The document describes the process of designing a magazine for a school project. The designer experiments with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes to create a cohesive house style that will appeal to their target audience of 11-20 year old emos and rockers. Throughout the design process, they make adjustments to better match the styles of real music magazines like Kerrang and NME, ultimately settling on a black background with red, yellow, white, and blue text and images.

1. Construction By Jared Taliesin Williams

2. I had changed the background from white to black and had set up the title, I had then changed the font from Times New Roman to Microdot to add more effect to the title and make it seem more professional and attract my target audience. My target audience of Emos and Rockers around the age group of 11-20 would look at the colours and relate to it as black is related to rock and especially emo but the font as well as it isn’t just plain, it adds more into it as well.

3. With the original colour scheme going to be black, white and purple, mainly the whole of the magazine would feature with the blocks and areas with some of the writing being purple. The black colouring would stay as the background as it makes the purple and white of the writing stand out more. These are the contents pages as there would be too little space for many of the strap lines and pictures.

4. As i was working in a group, we had to keep a similar house style but change the colours and show our differences between each magazine. We had then therefore had changed the colouring, I had chosen to go for red as it keeps within the rock genre as a colour they can relate to. I had also started changing the layout with the barcode in the top left and with the block for my strap lines along the left third but colours in with the background. This means that the colours I have chosen now stand out more than usual as they are lighter colours amongst a black background.

5. I had followed the change onto my contents page also again changing the layout with no more purple blocks for the writing and features to go into. Also the ‘subscribe to amped’ box has been moved further up the page underneath the title. This means that it will be another part that can be noticed easily and it will not obstruct the pictures for my main article. Also the original font of Arial Black had been changed to Viner Hand ITC. This writing also configures with the rock genre as it is quite a horror and gothic style of writing that can be related to evil. This relates to rockers and emos as they are stereotyped as quite evil characters who love horror.

6. My group had added a slogan into it that people would remember and we went for ‘ROCK OUT LOUD’. This is related to rockers and emos as people relate rock music to be played loudly and there is an expression of rock out loud. Also I moved the position of the strap lines to the bottom as I looked on a few professional magazines and most of the strap lines were along the bottom. I had added a bottom and top strip to attract the audience more offering both more information that is on the inside and more of upcoming news.

7. At this point I started thinking that I had finished apart from the images. I had then started looking at other magazines and later found that the Viner Hand ITC font which I believed would help follow the rock genre was never actually used in rock or indie genre magazines. Therefore I sooner changed the font to Franklin Gothic Demi as it is a bolder font and would stand out more on a black background. I also changed the colouring on my font to royal blue as it also stands out and gives me a contrast of colours.

8. I had looked over some more music magazine by KERRANG! and NME and found out that most of their stories are advertised on the left third, not the pictures so I had moved all my cover lines to the left and having the main lines advertising the main article. I had also added a free gift in as this helps make sure that space has been taken up. On my contents I had added the bottom strip and kept the purple in thus keeping a little bit of the front page style on the contents and the purple will help make it stand out against the black background.

9. I had taken the purple bar that helped stand out and just replaced it so it matched with the black background. This means that the yellow writing of the top and bottom strip would stand out more as it is a light colour against the darkness of the background. This also means that the passers-by that would have a glance would notice the top and bottom of strips and may attract some people that like the bands or articles that are in the magazine. The style of font is OCR A Extended which is a computer like font but also helps make the lines stand out from the rest of the font.

10. I had changed the type of font from Viner Hand ITC to Franklin Gothic Demi. I did this change the font to a thicker bolder font that stands out more and is a lot more readable than the Viner Hand ITC font. I had changed every page with the Viner Hand ITC font to keep up the house style as well. I had done this because whilst researching other music magazines, none of them had fancy writing, it was all just plain, bold writing that stands out more than some fancy writing would. The writing colour has also been changed to help vary it and the blue also stands out amongst the background.

11. I have started to created my double paged article which also follows the house style and themes of the magazine with the blue, yellow, white and red colouring and keeping the same font, Franklin Gothic Demi , the house style is kept the same and the magazine still looks like the real thing.

12. I added more of the main article in and by keeping it in columns made sure I stuck to the codes and conventions of typical and real products. The yellow, white and red of the writing keeps to the four colours I original used as my house style and in context with the rest of the magazine.

13. I had finished adding my story into the main article page leaving a gap at the bottom to add something in like a quote to what the band have said during the interview. There was plenty of space for my main picture/s and if I wanted to I could have added more quotes or pictures in. this attracts my audience as the colours are bright and are hitting against the dark background so they stand out more than a darker colour making the article easy to read.

14. I had decided to change the story from being about a duet to a girl rock band as most of my images that were the best were of the girls as a group. This was also easier and I have changed everything in the article that has nothing to do with a girl band. I had also added a picture in that helps look like a real, genuine picture of a girl band or on the front of the album cover or poster.

15. I have added a quote in and another picture that helps to take up space and make it more realistic and like a real product. The colours also used mainly, the white, the yellow, and the red also stick to the house style and make it also look like a real product. This should help to try to attract my reader as quotes will help them see what really is in the article and see that the pictures do look like an actually band with the rock and roll lifestyle. The new image and quote.

16. I had added a final image in to help yet again take up space to also make the double paged article more realistic and to attract the audience. The picture of them having a laugh and together as a group could show how strong they are as friends just like a genuine band. It makes the readers believe that it is a genuine band and that they can relate back to them. The quote also used at the top helps show that even though they are really famous now, the audience can relate back to what they actually do. The new image and picture to attract the audience.

17. Due to other computers not accepting the format on MICRODOT as a font, I had to change it to Gill Sans MT Ext Condensed Bold. This is also a good font to use as it also stands out from the background and as the font in the double paged article had changed, the font on the contents and title would have changed with it.

18. I had also changed the font of the title on the front cover to match with the rest of the magazine. It is still as effective as the MICRODOT title. It is still an outstanding font that it also sticks with being blocked like other real products. I had also later decided that the main picture on the front cover was not up to a good standard and was blurred so I deleted it. Also the ‘Rock Out Loud’ that was covering the title at the beginning had been moved to below the title but stayed the same font in OCR A Extended.

19. I had moved the barcode further down the magazine close to the bottom strip, also the website had also been moved further down with the barcode. These two being put together is usually common in most real products and it could also attracts the audience to the website and to follow the magazine more with the website’s address being close to the barcode and in view.

20. I had moved the issue number, price and date to below the ‘catchphrase’ and with the issue number being turned white it stands out from the rest of the area. The colours of the writing also sticks with the house style even for this small part and makes the magazine more into a real product.

21. I had changed the colour of the bottom strip to red to match with the rest of the magazine and it’s house style. I had also start to re add the cover lines taken out to re add the new picture. The red font takes up most of the magazine showing how it is the main colour and really the most dominant. It stands out amongst the black background and seems a lot easier to read than any other colours.

22. I had changed the font of the front cover so that it matched with the rest of the magazine and had re-added in the “Rockin’ ‘N’ Rollin’ Around The World”. This being white meant it stuck out amongst the background and with the rest of the cover lines. The font being the same also sticks with the house style of the rest of the magazine.

23. I had re-added in the free gift inside right by the title where it can also try to attract the audience more. Being yellow next to a red title makes it stand out from the rest of the magazine and could attract the audience more. Also the idea of a ‘free’ gift also makes people get attracted to it as loads of people would just get anything all because it is free. Many real products use the free gift idea to help make the audience buy it as it may draw them in. Not explaining what the gift is people may buy it just for the gift as it creates mystery and may intrigue the targeted audience.

24. The finished front page is really looking like a professional one and may attract my target audience by using the idea of a free gift. Also it looks like a real product as I used ideas from NME magazine and KERRANG! Magazine.