Designing my masthead

These are examples of conventional mastheads, as I recognised when doing my magazine research and they are all similar to mine in the way they don't strech across the whole cover unlike Rolling Stone and Billboard. They all used readable, plain fonts, although Clash is the exception with it's graphically altered part and lowercase letters, which is it's uncoventional twist. I believe it works well, but I think for my name and genre of music, I should stick to a smart look and font. I may use the style of Q and Spin, separating their mastheads from the rest of the cover, it somehow seems to cement their image and make them instantly recogniseable. Logos are arbitary/symbolic signs and therefore don't have to look anything like a real magazine but their meaning is culturally learned and I believe how they look is a big part of how well they represent the magazine reputation. I think I'd prefer a crisp, smart, up to date style so as well as using a box to separate my masthead I'll use a sans serif font. Q and Spin's logos are very similar but I think Q looks much more classic, therefore looking as if it's aimed at an older audience, so sans serif like Spin is definitely the way to go.

Using dafont.com I chose some fonts that I like and convey the right sense to my reader. They are all pretty bold to make sure they stand out from the thinner coverlines. These include;
I used different colours so it's easier to reference them when talking about them. I picked a range of fairly plain fonts, however some with an unconventional twist. The red, green and light blue are just simple, readable fonts, only slightly different in style, but they are very fitting to the convention of a readable font for everything. The orange is also the same, however it was just an experiment with the lowercase font, however I don't think it is as aesthetically pleasing. I think I would prefer to go beyond the average convention of readable fonts for everything, but not up to the level of Rolling Stone.

The four bottom ones (dark blue, dark purple, purple and pink) are all subtly a bit different, encoding the way my magazine is a bit different to all the rest effectively. They all have an individual element, mostly on the B's , which I quite like, however I don't think they convey the strength and power of my name. It is starting to become an important concept to me that I want my magazine to show strength and power like my inital thought and I don't think the thinner, linear fonts do this very well.

The yellow and turquoise are those that are a bit more unconventional in the pack. I like them because of this, but I don't think either of them take the developing of the convention so far that it just doesn't work. They show that strength I want, yet I think the yellow one is quite stiff and harsh with sharp edges, which I think could easily form an abberant reading. The turquoise one however is thick, so conveys power, however it still looks squishy and comfortable because of it's less linear style. It is more of a script, which is unlike the other mastheads in similar genres of music magazine, but I think it shows that important idea that pop music is not something that will sit in the background, it stands up to be counted as a real genre, andI think it shows it very well. Coincedentally the colour I think works very well too, as it could fit in with the chosen colour scheme off my questionnaire well while still acheiving that fresh contemporary look, like that Spin magazine selection I looked at, which I think is an important element to keeping pop "pop" while giving it credibility. It's also similar to that of chewing gum packets, making it a recognised code which will instantly give it a fresh minty vibe, and can also subtly play on the term "bubblegum pop".

Using the chosen font, colour, and box style I made this;

After practicing and playing on Photoshop I altered it very slightly with some layer effects, like a very subtle gradient overlay, satin effect and outer glow. I think as I become more familiar with these parts of photoshop I'll be able to make a mroe professional look. I also included that slogan I came up with on the spur of the moment, which will probably be subject to change;

Individual feature

I've noticed that most music magazines have a section that makes them unique. It's a part that differentiates them from the rest, a sort of unique selling point. Clash has fashion (and free CDs), Rolling Stone has politics, Q has reviews, Billboard has charts and NME has new artist profiles. I want my magazine to have a feature equivalent to these, as it will show how I'm fitting into conventions, and also give my magazine a unique appeal which may widen my audience. However, if I don't think anything is effective enough, I can just have a plain music magazine. Ideas I've had include;

• Horoscopes/Phsychicness - I think this would be an interesting feature, which would expand on the normal monthly features in magazines, however I don't think I could think of enough to list in my contents, which is where most of my individual feature will be shown off.


• TV/Film - I could expand my magazine into a crossover with other media, which I think would be suitable for my target audience, who will probably have an interest in TV dramas and sitcom along with popular music as the they both go hand in hand. This is something I'd consider featuring and I think it will work well.


• Free Downloads - I think this is a similar take to Clash's free CDs, but more technological for the "iPod" generation, and again I think it's something I could do. It would just be a subtle feature, like a collection of tracks, so it wouldn't really feature much on my cover and only a bit in my contents like the "What's on your CD" part of the Clash contents.
  
• Celebrity Columns - Like the ClashRegular "Bowman's Blog", which follows Edith's life, I could make a section for similar style opinionated reports from either the same celebrity each month or the same report but from different celebrities. However instead of following the writer's life, it could be the writers opinion on a certain topic of the month like fashion, tv, film, gigs/new artists, nights out and lifestyle.
  

I think these are all plausible ideas, but I think my favourite is the celebrity columns. Although my magazine has to be that of the music genre, I don't think that means I should have features solely on music, and this section of the magazine could just deal with everything else in popular culture, as what goes better with popular music? It would just allow the dabbling of other genres and I think it would attract my target readers to my magazine rather than others, as people interested in mainstream can be generalised as having mainstream interests in other areas of culture.

I wouldn't feature the idea too much on my cover, maybe one or 2 coverlines the way Rolling Stone features politics on their covers, and possibly a very tiny slogan which suggests the dabbling inside (Music plus everything? - still shows its music genre). However in the contents it would have it's own section and help promote my magazine as a source of different uses and gratifications. I think I would like to connote that a different writer does the column each month so the audience can't create too much of a fixed opinion, and they'll want to come back each month, so I may use a style like for instance Style Report: CelebrityName. Like for fashion a different stylist/designer and trend each month, for TV a different critic/TV actor each month and for film a different actor/A-lister each month. A page/DPS each, a review element, opinions and info. Sorted.

I do realise I'm not making the whole magazine, but I think by knowing my individual feature it helps me form the identity of my magazine and get a better idea of who to aim it at. I think this feature I've decided on is another step to proving pop music and everything with it is still very popular and loved by a wide variety of people and that music magazines don't have to be for an alternative only. I know I would prefer to read my mainstream magazine with bits of other stuff rather than a magazine dedicated solely to a smaller area of music and culture, but obviously I would say that.

Proposal Presentation

I was set the task of presenting my ideas for my magazine in a Dragon Den's style proposal pitch. I used Powerpoint to create my simplistic presentation with basic bullet points which I expanded on in my dialogue notes.
First of all I outlined my genre, as I have in a previous post, and gave my reasons for choosing mainstream, popular music. I then gave my criteria of target readers. I then listed what would make my magazine conventional, by listing which conventions I'd stick to on my cover and DPS (as at this point I hadn't completely finished my contents research) and which ones I wouldn't.
I then included results from my questionnaire like my name and who would be on the cover. I also included the suggestions I'd got from the open ended question of my questionnaire.
Constructive critiscism I received was to not forget about the contents, that I used complex words (although the language I used in my proposal were key terms, and not actually the language I'll use in my magazine), the plain colours of my presentation (I was going for the simplistic effect!) and my lack of images used.
Positive feedback I received included detailed research, clear ideas, good knowledge of key terms, talking to my audience in my presentation, large target audience and my personal beliefs coming across.
This rounds up all of my research into a summary and now it's full steam ahead onto planning as I received my schedule and deadlines today! Argh!

Questionnaire Results - Summary

These are just some pretty definite points that I've concluded from my target audience research, which I'll most likely use;

• My popular music magazine will be called Bolt
• My featured cover star will look into the camera
• I will have a small girl band or solo female artist on the cover
• My colour scheme will feature black and white, along with a bold colour (dark turquoise?)
• My cover star will be in medium or medium close-up
• My main contents image will be full length
• I will use a Q&A interview style on my DPS
• My contents will have 2 or 3 images on
• My article will be separated from the image on my DPS
• My magazine will be credible, yet informal and feature interviews and profiles (well at least listed in the contents)

This closes my audience research so I can now move on to my planning and drafting step-by-step with some solid features which I've gained from here. I think first I want to decide on my masthead, fonts and individual selling point then I will begin possibly drafting or making coverlines.

Questionnaire Results - Analysis

I handed out 18 of my questionnaires and have collected the results to give some fairly definite decisions on some features of my magazine. They are as follows;

1. How old are you? - I collected most of my results from the 14-20 category, as these are generally the people I'm around most and also a very large part of my target audience, so I think this proves my results are valid to go by.

2. Does your current playlist include mainstream music? - Not to stereotype, but the majority of people I asked to fill in my questionnaire seemed as if they'd have some sort of interest in an area of mainstream music, and by these results I was right. This proves that the results in these questionnaire are coming from people who may consider buying it. Also because I know most of the people I asked, it also gives me some more indications to what my target audience would like overall.

3. If you were browsing the music magazines, which name would you be more drawn to and more likely to buy? - Although there was quite a large range of options, I think it's clear from this graph which one was liked best. I'm happy with Bolt because it did have a large majority and I think the meaning that can be connoted from it is definitely true to my reasons for making a pop magazine. The next most popular were OOH and Hush, which I still like, but I'm very much warming to the forceful sound of the word Bolt.

4. Should the celebrity on the cover look directly into the camera? - It wasn't an astounding majority, but my sample did prefer the celebrity to be looking into the camera. It is the convention that cover stars look directly out, so maybe they are being influenced by this or maybe it's a convention because it is the most effective when persuading readers to buy it.

5. Who would you prefer to see on the cover? - Although the more popular ones were for groups, it's much more unconventional to feature groups but maybe that's a good thing. I may just go with my own intuition, as I do have to consider the practicality of my photoshoot, but maybe a smaller band of 3 like the Sugababes would work OK. However, even if I did decide to go with the unconventional group feature I'd have to make my cover shot look unmanufactured and simplistic in order to keep my credibility.

6. Which colour scheme appeals most to you? - I realised after I'd gathered my questionnaire results that I should have thought about this much more carefully about this because really my results are pretty invalid because I don't think any of them would work very well on a cover. The most popular one, No.3, which is a very "bubblegum" combination of bright blue and pink, and the next popular one was No.2, which was a similar purple and blue. I think I may take this into account, but I know I'll use black and white, maybe along with a brighter colour as an accent, which is also what I was considering doing for my contents and cover. Ooops, I may have to change that, I don't want everything matching! For my cover at the minute I'm thinking about a dark turquoise, like an equivalent to the rich red a lot of music magazines use.

7. Which shot distance appeals to you most? - The medium shot and medium close up were the most popular so I'll probably use one of these for my cover. But I've learnt from my contents research that unusual stances are often used, so I may use a full length as I think it would be easier to create an abstract effect. For my DPS, I didn't really see any conventions for those images, so I'll either use these results more or just see where my ideas take me.

8. Do you prefer a Q&A interview style or an article interview style? - As I expected the Q&A style was much more popular and basically just cements my decision.

9. What colour images should be used on my double page spread? - Colour was most popular here, but a possible element of grayscale could feature as that was fairly popular too. I might try to combine them but that effect may be too cartoony for a music magazine.

10. How many images should be on my contents page? - 2 or 3 images were by far the most popular so I may let my contents be slightly unconventional in this respect. However, making one in the style of the Blender one I analysed would be developing the convention of 1 main image. I may change this after my photoshoot depending on which shots are most effective.

11. Do you prefer an article to be typed over the image or separated from the image on a double page spread? - Again my initial thought was proved right that my audience would prefer it separated, therefore it will be a good code to make it credible.

12. Please name 3 mainstream artists you're interested in at the moment... - I didn't make a graph because of the many different responses I received, which shows me everyone has such varied tastes that it wouldn't be possible to make one issue of a magazine with everything, so I just have to range it as well as I can. Some popular ones that occured often were Rihanna and Chris Brown, along with Kanye West, Ne-Yo, McFly, Britney Spears and The Saturdays. These will probably form some of my coverlines and features for my contents.

13. Do you have any other advice or suggestions for my music magazine that would make you more likely to buy it?- There was some very specific suggestions on what my coverstar should wear, but there was also just general terms, like my magazine should be credible and informal, have interviews and profiles, and be tied in with fashion.

This is what I've gained from my questionnaire, and I'll summarise any definite points in my next post.