Friday 20 January 2017
Thursday 19 January 2017
Analysis of an institution
ICP Media/Time Inc.
ICP Media was founded in 1968 and is now known as Time inc.UK. This company is a digital publisher in the UK for consumer magazines (such as NME) and has published an array of magazines which has lead them to selling over 350mil copies a year. This company would be suitable for publishing my magazine because the target market to NME is similar to the target market for my magazine.
In April 2012, IPC Media won an award for Best Production Team of the Year at the Professional Publishers Association Production and Environment Awards 2012. Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read a Time Inc. (UK) Ltd magazine.
Bauer Media Group
Bauer Media Group is a European-based media company, with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The Bauer media group manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world. The portfolio includes print shops, postal, distribution and marketing services.
Bauer publishes Q and Kerrang magazine which again is a similar type of magazine to the one I will be creating (The Q music brand has expanded to Radio and Television, with Q Radio and Q TV being music entertainment that specialises in indie, rock and alternative).
Bauer's publications have done well globally for similar target markets to mine and they have gained a great reputation with the public. Music wise, magazines like Kerrang feature well-known bands like Panic! at the Disco of whom are similar to the band I will create for my magazine.
ICP Media was founded in 1968 and is now known as Time inc.UK. This company is a digital publisher in the UK for consumer magazines (such as NME) and has published an array of magazines which has lead them to selling over 350mil copies a year. This company would be suitable for publishing my magazine because the target market to NME is similar to the target market for my magazine.
In April 2012, IPC Media won an award for Best Production Team of the Year at the Professional Publishers Association Production and Environment Awards 2012. Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read a Time Inc. (UK) Ltd magazine.
Bauer Media Group
Bauer Media Group is a European-based media company, with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The Bauer media group manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world. The portfolio includes print shops, postal, distribution and marketing services.
Bauer publishes Q and Kerrang magazine which again is a similar type of magazine to the one I will be creating (The Q music brand has expanded to Radio and Television, with Q Radio and Q TV being music entertainment that specialises in indie, rock and alternative).
Bauer's publications have done well globally for similar target markets to mine and they have gained a great reputation with the public. Music wise, magazines like Kerrang feature well-known bands like Panic! at the Disco of whom are similar to the band I will create for my magazine.
Design mood board
This is a design mood board that I created with the desired intention of inspiring creative ideas when designing my magazine, the photos included were all taken from various pintrest and tumblr 'design' and 'mood' accounts. I like these photos for their quirky styles and will consider these when creating my magazine.
Album mood board
This is a mood board I created of artists and albums that fall into the indie/alternative music genre as they are relevant to my work. In creating this I hope to adopt the stylistic features that are common in these albums and emulate this when designing my magazine.
Wednesday 18 January 2017
Audience Research Questionnaire
In order to help me collect useful and valid audience research which I can use when designing my magazine in order to make it as appealing and successful as possible I decided to create a survey using the website 'SurveyMonkey.com'. It was very useful as it was quick and easy to create a survey and allowed me to distribute it through a number of platforms to collect responses quickly and easily. I realised when creating the survey that people do not like having their time consumed by answering long and confusing questionnaires, I therefore took this into account and created a short and concise survey that got to the point and asked only questions that would give me direct and easy to use information.
Below is the list of questions and responses I received.
I will take note of all responses I have received when designing my magazine and choosing the style I wish to carry forward, however I will not use some survey responses such as those who responded to the first question of 'Are you interested in indie/alternative genre music?' with the answer 'no', this is because their opinions on the styling of my magazine will not be relevant as they will not take an interest in the final product regardless. I will use data gained from those who answered the first question with 'no, but I like rock music' however as rock is a similar genre to indie and alternative music and so whilst their answers will hold less credibility than those who answered 'yes' it is all still relevant.
Tuesday 17 January 2017
Photographer, Graphic Designer and Magazine Creator
Photographers:
RUKES: RUKES is an international music photographer and works mostly with DJ's, he prides himself as being the best DJ photographer in the world. He has worked as photographer for Deadmau5, Avicii, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and at many concerts, gigs, raves and festivals. Rukes is highly acclaimed as the best DJ photographer in the world.
Graphic Designers:
David Carson: As art director of music and lifestyle magazine, Ray Gun, David Carson became the most influential graphic designer of the 1990's. His unconvential 'grunge typography' style was a new era in design. He brought to the graphic design scene the belief that each designer needed an intuitive design sense that they must listen to.
Magazine Creators:
Theodore Ingham: Theodore Ingham created the music magazine 'NME' in 1949, he created the foundations for a magazine that would go on to become the most popular British music magazine. He sold the magazine for £1000 to Maurice Kinn moments before it was to officially close. Despite being creators of the magazine, these individuals do not often play big parts in the production individual issues.
RUKES: RUKES is an international music photographer and works mostly with DJ's, he prides himself as being the best DJ photographer in the world. He has worked as photographer for Deadmau5, Avicii, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and at many concerts, gigs, raves and festivals. Rukes is highly acclaimed as the best DJ photographer in the world.
Graphic Designers:
David Carson: As art director of music and lifestyle magazine, Ray Gun, David Carson became the most influential graphic designer of the 1990's. His unconvential 'grunge typography' style was a new era in design. He brought to the graphic design scene the belief that each designer needed an intuitive design sense that they must listen to.
Magazine Creators:
Theodore Ingham: Theodore Ingham created the music magazine 'NME' in 1949, he created the foundations for a magazine that would go on to become the most popular British music magazine. He sold the magazine for £1000 to Maurice Kinn moments before it was to officially close. Despite being creators of the magazine, these individuals do not often play big parts in the production individual issues.
Language register
Based on research carried out, I have decided I want to include an interview in my magazine related to some musician's inspirations and stories regarding their band forming/ their rise to fame. I find articles like this interesting because it is a background creation for a character which gives readers and fans a better knowledge of the musician's life. Because of this, the style of writing will be quite personal with quotes from the musician displayed in large lettering besides the interview, similar to Noel Gallagher's interview with 'Q' magazine.
I want to adopt a very casual and laid back style of writing that epitomises what indie music is all about, I also feel that a too formal style may cause readers to lose interest as they will view the article as an forced interview and not the insight into the artists life which I hope to achieve. In the Noel Gallagher interview above, the interviewer asks specific questions that will evoke interesting responses such as when he enquires about an Oasis reunion despite it being well known fact that Liam is on bad terms with former band partner and brother Noel, purely to bring out the funny response that Liam gives.
Audience profile
Age 16-30
Gender: Equally male and female.
Description: Indie music is a genre enjoyed by all kinds of people but audiences are most likely to be students with a passion for going out and enjoying themselves, living for the weekend and spending their last penny on enjoying themselves. Indie fans are less likely to listen to radio due to the lack of indie music played, more likely to be a frequent gig-goer and spend summers with arms littered in festival wristbands. They will be open minded to new music and new experiences, often indie fans will take interest in other genres such as alternative and hip-hop.
Specific profile:
Name: Dan Humphrey
Age: 18
Interests: Music, Tennis, Gym, Partying, Festivals.
Favourite bands/artists: Catfish and the bottlemen, The Wombats, Jamie T, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys.
Dan is a student currently studying his second year of A levels with plans to go to Nottingham Trent University to study business management. He enjoys festivals and has been to Glastonbury twice and plans on going to Bestival and Leeds in the summer of 2017.
Gender: Equally male and female.
Description: Indie music is a genre enjoyed by all kinds of people but audiences are most likely to be students with a passion for going out and enjoying themselves, living for the weekend and spending their last penny on enjoying themselves. Indie fans are less likely to listen to radio due to the lack of indie music played, more likely to be a frequent gig-goer and spend summers with arms littered in festival wristbands. They will be open minded to new music and new experiences, often indie fans will take interest in other genres such as alternative and hip-hop.
Specific profile:
Name: Dan Humphrey
Age: 18
Interests: Music, Tennis, Gym, Partying, Festivals.
Favourite bands/artists: Catfish and the bottlemen, The Wombats, Jamie T, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys.
Dan is a student currently studying his second year of A levels with plans to go to Nottingham Trent University to study business management. He enjoys festivals and has been to Glastonbury twice and plans on going to Bestival and Leeds in the summer of 2017.
Audience research
As I myself have a strong interest in indie music, I decided to search for a tribe on UK Tribes that represents myself. After reviewing the tribes shown on UK Tribes, I have decided that the two tribes that are most like the audience I am targeting with my indie music magazine are:
'Young Alts': The tribe who 'want out' of the mainstream - an experimental tribe trying anything and everything from grunge to hardcore. Young Alts are a long standing youth Tribe – the entry level Alternatives that simply want to set themselves apart from the Mainstream by looking alternative, listening to alternative music, having alternative views… Even if they are Mainstream in every other sense!
'Scenesters': Replacing the recently demoted hipsters - the scenesters encapsulate everything that hipsterdom failed to in recent years. Setting themselves apart by creating new trends by co-opting fashion and music from across the tribal map and blending it with their own individual attitudes. Ever difficult to pin down, they move at lightning speed through youth culture - moving onto whats 'next' before it has a chance to become 'now'.
This description shows this tribe to enjoy anything new, I will therefore include many 'new' artists, albums or information in my magazine cover, contents and double page spread as this will appeal to my target audience.
'Young Alts': The tribe who 'want out' of the mainstream - an experimental tribe trying anything and everything from grunge to hardcore. Young Alts are a long standing youth Tribe – the entry level Alternatives that simply want to set themselves apart from the Mainstream by looking alternative, listening to alternative music, having alternative views… Even if they are Mainstream in every other sense!
'Scenesters': Replacing the recently demoted hipsters - the scenesters encapsulate everything that hipsterdom failed to in recent years. Setting themselves apart by creating new trends by co-opting fashion and music from across the tribal map and blending it with their own individual attitudes. Ever difficult to pin down, they move at lightning speed through youth culture - moving onto whats 'next' before it has a chance to become 'now'.
This description shows this tribe to enjoy anything new, I will therefore include many 'new' artists, albums or information in my magazine cover, contents and double page spread as this will appeal to my target audience.
Monday 16 January 2017
Analysis of existing magazine titles
After reviewing existing magazine titles I have concluded that the most successful magazine titles are short, I will therefore also choose a short magazine title. I have decided on creating an indie music magazine which I will name 'Vinyl'. I have chosen this name as it has musical relevance and is short. The design of the mastheads for all the magazines are bold and tidy fonts, I will also think of this when designing my magazine.
Friday 13 January 2017
Preliminary magazine
Displayed here is my preliminary magazine in the form of a school information magazine.
Monday 9 January 2017
Font analysis
2) Coconut Express 01 - This is another font downloaded from dafont.com, I liked it because of its neat styling with a quirky twist on some letters and numbers, I do not believe I will use it as a masthead due to it's thin appearance, however I think it will be good for an article due to it's interesting appearance.
3) Futura - This font I chose as it was similar to number 2, however it is without the quirky twists on certain letters, I feel as though this would be a good replacement for number 2 if it turns out that the quriks look out of place.
4) Lemon/Milk - Another downloaded font from dafont.com, this one I chose as it looked suitable for headers or the quote extract for the double page spread as it is a very bold and thick font which attracts the readers attention.
5) Bebas Neue - The final downloaded font from dafont.com, this I chose as it could have a diverse range of uses due to its thick lettering style, meaning it could be used for anything from mastheads to article text, also due to its slimmer style it uses less horizontal space which could be useful if I have limited space on my magazine.
6) Monaco - Similar to number 5, it is a slightly less bold version of the previous font, meaning if I use number 5 for an article heading or sub-heading then this would be suitable for the text underneath.
7) Phosphate - This font is slightly more unusual, it would only be used for the masthead, it takes a similar style to the 'NME' music magazine masthead which I particularly enjoy and may seek to mimic in my own project.
8 & 9) Rockwell, American Typewriter - These are two similar fonts with small variations that I chose because of their aesthetically appealing look which I think will work well in an article in the double page spread.
10) Copperplate Gothic Bold - This is a font that I have chosen as a potential masthead or sub-heading, however I am not sure if I will use it due to its wide nature which may prove to be too space consuming.
Examples of other texts
All of the texts above are a mixture of published content from current magazines. I have picked these magazines because they are all aesthetically appealing and have elements I am considering using for my magazine. I like the close up profile photos used on the covers because they give a clear indication of who the artist is and also all have complementary colour schemes which I want to include in my magazine. As for the double page spread, I like how despite being across two pages the photo joins them together, the large quote from the article attracts the readers attention and is something I will definitely seek to mimic when designing my own magazine.
Sunday 8 January 2017
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