Thumbnails of Planned Photographs

After finishing the new pencil drafts, I started on the planning of the photographs too. Here are my ideas for the photoshoot:

I decided that I would like my models to be two Asian females to represent a duo band. I decided that I would like Asian females because I want my magazine to be solely about good music without any boundaries - whether it be genre-wise, popularity-wise or culturally. I want one of them to be dressed 'softly' and femininely while the other model to be dressed more chic and cool with more of a fierce vibe. I decided on this to show that they, as artists, have many sides to them - they try out a range of genres. However, the model who will be dressed more femininely will be dressed (if possible)  in a lace or translucent clothing to slightly show the bra. This will show that the artist still have more of an 'edgy' concept and although they like to try out variety of genres, they're main style is still indie/rock and they put their own twist to all their songs which are of another genre.

In terms of props, I have chosen to place both an electric guitar as well as an acoustic guitar into the photographs as this again represents the different genres and also makes it clear to the audience that it is a music magazine. I also decided on placing items such as headphones and microphones to emphasise to the audience, again, that this is a music magazine and that it is avid music fans. It also suggest that the band on the cover are one who are really interested in music and are not in the music industry just for the fame.

For the 2nd picture in the 2nd row, I decided to place headphones and its wires all around the picture and have the models entangled in them. This has connotations of the artists being constantly 'wrapped' in music and, again, emphasises the importance of music to them. Also, in this particular shot, I want the model who will represent the softer side to have a fierce expression while the other model will have a softer expression. This, again, plays on the fact that they have many sides to them and their music.

New Pencil Drafts

I had previously devised some rough pencil drafts of my pages. However, looking back on them as I started on the planning for the photographs, I realised that, due to time constraints, it might be hard to take all the photographs that I required for both the contents page and double page spread. Therefore, I have sketched out some new pencil drafts:

Contents Page:

Double page spread:

Planned Pencil Drafts

I have drawn out some simple rough sketches of the layout of the magazine pages:

Names For My Magazine

In order to decide a name for my music magazine, I decided to make a mind map of some names suggested in the audience questionnaires and a few that I came up with on my own so that I can look at the options clearly and decide which one will suit my magazine the best.

 

In the end, I decided upon 'Music Core'. I felt that this portrayed what I wanted the magazine to be - the go-to for music news and information. I wanted the magazine to be recognised as a magazine that provided its readers with good, quality music information. I thought that the word 'Core' signified the fact that the magazine captures the very essence of music and is the center for music news.

For the tagline, yet again, I looked through suggestions from the questionnaires and made some of my own.

I decided to go with 'Muse for Music' as I think that this portrays to the readers that the magazine is for those who are passionate for music as a 'Muse', according to Greek mythology, is a 'protector of an art'. Therefore, I felt that this tagline was the one that was most suited to convey what I want the magazine to be.

Audience Research - The Questionnaire and the Results

After having my Reader Profile decided, I need to get my target audience together and find out their opinions and tastes on the sort of stuff that they would prefer on the magazine. To do this, I constructed a questionnaire, which I handed out to various people in my target age range of 16-24. Here are the results I got:

 

 

 

1. 

Reader Profile

The first stage of my magazine planning is to decide on my Reader Profile on which I can start building my magazine around. I have to decide on a target audience whom my magazine is for and what type of people they are, with what type of tastes they have, etc. Here, take a look at my Reader Profile:

Gender: Female

Age: 16-24

Star Sign: Gemini

Income: Works part-time at a music store, parents are slightly more well-off than average.

Clothes: Top shop, Primark, New Look, Zara, occasionally vintage, etc.

Studying: A-Levels/Uni for a career in a fashion or music magazine.

Likes: Wide variety of music, going to gigs/concerts/festivals, fashion, dancing, reading novels, movies, art, shopping, travelling, photography, and just hanging out with her friends.

Dislikes: Being told she has to do things a certain way, disloyalty to friends, lying.

Music tastes: Indie, Rock, R’n’B, Pop, Hip Hop, etc.

Personality: Fun-loving, friendly, laid-back, caring, low boredom threshold, hard-working, always wants to do her best and not regret anything, deep thinker, likes to work hard as well as have fun, can have a high-temper. 

Transport: Mini Cooper.

Weekends: Shopping in town centre with friends, going to the beach with friends, watching movies (both at home and at cinemas), listening to music, etc. 

Here I've done a collage to reflect my target audience: 

  (Top image source: www.tcds.org/uploads/image/Question%20mark%20face.JPG) 

Preliminary Task: School/College Magazine

To prepare myself for the music magazine and to get an idea of the timescale and the amount of preparation I need to construct a magazine, I did a small, preliminary task of designing a school magazine.

First of all, I looked at several other school magazines to analyse some similiarities and differences between the magazines of this particular type. By looking at several school magazine, I came up with a list of codes and conventions:

Image from:
http://havocduckducksplat.blogspot.com/
2009/10/college-magazine-analysis.html

• Clear, readable text

• Specific and relevant colour scheme

• Logo of school or college

• Clear, structured layout

• Sophisticated style

• Informative and motivational

• Formal/respectful

• Good, high quality images

• Interesting/eye-catching images – visually appealing

• Interesting writing style

• Relevant topics appropriate for audience

• Inviting and engaging

• Contributions from all ages so that it appeals to all years

• Engaging achorage and cover lines

• Information on dates/events

• Career/homework/coursework advice and tips

• GCSE, A-Level, University options

• Simple, clear font with appropriate font sizes

• Not discriminative of any type of student

I then carried out an audience research questionnaire which I asked several people in my target age range to complete. Here are the results:

 

So, after having done the research into code and conventions and the audience research, I decided to starting planning and drafting my own front cover for the school magazine. After doing pencil sketches and several drafts, here is the final version:

 

I also did a rough draft of a contents page:

 

After carrying out the research and constructing some pages, for the preliminary task, I think I'm more confident and ready to start on the music magazine :)