List of Features for Front page

How house style is established

WHAT IS HOUSE STYLE???

The New York times manual of style and usage states that house style is "The specific usage and editing conventions followed by writers and editors to ensure stylistic consistency in a particular publication or series of publications". All music magazines therefore have to follow this code also. 

 In Q magazine, there are many aspects of the front cover than are sustained throughout the other pages; contents and double page spread. The masthead colours red and white have been maintained and used in the Contents heading and DPS heading, as you can see. Also, the 'CONTENTS' font is the same used in the dps only its slightly larger. In addition to this, graphics, images and text boxes also live up to the house style. The blue used in the banner on the front page and the '+' page furniture resonates with the images and text on the contents which are also blue. A man from the cover story wears sunglasses as well as the artist on the DPS showing a consistency in house style and iconography of the genre being recognised. Here in the Source magazine, there is a double contents page. The front cover is kept quite minimalistic and simple which coincides beautifully with the first contents page, which basically lists the features and keeps them in one straight column. The focus is on the main image as it is on the front cover. The second contents page differs solely through font colour. Over a lighter background, this page used black over white, whereas the first used white over black. The artist Rick Ross from the contents is carried onto the DPS where he is styling a different pose. The large capital bold font used in the lure, is very similar to the headline on the front cover and titles on the contents pages. Colours stay very neutral and dark throughout with the odd splash of red or blue.
Finally, this trio of pages from Vibe magazine sees Ciara feature on all of them, therefore a similarity. Although she is taken by different shots each time, the house style is kept perfectly consistent as there is complimenting lighting over her body on the front and contents page. In addition to this, she appears naked(apart from shoes) on the cover and in the DPS it is clear that she is. There is always a V placed on the contents of Vibe, and this time Ciara's legs perform it well. This links the contents directly back to the cover. Finally, the masthead 'VIBE' in this issue uses light grey-dark grey colours and this gradient is then used for the background of the contents and in the DPS, both pictures have been grayscaled. They all look similar in such a way.

Front cover Shot Research

Understanding of the type of shot used:

Mood Board

I have made an online mood board using www.moodshare.com which has allowed me to present the ideas in my head and in this case, what I think of when I think R&B!!!  It includes some artists within the genre, the style often worn by people associated with this kind of music and things that listeners of R&B music like such as expensive cars, jewelry and downloading music. 

Clothing - Iconography/Planning

I created this short video using www.animoto.com in order to visually plan the type of clothing that I will want the models in my magazine to wear. From looking at the style of my target audience, I have derived the up to date codes and conventions of contemporary Stylers, in order to attract my audience in the best possible way. 

Target Audience Style

I have taken pictures of a few people in my target audience to discover the type of fashion sense they possess as an average of my whole target audience population. Below are some annotated photographs of the style:

From analysing this type of dress in my own primary research, I can see how the style of the Trendies on the UK TRIBES website definitely ARE my target audience due to the match of style described and the word TRENDY in itself connotes that these are the types of people I need to attract. 

Target Audience primary and secondary research

In order to find out the type of people that I will customise my magazine to suit the needs of, I will need to do some Primary research. For me, this will include creating questionnaires for at least 15 to be completed, getting the questions below answered well so that I can plan my magazine around them:

Obvious Questions:

• How old are you?
• Are you GCSE/A level student/ young professional?
• Are you male or female?

Specific Questions:

• Do you belong to any social networking sites and if so which ones and why?
• What shops do you like to buy clothes from?
• Could you sum up your style in a few words?
• How do you usually listen to music? (downloads, phone, ipod, radio, cds, )
• What's a typical weekend for you? (watching films, listening to your favourite jams, partying, going to festivals, shopping?)
• Would you say that you keep up with the latest technology?
• What radio stations do you normally listen to?
• Who is your favourite artist at the moment?
• What are your three favourite brands?
• Below is a video constructed of some questions answered by my target audience:

In order to discover more about the types of people that I will be aiming to please, I have done some secondary research by browsing the UK tribes website (http://www.uktribes.com/tribes/urban) in order to gain a detailed and helpful analysis of their interests and personalities.



From this video, I have learnt that the URBAN SEGMANT is the main area that I will be directing my R&B music magazine towards. I hope to catch their attention the most with the elements of my magazine. Some key words associated with these types of people include style, status, R’n’B and house music predominantly. Their icons would be celebrities such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Usher, Rita Ora, Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj.
Urbans are best known for their music – from not only R&B, but grime, UK bass and funky to old school jungle, blues and rap. Members are proactive in their search for new sounds, getting behind new releases, picking up digital mix tapes and sharing them with their social networks. Urban Tribes play a hugely important role in dictating the artists that break through to the mainstream. Examples of this include the breakthroughs of Dizzee Rascal and Tinchee Stryder.
 
Fashion-wise, street wear rules tend to be followed, from classic sports brands to independent urban labels, such as King Apparel. Drawing inspiration from US street fashion, these Tribes were among the first to adopt the baseball jacket and snap back combo. There’s no getting away from it, urban sounds and styles dominate the mainstream and mean big business. The explosion of grime and street wear is testament to this segment’s wield over popular culture.


There are three main groups categorised in the Urban segment:
 
• Trackies, who are laid back enthusiasts motivated by the need to chill, whether that’s gaming, watching films or listening to music.
• Stylers , who love R&B/house music and have an eye for the finer things in life. Avoiding ostentatious bling, it’s about modern status symbols such as the latest iPhone.
• Get Paid Crew are highly aspirational, driven by money and being their own boss.

From these three main groups, I have identified Stylers to be my main target audience. Stylers are united by a love for partying and looking good. They’ve also a fairly discerning bunch, into the finer things in life and less brash than, say, Blingers. Sharing an urban upbringing, they’re a diverse bunch, ranging from GCSE students to young professionals.
The ‘housification’ of R&B has really prompted the emergence of the Stylers – and urban commercial dance music is the sound of the tribe. Think Drake, Rihanna, Rita Ora and Chris Brown, as well as artists like Maverick Sabre and Wiley.
 
A small subsection of the Stylers will be seeking out niche underground sounds, but most are listening to what’s readily available – artists championed by trusted sources, friends and stations like Radio 1Xtra, Choice FM and Rinse FM.
 
Keeping up appearances is a key feature of the Stylers. It’s not about ostentatious excess, but understated cool. Stylers will aspire to have the latest tech, from Samsung smart TVs to tablets. They’re also more likely than most Urban tribes to be paying a visit to music festivals. A thoroughly current creation of the 2010s, Stylers are set to grow in numbers and influence.

Best Front page photos

Original photos contact sheet

Possible magazine titles+Feedback

When trying to produce a name for my magazine, I had to look at various ways of researching potential possibilities including:

• Research into R&B album names
• Research into different R&B artists and the names of their songs/singles, as these would give me a feel of the language and vocabulary typically used around this genre and by the types of people within it.
• I gained ideas from Google and Bing search engines by simply typing in the name of my music genre and reading a few articles or blogs about it. This gave me insight into the feel of the music and words that other people used to describe it.
• Wikipedia provided me with many small words in its description of R&B music and also taught me about its history.

After  all this research into a possible name for my magazine, I ended up resorting to Dictionary.com. Due to the fact that R&B music generally evolved from and was created primarily by black people, I looked up synonyms of the word 'black'. The results found are shown to the right, with the words highlighted in darker orange being the better, most accurate and popular synonyms.

From this list I discovered where the titles of 'EBONY' and 'JET' magazine were derived from, as they are both synonyms for black and aimed at a black target audience.

I have created a mind map of some possible titles for my magazine and in the child bubbles I have stated some reasons why I would choose them. I have ensured that each possible title relates to my genre of music, R&B, in one way or another.

By scrolling through the other words there was one that stood out especially from the rest and that was ONIX. I reviewed my thoughts about this by surveying 44 people asking which one they preferred and the bar graph below presents my results. 

An onyx is a black rock characterized with parallel black and white layers. I decided to go ahead with this concept because it can resonate easily with all races who enjoy R+B/soul music. This was something that I was eager to incorporate in my magazine because black people, are often subjected to this particular genre of music. The Onyx concept fits well with my whole idea because I wish to create a magazine following the usual conventions of an R&B one, but I am aiming to include a more varied selection of models and featured artists. These will include white, black and Asian people.

Typography/Masthead Analysis

I used Powtoon to make this video, and used it to analyse some main competitor fonts relating to magazines that are as near to my music genre as possible. This research taught me much that I needed to know about the style of masthead which would attract my target audience, being large, bold, regularly in capital letters, serif/sans serif and that colour plays a large role also. 

R&B Genre research mags

Below are six examples of current R&B front covers. I will try my best to take some key common codes and conventions from these when planning my own music magazine.

These front covers have also helped me create my own cover lines which will feature on my front cover:

• JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: "the 20/20 experience revived my career"
• BEYONCE: on balancing Blue IV with her upcoming tour
• 15 reasons 2013 will go down as a great year in R&B music
• Main Cover Story: DAMI RIDING SOUL-O
• + Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Robin Thicke, Chris Brown, Maxwell, Xtina Aguilera, Janelle Monae, Jasmine Sullivan

Pricing and Page numbers

This mind map represents that magazines which are circulated weekly, have less content inside them and therefore, fill up less pages. However, a magazine such as Vibe, The source, Q and big cheese, which are circulated not very often have a total page number reaching triple figures. I have learned therefore that during the creation of my own media product that I must take these existing prices into deep consideration if hoping to compete with others currently on the market and doing well. 

Music Genre research

I have decided to do an R&B magazine after my research because I listen to this genre of music on a regular basis and feel like the iconography of the genre is very strong to research and understand.

I have created a PowerPoint displaying the history and iconography of R&B music which I learnt from various sources during my secondary research. Underneath, is a compilation of 5 mainstream R&B artists' music videos which I have created in order to ONE, establish the types of people my audience will want to see on the magazine and TWO: take notes of what they are wearing, specific words they use in their songs and to gain general knowledge about my chosen genre as a whole.

Magazine Analysis 3

For this comparative analysis, I have created a video in which I analyse three front covers from magazines of differing genres. 

Q Magazine analysis

Q is a popular music magazine, published monthly in the UK.

The target audience for this magazine appears to me, to be the older generation such as people in their 30's and 40's who are looking for a different, more sophisticated mode of address, and who just want to know more about the music rather than other celebrity gossip which may feature in other music magazines.
The title 'Q' is written in white font on a square red box in the top left hand corner of the page, where the reader's eye is naturally drawn to straight away. 'Q' was originally named 'Cue' which suggests the cueing of music or cueing a record but as this may have been often mistaken for a cue in snooker, the single word 'Q' has now replaced this, and having put a new, modern twist it also now appears more prominent on a music stand. This masthead is effective as it is a single letter, large in font size which makes it stand out above its bright red background, therefore implying that this is a powerful and important magazine that needs to be read. The masthead is also intentionally suited to the genre of music magazine that it is, as there are no distinctive connotations linked with the letter 'Q' as there are in the mastheads of 'Vibe', 'Big Cheese', 'R&B' or 'Top Of The Pops'. We cannot tell at first glance the genre of music that the magazine will feature and therefore, it is expressed  well as a hybrid magazine in which all genres of music are appreciated and featured
throughout; there is no  specialist genre.

On this front cover,  the main image is a medium close-up shot of the "ARCTIC MONKEYS" , an English indie rock band, where we can see all four male members from the elbows/shoulders up. The facial expressions of each member are quite stern and straight-faced allowing their facial features to appear very strong, sharp and vivid. This connotes that the magazine needs to be taken seriously as it consists of smart and sophisticated content and articles. Two members' eyebrows are furrowed and contrast in the image has made the section around their eyes appear darker. This gives a strange, gloomy feel to the image and makes the reader anticipate what is to be said in their interview. These types of facial expressions and the fact that it is a close-up shot is what captures the reader's attention instantly and with such a large headline anchoring the image, the cover story seems too good to miss. The direction of gaze of each member of the band is also very striking and significant. Each person is looking a different way; (the top person is looking down, the person on the left is looking to the right, the person to the right is looking to the left and the person at the bottom in front, is looking directly forward into the reader's eyes. The fact that only one member is  looking directly at the reader is intentional as he is Alex Turner, the main lead singer of the band and therefore, usually the most popular one in the band. His face is also in the centre of the page making his eyes a focal point of the magazine. With regards to dress code, the four men all seem to be dressed in black suits and their hair is equally dark, slick and gelled back. The frontman, Alex Turner, has a flick in his hair resembling that of Elvis Presley and this further adds to his fascination for the reader. The fact that the first member's head is over the masthead instead of underneath gives off a sense of professionalism and makes the magazine look more aesthetically pleasing and appealing to an elder audience.

The strapline on this cover is right at the top in the form of a banner, as it is a strip of colour, blue,going right across the width of the page. The strapline writes "Manic Street Preachers" in bold, black font which is slightly larger in size than the main cover lines. Underneath this text it says "25 years of triumph and tragedy by James, Nicky & Sean", who are the three members of this alternative rock band. This font is smaller, white and in block capitals so that even though its smaller, the colour white against the blue banner makes this text clearly visible.  This feature is made to seem very important to the reader and as the text refers to names of people in the band, it is assumed that the reader automatically knows who they are creating a direct link with the reader and their musical interests. There are two additional presentational features added on top of this strapline which fulfil its purpose even more; an image and a graphic element. The strapline includes two small arrows directing the reader's gaze towards the image they are pointing to, which gives the image an obvious link to the text in the strapline, therefore anchoring the image.

The second image on the cover, in the top right-hand corner is a preview of what is to come and is anchored by the strapline. This is present in order to lure the audience in, making them want to read this important part of the magazine. In addition, although there are no exclusives promoted in the main cover lines, on this image, the text reads "FEATURING: new interviews + Exclusive: they share their archive". The fact that an exclusive is featured on these specific pages entices the reader as it signifies the magazine includes information that is only available to them and which no other magazine would have revealed, raising curiosity and anticipation in the reader. There is also a graphic on the top left to promote this feature even further which reads "17-page special!" in small black serif style font and a small black star below it which indicates what an asterisks normally does, that it is a significant part of the magazine. 17-pages is a lot to dedicate to one topic and therefore this text has been placed in front of a grey, metallic circle shape, making it stand out from the red and blue background colours. A second graphic feature appears just above the main headline: "THE Q INTERVIEW" as it has been edited and displayed as if physically stamped onto the page. This creates a really good effect on the reader's eye as it shows creativity and fun within the magazine due to the jagged position of the box holding the text, as well as drawing attention to the excitement of the main cover story.

Language has been effectively utilised and distributed throughout the front cover, in its headlines, cover lines and smaller subtitles. Just under the main headline there is an alluring sub title "How broken hands, competing haircuts and a strange voyeurism helped make their best record yet", present in order to lure the audience in by giving them a taste of what to expect from the interview. This will inevitably make the reader want to find out more. The fact that it mentions the artists' "broken hands" is skilfully effective as the reader is unable to see their hands from the close-up shot in the main image, or perhaps they were cropped out for this purpose by the editor, in order to entice the reader to buy the magazine and find out. Mentioning their "competing haircuts" is also a good use of persuasive linguistic technique as all four members are shown to have different but equally swerve and slick hairstyles, directly linking to the text under it and therefore showing a successfully anchored image, aiding the reader in making clear-cut links between image and text. In addition to this, on the right hand side where the other cover lines appear, it states "WHITE LIES: on beards, booze and baking cakes for muse". As well as alliteration on the letter 'B' here there is also rhyme incorporated on "booze" and "muse", suggesting the professional care taken to edit the magazine and appealing to the reader's creative side. The next cover line down includes a quote from "RICHARD BRANSON" stating "I'm choosing which band to send into space", which as well as being a powerful and enticing statement, luring the reader to purchase and read on, it actually incorporate the musical element of band, stripping right back down to the real purpose of the magazine, to feature the latest news surrounding music.

Having examined this front cover I would say that the USP of Q magazine has to be its high standards of photography and printing as each element is clear and crisp as well as identifying a house style which in turn develops its brand identity as one which advertises and features a wide range of music appeal to a mass of different music fans, but keeping its content strictly sophisticated and genuinely about the music rather than the other aspects of fame, celebrities and image focus, which the target audience would not be interested in. Q''s house style has a consistent colour scheme of black, white and red throughout the entire magazine, with the main 'Q' logo being a white 'Q' on a red square background. This logo is also repeated on every page corner next to the page number. In addition to this, the letter 'Q' entitles a lot of the pages. For example, there are sections of the magazine named "Q Mail" and "Q Review" and "Q Now", and so there is a constant repetition of the brand name, which maintains the brand identity throughout and keeps the reader constantly reminded of what they are reading. 


In this issue, there is a 17-page special dedicated to a single band, Manic Street Preachers, one or two main feature interviews with other artists and bands, and then smaller interviews or profile articles with a few more, less well known artists who are very fresh, and recently prominent in the charts. In addition to this, there are "Q-reviews" of new singles and albums, and news of upcoming artists that are thought to achieve success. Another very noticeable aspect of the magazine is the amount of advertisements for gigs that are going on. This is a significant feature because the readers of ‘Q’ are implied to be very interested in music and therefore, likely to regularly attend gigs, so an update of upcoming tours is essential as well as trend articles like the "Q playlist", "Q the month in music" and "Q bits", which all give details of the best rated singles, albums and films right now.

There are 138 pages in this music magazine, therefore covering a wide range of content and 13 of these pages are for advertisements. The categories of advertisements include:

• Clothing
• Fragrances
• Beverages
• Films
• New albums/singles
• Tours
• Toiletries

The very first advert is promoting Hugo Boss after shave for men with a medium close-up shot of Ryan Reynolds advertising the product and a quote from him: "I don't expect success, I prepare for it". This is niche product as it has been chosen to feature on this magazine in order to appeal to the elder male target audience of 'Q' and the product itself, and the fact it is being promoted by an attractive, famous actor, implies that the target readers are quite wealthy and are able to buy these sorts of products and so enjoy looking at them in the magazine. Levi jeans are also advertised in the magazine which I would categorise as 'clothing' and as well as this, a Phillips razor from Boots and the drink Jack Daniels is advertised. All of these are appearing to be niche products as they are specifically aimed to target men in their late teens to middle ages, showing a lack of consideration for female audiences as there are virtually no advertisements linked with women. Therefore, the target audience would sway more towards men of this age group.

Big Cheese analysis

Big Cheese is an independent music magazine published in the UK which covers alternative music including rock, punk, and metal. It is circulated monthly and was one of the first monthly UK magazines to feature the likes of My Chemical Romance, Brand New, Turbonegro, Panic At The Disco, The Movie Live, Alexisonfire and Taking Back Sunday.

Initial plan of what to research

 

Below I have written a rough idea about the types of things I need to research before planning my own music magazine. I will need to gather information about different genres of magazines, the target audiences of them all, details about the layout and design of current music magazines and of the different features, articles, double-page spreads and models that they include. I am hoping that the stuff I have written will contribute to a successful magazine construction as it will allow me to have enough knowledge and understanding on a variety of aspects on the magazine industry. It will also influence and potentially enhance some of my creative decisions with regards to layout, content and design.  

 

Preliminary Final Pieces

Brief

Preliminary exercise
Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.

Main task
The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).