Photo Planning for my Front Cover

I want my front cover to be minimalistic as possible, to do this I think I need an image dominated front cover. My image needs to have a plain background and intrigue the audience to have immediate eye contact with the model on the front. I plan on having a close up shot of the face to engage the reader. The subject will be directly looking at the camera with either they're back turned or looking straight forward. I feel that both types of images are engaging but the image with the back turned may be more effective with attracting the reader. My model's are going to be young to attract my target audience as the age range is 16-20 year olds. The subject will be wearing outgoing colourful clothes to fit in with the target audience and the masthead which is LOUD. The background will be plain and simple as I want the focus to be on the subject and not anything else. The lighting is going to be bright to again fit the genre of pop which is classed as being fun. This background can either be inside or outside depending where the suitable backdrop and lighting is.

Front Cover Page Layouts

I have produced a range of layouts for my front cover page, this will help me construct my magazine and help me with how i want my images to fall with the layout.

Questionnaire Results

My graph for question 1 shows that most of the people who completed my questionnaire were female. This gives me a more realistic idea of what should be in my magazine and what it should look like. As there is a higher percentage of females this means that my music magazine will be more female related. This is a positive as being a female myself I can also add my own opinion. The disadvantage is that the core audience is not as wide as it could be.

Question 2 shows that most of the people that filled out my questionnaire were 16-20 therefore they shall be my target audience. This helps my music magazine with suitable colours, images and headlines. The ages 20+ only received 4 votes altogether. Again, this is a positive as I am within this age range. 

On question 3 the least selected answer was more than twice a week with only 3 people. This shows music magazines are unpopular. 6 people chose once a week but the highest was once a month with 16 people. As most people only buy a magazine once a month I feel that there has to be a fair bit of information so the magazine can last.

For question four the most popular answer was that 12 people would pay £1.00-£1.99 for a music magazine, this is very low. 9 people would pay £2.00-£2.99 and 3 people would pay £3.00-£3.99

Only one person were in Group C1 and C2. Two people were in Class B which are managerial middle class workers. This question shows that 21 people were group E which is students, this is positive as this is also my socio economic group. As Group E was the most chosen then this is my target audience helping me with colours, images, artists and the type of headlines that should be on my music magazine.

The least popular thing in a magazine is competitions with 2 people. Quizes were only chosen by 8 people, this helps as I now know what to put in my music magazine and what would be wasting my time. Interviews received 12 votes and reviews received 11, as there is only one vote separating them, I feel that both should be included in a music magazine as these are important.

Question 7 gives me an insight on what my target audience like to listen to and who they like to look at as and who they like as people. The most popular was Beyonce with 14 votes and the second most popular was Rihanna, this gives me the impression that my target audience like loud and outgoing woman who stand up for what they believe in and having 'girl power'. This again helps images, headlines and colours.

The most favourited male artists are One Direction and Justin Timberlake. These artists have only recently made a comeback meaning my target audience listen to modern music. These two artists are appealing to the eye which again helps me in producing my music magazine with images and headlines.  

For question 9 only 2 people said that they would like to see just males in the magazine whereas 5 said females but 17 people chose both, this shows that my magazine is unbiased to any gender and is unisex. I feel this helps with my images and layour of my music magazine as I know the target audience doesn't want me to focus on one gender.

This question helps with my music magazine producing the most as these are the things which attract a buyer and persuade them towards a certain magazine. The most popular options were headlines, images and colours. These are now my main focus and I want my music magazine to be popular. As my target audience are femaes ages 16-20 this helps with colours such as pink, yellow and blue. As the headlines are the most important to my target audience then that needs to be well thought through.

This question has helped me in what my music magazine will be called. as the most popular two were LOUD and ROAR. I have chosen LOUD to be my music magazine brand name as it was the most popular and the one that I feel fits the most with my pop genre.

My target audience chose an image dominated page which means they like one main image other than lots of little images therefore my photography needs to be high quality and intriguing towards them making eye contact. 

Eye contact was more popular than the artists occupied therefore I know what my music magazine readers want to see so I am going to stick with what they have chosen as i feel this has a more personal feel to the reader.

Neither of these answers recieved more votes, both were the same therefore it is my choice to decide. I feel that a more image dominated spread works better as it feels like you are involved in what the artists is doing.

Questionnaire

  What gender are you?

Female 

Male

What age range do you fit into? 

      16-20   

20-25   

25-35   

35+

3)     How often do you buy/read a magazine?

Once a week   

Once a month   

More than twice a week   

More than six times a month

4)     What is the price range you are willing to pay for a music magazine? 

£1.00-£1.99   

£2.00-£2.99   

£3.00-£3.99   

£4.00+

5)    What section of the JICNAR scale are you apart of? (please tick)

Group A (Professionals) Upper middle class, e.g. Barristers, Doctors, Executives

Group B (Managerial) Middle class, e.g. Bank Managers, Teachers

Group C1 (Non-Manual) Lower middle class, white collar workers, e.g. Office Workers

Group C2 (Manual) Skilled working class, Blue collar workers, e.g. Car Mechanic, Machine operators, Construction workers

Group D (Partly Skilled) Semi or unskilled manual workers, e.g. Assembly line worker

Group E (Unskilled) Casual workers, dependent on state benefits, students

Other (please specify)

6)    What type of articles are you mostly likely to read? (circle more than one if needed)

Interviews   

Reviews   

Quizes   

competitions  

7)     Who are your favourite female artists? (circle more than one if needed)

Jessie J   

Lady GaGa   

Rihanna   

Katy Perry   

Taylor Swift   

Miley Cyrus   

Beyonce   

Ellie Goulding   

Other

8)     Who are your favourite male artists? (circle more than one if needed)

One direction   

James Arthur   

Justin Timberlake   

Justin Bieber   

Usher  

Kayne West   

Chris Brown   

The Wanted   

Other

9)     What gender would you prefer to see as the main images in a music magazine?

Male

Female

Both

10)  What would encourage you the most to buy a magazine?

Colours

Image

Headlines

Brand

Price

Reviews

Articles

Recommendations

Photo quality

Interviews

Question and answer

Facts 

Other (please specify)

11)   Which brand name do you prefer? 

Boom

Loud

Tunes

MU$IK

POP

ROAR

Rhythm

Sound

14) When reading a double page spread do you favour a more image dominated page or a range of smaller images? 

My music magazine brand identities

The brand identities for my magazine is for it to be modern and kept to a minimum so the audience are not too overwhelmed with the information. The front cover will be image dominated depending on my questionnaire results as I want to help the audience feel engaged. 

My magazine will be tasteful and be associated with artists already in the music industry, my magazine will have targeting questions such as how to deal with the music industry and what to do. The artists will be passionate and truthful about their music giving a real insight in what it's really like. 

Q Magazine Band Identity

'Q' follows the same house style with every magazine with the red masthead on the top left of the page and the colours red, black and white being consistent throughout. This makes it recognizable for the audience. This makes the brand identity sophisticated suiting the older audience.

Most of the Q's front covers are closeups, this engages the reader as it seems the famous music artist is making eye contact with them. The close ups of the images and continuity of the masthead shows professionalism and that it is modernized. Q front covers are kept to a minimal only having a few headlines so you can see the image clearly as this is it's main focus.

NME Magazine Brand Identity

'NME' stands for 'New Music Express'. This magazine mainly focuses on new and upcoming artists. NME magazine front covers convey a lot of information across, this shows thier brand identity is messy and suited towards the younger readers. 

The sans-serif font makes the magazine look modern which again suits their target audience which is young people such as 16-26 year olds. NME always have a popular artist on the front cover which always look very serious making the magazine look professional. This appeals to youth as it looks edgy, cool and original which class as the brand values.

Music Magazine Name Ideas

PREZI Research