Masthead fonts

Above are some fonts I wanted to use, however after studying them in more detail I didn't think that they were really that conventional when I compared them to some real life music magazines so with that in mind I looked for something more basic and conventional.

Inspirational front cover

Above is an example of a front cover from a country and western music magazine called Country Weekley. This is what my front cover is inspired by and when you look at them together and compare them they are vertually the same. This is a good thing becuase I wanted to create a conventional front cover.

Favourite double page spread images

Above are the final two images that I have chosen from my shoot for my double page spread. After looking at them I have decided to keep the top one as my image. Although in my opinion the bottom image is nicer looking and has a bit more quality to it the top one is more conventional has a close up shot and is more of an eye catching image.

Double page spread images

Above are some images from a shoot I did for my double page spread. As you can see I have taken these images on location to try and keep the natural setting as close to the orginial genre as possible.

Favourite front cover images

The images above are my final two images out of the first shoot I did, after I studied them closely and related them to conventional images I decided to pick the top image as my final image and you can see my progress as you go up my blog - finding drafts and ideas right until me final image of  my final piece.

Features of an interview on a double page spread

Main Image-is usually the left page at the beginning of the article

Headline-particularly in interview articles the headline tends to be the name of the featured artist. It is usually in a different colour, font and size etc.

Subheading-this is normally linked to the article and is bolder and more eye catching then the main text but is normally black.

By Line-this is smaller then all text and illustrates the people behind this article for instants the photographer or the editor.

Caption-this is found in a small box in the corner of the picture and is used to describe what is going on in that image. The box is coloured so it draws the attention of the reader.

Pull Quote-this is a quote which is taken out of the text, enlarged and high lighted. This allows the reader to understand the basis of the interview without having to read the whole thing. It is usually in Italics and surrounded with the main body of text.

Drop Capital-this is used at the start of the article. It is simply an enlarged first letter it makes the article look more appealing to the eye.

Music Magazine Research - Report

The genre of music that I have chosen is Country and Western. I think that this genre of music will be easier to create into a music magazine and also will be relitivly easy to photograph which is why I have chosen in, I have no intrest in this genre at all.

Country and Western is mostly heard and popular in america however people listen to it in England particually in parts of Devon and Cornwall.

The target audience for this genre of music is typically older, country people and it maybe seen as a male dominant/ male intrest.

Below is an image that represents the target audience of this genre.

Music Magazine Research- Voxpops Video

Music Magazine Flat Plans

This is my front cover flat plan:

This is my contents page flat plan:

This is my double page spread flat plan:

Mini proposal for double page spread

I aim to create an interview double page spread. This is a traditional convention of a music magazine (it appears a lot of the time) of my chosen genre, country and western. I will take some more images probably in the woods to create a countryside effect and use the best one as my double page spread. I will use my best friend as my model for this image (same artist as on the contents page and front cover). I will dress her in relevant clothing to show her in her natural environment this way it will look both conventional and appealing to the eye. I will use all of the conventional ideas from other music magazine double page spreads therefore I will always be referring back to a conventional look.

Front cover images - shoot 2

Above is my second shoot. The blue background goes well with the artists clothing however after comparing it with the pink images I feel that they are in themselves of better quality as they are positioned and composed better.

Music Magazine Initial Ideas

Music Magazine Proposal

Front cover images

Above are some images I took on my first shoot for my front cover, I think the pink background goes well and it makes my artist stand out however I am intending on doing another shoot with a blue background behind so I can then see which one looks both conventional and accurate.

John Denver- Country Roads

This is aother example of a Country and Western music video

Audience research - survey

I have created a survey to research about my chosen genre and to see what the public thought about it. After collecting all of my research I will gather the outcomes and put it into my final design work to show I have considered other peoples opinions.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?PREVIEW_MODE=DO_NOT_USE_THIS_LINK_FOR_COLLECTION&sm=7roIuWdhfFkFCIzYxR034COZuSrDe9Ki1%2bjjWDBmlEw%3d

Dolly Parton - 9 to 5

This is one example of a Country and Western music video

Music Magazine Additional Research

The music genre that I have chosen for my magazine is Country and Western musc as explained in my report.

Popular artists of this genre are:

- Dolly Parton
- Katherine Dawn
- Aaron Tippin
- John Carter

Prezi

Below is a link that goes to my prezi which is all about the conventions of Music magazines in our world today.

Chosen magazine genre

I have chosen to do my genre on Country and Western as I feel that this both a challenge and exiting genre to choose. Below is a bit of information about Country Music itself.

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboyand southeastern American folk music. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjoes, electric and acoustic guitars, fiddles such as violins and harmonicas.
The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term hillbilly music. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres. In 2009 Country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, and second most popular in the morning commute.

Music Magazine Research- Annotated Covers

To help with my personal research I have annotated two magazine front covers of completely different genres. I have chosen pop and western.

For this magazine cover, the genre of music and possibly the target audience are given away by the main image and the clothing of the artist featured “Cheryl Cole”. These connotations show the genre of music as the artist in the image looks simple yet from a younger generation. The masthead and font would attract a potential reader to pick up the magazine and quick browse the cover lines and information given. The graphics and the colour scheme has been used well and defiantly appropriately the red colour matches in well with the logo of Q as it is also a deep red.

Music Magazine Research- Connotations

I have researched the meaning and understanding of different types of music genres and I by doing this I have come up with some conventional keywords. I have presented my research in a table as seen below; the connotation words to the right are the describing words used the most to describe the genres on the left hand side.

Music Magazine Research- Brainstorm

I have researched different types of genres and their subgenres via the internet so that I can work out which magazine genre would best fit my intentions.

Music Magazine Research - Target Audience

What is a target audience?

Target audience is a particular group of people, identified as the intended recipient of an advertisement or message. It is also called target population. A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender, marital status, etc. for example teenagers, females, single people. A combination of factors, e.g. men aged 20-30 is a common target audience.

Student Magazine Contents Page

Above is my contents page. For this, I chose to put the image of my front cover on the top left hand side as when I looked in a magazine called your horse it was very similar. I did this in Indesign and continued to use different tools for example shapes and different text. I am more pleased with my contents page because although it doesn’t look original it look quiet formal and interesting.

Student Magazine Front Cover

Above is my student magazine front cover. I chose the title ‘inspire’ as this is a student magazine and it corresponds with students being inspired by others to do well and succeed. The colour scheme was more male dominant because of the black and blues this was not intended as it was meant to be a unisex magazine, this is what I will improve next time. I used many tools in Indesign such as swatches- colour style and desighn and I managed to rotate shapes for example the circle. Next time I think I should spend more time on the actual design and aesthetics on the magazine front cover.

Magazine Photography

For my magazine I went out into the college when the majority of people where on a break, I found someone who wanted someone to answer a questionaire. I answered her questions in return for a picture. Below are two images I had to choose from I chose the image on the left because i feel that it was the most appropriate.