As I'm now finished my in depth research into existing covers, DPS and contents, I just want to round it up before I move on to my audience research. I've found this example of a cover, contents and double page spread which I think represents what I need to do fantastically.
Just because I've been worried about the little things, like what should match in colour, if it was OK to use the same set of images for everything etc., but this puts into perspective what I need to do and gives me control to decide all those little things. It uses Duffy in the same clothes for the cover, contents and DPS, so it's proved to me I can make an effective selection of features without having different clothes, photo shoots and backgrounds. And all along I've been trying to think of a solid idea for my images, not so much a theme, but just something to follow, but this is just so simplistic and easy going it's blasted all the over-organised thoughts from my head. The fact that she's basically just wearing a cardie, and that it isn't perfect white and black, really makes me consider how stiff any of my ideas would have looked as they would have had no spontaneous element at all.
I think this collection is so effective, and has a fresh, contemporary look which I love. It represents modern pop perfectly, plus there's absolutely no way it could be read as cheesy. It gives me a chance to look over the conventions I've came up with, to recognise some of them, and shows me how they can come together to make exactly what I want to make, something that portrays grown up pop so casually. I think a large part of the sophisticated elements of these features is the cool colours, mostly white and black, but with some bright parts that aren't over the top, and the simple fonts, especially on the cover. I just hope I can mimic the vibe this cover gives off with my own original ideas, as the last thing I want to do is copy an already existing magazine style.
Also, I've hoped to use a girlband as my featured artist because I had the most ideas for that, but through my research I've saw that music magazines hardly ever use girlbands, in fact I've only saw one that uses one. So I'm starting to think it may not be the right thing to do, and now looking at how brilliantly simple this collection is, it's made me really want to do a solo female artist. I have plenty covers featuring stars like Duffy, Amy Winehouse, Madonna, Kylie, Alicia Keys and Leona Lewis, and they're all in the right genre for my magazine.
So I think my research has been effective in opening my eyes to the different possibilities of music magazines and shown me that just because I want to make a real pop magazine, it doesn't mean I have to stick rigidly to any kind of rule. Although the sheer amount of things I could do is pretty overwhelming, and as I'm the most indecisive person ever I know I'll find it hard to decide on anything, I don't want to think about it too much so that it ruins my end result. Because finishing off my research has inspired me to go simplistic, I think I may try and keep this decision in order to stop me considering the endless list of other concepts I could do, but if I do suddenly have revelation I'll stick with that.
Now I move onto research into my target audience, where I'll be able to ease myself into the planning and gain feedback on early ideas, which I can then consider in order to carry on developing my magazine's identity.
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