Construction - Fonts

First Stage  of Construction-




As this is the early stages of drafting, I am aiming to create the basis for my magazine, initially starting with fonts and the basic layout of my front cover. I have selected my 4 favourite fonts from Serif PagePlusX6 (some of which were in my initial questionnaire). I will be asking a small group of people that fit into my target market and asking them for their opinions on the fonts featured below.

Person 1 - I really like the top left font because it looks professional and think it will suit the style of the magazine.

Person 2 - I think the 1st or 3rd font would be most suitable for an indie/indie rock magazine. I think either will look particularly effective with a plain background.

Person 3 - I like the second one the most because I think it is quite different compared to other fonts that might be on a music magazine. I think if it is enlarged it will also look quite sophisticated.

Person 4 - The 1st font is my favourite because I think it will look good with a busy or plain background and will stand out amongst any images.

I will be using the first font 'Bodoni MT Poster Compressed' it is my favourite and was most popular with my target market.

These were the possible fonts that I could use for the plugs and main cover line. I don't like the bottom font (Jagger SF) as I think it is too bold and could take attention away from other features on the page. I think the 2nd font (Bernhard BdCn BT) has a similar effect. I think the 1st (Agency FB) and 3rd (DFKai-SB) fonts are quite similar to the font of the masthead and so I think that either would be suitable. I am going to use both in my drafts to see which one I prefer.



Test Shots and Mise en Scene

Test Shots and Mise en Scene:



Because I am only at the planning stage I only wanted to experiment with different angles and lighting to begin to get a picture of what sort of image I want on my front cover. I don’t think that I will be using any of the below images as my final image, as they would need to be edited and I am not completely happy with the lighting in any of them, despite this I will be photo shopping my favourites and may possibly be using them in my drafts. In the way of mise en scene, I want the clothing of the artist to be minimalistic (like the clothing in the test shots) however I want the makeup to look quite dramatic (which I obviously didn’t focus on in the test shots). In order to ensure the focus of the cover is the artists face. I did not use any props or many different looks in my test shots and I think that having a prop such as a guitar helps to fill more of the page and establishes the magazine as a music magazine, just from sitting on the shelf. Therefore, I might add in a prop when creating my drafts and ask for audience feedback.   I also want a clear background (preferably of a light colour). The reason for this is because I want to feature image to stand out amongst the texts. I  have definitely decided that I want the my front cover story and image to be a new, upcoming female artist as not only did my market research suggest that the audience would be interested in having new artists in the magazine but because there are not many female indie/indie rock artists, leaving a gap in the market. The double page spread will be an introducing article, in the style of an interview, discussing the artists new EP.



Test Shots:

I took these photos on my iPhone. I like the fourth shot (bottom left) and the fifth shot (bottom middle) the most because I think they could be edited to make them look quite professional. However I think the lighting could be much brighter, I am looking for quite stark lighting because I think it suits the genre and style of magazine I am creating. It is possible I might use some of these shots in drafting just as a basis however I wont be using these as my final photos.

I took these photos on two different cameras (Olympus and FinePix) just to see if I could improve the overall quality. However I actually prefer the photos I originally took on my phone, I think that the below images are not suitable because they are not properly promoting my artist and do not think that enough lighting is present.

Layouts -

Front cover:

These are two very basic but possible layouts, I do not want writing covering the whole page and so at the minute I do prefer the first layout and I will most likely use it as a basis for constructing drafts, however I will construct both and a range of others when creating drafts and ask my target audience which they prefer. I really like the style of 'Clash' Magazine front covers and so I would like to make the style of my front cover similar.

Contents page:

Again these are two basic designs, however I want my contents page to be eligible and clear for the reader and not too crowded and messy, although I think this style does give off the "indie" vibe, the results from my market research show that a "sharp, clean" style would be preferred, in saying this I will be using the second style as a plan layout for my drafts.

Double page spread:

I found the double page spread much harder to plan layouts for because I think the layout will come together during the drafting stages when all the components are added together. However, I have created a couple of generic ideas for what one of my drafts could look like, I personally prefer the first idea as I think having a whole side dedicated to a photo is quite unique compared to other magazines, I also like the way it looked in "Acoustic" magazine which I analysed.

Mood Boards

Mood Board #1

I created this mood board as inspiration to what colours/themes i may want to think about when drafting and planning my magazine. The images and colours used purposely evoke the indie style. This mood board will not influence the style of my magazine Whilst some of the colours in the mood board may not be the ones I actually use in my music magazine, I think it represents the indie/indie rock genre and does provide ideas to include in my magazine.

Mood Board #2

I created another mood board of magazine covers that I liked, again to use as inspiration but also to hopefully help me in my drafting stages when I am deciding on layouts. I will not necessarily be using any of the styles featured below however I might use similar ideas for the composition of my images and texts. Clash magazine is my favourite layout and I definitely want to use a similar, minimalistic style in the drafting of my magazine covers. I think having a vibrant background and having quite a bland feature photo (or vice versa) contrasts well to create quite a sophisticated look.

Planning of Fonts and Magazine Title

I created a Prezi about the title of my magazine and possible fonts I could use within my magazine.

Click the link below to view it.



Fonts and magazine title

 

Planning of Colour Schemes

I created an Emaze presentation about my first stage of planning, about the colour schemes I will be using in my music magazines.


Click the link below to view it.


Emaze Presentation - Colour Schemes

Secondary Research

Secondary Research-



Using mainly the internet and sources like The Guardian and existing presentations on sites like Prezi, I conducted some research into already existing music magazines in order to help me gain a better idea of the industry, as well as this I think that the data I gathered will come in useful when planning.



I first looked at prices of magazines on the whole to give myself an idea of where music magazines sit in comparison to other magazines.



Prices-

I went to the website Statista which gathers statistics from over 18,000 sources, providing relatively reliable information.

Compared to 13 other magazine types, music magazines appear to be in the top sector of the price range. With the average price for a (rock) magazine being £3.66 I should be considering competitive pricing strategies, as well as my questionnaire findings. This is for a music magazine about the rock genre, and rock is much more popular than indie/indie rock and so I should think about the prices of other indie magazines as well.



Product Placement-

Some of the magazines I have looked at like Clash and NME are independent magazines and so they actually publish and platform themselves. Other publishers I have found include Anthem Publishing, who cover two principle markets: Music and Food. They are Britain’s fasting growing publishing company by copy sale revenue, their key brand MusicTech has the UK’s largest multi-platform audience. Bauer Media Group are another publishing company however are much larger than Anthem Publishing, making an approximate revenue of €2.4 billion per year. They publish magazines like Kerrang!, Q, Closer, Mojo and Empire. Time Inc. formerly known as IPC (International Publishing Corporation) media are another huge publishing brand, publishing over 60 iconic brand of magazine. Whereas their main focus is lifestyle and their largest market is women, they have previously published NME (1950). This company has experience with the publishing of music magazines and with their main focus being lifestyle and home, there would be little competition between other music magazines being published by Time Inc.



Distribution-

I did some research into where magazines are distributed. Magazines are highly accessible and can be bought via email and can be downloaded online. However they are also sold in the usual places like supermarkets, newsagents, bookstores and stationery stores. Accessibility is important in order to ensure that the product is reaching a large as audience as possible. I looked at the 3 main categories of distribution: paid circulation, non-paid circulation and controlled circulation. Paid circulation is where the magazine would be sold at a set per issue price or the buyer will be given the option to sign up to a monthly subscription and receive a copy through the post on a monthly basis. This is probably the most common and efficient method of distribution for both the institution and audience. Non - paid circulation means that issues are given away for free (Rewind magazine is given away in Camden/Covent Garden), although this would be good for advertisement and the placing of my magazine, no profit will be made. Controlled circulation also involves giving away the magazine but is usually determined by a survey and is distributed only to qualifying readers. I will be giving audiences the option to either purchase the issue individually or to sign up to a subscription where they will receive a copy each month through the post. Although I believe accessibility is important, the magazine will not be available online because it is new in the market and I don’t think it is necessary for the type of magazine.



Popularity-

The Guardian provided this list of the top 10 music magazines. (UK only) Despite being relatively old results (2006) after looking at other website, the general trend that the rock genre is dominating is still the same. The data underneath each brand shows the increase or decrease in the circulation of that magazine between January and June 2006. This data has come in useful when coming to the decision of what genre I wanted my magazine to be. Firstly, with rock dominating, there is a gap in the market for the indie/indie rock genre. Q magazine is published by Bauer Media Group do not specialise in a specific genre, they just focus on famous artists. More recent research (July-Dec 2013) has shown that Q’s circulation had massively decreased 52,781, however this is due to not only the fall in music magazine sales in general but because Q tend to focus on the popularity of bands and artists rather their music and a specific genre.