Updated Initial Ideas

After researching more magazines, I have changed some of the initial ideas that I thought I wanted for my magazine.

Here is a link to my first thoughts: Initial Ideas

• I would still like to include the conventional ideas of a rock magazine, for example the black clothing, leather and dark makeup as I think that they are synonymous of the rock genre and personally I like the look of this style of clothing anyway, however, as my magazine is a vintage rock genre, I think that I would like to make the makeup softer, and the clothing more casual, whilst still keeping a modern theme, so a leather jacket, ripped jeans and boots maybe would be something to build on.
• For my colour scheme, I would still like to include black and white shades, however making my magazine more grayscale or monochrome would be something I would like to do, and only using brighter colours like the reds and yellows often seen in rock magazines to highlight important articles or things that are going to greatly interest my readers.
• Initially I thought that the conventional medium close up would be the approach I would take to my cover image, however after looking at magazines like the Coldplay Q cover (Coldplay) and the Vintage Rock Elvis cover (Elvis), I think that having my model pose differently, i.e. a full body image or one looking away from the camera, could be more effective.
• I had an idea to make my cover image a black and white photo, as that would go well with the theme of vintage, however as I want to make my colour scheme with shades of black and white, I think having a black and white image could make the cover seem boring and dull. When taking my photographs I will still experiment into seeing if a black and white image would work well, and perhaps ask my target audience if they prefer the black and white or the colour.
• I still think that including a prop like a microphone or a guitar could be effective, however, I think they would only work well if my model was looking away from camera and focusing more towards the instrument than the image being taken.
• I would definitely prefer to have my double page spread focusing on life outside of music as I feel that those are more intimate and interesting to read. In a music magazine I would prefer to learn more about an artist's background and their future plans and what they do outside of the music, as that is something that can only be found really in magazine and books that have been written from interviews, however the music an artist creates can be found all over the internet and in stores.
• I would still like to include a free download in my magazine as I feel that an audience would be more inclined to pay for a magazine if they know they are receiving something back, and a download code for a 3 or 4 song EP or a voucher for free shipping on clothes or money off an order would be appreciated for the price of a magazine.
• I now have no preference to the gender of the model on my cover, however in my target audience research I will include a question to see the preference of my audience on the gender of the cover model. Based on the highest preference I will base my cover images from there.
• Most magazine backgrounds are staged shots in a studio or a setting designed for the shoot, I would like to stick to this convention, however I am still not sure whether or not the background will be entirely plain.
• In my initial ideas, I thought that I would include a large amount of articles n my front cover to attract attention, after researching more and more magazine covers, I am still unsure if this will be the case. In terms of marketing, this would be the best idea as it can attract a wider audience, however personally I prefer covers that have a clearer cover. Based on my target audience research I will decide later if I plan to use more articles and features on my cover or not.