This is a mock up of what my contents page might look like. As with the front cover musical symbols are used in the title "In this issue". This layout requires many images which are overlapped with each other. However this could look a bit too crowded when complete but hopefully this idea will work. I think that amount of text used will have to be reduced, as there is too much text for the page. However, I want the magazine to look full of articles and information, as students(target audience) will not have very much money, and so making the magazine good value for money is essential. As with the front cover, interesting fonts and bright colours will ned to be used to create an eye catching and unique look and appeal to the target audience.
Opposite is a scanned image of a mock up front cover for my music magazine. The title "The Score" features many musical symbols to show that this is a music magazine, and also to appeal to the target audience, as non musicians will not understand some of these symbols, but this may not be possible when using computer graphics. The main image will be of a person but will be striking and colourful. I think that some of the text and secondary images may not be needed, depending on how 'busy' the main image is. However I think that this front cover will be appealing and striking once colour is applied. I would like to use bright colours that will stand out and make the magazine appeal to the target audience. I have chosen to use a quotation or title from the main article on the cover to show what the main feature of the magazine will be and to attract attention. I will take all of the images planned for this font cover, but depending on how much space the main image will take up, I may not use all of them in the end.
This double page spread is taken from the American magazine "Hip Hop weekly", based on the music of hip hop this magazine has been expanded to cover the whole hip hop community. This article is mainly text but the language is quite informal. However, this is quite an informative article. The main image is of the artist, as is the secondary image. These images are not particularly unique and striking but serve their purpose at presenting the artist in two different ways, a staged portrait and an action shot of him working in the lab. I like the highlighted quotation from the artist at the top of the second page. This highlighting of a quotation is used regularly in music magazines, and is effective and depending on the fonts and colours look unique and interesting. The band across the top of the pages runs throughout the magazine with a different heading for each section. There is a lot of text in this article, and I feel that this could be reduced to make it more appealing to the reader. Also the images could be more interesting and the overall layout of the article could be improved to break up the text. Overall I think that this is a good layout for a magazine article, but would be better with less text and more interesting images.
These two images are from a double page spread taken from NME magazine. These two pages are mainly black and white, which fits in with the overall newspaper look of this magazine. I like the layout of the main article in columns with a quote highlighted by swapping around the text colour and the box colour. This is also in a larger font than the main article. The title is spread across the two pages and the top line of the title is rotated and placed at an angle. This adds further interest to this layout. The main image, once again is used for the background of the page. The image is not that exciting but the bars used in the image are unique and link in with the title of "How to escape". The secondary image is an action shot of the musician with a guitar at a concert. This image is in colour and although the image is quite dark, the lighting used is coloured and so adds interest to the image. Overall I think that this is an effective and unique layout that would work in most music magazines. However the language, as mentioned previously in the last post is too informal for my audience.
This article, from the weekly music magazine NME, is only a single page instead of a double page spread. However the layout is interesting and the images are unique. The main image has been used as the main background of the page. The text has then been placed in a white box, with the title in a larger font and the name of the band is highlighted in a pink box below the title. The main part of this page is the main image, which is an action shot of one of the band members, this has a more striking effect than the other image, which is more of a portrait. This secondary image is boring and is not imaginative. However the overall layout of this article is eye catching and unique. As this magazine has a newspaper look, the bold black text on a white background fits in with this image. The language used in this article is much more informal than that of Sound On Sound. This is due to the target audience- the target audience for NME is teenagers and young adults, who are not necessarily musicians themselves. Although my magazine has the same target audience for age, my magazine is aimed at musicians and music students, and so will have to be quite informal but also technical and precise. I will have to use elements of both writing styles in my article.
This is a scanned image of one of the articles in January 2009's Sound on Sound magazine. The layout of this article is more like a text book than a magazine. This magazine is a music production magazine, which includes lots of specialist and technical information, rather than a magazine which is more 'easy reading'. The images in this article are of music equipment, and are very uninteresting and are not very appealing to the audience. However, this magazine's audience will find this interesting as they will be interested in this equipment. This article is mainly text, and so is not very visual. The fonts used are standard and plain, like you would find in a manual or text book. However, I like the small title in the rounded rectangle in the top corner. This appears on almost every page, at the start of each new article. This is the magazine's way of categorising articles. I think that this is an effective way of grouping articles so that when flicking through the magazine, you can see exactly where the articles you are interested in such as techniques are in the magazine. For the target audience, this magazine is very successful in providing interesting reading and layout. Music Producers or Music technologists will find this magazine useful and informative. The language of the article is quite formal with lots of technical information, and so readers who are not very interested in this area would find it difficult to understand. This magazine uses more screenshots than photographs as images are used to demonstrate the techniques in the article, not for visual effect. However I like how the main image looks as if a spotlight has been used on the equipment. Although this is nothing new, it still looks effective. Although this magazine is suitable for the audience, my magazine is for a different audience and so I will have to create a much more interesting layout that looks more like an 'easy to read' magazine, even though it will be quite technical.
