Media AS

M a g a z i n e R e s e a r c h

This magazine is called ‘Kerrang!’ it targets the rock genre featuring a large variety of artists within. The ‘Kerrang!’ is an onomatopoeic for the sound a guitar makes when playing a power chord. The logo of the masthead has been created to look like broken glass with a rustic rock font. It is in your face and very eye catching. It looks like a rock magazine.

The magazine cover features a main artist as Green Day, whom are a very popular rock band. Their name clearly stated overtop of the image, then followed by “everything you need to know about the punk megastars!” the word “you” being highlighted in bold, singles the reader out making him or her feel wanted.

Then on top of that there are several other artists labelled with a photograph down the side, they are not as in your face as the main artist however they still stand out with the bright red background.

At the bottom of the magazine cover there is a border saying “plus!” with more rock artists listed. The magazine is well laid out despite the large amounts of photographic images and writing.

Detailed Magazine Cover Analysis

This second magazine is called “Guitar” this is targeting a different audience to the first magazine. It is a music magazine that is specialised in the instrument the guitar, hence the name of the magazine. The font of the masthead head is quite vintage and goes with the whole feel of the cover. The main illustration is not of a musical artist, rather a guitar, this matches the masthead.

The sale lines are also specialised towards guitar playing and as you can see it is targeting a different audience.

The following photographs are of famous guitarists and not the band itself. To top it off there is a plectrum shape saying “play” inside.

This magazine is simpler than the first. It looks and feels professional and clearly states its target audience.

This third magazine is called “Classic FM” and is a magazine that focuses on classical music the magazine is parallel with its radio station also named “classic FM”. The magazine cover gives off a very different feel to one of the other magazines such as “Kerrang!”. This has a very sophisticated feel and it has done this with the colour scheme, font and photographs.

The main photograph is of a female, she has been placed on the right hand side of the cover so the sale lines could be presented on the left, which follow her figure. The pink top matches the pink writing on the left. There are further photographs that are connected with the sales lines, and they are all relevant with the classical genre.

This magazine features a lot of “free” stuff, such as CD’s and music guides. This is not surprising because the magazine costs over £4, this backs up the idea of it being upper class and sophisticated.

This fourth magazine is called “Computer Music” which clearly states the genre (category) which is computer music, specialising in technical, state of the art music programs that allows you to create your own music.

This magazine is also very different to the rest because the main background image is not an artist, it is just an object used to represent something technical. It is very colourful and specialised, it has targeted a small audience.

The masthead has a simple but good design, having sound waves as the underline with a slogan “make music now”. It looks good and it is appealing to the audience and this is defiantly essential because the target audience is so small.

The sale lines are mostly all about computers and advertise several different programs and are mostly isolated on the right hand side of the cover. The writing and font also follow the colour scheme, white, red and black.

This magazine is well laid out with a good appealing masthead. It looks professional, but the important thing is that unlike the rest of the magazines this has a far smaller target audience. It is much specialised.

This last magazine is called “NME” this is an acronym for New Music Express. This is the first magazine that I have analysed with the masthead being an acronym. I think it is better because it looks more professional, you wouldn’t be able to write it all out, so an acronym is good and easy to remember. They have presented the masthead behind the main photograph, this can be done because the magazine is so well known, people know that this is NME without even needing to read it.

This is a similar magazine to “Kerrang!” however is less grungy and has an older feel to it. There is only one photograph and the rest of the information portrayed are sales lines. It follows a strict colour scheme of red, white, yellow and black.

There is no advertising and it is strictly a music magazine, doing what is says on the cover, this is a well established magazine and you can tell from the way it has been presented.

I have chosen to analyse these five magazines in more depth from the original ten that I researched because I thought they had the most variety for comparison. They all focus on different genres with different target audiences. I will be taking some of these ideas and putting them in my magazine. I feel it is very important to have a good catchy masthead that can become well recognised. This is the first thing, and the second thing is to have a large well presented background photograph. These two things are the eye catchers that will attract the audiences.

After researching all these magazines I have also discovered the importance of applying a colour scheme that suits the background colours. This will make the magazine cover more presentable and easier to read. The common colours are red, white, black and yellow. These colours tend to go well and these are also the colours I used in the preliminary task and it worked well.

The last point I picked up on was the importance of being relevant with the subject. All the magazines follow what there theme is such as computer music, it specialises in making your own computer music using different software and the images and sale lines follow this.

This magazine has a very stylish product. The name of the magazine is well displayed in a regimental font. Then above that there is the contents title with date. The whole page follows a colour scheme of black, white and red.

The main photograph takes up a third of the page and is positioned in the middle. It is of a drummer which is the clear subject of the magazine. Then surrounding it there are smaller thumb print images still on the subject which is expected. They are labelled with page number on the top left corner.

The contents page is predominantly filled up by images; however there is writing on the left hand side, still following the colour scheme and also labelled for page numbers.

Then this contents page contains a “regulars” section, the page numbers for the normal contents that reader would be expecting. This is displayed in the bottom left hand corner shown as an add on.

Detailed Magazine Contents Analysis

This magazine contents page is slightly more orthodox with the layout. The title is simply contents but with the added Q logo and this keeps with the theme throughout. There is also a strict colour scheme of red, black and white.

There is one main image that takes up most the page and it is annotated at the bottom that includes a page number and a quote.The main featuring contents are positioned on the left hand side (column form) and is neatly presented. There are subtitles shown, similar to the first magazine I analysed with the regulars except Q has called it “every month”.

Then finally on the bottom of the page it segregates a section and has called it review. There is another photograph that has relevance to the writing on the right hand side which has been presented with page numbers and detailed information underneath.

This magazines contents pages doesn’t actually title it contents. This is unusual and makes it less formal for the audience. The colour scheme is orange, black and white and I think it works well.

This contents page is fairly loaded with photographic and written information and it has all been linked stylishly, I would describe it as an unorthodox grid method. The are several overlapping photographs labelled with page numbers and on the right hand side there are subtitles grouping the different areas of the magazine. You can see that the magazine primarily bases it around interviews.

At the bottom of the page you see a small article linking with a photograph and a section of advertising to promote the magazine.

This magazine contents page has a very vibrant citrusy colour scheme of shades of green. However they have also used the colour red to make words stand out like the title NME. This works quite well. There is a main heading stating the magazines name then a secondary heading stating the main subject of the week “Albums of 2009”, this is then followed by several different photographs, this is very visual.

On the right hand side of the contents page there are sub categories which is very popular in contents pages, to make it easier for the audience to differentiate and find what they want.

On the left hand side is quite a cool feature stating all the different bands featured in the magazine for easy access. This works well and is very helpful.

At the bottom is yet another advertisement of subscription which again is proving to be very popular in music magazines.

This contents page again has a completely different feel to it. There are multiple different font types and sizes that draws the attention of the audience. The colour scheme is pretty basic, following different shades of the red colour.

It is simple but the page is full. Very irregular layout not following any sort of grid, this makes it interesting.

The title contains a slogan “The old. The new. You.” This is for the audience and allows them to relate. On the right side there are page numbers and usual with subtitles directing the audience.

On the left hand side, it takes up most of the page and is filled with different sized images relating to a page in the magazine.

Then at the bottom it advertises ways in which the reader can “follow” the magazine, this will increase the audience for the company and is a positive thing.

My two favourite layouts are the first two. I like the way they are presented as well as the colour scheme, however I also like how the last one advertises twitter and facebook etc. From doing this in-depth research, I have discovered how contents pages hare presented and have been able to gain ideas for my own. This like subtitles and page numbers create professionalism and make it easy for the audience to navigate around.

I feel that they way the page is presented is very important because a contents page doesn’t just present what information is included but it also shows the style and feel of the whole product. Some contents pages have been strict with their lay out and others have intentionally created a wacked unorthodox approach to how they present there photographs and words. I plan to take into account both sides and be somewhere in the middle.

Another point I picked up on was the title arrangement, I noticed that not all magazines used the word “Contents” as a title. I plan on using it to make it clear to the audience what they are viewing, however I don’t think it is very important as from the lay out the viewers should be able distinguish for themselves.

My final pint is the connection between the written work and the photographs. I think this is one of the most important points to make because it is what creates the flow in the page. It needs to make sense and be eye catching so it is very important they are all put in the right place. The traditional method is to use some sort of grid to make it easy and presentable to the viewers. I will take this into account by also use my own experimentation to try and find a middle that makes sense and looks good..

Detailed Magazine Double Page Analysis

This double page spread is fairly unorthodox in the sense there doesn’t seem to have a standard grid. However it works well also goes with the genre. I like how the masthead comes at an angle across both pages. I also like the colour scheme, with the red, black and white I think this works really well.

There is not much writing, the article is fairly short, which isn’t necessary a bad thing because a lot of people like photographs. There are several smaller images and one large one acting as the background. However all of the images are linked in with the article which is good and keeps fluidity in the magazine.

Finally there is a separate column for another small article. It has been separated with a white outline acting as a box. This also works well having the contrast of black and white.

There is more writing on this double page, and spreads across the whole top. This page is simple and to the point; simple fonts and simple colour scheme. The background isn’t a photograph like the other one, but merely a white canvas.

There is only one image, although it has been made to look like two, with a mirroring effect. This has work well because they have placed it on the bottom that covers both pages.

The masthead is simple and to the point, there is a subheading underneath that is more descriptive and was a good idea to give the reader a more of an insight to what they are about to read.

Then there are the page numbers which stand out quite a lot in this magazine and they are accompanied by the magazines logo. I feel this is a good touch.

This first thing I picked up on this was the strict colour scheme. The main background photograph directly corresponds with the writing. This works really well in this case and allows both writing and photographs to blend in really well. There is only one photograph where the main subject has been listed in bold next to the masthead which has been positioned in the middle on the page.

The main article has been situated on the right hand side of the double page spread. There is a quote that has been labelled in bold to stand out and it grabs the attention of the reader.

This double page spread is very simple and effective, it looks the part and includes everything you would expect.

This final double page spread is more of a classic layout. On the left hand side there is a gridded article with a long masthead, then followed up on the right hand side with a full page image. This photograph, unlike other pages doesn’t act a background. There is one sentence to accompany the photograph but apart from that it is very simple.

This article is fairly large and is more for the reading type, again a different style from the rest.

This colour scheme seems to be red, black and white. It works well with the colours in the photograph and this is something you have to think about when creating an article that contains images to further the story.

All of these double page spreads all have different themes and styles on how they present themselves. It is a bit more varied because it is not as strict as a contents page. However one thing I did pick up was that the theme was strict with all the pages. It seems to match the colouring of the photographs and backgrounds. This makes everything flow nicely and create professionalism within the magazine.

The first and third magazine are my favourite and I think this will be the feel I want to aim for with my magazine. On the first one I like the colour scheme and the rustic rock feel you get with the angled writing, black and white photographs and writing layout. On the third magazine I really like the connection expressed between the writing and photographs through the colours. I feel this works really well and I am going to try and incorporate this into my work.

The other two magazines are also good however, I feel there is so much writing and it is too much like a grid, a bit boring. I want there to be some creativity to keep the reader visually interested and happy. As music magazines go, they are not advertised as a novel, so I want to try and get the ratio between writing and photographs as good as I can. I also need to make a good link between the two; I can do this, by using items such as arrows or designs to interlock the two, I can have the colour scheme the same such as the example above. All of these things increase the professionalism in the magazine, in turn allows the reader to feel comfortable and gain more enjoyment out of it.

Through this process I have looked at 10 magazine covers and analyzed in detain 5 of them, looked at 10

contents pages and analyzed 5 of them. Finally looking at 4 double page spreads and analyzed all 4.

I found it a lot more challenging to find double page spread and in comparison with the other

pages they were sparse. But even so, by analyzing all 4 I was able to obtain a very good idea on how to

make my double page spread look. This included the colours, layout, link between the photographs and

the text and just the general feel.

Same goes for the front cover and the contents page, this research was very helpful and

through the detailed analysis I have picked up on some very important points and I will be using this to

improve on what mine will be like.

I homed in on the music magazines because it was most relevant to the project I am doing

and this will give me the most reliable data.

I fell having a good, bold, creative masthead is very important when it comes to a music

magazine and this is one of the main focal points I will be focusing on other than the background for my

cover.

I also want my contents page to be quite creative and I am going to try and stay away from

the classic grid method, because I feel as though that isn't how a music magazine should be laid out. I

want to take a variety of photographs so I can have a mixture of categories involved in my contents page,

so it appeals for a larger audience.

Overall I felt this was very useful and will help me a lot when it comes to designing my

magazine.

Magazine Research Evaluation

J o s h u a F o o