The document discusses the inspiration and conventions drawn from existing music magazines like NME and Q in developing Symbal magazine. NME served as the primary influence for aesthetics and presentation due to its success and focus on indie rock. Q's simpler contents page layout focusing more on information than images was also emulated. While retaining some typical conventions like font and layout, Symbal aims to differentiate itself by including a broader range of genres and artists, with a more gender-balanced and mature target audience than magazines like NME. The success of Symbal will rely on attracting this target audience through exclusive content tailored to their interests and needs.

3. Throughout the course of this project, numerous conventions associated with typical music magazines
were incorporated and individualised within my own work for Symbal. Primarily, NME served as the
main inspiration in terms of the overall aesthetics and presentation of media – especially seen within
the front cover and double page spread – with Q also being apparent as an inspiration in the
presentation of the contents page. The initial reason why NME was chosen as the primary influence
for my own magazine was largely due to its success and popularity. Evidently, the content matches
that of my own, but the fact that the brand is so established, well-known and successful, meant that I
instantly made the connection between the genre of ‘indie rock’ and the brand identity of NME – and
I wish my magazine to emulate this immediate association and achieve the level of success that NME
has.Q, however, seemed preferable in terms of this contents page layout due to the fact that Q
magazine tends to show one large, central image, with around three smaller images allocated to
specific areas of the page, and this format was emulative of the vision for Symbal’s contents page as it
focused more on information than visual presentation.
As can be seen above, Q (on the left) retains a rather simplistic layout, with a wider range of
significant pages in the magazine covered, while NME (on the right) divides the page into imagebased sections so there is no primary focal point or detailed information on the actual content of the
magazine. Symbal largely follows the layout of Q as it wishes to exemplify that simplicity and focus
on the music itself that was mentioned in the mission statement. Furthermore, the colour scheme of
the contents page of Q is simplistic but bold, contrasting to the newsprint-esque black and white of
NME magazine, and the alignment of the masthead is situated in the top left corner as opposed to
dominating the entire uppermost point of the page as it does in NME, and these are conventions that
are prominent within Symbal’s contents page. Ultimately, like Q, the magazine strives to be eyecatching but entirely music-focused, and this can be seen in the application of primary colours in the
matching colour scheme (red, white, black) but also in the equalised text/image layout, showing a

4. substantial proportion of both aesthetically pleasing material and text-based persuasive language. In
accordance with this point, however, the language and presentation of the language itself is generally
more similar to NME, with the various colloquialisms and slight humour also represented on both the
contents page, front cover, and double page spread of Symbal. Moreover, Symbal also uses the same
font as NME, and this can best be seen in comparing a typical NME front cover and the front cover
for Symbal, where a mixture of the ‘Bebas Nue’ and ‘Times New Roman’ font is utilised. The reason
for emulating this mode of address is that Q magazine generally aims to a much wider target
audience, with its inclusion of various genres, and subsequently adapts its use of language to fit a
wider variety of people, and in Symbal it seems much more important to connect to the audience and
enable them to familiarise themselves with the mode of address, as it is more exclusive to the more
limited range of genres in the magazine. This is shared with NME in all but the masthead, where an
almost retro font is used for Symbal in order to represent the culmination of both new music and
classic mainstream music shown in the magazine, and the almost electronic aspect of the font allows
the reader to understand that subgenres such as electronica will be integral to the ideals of the
magazine.
Unlike the front cover of NME magazine shown here, the general colour scheme of Symbal is
reciprocated within its front cover, as opposed to the challenging of it shown in NME with its use of
different colours. Essentially, however, the similarities in conventions outweigh the differences, as the
masthead, sell lines, and positioning of the band are all aligned similarly in accordance with
stereotypical associations with the indie rock genre. Despite this, it can be said that Symbal expands
on these associations by challenging them with some of the artists shown, while simultaneously

5. presenting them in the same way as typical bands of the genre. Artists such as Grimes and The White
Stripes are loosely linked with ‘indie rock’ but tend to fit more into the lesser known subgenres, and
by presenting them on the front cover as Symbal does, it emphasises the more alternative aspects of
the magazine and promotes the subgenres as an integral part of the Symbal franchise. Based on
research into magazines such as Mojo, Pitchfork and Uncut, this seems to differ from the front covers
of any other typical indie rock magazines (excluding the multi-genre platform Q) in placing emphasis
on the mainstream and non-mainstream bands and artists, showing that both hold equal value to the
general ideas around which the magazine is based on. Also, although puffs and promotional
incorporations are shown, they are significantly less prominent on the front cover of Symbal, once
again based on the thesis that the music the magazine is based around will be the primary benefactor
to its success and it consequently does not need to consistently attempt to captivate the audience with
subscription offers, competitions, and other such miscellaneous gimmicks. However, contrasting to
the idea that information is the primary focus of the magazine, the double page spread consists of a
dominative central image with a relatively small amount of text, which subsequently challenges the
magazine’s own ideals. The reason for this is that it allows for the next series of pages for the article
to be entirely text-based, with only the first two pages focusing on captivating the reader visually – an
idea mimicked only on occasion in magazines such as NME and Mojo. Due to the general absence of
this layout, it seemed a good idea to apply it to Symbal as it is, quintessentially, a fresh way of
presenting a band to the audience and will consequently gain more publicity for both the magazine
and the band consecutively.
As can be seen, it utilises the same consistent colour scheme as the rest of the magazine, which is
essential to the continuity of the Symbal fanbase in establishing familiarity and recognisability with
the magazine. Anchorage text is provided in the form of a continuation of the main pull quote, which
is white in order to provide the most clarity and contrast with the comparably dark image, and a drop

6. capital is used to draw attention to the text and expand on the simple white ‘Times New Roman’ font,
giving it colour and clarity. Moreover, as previously mentioned, the Symbal double page spread
largely challenges the conventions of typical indie rock double page spreads, even in ones that match
its general ideals in terms of presentation; such as the ‘Gentleman of the road’ NME one shown
above. The positioning of the main title and anchorage text is substantially different across the two
pieces of media, with significantly more information prominent within Symbal, and greater emphasis
on a wider range of contrasting relevant colours is also evident in Symbal as opposed to the simplistic,
image –based NME. Indeed, the content of the image itself is different in that NME shows the artists
in a natural environment, whereas the band in Symbal are facing the camera directly and clearly
distinctive against the background as the only two figures available. Again, the reason for this
avoidance of typical conventions in the double page spread is to consolidate the magazine as unique
and individual, and also to contrast to the contents page and front cover which do follow typical
conventions of indie rock magazines to an extent – balancing the familiar and the fresh.
In accordance with this, Symbal typically represents those that are educated in a variety
of music genres, which is emulated in numerous aspects of the magazine. Although a
basic colour scheme is recurrent throughout the magazine, a variety of other colours are
also used in the purpose of attracting all ages, not a specific audience who will merely
follow the magazine due to the similar colour scheme to NMEs. Essentially, the reason
for this is that NME is largely aimed at a specific age and gender group, with a focal
interest in the indie rock genre, and this audience consequently expects to have their
simple needs addressed with a simple magazine; reflected in the single genre the
magazine is based around. IPC Media (the media company that markets and promotes
NME) states:
NME READERS AGREE THAT:
They spend a lot of money on
clothes – 45%
It is important to be well
informed about things -92%
It is worth paying for extra
quality goods – 71%
It is important for them to look
well-dressed -71%
NME READERSHIP:
Male -69%
Female-31%
Average age-24
Working full time-52%
Working part time-7%
Still studying-29%
Generally, Symbal strives to differ in terms of its readership in order to be a more
equalised, balanced magazine amongst a variety of social groups. The magazine aims
for a more equal percentage of both male and female readership, and it aims to achieve
this by including significantly more female artists on the front covers of its various
issues than any other magazine of the relative genre. Indeed, this will be easier for a
magazine such as Symbal as it expands on the typical indie rock genre, taking numerous
other subgenres into account, and by doing so will consequently allow for a wider
representation of women. Although it is generally uncommon in indie rock magazines, it
is also necessary to note that female artists/bands will not be sexualised unnecessarily
anywhere in the magazine, as one may find it lends to the degradation of the music in
which these artists represent – instead merely drawing attention to their body image.
Sexualising them would differ greatly from Symbal’s aforementioned ideals, outlined

7. more elaborately in the mission statement of the magazine.A typical female artist
representative of Symbals values would be Grimes, and she can indeed be seen on the
front cover shown in the practical work. Grimes embodies the idea that women do not
need to be represented sexually in order to attract the reader – she is an upcoming artist
whose latest album was recently voted ‘the best of 2012’ by AllMusic and represents the
warped genre of her music in the way she dresses and how she performs, all of which
would be captivating to the typical target audience member.
Proceeding on from this, the other aspect of these statistics that differs from Symbal
magazines fundamental aims is the large proportion of NME’s target audience who
consider it important to be well dressed, and the average age of the reader. Symbal
strives to achieve a balanced target audience in terms of age, catering for those with a
taste in old and new music and thus aiming for a higher average age of the target
audience due to its wider appeal. With NME, the low average age of the reader
coincides perfectly with how important the target audience believes it is to be ‘well
dressed’ – exemplifying the image-based personality of the younger generation, and
therefore why the editors of NME have to adjust the magazine accordingly to fit that
need for image-based professionalism. It is also indicative of the upper middle class
target audience, as these are the likely candidates to be able to afford putting time and
care into their appearance. Moreover, with Symbal, a slightly older average age for the
readership would increase the likelihood of the more mature target audience being
focused on the content of the magazine, as opposed to the presentation of the content.
However, in appealing to a slightly older audience, it is also important to reduce the
price of Symbal so it is one of the cheapest among its peers, meaning that it can appeal
to the larger majority of lower middle class/middle class citizens, thus generating a
larger fanbase.
In terms of distributing the magazine, IPC media was the most suitable choice
as a media institution, largely due to its highly renowned status as one of the
top media magazine institutions, its accessible website and coherent statistics,
and its consumer feedback. Here is a short presentation on the benefits of using
IPC media, as well as an introduction to its previous successes with brands such
as NME.

10. However, there are drawbacks of using such an institution. A sense of independency,
commonly associated with upcoming alternative magazines, would certainly have to be
sacrificed in order to generate this larger readership, and this may make readers feel that the
magazine have ‘sold out’ to the corporation. There would also be less control over promoting
the magazine, and although the original design would remain largely the same, IPC Media
may have to alter it slightly to fit marketing needs, and this could potentially damage the
brand identity of Symbal. Despite this, it is clear that the advantages of joining such an
institution outweigh the disadvantages, and therefore IPC Media continues to serve as a
promising institution to handle the magazine.
The typical target audience for Symbal magazine would be aged around 30 years old, be working
full time, and would fit within the lower middle class/middle class category. Despite efforts being
made to make the magazine as non gender-specific as possible, it is still likely that the majority
of the target audience will be male as it is the gender most commonly associated with all music
genres excluding pop and perhaps dance. The magazine will be aiming primarily towards creative
individuals with a broad range of interests, not just in music, but also in various cultures, arts,
films and other such works. Subsequently, this may be reflected in the profession of the said
individual, perhaps in that they are a graphic designer or work in the media industry itself.
Although the majority of the target audience will recognise the importance of dressing well and
taking care in terms of fashion, they may not necessarily apply it to themselves as an integral
attribute to their personality and/or lifestyle, and the ideal candidate for a buyer of the
magazine will be opinionated and passionate about his/her interests. They will be looking for
affordable ways to satisfy their needs, whether it is shifting through discounted CDs or looking for
deals in terms of subscriptions for their favourite magazines. Above all, the target audience will
love music, and recognise it as one of the key aspects of their lives in both influencing their dayto-day actions and general lifestyles. For a more detailed profile of the typical target audience,
one should consult the target audience profile in the research and planning.
Essentially, Symbal magazine is primarily based around the theories of Blumler and Katz in
terms of ‘reaching out’ to its audience. The magazine aims to help gratify the reader in
terms of personal identity, in allowing the reader to identify with both the magazine and
the artists inside. It reinforces their values and gives them models upon which they can
base their behaviour, appearance, and fashion sense. Symbal does this by getting worldfamous artists such as Bono or Thom Yorke and personalising them, to an extent not seen
in any magazine of its kind before. Furthermore, it promotes these artists’ individual
lifestyles in intimate interviews, and in-depth coverage of their time in the studio, and this
in itself will allow the reader to feel inspired to achieve their own individual aims in
accordance with these artists. Indeed, this in itself interlinks with Maslow’s hierarchy of

11. needs – and Symbal certainly caters for these needs too, as seen here in helping the reader
to achieve self-actualisation alongside establishing their own identity and personal values
through inspiration and guidance by famous artists. Moreover, the magazine is also
tailored to fit the various social needs of the reader and their desire to integrate into a
wider community; I want the audience to feel like the magazine is a substitute for a real life
companion. This is achieved in several ways prominent within the magazine but can
primarily be seen in the mode of address. Ultimately, the tone is informal and light, mainly
focused on the topics at hand but with incorporations of humour and colloquialisms
throughout in order to ensure that it appeals to the conflictions of character that the typical
reader possesses – serious when it comes to music, but humorous, social, and slightly
rebellious in all other aspects of life. The mode of address will remind the reader of a
mature, knowledgeable friend who reciprocates their passion for music and everything
music-related, and will thus feel more engaged and socially integrated with the identity of
the Symbal readership. Evidently, this also gratifies the readers need for social interaction
and integration, tying in with Blumler and Katz’ theory of what the reader will be using the
magazine for. Also in accordance with this theory, the audience will typically be using
Symbal as a form of entertainment and escapism, which will certainly be easy due to how
the magazine was constructed. Articles within the magazine are designed as both
aesthetically pleasing and hugely detailed, covering a wide range of topics that the reader
can easily immerse themselves into, due to the accessibility of the text presented in
creative ways. Escaping into the world of music should serve as a form of entertainment
and escapism to the typical target audience member, and Symbal allows for that to happen,
with feature articles on artists they love, in-depth interviews, and exclusive news and
reviews that will enable the reader to see how exclusive the magazine is. For more
information on both the hierarchy of needs and the Uses and Gratifications theory, please
consult the videos available on the blog.
Initially, in order to attract this kind of audience for the magazine, a questionnaire was
carried out on likely candidates who fit the general requirements of the idealistic target
audience. As can be seen in the research and planning, 95% of the 20 people who took part
in the questionnaire agreed music played an important role in their life, and when asked
what bands/artists they would like to see in their ideal magazine, several bands were
recurrent and all results managed to show a broad range of subgenres covered. Due to the
fact that each person that fully completed the questionnaire served as representative of my
target audience – in all aspects apart from age – the finished media product was designed
largely around their desires and what they expressed to want from a music magazine. This
was done by applying the most recurrent and most representative artists/bands to both the
front cover and contents page of Symbal, but also by presenting them in a minimally

12. stylistic way to ensure that the focus was on the music as opposed to trying to attract
readers to the band for their style or charisma. Artists such as Grimes, Jack White, Queens
of the Stone Age and TDCC are amongst these recurrent music figures, and consequently,
the majority are given their own feature articles illustrated on the front cover and contents
page, and this works perfectly in accordance with the genres Symbal will cover. However, to
ensure that the magazinedoes fit the needs of its target audience, post-production
research is vital, and this has been undertaken in a variety of ways.
FEEDBACK
1. Upon completion of the front cover, contents page, and double page spread, the three
pieces of media were subsequently uploaded to Facebook, in the hope of gathering
constructive criticism and/or positive feedback. As seen here, the three pieces of media
mainly gathered a positive response from friends on Facebook, with one friend even stating
that it appealed to them ‘more than any other music magazine’ of its kind. However, one
friend (with a particular interest in the genres that the magazine embodies) was
complimentary of the front cover and double page spread, but suggested that the contents
page did not fit in with the more sophisticated approach of the other two pieces of media.
When privately messaged about any potential improvements that could be made to it, the
friend commented on the ‘cartoonish’ font of the title and suggested a more sophisticated
font consistent with the rest of the magazine. This further illustrates how the typical target
audience of Symbal does not care for anything that may render the content of the
magazine as childish or merely stylistic, as it was suggested that the font used on the
contents page may have done.

14. 2. In order to gather information on what the original
questionnaire recipients thought of the finished
product, another questionnaire has been created and
distributed to the same 12 legible people that finished
the original questionnaire, plus an additional 13
people who displayed an interest in the magazine
during its production. Each was shown all three
finished media products in their fully edited state,
before being subject to the questionnaire shown on
the adjacent page.

15. 1. Are you male or female?
Male
Female
2. What age are you?
13-14
15-16
17 and over
3. Overall, do the finished products for Symbal magazine appeal to you?
Yes
No
4. Which is your favourite part of the magazine? Explain your answer.
Front cover
Contents page
Double page spread
5. What would you change about the magazine? If nothing, continue to next question.
6. Do you think £3 is a reasonable starting price for this magazine?
Yes
No
7. Would you buy this magazine?
Yes
Maybe
No
8. Would you recommend this magazine to a friend?
Yes
Maybe
No

16. Generally, the magazine will also attract the reader by advertising on websites such as
Facebook, as well as promoting itself on billboards and posters in busy public areas. A
discounted price to subscribers will be available to all who sign up within a designated time
period, and this will largely be the main offer used on these areas of advertisement in order to
attract the target audience. Train stations, buses, popular websites, Piccadilly Circus – all of
these would be utilised to maximum effect in terms of advertising, in accordance with
Blumler and Katz’ ‘Hypodermic needle’ model. In relation to promotion and advertising, the
magazine will be ‘injected’ into the sub consciousness of the public, specifically to those who
have an interest in the advert, and will reside there until they come across a copy of the
magazine. This will tempt them to buy it.
Throughout the course of this project, numerous technological skills had to be learnt or
expanded upon under a variety of media platforms. These include:
With Nikon/Canon software and Microsoft Office, it is necessary to note that I already
possessed sufficient skill in using them for both curricular and extracurricular activities,
and that I therefore gained no particular extra knowledge through using them in this
project. However, it can certainly be said that Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were used to
great effect throughout the course of this project, especially considering that I attempted to
create each piece of work in its own individual style – done through using various alternate
fonts, page colours, borders, backgrounds etc. It was evidently a primary aim to balance
both presentational aspects and detailed content equally, and upon analysing the
completed research and planning, this aim has been achieved with great success.
Furthermore, using a Canon in the shooting of the front cover photograph was significantly
more challenging than using a Nikon, as this is the camera that I have owned for two years
and therefore I am more familiarised with it. If one were to look at the finished photo product
of the front cover, however, then it can certainly be said that the photo was a great success

17. for a first-time user of a Canon, as the subject is central to the image and there is no reverb
from flash or wobble.
Concerning the other technologies, however, there was a substantial amount of difficulty
involved. Blogger.com and Slideshare altered my pre-production work quite badly when I
uploaded them onto their websites, thus forcing me to backtrack in my work and adjust the
fonts and page positioning accordingly so that it could be suitable for these sharing sites.
Moreover, I found blogger.com to be bland and simplistic in terms of its approach to
blogging, and consequently believe that other blogging websites such as Tumblr would be
more appropriate and easier to use than the one used for this project.Tumblr would have
been more effective as it is a blogging website specifically focused on making the blogs
aesthetically pleasing, and this is something Blogger fails to do. It does this through using
‘themes’, and there are a huge variety of these to choose from, in order to present the work in
a more stylistic and sophisticated way. Also, Tumblr allows for Word and PowerPoint
documents to be uploaded directly, as opposed to having to go through a website such as
Slideshare first, and has a more established status as the most prominent blogging site in
the world.
InDesign was not used at any point in the construction of these products as I found it
unnecessarily overcomplicated, and it often succumbed to various technical glitches.
Because of this, I constructed the entirety of my three products on Photoshop, which was
much more accessible and easier to use, as I have been familiarised with it for years now.
The editing process itself was simple, and there were few issues due to the fact that
simplicity was one of the key aspects of the magazine, and the fact that the images were
already of a high quality. There was little need for editing the image, apart from boosting the
levels of contrast and using the spot remover tool. Generally, the whole process of editing
was easy and enjoyable, and although I was already familiarised with using Photoshop, I
learnt how to combine image and text in an aesthetically pleasing way, also learning how to
download new and exciting fonts suitable to my magazine. Overall,there are few things I
would change about the product produced, as I believe it fits the needs and desires of the
typical target audience very well and looks aesthetically pleasing, retaining brand identity
throughout all three pieces of media.
Ultimately, this project has progressed greatly from the original preliminary task of creating a school
magazine for sixth formers. When the preliminary piece of work was initiated, the knowledge I
possessed of technological devices – primarily Photoshop – was largely limited, and this was
subsequently reflected in the work on the magazine front cover. The main area where the preliminary
cover for ‘Sixth Sense’ magazine failed was in the editing, as opposed to the general structuring of the
page which was adequate and coherent. As a blank background was unavailable during the
construction of this project, the main image was subject to the magic wand tool, meaning it was copied
onto a background created entirely on Photoshop. Generally, this was a failure, as the original lighting
of the main image failed to suit the neutral colouring of the computer-generated background, and also,
the image was not copied smoothly, leading to jagged edges that fail to look professional. Furthermore,
since this failed so drastically, I decided to use a blank background in real life when taking the photos
for the main image, and this eliminated these issues in terms of lighting and using the magic wand tool;
it was no longer required, and was therefore a much simpler experience. In terms of other areas of the
project, my mock ups are now far more representative of the final product in both colour and layout, and

18. significantly more background research has been conducted in accordance with Symbal magazine.
With the aforementioned progress in using various technologies, I have also greatly improved my
Photoshop skills, and this can be seen in the professional editing of the front cover, contents page, and
double page spread of my music magazine.