Design of magazine

The design of my magazine will have the layout conventions that are required for a magazine.

One of the layout conventions that my magazine will have is a masthead that I have designed

myself using Photoshop. I will place my masthead at the top of the page so it is in direct eye

line of the reader. This is a key element as the masthead is the first thing that the reader will

look at and read. Also if a masthead is plain and simple and uses no colours at all then it is

likely to be less interesting to the reader as they will want a masthead the is bold and stands

out from the rest of the magazines that will be on the shelf. My magazine will be called

Asymmetry Rock as I thought that It would be a name that would stick into people’s minds and

is also a snappy title.

Underneath the masthead I will have my main picture that will advertise the main story that will

be in the magazine. The main image will take up most of the cover page as there will be a lot of

white space to fill and also if it is all squashed together it will make it hard for the reader to see

what the picture is and it will make the reader think that not enough thought and care has gone

into the layout of the cover page. On my cover page I will also include puffs which are little

extra bits of information as to what the magazine will included, they can also be used to

promote or advertise something in the magazine. For example in the Kerrang magazine they

advertise tickets of the Kerrang awards and promote new albums by using puffs. Another

required convention that I need to include on my cover page is a headline which is a piece of

text that links to the main image and it will tell the reader what the main story will be about and

it will also inform the reader why that band or artist is featured in the weeks magazine.

The genre of music that my publication will promote is rock/metal and punk as it is music that I

listen to now and when I was growing up, so because of this I am very comfortable to produce

a magazine covering this genre of music, also I feel comfortable to write a story about a

rock/metal or punk band as I know lot of bands that would fit into this genre and I know a lot of

background history of some band which could help me write my story.

Magazine House Style

The house style of my magazine is going to use as I have specified the same conventions that

are expected to appear. The colours that I will use are going to be primary colours as they are

brighter and bold; I am also using very dark colours as I do not think it is appropriate to have

colours such as pink, green and blue featured on a rock magazine as to me these colours would

feel out of place with the genre of magazine. It is also my reasonability as the editor to make

sure that these colours are used throughout as this will make my magazine look professional to

the reader.

The font that I will use for the main body text is a choice between Arial Unicode MS, Comic

Sans MS and Hobo Std. The reason why I have picked these fonts is that they are fonts that are

easy to read, which will please the reader as I do not want to use a font that the reader will be

unable to read as then they will find it hard read the articles. Furthermore, it is also important

that my spelling grammar and punctuation is correct, if not then my sentences will not make

sense and this could lead to the reader being confused and unable to understand the article and

comprehend what I have written.

The layout of my contents page will be separated into different headings in order for the reader

to be able to go to the section that they like to read without them having to flick through the

magazine trying to find the correct page number. In my contents page I will also use pictures

that will be relevant to the features in my magazine. It will also help separate the page between

pictures and text which will visually please the reader as it will not all be text on the page. The

pictures that I will include on my contents page will be pictures that I will use in my other articles,

as by using pictures will show the reader that theses article have dominance over the other

articles.

For my double- page spread the layout is very important as I will be using columns to format my

text between the two pages, if I do this then I must leave enough space between each column

so that I the reader does not get confused between each of the columns. Another layout feature

that I will have to consider is the font size as I do not want it to big so that it will take up all of the

page or too small so that the reader cannot read the text.

Magazine Target Audience

The target audience for my magazine will be teenagers aged from 13- 19 as I think that this is a

good age to target for my magazine. The reason why I picked this target audience is because

my magazine will feature current and other rock bands that the reader will like. Also I think my

magazine will appeal mostly to boys as I am going to use dark colours on my magazine,

however, I would also like to think that my magazine will appeal to girls as the colours that I

have used are dark but they are unisex colours which can be used for either a male or female.

To give a specific example of who my target market would be and who I would expect to read

my magazine would be a male/female that has grown up with rock music or likes this genre of

music. Also I would like to expect that the person who reads my magazine would be interested

in reading about new bands that have appeared in the music industry as well as the bands that

they like and are interested in.

Magazine Cover Information

The cost of my magazine will be reasonable as I do not want a lot of people to spend a lot of

money as then it will become unpopular because it is expensive and also nobody will want to

buy it, therefore my magazine will cost £2.50 in order for me to make a profit. I am hoping that

my magazine will be weekly and be on the selves on a certain day of the week. The reason

why I want my magazine to be weekly is that I do not want people waiting a long time in-

between each issues because for example if one of their favourite bands is appearing in the

next issue then they would have to wait a month in order to read the interview with the band

rather than a week.

The revenue from my magazine will have to be fairly reasonable as the company publishing

my magazine are relying on my magazine to do well and make a profit in the market industry. If

not then the publishing company will discontinue my magazine. According to my working out

my magazine would make revenue of about £1,300.00 per year.

Magazine publishing house

The publishing house that I will use to publish my magazine is the Bauer Media Company as

they produce rock magazines such as Q and Kerrang which are well known magazines today.

The Bauer Media Company owns the Kerrang TV music channel which allows fans of the

magazine to watch the TV programme. This is what I aspire my very own magazine to become

that is why I have chosen the Bauer Media Company as they are experienced within in this

genre of music and know how promote and produce it. Another reason as to why I have chosen

this company to produce my magazine is that all their magazines have a similar target audience;

to me this shows they must know what appeals to the reader of a music magazine and what

conventional layouts the readers like to see when they are reading a magazine. Furthermore

they will also know where my magazine should be sold so that my magazine will be seen by the

public and how much of their previous magazines have been sold in this shops.