The document discusses the design choices made for the front cover, contents page, and double page spread (DPS) of a music magazine. For the front cover, the designer took inspiration from the magazine "Vibe" by using a large white masthead and a close-up female pose. For the contents page, the designer was influenced by "Q" magazine and used a similar classy layout but with different images and a purple color scheme. For the DPS, the designer followed the style of a Lady Gaga spread shown previously by having one page be a full image and the other with a large letter behind text. Consistency of fonts and colors was prioritized throughout.

1. Looking at my front cover

3. My music magazine includes a few genres of music but predominantly pop. Hip-
hop is included which is why aspects of ‘Vibe’ is helpful when considering how to
attract my target audience. My front cover is similar to the ‘Vibe’ front cover as
they both have a large white masthead. I feel this white colour is eye-catching but
also connotes hip-hop music because stereotypically vibrant diamond jewellery is
seen and males in white suites is also a stereotypical view of hip-hop music. I feel
the pose my female is making is also similar to the ‘Vibe’ pose because they both
have their head tipped to the side and are looking at the camera although mine is
more close up shot rather than a midshot. I chose to do challenge this convention
because I think if the image is more realistic to real life size it draws the target
audience in more because the artist looks more lifelike. I have included a skyline
similar to ‘Vibe’ in order to make my magazine look more conventional and draw
attention to other parts of my magazine. The main plug on the page is large and
written across the page taking up a lot of room which I realised is a conventional
feature in music magazines, I feel it is another technique used to grab the
attention of the audience and it does this through the large, capitals written in a
place on top of the image showing it’s dominance of the page and the rest of the
magazine.
The font type is somewhat different to ‘Vibe’ because I didn’t want my magazine
to look like a purely urban music magazine which after my research I have noticed
that generally urban music magazines have more bubbly writing. Therefore
because mine is a general pop music magazine i wanted to deter away from this
stereotype and make my magazine look more classy with more roman looking
letters.

4. Some audience feedback from my
front cover in working progress...
The general point was that
my masthead was effective
and caught their eye
therefore I didn’t go on to
change this further.

5. Looking at my contents page

7. ‘Q’ magazine has a target audience of a similar age range and status
as mine therefore when looking at ‘Q’s’ contents page was
influential. I have used a similar layout however different kinds of
images to connote the pop music genre. I chose this layout because
I thought it looked classy and therefore meeting my audiences
expectations. I decided to use a different colour scheme with purple
as my predominant colour purely because I felt it is a colour
fashionable for males and females now which means this contents
page will appeal to both genders. Although I like the connotations
of the red colour I felt it means my magazine may look to similar to
‘Q’ and therefore would be too stronger competitors although the
music genre is different. The font type I chose is fairly similar
however I feel this is almost inevitable because I wanted something
classy looking and not ‘bubbly’ because I feel this can look tacky on
a magazine, yet I wanted something clear to read therefore similar
fonts are used to that in ‘Q’ magazine.

8. Looking at my double page spread

10. The layout of my DPS was heavily influenced by the previous slides
‘Lady GaGa’ DPS. I really thought it looked classy and unique for my
target audience. I chose to have one page an image which took up
the whole page and the other a text which a large letter behind.
I typically followed my predominant colour of purple throughout my
DPS by having purple tones in the main image. I chose the ‘J’ for the
artists name ‘Jessica’ to be a dark grey as I found that purple tones
were too girly and therefore not suiting the males as much. I found
that my main image was similar to the main image to the left of my
DPS in the previous slide in terms of props. I felt the use of furniture
for props added a more personal feeling and therefore meeting
audience’s needs because they are intregued to know about their
desired artists.
Again the same font is followed throughout keeping a style consist
throughout my products and again easy to read for my audience.