Justin Bieber Billboard Cover

Although this magazine is mainly a Pop music magazine, many aspects of the cover page are relevant to how I plan to design the cover page for my own Pop/Rock magazine cover.
 

The use of fonts, for example, vary in styles and sizes. This is effective, because it makes the magazine seem exciting, asthere is so much to take in, which the target audience ackowledges, and their curiosity draws them to buying the magazine. 

The font styles, despite having a variety of them, are all sans serif fonts. This is something that I want to incorporate into my magazine, because the use of the sans serif fonts appear to be conventional with Pop and Rock magazines, and are very popular with magazines aimed at the youth. This is probably because it is aimed at a niche audience, so there is little obligation for the magazine to come across as "sophisticated" and "serious".

Despite this, I would not want to use too many different colours on my magazine, as this cover looks more like a poster in this sense. In order to suit the magazine's house style, I would like to keep a specific colour scheme or red, blue and purple, but have pops of colour to create a sense of fun for my young female audience.

Pixies NME Cover

The simplicity of this magazine cover is very effective on the audience. By keeping the cover page very basic and the text very minimal, the audience draws their attention to the Pixies band being featured. The use of their black clothing on top of the white background of the image makes them stand out even more, and it feels quite personal for the audience. In addition to this, one of the band members is reaching their hand out, showing an attempt of friendship and introduction, again making the audience feel engaged on a more personal level. 

The shot used of the band is effective in this case, and I would like for my magazine cover picture to come across as very personal and eye-catching for a young person. I may do this by ensuring that the model is giving eye contact with the audience, as it draws them in to what is being shown. 

However, the text is too limited on this magazine cover and I feel that this makes it look more like a poster than an actual magazine cover.

Also, young females would like more colour and different font sizes and more aspects of spontaneity on a magazine, to give the impression that the magazine is fresh and fun (which is my intention). This NME cover is very basic, unlike other music magazines. 

But, the use of sans serif font is something that I would also like to consider using, because it makes the magazine seem less "serious" and I would like to achieve this with my magazine's house-style. 

Liam Gallagher Q Cover

I have decided to take a look at this Q Magazine cover as inspiration for my own magazine, in terms of the layout, and how it maintains the magazine's house style. Q magazine keeps a theme colour of red, which effectively attracts the audience, annd the use of the highlighted text makes specific features stand out. The headline "OASIS ARE BACK" is in big bold font, as well as it being in colours that match the logo. This means that along with the logo, the headline will also automatically draw attention, because the red and white contrasts with the black and grey. 

In terms of the layout of the other headlines, the text is not crowding the cover, allowing the audience to pay attention to the artist being featured. As well as this, the fact that the face of the artist is centred, brings more focus on the artist's eyes, and this is an effective way of engaging the audience and enticing them to want to buy the magazine and read further into Liam Gallagher's experience up to the comeback of Oasis. 

I would like to adapt this style into my magazine, because the use of bright red as the magazine's theme colour is very effective, because it attracts people, and it defines the magazine's house-style, for the logo and the theme colour never changes, and it almost creates a brand of the magazine name and style. I would like to incorporate a bright and eye-catching house-style and colour scheme into my magazine, in a way that would appeal to young females (my target audience), and make my magazine seem defined and professional, but quirky and fun to suit my audience effectively. 

Choosing A Name

When establishing a name for the magazine, it was important to understand the target audience and what they would like to see. The target audience for this music magazine was decided to be the British youth, preferrably females, with the magazine featuring current, upcoming music within the Pop/Rock music genre. After a brainstorm of various possible magazine titles, the options were narrowed down to two - "Fuse" and "Spark". Since we were unsure, a survey was carried out amongst 20 female students in school, with 10 students from the Media class, and 10 who were completely unaware of the project, so that there was a fair balance between the types of people questioned. From the results, we concluded that "Fuse" was the most popular title, and this is possibly because it is more closely associated to the idea of music, and the exploration of different kinds. This clearly defined what the magazine wants to show, in relation to the discovering and appreciating of new and current music. 

My Target Audience

My target audience for my music magazine will be teenage girls in Britain who take an interest in the Pop/Rock music genre. I have written up the results of a questionnaire that I did, which surveyed 30 British females that were 14-18 years old.

After conducting this questionnaire, I found that most females were reading American-based magazines, possibly because the amount of British-based magazines for this age group are quite limited, creating more of an opportunity for the introduction of my magazine. The fact that a lot of girls like the Pop/Rock music genre also contributes to the fact that there is a lot of opportunity for my magazine, and most magazines have very little features on British artists and British music. 

As well as this, most females enjoy fashion and gossip magazines alongside music magazines. Therefore, it would be good to incorporate features in the magazine that not only celebrate current British Pop/Rock music, but also establish and set trends which may appeal to British females, prior to their interests in style and being updated with the trends.

Also, the fact that this sample said they are appealed mainly by the artist featured on the cover of a music magazine emphasises the importance of the image, and the fact that the model must look stylish and eye-catching in order to appeal to my audience.

Media Trip to BFI

The trip took place on the 21st November, to the British Film Institute in South Bank, London. The overall experience was very beneficial, because it allowed me to learn more about the media as an industry, and also had important aspects that were relevant to the course. Although I am making a magazine, I found the breaking down of film openings to be very useful, because I could adapt what I learnt to the analysing of film clips in the exam. In addition to this, the discussions with people in the media industry had me considering studying something media-related in the future.