magazine NME follows a colour of scheme of red, black and white. The contents is very clearly set up into sections and has a very helpful band index going down the side of the page so readers can easily find the band of their choice. The writing remains bold and in sans serriff so it is bold and striking but still minimalistic and cool relating to the target audience of "indie" kids that try to be slightly different but still quite plain and minimalistic. The contents has a picture of main feature of the issue to try and entice readers to that page.

This is a double page spread from the rock music magazine Kerrang! The use of the colour gold ties in with the semiotic field of the word gold manages to make the page run smoothly and keep a running theme throughout. Half the page shows a huge picture of the band. In this instance half of the heading is in serriff where the other half is in sans serriff this shows the maturity of the band and the fact that they like money. This page will appeal to its target audience as it shows a picture of a rock band that readers will appreciate as the readers of this magazine will be excited by their music.

Introduction

The task I need to accomplish is to create a music focused magazine and to create the front cover, contents and a double page spread. The genre I am going to use is a general mix between indie, rock and acoustic which is similar to that of Q magazine. It may be three different genres but these have been mixed together in hybridisation so the demographic are typically the same for these three genres. I have chosen to use these genres as it is very popular with the youth of today and is a newly devolping genre with the first band coined as indie was only created about 10 years ago. This task will be a development of my skills onwards from the preliminary task as I will be able to use and devolop skills from it to be able to create a more improved magazine. http://sdcmediaasnathanbloss.blogspot.com/. I will use a mixture of Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop to create my front cover, contents page and the double page spread.