analysis of two music magazine covers

Q magazine is one of the most popular British magazines and it has been published for 25 years. It focusses on a wide range of music but emphasizes on the genre of alternative music. the issue that is seen on the left is a subscribers only issue and features the internationally proclaimed drum and bass band: The Prodigy. As this is a subscribers only issue it is very limited with the text on the front cover, this is to make the readers who have subscribed feel privileged and that they don't need to know what will be in the magazine because they are guaranteed to like the contents. Also, from a designers point of view  the magazine won't need selling because it is already sold. The image consists of The Prodigy's lead singer Keith Flint screaming down a megaphone and stood over a cracked pavement. The connotation of this image would be that The Prodigy's music is so hectic and loud that it would have that affect, which is what The Prodigy are about. Q have placed the crack in the pavement to symbolize The Prodigy as a whole.

This is the front cover for NME magazine (new musical express) featuring front man of The Killers, Brandon Flowers.  It also features information on the Reading and Leeds fetival. NME specialises in the indie genre of music, but also covers many different genres. Firstly, with the front photo of three different images of Brandon Flowers the rule of thirds is apparent which engages the reader straight to his eyeline because this is obviously the main story of this paticular issue. He has also been placed in front of a white background to make Brandon contrast and stand out with his tanned skin, black hair and green shirt. His green shirt also being a good background for the white font. NME don't want their readers to just buy this issue for The Killers because not everybody is a Killers fan so they also place a masthead consisting of a preview of the Reading & Leeds festival, the use of yellow font here makes it also stand out from the rest of the front cover but now the main attraction.

Reflection on G.M.F Magazine

For  G.M.F magazine i was introduced to the software 'Adobe InDesign' and i used this software to create it. At first, I found the new software quite a struggle to get my head around, but once i got used to it i found it fine :)
i would say the positive aspects of my student magazine would be the idea for the mgazine because it is simple and would be easily popular within the college. another pro of my project would be creating the front cover because it was nice to see it turn out looking like a proper magazine.
on the other hand, a negative part of the project was creating the contents wage because i felt that it could've gone a lot better.

preliminary task-college magazine 'G.M.F'

draft images

Magazine Proposal

Magazine Proposal.

Specific Audience:

The audience I am aiming for with my magazine is college students, aged 16-18, this is because the magazine will be produced and released at my college. More specifically, it will be aimed at film and media students with their interest in music and films; however, it could also be addressed to any student with an interest in visiting music venues and watching gigs of their favorite bands or artists.

Content of the magazine:

The main content of my magazine will be focused on three things; gigs, music and films. In each monthly issue of my magazine there will be a gig guide for the local area, explaining all the different gigs that are taking place during the upcoming month with details of how to get tickets. It will also have reviews of the past month’s gigs all done by students of the college who attended these gigs. It will also have film and music album reviews, also written by the students of the college.

The cover lines of the magazine:

A few ideas I have for cover lines on my magazines are: ‘Wombats win over Wedgewood rooms’, ‘YOUR summer highlights for 2k10’ and ‘”Inception messes with your head” A2 film studies student says’.

Magazine title:

The title for my magazine that I have chosen is, ‘G.M.F’ this stands for, ‘gigs, music and films’. I have chosen this title because it rolls off the tongue when you say it and the words that, when not abbreviated, that it stands for sum up what the magazine is going to contain every month in a nutshell. I also thought about calling it, ‘Night life’ but I felt it lacked substance and missed out on what else my magazine would contain.

Magazine fonts:

 G.M.F

Wombats win over Wedgewood rooms.

At the top you can see the masthead design for GMF magazine, I have chosen these colors because they are the three colors of the South Downs College logo, this links it to the fact that the college students write the music reviews for the magazine and it will be sold at the college. I also think that the serif font gives the magazine a slightly sophisticated look when it is quite an informal magazine. Just below that is what I hope to be one of the different titles on my cover line for GMF magazine. I have chosen more of an informal font for this to link to the mood of the genre of my magazine.

Publishing periods:

GMF magazine will only be sold within South Downs College so it can only be published during the academic terms. It will be published monthly and every month of the year except for August because there won’t be anybody in the college to purchase the magazine.

Front cover image:

The front cover will be an image of a college student with his earphones in whilst reading a textbook. This prevents accusations of music and gigs getting in the way of your college studies, instead music can help you to learn. This portrays the message GMF magazine is trying to get across; that GMF magazine simply offers ways of college students having a break from their hard studies to enjoy themselves, not to distract them.

Dimensions:

The dimensions of my cover will be A4, as I feel this is the easiest to read and the best in presentation. 

flatplan

initial ideas for magazine

Dougie Magraw

Initial Ideas

·      A magazine that focuses on music, gigs and films.

·      Combine the three main subjects of the magazine to make the title: GMF.

·      The front cover image will be of a college student listening to music whilst studying.

·      The three colors that GMF magazine will be focusing on are; blue, white and green. This is because they’re the colors of the college logo.

Representation!!

The five magazines I have chosen get put under the genre of ‘music’. In all five of these magazines the people on display are represented as idols. They show this by having their names in very bold writing, which takes over most of the page. The magazines also represent a stereotype of a ‘rock star’ so the reader will aspire to be the person on display.

The History Of IPC Media!!

  

The history of IPC media:

During the mid 1950’s the magazine publishing industry was dominated by a number of different company’s. Eventually all of the existing publishing company’s were bought and created into the, ‘International Publishing Corporation’, which is now known as, ‘IPC Media’. In 1968 all of its different departments got separated into different subsidiaries:

▪                 IPC Newspapers (including The People and The Daily Herald from Odhams, as well as the Daily Mirror and Sunday Pictorial).

▪                IPC Magazines, publishing the consumer magazines and comics.

▪                IPC Trade and Technical, publishing the specialist magazines (later known as IPC Business Press Ltd).

▪                IPC Books, handling all book publishing (headed by Paul Hamlyn, whose own company had been acquired by IPC).

▪                IPC Printing, handling all non-newspaper printing operations (headed by Arnold Quick, whose own company had also been acquired by IPC).

IPC New Products, a launching pad for products which used new technology (headed by Alistair McIntosh).

The publications that IPC media produce:

IPC media produce a wide range of publications from a wide variety of genres.  These publications include:

           NME.

    Ideal home.

    Country life.

    TV times.

    Marie Claire.

-Plus many more.

As you can see IPC Media are all about variety, this is because they like their publications to be approachable by anybody with any interests in their lives.

The current news about IPC Media:

With IPC Media being such a huge national company it is inevitable to say that they will be in some form of news at least once a week.

They have recently been in the news, 6^th of October 2010, for them selling off 4 of their niche titles to a company called, ‘Kelsey Publishing’. The magazines that they sold off were; Aeroplane, Mini world, ships monthly and park home & holiday caravan. Kelsey Publishing specialises in specialist magazines which makes them the perfect home for these sorts of magazines. I also think that there is no need for them in the current economic climate for such a big company.

New music magazines:

As I said before, IPC Media have a wide range of genres with their magazines; however, they only have on new music magazine-NME-you cannot even start to judge the success of NME though. NME is a highly successful new music magazine and has been associated with IPC Media ever since it first was published in 1952. The new musical express is a perfect example of knowing that IPC Media would be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine.

In my opinion, it’s very hard to judge what type of musical genre IPC Media’s new magazine would be based on, if they released a new music magazine because they have such a wide range of magazine genres so there isn’t really a trend that you can base your ideas on. If I was to say a genre then they would probably publish a mainstream music magazine because their main music magazine-NME- is not under the genre of mainstream music. So, they might sway in the opposite direction.

The only reason that alternative publishers like Bauer would be appropriate for a new music magazine is because their expertise are a lot stronger than IPC Media’s. This is because of their wider range of music magazines. However, I do think that Bauer and IPC Media would be equally appropriate for the publication of a new music magazine.