fonts

I found a variety of fonts off the website http://www.dafont.com/ that i could use for my magazine front cover. Each font I chose is very different. I wanted a choice between a variety of styles that could fit well with my image. As at this stage I have not chosen an image that I have decided is going to be on my front cover, so I wanted a variety of styles that could link well with the ideas that I have in mind.

Research

Background
The genre of my music magazine will be a mixture of music between the 1960's and now. I have chosen this genre because it can relate to all people of any age, sex or culture. I will be using a variety of artists throughout my magazine from different eras of music, helping the audience to find a specific style of music that they like. It will also appeal to a larger target audience then just a specific age group. Although my target audience will range from people ages 16 and over. I chose this target audience because at this age, people are more likely to appreciate older music and become influenced by the variety of genres.

Designs and Features
I will include interviews and articles relating to new artists and previous artists, questioning their influences and what made them produce their music. I will also include up and coming events and gigs that will appeal to different people within my target audience. Another feature I will include will be other topics relating to popular culture. These will include Fashion, Lifestyle and Events. Both these factor are useful because they will attract the audiences attention because it will give out information that is useful to the audience and will provide a variety of topics for the reader to mix between.

The colour scheme that i will be using will mainly be white for fonts and lettering as I have noticed, from analysing previous magazines, that these all attract the audiences attention and are good focus points for any magazines. Also they stand out from dark coloured images that are presented throughout the magazine. I will also use a variety of colours for the images I include and the articles i will produce.

One magazine that influenced me is "Rolling Stone", it shows a variety of music genres from a variety of different eras but also includes other issues in society relating to popular culture. "Rolling Stone" is a well known, popular magazine in both the UK and USA. We can see this by the cover, as sometimes the images can overlap the masthead but the audience always knows what magazine it is as the graphics used for the masthead are always the same and easily recognised. This magazine provides entertainment for a variety of people with different tastes in music. Each cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine features a well know, popular artist that the audience will immediately recognise. The layout of the magazine allows the audience to view all the information provided and the graphics and fonts used attract the audiences attention.

I decided that the name of my magazine had to reflect a variety of genres and their targets to their audiences. Some names i came up with where:

FUSE

SIGNAL

REVOLUTION

DEMO

These magazine names fit well with the style of magazine I am going to produce. They link together all the different genres of music that have or will influence the audience and other new artists. I decided to call it "DEMO" because it refers to the way music demonstrates power and emotion. It links in with all differnt genres of music as all artists release demos as the start up of their careers.

Textual Analysis of "NME" double page spread

This double page spread is from NME magazine. There are four main focuses on this double page spread, they are the artist, the artists name, the pull quote and the whole of the main text.

The image of the artist is quite and important focus of this layout. It dominates almost three quarters of the page starting from the left hand side. It is a long shot that shows both the artist and the background. The props use in this picture are a line of bunting. These are usually used on special occasions and festivals to string between streets for decoration. However in this particular image the artist is holding them and a layer of them is hanging don like a loop. On this loop her leg is placed as she stands on one leg, the other one bent and resting on the bunting. Her right arm is raised in the air, holding onto the bunting. The bunting is red which makes it stand off from the background.

The background is in pale, pastel colours but it has a ripped effect to it as though paper had been ripped off the wall. The artist is stood i the centre of the wall, but in the middle of the room so not resting against it. She is wearing black and white clothes which also draws the audiences attention to her as the black and white colour scheme has been used throughout the page. She has red hair which contrasts with her clothes.

One other focus of this double page spread is the title of the group. The font is a simple black font, in a mix of upper and lower case letters. The font is quite large and dominates the bottom left hand corner of the page. It takes over almost one third of the page and is wrapped around the side of the image.

Another focus on this page is the pull quote. It has been placed right in the middle of the text and covers two out of the three columns. It says "I spent my 16th birthday jumping out of a tree. It felt amazing hitting the ground". This is a direct quote from the artist herself and lets the audience identify the strucure of the text and shows that it is an informal interview with the artist which represents her own lifestyle throughout. The name of the artist who made the quote is situatedbelow the pull quote. The font used is simple as the lettering is white and the background for each individual letter is in a pink square which separates it from the background and the rest of the text.

The rest of the text is in regular black typeface on a white background. The first letter of the text "T"larger than the rest. It has been places in a purple box and the colour of the specific letter is white. It dominates a quater of the first column and takes over five lines of the rest of the text. The rest of the text is set out into three columns in smaller writing to the the rest of the double page spread. There is another letter "O" that is larger the rest f the text. It is on the third column just above the pull quote and is also placed in a purple square. Both these enlarged letters are eyecatching to the audience and a specific feature of the main text.

Textual Analysis of "NME" double page spread

This double page spread is from NME music magazine. There are two main focuses of this double page spread. One is the focus image of "Lily Allen" and the pull quote from her interview that is shown underneath.

The colour scheme used throughout is black and white. The background is pure white with black font presented throughout. The pull quote however is in inverted colours as the text is in a white font, outlined in black. This stands out from the page and grabs the audiences attention. However the image of Lily herself is in colour but her face appears to be pale, almost white and her black hair continues the black and white colour scheme that is used throughout. Lil however is wearing a bold, checked red shirt that attracts the readers attention to the article.


The image of the artist is placed at the right hand side of the page with a medium shot of her as we can see her from her waist up. The pose in which Lily is dominating shows attitude to the specific article and shows like she doesn't care about people opinions on her. The statement shirt also reflects this attitude as she wants to stand out and make a statement of her self, and her personality. The image has been edited so it will stand out from the page and attract the audiences attention onto her. This links in with the pull quote which dominates three quarters of the page starting from the left hand side.

It says "People think I'm an attention seeker, but I'm just honest". This reflects the message she wants to give the audience and the attitude in which she wants people to see her. The font used is a mixture of sizes for all the letters together. They are all in upper case and present power of specific letters depending on their sizes. This represents Lily herself as a person and shows a quirky side to the article and makes Lily seem different to other artists. This attracts the audience to the article itself as they want to see why Lily has made this quote and what her other opinions and feeling are towards the subject being represented.

The article represents Lily's own opinions on herself and the way in which the media changes her to have a different outcome to the one in which she actually has. The text starts off with a capital "I" which dominates most of the first column of text. This letter has been made bigger so the audience knows that the article is a personal account from Lily but also draws the readers attention the the article itself as it stands out from the pure white background.

All these features make the page seem like one page rather than two. This is because the pull quote dominates part of both the pages and the article also flows slightly over to the other page. The layout is appealing to the audience because a lot of the features stand out and grab the readers attention.