Rough Designs

Below are some rough designs done on paper that I created of what I would like my final magazine to look like. I have tried to incorporate many of the ideas and features that I have researched about and talked about with my audience.

I have also included some early masthead designs that I came up with. I liked all of the masthead designs and after consulting members of my target audience we decided that elements of all of them would be a good idea.

Hopefully when it comes to the final product my pages will look similar to these designs.

Extra Research - Music Magazine History

I also conducted some research into the history of music magazines to discover how they have changed and adapted due to the current times and interests. This helped me see how and why the magazines became what they are today.

Magazine History Visual Presentation from jammingamer

Click here to view the slideshow

Existing Magazine Analysis : Double Page Spread

To further my research into music magazines I continued my analysis of existing magazines by looking at various different double page spreads. These can be seen below with detailed analysis.

As you can see from this analysis of a Kerrang double page spread it presents a fairly conventional view but also a very professional take on the double page spread and so I am confident that this is the kind of deign I would like to create in my double page spread.

This magazine does things a little differently to the normal conventions of magazine pages as it uses only one image rather than quite a few it also presents a huge article title. The figure on the pages is also presented in line with the male gaze theory. 

This Q double page spread presents itself very much like a professional newspaper and is confined in a very formulaic way as everything is laid out in the 'correct' place. I am not sure about whether I like this design and I believe the Kerrang one illustrates how I would like mine to look.

So after analyzing all of these pages I believe that the look for my magazine is very similar to the one achieved in the Kerrang double page spread as this seems in line with how my audience would have liked it to be presented as I learnt from my audience research. So I will have one image across both pages and the main article and various images spread mostly across one page.

Existing Magazine Analysis : Contents Page

Continuing my research into existing music magazines I decided to analyse the codes and conventions of contents pages of various music magazines.

The first magazine contents page that I looked at was from Kerrang and like most magazines it is very conventional in it's design.

The second contents page that I analysed was the NME and once again it was fairly conventional but it had a few features that were unique in it's design.

 The third contents page that I analysed was of Q magazine and this once again presented a fairly conventional view of contents pages.

So after analyzing many different contents pages I found that most music magazines follow a fairly conventional structure and this tells me that I should probably follow this conventional structure. I think I will definitely include an editorial as this helps to really connect the audience with the magazine and make them feel addressed. I will probably do this through the mode of address too.

Existing Magazine Analysis : Front Cover

To further my knowledge of magazine codes and conventions I analysed various different front covers of music magazines that were similar to the genre of my own.

One of these examples is the NME

After a lengthy analysis of the front cover I decided to do an analysis that was based more around the theories involved with magazine front covers.

I did this by analyzing the Q front cover below.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

This magazine cover uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs quite obviously through the usage of a close up of the singer Cheryl Cole. Cheryl Cole is a well-known singer and previous TV talent show judge and so many people would call her famous and a celebrity. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is all about the idea that we as humans have needs and the need that he placed at the top of the hierarchy was our dreams and aspirations. By placing a figure like Cheryl Cole on the front cover of this magazine they are directly trying to relate to their target audience as it is likely that the target audience dream of being a famous singer just like Cheryl Cole. They also use the phrase “Cheryl Cole Rocks” which also entices this feeling of people wanting to be like her as they would want to be described like that and placed on the front cover of a magazine. So the magazine is using the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs here to gain sales because people may buy the magazine because they think that they might become Cheryl Cole if they buy this magazine just because she is on it.

Uses and Gratifications

The magazine cover also complies with the four ideas put forward in the uses and gratifications theory. This theory claims that there are four main reasons why we use and consume the media. The four main reasons that it suggests are for information, for entertainment, for personal identification and for socialization. You can see these four concepts being represented on the magazine cover. Firstly they are enticing an audience in by trying to make them think that they have lots of information within the magazine by using stats and buzz words (“The 10 Best New Acts” and “The UK’s biggest music magazine”) both of these quotes create an idea that the magazine contains useful information and so therefore is representing information in the concept of uses and gratifications. They also use the word more on the cover to convince the reader that there is so much in the magazine that they couldn't fit it all on the cover. It can also be said to use the value of entertainment on its front cover because it provides numerous buzz words on the cover to make it seem exciting like “Rocks”, “Best” and “Biggest”. These words make people think the magazine is entertaining because they are excitement inducing words and they make the audience want to read it. They represent socialization as well because they mention content on their cover that could be discussed among friends or family like a list of the upcoming acts and a preview of the next year and in today’s society these are easy conversation topics. Finally, they also represent personal identification in the form of using Cheryl Cole on the front cover. As mentioned while discussing Maslow’s hierarchy, Cheryl Cole is a figure who people want to be like as she is famous and so people have this personal identification with her because they want to be her. So the magazine complies with all the aspects of the uses and gratifications theory all over the front cover, there is no direct reference to anything to do with exchange which is a more recent possible addition to the theory but this could be due to the cover being fairly old as recent magazines usually contain exchange on their front covers (QR codes, free downloads etc.).

Male Gaze Theory

It can definitely be said that the male gaze theory comes into play within this magazine front cover as it is immediately apparent in the photograph they have used. The male gaze theory is a concept argued by Lara Mulvey who said that the camera is male and that women are objectified by the camera as they are made to look weak and vulnerable due to an assumed male audience and the camera being male. In this photograph there are many aspects which comply with the male gaze theory for example she is using direct address which means that she is looking directly into the camera which gives her a very seductive look as she is in a way staring right at the reader. She also is touching her mouth with her hands which is a very childlike thing to do and so it therefore is representing as weak and vulnerable because these are typical traits of a child. She is wearing red lipstick and red has connotations of love and passion and she is also almost licking her lips in anticipation as she knows that the reader is looking at her. However she is wearing a spiked ring which suggests are more powerful role so the male gaze theory is also being subverted by this image but it is mostly being complied with. So the male gaze theory is used heavily within this magazine front cover.

Hyper Real Theory

I cannot comment on the hyper real theory in too much detail in relation to this magazine cover but you can see aspects of it. The hyper real theory is a theory that claims that our perception of reality is simulated and created for us and by us to be as perfect as possible. This can be things as simple as mowing the lawn or as extreme as changing someone’s appearance through technology. Jean Baudrillard suggested that due to the progress of technology this simulated reality is becoming more and more apparent in society. In relation to the magazine cover, it is more than likely that they have used a photo editing program to change the appearance of Cheryl Cole in the photo for example they may have removed any signs of imperfect skin or the appearance of bones under the skin to make her have this perfect figure and therefore creating this hyper reality. She also appears to still be very glamorous even though she is obviously getting drenched by the water that is falling around her so they may have edited this part of the image to help create this hyper reality.

So by analyzing how all the different theories are used on this front cover and by looking at all the codes and conventions of the NME cover I now know how I should construct my magazine if I am to follow the conventional way of creating magazines and looking at these two examples I think it would be best if I followed the codes and conventions as in my audience research I found that they liked current designs and not designs that subverted the usual conventions.

Qualitative Audience Research

To find out what would be the best colour scheme and structure for my magazine front cover I conducted a focus group with members of my audience and I showed them various different templates of my magazine as possibilities for the final product. I asked them questions regarding the designs to get valuable qualitative information from them about the different templates.

Seen below are the templates that I created and showed to my focus group.

As you can see I tried to create various different colour schemes and structures within these templates.

The first question I asked of my focus group was "Which colour scheme do you prefer? and why?".

The overall agreement among the majority was that the first colour scheme red and black was the best of the 4. One of the participants remarked "I like the way the two colours contrast and also because it looks like the NME" this tells me that if I were too use this colour scheme then I would be sharing that of the NME and many other music magazines as red and black seems to be the most widely used among music magazines. So by using this template I would be following conventions.

The second question I asked of my focus group was "Which layout do you think is the best? why?"

There were a lot of different opinions on this question amongst my focus group as some preferred different aspects of all the designs while others like certain ones in particular. One of the participants said that "I like the way the figure complements the page on that template (the 4th one down) but I like the way that the text is placed  on this template (the 1st template shown above)." So I think I will have to take varying different aspects that were well liked by my focus group and combine them all together to make a design that my audience will really like.

The third question I asked of my focus group was pointing towards what I should include in my magazine so I asked them "What do you expect from a magazine?".

The responses consisted of the participants listing things that they would expect to see in a music magazine. These included "interesting articles, high quality images, free things, latest music news" among other things. So I will try and include everything that was mentioned by the focus group.

So after taking all of the feedback into account I think the final magazine product will look similar to the top template but will have elements of all 3 implemented into it.

Quantitative Audience Research

To discover more about my target audience I created an online survey through survey monkey and once I had gained enough results I created a slideshow via Microsoft PowerPoint containing many graphs clearly showing various things about my audience. The slideshow can be viewed at slideshare.net at the link below.

Click here to go to my slideshow.

Or view it here.

Audience survey presentation and profile page from jammingamer

The slideshow also contains an audience profile page which is something I created to show to potential advertisers so they can find out what would be efficient to advertise within my magazine.

By collecting this information I now know exactly who my audience are and what sort of things I should include in my magazine.