Showing posts with label music magazine research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music magazine research. Show all posts

Saturday, 25 January 2014

Poll on names results

Today my poll on names is closed and the name of my magazine is decided. It is the "Vox Populi". 
When I was looking for the possible names of my music magazine, I've chosen this one because it means "Voice of people" or "Public opinion" which is a good name for a magazine with a lot of articles and reviews. Also this is the name of one of the songs of 30 Seconds To Mars and this makes a link  to the music industry. 
Thank you for everyone who voted :)

Friday, 24 January 2014

Photoshoot plan

This Saturday I will be doing the photoshoot for my Music magazine and I have to plan everything before I start so everyone involved will know what to do. 

First of all, the photoshoot will be taking place inside and during the second half of the day, even closer to the evening. I've decided to use white background as it will allow me various manipulations of the pictures afterwards. Also, my model has dark but quite bright shade of hair and it will contrast and stand out a lot on the white background. I am planning to use two spotlights and also two cameras. 

I have no clear ideas of exactly what photos I want o take but I am inspired by a picture of Cara Delevingne I recently found on the internet :

and some Instagram pictures of this young girl, Maria Sokolova (Marijuama), who actually agreed to be my model :)



I want to show a rebel side of a feminine beautiful girl and show emotions and movement in my pictures. I probably will try to make some similar to these pictures and also try to do something originals and bright. 

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Fonts

Before starting making the magazine we have to research some fonts for the masthead. I still don't now what the name of my magazine will be as the poll on names is still on and people are still voting, so I did some screenshots of the fonts I liked the most and their names. I want my magazine to be quite modern so I was looking for simple serif or sans-serif fronts with straight or a little bit more round lines, very readable and quite fat so they will still stand out even if they are overlaid by a main picture. 


This one is called "Kenzo" and it is actually the same kind of font which the famous brand uses for labels or signs on clothes. It is tall and bold sans-serif font and it will look effective for a short masthead and I see it either in black or neon colours. 


This one is called "Couture" and is very round and bold and I would probably use it for the contents page rather than cover. 


This one is called "Revolution" and as the name suggests I would use it for a Rock or very modern and Pop-art magazine (which would publish something in style of the latest Lady Gaga's album "ARTPOP"). Even though it is bold and vowels have round shapes, consonants have sharp edges and angles and this adds some aggression to the font.


This font seems quite artistic and original to me. The letters are tall but the top half of them is bigger than the bottom and I find it interesting. Like in the image, this font looks very nice when applied to two or more words. This type of font is quite often used on posters
such as this one. I like the idea of using this font in one colour and shadow it in another. 

This is personally my favourite font of all that I've chosen. It reminds me of newspapers so suggests a quite serious content of the magazine and older audience (18-30 years-olds). It is a serif font and what interested me in it is that it has very thin lines and serifs comparing to the main bodies of the letters. It is also a little bit elegant and will look good in simple colours, such as black white or dark blue and all their shades. 

All of my fonts are similar to each other because I have some kind of vision of what I want to see on the pages of my magazine. I want the fonts to be quite bold and eye-catching. I like these fonts and I think in the end I'll use two of them - one for the cover and one for the contents.   

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Poll on names

I've added a poll on names for my future music magazine on the right of the page, just above information about me. I've chosen 4 different names, and they are the names of the songs, which I thought would sound good as a magazine masthead. So be free to choose one :)

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Research summary

All this research was very important for my work on the music magazine.

  • Now that I've compared different pages and layouts I have some ideas of layouts of my pages. It helped me to notice all the little things such as barcode or website that make magazine real


  • Also, looking at the photographers and their photoshoots made me think about what I would want to see on my cover and contents pages

  • ABC figures showed me which kind of magazines are most popular, and all the statistics helped me  to choose right direction for my magazine

  • Questionnaire allowed me to get people's opinion

Overall now I have enough information to create a Music Magazine that will be as close to real as possible and will please the potential audience. 

Modern features

The history of the photographs started around 1800 and since than it obviously had improved. Today, there are so many gadgets that can make photography very easy and interesting.

All the smartphones and popular Apple products have a good quality camera, that allows people to capture something interesting at any moment. Many different programs replace Photoshop. 
such programs as PS Express, Mirrorgram and VSCOcam are personally my favorites. They allow not only to take pictures but to add different effects on them. 





Also, social networks allow people to upload their pictures and share them with friends and the world. The most popular are Facebook, Tumblr and "twitter for pictures" - Instagram. 




So today anyone can make a good photo and create something original and this leas me to conclusion that technologies are also a part of a good photo. 

Friday, 17 January 2014

Analysis of Questionnaire results

So for my questionnaire I've asked 

24 people, 12 male and 12 female. 

I had three age categories: 
14-16    17-18    and Older
Most of the people who answered my questionnaire were 17 or 18, and 2 people were older. 
This decided the age of audience that I will aim my magazine to. 

Out of 24 people majority of people do read music magazines, however 8 people still never do so. 
Those who buy magazine do it mostly once a fortnight.  
      
I've asked what genres people prefer and these are the results:


Classic
Jazz/Blues/
Soul
Rap/RnB/
Hip hop
Pop
Rock/
Metal
Other

0



3


9


7

3

2
So rap and hip hop is the most popular music, second popular is Pop genre according to my questionnaire.



I've also asked what would people want to see more inside the magazine and most people want to see more of music reviews and top charts. 

10 out of 24 people prefer the magazine to be bright coloured and other 14 had shared opinions. 

19 people are ready to pay 1-2 pounds for the magazine and 5 people would like to pay 2.50-3 pounds or get it for free. 

This questionnaire was useful and it helped me to make decisions. All this information is important in creating a popular and well celled magazine.It is important to know audiences opinion to create a successful media piece. 

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Questionnaire


Questionnaire
Please select one (unless you told to do more) answer at a time.


1. Your gender?

Male       Female

2. Your age?

14 – 16      17-18     Older

3. Do you buy/read music magazines?

Yes        No

4. If yes, how often? (if no, skip this question)

Once a week       
Once a fortnight      
Every month   
Other (please state) 

5. What genre of music you are most interested in?
(You may choose more than one answer)

Classic
Jazz/blues/soul
Rap/RnB/Hip hop
Pop
Rock/metal
Other (please state) 

6. What would you expect to see more in the music magazine?
(You may choose more than one answer)

Articles/Interviews
Music reviews
Top charts
Photoshoots
News (music)
Other (please state) 

7. What kind of pictures would you expect to see in the magazine?

Colorful and bright
Classy/black-and-white
Very original (beyond realism)
Other (please state)

8. How much would you pay for the magazine?

Get it for free
Under £1
£1 – 2
£2.50 – 3
£3.50 and more

9. Do you have any other ideas and suggestions?

NME magazine double spread page analysis

This is a double spread page of a NME magazine featuring Florence Welsh from "FLorence and the machine"

The image of Florence bleeds onto both halves of a page but is placed to the right. The whole page has a white (grey) coloured background. However, there is also a background for the model herself - big bold letters "USA". Overall the colours of the page are very light with a contrasting clothes of the model. 
Florence, originally English, "got the love" of the America and so does the page say. Even though the photo takes both pages, the model is placed to the left off the center. She is sitting on something that is covered with a red and white striped cloth, and the red stripes highlight the colour of her hair. Her body language is quite closed but her clothes reveal her naked legs and make her look pretty and sexy. Also, even though it is a long shot, she is looking straight at the camera and creates contact with her eyes. Her dress might seem a little bit tempting to the male audience because of it's length and weird leather cone shaped details at the area of her breasts. Her black mini dress and high-heeled boots, that have a leather gloss, combined with her bright red hair make her look as femme fatale. 
The heading is a play on words as it reflects Florence's song "Got the love" and the love of fans she gained in the USA. The part of the heading and a drop cap echo Florence's clothes as they are also of a black colour. The rest of the text is of a same fading grey colour as the "USA" at the background. The "got the love" and drop cap are in a very elegant sans-serif handwritten-like font, that matches the female star on the image. Florence's name is highlighted in blue colour so that it stands out from the rest of the text. It is barely seen in this image (as it is cut few millimeters on the right), however in the top right corner there is a "Florence" written with white letters on a grey coloured rectangular to indicate the pages with the interview. In the bottom right corner there is a date of issue and a masthead of the magazine. Between the heading and the text the information about author and photographer is placed. 
The standfirst ends up in a question so that the audience is interested in reading the text itself. The text itself is in three columns and a small simple serif font. The story links to the picture as it is telling about the time when Florence was visiting New York. Florence's quotes and other special phrases are highlighted by being written in the upper case or in cursive. Text is mostly narrative with a quotes taken from the interview. 

Overall, the page and context of the page match the artist and present her as a modern "porcelain-skinned forest nymph". The page looks very feminine but at the same time Florence herself looks seductive. The image balances with the text and the calm cold colours contrast with the bright clothes of the model.