Original Images

Images I used for my finished products include:

Click images for hi-res

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Some of the images I rejected:

Font mood board

Above is a mood board with some fonts that i like that might make their way into my magazine.

Image Plans

Main Images
Cast: Me and 2 friends
Props: None
Clothes: Indie/rock looking clothes
Setting: Run down industrial area
Location: Near Lake Lothing
Lighting: Bright sunny day, clear shadows
Camera shots: Worms eye view of band, MCU of each band member, Long shot of whole band.

Other Image
Cast: Me and 2 friends
Props: chips
Clothes indie/rock looking clothes
Setting: On the beach
Location: lowesoft seafront
Lighting: any
Camera shots: Long shot of band.

Mood board for my target audience

This is the mood board that is constructed for my target audience. It contains images that reflect their lifestyle, hobbies and interests. For example I added an image of a typical detached house which reflects the middle-classed background of my audience, even though they wouldn't necessarily still be living there it is what they would have been used to growing up.

Some of the music my audience would like is in the mood board. They would like music that mostly belongs in the categories of rock and indie. This is why I added the rock band "Muse" and indie band, "Band of Horses". They would read NME along with my magazine and wear clothes that resemble their music tastes. This is why I have the converse shoes on the mood board.

There is a lot of technology on the board like the laptop, the smart-phone and the Xbox controller. This is because my audience will be good with technology spending a lot of their free time using it for work, games and socialising. It will be a large part of their life. The internet would be a huge part of this, that is why i added the web browser, YouTube and online games Halo and Guitar Hero.

I added a couple of images showing sporting activities because my target audience will enjoy going outside and participating in sporting activities on occasion. They will also have been going on skiing holidays and the such because of their middle-classed background and sporty tenancies.

My target audience would enjoy going out on weekends paint-balling and going to the cinema and gigs. They would also be lazy when it comes to housework and cooking so their diet would mostly consist of food like crisps and from places like Subway and Dominoes and soft drinks like Coca-Cola. They would watch TV shows like misfits and others aimed at their age group, along with popular American shows like heroes.

In summary my audience are in their late teens to early twenties, tech savvy, middle-classed and lazy. They enjoy video games, socialising and going out with friends and rock and indie music.

My Magazines Target Audience

Demographic Profile

Age: 15-25
Gender: 79% Male, 21% Female
Regionality: Suburbs with parents or near college/uni in a small house or flat.
Marital status: Single, or in casual relationship. Not Married.
Social Status: B, C1, C2 Almost all will be students from a decent background. Studying for careers withing the B, C1 bands. currently is either a full time student or has a part-time job .

Psychographic Profile
My audience would mostly fall into the categories of aspirers and individuals. This is because they are most likely going to be going to college and university so they can get a well paid job in the future. They could also fall into the category of reformers because they will be in education and most likely be up to date on current affairs. They will be confident too so will speak up if they don't agree with something and will probably have been on one or two protests. A small section (maybe 20%) of my audience would be mainstreamers .

Lifestyle
My target audience would have a lifestyle similar to many students, spending most days at school, college or university. They would spend their free time relaxing with their friends and/or partner. They would also play video games in their spare time. An average day would consist of going to school, college, or university, then relaxing in front of the tv, on the internet or playing xbox, getting some fast food or making something simple before going out to see friends or carrying on with tv/internet/xbox. They would also enjoy going to the cinema regularly and the occasional gig at weekends.

Classic Rock and Kerrang! double page spreads alalysis'

The first article is form ‘Classic Rock’ magazine and is part of a 14 page section where they look at some of the bands and musicians that have ‘survived’ rock ‘n’ roll. Most of the other articles in the series are in a similar style with the same conventions of an article.

This article has a very basic layout which, similarly to the contents page, reflects the audiences age and maturity levels. It does this with the style in which it follows the conventions of a typical article. For example the drop cap, appropriate pull quote, kicker, main image, caption and gutters. Most of the text has small serifs which help with the maturity of the article.

However beneath the sophisticated exterior, upon further inspection there are hints at the bands rebellious past. The images location is in a dark street, their clothes are jeans with studs and t-shirts with rock-related insignia on it This gives the article a rebellious rock ‘n’ roll twist. The language used by the band in the pull quote is also rebellious, you don’t hear the word ‘crap’ in the guardian do you?

This article is in the magazine because it is about a band that the target audience, of around 40 years of age, will remember and probably be fans of. The writing style and image is meant to make the reader remember about the band when they were at their prime. This is shown in the style of the image, style of the text and style of the language.


The second article is from ‘Kerrang!’ magazine and is a part of a much larger article covering 8 sides. This page is covered in effects and immediately we can tell it is very different from the other magazine. The previous magazine concentrated more on content and getting an interview with the band, with very little effort into fancy effects. The title ‘All That Glitter’ for example is surrounded by stars and is a very swirly font. This works well with the colour scheme of the article along with the clothes that the band is wearing in the image. This all suggests a very glamorous lifestyle and a lot of money, which isn’t very surprising from the biggest band in the world at the moment. Even the drop cap has a star behind it.

Speaking of drop caps, this article has the same codes and conventions of a traditional double-paged spread with a large title, drop cap, kicker but not many others; this suggests that the editor was trying to achieve a simplistic effect. This would also explain why there is only one image and that on the next side there are only 4 lines of pull quote with a huge image taking up both pages.

It is odd that this band would be featured in ‘Kerrang!’ because the magazine usually tends to have articles about heavier bands and more rebellious bands. However they do have articles about live bands, and Muse has won the award for best live band year after year. They are also one of the largest bands in the world at the moment, so featuring them in their magazine would appeal to people both inside and outside their regular readership.

Feature Article Writing Practice

To get into using different writing styles I have written the same review for the album 'Black Clouds and Silver Linings' by 'Dream Theater' in two different writing styles. One to match the style of Kerrang, and the other in the style of a sophisticated newspaper like The Guardian or The Times.

In the Style of Kerrang!

This album blew our minds here at the K office. Every one of the six songs was amazing! The band that has brought us so many favourites over the years and this is no exception. It offers loads of the intense guitar solos that we’ve grown accustomed to and some of the best lyrics I personally have heard in a long time.

My favourite song of the album is the final song called ‘The Count of Tuscany’. This nineteen minute monster is based on a true story about a member of the band getting a surprise tour around a massive estate, believing his end is near and the man giving the tour is going to kill him, the music is so good I love it. Later he finds out that he is not going to die and the music then gets to its best with a whale song solo and acoustic finish.

The other songs are awesome too though and this album is definitely something special. This is the album to buy for the more classically trained rock guru.

DOWNLOAD: The Count of Tuscany, Best of Times.
FOR FANS OF: Metallica, Muse


In the Style of The Guardian.

This album is utterly superb. The six tracks where utterly delightful and a pleasure to listen to. This band has given us so many gems over the gears and this, my friends, is no exception. It has beautiful lyrics, perfect transitions and some astounding guitar solos if I say so myself.

My favourite song on the album has to be best of times. It is a beautiful story of a son recounting the happy days of him being with his father. He talks about how he will never forget his ‘Best Friend’ paints a beautiful picture of their relationship. However there is always an undertone of sadness because his father has gone for some reason that we never find out. The lyrics for this song are astounding and definitely some of the best I have heard in recent years.

Let us not forget that the other songs in the album are equally, if not more impressive and moving than this one and the album is definitely worth buying for anyone who likes their music to have meaning, depth, and an expert soundtrack.

Overview of the Industry

Quote from the IPC Media website:
“IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands, with our print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men – almost 27 million UK adults – while our online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.”

This small bundle of statistics shows the size of the magazine industry. If two thirds of women and close to half of men in the UK read magazines there is a lot of money to be made in this field. 20 Million Users online is a phenomenal number and once again expresses the size of the industry. This isn’t the only producer of magazines though. There are other publishers like the Emap that had a total of £1.35.5m revenue in the first half of 2010. That’s a prodigious amount of magazine sales.

Classic Rock Analysis and Institutional Data.

Launched in October 1998, Classic Rock magazine releases 13 issues a year with a circulation of 63,000 and a readership of just fewer than 120,000. Its audience is 91% male with an average age of 39, average income of £44,000. Readers are said to devour the magazine spending on average 4 hours reading it and 70% of them keeping the magazines for future reference. The readers are very musically active with 57% playing the guitar, 37% seeing live music at least once a month, and 91% going once a year. On average the Classic Rock Reader will spend £98 on gigs, DVD and music a month. More than half of the readers consider themselves to be music experts and 7% are actual professional musicians.

The adverts in the magazine have a huge impact on their audience. 49% of readers have purchased a product as a result of reading Classic Rock, 70% have visited a company’s website and 78% have consulted the classified section. The kind of products that advertise in the magazine are: Smokehead Whiskey, Spotify, Amazon, Hmv, OCB Cigarette Paper, Thomann, Planet Rock Radio, Metal Hammer and Monitor Audio. This reflects the age, habits and income of the reader. They will have been brought up in a time where everyone smoked because it was cool, that explains the cigarette paper. The whiskey is also a typical drink of the age group that the magazine is targeting.

Initial Plans for my magazine

A Cross between Kerrang, NME and Classic Rock.
One Main Image
Smashed Font
Red, black, yellow, white colour scheme

Same Font
Same colour scheme
One image (Same band as on cover)
Similar layout to Classic Rock

similar font style
Interview in text
Just two images of the band
Similar layout to kerrang

Classic Rock and Kerrang! Contents Page Analysis

This is part of the contents for ‘Classic Rock’ magazine. Its contents are spread out over two pages; the other side of the page has the regular articles that appear in the magazine every month. The first thing that is immediately noticeable is the layout of the page. It is very crisp and clean with no faffing around with unnecessary images and too many selling lines. This page is very clear and to the point. It could also be described as sophisticated. The reason behind this is the age of the target audience, the average age will probably be between 35 and 50 and be in the B, C1 and C2 bands. This is reflected in the style and the image used.

The image is the only image on the page and was taken when the band where at their prime. Because of this the target audience (which should have been fans at about the time the image was taken) will instantly recognise it and its subjects. This will draw the audience into the magazine and make them want to read further into the magazine. This was also the cover story as it says towards the top of the image and one could assume that they used a similar iconic image to achieve the same effect.

This cover has some codes and conventions of a magazine for example it has a contest, two selling lines and separate sections for regular articles and features. It also has a word from the editor of the magazine on its own separate page that I don’t have an image of.

The text is also an indication of the audience, it has small serifs which adds sophistication but not to the extent of a magazine like ‘Opera Now’. It offers symmetry to the previously mentioned age and class of the audience. The text is cleanly laid out and concise, following the colour scheme, and dividing the page up nicely. It is clean and refers to the no-nonsense attitude of its audience.

The colours of the page are interesting. The colours white, black and red together usually refer to rebellion and certainly the fans of the band in the image would have been rebelling against either the state or their parents. However juxtaposed to the sophisticated edge, it s a metaphor for their audience in a way (organised and sophisticated but still have a hint of rebellion in their taste of music). It’s this juxtaposition that gives the page its edge and is the reason I really like this contents page.

The next contents page is from ‘Kerrang!’ and immediately you can see the difference in the style of the magazine. This contents page has a lot more going on but I’m going to start with what the magazines have in common. First of all they both have two distinct areas of the page. The first being the contents itself, and the second is the main image. They both have comments from the editor; however ‘Kerrang!’ has a short paragraph as opposed to an entire page dedicated to it. They both distinguish between regular articles and features, although the layout is different. The main image is related to the cover story, and it is using a similar tactic to ‘Classic Rock’ by putting an image on an iconic band on the cover. Finally it also has competitions and freebies advertised in selling lines, similar to the other magazine.

The similarities, however, end there. This cover has far more images compared to the other. This is because the audience is younger (aged 14-20) and therefore more visually driven and will respond more to images than a wall of text. This is why some of the articles at backed up by images and the advert is to.

The organisation of the text is different also. There is far less of a description for each article (another reflection of the audience) and it what was in three pages in the ‘Classic Rock’ magazine fits in half a page for ‘Kerrang!’ This shows the visual motivation, impatience of the audience. They will not want to read blocks of text, they would rather be shown what the article is about in the form of images. The font of the text is also broken and scruffy which gives an informal feel, a touch of rebellion and is also strongly associated with the genre of music that the magazine is catered for (rock music and its sub-genres).

The colours of this contents page are similar to the other, page with a lot of black, white and red. However they are not juxtaposed as in the previous one and because of that lose their edge and stray into the territory of the cliché. Overall this contents page has a lot more going on and it tailored well to its target demographic. But is less effective than the one from ‘Classic Rock’.

Opera Now and Kerrang! Covers Analysis

Every magazine cover is designed to appeal to its audience so that they will buy it and make money. This cover is no exception and it appeals to its audience in a number of ways. By looking at these ways we can work out who the magazine is aimed at.

Immediately the first thing we see is the main image of the opera singer mid-song. Along with the masthead ‘Opera Now’ and selling line ‘The World’s Leading Opera Magazine’ the magazine has already established its target audience ad the type of people that are likely to go to the opera. These people are usually B, A, or higher in the socio economic scale and this is reflected in the cover of the magazine. There is also only one image on the cover, this suggests an emphasis on content over images and also connotates a more mature audience. The font is crisp and clean with small serifs, which adds a feel of class to the magazine. The audience is assumed to be wealthy because of the price of the magazine is fairly high but well within the norm of magazines with the same target demographic. The colours of the cover are also an indicator to toward the target audience. The magazine also has a distinct colour scheme. The colours deep blue-purple and a rich orange are colours usually associated with wealth and the upper classes too, thereby supporting the already established statement of the wealth of the audience. So we can definitely see the target of this magazine from a few simple observations.

Despite the obvious audience it still has many of the codes and conventions of a magazine, some of which I’ve talked about (main image, masthead, selling line, price, and a distinct colour scheme). It has features a couple other conventions of a magazine like the barcode, freebie, dateline. It also has multiple cover lines and a main cover line that stands out against the rest using a different font. The role of these is to attract the reader by giving them a teaser of what’s inside. If it is an article that they are interested in then they are more likely to buy the magazine because of it. This is yet another indication of the target audience because the magazine will study them and work out which articles they will read and which ones to feature on the front page.

In conclusion this is a very typical magazine with a very precise target audience. It seems to cater and attract it's audience very well and follows a lot of the codes and conventions of a magazine (main image, masthead, few colours, selling lines, freebies etc.) of this type very well.

The second magazine cover is from 'Kerrang!' magazine and is a very different style to the 'Opera Now' magazine. This is because of two things: the music genre and the target audience. The audience of is probably between the ages of 14 and 20 with a background of C1 and C2. The first and perhaps the biggest difference between the magazine and 'Opera Now' is the informal, Rock 'N' Roll feel of the magazine that is used to attract its audience. The font and positioning of the text both in the masthead and the cover lines have an informal and thrown together look. This style is synonymous with the supposed lifestyle and fashion of the target audience and it used to make the magazine appeal to them. Slang terms like 'WTF' and 'booty' enforce the informal element to the cover and are terms that the reader will be familiar with. The man in the main image of the rock star holding the guitar is an idol the audience will instantly recognise and be drawn in by.

Although 'Kerrang!' is aimed at a completely different audience to 'Opera Now' they both follow the same codes and conventions of a music magazine (masthead, cover lines, price, dateline etc.). However, because 'Kerrang!' has much more going on, it has some that aren't present in 'Opera Now'. For example it has many images to draw in the audience and emphasise the cover lines, it has a lot of free things included with the magazine compared to the other one, and it also has more selling lines that are in random places dotted around the magazines’ cover which fit in with the style of it.

In conclusion ‘Kerrang!’ magazine does a great job of appealing to its target audience and, like the previous magazine, follows many of the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine, despite the pungent differences in style, genre and audience.