Extra Images For Magazine Cover + Contents

The images below are all extra photo's that I have taken or images that I have created that will be used as other material on the cover and contents page. These will represent/advertise other (fictional) bands, articles and events.

The images below show the process of a picture I draw to represent one of the fictional bands on the cover/contents page. It is of an extremely colourful looking 'rock chick' who is wearing clothing that would typically be seen in the 'rock' genre. She's also signalling 'devil horns', a highly recognizable symbol for rock music. It also has a cartoon style to it, barely similarities to bands like Gorillaz.

You can also watch the video below to see the process of the drawing and to legitimately prove the image was created by myself, as I have had a lot of people question and accuse of stealing.

Photography for Music Magazine

This page contains photos that were taken for my magazine design. The 2 boys are the members of WARNING who were available for the shoot, the others were busy. I took a variety of shots, mainly of full body shots as they could be incorporated into mid and close up shots using Photoshop if I desired it.

The clothes that the boys were wearing are what they would usually be wearing; their usual fashion. They're often seen wearing these types of clothes and you can see a clear inspiration from the music genre they listen to (alternative etc).

Things to notice however would be...

· The fact the drummer, John, has no shoes on. This was deliberately done to express his youth in the group (being the youngest) and to show he is the more 'comedic' member who's there to be cocky and make people laugh. It shows a much more silly side to him that would make the viewer feel comfortable when looking at.

· The vocalist, Craig, is wearing a chequered shirt, which is a commonly worn object in the 'alternative' style. With the typical top button undone and the shirt not being tucked in, it shows his scruffiness and an attitude that would commonly be associated with the genre of music I am advertising.

· Both of the boys are wearing the typical black jeans with rough top or jacket look, again typically associated and seen in the rock/alternative genre style.

· I did however tell them not to wear any makeup. These boys do not usually, but a lot of bands of the alternative genre do. But I found it looks a little too dramatic and may fit bands like 'KISS' or 'Black Veil Brides' better than Warning's style.

· I also told them to avoid looking TOO serious. I wanted WARNING to show the magazine a cool, more relaxed and matured style rather than a loud, obnoxious one.

I didn't need to worry too much about lighting, as I was already in a well lit area which would bring out the boys figures and details anyway. However, I did take most of the pictures outside, which is a HUGELY dangerous and unprofessional setting to take pictures in of 'models'. It creates far too much light and can even blur images by wind and lense flares. I did however manage to maintain a still environment and took successful images. I luckily have the power of Photoshop at hand for if I need to adjust any lighting levels or edit any imperfections in the pictures.

The pictures below were also taken during the shoot and are going to be textures or backgrounds for the pages. They will have effects applied to them and their layers so that I can create really cool pages. The 'textures' I went for were all either really grubby, grainy or dusty looking, and objects were all revolved around music. I think these will fit in nicely with my magazine and make it that little bit more interesting.

I will also be using at least one other photo that shows the featured band before they split up. This will be to compare their image to how they are now and show how they've grown up. These photos were all handed to me by the band and I have full right to use them if I desire.

More Planning, Notes and Decisions

Upon thinking of names, I came up with the following ideas;

• SOUND
• PLUGGED
• RECKLESS
• TUNING
• INPUT
• CAGED

The name of my magazine will be 'Reckless'. I chose this name because I found it to be the most interesting and unique. It's also a word that isn't used a lot in normal life, but is commonly associated with the rock genre and teenagers.

This will be the logo:

My target audience is...

· Both male and female

· British (the bands that will be featured are going to be majority British)

· Any ethnicity although I feel white/Caucasian people will be more attracted to the magazine.

· Music fans of metal, alternative, rock and post-hardcore

· Students or working class (BC12)

I think a colour scheme involving black, white and pinks or reds might be a really cool choice. It seems to appeal most the people and is a very cool palette to work with. However, I should consider the idea of 'Warning' and danger design, so using yellow might be an essential for making my magazine look fitting (to theme and feature) and create a bolder, more relevant image.

I'm also going to go for the organised look so that people can follow a structure. I will however involve some form of randomization or abstract design so that the readers eye can wander around the page and want to explore it more.

I've also got to consider how I'm going to create the grubby/rough style without making it too easy so that the viewer can't read anything.

I have also decided that, from my questionnaire results, that the price will be £2.99. This is so it isn't drastically expensive to distribute, but still makes quite a big profit for a magazine in comparison to many others. Also the fact that it's aimed at a niche audience/it's quite specific means people will likely buy it if they are really interested in its content.

Sketches of a Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread for a New Music Magazine

On this post, you will see the sketches that I did to create ideas and draft versions of my magazines pages.

Watch the video below (preferably on the YouTube website page, in 720p/HD full screen please to ensure your viewing is in full quality, detail and clearness) to see the designs.

I also uploaded the images for you to see in full quality/size as a second resort in case of any video errors or for if the video isn't showing them very clearly.
Click to view all images in a larger, viewable size.

Front Cover Sketches

Contents Page Sketches 

Double Page Spread Sketches

Questionnaire Results & Audience Decisions

I handed out 20 surveys around school and a few round a local park. I didn't just hand them to anyone; this would have given me very false/made up responses. It may have also triggered people to give answers that they THOUGHT was what I wanted and needed (demand characteristics), so I had to avoid people who, stereotypically, didn't look like they read the type of magazine I will be creating.

I aimed and looked for:

• teenagers and young adults (so overall between the ages of 13-21)
• any gender (I kept the gender responses equal; 10 girls, 10 boys)
• wearing a form of style that would typically be associated with rock/alternative (this includes skinny (and sometimes coloured) jeans, hats, the styles makeup, thick rimmed, thin black glasses etc...)

Here are some examples of responses;

From the responses I gathered, I could see and notice a few things that will help my magazine.

Price

These were the results I got for preferred prices. From the results, I can see it's actually quite evenly spread out; however this may just be due to the small sample number I used. It does however suggest flexibility. However, I will stick to what the chart tells me and have decided set the price as £2.59.

Buying Basis

I also gathered results for the timely basis in which people buy music magazines, or if they could at least. This questions had a very strong result that seems obvious to set the magazine to; monthly basis.

This would mean though that the magazine would have to have a lot of content in it and look like a lot of effort has been put into its production.

Questions 5 & 6; Promotions and Fan Material

For these 2 questions, the overall votes showed that people were very interested in gaining information on new bands and/or gig information for bands etc. From the results, I saw that people were pretty interested in the idea and thought it would be a nice way to set out a magazine.

The second question however, asking if people would like to have fan material sent into it, wasn't as popular yet still gained enough votes to show a positive vote. People seemed to like the idea of involving themselves and being able to even submit their own bands.

Colour Scheme

The favourite colour scheme votes were quite interesting, whilst at the same time predicted. Most people went for the first and last options, which is usually used for magazines of this music genre. These bold colours prove to be the most popular and will probably be used.

It's also interesting how similar the popular choices were.  They were only a small hue variation away and one had a little more colour choice to it, that was all the difference there was. So, by this I can see that warm colours with black and white are definetily the way to go.

Cover Choices

The responses I got from the ‘favourite magazine cover’ were overall quite equal. This may have been because all of the magazine covers had very strong designs to them and looked very nice. However, I did notice something from the written side of the responses.

Firstly, the MUTEEN magazine cover gained a lot of attention, mainly due to the girl on the cover. Her name is Taylor Momsen and is highly known for being very ‘sexy’ and lusted over by many boys and girls. She’s always shown in suggestive poses and clothes, it’s just the norm for her ‘character’. However, this proved to have a negative effect on the people I questioned. Whenever they chose this magazine, all they commented on was her and how attractive she was.

They rarely talked about the colour scheme or how the page was laid out, which proved to be a little frustrating. However, it did prove that people do like and are attracted to a large picture of their favourite bands/singers/models/people, meaning it may be best to include a large image rather than clutter the page with article titles.

The second cover image received the most votes and attention, proving to be the strongest design. It was produced by KERRANG and featured a band called Bring Me The Horizon, whom also came up twice in the opinions on favourite bands. They’re known for their attitude, emotive music and strong screamo/post-hardcore style. This is shown clearly on the cover and proved to be a really good one amongst the people I surveyed. People commented on the loud, colourful fonts particularly, along with the layouts ‘fullness’.

There was also a mention of tattoos and how that attracted one particular ‘reader’. Tattoos are often associated with the rock genre, so it may be worth placing at least a reference to some on the cover.

The least popular cover was the third one, Alternative Press, which was strange due to the usual popularity of their covers. I think the problem with the magazine was that, although the colours were extremely bright and bold (which would normally be effective), that the pink and white colours blended a little with the background and was a little uncomfortable to read. The photo was also a little boring to look at, it wasn’t quite ‘epic’ enough for the rock genre.

People did however like the layout of the magazine, it was a little different to norm and made it a little more interesting. It also allowed a lot of room for the mage in the background to stand out. It was however said to look a little empty and not quite full enough to look like a magazine with effort put into it.

Another thing I noticed was that on the questionnaire, the majority of people wrote very short responses to my more 'wordy' questions. Some even wrote just a word or two. This is interesting because it suggests that people get a bit bored if reading for something too long/having to input a lot. So, with this I can see that for my magazine, in an article, I would need to break it up with different colours or paragraphing, or even just write short articles overall and focus a lot more of creating interesting imagery. I don't want to bore my audience.