indie rock: cover analysis

Indie rock nme from callumpugh

initial ideas for music magazine

music genre wordle

action plan

week 1

action plan
music genre wordle
montage illustrating range of music magazines on sale in the UK
initial ideas for music magazine
institution research of a music magazine on sale in the UK
analysis 2X front covers


week 2

time management update
analysis 2X contents pages
analysis 2X double pages


week 3

time management update
pitch
pitch feedback
summary of pitch feedback results
style sheet
mock up of front cover
mock up of contents page
mock up of double page spread

Evaluation

Evaluation

1.     In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

For my cover and contents page, I used a range of features, which exist on most professional magazines but at the same time, twisted the layout and design for my own magazine creation. On the front cover, I added the main compulsory features such as the masthead, primary image, and splash and house style. For my house style, I tried to create a simplistic look whilst also aiming to produce a look, which could stand out and looked full of life. Whilst experimenting, I found that the colours dark blue and white made an appealing colour scheme that matched my criteria. This became prominent in the blue masthead background and the white outline of the text throughout both the cover page and the contents page. The masthead itself was difficult to produce. In the end, I found that a good masthead that is trying to be simple yet professional in it’s look, is likely to be an abbreviation of a longer title. The masthead (FMSM) manages to stand out due to the all capital letter font and is also quite easy to remember for the audience. The central image had to connote the themes of the magazine, which were students, film and music. A primary image of myself was taken to connote the student part of the magazine, along with a positive facial expression to show optimism and positivity in students themselves. The shirt that I was wearing with Godzilla on the front brought out the film aspect subtly. For my cover lines, I chose the most enticing articles and placed them on the front cover, dotted in no particular fashion. Secondary images complimented the cover lines. For example, the image of the dark knight DVD or the Kasabian album cover will be noticed by those whom have an interest in those things. By also having cover lines of both music and film related, it draws in a broader range of audience towards my magazine. I chose to not include any puffs or pugs. This is because I believed that my mode of address in my magazine was to look confident in itself in drawing people’s attention. By using a puff, there is a chance it could make the magazine seem desperate to garb an audience.

2.     How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the magazine, my three demographics were film fanatics, music lovers and students generally. Fortunately, these all bind together in terms of context. Students are usually associated with listening to new music and watching blockbuster movies. I incorporated them into my brand identity for the lively look, which echoes in the form of modern music and the movies students’ watch. Its aim was to reflect the more positive stereotypical identity of students, which is lively but also intelligent. Again the central image helped to convey this mode of address by using myself as a student model to look positive and lively. Many bold fonts were used to support the loud look in the text. The dark blue in the house style manages to provoke intelligence and modernism in the layout. This anchorages my mode of address for a positive view on students.

3.     What kind of institutions might distribute your media product and why?

The magazine could be distributed by institutions that wish to provide a magazine that gives students constructive advice and also entertain them as well. Mine provides a student guide, a film review and a music article, all appealing to the younger adult audience.

4.     Who would be your audience for your media product

My demographic audience was young adults/ students that wished to gain studying tips. It was also for people interested in film/ television and with a strong taste in modern music.

5.     What have you leant about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the process of constructing the magazine, I used blogger, InDesign and a digital camera. They all worked rather well. Blogger allowed me to document my work in an organised manner. InDesign was a useful programme, which had the wide variety of tools to create the cover and contents pages. The digital camera allowed myself to capture images that connoted everything I needed for images. However the digital camera requires a long process in importing Jpg onto the computer. InDesign is perhaps the most troublesome, as glitches sometimes mess with the layout of a design and is also tricky to save because it kept running into problems where it either didn’t want to save or the saved document was corrupted

media student magazine