The title of my magazine 'Beat' is typical of a music
magazine as it relates to music. The irregular thing about my title is that
'Beat' relates to all kinds of music but my magazine is just based on the
indie/alternative genre.
The cover is conventional as the masthead is placed at the
top of the magazine which most magazine do, also the title is short which i
guess is done to make it more recognisable to audiences and many magazine do
this e.g, NME, Q, Clash. Having a short and bold title will also grab the
attention of readers and this attracts them to the magazine. I did this on my
magazine for this reason.
The layout I used was quite conventional for a music magazine. On the front cover, I had my masthead across the top of the cover, a mid-shot of my model in the centre and had most of the cover lines in the upper third of my magazine. I also put the monthly issue number underneath the masthead and in the bottom left hand corner I put a barcode with the pricing above. My cover page is set out in a fairly simple manner; the main image takes up a large part of the page, as it's a mid shot. This resulted in a few white spaces, so I put cover lines in than i originally planned to. I feel the final cover has enough content to fill the page but not so much that it looks overcrowded.
Above is my contents page and example of Esquire magazine contents page.
For my contents, I went for a fairly standard conventional
layout with the monthly and features contents being in the middle and
bottom thirds of the page, split up into three columns. In the third column I
put two images that are relevant to the features. Above the contents is the main image that
takes up the width of the page. At the top of the page I put my masthead and
underneath that I put ‘contents’ and the date. My contents page is set out in a more complicated way although I
feel that it is still easy to understand and read. I have made lists of the
features included and images of the main stories in the magazine. The contents
page is split up into three columns, i feel that this is quite
conventional as many magazines use this similar layout with an image at the top
of the page with the contents underneath.
On the double page spread I used a conventional method, putting the image on the left page of the two, with the article on the right. Also on the right page in the bottom corners I put the page numbers.
The outfit I used for my model was suitable for the genre
and also the target market. I based his look on Noel Gallagher with the jacket
and Orlando Weeks with the t-shirt, jeans and shoes. This style fits in well
with the indie/alternative genre and also appeals to my target audience. For
the mise-en-scene, on the cover my model was on a white background, as I wanted
him to stand out which grabs reader’s attention. For the contents page I had my
model outside, in front of a old brick wall with various items hanging off the
wall, I did this for as it’s a change from the colourless image on the cover
and I felt that having him in a different environment would make the readers
want read further. For the double page spread I change the background of the
image again, with him now sitting in a distinctive chesterfield wing chair with
him looking directly at the reader.
The camera angle I used for my front cover was a mi-shot, as
I felt was appropriate so most of the attention was on the model, but some was
left on the cover lines. The main image on the cover follows the rule of thirds
with the image being directly in the centre, which many magazines do and
unconventional magazines may not follow this at all and have their images
anywhere on the page. This is effective but I thought that my magazine would
look better if I followed this and have my image in the middle. This is fairly
conventional for a music magazine cover and magazines like Q or NME use this.
For the contents I used another mid-shot but this time with the model in front
of a different background, I felt the background helped to make the my artist
stand out and make the readers to read further. I put a frame round this image
make it more significant. For the double page spread I used a low angled shot,
with my artists sitting in a chair looking directly at the camera. I did this
to make a reader feel as if they were the one interviewing my artist.
I made the cover & double page spread images black &
white as I felt it makes the image more distinctive and removes the distraction
of colour from the image making you to not get drawn away from the main subject.
I think that this is conventional as magazines out there do use.
The masthead font I used was a font called ‘Abadi MT
Condensed Extra Bold’. I felt this font was nice, simple and very bold which
made the magazine stand out. The other font I used on my cover was ‘Myriad
Pro’, this is again a basic and the font gave my cover a sharp look. I used
this font for the rest of my magazine as it makes the magazine sharp and neat.
For the contents page I used the font with contrasting colours to show importance
e.g. page numbers, titles and pull quote.
The music genre I chose for my magazine was
indie/alternative. The cover lines have bands and references that relate to the
genre. Also in the contents page there are features that relate to the
indie/alternative genre with having bands interviews and mentions. This is
conventional as music magazines have content that relates to its genre.
The colour scheme is used
throughout was red, white, black/grey. This colour scheme is conventional for
the genre as it uses a similar colour pallete to a lot of real music magazines
out there.
