Resaerch Into Similar Projects: Other Magazine Styles

Despite that this magazine doesn't fit with my genre of music or magazine style, I like this magazine for various reasons. The masthead is big and bold and it stands out which I find is down to it's simplicity. I also enjoy the simplicity of the house style, black and white, as it makes the magazine look sophisticated and sleek. This is inspiring to me as I look the idea of have a plain and simple black and white house style to really make my magazine cover stand out. I also like how the cover star, Elliot Gleave aka Example, is pictured with his mouth open in a scream-like expression as it shows the hyper nature of his music so reflects his musical philosophy.

Organisation: Style Of Your Artiste

I was thinking of having my cover stars dressed in simple black and white clothing, like this http://nme.assets.ipccdn.co.uk/images/gallery/NMECoverRoyalBlood_CMA3_160914.jpg or https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSwfrAZmKGgaJtdjGlb8PGRfwIa6_LfPybcuT9tpyd5JCrlmFL8WA0JaYUCSW_ldQhLkePMLDJ_qozReCjj1fGT5AJtph0CAiS_PtbNTxbvh-EOndBcc5gyxNgP2qP6czRyigXp_C4-1g/s400/nme-front-cover-29308.jpg , which would make my artist look less constructed and produced. I am going for this look as the philosophy of the artist that they are a sophistacated and casual band similar to artists such as Arctic Monkeys.

Drafting and Planning: Visual Thesaurus - Magazine Title

By using the visual thesaurus, I have been looking at ideas for a possible name for my magazine. Originally my first ideas where names such as Sonic or Disorder but these were already taken by real life magazines. Whilst going through different words on the visual thesaurus I came across the word 'deep', which I thought would be a good title for my magazine cover as it is short and simple.

This gave me some ideas for titles that are similar to the word 'deep'. However all of the ones that I liked that are similar to 'deep' are already taken so I have settled for 'deep' as my magazine title.

Research Into Similar Products: Double Page Spread Analysis

This double page spread appeals to me for various reasons. I like the way the image has a vintage feel to it which reflects their music. The whole band are wearing clothes that are similar and match the vintage feel of the photograph itself which is appealing to me. The house style, black and blue, is also nice as blue is usually associated with men so shows they are a man band and the light blue compliments the vintage look of the photo too.

Research Into Similar Products: Conventions - Cover stars

I am looking at cover stars so I can see what would look good for the cover of a magazine.

This magazine cover shows the two singers of Arcade Fire. They way the present each of the singers is key to this cover. Win Butler has a serious expression showing he sings most of the songs for the band and his tracks are not as carefree as Regine Chassagne's. This therefore sticks to the bands philosophy. Regine's happy facial expression shows how she sings more of the 'poppier' sounding songs so again sticks to the bands philosophy. Direct adress is also used in this cover image to make the reader feel connected to the star and feel the seriousness too of Win's face.

On this cover, The Beatles are shown, but each member is blocked differently. Paul is at the forefront of the image showing that the article involved is to do with Paul, but could also show how some people could consider Paul to be the lead singer of The Beatles. The rest of the band are behind Paul and are smaller than him which suggests that Paul is bigger, popularity wise, than the rest of the band, so the magazine have carefully blocked each member. The fact that John Lennon is at the very back of the image can suggest that he broke up The Beatles and is essentially being punished for it through this image.

I've done this excercise to look at the different effects of the cover image of a magazine. It has shown me the effects of blocking, direct adress and how the facial expression and pose of a cover star can show the philosophy of a band.

Drafting and Planning: Self assessment of magazine templates

I could use these templates in the future as part of future blog posts to show my progress from this stage and to also gain ideas and look at what I have learnt from the exercise. This will also teach me what looks good on a front cover and lets me practice how to place and use general codes of conventions.

Research Into Similar Projects: Genre Crossovers

NME and Q mostly look at 'indie' rock music. However sometimes there are crossovers, in which they feauture stories of pop artists or metal artists.

By including Lady Gaga on the front cover of this magazine, it has widened the target audience for this specific issue, as 'pop' fans would find an interest in this cover. Symbiosis is also used here as it would attract Lady Gaga fans too.

By including Marilyn Manson on this front cover, it attracts metal fans to the magazine also, so widens the target audience and also attracts Manson fans which has the same effect.
 
However magazines such as Rolling Stone, is one huge genre crossover in itself, as it incorporates all different genres of music into one magazine so appeals to a huge audience rather than one specific audience, so would therefore have more sales and be more successful.