Finished Music Magazine Double Page Spread

Here are some close up shots of the double page spread to ensure the article can be read.

Finished Music Magazine Contents Page

Here are some more close up images of the information on my contents page so it is clearer to see.

Finished Music Magazine Cover

Here are some close ups of my magazine making it clearer to see the detail I have used.

Adding More Photograohy

As I decided to include a side column on my double page spread that gives the readers more exclusive information I thought the pages looked very text orientated so I decided to add more photography. This is the image that I added to the bottom of the exclusive side column:

I chose this image because I think it shows another side to Sammi rather than just the serious side. This will be appealing for readers as they will know more about her personality and will be able to easily relate with her. The pose she is doing shows more of her wild crazy side and that she still likes to have fun. I edited the image to make the colour bolder and the contrast stronger and I also added a faded black border. I added this border because I knew this image would be smaller than the other ones so I wanted to ensure it still stood out the readers.

Quotations

Now that I have written my article I have decided to pick out some quotations that will feature in larger fonts. This is something that I often see done in magazine double page spreads so I thought it would be a good element to feature in mine. These are the quotes I have chosen:

The font used is different to the rest of my article so it will stand out but also follows the house style as I have used it for the article heading and on my cover as well. The purple is form the colour scheme for my double page spread and it makes the quotes stand out and still compliment the rest of the design. The grey background gives a bolder impact making them easier to reader and more interesting for the audience.

Improving my Article

I received my article back form my teacher with some improvements to change. I had to make it more exclusive for the audience to find it more appealing and I also had to include a comment on first impressions of Sammi and what it was like interviewing her.

As my article was already long enough I decided to add an extra column to the right of the double page spread which had some more exclusive information. The information was that it had been announced to the magazine before anyone else that Sammi is going on tour next year. I think this adds more appeal to the double page spread as fans will want to be the first to know about tour information.

I added a few sentences at the beginning of my article describing how Sammi walked in and what she looked like. This showed my first impressions of her and will make the readers feel as though they are there with me.

Finally I need the article with a few short sentences saying how nice it was to interview Sammi and what a laugh she is, I then said that fans could find out more about the new album by visiting the website, this promotes the website and will appeal to fans as they will want to know all the information they can.

Writing the Article...

Firstly I had decided to do an interview for my double page spread. I thought this would be a good idea as it would take a some what chatty atmosphere making it easier to write. I had done some research before composing the article and I looked at several double page spreads in other music magazines to see what they covered. I found that most of them covered a variety of topics but commonly discussing relationships, a future in music and one main story e.g. dealing with depression. So for my article I decided to include relationships, a future album/tour and for the main topic of discussion I chose to talk about why Sammi left the band she was previously in.

When writing the article I decided to keep most questions short and to the point allowing for more elaboration in the answers. I felt this would be more appealing to my target audience as they are people who are very interested in the music created by artistes and in their personal life. So I made most of the answers long to give the readers a real in sight into the artistes mind and what they were really thinking. However to break it up a little I added some shorter answers to keep the chatty tone.

I began the article talking about why Sammi split from the band, I think this would interest readers as it is information they couldn't  get anywhere else. I then moved on to discussing a new single and album where I spoke about what type of music would be on the album, this would appeal to my target audience as it lets them know what to expect form the album before buying it. Finally I briefly mentioned relationships where Sammi said she was single which fans would find interesting.

Double Page Spread: Stand First

Stand first - A stand first is an introductory paragraph in an article that is usually in a bold font or in capitals. This creates a small summary of the article.

When researching other magazine double page spreads it became clear that a stand first was a common feature. So to make my double page spread seem more professional I decided to create a stand first, this is what mine looks like:

I used a bold and large font to make it stand out for the reader and to make it easily readable. The paragraph introduces what the rest of the article will be discussing. It describes Sammi K slightly and states that the article is going find out more about her as a person, I think this will entice readers making it appeal to them.

Contents Page Photography Edits

These are the final images that I have chosen to use and I have edited them. The first two images show the group with a moody expression which represents the band, the genre of music and the issues they speak out about. The last image shows a more fun side to the group as they mess around posing in different ways. The editing I use don all of the image shows a slight green colour tint to make them grungy. I also boosted the colours and made the contrast stronger so they photos would have more of an impact.

Contents Page Photography

These are the pictures I took of all three models together. In some they all have a moody look which I think represents the indie rock music and the tone of the band and the issues they talk about. However in some they are out of focus dancing crazily as I think represents the wild rock side of the band and the magazine well. I will chose three of these images to use and edit them.

Contents Page Photography: Choosing the Models

In my contents page I have decided to include a feature called 'We finally get some answers...' for this section I need to get some more photography as it will be quite a large section of the contents page. I have chosen to create a band of three girls and these are the models I have chosen and their hair, make up and outfits:

This is my friend Alex who I have asked to model for me. Her hair is kept looking pretty low maintenance to show she has that 'doesn't care' attitude and her make up is also minimal as I wanted to band to be much more indie and soft rock so I had to keep the make up away from dark eyes and lips but I did use some eye liner to define the eyes. For the outfit she is wearing a black crop top with an unhappy face on it, I think this fashion choice is perfect for the type of band and goes very well with the tone of the band and the issues they speak out about. I also paired this with an over sized jacket that has a boxy style as this is something that is on trend at the moment and will appeal to the audience.

 This is my friend Caitlin who I also asked to be a model for me. Her hair is up in a messy bun showing a casual laid back elements with a middle parting in her fringe, this is something that is on trend at the moment with many people wearing it in the indie community so it will be appealing. Her make up is kept very natural to convey her 'don't care' attitude. For clothing she is wearing an over sized checked shirt buttoned to the top, this is typical of the indie style and the slouchy style of the shirt gives an effortless look.









This is my friend Tilly who also modelled for me. Tilly's hair is very long so is tied up in a casual way, she also has blonde dip dye that can't be seen in this photo but I thought it added another element of the indie style. Her make up is also kept natural to convey the simplistic style of the band. She is wearing an white buttoned up shirt, similar to Caitlin's which portrays the indie style. She also has a tartan scarf and over sized coat. The scarf is on trend at the moment so will be appealing and the over sized coat gives the impression of a 'don't care' attitude which is something represented by all of the models.

Contents Page Layout

So far in creating my contents page I have created the layout for it. The heading that I chose to use is positioned at the top left of the page I have followed the conventional ways of displaying a heading with this. I have used several bold and thin lines to divide my page, I think this adds structure and makes the page more interesting. I have chosen to display the features of the magazine in the first column because these are the main stories advertised on the cover and I think they are the first thing that the audience should be drawn to because this could be the reason that they are buying the magazine. The regular weekly pages take up a small amount of space as these are items featured weekly in the magazine so not a lot of information is needed about them because it is likely the reader will already know about them. The special offer that I design sits at the top right so it stands out being at the top but is kept out of the way so it doesn't interfere with the other information I will be putting on the contents page. I positioned the note form the editor next the the regular weekly page numbers as it is something that is also weekly and I thought as that area will have the least amount of writing it wouldn't look too text orientated if I put it there. Finally at the bottom left there is a section called 'We finally get some answers...' I chose to include this section to make the audience feel part of a community by using 'we' and it is also a place where the questions everyone has been asking can be answered.

Contents Page Ideas

Features
A list of features of a magazine seems to be something used in many contents pages that I have looked at. This would be a column where the main features of the magazine that have been advertised on the cover or that have a large story written about them would be shown. I going use a column in the contents page for main features, here I will write some short sentences about the Sammi K interview, The Reporter's new album and VIP parties. Here I will be able to give the readers some more information about the article before they read it to interest them as these are the magazines main features, I won't be writing short sentences about the regular pages of the magazine.

Regulars
From my research I have also found that most magazines have a column of regulars that are pages featured in the magazine every week or month. For my magazine I am going ti use a column with a list of page numbers and a very short title for what is on that page as there is usually no additional inflammation given here and just a short snappy title is used.

Questions
I think it is important to make the audience feel part of the magazine community so to do this I have decided that I will also use a small column where a question that everyone has been asking will be answered. This section I will call 'We finally get some answers...' so it will be a short paragraph that outlines a vague answer to the question but to find out the details the readers will have to read on to another page in the magazine.

All of these sections will be the main ones I use for my contents page, after doing the research I have done I think they will appeal to my target audience well.

Contents Page Heading

For the heading of my contents page I wanted the font to be kept similar to the font used for my masthead but for it also to show so variation so the house style of the magazines kept but it doesn't match too much. I decided to use this font in the end:

I like this font because it is similar to my masthead but is less distressed to go with a more clean cut contents page, and also the lettering is slightly different. I think the fact that the 'O' is filled in adds much more interest to the page than if it wasn't because it turns this plain looking font into something different and eye catching I think this will appeal to my target audience. I have used capitals for the text because it shows the house style of the magazine as I used this for my masthead and it makes much more of a bold impact on the reader which represents the type of impact indie rock music makes. I chose to keep the text all black to stand out, if I would've used a dark blue for example to blue in ,y colour scheme I think the heading would have had much less of an impact and it would have been very noticeable.

My Special Offer

Now that from my research I have decided on the price I will use for my deal I now need to design and create a small advertisement that I will use. I have decided to use it in my contents page as I think it will look too out of place on the cover. This is what I have created:

I think the design of this offer will stand out and appeal to the audience whilst still complimenting the magazines house style. The border makes it stand out well but as I used dashes instead of a solid border I think it ensures the focus will be kept on other elements of the page. However it still looked too plain so I added a bold statement in each corner with the bright red triangle, this red is what I have used for my colour scheme of the magazine to create a house style, it also makes the offer stand out of the page. The font I have used it the same that will run throughout my contents page keeping it uniformed so it looks professional. Over all I am really happy with the deign of this special offer and I think it will be appealing.

Special Offers Research

Something that I have found to be very common in magazine contents pages or on magazine covers is special offers. They are usually about getting a deal if you subscribe to the magazine which made me create one to use in my contents page.

For my special offer I have decided to offer the audience a deal when they subscribe to the magazine. I was unsure of what price to use in the offer, my magazine is advertised as being weekly so I needed to research what deals were already out there for weekly magazines to come up with a cheap price.

I used THIS website form WHSmiths to do my research. I compared the prices of weekly music magazines already on the market that were similar to mine and as I wanted mine to be a special offer I made it cheaper. So I finally decided on the price being £51.99 for a year.

Note from the Editor

After doing some research on contents pages and what features they included and discovering a note form the editor was common I decided to write one for my contents page.

This is the note from the editor I will be using in my contents page:
Hi guys, I'm really excited to announce that this weeks issue is packed with exclusive interviews, including Sammi K and Border Line! Also the top tracks voted by you and the latest risqué celeb party snaps!

I decided to keep it quite short as if it was too long it would be less appealing for the audience to read it and it may get over looked. From my research I found that usually the notes just summarise the issue and the main features that will be included in it. So in my note I discussed the exclusive interviews that the issue includes to lure the audience, and I also wrote about the top tracks they had voted for to make them feel more involved in the magazine and to make them know the magazine is one which cares about its readers.

Contents Page Research

I have been researching other magazines to find out what features they have that I need to consider putting in mine. I discovered that many magazines have a letter or note from the editor. I think this would be a good element to include in my contents page as it connects the audience with the company. Here are some examples of note from the editor in Kerrang! magazine:

Strap line

Strap line - A strap line is something that is often featured on the cover of a magazine. It could say something about the magazine e.g 'Britain's best selling music magazine' or it could provide additional information for the reader telling them what else the magazine has to offer e.g. 'Beyonce - new dates added to world tour'. The strap line on a magazine can often be found at the bottom of the page and sometimes the top.

My Strap line:

The background of my strap line is a dark blue that is part of the main colour scheme on my cover, this also enables the white text to stand out easily. The hyphens and forward slashes that I have used around the text draw focus to the text so that the audience notices it and it isn't over looked. The font I have used is what I will also be using on my contents page which shows the house style of the magazine being continued throughout. The writing is also in all capitals so it has a bigger impact of the audience and stands out. The actual text of the strap line says 'THE MAGAZINE THAT CUTS THE CR*P'. I chose to include 'the magazine' to show the audience that this is the only magazine that provides the information and news they want to read about. I have also included the text 'cuts the cr*p'. This is a well known saying so the audience will find it catchy, it also informs the audience that they getting information and news that is all relevant and true, none of it is made up or elaborated and it's all what they want to hear. Using 'cr*p' shows the edgy theme to the magazine which my target audience will be attracted to but I used '*' because it is the cover of the magazine so could be seen as inappropriate if I didn't use it because it isn't just the target audience that will be seeing the magazine cover.

Main Article Background

This is the background I created for my main article pages. I think this will add much more interest to the page ensuring it is eye catching to the audience. I created it using paint, I made the background grey and added the black sprayed effect on top of it. Overall I think the colours work well with the colour scheme I have created for my main article. The use of grey and black means the pattern at the top wont over complicate the page age the colours are very simplistic. I also think the effect at the top gives a distressed style to the page which is something that is very typical of indie rock.

Main Article Colour Scheme

This is the colour scheme I have created for my double page spread. I chose the neutral colours of black, white and grey so that I could use these as backgrounds and for text, all of these colours also create more focus to the main colour of the page. I chose the deep purple as the main colour for the double page spread as I wanted there to be one colour that stood out strongly on the page. This colour also goes very well with the tone of the images in the article as the it works well with the colour of my model's top and lipstick. I chose a purple because the main article is about a female but making it this darker colour means that it will still appeal to both genders. I know this because I received positive feedback from both boys and girls when I questioned them about this colour scheme.

Main Image

I have now selected the final choice for my main image.

This is my final main image that I have edited. I decided to use a black and white effect on the image as it will make other colours in the colour scheme stand out. However I thought that if I left it all black and white then it could look boring and plain so I chose to put a black and white effect on the background of the brick wall and leave my model and the guitar still in colour. This creates a lot more focus and emphasis on the artiste which will appeal to the target audience because they will want to read a magazine that shows it cares about the artiste and the music making them the focus of the magazine.

Final Album Cover

I have now finished creating my album cover and this is the final product:

I think the font style works well with the style of the cover and genre of music because it is unique and unusual which are important elements in the genre of indie rock music. I also think the difference between lower and upper case fonts work well as it shows slight variation ensuring the album isn't boring but it isn't drastically different. Positioning the font in the middle at the top works well I think because it stands out very c;ear;y for the audience and is such an iconic place that it shows the importance of the band and album cover name. This cover will be shown on my magazine cover and possibly on the contents page.

Band Name and Album Name

I am now creating my band and album name. This is important as it needs to be something unique that will appeal to the target audience whilst still in keeping with the atmosphere of the magazine.

Band Name - I have chosen to call the band 'The Reporters'. I like this band name because I think it is very appropriate to the genre of music I am focusing on. The name is very simple so easy to remember by the magazines target audience. I also think it gives the impression that in the music they write they are giving reports on events, such as on something world wide in the form of a song or something personal in the form of a song. This gives the audience the impression that the lyrics to their songs have deep meanings showing the band a passionate about the music they make.

Album Name - The album name I have chosen is 'ingenious'. I decided to chose this name because I think it is unusual and goes wit the style of my magazine and therefore the band I have created. I also think the name works well with the image on the album cover because being ingenious is like having a bright idea and the cover shows a light bulb which also connotes bright ideas so I think they work well.

Album Photography Edits

From the previous photographs that I took I have chosen one of the images to be the album cover of the band I created. I chose this image because I think it represents the genre of the magazine and the band well. I decided to edit the image so that it looked more professional but I didn't want to change it too much because I liked the original image. The single light bulb with the dark background is unusual and this is a feature of many indie rock album covers so I made sure that mine was also unusual and different from ones already on the market. This is the finished edit of my album cover:

Advertising

The genre of my magazine is indie rock so this means that the advertising I use will be genre specific as there are some adverts that the target audience won't find appealing so would be useless being featured in my magazine.

Festivals - Festivals are something there would be a lot of advertising for in my magazine as this is something that the target audience would be interested in. My target audience would want to find out when and where the bets festivals are being held that play the style of music they listen to so it would be expected that an indie rock music magazine would be up to date on where the best festivals are being held.

Gigs and tours - My music magazine would also feature many advertisements for upcoming gigs and tours of different artistes. This is important because it shows that the magazine knows the music industry well and it also shows a USP of the magazine that it has the most up to date our and gig information of certain artistes.

Hair dye - Hair dye is something that I would also advertise in my magazine. Although this is beauty related and these aren't the type of advertisements I would usually include I think hair dye is an exception. I think this type of advertisement would be something that would appeal to both genders as it common in the rock and indie rock community for men and women to experiment with different hair colours, this is something that brings out the rebellious attitude shown in the indie rock community an I think this type of advertisement would show the audience that my magazine is a very strong part of the community because they know what types of things the target audience would be interested in.

Instruments - Instruments would be another advertisement I would like to include because in the indie rock community it is very common for people to write their own music, this also emphasises the fact that the magazine is passionate about the actual music behind a song which the target audience will appreciate. Instruments are something that the audience of the magazine will wan tot find out about so this type of advertisement will be very useful to the audience which highlights that the magazine actually cares about the audience and their interest when considering what advertisements to include rather than just including advertisements to make money.

Album Photography

One of my main stories that I will feature on the cover of my magazine and in the contents page is the release of a new album by a band I created. To advertise this album I had to create an album cover to show on the cover of my magazine and possibly in the contents page as well. Here are some of the photographs I took for the album cover:

This was taken of my own amplifier that I have at home.

These three images were taken using a lamp that I own made up of very small bulbs and I think this created a good effect.

Anchorage Text

Planning the anchorage text is important because I need to make sure that it fits in with the style of the cover and isn't too much of a strong contrast form other text on the cover.
This is what my final choice for my anchorage text looks like:

I am very pleased with the look of my anchorage text now that it is finished. I chose to incorporate two different styles of font because it fits in with the style of my magazine as it doesn't follow the normal conventions that would be seen on other music magazines. Both of the fonts follow the same times new Roman style however one of the styles is the original plain font and the other shows a distressed and distorted effect. Throughout my magazine there are distressed and distorted effects on different font styles and in other elements of the magazine. Therefore I knew that it was important to include this style of font in the anchorage text as it is something that stands out in a very bold way on the cover. However I was careful not to overuse this style of font as I think this would represent a rock magazine and the elements of indie would be over shadowed. So I decided to balance out the strong rock style of font with using the plain times new Roman font. I think this simple font is very effective and its simplicity is something that represents the indie side to magazine so overall a good balance is create by both styles of font.

Colour Scheme

This is the final colour scheme I have chosen for the cover and contents page of my magazine. I have chosen to use the colours black, white, red and blue. The black and white are classic colours that will easily stand out on different backgrounds so I have used these colours for most of my font to ensure it will stand out to the audience. They are also a contrast to each other as black connotes mystery and an edgy style whereas the white connotes purity, this contrast creates a balance for the magazine but I will use more black than white so that the magazine will still lean more towards the edgy side but not so much that it turns into a heavy rock magazine. I have included red because it connotes danger and this is something associated with indie rock music, there is an element of risk that goes hand in hand with the genre of music. Also red is a very typical colour used in many other rock and indie rock music magazines so to ensure the audience could instantly see what genre the magazine is I decided to use this iconic colour as part of my colour scheme. I have used this dark blue as another element to my colour scheme because I think it is an unusual colour to see with rock music but as my magazine is targeted towards indie rock music more I thought using a colour that isn't associated with rock like the red would represent the indie style in my magazine.