Music Magazine Cover Research

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Music Magazine Contents Page Research

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Music Magazine Double Page Article Research

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Target Audience Research

There are thousands of possibilites of how my magazine could look and generally be presented. In order to narrow down what my target audience would want I am going to create a questionnaire whereby they can select themes, image types, name and layouts.

I came up with 15 different questions each relating to certain areas of the magazine; front cover, contents page and double page spread. I tried to base my questions around the research I had performed on previous magazines to see if these popular trends were also in tune with my own target audience.

 

Results

    

From the results I can conduct that;

• The magazine will be based on either R&B or Rock music, becuase of my own personal taste, I believe Rock will be most appropriate
• The most popular name choices were Hero or Bounce
• The most popular words to describe the magazine were 'Vintage', 'Bright' and 'Loud', which are the words I will base my theme upon
• The colour themes left my research quite open for dicussion, the most popular scheme was pink but this was because it was chosen by most of the girls, boys preferred purple and blue colour schemes. As this magazine is tragetted at both girls and boys I will try to find a scheme that is suitable for both genders
• A clear winner for the amount of coverlines to have on the front of the magazine was 3
• For the image on the front cover the results of the questionnaire showed that both a female solo artist and male group were popular. Either decision could lead the whole of the magazine in different directions so it is an important choice to make
• For the contents page people would prefer articles to be described and titled, not with images
• The contents page was found to look better by seperating the sections of the areas in the magazine
• Most of the section suggestions were quite popular other than 'Puzzles'
• The contents, my questionnaire says, should match the colour scheme and style of the front cover
• The most popular amount of images to be on the contents page is 3
• There were varied responses to how the double page spread should be laid out but the most popular was the have the image on the right and the text on the left. Somehow I think this might be quite boring so might mix it up in the final production of the magazine
• The answers to the question 'What kind of article would you like to see?' was split each way, both Q&A, Columns and Interview had 6 votes each by at least one gender
• The target audience said they would like to see 2 images on the double page spread. I think this is a good idea because I would like these images to be very detailed

Music Magazine Cover Planning

The reason I like this style of front cover is due to the layering effect that the main image will have. With the main member of the band in front of the masthead and the band members' head just sitting on top of their shoulders. I think this will create a sense of depth and professionality. The main coverline is then associated with the main image so therefore is placed at the top right next to the image. The other coverlines are then presented further down.

 This front cover is very simple and most likely quite boring. And from my research I have found it shows no originality and is only the basic outline of a magazine. The one thing that is important however is to keep the main coverline towards the top of the cover so the audience will see that first. I have only played around with the magazine title in this cover

 I like this cover because it plays with the idea of quite a large close up of the subject. A large masthead, coverline and picture will help the magazine 'pop'. However I think this might be too simple and too 'in-your-face'

What I really like about this draft magazine cover are the mixed elements I have involved in the production. The overlapping main image, the large coverline, and the style of masthead. This is very similar to one of the magazine covers that I have analysed, which is where I form my inspriation from

 

I have converted my very rough drawn plans to a more accurate plan using Publisher, with the help of ClipArt I was able to immitate the images that might be taken for the real cover

Music Magazine Contents Page Planning

An element that I have included in every corner of the contents page is a little box with the name of the magazine and the section of the page
In this specific design I have included a faint logo of the magazine which is H. I have taken on board with all of my draft contents pages the feedback from my target audience that it should include 3 images. I have the placed them in different areas and sizes on the page.
I have also included seperate sections of the magazine which was another element found on the research.
This draft was inspired by a Q magazine contents cover that I found

Simlar to the previous design, however the H is a lot bigger and the images are a lot smaller. Sections are much more 'dotted around' in this contents page

This is also very similar to the very first contents page draft yet I have dropped the logo and the little box in the corner and replaced it for a large 'contents' title

This is a combination of all of the above designs. I have slanted the H to give it a bit of an edge. And the little box has been replaced for a much larger title. Images and sections are dotted around but defined by borders

I have made this design as a combination of the others I really like the way that it is simply laid out

Music Magazine Double Page Article Planning

Please note: The rough squiggly lines represent text

Just like the contents pages I want to include the little boxes in the corner naming the magazine and the section of the magazine. Which I have included in every draft design of the double page spread.

I have remembered from my double page spread research that most articles had very large pictures and little text. From my own questionnaire, the audience also stated they would only like to see two images on the double page spread. Both of these points, I would like to see incorporated with my own magazine so I have tried to make this apart of the draft process.

In this draft the image takes up most of the first and second page with an overlapping article title and quote from the artist to break up the bits of space beside it. The rest of the double page spread has the article its self in columns. This will most likely be a Q&A found from the questionnaire. I think the coloumns will be very effective in order to make it look a lot neater. Included at the top of the article beside the title is a little introduction which will be made in bold and in a larger font to help it stand out

This draft is similar due to the overlapping article title but overall quite different. I have used two images and will use a ripped effect of the photos as an artistic edge, i thought this effect look quite good on a double page spread that I found on my research. I have broken the two seperate columns by placing an interesting quote in the middle in order to attract the audience

I like this design beacause its a little different to the norm. The title is placed in the middle at the very top of both the first and second page in order to help it stand out. Beside this is a little introduction of the article which I believe is a crucial part of the magazine. The larger image will have the same 'ripped' effect as the previous draft and a quote ontop of it. Only a small amount of the text will appear on the front page but then carry on to the second in two columns. This is then broken up with a smaller image in the centre.

This draft is quite similar to the one above but the image on the first page has been made smaller to accomodate for the atricle title and inrtoduction being solely on that first page. On the second page the image has been able to be made bigger. The columns have also changed from two to three. I have kept the quote to be placed right in the middle of the article.

This is the same design as the drawn draft above. The dotted lines around the image represent the ripping effect I will put on the image.