Language Register

Audience Research

Upon completion of my audience profile, I would like to generalise the groups of people that would buy my magazine and find out the stereotypes of the group's interests, music tastes and lifestyles. Although I already have a pretty good idea of what these are, I would like to reinforce my knowledge of this and possibly learn new stereotypes. To do this, i used the UKtribes website which gives an insight to different groups of people and some of these are groups are ones that would possibly be interested in buying my magazine.

One group featured on UKtribes I believe will be interested in my magazine would be the "Hipster" group from the "Indie Scenesters" section. This is mainly down to the music taste the website has described them of having which is new, emerging and unheard off artists and bands. My magazine will include these artists which not many pre-existing magazines currently do. This is what will attract this 'group'.

Another 'group' my magazine may attract from this website could potentially be the "Trendies". It states on the website that this group have a lot of money and enjoy to spend it on fashion and music. It also states that they are constantly on the look out for new music of all genres. This is perfect for my magazine as the slightly higher price of £4 for a monthly issue will be easily afforded by this 'tribe' and as they are looking around for new music a lot of the time, they will be intrigued by what my magazine has to offer in that area. As this 'tribe' are also interested in fashion, they will be drawn towards my magazine as my magazine is also going to include articles on fashion.

It is these two groups that I am predominantly aiming the magazine at as a lot of the content will appeal to them more than other groups because of similar interests and tastes but I also wish to attract a variety of different people from all 'groups' to broaden my audience.

Front Cover Moodboard

I have put together a selection of magazine covers from a variety of magazines from a variety of different genres of music. With each one of the covers I have chosen there are elements to it that stand out to me and give me inspiration for my final front cover. An example of this would be the image being a main focus on a lot of the covers I have selected, in particular, the one that stood out to me was the orange themed issue of Clash which is one of my favourite magazine covers as the image stands out so well on the background and the use of minimal cover lines compliments this. This trend can be seen throughout all of the magazines I have chosen and this is something I want to attempt to replicate in my final version. Another reoccurring feature in all of these magazines is the large, bold titles that contrast the backgrounds and images. This is another feature I would like to continue into my magazine. 

Analysis of Institution- Waddell Media

Waddell Media Ltd are an international publishing corporation founded in 1988 situated in Northern Ireland. The company has many TV channels specifically for the UK (also internationally) with a broad audience and also publish a small amount of magazines including Dazed and Confused. All of Waddell Media's TV channels and magazine publications are not specific to one genre and a lot of different genres of both TV channels and magazines are produced by this company and this is useful for my alternative style of magazine. Although this publishing company produces a few magazines of different genres, I have noticed there is a lack of music magazines therefore I believe my magazine would suit this company as they would be able to broaden their sales through a music magazine of a different genre to pre-existing music magazines they sell. As Complex is the standard of magazine I am looking to create with a high quality and glossy finish, I think this company would suit my magazine as it could be priced similarly to Complex.

Magazine Pitch

Target Audience Profile

INDIVIDUAL/'INDIE' MALE

Name: Charlie Manchini
Clothing:

• The majority of the time he will wear button up shirts (done up to the top) and the occasional t shirt with sleeves rolled up high nearly revealing his shoulders
• Tight skinny jeans rolled up revealing either bare ankle or bright socks (weather dependant)
• Authetic Vans, Creepers, Nikes. Any shoe with a 'retro' look
• Old, tattered bracelets and scruffy festival bands accommodate his wrist along side his retro Casio watch 
• Long scruffy hair covered by either a beanie hat or a snap back 

Interests:

He enjoys to attend as many gigs as possible seeing bands who are relatively unheard of but will love to see the more mainstream indie bands also. Charlie is also a regular attender to as many festivals as he can afford on his wage packets from his part time job at TopMan with the rest of his money being spent on his music collection and filling his wardrobe. Regular trips to the local shopping centre is his favourite way of passing time and he enjoys finding the second hand shops that sell knitted jumpers at cheap prices whilst also finding being the top customer at the vinyl store and benefitting fully from his discount at his workplace, TopMan. He is an avid blogger on websites such as Tumblr, blogging photos of mainly clothes he has/wants, half naked women and his favourite bands. 

Music Taste:

Charlie will listen to a wide variety of indie/alternative music and try to portray himself as someone who only likes non mainstream artists who are undiscovered but will secretly love the bigger indie bands such as The Vaccines. He downloads all his music from iTunes for his iPhone but also has an extensive collection of vinyls to show off to his friends. 

Magazine Buying Habits:

He used to buy NME and Q before they became too "mainstream" for him and he will occasionally buy an issue of Complex or Dazed and Confused as he has a minor interest in those genres of music also. He is now on the look out for an up and coming, new magazine in the indie/alternative genre which focuses both on large bands but also undiscovered bands. 

Final Magazine Title

HAVOC

I have chosen this title for my final magazine as the word "Havoc" can be interpreted in many different ways which allows me to create my own connotations for the word and relate the word to my genre and therefore appealing to the target audience. When in the process of choosing the title, I decided early on that I wanted the word to be no more than five letters long as I believe the shorter the word, the more catchy and memorable the title will be. With this is mind, I brainstormed several possible names for the title and amongst these were Shift, Maelstrom, Chaos but I thought they were a bit too cliche and cheesy so I opted for Havoc.  

One of the reasons this word appealed to me was that it completely contradicts the layout and colour scheme of my magazine as I wish the magazine to be simplistic and minimal in terms of font, cover lines and colour schemes particularly on the front cover. I have used a title that contradicts the magazine before in my magazine construction with use of the title "Amok" and I thought that worked well so I have continued this theme onto my final magazine. 

My main inspiration for the choice of this name would be Clash Magazine as I think this title is memorable and distinctive with many possible interpretations. The layout and style of the magazine itself is also something I will keep in mind when designing my final magazine as I like the way the covers usually consist of only one artist with minimal cover lines and this is something I would like to achieve with my magazine. 

Artists from the Indie/Alternative Genre

I have created a mood-board of bands that fit into the genre of magazine which is the indie/alternative genre. These bands are examples of how the artists featured in my magazine will appear, sound and act. The bands featured are The Drums, The Smiths, Friendly Fires, Foals, Two Door Cinema Club and The Maccabees. 

Dazed and Confused Front Covers

I really like the front covers of Dazed & Confused as they are simple and minimalistic whilst also being effective and eye catching. The large block lettered masthead is plain and simple as it is usually white in colour which often contrasts well with the coloured background of the images or of the brightly coloured clothing of the artists. I also like the minimal use of cover lines as this allows the audience to view the image fully and the audiences attention is not distracted from the image from the over use of cover lines or colours of text. These are ideas I will have in mind in the design process of my final magazine.  

  

Colour Palettes

Fonts

The fonts used throughout a magazine are arguably the most import thing aesthetically so it is important that I choose the right fonts for all sections of my magazine. The most important thing I have to consider when choosing my fonts is whether or not they are suited to the genre of my magazine and if they would be appealing to my target audience.

In particular, the fonts on the front cover have to be especially appropriate as this what is seen first so the fonts chosen must be unique, distinctive and aesthetically pleasing whilst remaining conventional. The font I choose for the masthead of my magazine needs to be more of a display font oppose to a body font as display fonts are designed to be glanced at and not read at length whilst body fonts are the opposite. This does not mean I wish to use an overly decorative font as I want to keep my magazine simplistic but I would like the font to stand out from all the other text on the page. I want to use a bold font with tight spacing between the letters with edges that aren't too straight and with slight curves.

Furthermore, the fonts used both on the contents page and double page spread have to be less unique and distinctive and more practical with readability being the most important feature. If a decorative font is used for the body of the text, the audience will struggle to read the text and their minds will start to focus more on the font than the actual text and the text will be overlooked. Therefore, for the main body of the text I am looking to use a standard, simple font so that the text in the magazine can be absorbed easily by the audience.

Out of the text I have presented above, my personal favourites are Rockwell for the masthead font and Futura for the cover lines font. I like the Rockwell font as it is more of a traditional looking font with a slight modern edge which could work well as a masthead font as it would stand out from other text but would not be overly decorative. An example of a pre-existing magazine with a traditional font for its masthead would be Vouge and i think this works very well with the magazine. Futura appeals to me as a font for the cover lines as is is modern and simplistic which is what I was looking for in a font for the body of the text on the front cover as this font will allow the masthead to standout a lot more and not distract the audience from it, initially.

As I was not overly impressed with the fonts available on photoshop, I decided to research more into this on various websites and found a downloadable font that I really liked called "Coolvetica". This font was professionally designed from scratch and is a twist on the sans serif font Helvectia and is similar to fonts used throughout American chain stores in the 1970's. I like the font because of the slightly curved nature of it and also its tight spacing. I think this font will work really well as my masthead font.

Q Magazine Analysis

Q magazine analysis from reece_333

Magazine Construction

Firstly, i chose the title Amok from the list provided as it is the name that i felt would most suit a magazine. I then tried to think of an image to compliment this title through connotations and realised that Sid Vicious suited Amok perfectly as he was the image of anarchy in the 70's known for his wild behaviour on and off stage.

In complete contrast to both the title and the artist, i designed the magazine to be as simplistic and as plain as possible using only the colours of black and white and the use of only one cover line. This creates a sense of irony as the title and artist have a wild and anarchy type nature whilst the design is a complete contrast to this being as simple and plain as possible.

The cover line "The last bullet this gun fired" refers to the band the artist is from, the Sex Pistols. It implies how the all the fame that comes with being a member of such a large band, that initiated the punk movement, can get to someone and result in tragic consequences such as Sid's death. 

Magazine Front Cover Construction

Complex Magazine Analysis

Complex magazine analysis 2 from reece_333

NME Magazine Analysis

Nme magazine analysis from reece_333

Preliminary Magazine Front Cover and Contents

School Magazine Mock Ups