AS MEDIA EXISTING MUSIC MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTIONAfter class discussion and introduction to main production task I have

decided to focus on developing and creating a magazine that features music, music genres and its artists.

After viewing coursework examples from last year and internet media studies blogs I have a clear idea of tasks that needs to be carried out in order to fill my coursework criteria and at the same time fulfill my own desires regarding designing and making of music magazine. To successfully create a magazine that would appeal to a specific target audience I have decide to carry out secondary research into well established magazines and publishing companies which are at the foreground of this industry.

In this PowerPoint I have provided evidence of the following research :• Front cover analysis• Content page analysis• Double spread articles • Research into existing gaming magazines and publishing companies

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Huge title that contradicts the colors of the background, which makes it quite noticeable. The same font color for all of the subheadings that represent the important articles included in the magazine.

Camera angle of the background is at the eye level, enabling to see the face of the person clearly, the name of the person is included on the front over of the magazine, and there is an advertisement for her next concert included alongside her

There is a mix of different colors included in the heading which help the front cover to look pleasing to the eye of the customer.

On the front cover there is also the issue number and the issue date.

The colors that are included in the heading are white, red, yellow, blue and green.The main color is white, it represents perfection and competition of that cover page. It offer a sense of peace and calm.Other four colors all share the same proportion in this front cover. Red color is warm and motivating color, it makes people take actions. Yellow color relates to acquiring knowledge. Blue is a color of trust, honesty and loyalty, which represent the state of this magazine. Green color gives the idea of balance and harmony.

Front Cover Analysis

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The font used on the heading is a sans-serif font which represents the informality of the magazine, showing that the content of the magazine is relaxed. That is also confirmed with the use of the cover picture which includes the members of Metallica with all pumped up faces.

The subheadings on the left side of the magazine front cover show the commitment of the magazine to it’s music. The content of the subheadings is simple, indicating overall content of the magazine.

The color of the heading is orange, this color offers emotional strength in difficult times, which can be related to death’s of two musicians included in the front cover. The overall font of the front cover is sans-serif font which relates to the music that this magazine I promoting, the font is informal same as rock and metal. The picture on the cover is a medium shot of the whole band which take up the whole page and can indicate their superiority and the magazine’s superiority.

Magazine also includes the issue date and issue number within it’s front cover.

FRONT COVER COMPARISON

Color Scheme – The color scheme of these two fron covers is completely different. Depending on the music that the magazine writes about. Black background for rock magazine, consisting articles about Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘n’ Roses, the black in the back relates the fans to the band and the music that they listen, as the music resembles dark color. Bright white color for Vibe magazine, relating to newer and more open music, such as Eminem, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z. Bright color stimulates fans of these to pay attention on that magazine.

Images - Magazines also differ by the artist that they use on their front covers. Rock magazine set Axel from Guns ‘n’ Roses on their front cover, automatically making rock fans to pay attention on this magazine. Whereas Vibe set Eminem on their front cover to make rap fan to pay closer attention on the content of the magazine that is written on the front cover. Layout – Layout is similar for both front covers, as they have their masthead on the top of the front cover, behind the artist, their cover lines are on the right and left side of the magazine, right nest to the artist that they have use d for their front cover.

Masthead - The mastheads in both front covers are in a huge font making it easily visible and capturing the attention of the reader right away. Both magazines use contrast of colors for their mastheads, Rock uses white color with black background and Vide uses black and red color with white background. The masthead of the Rock magazine clearly indicates the music that is written in the magazine and efficiently promotes the magazine.

FRONT COVER DESIGN TIPS• An attractive and intriguing front cover page should make potential consumer purchase the

magazine. A good front cover is the main sales figure driver for the magazine.• In order for the potential consumers to be engaged with the front cover and buy it, the front

cover model should look straight into the camera as eye contact is very important.• Exaggeration and experimentation is allowed however its important to stick to a certain

style and concept.• Headline needs to be eye-catching so the consumer would be drawn in at first sight. The

headline needs to pop out in size as choosing a larger font makes it more visible and easier to read, color, as a strong and striking color such as red makes it noticeable and attitude, where a recognizable font ad design must be chosen but kept readable.

• The cover page needs to have a main focus point to captivate the potential consumers, which is usually the model in the image but it could also be the headline.

• It is preferable to divide the cover into three section, one big with main cover line, a smaller one with several smaller cover lines and another small one with even more cover lines.

• You can use any color as long as it looks good but people tend to avoid certain colors such as green and orange as they are difficult to blend and mix. The most popular color used are red, black and white as they are easy to put into most backgrounds and are eye-catching as they can easily work with most colors.

• In order to prevent confusion a different main color should be used than the previous issue so the consumer wouldn’t think they had already bought it.

• The bigger cover line should use colors to attract the audience. Smaller color lines should usually go with black text or white text if the background is black.

• Photography is preferred over illustrations on the front cover as it tends to sell better.• The masthead can be moved around the cover if it achieves a greater effect. It can be

moved to a lower position to include a cover line over it.• It also depends on how the country sells its magazines in order to choose location of the

masthead to make it visible according to the placement location.

COVER LINE DESIGN TIPS• Simple wordplay that the reader can immediately understand is

encouraged, you should not use hard wordplay that will confuse them.• Question cover lines must contain answers, unless they were rhetorical

questions.• The biggest cover line does not necessarily have too be the biggest

feature in the magazine issue.• The biggest cover line should target your largest audience and what they

like the most. Examples are for women it can be about dating, love and shopping and for men it can be about cars, weapons and sex.

• Sex should not be overused as it can have the opposite effect and deter customer from buying the magazine.

• Using numbers and contemporary language also attracts many readers. Numbers are often a great selling point.

• You can repeat your old cover lines from time to time.• Readers love lists so you can sometimes replace a cover line with one.• Use descriptive words to spark the readers curiosity about the article.• You should avoid the same color and font for every cover line to prevent

monotony.• They should disrupt the main image but should be visible around it.• There must be a main cover line that should stand out from the rest by

using a different font or font size.

CONTENT PAGE ANALYSISColor Scheme consists of white background and additional red and black features used to differentiate parts of content page. The contrast of red and black color used on a white background looks attractive and is used to make audience pay more attention on the content page. Red color outlines different features of the content page, whereas black color is used to show more important titles, such as review and contents.

The language used in the content page is professional and indicates the seriousness and precision of the magazine and its contents.

Layout is very geometrically arranged with a picture of a band and its article in the magazine in the picture. The accuracy of the content page shows the formality and professionalism of the magazine. The “Oasis Special!” with its gold color for the layout and page numbers catches attention of people who actually want to purchase the magazine, as it is very bright and hides in the white background that is ser for the content page background.

Color scheme of the content page is natural color of wood in the background with Jacoby Shaddix, famous rapper and actor next to the contents of the magazine. The black color of clothes and other accessories on Jacoby, nicely relates to the music that is written about in the magazine, one example is Slipknot, heavy metal music band.

The language used in the content page is quite informal, fir Jacoby Shaddix’s quote in the right lower corner. The quote is informal and dictates what Jacoby said.

Jacoby’s quote relates to the rest of the content page because the quote itself is informal, altogether with the rest of the content page.

Layout of the content page is in resemblance to the metal music, mentioning of metal bands and a metal singer on the background of the cover. The color of content side is shady background, which also has a certain resemblance to the metal genre that is written in the magazine. Mise-en-scene of the content page is also made in such way that it has a connection to the music in it, metal music related to black color, and metal singer with black color and black clothes also helps in relating to metal.

CONTENT PAGE DESIGN TIPS• Content is regards to design needs to correspond to magazine front cover and

included articles.• The design of the content page need to be eye-catching and functional.• Table of contents must be arranged in such a way so its easy to navigate and

understand. Therefore text, image and page number need to be uniformed to fulfill design criteria.

• Essential element in content page design is use of color. For text or background which will make page interesting and engaging.

• Carefully selected images add interest to the page and they can be used as a quick content preview.

• Choice of fonts and size is essential to highlight brief summary of the article included in the magazine.

• In order to break monotony and to achieve layout balance of the content page a combination of font, color and images must be mixed in a complimentary scheme.

• Graphics and text are not supposed to compete for attention but should work together to create a visually appealing and easy to read layout.

• Images used can be defined into a box and can be in different sizes in order to create a pleasing collage effect.

• Primary objective in content page design is to communicate information clearly and effectively to the reader.

• The easiest way to ensure the content page has balance is to use a grid system.• Grid system gives sense of order and provides a clear structural reference to the

content page.• It is essential to use a headline or quotes from the article.• Use of hierarchy will give sense or order and structure.

DOUBLE SPREAD ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Text – The text used in this double spread article is informal, as it dictates what Cheryl has said in her interview. There is a use of big bold number to indicate the way of reading and different topics regarding this article. The test is used to help people solve their problems, If they have the same problems as Cheryl. So the informal text stimulates the readers to have the same experience as if they were talking to her in the person.

Image – There is only one main image in this article, which uses all of the free space, the back ground of the image is red. Red is color used to attract attention when there is something urgent, so it is used to make people read the article and attract their attention to in. Next to the main image, there are a few smaller images, which are used in different parts of the article

Layout – The layout of the images is used in such way that there is one main image, which attracts the readers, and next to that image there are a few smaller, less important images that are grouped around this main image. If they were grouped together, that would make an idea of watching an album.

Text – The text used in this double spread article is very small and in the bottom of the page, because of that, the cover line of the article is used to attract attention. The cover line an informal quote of Lily Allen, who is used in the layout of the article and takes one whole side of it. The picture is used to address the readers and make them read it, since they have seen her face and can become interested in reading about her.

The huge headline is used to capture the readers attention and the informality of it can relate to the people who listen to music, since music is rarely formal. It is also a bit slanted to the left and has black background behind it, which makes it easier to notice and more attractive.

The text in article is very small and unnoticeable, except bold and red letter that spell “Lily Allen” , the name of the person taking the interview and helping in the construction of article, this stimulates fans of Lily to read the article and purchase the magazine.

DOUBLE SPREAD ARTICLE DESIGN TIPS• Magazine double spread consist of two pages next to each other.• In regards to design these two pages are considered as one unit.• As magazines are smaller to other print publications therefore magazine

double spreads can be viewed at normal viewing distance.• The most visible area is the outer part of the right page as it is more

exposed to readers eye.• The best content of the article needs to be placed on the outside parts of

the spread in this area most provocative images and words are placed. Most valuable areas of double page spread are top left and top right parts.

• Bottom part of the spread in the corner and near the gutter are less important. Designers usually place footnotes and some credits in those parts of the spread.

• Most readers focus on the top part of the spread article as the readers eye will stop when they skim though pages. Therefore this is most natural design and convention starting point.

• Image and the headline are most important eye stoppers. The layout of the text must follow natural way of reading the story. In regards to the story everything need to flow from meaningful top left and then continue to the bottom to create a perfect harmony.

• Order of design should be followed by headline, intro copy, then the main copy.

• Big blocks of text should not be broken up as the flow of the text columns needs to be tidy and even.

• The design should be simplified by aligning the columns at the top and placing images above them, the point is to make the layout engaging and easily read.

• Left pages are usually used for editorial content however this is not a strict rule.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS USED TO MAKE A MAGAZINE(TERMINOLOGY)Masthead- The title of the magazine, presented in unique and eye-catching and uses recognizable font and large font size.Headline- The title of the article, it has to be connected to the article. It is quite large and easy to read so the readers know what they are going to find in the article.Selling line- The introduction headline placed below the masthead to promote the magazine.Contents- A page that numbers and describes the articles which can be found within the magazine.Pugs- The price, logo and freebies of the magazine that are positioned at the top so they can be easily seen.Sub-Stories- Short previews of other important articles within the magazine.Strapline- Is a sentence under the headline that attracts the consumers by giving them insight into the article.Pull quote- A quote from the article that gives some idea of the articles to the readers.Credits- Name of the reporter of photographer that contributed to the article.Caption- Text which is used to explain the image next to it.Crosshead- A sub-heading that foreshadows what the next paragraph is going to talk about. Typography- Type of fonts used, serif or sans-serif.Main Image- A photograph or picture that is the main focus of the issue.Issue Number, Dateline and Price- Are information that need to be ion the front cover however they are usually in presented in a small font as they are not a selling point of a magazine.Top and Bottom Strip- Strips above and below the masthead that give additional information about what can be found in the magazine.

RESEARCH SUMMARYAfter completing my research into existing music magazines, I have analyzed the front covers, content pages and double spread articles. I have managed to gather understanding of the codes and conventions used to create and sell magazines.The role of the front cover is to be eye-catching to the target audience and to give an idea of the articles that are included in the magazine. A good front cover can attract more costumers than a bad one. Content pages are used to show the articles that are included in the magazine in more detail, they also play a vital role in creating a magazine. It content page is not understandable, there will be less costumers. Double spread articles are used to captivate the consumers to keep buying magazines, they can be sometimes more appealing to the target audience then the front cover.Masthead is supposed to attract the costumers, since it is on the top of the magazine and uses eye-catching and recognizable font.The main image of the front cover is usually the main selling point of the magazine, as it is relevant to the contents of the magazine and is always seen before the text itself.Fonts and font sizes are chosen specifically to have a certain effect on the consumers as their size, boldness and color can be used to help attract the attention of the readers.Cover lines are positioned around the main image or other images in order to sell them and the magazine.Color scheme is used to help the readers associate with the theme that they want to read about, if it is black metal, black color will be used to help associated to it. The colors must coordinate and contrast to make the magazine desirable to the consumers.