Analysis of existing magazines.

This is the front cover of Kerrang. The title of the magazine is in black and place at the top of the page behind the picture of a band. You can tell that it is Kerrang by the font, They spell Kerrang with the same font every time, as it is their logo. The colours on the front page are very limited, keeping to the Reds, white and black. They have used serif fonts for all the writing, keeping it plain and simple, Nothing fancy. There is one main picture of the band Bring me the horizon. Showing you that they one of the main features in this issue. There are 3 other pictures at the bottom of the page, smaller and all similar in size. These are showing you what else is also being mentioned in the magazine. 'Poster special!' Meaning the 3 pictures are of the posters they are offering but a smaller scale. Having the barcode in the bottom corner away from the rest of the magazine, vital part of the cover.

This is the front cover of NME. The title is places in the left corner, all in capitals and red bold colouring. So it stands out. For the title "The Greatest Indie Anthems" they have made the colours very limited, Black, Grey and white. Sill all in capitals and big, covering most of the page. Using Serif fonts for all the writing on the page. 'INDIE' is slightly bigger to stand out from the rest, Showing that this issue is featuring a particular genre of music. The background of the cover is very much like a scrapbook effect to it. Having lots of random pictures put together making it a colourful eye-catching background. The titles of the topics in the magazine are small and still kept the colours simple. The barcode like Kerrang is in the bottom corner on the right.

Target Audience

Using www.NRS.co.uk I researched the sort of people that read the music magazine Kerrang. As i wanted mine to be similar but more softer rock, I have looked at who reads this magazine and what audience I should aim mine for.
I found that in total 417,000 people read Kerrang, Male and Female.
In this 239,000 people are in the ABC1 and 178,000 are in the C2DE social classes.
378,000 are ages 15-44 and 39,000 are 45+.
Men: 290,000, Women: 127,000.
This means the typical audience for this magazine is Men ages 15-44 and in the ABC1 social class. I don't want to aim my magazine for mostly men, I will be aiming for both sexes around the same ages, 15-44. I have decided my magazine will be more soft rock than Kerrang because that type of magazine isn't found as easy.

I also looked at the reader audience of the magazine NME using the website www.ipcmedia.com/brands/nme/

I found that the reader profile said:

Male 69%

Female 31%

Average Age 24

Working full time 52%

Working part time 7%

Still Studying 29%

ABC1 65%

Circulation: 40,948

Readership: 369,000

ABCe Unique Users: 4,454,983

INTERNET; 94% use the internet - 76% Broadband

Spend an average of 2.4 hours per day - That's almost 19 hours per week!

CONSOLES AND GAMES; £197 spent on consoles in the past year

- Total readership spends £45m

£108 spent on games - Total readership spends £18m

84% receive digital TV or satellite channels

NME READERS AGREE THAT:

They spend a lot of money on clothes - 45%

It's important to be well informed about things - 92%

It's worth paying for extra quality goods - 71%

They like to try new drinks - 75%

It's important to them to look well dressed - 71%

GOING OUT AND SPENDING IS ALL PART OF THE NEW MUSIC SCENE:

They go to gigs and live events.

NME readers spend £152 on footwear per year - Total readership spends £46m

£532 on clothes per year - Total readership spends £189m

£1229 on audio equipment per year - Total readership spend on audio equipment £326m

52% own a digital camera

£170 on digital cameras per year - Total readership spend on digital cameras £4.6m

DVDS: Buy an average of 5 DVDs per year - Total readership buys 1.3m DVDs per year

Spend £66 on DVDs per year - Total readership spends of £18m on DVDs

AS Media Main Task; Music Magazine. Introduction

For this task we have been asked to Design and produce a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine. We will be doing this using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. I need to think about what target audience I want to aim for and the genre(s) of music I want the magazine to feature. I need to create Flat plans for the 4 pages of the magazine before I produce my final ones. Also think about the Fonts, Colours and Photos I want to use for the final Magazine. This task is a development of my skills from the preliminary task: http://sdcmediaascatherinewaterhouse.blogspot.com/
I would like to make my magazine similar to Kerrang because this is the music I am interested in. For this I am going to research the two magazines and see what audience they are aimed at, the types of music genres they have featured and try and make mine original but similar to them.

Flat Plans

This is the flat plan copy of my Front cover. I decided to have the photo as the background like most magazine covers. Also some smaller images around the edge as a sneek preview of the story's inside. Down the Left side i have put title's of storys and ideas for what could be in the magazine. The title 'the Scrapbook' will be written across the top of the page as a slight diagonal with a bold, eye catching font from dafont.com. Under the title is the Date and issue number of the college magazine. Next to the photo of the person will be written 'New Student Magazine' to show everyone.

This is the flat plan copy of my Contents page, it will use the same fonts as the front cover with all the storys down the page. There will be one big picture down the side of the page as if it was the whole page you wouldnt be able to read the writing. The contents title will be at the top of the page. There will also be 2 smaller pictures of storys later on in the magazine.

Final Contents page

This is my final Contents page, i like the design and think it worked well. I used the black, blue and white because they would match the colours i used for my front cover, i also used the same font as the front cover from 'Dafont.com'. I didnt have a background picture covering the whole page because I thought the writing wouldn't show clearly. Being on a blank background it is easier to read. The pictures are the same as the ones on the front cover because they would be a story in the magazine. overall I think the contents page and front cover work well together.

Final Front Cover

This is my final front cover, i think it worked quite well. I really like how the page is full and busy with pictures and typography and the fonts that i used make it different from other magazines. i think i could have used more colour to make it brighter, i kept the pallet very minimum as i didn't want it to be too busy. i would also retake the photo's as they didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but i edited them in photoshop so they were brighter and not dull like the originals. overall i really like it and think it works well as a teen college magazine.

Introduction

For the first main task we have been asked to complete a flat plan for a college magazine front page and contents page. I decided to do a magazine aimed at students who study media and art. But also for any other students wanting to read it. It includes any upcoming activities, things people have written in, all sorts of random news in college.

I will be using this photo for my front cover as it is a medium close up and she is smiling, showing her enjoying college and a welcoming picture to see.

However, this photo is too far away and she isnt smiling, also there is alot of space around her which may not be filled with information.