Research

In the past few lessons I have been looking through old magazines and other books such as "The Art Directors' Handbook of Professional Magazine Design" written by Thames & Hudson to give me wider look at different things I could incorporate into my magazine. In this book I found some great examples of magazine designs that I could use for my final piece and one magazine that particularly caught my eye was i-D Magazine, especially the February 1996 volume with Kate Moss on the front cover.

The main reason that I liked this particular version was because of the magazine's logo, colour scheme and also the main image on the front.


I then looked on the internet and found a more recent volume (2008) with Agyness Dean and loved the bright colours and retro 80's theme...although I'd like to make the shot a mid shot instead of close up.

Further thoughts...

I think my target audience is people who like rock music of any age, they just have to appreciate the artist & bands featured to enjoy the magazine.

I haven't had many ideas for adverts in my magazine.

Here are the ones I thought of:

- Festival poster

- Some sort of electrical device advert

- Clothes advert

I chose the festival poster because people who usually read music magazines are interested in visiting the festivals to see the artists live.

I included the electrical advert because I was thinking it could be about a music player like a cassette or amps etc.

I've also added the clothes advert because people who are into certain types of music usually dress in a certain way to fully show they like that particular genre.

I want to focus on making the front cover really eye catching and approachable by putting a singer who gives off the feel of  being attractive and mysterious at the same time, whilst keeping the rock & roll look. Debbie Harry does this well.

I want both genders to be attracted to the magazine.

I will also need to think how I'll add things like a barcode to the bottom of the page and the price of the magazine but i don't want these to take up much room, just enough for it to be visible and quick to find.

Most magazine's produced to a high standard are usually £2-£3, which is a reasonable price for the contents.

Q Magazine

I love this front cover because it has a clear logo in bold colours and is easily recognisable.

Another reason why I like this front cover is that it has extra accessories like a 70 paged special of Women in Music magazine.

The picture of Madonna here is very striking and upclose which is effective, I could replicate this with the single female I want to cover my magazine.

Although it is quite a busy cover and a more simple design could look more attractive.