Photo Planning (Front Cover)

Today, I have arranged to take my pictures for my front cover. I have aready sorted out the models, props and locations, which I have descibed below:

Models: Ben, Ryan, Lee
Props: None as such
Locations: It will be done virtually anywhere, as I will be editing out the background
Costumes: Casual Clothes and christmas hats, which i have arranged prior to today

Mood Board 1

This is what I believe people who read my magazine may be into.

Possible Stories/ Features

On the Front Cover,I will have a number of stories with the appropiate pictures, so I need to think of features and stories to actually put on there, since the entire thing is going to be made up. In addition, i need story headlines and features for the contents page. Finally, i need a full story or feature to put on the double page spread. This will have to be given some thought before I start to create the actual magazine.


Ideas
Most pre ordered album in UK Chart History
Review on a album(s)
Interview with a main artist (Q&A)
Contenders for the Christmas Number 1
Competitions
Story about a big musicians birthday party
An American Famous artist doing a tour of the UK.
A famous artists 5 favourite songs, ever!

Logo Designing

Now that I have thought of an appropriate name fore my Magazine, i started to draft out some logo's. Here's what I came up with

I have chosen the above design to base my logo on because the portable music player is very relevant to today's younger music fans. Most teenagers/young adults don't go out and buy CD's. Instead, they choose the MP3 format and use itunes to buy online.

My Magazine - Brief Profile

Magazine Name - TCM - The Chart Magazine

Ideology of Magazine - to talk provide information about what's going on in the charts at the moment. It will include information, interviews and gossip on artists currently in the Top 40, ensuring each magazine is relevant to the time it is published. It will also include reviews on upcoming albums and singles, making it a must buy magazine for chart followers all over the country!

Target Audience - It will be aimed at Teenagers and Young Adults, of both genders, mainly because of the diverse number of artists it will feature.

Initial Planning

This was the first spider diagram I did, and I got some good info down on paper, particularly regarding my target audience. The target audience is by far the most important because if I know who I'm creating the magazine for, then I can design almost everything else around the target audience.

(Click to Enlarge)

Planning

Now that I have done sufficient research into a variety of different music magazines, I am now ready to start planning my own music magazine. 

Firstly, this will involve a lot of work on the layout and so I will need to do a lot of drafting on paper. 

Secondly, I will need to plan exactly what I'm going to put in the magazine, whether it will be reviews or 'exclusive' interviews with musicians which I will feature.

Thirdly, I will also need to plan my photographs, which will involve prior thought into who I'm going to use as model(s), where I'm going to take them, whether I'm going to use any props and what they're going to wear.

Fourthly, I will be doing some work on mood boards to show more about the intended target audience.

Finally, I will be doing many spider diagrams, working on names, slogans and catchlines for my magazine.

Contents Page Analysis 3

The media Language of this magazine is largely positive. The text is split up into two sections, which are features and Regulars. This makes it easier to navigate around the page. The whole of the page maintains a colour scheme of Red and Black, which Represents rock music, as black has a connotation of gothic images and red has a connotation of blood and Gore.

As there is no mention of the actual institution, it is hard to call upon who is behind the magazine. Also there are no advertisements, offers or anything to tell who is behind it. However, as i know from researching other magazines, it is almost certainly going to be a commercial magazine, as large institutions tent to target working class audiences commercially.

The ideology of this magazine is to promote rock music, and everything associated. The pictures connote that idea of sex, drugs, rock and roll which the magazine represents.

The audience for this magazine would be a working/middle class audience who like rock music. It would be predominantly male, mostly adults, but some older teenagers. The reason it would mostly appeal to older adults is because of the age of the models conveyed on this page.

The representation of this magazine is to represent rock music in a positive way. The main image represents an average hardcore rocker, perhaps the type of person that reads this sort of magazine looks up to.

Q Magazine Contents Page - Analysis 2

This is a contents page from Q Magazine, and it follows similar conventions to the NME one.

Firstly, I'm going to talk about the Media Language. There is a main image of the Courteeners which takes up the majority of the page. It is the main 'vocal' point if you like. To the left hand side are the contents of the page, with the appropiate page numbers. It is also split up in to two sections, 'features' and 'every month'. Towards the bottom, you've got more contents of the magazine, this time focussed on reviews, and again, the appropiate page numbers are produced. Also, the date can clearly be seen.

The institution of this magazine is Q, which also has a radio station and a website, so it's a pretty big company. It is a commercial magazine intending to make a profit, so a significant proportion of the magazine will be taken up by advertisers. Although no adverts appear on the contents page, thy will appear further throughout the magazine.

The ideology of this magazine is to promote music, and make it seem

Layout of a Contents Page (NME)

Contents Page Analysis 1 - NME

In terms of Media language, you have the logo, which is NME. Although this is a contents page, the editor has chosen to put 'this week' as the main title, which is a bit more informal. To the right hand side, you've got the actual contents of the magazine, with the page numbers specific content is on. It is layed out into appropiate sections (news, radar, reviews, live, features) with the related content underneath. It also has part of a story, with a small article, and two main images, both of oasis. It also has an advert at the bottom of the page relating to the suscribtion of this magazine.

The Institution is NME, which is a commercial magazine with a purpose to make a profit. It relies heavily on advertisers to put adverts in the magazine and so pay money to the institution. The contents page includes an advert at the bottom, however, this advert is not from an external advertiser, but from internal ones who want people to buy their magazine more often.

The Ideology of NME is to promote music, and make it out to be the only good thing. It is for 'proper' music lovers. The ideology is that these music lovers should know the latest, so they are provided with a number of reviews, features and news about their favourite bands and artists, as well as info about the next 'big' thing. All of this can be seen on the contents page.

The Audience for this magazine is people who genuinely love music, and this is shown on the magazine contents page, as everything on it is about music and gigs and reviews.

The contents page represents music to be easy going and relaxed, in a positive way.This is due to the layout, and the choices that have been made. Firstly, everything has been well layed out, and there's as little text as possible. In addition, different bits of text are split up, so the whole thing is easier to read. Secondly, the main images on the front also represent music to be quite relaxed, because the two artists look like they're having a good time.