First analysis of Q front cover

For my research i am analyzing five magazines that have a range of musical acts that match the genre of the magazine i would like to create. I will analyse the features of each magazine and discuss in a blue font how I can use these features or change them in my own magazine. The reason I will do this is to be able to plan ahead and gather ideas which i may be able to change later on.
The title of the magazine is what caught my eye first as it is the largest text on the page and uses bold colours (red and white) to make it stand out. It has a simple name (letter Q) but the capital letter makes it eye catching. It stands out on the light background implying that it is important, persuading the reader to read it. For my magazine I will carry this out by making the title of my magazine the largest font on the page and making sure it has bold colours, but instead of red and white I will use the colours blue and white, I will also be using a light coloured background to make the title appealing and eye catching- I have not yet decided on what colour I will use for my background.

The whole front cover uses red, yellow, black, pink and white for the colour scheme (including the text), I believe this magazine has used too many colours but at the same time the colours go well together making the magazine look professional. The colour scheme for my magazine has not yet been decided but I know that I will keep the colour scheme to a maximum of 3 colours.

'140 songs you must download now!' the reader will notice this banner first as it is located at the very top of the front cover. The bright colours make it stand out against the neutral background which attracts the readers attention, the zigzag patterns also does this as it is unique and original. It also covers the title of the magazine which make the reader think this is more important to read about than the title. I would like to create a banner for my magazine that uses bold colours to stand out, I will also make a pattern but ill not copy the zigzag pattern which is used for this magazine.

The image is a contrast as it shows Lana Del Rey to be dressed in a princess like outfit when she is actually a rock/indie singer, the blood on her head contrasts this. The image instantly strikes the attention of a reader as it is so powerful as it portrays the magazine to be a daring and original one, she uses direct mode of address to engage and intrigue the audience. I would like my magazine to be portrayed as being original and exciting as well as daring, I will do this by creating an image that does this, I want it to also engage and make the reader want to find out the story behind the image.

The pun with the saying 'WHATS SO BLOODY GOOD?' shows that the magazine is fun. The name of the artist is bright pink and links with the princess theme, the text is larger than any other text on the cover (except the title) this suggests importance and shows the reader that she is the main focus of this issue. I like the idea of the pun on the magazine as I would like mine to be fun and exciting for a person to read. Like this magazine I want the reader to know who my main story is about therefore I will also make sure that the name of the artist I use will be big and bold and in a different colour to the house style colours to catch a readers eye.

What can the name be?

I created a questionnaire for my demographic to find out which name they preferred for a music magazine, this has helped me decide what name would be best for my magazine to suit my target audience, one of my target audience' told me whilst looking at the magazine titles shared an idea with me to put a 'z' on the end of 'Vibe' she believed that this would suit my target audience the best, i took her idea in a included in my questionnaire to see what my other target audiences thought. I then created a pie chart to show my findings and 'Vibez' was the name most chosen by my target audience.

Codes and Conventions

Before we start to create our magazine, planning and research is needed.
I research the codes and conventions for a front cover and a contents page of a music magazine.
This will help when actually creating my magazine as these codes and conventions are what i need to include in my magazine to make sure i create the best magazine possible. It will help with the structuring and format of the front cover and contents page and what i can do to make my magazine eye catching.

Brief Ideas mind map

This is the mind map i created on initial ideas that i have come up with and may want to include in my actual music magazine. It has helped me start to plan what i would like the title of my magazine to be, the genre of it, and house style etc. This is just a brief ideas plan as i may not include some of these elements in my magazine as i may change for example, the title of my magazine to a better name that i may come up with later on in the project.

First ideas

These are rough idea of how i want my magazine to be like, i will develop these notes into a mind map

Intro Task

This is my introduction task to the music magazine project, i created a front cover and contents page for a school magazine, today i got told that i had passed it! I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction task as it helped me to develop new skills on photoshop and indesign so that i will be able to use them well when making my music magazine. This also helped build up my camera skills as well as i took my own photos for the task, i learnt the codes and conventions of a magazine to help me lay it out, the colours i chose and font size. I believe i did well for my first time creating a magazine on indesign and using photoshop to edit photos, at first i found it tricky to get used to but after a few lessons on this, i found it relatively easy to do. I think that this has been a great introduction to help me to create the best music magazine that i can.

Introduction to my blog

Hey! I'm Sophie. This is my blog for the Media Music Magazine that i am creating, you will see everything that i am planning,creating and all my ideas that will go into the project to create the final product. I will also include my research and analysis that give me ideas for my own project. Enjoy!