Font tester

I created a basic front cover in order to test out how typeface can effect a front cover. I found out that it is important to select the right font for the message your trying to present. When selecting my font I had to think about the image used and what message that is trying to convey. As there is a contrast in the photo I choose two fonts that contrasted eachother. It took me a few attempts to get the right font that complimented the photo well, it had to be modern but yet still quite basic so not to take away from the picture.

School magazine draft

Although this is not greate quality, this is my draft for the school magazine. It will help me when going to create the cover and finalising a draft for the contents. Ive used a pug, 'free NUS card' to entice the readers, as I am aiming the magazine at sixthformers, alot of new year 12's will be in need of a NUS card.

I decided to have a left from Mr Foley on the contents as it is a school magazine and it will give Mr Foley a chance to speak to the sixth form about any issues.

UK Top 40 idea

I was looking at Billboard magazine and saw they had a some form of chart at the side. It gave me the idea that for my magazine I would like to have the UK Top 40 down the side. The reason for this is that my magazine is going to be based on chart music, therefor it would fit in with my theme if i included that chart.

Top of the pops idea

I was looking through a few 'Top Of The Pops' double page spreads, as although their target audience would be slightly younger then mine their style of music is similair. I came across this double page spread and really liked the layout, especially the picture across the two pages. I feel it is really fun and suits Selena's image and I think its really important to convey the artists image. Not only that but the whole layout is really eye catching, although if I were to create something like this I would have to rearrange the layout to create more text space as I feel thats the only thing it is lacking. Although I do like how the text is set out in shape boxes.

research into Billboard magazine

I'm thinking of creating a music magazine based on chart music, mainly POP. The reason behind this is that I personally am interested in this genre of music and feel I would be best suited creating a magazine that I personally would want to buy as then I can refer to myself as almost a potential customer. Billboard magazine is similar to something Id like to create so I research into the magazine to find out more about this genre.
Billboard is an international newsweekly magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognised music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis.
I looked at a few of their cover stars and they range from Justin Bieber to Adele, each cover has another world famous artist on the it. My favourite cover though is this one:

 

I really like how Pink is used as the I on this cover.  I think its really unique and different and therefor caught my eye straight away. Although it is unusual for there to be a bigger font then the mast head on the cover, for this it works. If possible I would like to use the idea of using the image as a letter in my magazine.

Blender cover analysis

I analysed a blender magazine cover as blender is a music magazine which is specialises in popular music in the up and comming music chart and this is the style of magazine I would like to do.

Questionaire analysis

I created 7 questions about a school magazine and asked 10 people in order to find out what they would like to see in a school magazine before I made my own. I had some good response that are going to help me make a mazgine that appeal to the students.
All ten people I think that the house colours of my magazine should be the school colours, therefore it seems sensible that I use red,white and black as my main colours.
My questionaire also suggest that I should have a small section about the different house's, there was a mixed response with this question so I need to make sure I only keep this section to a minium.
6 out of 10 of my responses say that I should keep the magazine a mix of formal and informal, this suprised me as I thought people would prefer an informal magazine, Im glad I did my research as I can now appeal to a wider audience.
My questionaire made it clear the students wanted the magazine to include matters outside of school, there were a mix of suggestions but the most populare were up and comming events in birmingham. I will make sure I research what is happening in Birmingham and include what events the students would be interested in, in my magazine.
I was not sure what age group I should do my student magazine for, my questionaire informed me that the sixth form were the most populare choice for a target audience, although I got a mixed response I think the sixth form would get the most use out of it as they can read it while in the common room.
My results for the educational side of my magazine were near enough equal, some wanted an educational side and others didnt. Ive come to the decided that I will only dedicate a small section that will inform students about coursework deadlines and univeristy dates ect.
All my responses said they would not like to pay for the magazine, therefor in order to get some readers I will make my magazine free.

Music magazine distribution analysis

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I analysised  the IPC Media website and found they do a wide range of different types of magazines as they are one of the biggest magazine distributers. They offer offer Sport & Leisure magazines to Womens's Weeklys.
They only do two music magazines, NME and Uncut, however NME is possibly one of the best selling music magazines in the UK. Uncut on the other hand appeals to a niche market but still is extremly populare.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

I also analysised Bauer, they have a bigger magazine portfolio then IPC, but they both offer the same type of categorys.
Bauer has 3 music magazines, Kerrang,MOJO and Q. These are some of the biggest music magazines around, infact MOJO is the UK's largest music magazine. Unlike IPC Media they do not have a niche audience magazine

first post

Hello, Im Hannah