Before adding the final touches

The production process took a long time even though I had a good plan of what I wanted to do from analysing dozens of existing magazines and creating collages and drafts on paper first. There was a big difference between having ideas and bringing these to life using Photoshop. I redrafted a couple of times but mostly I just kept refining my pieces, adding details such as shadows to the photographs to add a professional touch.

Above is a print screen of my contents page just before I had finished.

I was a bit unsure of the white space but didn't have much of an idea what to put there. I looked at Kerrang magazine and tried to see what they do with the white space. They included a quote from the editor and also a quote from the main band. So I decided to do this to fill the white space and to make my contents page look more realistic.

I'm glad that I looked at Kerrang whilst planning my magazine because otherwise I would have still had this white space and it doesn't look very professional. I also borrowed the idea of putting a little picture of the front cover on there as well. This just adds another image to my contents page and makes it look professional and eye catching.

Original photos for final product.

Content's page planning

I used this Contents page to make my own for my magazine. I used the same layout and the idea of putting a small image of the front cover on the page as well. This contents page helped me a lot and gave me ideas of my own. I took the main layout and changed it slightly so that it was in the style of my own magazine. I have used different fonts and colours to show that it is my own.

Possible Masthead Fonts.

I have decided to use 'Skribble' as my masthead because I believe it will appeal to both males and females. It will also definately appeal to my target age group.

Double Page Spreads

These are some examples of double page spreads that I like the look/design of.

Audience Profile Montage

These products represent my chosen target audience.

Demographic and psychographic profile.

Reader Profile.

Enjoys discovering new bands and listening to a variety of types of music.

Readers of my magazine would spend about £100 a week on shopping and partying. I'm targetting a young male, possibly female who enjoys spending lots of money and socialising.

On just buying clothes my reader would spend roughly £50 on new clothing/shoes and accessories.

My reader would be very into musical instruments and equipment and CDs etc. They will probably be a musician themselves and therefore spend a lot of their money on this kind of thing for themselves and for their friends or their own band. Roughly £100 a month would be spend on things like guitar tuners, strings, books and general things needed to be in a band or to play an instrument.

Every year or maybe after 6 months, my reader will replace their ipod or phone to get an upgrade. This could cost them between £100 and £200. They are into the new fashions and technology. They would probably own a fairly expensive camera as well.

My reader would probably buy about 10-20 DVDs a year. My magazine is targetted for people aged 15 - 20 so they would probably go to see a lot of the latest films in the cinema.

I'd say about 97% of my readers would use the internet daily or regularly. Most readers would spend an average of 3 hours on the computer. This could be using the internet or just using it to play games etc. A lot of my readers will use social networks such as facebook and myspace.

My readers may enjoy playing the xbox or playstation occasionally but I'm not targetting my magazine at people with game addictions! My target audience are far too interested in music and fashion to be spending hours playing games.

Around 70-80% of my readers should be men so around 20-30% will be females. Average ages would be between 15 and 20. Most of my readers will have a part time job as well as full time education.

Textual Analysis

Content Codes.

The colour scheme of 'Kerrang' magazine is mainly black, white and red. These colours are appealing to the typical type of reader of 'Kerrang' magazine. The colours would mainly appeal to boys, however dark colours would also appeal to girls who are into this genre of music. The cover models are 'Bring Me The Horizon' who are an all male rock group. The band appear to be in their early to mid twenties. Class is hard to determine from this picture but they are dressed smartly and all look tidy and well presented. They are white-british. The lead singer of the band is showing his fist which could be to show power and control. The fact that he is showing the tattoo on his hand could also be a sign of power. The band are not pulling happy expressions but they don't look aggressive either. They are pulling average, carefree expressions. All of the band are using a subjective gaze which helps to draw in the reader and make the band appear friendly and interesting to read about.

Technical Code.

The shot distance of the main image is a medium close up. The camera angle is just a normal eye level which means the band are directly facing the reader. The main camera focus is on the lead singer of the band because he is the most well-known and looked-out for. This is a good idea because it means that people will recognise the band straight away and want to read the magazine. The image is smooth and in colour however there isnt much colour on the actual image. The band are dressed in black suits so the only colour on the actual photograph is the eye colours, hair colours and tie colours. There is no use of shadow on this image. I think the lighting appears natural but also quite bright and high key. The main cover line is the name of the name because it draws people to the magazine who have heard of or like this band. It is written over the image which works well because it's matching the name with the image almost like a caption. This not only looks good on the front cover but it is also advertising the band. The colour of this main cover line is white and bold and fairly big writing which again draws in the reader. All of the fonts on the front cover appear to be bold and either white, red or black.

Language Codes.

There aren't many words used on the front cover however the words that are used are not complex or confusing. Most of the words are simply names of bands. On the front page it says 'Metallica storm the UK.' This type of language shows us that the magazine is not serious but it's also not a complete joke. I think the language is trying to make the reader feel like part of the rock scene themselves. Posters and interviews about stars might influence young musicians to try and pursue a career as a recording artist. Words such as 'storm' sound quite harsh and relate quite well to the rock scene. This again links back to when I said that I think this magazine is fairly male orientated. On this front cover there is no use of rhetorical devies and there aren't really any cover lines except the main cover line introducing the main band of that particular edition. I think the reason for this lack of information and words is because Kerrang is a music magazine and a lot of the content is pictures and short interviews and facts rather than lots of writing.

Overall I think that the producers preferred reading it that it's a unique magazine and it doesn't follow all the conventions. Most magazines have gripping cover lines to draw you in whereas 'Kerrang' seems to prefer using pictures and names of bands which people will recognise. This is a different but still successful technique because either way the reader is being drawn in. I think the magazine is also supposed to be seen as jokey and aspirational because, as I previously mentioned, a lot of young teenagers will buy this magazine regularly because they themselves want to be a rockstar.

Planning My Music Magazine

The main idea that I have for my music magazine, is a rock music theme. Existing magazines such as Kerrang and Metal Hammer focus on rock and metal music and include pictures of many famous bands. My magazine will be similar to this although I won't be including metal music. I will be focusing mainly on rock bands that are popular at the moment and are still releasing new singles and albums. My magazine will include posters and interviews like existing magazines do. I will also include problem pages and advertisements about instruments and CDs. My magazine will be different to existing rock music magazines because I will not be talking about classic rock or metal bands. I will only be concentrating on the current scene of music. I will also be advertising and encouraging bands 'on the make.' This is because many young readers will be inspired by stories of success from bands that started off just playing a few covers in their garage. My magazine will probably have mainly a male focus but I am also going to include some colours and interviews that would also attract a female reader. I'm aiming to get readers around the ages 15 - 20 so it's fair to say it's mainly a teenager magazine - which also links to why I'm going to concentrate on bands who are currently releasing songs rather than bands who were famous back in the day. My magazine will probably be quite dark and have a rocky type of look to it, this well help to attract the right type of reader.