Kerrang Magazine Main Research Influence (Contents page)

Contents Page;

I really love the look and layout of this contents page.

 The colours, like the front cover, are really simple and stick to a colour scheme of grey, black and yellow (some red). All of the images are boxed off and framed creating a more structured page. The images are also then linked up to the titles of the pages (right hand side) by labelling them with the page number below the image.

This magazine seems to be a more 'personal' and very audience friendly (listen to what they want/say). This is shown clearly by the use of the quote below the 'Contents' title. There is also a large paragraph (few paragraphs) from the editor of the magazine (very top left). This give his opinion on each issue and also is something different every time!

 The competitions etc are shown bottom right which give another reason for the audience to purchase this particular named magazine.

Kerrang Magazine Main Research Influence (Front Cover)

The genre of this magazine is Rock. The colour scheme of this magazine is mostly black, yellow, red and white. I think that this is in keeping with the theme/genre. These colours also have connotations with the 'rock' genre.

I really like the way that this cover looks. The layout works very well and the background, and negative space works well to help focus on the image of the person on the front cover. The image is a mid shot, revealing the head to waist of the star. The head of the singer covers some of the title which links the image and text together. 

 The image of the star on the cover fits in with the theme/genre (Rock). The clothing, colours and styles of the clothing and also his hair and overall appearance push the genre of the magazine as they have obviously used someone who looks more 'rocky' to star on the cover. The text is 'rough' and distressed which again, fits with the genre of the magazine.

On the cover, there are lots of use of shapes to back the text and to ask frame some of the images. This gives a more structured feel to the image and yet having everything at a slight angle gives a more 'fun' and layer back approach to it all.

To catch the attention of the audience, large fonts, bold shapes, large images, and bright colours have been used. The use of quotes, page titles and competitions would also entice the audience to purchase this issue as just by reading the cover, they can see what is held within. "We Found A New World" is a rather vague and mysterious quote and would draw in the audience to want to read about this in more detail to find out what was actually meant here.

The use of all of these aspects will help me to create not only a professional looking magazine front cover, but also a successful and would be well selling issue! To do this, I will have to take into account all of these things that I have mentioned above!

Preliminary 2 and Chosen Theme/Genre

After looking at my preliminary, I wanted to try to create something a little more 'professional'.
 I have not used my own image (Beyonce) but have simply used her to see what my magazine would look like now. I have used Q Magazine (below) to influence me.

I think that this magazine (below) looks much better than my previous one. The colours work much better together and compliment eachother.
 This magazine looks much more 'up-market' and would sell to a different audience with different music tastes (R&B and Pop).

Although I like the more 'classy' magazine. I think I would like to create a magazine with more of a rock theme.

Contact Sheet (Preliminary)

Here is my contact sheet for the photo shoot that I have done to use on my preliminary magazine cover. I wanted to use a happy, good looking student who also looks respectable and 'natural'. I chose Hannah.

I also took pictures (10, 11, 12) of the stairwells and emergency exit doors. This was in case I wanted to add a story on safety within college etc.

For my magazine, I used the 20th image. I thought that her stance looked the best and also that she looked happy on this. I would now like to create my magazine.

(Left)

                                               

Preliminary Magazine (Contents layout)

The layout of a magazine can make or break it. If the page isn't interesting, balanced and just overall well presented and professional, people wont want to read it.

Below, I have sectioned the page up into blocks to show where I would like to put text and images. This page is rather structured and organised. This is something that you would expect from this type of magazine. Yet the layout varies for different genres of magazines.

For example. A rock magazine would be more 'crowded' and busy. The colours would be dark and the images and text would link with this genre of music/this image.

Preliminary Magazine (Front Cover)

Before I create my real magazine cover. I would like to design a preliminary to see what works and what does not. This will also give me ideas for layout and text/font.

Above, I have created the front cover of a college magazine.

 Through creating this I have realised that the positioning of the model (when taking the picture) is very important. To be able to stick to the 'normal' layout of a magazine, I had to flip the image vertically. This was so that the body was to the right side and the arm separated the text to the left.

The emotions displayed by the model is also important. The fact that this model is smiling and looking directly at the camera invites the audience in and also gives a warm feel to the magazine. This gives the impression that the college is a nice place to be, with friendly students. The clothes/make-up/jewellery worn is important too. The model is wearing blue, which fits in with the colour scheme of the college magazine.

The font and font colour also needs to work well against the background otherwise the text cannot be seen properly. I think, on this image, that the black looks fine. This stands out against the pale walls. Yet the blue is rather bright and is hard to see.

Through research, I have found that the logo's of the magazines are usually at the top of the page. In this instance and this is also the case when looking at 'Q Magazine'.

My Chosen Theme Is Music

There are various types of music magazines. They look at different genres of music such as;
-Rock
-R&B
-Classical

-Reggae

-Hip Hop

-Heavy Metal

-Jazz

-Blues and many others.

The themes (colours etc) of the magazine usually have connotations to the style of music. For example, we where to look at a 'Classical Music' magazine, I would expect the colour scheme to be whites and other more 'classy' colours. The font would be more decorative to help the magazine seem more 'up-market'.

Target audience is also very important. The font types/style and colours also depend on the target audience, as well as the genre. For instance, the font on  a child's magazine is going to be clearer and easier to read (Sans Serif). Whereas on an adults/teens magazine, the font can be more decorative.