Starting my Music Mag

This is the development of my music magazine front cover so far. I still need to decide on a masthead that i will get feedback on.

Editing My Masthead

After making the decision on which masthead design I would use for my magazine, I started editing it to make it bolder and clearer.

To do this, I used 'Paint' to adjust the outline of the letters to make them appear clearer and to get rid of any blurred lines.

Using the rubber on paint, I managed to remove the blurred lines and now the masthead looks much more effective as it stands out clearer with sharper outlines to each letter.

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can see in these images, the lines are much smoother and much less blurred. This is just a small thing I have done to improve the quality of my magazine.

Choosing a Masthead

I created a masthead on http://www.dafont.com/ before editing it to give myself a few options.

I narrowed my decision down to these two masthead designs, and made notes on my thoughts of them:

For me, the best masthead for the magazine I am producing is this one below:

My Chosen Masthead

Colour Palette

The genre and main theme of my music magazine is 'Pop', therefore I need to ensure my colour palette fits this theme.

As my target audience is teenage girls, my colour palette will include pink and purple, with a splash colour of something more vibrant, like yellow or orange.

This shows the colours I am considering for my colour palette. I still need to chose one or two main colours, as well as a different colour as my splash colour.

In most of the Pop magazines I have looked at, the main colours are pink and purple:

This magazine uses pink as its main colour and yellow as a splash colour.

However, this issue, of the same magazine swaps the colours by using yellow as the main colour and pink as the splash. I think this works really well to make every issue of the magazine different.

Masthead

I have been playing around with a few different magazine names, making the masthead look as professional and conventional as possible, ensuring that the masthead also fits in with the genre of music.

These are a few examples of the names I may use for my magazine, along with the feedback I received during peer assessment:

Here, I experimented with the font style and the star logo, to see which fitted the best together.

Peer Assessment Feedback: People said that this particular font style is "Too similar to the 'Top of the Pops'"

                                            However, "the genre and target audience is made clear through the word 'Pop'"

I also experimented with the name, keeping the genre 'Pop' in the name, but making it abit more creative.

I like that 'Popaholic' is very original in that no other magazine is named anything like this.

Peer Assessment Feedback: People said this was the best masthead as "it is original and a creative name"

                                            However, "consider changing the colour to fit the target audience- girls"

I played around with colour on this masthead. I used different shades of pink and purple, because these colours will fit my genre, as well as my target audience.

Peer Assessment Feedback: People said "the colours make the target audience very obvious"

I then moved the lettering around abit, by adding an underline to the 'Pop' to emphasise the genre further, and make the word 'Pop' stand out to the target audience.

                                         

House Style

Magazines are all very unique in their appearance, their house style, their branding and their use of images, fonts and colours. Everything within a magazine shapes the target audience, and makes it obvious to the person viewing it who it is supposed to be aimed at.

TOP OF THE POPS-

This magazine has undergone a lot of changes over the years, as sales have gradually decreased.
However, they have tried to keep certain things the same:

     This is the 'TOTP' Magazine as it is today, 2013.

The changes:

• The Masthead has been changed around quite a lot over the years, however brand recognition stayed as the masthead stayed in the same place.
• The layout has become more structured, however there is much more on the cover than before.

House Style:

•     The thing that seems to have stayed the same throughout the years is the colour pallet. With pinks and purples as the main two colours, it is obvious that the target audience has stayed the same too, aiming mainly at girls, aged between 11 and 15.

Music Magazine Plan

Genre- Pop Music


Target Audience- Teenage Girls (Aged 12-16)


Masthead- 'Love Pop'


Colour Pallet- Pink/Purple, Black and White
Splash- Orange or Yellow


Main Image- Female artist or Girl band (?)