How Research Has Influenced My Planning and Creativity

Front Covers:

This cover has allowed me to see that I would definitely like to use a black and white theme to my cover, and that adding a small amount of colour allows the effect to come across classy but also very effectively. In my updated ideas, I thought that a black and white image may work effectively to get across the vintage theme of the magazine, however after looking at this cover, I think that understated colours are just as, if not more effective in having a lasting impression that works well with the genre.

This cover has allowed me to see how the contrast of dark makeup and clothes can create a rock magazine image, and how the circular puff can be used to highlight an article on the cover that is completely different to the main article. I would like to use this idea to create an article for my front cover that may be more about lifestyle or fashion or an article around a musician’s life, rather than solely focused on music.

From this cover, I love the difference of the graffiti on the background as opposed to the usual plain studio shots on Q's covers. The fact that the image breaks the medium close up convention by having a posed full body shot is also appealing.

This magazine cover has told me that a black and white image could be useful in representing the vintage era, and that when advertising anything on the front cover, the best way to do so is to use brightly coloured puffs and banners.

This cover has allowed me to see that I would definitely like to use a black and white theme to my cover, and that adding a small amount of colour allows the effect to come across classy but also very effectively. In my updated ideas, I thought that a black and white image may work effectively to get across the vintage theme of the magazine, however after looking at this cover, I think that understated colours are just as, if not more effective in having a lasting impression that works well with the genre.

Contents Pages:

Analysing another contents page in this style has cemented in my mind the idea that I do not want to use this type of layout and that I would much rather have my images and articles and page numbers in separate organised groups like the Q magazine from the last post. I much prefer the orderly layout and I think it makes it easier to see which image matches, which article, and I will endeavour to use elements of that in my magazine. However from this contents page, I like the fact that the font on all of the numbers was the same, for the images and list of contents, and for me I like how that ties the images and text together.

This contents page has shown me that it is again effective to break convention. The use of one singular image draws your attention to it, and makes the feature article very obvious. The black and white with red additions makes the puffs more noticeable and effective and that is something I may try for my magazine.

This contents page has shown me that it is again effective to break convention. The use of one singular image draws your attention to it, and makes the feature article very obvious. The black and white with red additions makes the puffs more noticeable and effective and that is something I may try for my magazine.

This research has shown me some of the conventions of a rock magazine that I would like to incorporate into my magazine, and some that I would prefer to break in my magazine, for example, again the images being placed separate to the articles. I would prefer to use a layout similar to the Q contents page I have previously analysed, pairing the page numbers and the summary of the article with the images being used on the contents page and create a list of he other articles that do not have images.

Each time I analyse a contents page set up in this format and layout, it reinforces the fact that I would like to break the conventional vintage rock magazine layout and bring something to a more modern audience. I also like the use of the red to indicate something important as it is eye catching and also holds a symbolic sign of importance.

Institutions Research:

This research has shown me that there is no magazine for this company aimed at my target audience or of my genre. This could be a good company to approach to produce my magazine, as they do not have anything like my magazine. Their main target audience seems to be younger and more towards the lifestyle genre and so to approach them with a music magazine could be profitable for their company.
This is only the opening pages of the double page spread; however, I think as the start of an article, this is very effective. There is not a large amount of text on the page as the image and title take up the most amount of space; even then, in the space left there is only a short paragraph. This allows readers to take in the image and the title, and for those who know of Buck Owens’ music, the title being his song title too, and then to read the lure and possibly the first paragraph to then decide if they want to carry on. This would be especially effective if the customer was going to be reading a page or two in the shop before buying the magazine as it would allow their attention to be grabbed by this double page spread and to buy it, maybe listen to some of Owens’ music. I would like to recreate something similar to this as I love how the image is the main focus of the page, and how the star has been styled to match Dyer’s theory.

Guardian Media may be a company worth considering as they currently do not have any music magazines in their production, however they also mainly produce news and lifestyle magazines, and therefore may not be interested in the production of a music magazine.

I do not think that Bauer Industries would be the right company to produce my magazine, as they already own Kerrang!, Mojo and Q, all of which cover a wide range of bases in the music industry. Mojo is a magazine that I will be analysing many times, as will Kerrang! due to the fact that the two magazines together create a vintage rock genre, and therefore Bauer as a company have the vintage rock genre of music already in publication. Bauer is such a large company that there would be no need for them to produce another magazine in a genre they already have a niche in, as it would not be feasible enough for them to make a profit.

Double Page Spreads:

The large image is very conventional of a usual double page spread and allows me to see the difference between sticking to convention and breaking it. It has shown me that the best places to break convention would be more in the cover and contents pages rather than on the double page spread. It has also shown me it is best to stay simple with the colour and complexity of the layout and to make it look effective, before focusing on the content of the article. One feature I did like about this very much was the unconventional title, using a pull quote as the title really works well with the theme of this piece of writing and adds well to the mystery and connotations behind the image.

This double page spread has really allowed me to see how colours and clothing styles and image colours, like the sepia used in this article, can create a stereotypical image that may not be the one wanted by the band, or one that the audience would agree with. In my magazine, I would like to try and break down some stereotypes, and this has allowed me to see how a stereotype is not a simple thing to work around, because no matter how careful you are, there is always a chance you could include something very stereotypical that may be the exact opposite of the image you are wanting to create, and that stereotypes have to be considered in planning.