3. I have used an image of
young, attractive girls
with the use of
instruments as props in
the picture to make it
obvious what the genre
of the magazine is. This
is what lots of real
magazines do for
example NME magazine
does this to attract
customers.
I have used words like
exclusive, free and, in large
fonts, well known bands
and artist name to attract
fans of those bands and
artists and therefore
encourage them to buy my
product. The words like
‘best’ and ‘win’ are often
used in real magazines to
promote themselves and let
the reader think that the
magazine is worth its price
and they are getting value
for money because of
exclusivity and a high
standard of entertainment.
The colour scheme was
chosen because of a
focus group I held so I
know that it would
please a lot of
customers. I makes it
appealing to both
genders and has a
bright and clean look.
4. My masthead has similarities to Q and NME with its red and Black theme and it is short and memorable. I have
also put the meaning of mine underneath so that customers know what it stands for. This information is very
important in my magazine because it announces it genre and therefore attracts the right audience. It is also a
play on words of the famous hard rock café and I think conventions like this help to attract potential buyers.
My image includes props of a guitar, bass guitar and drum
sticks. This tells the reader straight away that this is a music
magazine if they haven’t already guessed from other features.
I was going to include a microphone but I thought it looked
slightly more awkward and cheesy because I didn’t want the
photo over-posed. Instead I moved the main singer slightly in
front of the other members to make it clear that she is the
lead singer. Again, this is a technique often used when one
member is better know than the others. It means there is
more chance of a fan spotting them on the cover because
most people recognise the main singer first.
The clothes I used were mainly based on an indie style. This
includes things like collars and band style t shirts. Most wore
dark colours apart from Kate’s mustard jumper as I didn’t
want it too dark because it would get mixed up with a heavy
rock genre.
6. I have stuck with the colour scheme and blocked some sections out in red in order to separate the from the
rest of the page. I have used a slanted lines system again and cut off sections with black lines to make
everything look bold and stand out. I have kept everything within their sections apart from the main cover
story image of the band. I let this overlap because it made them look like they were coming off the page.
They need to stand out as they are the main story. I didn’t give them props this time but used a slightly more
playful picture with sunglasses and more casual poses to make
the contents look fun and interesting. I also think it was less
important on the contents to use instruments because they
have already seen the cover and know it’s a music magazine.
Q has a similar content layout to me here as it
has pictures on one side and contents on the
other. It also has number is the images where I
do as well. It also has the blocked out red section
at the top but used for a different reason. I
wanted mine to be fairly similar to Q magazine as
it has a similar style to what I was aiming for and
is aimed at a similar audience. So if Q satisfies its
audience then I know what that audience likes.
To make it even more clear I added the captions to the
photos, again with the same colour scheme. This makes it even
easier to navigate as a reader. I used the blue colour to
highlight small parts such as ‘on the cover’ and ‘top tip’. These
are things that attract the reader’s attention and so they need
to stand out. I used a range of font sizes to separate basic
information from detailed information so that people that want
to just scan the page can get an easy idea by looking at the
larger text.
7. I have laid out my contents
in a neat list making it easy
to understand, this makes
magazines look more
organised and Q magazine
has done this to show how
it is a very professional
magazine and therefore
worth buying.
I created an album cover as
a magazine is likely to have
advertisements in
it, especially music related
products. My idea for the
cover came from a band
that is listed on my own
cover, Kings of Leon and I
feel fans of them would be
idea customers for my
magazine.
8. One of the final things I did to my contents page was add to the actual
contents list. I did this because I decided to make it clearer by putting
page numbers with each article. I looked at Q to get some ideas for this
and noticed that Q always add a line of detail to explain each article and
they also list a lot more that I originally had. S I came up with some more
page names and gave each one an explanation making my magazine look
more packed and worth its price.
I used the technique of some clever page
names to attract customers.
I also added pages that linked to my
cover e.g. mentioning the names that
were included on the front so that my
reader is getting what was promised.
This example of Q also
colours in their page
number red. I felt that
this helped
differentiate between
the numbers and the
titles and looked good
so I used this
technique as well.
10. In my DPS I have included the word exclusive again to show how you couldn’t get this article anywhere
else, and rarity is worth money so people won’t mine buying the product. I have seen this used in many
magazines as the magazine industry is competitive and they need to please their audience. Again, I have
used blue to highlight this information and put most other things in black and red. I have kept the
masthead there as a reminder of the brand to the reader and the word nimbus still has it’s own specific
logo. Most bands have this so I thought it made the magazine look more professional.
This is an image of a real double page spread where they use a play on
words with the title linking it to one of the artist’s songs. The article is
about Florence and the Machine and is titled USA Got the Love referring to
her song You Got the Love. I have also done this by using ‘2000’ which is
the name of their album.
I put a fact file because it gives some basic
background information on the band in case the
reader didn’t know much about them. I have
seen this in NME -
11. Another thing I have included in my DPS is quotes from the article. This
again, attracts the attention of the reader and makes them want to find out
where that quote fits so they then read on. I have also used larger letters for
the first letters of each question, I used a Q and A system because it was
suggested by my audience. I have seen these techniques in other magazines
and therefore I understand that it works and makes readers interested.
I used a black and white picture to fit completely with
my colour scheme. I also thought it gave it a classy
clean look. It goes over half of the page because I
didn’t want my text too big and I think the most
important thing on a DPS is the image to it needed to
look big instead of small and insignificant. Again, I
have seen this sort of thing in current magazines.
Black and white images
I also changed the quote to blue to fit with my
colour scheme and make it stand out more.
