As with every magazine, there is a particular genre that is associated with the contents of what is being written - like Kerrang! Magazine being that of the rock and “emo” genre and Q Magazine being that of the indie and alternative genre. My specific magazine - which features singer, Sam Martin from the indie-electro band, Iglu and Hartly - shows the main focus of the magazine to be about new and up coming music (mostly that of indie music through to more alternative sounding music) that is surfacing in everyday lifestyles - a feature which, I do not think is clearly displayed on most mainstream magazines and made clear that that is the main purpose and genre of the magazine that is being purchased. I also believe, that through the use of the signer from the nearly-unheard of band, this would encourage people to venture into trying and attempting to assure that people know that there band actually exists, again, a trait that has not really being thoroughly discussed in most, “bigger” magazines.
One of the most common practises within any designing is the use of the colour pallet that is used throughout my magazine. In my finished piece, I have used a variety of different colours, however I have always managed to tick to the three main colours of black, blue and white (the colour which have stuck with me since the very beginning of the assignment that was given), like NME Magazine, however there are a few differences, for example; in the average issue of NME Magazine, the three main colours - blue, red and white - are used, however a different colour is used on the colour of the models that are being displayed and allows a diversity of colourings to be used throughout.
With every magazine there is always a striking photograph on the front cover that attracts people into taking an interest and buying the magazine that has become available. The model that I have used in my finished piece is shown to be signing using an average microphone - again, “cementing” the idea of the piece being about live music and new music that has arisen - he is also shown to be dressed wearing “indie” style clothing, like in other magazines, the use of the action on the front cover allows for a feeling of the featured artist to be written about within the magazine itself. I took inspiration for this element from the Q Magazine and that of Muse front man, Matt Bellamy smashing a guitar into the Q magazine logo, displaying that that specific band is rowdy and is not going to go unnoticed a similar statement that I would like a present towards my magazine and the acts and artists within.
I also, as every magazine that is available to a large market, have a striking masthead on the front cover, which shows to those that would be buying the magazine what sort of music that the magazine may include and could (or could not) stop a reader from putting down a magazine and moving on to the next one that is available. The masthead is, arguably one of the biggest features of the magazine and should stand out on a page; I decided to create a masthead that would “mix together” the mastheads of both Kerrang! Magazine, NME Magazine and Q Magazine, these specific magazines all work well at creating a striking feature to attract there audience, Kerrang! Magazine and NME Magazine have the font of each of there magazines in bold fonts that are capitalised, this feature allows for the font itself to stand out and - dependant of the name and style of the font - allows the audience to get a feel of what would be the finished content of the magazine upon purchase.
As well a the use of a masthead, I also have the use of different cover lines within the different elements of the magazine’s front cover itself. Unlike magazines such as that of Kerrang! Magazine I have attempted to cut down my cover lines to keep them as clean and as simple as Kerrang! Magazine’s most “grown up” competitor that I am now, attempting to rival through the addition of Harmony Magazine to the shelves of shops in the United Kingdom itself.
In my content page, I decided that it was here that I was going to attept to try and stay away from previously used magazines and magazine contents pages that were similar to what were already available on the market.
Looking in Q Magazine, Kerrang! Magazine and NME Magazine, I decided that I was going to try and avoid a similar layout. I did, however decide to copy NME Magazine and Kerrang! Magazine with the way in which the contents page would be set out in the columns, I also decided - similar to that of Kerrang! Magazine - I was going to incorporate a short synopsis of each article, as well as (if appropriate a photograph of the article and the bands that are involved within that specific piece of writing).
I also decided, similar to that of Q Magazine and Kerrang! Magazine I was going to attempt to incorporate font and colours from the previous pages (and subsequently throughout) as well as the date of the magazine’s initial release, in an attempt to assure that people knew as much as possible about the product that they would soon be investing within, the use of the date being displayed within allows for people to set up a subscription service (if necessary) and also allows for any collectors to harvest the products and collect them for themselves.
My double page spread was, by far the most unique element of my finished magazine, this element allowed me complete free range of what photograph I was going to develop and then use within my finished piece. Although unique, I did become inspired by the article that was written about Ke$ha in the New To Q, section in a recent issue of Q Magazine. I decided that I liked the use of the simple and "clean" photographs in which not a great deal of action was actually happening (contrasting to the front cover and referring back to the specific genre of each f the featured artist) within them and decided that I wanted to incorporate this element into my finished deign.
No comments:
Post a Comment