1. INITIAL IDEAS
These are my initial ideas for my music magazine. This includes
RESEARCH and PLANNING. I have researched into my genre Alternative
Rock’s target audience, which has manipulated the choices made for each
convention of my magazine. I have therefore thought carefully and
constructively, thinking about what works best and best suits/attracts my
audience. I think this has helped me develop my magazine, allowing a
clear build up in my mind of my intentions for what I hope my magazine
to look like and more of an understanding of the target audience and what
I need to do to attract this selection of people.

2. MASTHEAD
I want the name of my music magazine to first and foremost have a music connotation or
connotation of the music genre chosen. This will then have an instant connection with the music
genre and therefore the reader. From my research, this technique has been used frequently; ‘vibe’
‘NME’ ‘smash hits’ etc. I also prefer one word names, these roll off the tongue better and are more
memorable. A name that makes an impact will stick, therefore choosing the name is very
important. The range of names I have come up with all relatively fit with what I want; ‘base’ ‘beat’
‘sound’ ‘gig’ ‘live’ are all connotations of music. ‘alternative’ and ‘A.R’ are both connected to the
music genre Alternative Rock (A.R being an abbreviation of the genre). ‘distort’ is slightly different
from the rest, with it’s meaning connecting with the genre; to bend or deform something. This is
what Alternative Rock is about, being slightly different from the rest, bending the rules.
For my masthead, I would like the font to be bold, so it would
stand out from the rest. For this reason I chose fonts that were
slightly bolder than the rest but still readable. ‘Franklin Gothic
Medium’ and ‘LilyUPC’ are both quite similar, both Sans Serif,
FGM being more standard and simple. ‘Century’ and ‘Segoe
Script’ are both Serif fonts, but add the Alternative edge that the
genre is all about.

3. MASTHEAD
The style of the text is also important, it’s what grabs the eye. ‘Box’
(having a background to the text) would obviously make the text stand
out more than by itself, especially using the colour red, used by various
magazines such as Red, NME and OK. Using uppercase would be more
‘shouty’ with connotations perhaps of a rock genre, so could be used for
my magazine. Lowercase is easier on the eye and more stereotypical of a
woman’s magazine, but used widely i.e. heat, vibe, marie claire etc. Italic
is also a softer style, it has a cooler vibe and could be used for a music
genre such as Jazz or classical music. Bold does what it says, it makes the
text louder than its surroundings and is useful for all genres.

4. COVER LINES
Cover lines are important because they are a snippet as to what’s inside and the decider for the
reader’s choice to buy the magazine or not. They have to reflect the music genre and therefore
what the target audience would want from the magazine. Picking out the acts from their
content that are big and well known for this genre are put on the front page as cover lines on
purpose. Therefore the cover lines I have thought of reflect this idea, including artistes like
Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Mumford & Sons, Alt-J and Florence Welch etc.

5. COVERLINES:
GIFTS/COMPETITIONS
To entice the reader further, gifts and/or competitions are used on the front page to push the reader
to purchasing the magazine, whether it’s solely for this reason or not. The gifts and competitions
also again normally reflect the content/genre of the magazine and therefore the target audience, for
instance NME gave away a free The Smiths poster. These are normally highlighted in a
circle/bubble to advertise their free gift. The ideas for gifts/competitions that I came up with reflect
the Alternative Rock genre, thinking about what the target audience would want, and therefore
make them purchase the magazine. I did so by using gigs and festivals (stereotypical connotation of
the genre) and posters with bands on.

6. COLOUR SCHEME
The colour scheme won’t be the make or break for the reader’s decision on buying the magazine
but it can help enhance the features on the cover page and be reflective of the genre. For
instance you would expect a pop genre magazine to have ‘poppy’ colours; bright bold and
cheesy. Whereas you would expect a Jazz/Classical magazine to have more mature colours;
navy, greys and whites. So, for an Alternative Rock magazine the colours should too be reflective
of it’s genre and contents. Therefore I have chosen a few different combinations of colours that I
could potentially use, some have been used by magazines of the same genre which have worked
well. Red and Black is specifically a well used colour combination choice for the Rock genre; it is
NME’s logo colours and therefore most of their text goes with this colour scheme.