Planning and designing my music magazine

I done a questionaire with 10 questions to ask my target audience. I used some of the questions from my recent questionaire which was used for my previous designs which I personally thought would help me in drawing my results to a full conclusion.

My target audience: Teenage girls between the ages of 14-18.

1. How big would you like the font:

- Small

- Medium

- Large

- Extra large

2. What colour would you prefer for the magazine?

-  Pink

-  Purple

-  Blue

-  Green

-  Black/grey

-  Red

3. What theme would you prefer for the magazine?
-  Summer
-  Winter
-  Autumn              
-  Spring
-  No theme

4. Would you like an update of this particular magazine:
-  Every week
-  Every month
-  During the seasons throughout the school year


5. Would you like a single artist or a band shown on the magazine:
- Single
- Band


6. What sorts of eye makeup would you like to see on the model/models?
- Not much - natural
- Small amount applied
- Dark


7. What colour clothes would you like to see on the model/models?
- Mixed
- One set colour
- Similar colours


8. Do you want the same model/models for the whole of the magazine?
-  Yes
-  No


9. How much information would you prefer on the double page spread?
- Full of context - pages completely filled
- Not much, more pictures would be preferred
- Small amount - barely any


10. What title would you like to see on the front page of the magazine?
- Tone
- Beat
- Voice

Results:

1. How big would you like the font?

From this i can see that there was a much higher number of participants in my target group that wanted the text in my music magazine to be medium. This helped me make the decision to make the text present not to big but not too small. This would make it easy and comfortable for my target audience to read my music magazine.

2. What colour would you prefer for the magazine?



This pie chart shows me that the most popular colours were between pink, black and red. Red and black showed the highest amount of votes, so this persuaded me to choose the main colours for my music magazine to be red and black. I decided to use the colours to match the pictures that I will take and the text. My single artist model will be wearing a red dress and heels and I will make sure that the pictures and text match each other. I have chosen the text to be mainly black and bold to make it stand out, with red coloured titles to make the music magazine look more attractive, interesting and eye catching.



3. What theme would you prefer for the magazine?

These results showed me that my target audience did not want to see a particular theme in the magazine that I am going to create. I preferred this as it gave me a wider range of options to choose from and I could decide personally myself. However I still gathered information from my target audience about what they wanted to see in the magazine. This gave me more knowledge about what they wanted to see, but I could decide personally myself.

4. Would you like an update of this particular magazine?

I also wanted to find out how often my target audience wanted to see a new addition of the new magazine. The most popular option was every month which illustrated positive choices, as this would give more time to work on what to add into the new addition of the magazine.

5. Would you like a single artist or a band shown on the magazine?

When I asked this certain question, the results showed me that my target audience wanted to see a single artist in the music magazine. In my music magazine I will use a model to represent a single artist as this is what my target audience want to see. This will make my music magazine even more popular and make the target market want to buy it. I also gained certain advise from my target audience as I asked what they wanted to see the single artist wearing/doing/where the pictures would be taken. Even though I did not include this information in my questionaire, I will include it when I take my pictures. Next time I will make sure that I write a longer questionaire including different and a wider range of questions.

6. What sorts of eye makeup would you like to see on the model/models?

The results for this question showed me that my target audience wanted to see my single artist model wearing dark makeup. This would benefit me while I take the pictures as I would be able to match the models outfit with the particular makeup that she is wearing. Also I can match the background scenery and the titles/text that I will present on all the pages.

7. What colour clothes would you like to see on the model/models?

I found out from my questionaire that people in my target audience would prefer to see one set colour for the whole of my music magazine. I was very pleased with these results as I could match all the colours together in my music magazine, knowing that this is what my target audience would want to see. This helped me alot as I knew that I could put my personal ideas towards my music magazine aswell as making my target audience.

8. Do you want the same model/models for the whole of the magazine?

 When I asked my target audience if they wanted to see the same model the whole way throughout my music magazine, more than three quarters of them voted 'yes' which showed me that my target audience want to see the same model throughout my music magazine.
I was extremely happy with these results because whilst I was planning my questionnaire I personally wanted to use the same model the whole way through, as I personally viewed this would make the magazine more unique.

9. How much information would you prefer on the double page spread?

This piece of feedback was extremely helpful to me as I needed to know how much content to include on my double page spread. My target audience chose that they wanted to view a small amount of content. This led me to planning to take more pictures for my target audience to view on my music magazine pages.

10. What title would you like to see on the front page of the magazine?

Overall on this particular question I was worried that it would be difficult to choose a certain title for my music magazine. This was because I found it hard to come up with a few names to include in my questionnaire. However the results showed me that the most popular option was 'Voice' and this was my personal favourite. I was happy with this final decision.

I chose two types of magazines out of the four that I originally displayed as examples. I researched these two magazines and found two different magazine front covers to analyse which I found the most interesting.


My choices were Kerrang and NME, this was because I found Kerrang had the most interesting front cover for its music magazine and NME displayed a very popular model on the front page who I personally admire myself.

I then looked at examples of double page spreads:

I chose to look at double page spreads as I needed some more aspiration and ideas for my own music magazine design. These three existing double page spreads gave me some more ideas to use for my personal music magazine design.

The artists present on these double page spreads are extremely popular with the public, and are well recognised this would make the magazine they were involved in more popular, and the addition of the magazine would become even more popular. I chose these three magazines to analyse because I was very familiar with these music artists and thought that the double page spreads were the most attractive.

I liked all the layouts of these, however I thought that the middle double page spread had the image to large so there wasn't much text or information present. However this made the individual more attractive as people would prefer to read less text and look at the pictures involved in the magazine.

The music magazines double page spread that involved the artist Lily Allen, it illustrates a quote that was spoken from Lily Allen herself, which would make the reader of this particular magazine more interested in reading what the artist has to say.

The bottom double page spead which shows an image of the artist Jamelia is my favourite of all the three double page spreads. The reason for this is because it contains a background of images of her, however the technique that has been used makes the text over lap the pictures which I personally think has a very good effect and makes the reader more attracted to reading this magazine.

NME Magazine Cover Analysed

Analysing Magazines

Information and Target Audience

Kerrang: Kerrang is dedicated to rock music and published by Bauer Media Group. It was first ever published in June 1981 as a 'one off' in one of the local newspapers. By the early 2000's it became the best selling British Newspapers. It included heavy mental and rock music. It placed many 'thrash' and 'glam metal' acts on the cover of the music magazine. For example: Bon Jovi. Different editors soon took over the magazine in certain years and kerrang became extremely popular. Particular editors decided to leave Kerrang, so even more different people took over.
Due to more modern technology there is now a personal website for Kerrang's music magazine itself, also a Tv channel devoted to Kerrang. Kerrang has recieved many different awards for its music and do live tours for fans.
Kerrangs target audience is aimed at teenagers and young adults interested in this specific type of music.

Mojo: Mojo is a very popular music magazine which was officially published by Emap, however since 2008 it has been published by Bauer who is the same publisher as Kerrang. The type of music that it produces is rock music. This magazine was first published on October 1993 and it had Bob Dylan and John Lennon on the front cover.
A unique selling point that this particular magazine has is that every buyer recieves a free CD with every copy of this magazine. This would make the magazine more popular as more people would buy the magazine to recieve the gift, persuding the public to listen to this type of music.

NME: This popular music magazine was published in the United Kingdom and has been published weekly from March 1952. It began as a music newspaper and then changed to a newsprint, it started including the singles chart and soon an online version on NME was avaliable. This music magazine had a number of different editors that changed it over the years and made it become even more successful than it was originally.

Q: This music magazine was published once a month in the United Kingdom. In Q's early years it was called 'The music guide to music and more' and originally it was meant to be called 'Cue'. However the name was changed due to the editors believing that the music magazine may get confused with a snooker magazine.

Music Magazine Titles

- Kerrang
- Mojo
- NME
- Q


Examples of these certain magazines:

All of these certain magazines are music magazines that represent music and are a chance to read all the latest news about different music bands. These magazines also give the opportunity to buy tickets for popular bands and include all the information that you need to know. All of these magazines are full of pictures which attract the reader to the type of magazine being sold.

Every single one of these magazine includes a big bold picture on the front of it that shows us which type of music that is going to be inside the magazine. The information accross the front of the magazine cover informs us about what type of information we are going to discover inside this text. This allows us to find out what magazine we want before we buy it, depending on what information is inside.

Analysis of Music Magazines

I started analysing music magazines that I found interesting, such as the ones in the previous blog. The pictures show my thoughts, comments and personal opinions on each of the different magazines. I also added which I think could be improved to benefit the magazine in the future. 

Research - Music Magazines.

When I had completed my recent task, I started looking at music magazines. I looked at many different kinds of ones and reflected on the ones in which I enjoyed viewing the most.

Here are some examples:

This particular magazine stood out to me as the colours worked well together so firstly attracted me towards the magazine. I also was intrigued by the words overlapping the different models used. The girl used on the top right pages is wearing exaggerated outfits which matches the colour technique, this works well as she is the main image on the covers and all the attention is drawn towards her. 

This double spread is effective, and I chose this to publish on my blog as an example as it shows a variety of items, such as pictures, writing, a list of gigs and a playlist. This double page includes a lot of information and an impressive layout. 

This music magazine caught my attention due to the popular, well known artist modelling on the front cover. It includes big bold writing and titles as well as strap lines and quotes from inside the magazine. 

This research into magazines helped me into collecting more ideas for my own music magazine designs.

Medium Close Up Shot

When I took my medium close up shot I took many different pictures with different poses until I found the right one for my front page magazine. I began taking my pictures without my model smiling and the outcome was this: 

This was the first medium close up shot that I took of my model, I was happy with the uniform that she was wearing, however I knew that there was something missing. So I added red lipstick and the outcome was this: 

I preferred this look more than the previous, but as I knew the picture was for the front page magazine so I thought that it should be more natural looking. This is what led me to my final photo:

This is how I came up with my final picture. I kept the uniform and make up the exact same as I was extremely happy with these ideas and then I caught a picture of my model smiling which overall gives the magazine a better atmosphere and aura towards it. The model also looks very happy which makes the audience more attractive to this magazine as it represents a happy environment on the school. This is why I chose this picture to use on my front page magazine as it fitted all the criteria that it was meant to in my personal opinion. 

My magazine pages analysed.

Front page: 

When my front page magazine was finished I realised that there was many things that I would repeat if I was asked to do this task again, however there were also many different elements that I would change to this front page design.  I was extremely pleased with the colour scheme as it all when really well together. The reason I chose this specific colour scheme was due to the models lipstick and I made sure I fitted all the colours used around this. I was also pleased with the medium close up shot that I took myself, I found this picture natural and a perfect fit for the type of magazine that I was designing. Another would be the title of the magazine 'BEAVERWOOD' the capitals stand out to the audience and as the title is placed down the side like a strap line it has more effect and is different from most magazines. Next time I done a task like this one I would consider a different uniform for the model, an idea would be a uniform that would match the school that I named this magazine this is because Beaverwood is a realistic school. I would also change the border of '99p' as this is black and is not very noticeable towards the audience. When this magazine page is printed it is hard to notice the '99p' and this is a huge negative as it is a main aspect that the audience needs to know. ( price ) Usually this is one of the first things a reader will look at before buying the magazine. Overall I was very pleased with the outcome of this design.  

Contents page:

I was pleased with the outcome of my contents page but in my own opinion I think I could have made many changes and I preferred my front page design. Some of the things that I like about my contents page are the layout of the pictures and the border around them individually which is present. The red writing goes extremely well with the colour scheme, so my contents page matches the front page and model. Although I would choose to change the type of title that I used, if I were to do this task again I would make the title bigger and bolder by using a different type of font/word art. This way it would also match the title on the front page. I would also change the borders around my text so that they were more bold and stood out to the audience. I would add  a background to make the whole page look more attractive and finished. Overall I personally was pleased with the outcome of this and think it matched my front page to the highest standards that it could have reached. 

My Final Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page.

This is what my final front page magazine looks like. I was very pleased with the outcome of this, the ideas that I took from my questionaire worked well together.

For example:

- The colours

- Types of things to include

- Having no theme set

I also asked many of my target audience how they would like the layout. I had different types of feedback so I had to make a personal decision of my own. To help me make my final decision on the layout I looked at many different popular magazines to browse through different layouts to see which one would suit my magazine best. I looked at magazines like LOOK and HEAT. I got many ideas from these magazines and combined them to create a magazine layout that was suitable for my own one.

This is my final design for my contents page. I used the colour red to match the front cover of my magazine. However I didn't make a questionaire for my contents page on how to design it etc. I just made the colours match and included all the information on the front cover onto my list on contents page. I also double checked that all of the information listed was included on my front page and that I hadn't made any mistakes. I also added three pictures on angles with coloured borders to make it look more attractive and effective.

I will annotate both of these pages and post it onto my blog.

My Contents Page

I designed my contents page to match my front page as it was important to make sure they were designed to match each other. I made sure that the colours resembled the front page so I used, red, white and black as these were my three main colours. 


I also added three pictures of school pictures to make the magazine seem more realistic. I made them a border and they are viewed at different angles to create a better effect. 


I wrote the information which would be included in the magazine in a list, this is easily understood by the reader. 


NOTE: more changes will be made to my contents page.

My Questionnaire Results.

For my questionnaire I made sure that I asked members of my target market particular questions to make sure that I got the results that I needed in order to benefit my front page and contents page of my school magazine design. 

I asked 10 members of my target audience. 

The colour scheme:

Pink             = 3

Purple         = 2

Blue             =1

Green          = 0

Black/grey =0

Red             =4

My colour scheme would be mainly red.

The theme:

Summer    =1

Winter       =2

Autumn     =0

Spring        =2

No theme  =5

My magazine wouldn't have a theme.

What should be in the magazine:

Information about clubs:                                        =3

Pictures about clubs:                                               =1

Information on universities/higher education:   =3

Exam technique:                                                      =3

My magazine would include information about clubs, information on universities and higher education and exam technique.

When this magazine would be published: 

Every week                                                =3

Every month                                              =4

I would publish this magazine every month.

Student feedback included:

Yes =10

No  =0

I will include student feedback.

What three things to include in the magazine: 

Charities                                           =1

Clubs                                                =4

School trips                                     =0

Upcoming events                           = 2

News                                               =3

Student questions and answers  =0

Teachers comments                     =0

I will include clubs, upcoming events and news.

Specific theme: 

Yes =2

No  =8

I wouldn't have any specific theme for my magazine. 

Useful websites for education/help: 

Yes =10

No  =0

I would include useful websites for education and help.

My last question was for members of my target audience which I asked to make comments on what they would personally want to see in the magazine. They commented saying they would like to know further information about clubs and extra help for exams and coursework.  Theses comments were the most popular. 

Overall my results gave me the opportunity to include certain elements in my magazine that my target audience would benefit from, making my magazine more popular.

My Front Page Magazine

Medium close up shot: 

This will include:

-      - A 16 year old girl which matches my target audience

-     -  Dark brown hair

-      - Long hair

-      - Red lipstick

-      - Dark make up on the eyes

-      - Wearing a white long sleeved shirt

-      - A black tie

Name: Beaverwood School

Colour theme: Red, white and black 

I decided to use the colour theme of red white and black because the model is wearing a white shirt, a black tie and red lipstick. As these were the three colours that stood out the most and they were hugely focused on due to the model I made the decision that these colours would be best to use for all the extra designs I added to the magazine front cover. I also used these colours as black and white are smart colours used in many different uniforms, for example:
- Work
- Sixth form
- University Students
I added the red to make it more colourful and to have a main colour to focus on, which was bright and matched the black and white colours. I decided to use red as it is a popular colour and used on many young girls and models.

I designed my front cover and my contents page, I made sure that the colours were matching and it all worked well together. The main colours used are red, white and black. I carried on editing my front page by moving certain things around to make it look even better. I finished my contents page by adding three pictures of everyday school children at school. They were also teenage girls which matches my target audience.

More Research

I started researching which types of elements my target audience would want to see in a school or college magazine.

I chose to target my magazine at teenage girls, this is because I could understand types of elements that they would want to see in this particular tpe of magazine as I am around the same age.

I designed a questionaire and these are the questions that I asked:

Media Coursework Questionnaire.

1.   What colour would you prefer for the magazine?

-      Pink

-      Purple

-      Blue

-      Green

-      Black/grey

-      red

2.   What theme would you prefer for the magazine?

-      Summer

-      Winter

-      Autumn          

-      Spring

-      No theme

3.   Which would you prefer in the magazine:

-      Information on clubs

-      Pictures from clubs

-      Information on universities/higher education

-      Exam technique

4.   How big would you like the font?

-      Small

-      Medium

-      Large

-      Extra large

5.   Would you like an update of this particular magazine:

-      Every week

-      Every month

-      During the seasons throughout the school year

6.   Would you like a feedback part where you as a student can participate in the magazine?

-      Yes

-      No

7.   What 3 things would you like to see in the magazine?

-      Charities

-      Clubs

-      School trips

-      Upcoming events

-      News

-      Student questions and answers

-      Teachers comments

8.   Would you want a certain theme for the magazine?

-      Yes

-      No

9.   In the magazine would you like there to be a page of useful websites for education and help?

-      Yes

-      No

10.                What do you want to see in the magazine: ( write below )

I collected my results and took them into consideration during the process of designing my magazine cover. It also gave me a wider range of ideas to use on my design and I included elements of my results.