Masthead Designs

These are the three designs I created for my masthead. The font I used is called "More Than Human" and can be found at www.dafont.com.

I like the font as, with the modern look and sharp points towards the bottom, I believe it is useful at conveying the ideology of the magazine.

The colour scheme of all three (including the white background between the word spaces), all follow the conventional colour scheme of red, black and white.

The colours on all three of them combine well, in my opinion, and also helped by the font give the masthead a look which compliments the different aspects of the magazine (such as the individualistic ideology).

Were the magazine to run full-time, all three of these masthead colour schemes would be used overtime, but due to the nature of the course, I will use only one of them.

Featured Bands

In my magazine I have decided to feature three main artists, one of which will dominate each aspect I am making of the magazine, the genre of music they make will be reflective of the ideology of 'Freak.' magazine.

• Front Cover - Lead singer of 'Hyperbolic Dandyism' - A band whose music is very upbeat, heavy and erratic rock music.

• Contents Page - 'Blue Dawn' - a two piece neo-folk-rock group, who make in-depth rock music with a natural sound and traditional instruments. (this group will dominate the main image of the contents page, in a similar way to the picture in the contents page analysis 02 post).
  

• Double Page Spread - 'Enter Oblivion' - an alternative industrial rock solo artist who makes heavy rock music with a dance twist.

Each of these bands will be represented in the way which will try to embody their music. They will obviously also feature in other elements of the magazine (i.e. on the contents page)

Magazine Title

• I have decided to call the magazine "Freak"

• This is because it is short, snappy, easy to remember and it also is reflective of the ideology and the target audience of my magazine.

• This is because the audience are very individualistic, and a 'freak' is something which goes against the norms of society, like the target audience. It reflects the ideology because the genres of music and general content are all unconventional in nature, but that is what makes them appealing to their target audience.

Moodboard

This is the mood board I made to compile ideas about my music magazine.

As you can see i have used the colour scheme of red, black and white (a convention of music magazines) and I would like to incorporate this colour scheme in to my front cover.

I also put down excerpts of an article, logos and mastheads and pictures of music related objects (i.e. magazines and headphones) and different designs which would suit the image of the magazine.

Genre

After performing research and considering the Target Audience at which I wish to aim my magazine, I have decided that the musical genres covered will be the more alternative ones.

These include:

• Rock
• Metal
• Gothic
• Industrial
• Electronica
• Symphonic Metal
• Indie
• Many more alternative, lesser known genres which would appeal to the target audience (such as Dark Gothic Cabaret, Dance-Metal, Folk-Metal).
• And many combinations of the already named genres (i.e. Gothic Metal).

These genres are just a few examples of the sort of music my magazine will include. There will, naturally, be a lot more featured were the magazine to run through a lon period of time.

Target Market

Practically ALL of the Music Magazine I have looked at in my textual analysis have been aimed at a younger audience.

Therefore, (as these magazines are aimed at the audience and are very successful, as the specific audience like the music magazines) I would like to aim my magazine at a similar audience, preferably 16/17 year old people, up to people in their early twenties.

This will allow me to keep the musical genre(s) my magazine will be based on modern and innovative and less conventional, as that is what people in that age range like - individualism.

I will also be able to give the magazine a fresh and modern image which will appeal to the younger audience.

Also, the content of the magazine will be representative of the audience (for example, I could include a section relating to the fashion of the music scene, as a persons image is very important to people of that age range).

I will use the traditional Media Language (such as the Masthead, Main Image (rest of the main aspects listed in the Conventions and mind map posts...) in such a way that it appeals to the audience by using modern-looking fonts for example.

As my chosen audience is very diverse (there are a lot of different types of people with different lifestyles and tastes) I could give the magazine a very broad content range, making it to appeal to a lot of people, but as this may put people in the target market off when considering buying the magazine (if someone doesn't like a main feature they may not buy it) I may have to restrict the range as a whole.

Also, a lot of my target market are interested in the more alternative types of music (such as rock, metal, even some sub-genres such as industrial rock (heavy rock, almost metal at times with dance elements and vice versa).

This means that in my magazine I will feature these more alternative genres and to attract the widest audience, It would probably be best for me to have the main features in the magazines (therefore the subject of the main image and main cover line, possibly even the main double page spread,) about bands/musical acts in those genres who are particularly successful.

So that many more people in the alternative market are catered for, I will also feature lesser known bands, so that there will be a wider range of people whose tastes are covered in the magazine.

Double Page Spread Textual Analysis 03

[Image scanned from: August 2008 Issue #112 of Rock Sound Magazine]

• This double page spread is very different from the others in the fact that three quarters of the page (when moving left to right horizontally,) are dominated by the main image.
• This image is very alternative on the ideology. The band members are wearing white and covered in what appears to be blood, which puts across quite an horrific image and represents how the band are 'different' and 'against the norms'. The picture is at a slightly high angle which is probably to further emphasise how the band (called 'Racebannon'), are different and not conventional of music (as a high angle shots are not often used in representing bands) and none of the models are giving eye contact to the camera. There is nothing particularly notable in the mise-en-scene except for the white walls, overalls, and masses of 'blood'.
• The final vertical quarter consists of the article which is presented in a very linear manner
• The masthead and drop cap ('W') are in a font which seems quite industrial and mechanical (possibly hinting that the genre of music the band play is 'industrial metal').
• The article itself would be quite plain, conventional and boring if it were not for the fact that most of the page is taken over by the bright, bold image.
• There is also, in very small typeface a caption on the image, which is a humorous quip which adds a more light-hearted side to the page.
• The institution and page number are shown in the footer, like with the other two double page spreads, and ignoring the larger size of the image, the page is quite conventional in the fact that the main body of the article is on the right hand side.
• In the top corners there are smaller headlines stating that this is the 'Exposure' regular feature of the magazine. They are bright yellow which isn't a conventional music magazine colour, and the break from convention really helps them stand out on the page, helping them overall.