My Preliminary Task - FRONT COVER

This is my preliminary front cover, which I was very pleased with, despite not having access to the photoshop facilities as much as I would have liked to. I took this picture myself managing to make me be in it as well as the other subject. This meant that it was a close enough photo for my to use without having to loose any pixels by zooming.

The framing of the picture with the tree and the faces bleeding into the edge meant that there was no white spaces to fill and the text just needed to sit on top.

The dark colour of the photo meant I had to use text font and colour that stood out. This was probably the biggest weakness I had with my cover, as I dont think I chose a bold enough font design to truely make it stand out and the end result was a front cover that looked slightly drab.

However, my biggest strength was getting the balance of picture to text right, which meant that the cover had a certain asymetrical neatness, with one side taken up by photo and the other by text.

Not having photoshop meant that I made the whole cover on word, which had positives and negatives. It meant that I could easily move text around on top of the picture and add in text boxes and shapes, which made the whole porcess simpler. However, I could have improved the pictures quality on photoshop and I would have had less trouble with resizing the photo and page.

ARTICLE ANALYSIS

I analysed the NME article which was an interview of Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers. I was interested in this article as it linked to the front cover that I analysed, and it stood out to me on first picking up the magazine because it showed Brandon Flowers in three different poses with a quote; "i'm having a personality crisis right now." This intrigued me to read the article because I wanted to find out why he had said that.

On the first page, there was a large picture of Flowers, with a headline/caption saying "CAN YOU READ MY MIND?" This works because it is a line from a Killers' and so any fan of the band can relate to it. Also, it links to the front cover because it mentions the mentality of Flowers and a reader could get connotations of madness from the title. The pose that Flowers is standing in works well with the title and adds to the cohesion of the article.

The lead of the article also adds to the cohesion , with the phrase "consumed by self doubt" giving the sense that this article will be about the, some would concieve, more human side of the famous lead singer. When the actual article starts, the inteviewer talks for a while about his pre concepted feelings on Brandon Flowers. He mainly mentions the singers appearance "Brandon Flowers does have astonishing eyes" and I found this useful because I may use the interviewers style when writing my article; focusing on the look of the subject so as to conjure up a piture in the readers mind.

On the next page, the interview is set out with a series of questions and answers following on from each other. This style is used as opposed to a whole article written from the point of view of the interviewer using points that the subject talked about. I do not know yet what style I want to use in my article, or whether I want to interview anyone at all, but looking at this example I can see the merits of using questions and answers.

Another thing I noticed when reading the article was that when the answers to the questions were written down, the interviewer added in any pauses or unusual reactions from Flowers, maybe to add to the realism of the article? However, although this use of slightly stage-direction-esque prompts serves to give the reader more information, it makes the whole article seem almost faked and so when it comes to writing my own, I will think before adding in any of my own.
The best aspect about this page of the interview is the layout. Down the right hand side of the text are four picture, one of each band member. These pictures are used to great affect; they bring together the whole page and give it a symetrical, neat look. However, I found that it is not good to have everything in a magazine looking like this all the time, it is more effective to have some parts disordered and messy.

The pictures themselves seem to be of a rehearsal rather than a gig or publicity photo shoot, so they are with their instruments looking natural. This gives an impression of the ideology of the band which links into the article itself; Flowers likes to take all his own pictures and doesnt ever let magazines shoot them themselves. They are also in black and white, which contrasts with the main, colour picture of Flowers but also is because there are four different subjects and settings for each picture and to use colour might have been overpowering. Originally, my article photos were going to be all in colour as I thought anything in black and white only made the page dull and uninteresting, but on looking at this example I have had second thoughts about encorporating some black and white pictures.

The last page has a slightly different layout as the three photos are in the top right right-hand corner of the page, and the rest of the page is text. I don't particularly agree with this layout as I think it makes the page look too full of writing, which may dissuade some readers from more than glancing at it. Plus, all the photos are too compressed into the corner, making the page look unfinished. This could be used in a positive way; sometimes messy, unfinished layouts give a trendy, modern look to a page and I will think about this when designing mine. However, this is not the case here.

On looking at this article I have found many aspects that I can use for my own magazine, but I have also seen some that I feel were wrong and therefore will avoid using.

My Questionnaire

I am researching music magazines for my AS level media studies and this questionnaire is going to help me understand what the public would like to see in a new music magazine. Of course, the information I gather will be confidential and only used for a private investigation.

1. Gender?

2. Age?

3. Out of these choices, what era of music would you be most interested in?
60’s – 70’s 80’s 90’s – early 00’s today

4. What sort of music are you most into? (specify to accommodate for overlapping tastes)
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
5. In a music magazine, what aspect do you like most?
Features interviews with artists reviews of gigs/festivals pictures

6. What attracts you to magazines when you first look at them?
Front cover layout free gifts headlines pictures

7. What would you like to see in a new music magazine?
……………………………………………………………………………………………….

8. What, in your opinion, is the most listened to genre of music at the moment?
……………………………………………………………………………………………….

9. Do you think live music is more important or less important than recorded music?
More important Less important

10. Do you attend any gigs/ festivals and if so, which do you think are more news-worthy?
Gigs Festivals

Thank you for your time

__________________________________________________________________
On compiling this questionnaire I handed it out in my sixth form common room to 10 people aged 16-18. I then handed it around my friends and family; people aged up to 45. The results I got for the fist question were varied; all of the 16-18 year olds said they are most interested in music of today, but some also indicated they would listen to music from all era's if they enjoyed it. I took these answers to mean that most young people today enjoy listening to all sorts of music and although they find the most up to date artist they best, they do not exclude other music because of when it was released. In question two, a lot of the older people I asked said they enjoyed soft rock the most, a lot specifically mentioned Oasis as an example. The younger answers consisted of everything from R'n'B to rock to pop, but there was a slight majority of answers that used the word 'indie'. this indicates to me that, apart from young people wanting to be individual themselves and stand out from the crowd by listening to so called 'indie' music, my magazine may have to accomadate for the tastes of young people by featuring new, independently produced music.

the answers people gave to questions 5 and 6 linked with each other in certain ways. for example; the people who were attracted to the front cover pictures also enjoyed looking at pictures in the magazine. However, the majority of people answered that they liked to see features in magazines and it was mainly the headlines that first attracted them to a magazine. I think this is because features are the things that make a magazine different; any publication can have interviews with artists, reviews and pictures, but a magazine would work hard to produce features that stood out. I will take this into account when designing my own, and make sure I include lots of original ideas for features.

The answers to number 7 were hard to analyse, as it was quite an obscure question. The answers ranged from "a wider representation of all genres" to "more gig reviews" and, from 2 of the older participants "less rock music." Looking at all the answers to this question I feel I need mkae my magazine totally different from anything out there already, as it seems to me that people are getting bored with the old conventions of music publications.

question number 8 was, again, quite obscure, but its point was too get public opinion on the most popular music now, not their favorite. Music is represented heavily through magazines such as the one im designing and therefore, I must get an overview of what the public think is most popular, whether they like it or not. the answers I got back were rather predictable; most of the older people I asked thought that RnB and dance music was most listened to by young people, and the younger people thought that indie rock and popular rock was most listened to. This is another indication that maybe my magazine could show totally different sides to music, rather than whats just popular now, as nobody seems to know what that is.

the last two questions were put in to show me what the public thought of live music. Most of the people i spoke to thought gigs were more newsworthy, but recorded music was much more important. I did not ask for clarification to these answers and in hindsight i feel i should have, but I can guess that the public feel recorded music is more important because it is accessible to everyone, through radio, TV, CD's and the internet.

Looking at my results, I feel that I need to take my own magazine in a totally new direction to anything thats already on the market.

FRONT COVER ANALYSIS

A magazine’s front cover is the most important part of the product. It is designed to hook any potential buyers into purchasing it, and notify present readers that it is what they are looking for.
The cover’s main content is generally graphic based as pictures appeal more to humans than large amounts of text and different messages can be communicated within them.
This particular front cover has a centre picture split into three. This is to support the subject’s quote under the picture about split personalities. The subject’s face is above the fold, so we know they are the main focus of the cover. The subject is a popular singer and so the picture would appeal to lots of people. The pictures bleed out to the edge of the page. In this case the connotation could be that Brandon Flowers has really “lost the plot”; his many personalities do not fit onto the page.
The title of this magazine is at the top of the cover page, however it only takes up half the width of top section. This gives the impression that there is not room for anything else in the magazine as everything is already packed so tightly. The title stays in the same style, colour and font each issue. It also stays in a fixed position and all this helps the magazine develop consistency for its brand identity. The house colours of red, white and black are used throughout the magazine to keep a certain uniformity that can be connected with the new music scene of the magazine. The name NME is also a brand, putting its name to a music channel and a radio station to entice other customers.
Over the top of the main picture is the big brand logo of The Killers. This is clearly visible so the reader knows the band play an important part in this issue. The white colour that is used in the section about The Killers could connote that we don’t know anything about this subject yet and we will find out if we read the magazine.
The use of the brand Virgin should be noted because it is an example of advertisement on the front cover. However this tag line also relates to the top of the cover where it says about previews. A review would be the opposite of this and it is showing that although a review of V festival is important, it is not as important as something that hasn’t happened. The magazine would know as well, that Reading and Leeds festivals are more popular than V so they are just going by what their readers think.
“CAN BRANDON FIND THE PLOT IN TIME FOR READING AND LEEDS?”
This text is a callout. It is shocking to the reader and opens many questions or them to ask. This is used typically on magazine covers as a hook in for potential buyers.
Having the two festivals in ‘call-out’ signs are a good way of catching the reader’s eye. The words “preview special” are used as a hook to draw the reader in. the festivals shown would be very popular with the target audience of the magazine and therefore this is a good way to ensure they read it.