2. CHOICE OF GENRE
I have chosen House Music as my genre as I already have background
knowledge of the genre as not only is it in my personal interest but also its
very popular today in society. Therefore, I would know what would be
expected in a House Music magazine referring to both articles (i.e. reviews
and interviews), imagery (bright and colourful) and connotations (nightlife
and festivals). The other reason for choosing this genre was the massive
possible market for it, for example TomorrowLand; the worlds largest
electronic dance music festival sold out 180,000 tickets within less than 2
hours and an addition at some moments there were 2,000,000 people on the
online waiting list. These figures along with income revenue of £136 million
from Ministry of Sound, a big house music brand shows the market scale.
3. MY TARGET AUDIENCE
From my research, I have found out that the main target audience associated with
House Music is usually young males, but to make my magazine stand out more I
have decided to oppose this and make my magazine appeal to both young males
and females. Ages ranging from 16-20, as I believe this is the most appropriate age
range to be involved with loud and fast paced House Music, in addition because I
too fall into this age range, I have an advantage as I would know what type of
material my age range are looking for. I have not specified an ethnic group as I
think the genre appeals to all and it would be hard to distinguish.
4. TITLE OF MAGAZINE
I have chosen my magazine name to be IN THE MIX, this is because not only
does it fit well with my genre (ie dj-ing and mixing tracks) but also suggested
involvement as ‘you’re now in the mix’. In addition, it also is very close to the lead
selling House Music Magazine, mix mag which allows for market confusion and is
much like the relationship between NME and Q’s style. If it looks alright, I will
keep the first two words the same colour but then change the colour of each letter
of the word ‘mix’ to represent the mixture. Because the title is short this enables
me to use a smaller version on each page of my magazine. The font should be
bold and if possible I will try to modify one of the letter I’s to include a record to
show that this magazine is associated with my chosen genre. I also would also like
the font to resemble the style of hand writing which shows informality which is
what was a key apparent feature found out in my audience research requirement.
Finally, I am not aware of another magazine with the
same name, however there is a DJ merchandise store
with the same name and they have a really good logo
which I could use to base my possible logo on, if required.
5.
6. INITIAL IDEAS FOR MY
CONTENTS PAGE
I will include both title and the word ‘contents’ in a header, top right. These two
will be in different colours to contrast against each other. I will divide my page
into a 2 column layout, the left being the widest allowing room for an editors note
and large image, the other column for feature bands with an appropriate image
and then a banner at the bottom to inform the audience of key articles, no
pictures will be featured in this section. Page Numbers and Content will be also
different colours to again contrast against each other, although not decided on
these colours yet, I am adamant that the black ground be
black to not only represent associated nightlife
but also so that any text is easy to read. As already
mentioned the large image, will not be of the same
person or environment of the initial cover image
and the other smaller image will be of one of the
bands featured in my band list contents, preferably
female as other pictures featured so far are male
Hopefully my magazine contents page should resemble
something of the magazine ‘Mix Mag’.
7. INITIAL IDEAS FOR MY ARTICLE
For the double page spread, I intend to do a review of a ‘theoretical’ DJ set with
the featured cover artist. It will be dominantly text based as I do not see much
point in buying a magazine with no established content. If possible and if it looks
good, I will use a photo as the background across both pages with overlaying text,
but if not suitable then I will devote one page to the image and the other to text.
In this case also I will include another image within in the copy rather than making
it one big chunk of text which on appearance would discourage reading. As I have
not yet decided on the image content, I can not specify what shot type I will use.
A title and subheading will also be used in production and this will be spread
across both pages on either layout solution. I will also make sure I use a pretty
plain font to ease reading and use a drop caps feature and need to remember to
follow through with my house colours.
