Designs for masthead

I used the website bannerfans.com to create five individual mastheads for my music magazine. My preference out of the five is the second down, as I think it’s original and I personally like the font choices. I can tweak these as the process goes on.

 

Here is what my audience thought of these designs, creatively powered by Voki.

Sketch layouts of front, contents and double page spread

Here I’ve designed and sketched my initial ideas for my front, contents and double page spread of my music magazine. I’ve gone for a quite simplistic and minimalistic feel, as I think it’s more about the featured story rather than bombardment of confusing waffle.

 

Here is my audience feedback for these three sketches, interactively powered by Voki.

 

 

Why similar magazines choose certain target audiences (Vogue/Elle)

Here I’ve annotated two popular magazines, Vogue and Elle, which are considered to be similar. In my annotations I’ve highlighted how the editors of the magazine have drawn upon their certain target audiences, or demographic, women. They both have a similar angle of getting across to their audience and use alike techniques, but some differences as well.

Conventions of my music genre: pop music

I researched into the conventions of my chosen music genre, which is pop music. I did this by using an online editor, Prezi.
To view my Prezi click the play button below.

Magazine double page spread annotations: Q, NME and Smash Hits

I’ve annotated three separate double page spreads taken from three different popular music magazines, Q, NME and Smash Hits. I chose these double page spreads in over others as they are directed towards my demographic. There’s also lots of factors worth annotating in the speads, such as layout, colour, font sizes and styles, etc. In my annotations I’ve discussed these points and explained how the editors of Q, NME and Smash Hits have made the spreads interesting to their audiences.

Magazine contents page annotations: Vibe magazine

1/3

2/3

3/3

Here I’ve annotated the contents pages taken from popular culture magazine, “Vibe”. I chose these contents pages in particular as they are aimed towards my demographic. There’s also lots of aspects to talk about, such as layout, colour, font sizes and styles, etc. In my annotations I’ve discussed these points and explained how the editors of Vibe have made the spreads effective.

Questionnaire feedback

Q1

My first question asked about peoples’ preferred music genres. The  choices were; pop, rock, rap, R’n’B, indie/alternative, heavy metal and classical. The most popular turned out to be pop (40.0%). This shows that the magazine I will design should revolve around a theme of pop.

Q2

The next question I asked in my survey was about how much the price of the magazine should be according to my audience. The choices were; less than £1.00, £1.00 – £2.00, £2.00 – £3.00, and more than £3.00. The choice with the most votes (80.0%) was £2.00 – £3.00. This shows that I should price my magazine within this range.

Q3

The third question in my questionnaire asked which artist(s) my audience preferred. The choices were Beyonce, One Direction, Lady Gaga, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and ‘other’. I included an ‘other’ box to see if my audience would give an other examples of preferred music artists which I could incorporate into my research. For the standard choices I picked music artists from different genres to give a wide variety. As this question could be answered with more than one answer the results were quite even. Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Florence + The Machine all came out on top with 40.0% each. Another 40.0% went to the other category, where my audience had individually voted for Alfie Boe (which I’d class as classical), Asking Alexandria (which I’d class as rock or metal), Blink 182 (which I’d class as rock) and Barbra Streisand (which I’d class as contemporary). This shows that I should involve information that relates to the most popular artists.

Q4

My fourth question asked how frequently my audience purchased music magazines. The choices were; usually once every few days, normally once a week, only once a month, less than once a month, and never not at all. The most popular choice was a tie between only once a month and less than once a month at 30.0% each. This shows that my magazine should be released in monthly or seasonly issues.

Q5

My fifth and final question was about my audience’s age. There were five choices of age groups, these being; 16 or under, 17-20, 20-30, 30-40, and 40+. The majority belonged to the age group 16 or under (40.0%). This shows that my magazine should be suitable for people that are 16 or under to read and be interested in.