The document discusses the design process for a magazine. The author initially planned a non-traditional magazine design but later decided to take a more conservative approach, drawing inspiration from magazines like Kerrang and NME. Key elements like the color scheme, layout, and masthead were revised multiple times to better align with conventions of rock music magazines and to appeal to the target audience. The aim became creating a magazine that would feel familiar to readers and respect genre traditions.

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To start with the design I went for when creating my magazine was a very
conservative view, to keep it simple for my intended audience, and in line
with styles they would be use to. I achieved this by using a colour scheme
my audience would be used to, the colours Red, black and orange, with a
white background. From looking at other magazines that share my intended
audience, they all use these colours, maybe not in this combination, but they
do use them quite often, because of this new readers of my magazine would
be able to adjust quickly to my magazine.
My magazine would also use more traditional technique, photography wise,
as my models use poses and props that are easily identified by people of the
rock genre. The double page spread is also in tone with more traditional
magazines, it is a simple spread, with the article on one side with the picture
of the artist on the other.
The contents page is heavily inspired by other music magazines that share
my genre, as I want my magazine to be a conservative magazine that
respects these conventions.

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I drew inspiration from a large number of different sources, I decided the
tone of my magazine from my target audience, I grew inspiration for the
design from many magazines, mainly kerrang and NME.
The content of the article was created with the band fall out boy in mind, as
they’re one of the more popular rock bands at the moment,
The message of the magazine was inspired by the Emo and Goth sub culture,
as many of them note that being Goth or Emo has a great sense of
belonging, you’re accepted for the person you’re, that is the message I
wanted to get across in the magazine.
I also took a lot of advice from my tutor, because of this I was able to more
effectively design my magazine.

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Originally I wanted to make a magazine that challenged these conventions, I
wanted to make a unique, new magazine for a brand new generation of rockers,
to accomplish this I decided to, instead of feature a band, or group as my
headline act, I used a singular person, this is quite out of the ordinary for a rock
magazine, as the majority of headline acts are groups, including my chemical
romance, skillet, etc.
My original colour scheme was also supposed to be non traditional, I had planned
to make use of the colours Cyan, green and a black background, however I
decided that these colours did not complement each other.
I was originally going to seek inspiration through magazines such as NME and Q!,
however when I made my decision to change to a traditional rock magazine, I
decided to look at Kerrang for ideas.
Another key component of my magazine that I completely redid was the
masthead, originally the masthead looked very basic, just the word generation
followed by a bigger version of a Z. This was also an attempt to challenge the
typical type of masthead, as it would only cover a third of the top portion of the
magazine, instead of the traditional use of it going right across the page. I
eventually developed it to the point of it going along with these typical
conventions, i also made the z more prominent so that it could be recognised as
a symbol for the magazine.

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Another component of my magazine that went through constant revisions
was the way I would present my kickers and cove line. In the beginning I
decided that the kickers and cover lines would be spread across the page,
eventually while I was constructing my magazine, I realised that they would
look much more appealing if they were put at one side of the page, that
way I could put more content onto the page, such as various flashes and
plugs
One convention that I have altered throughout my project was the Headline
and anchorage. It has kept its original design, however I have changed
sections of it, for instance the colour as well as font, size, location and added
another piece to the anchorage.
The only feature of my cover page to remain intact throughout the project
was my selling line, it was always “Fall out boy- their rise from the ashes” I
created it first and never altered it in any capacity.
The aim of my front cover was to appear as a traditional rock music
magazine, in this way I believe I have succeeded, as I have followed many
of the constantly used conventions.

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My contents page also went through some minor changes, the general
layout has never changed, it has mainly stayed the same since I first
designed the page, rather the edits came from altering the fonts. Originally I
had decided to use Cooper black for the section headers, I then decided
that the font impact had a much bolder presence, meaning it would attract
the attention of the readers with little ease.
I also changed the layout of the pictures, at first it was just supposed to be a
picture of a member of stardust crusaders, eventually, with some much
needed advice, I decided to change it to include two cover albums, for the
bands the fray and skillet.
Another less subtle difference between my revised contents page and the
original was the fact that the artist’s names were in a black text, I altered it
so that red was a dominant colour, the black was used for the additional
information
Another change was the fact that the magazine masthead was supposed to
be in red, but since I altered the text to be red I decided to balance it out by
changing the masthead header .

7. Selling Line
Masthead
Banner
Kickers
Feature
Article Photo
Kickers
Caption
Cover Lines
inc. pull-quote
Headline
Secondary Leads
Anchorage
Plug
Menu Strip
Flash
Bar Code
Conventions for my front cover

8. 1. Title
Section
2. Header
7. Graphic
Feature
9. Inset 10. Sidebar
8. Dropped Picture
11. SubCapital
headings
(though
more
often
used to
split up
the body
of the
text)
3.
Caption
4.
Subtitle
5.
Background
Photo
6.
Factfile
12.
Pull
Quote
(taken
from the
article
itself)
7.
Columns
(with the
body text)
Conventions of my double page spread
13.
Byline
16. White Space
(helps to avoid
info overload)
15. Slug
14.
Borders /
Dividers

9. Section
Header
Front Cover Copy
Issue and
Dateline
Signed Editorial
Stand-out
quote
(with dropped capitals)
Section Banner
Navigation
Panel (with
Border / Divider
Main Feature
header)
(with inset pictures)
Pictorial
insets (of
Section
Headers
highlights &
exclusives)
Numbered
itemised list
Page numbers
(with headers
resembling kickers
and cover lines)
Conventions I used in my contents page
Subscription
box

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I wanted the Z of my music magazine to be an image, that would
help boost sales of the magazine, that is why I used it so heavily
throughout my magazine, I used it as a short identification mark
instead of putting the whole masthead.
That is one of the reasons the masthead is the only letter in the
whole of my magazine to have its own font, every other word in my
magazine uses either franklin gothic demi, impact, or Goudy stout.
I wanted the Z to be as recognisable as Kerrang’s K! logo, as a
strong brand creates a strong image, a strong image increases
renown and sales.
I have styled the Z so that it is one of the first pieces of information
you see, even when looking at the masthead, the z is what really
sticks out, as it is almost twice the size of the other letters in the
masthead.