Target Audience

Background research
Kerrang magazine is published by a company called Bauer media group. The publishing house also publishes lots of different magazines and genres like:

· Men’s entertainment &lifestyle

· Women’s magazines

· Equine

· Gardening

· Transport

· Golf & football

Overall there are 421 000 people who read Kerrang  magazine, both men and women read this magazine, 258 000 males and 164 000 females. I think that there is a big difference in the numbers of who reads kerrang as its a rock magazine which appeals to men more than it does to women. The amount of readers over the past year has increased by 4000 people.

The Bauer publishing house also publishes music magazine NME/New musical exp.

My Target Audience

I have been researching Kerrang and Q magazine, so for my magazine I will have similar types of bands. My music magazine will appeal more to males than females, with a ratio of about 6:4. The reason for this is that the bands I have chosen for my magazine are mostly indie/rock bands which appeal more to men.

I have ranged my age for my magazine for 16 to 24 as young people seem to be more interested in a lot of new upcoming bands, which the older generation are not familiar with. With Kerrang older people don’t seem to be as interested in new music magazines.

The bands that I am interested in are Kings of Leon, Paramore, Greenday and Muse so these can be put into a sub cultural group such indie/rock. My magazine cannot be too expensive as the age I have set will be for people who are in school, college or university so they won’t have a lot of money, therefore my magazine will be £3-4.

Inspirational texts (Double page spread)



Although I want to keep the colours of my magazine to a minimum the colours must match with what the band or model is wearing. Like this double page spread I want to have my text on one side of the page and a picture of the other, I think it looks more polished and professional that having messy writing in different shapes all around the page, although I  do want to have one quote took from the interview overlapping on of the images .

Again there is no border to the page but from the layout of the picture and the thick bar where the title is we can see the format of the page.  like this article I

Deconstruction Contents Page

With this contents page I would like to use a similar layout, I like how there is a thick black bars used to show the titles etc. it makes the main features of the magazine stand out.  I also like how the picture is at the right side of the page taking up most of them room,  using a similar image to the one on the front cover, this will enable the reader to notice that this is the main article of this month’s magazine.  Having the features section down the left side of the page means that the reader can easily find articles they want to read, it make it easier for them to find information that is advertised on the front cover.

The colour again on the contents is very limited enforcing the themed colours of the magazine making it more recognisable to audiences, also so the page isn’t to distracting I want to stick to certain colours and keep the same colours throughout my front cover, contents and double page spread.

The ‘Q-review’ and ‘Every month’ section is a good feature to have on the magazine as it again breaks down the content of the magazine making it even easier to  find what you  want to read. E.g. read the front cover as there is a review on a band’s new album, look it up under contents and go straight to the review section.  

The composition of the contents is very simple and every week we can expect the same type contents page from Q magazine, therefore we go to the same place to look for certain information in the magazine, again this is what I will try to achieve with my magazine contents page. There is not border but we can easily see the framing of the page as the big black and red bars used with the titles keep all the information in order (lined)

Inspirational texts (Front Cover)

Font - The font used on the front cover of this magazine is all the same style, but in different sizes and colours. The main headline ‘muse’ is a bold plain font style with a drop shadow to give it hard edges and make it look a little 3D. The font on sell lines at the top right hand page of the cover is plain bold writing, all in capitals.


Text- The Sell lines at the right side of the page have an effect on reader as they want to read inside the magazine as the headlines may not appeal to them, e.g. reader may not listen to Muse, but could be fan of Ian Brown therefore they would read the cell lines and buy the magazine. The text also connects with the pictures, as there’s a picture of Matt Bellamy smashing the ‘Q’ logo with a guitar then the headline Matt Belamy is out of control, this shows he could mean many things, his behaviours out of control, his music is out of control, this appears a question to the reader and makes them want to find out what it means. The left bottom corner of the page are more sell lines of what articles are in the magazine, here the publisher/editor are trying to appeal to the biggest genre range as possible from Rock to Coldplay, then to R&B artist Dizzee Rascal, and also TV presenters Ant & Dec.


Colour and lighting- The colour on the front page is very limited, using light and dark shades of grey for the background layer with low key lighting. Then where the Q logo there is a bright red and where the top right side of the logo you can see which direction the light is coming from as there is a bright patch at the top of the page. The only other colours on the page is white and black but the black can be represented with the light and dark greys, then there are different shades of red and the white bold writing that stands pot against the dark background. The main picture of Matthew Belamy is in the centre of the page set in low key lighting, although the only shadow is his legs that makes two lines on the floor and are cut off at the bottom left corner of the picture, although this does show that the picture was shot in low key lighting as he had a shadow his own body but was cut off.


Framing – the framing of the magazine is simple, there is the main attraction in the centre of the page (the picture of Matt Belamy) there is the Q logo in the top left corner; this is in the same place every time the magazine is published. Then you have the Sell lines listed down each side of the page. The cover doesn’t have a border apart from the thin black box along the top filled with white writing making it stand out as its the only part of a border the magazine has.


Body language/staging and Composition – the body language and staging of this shot of Matt Belamy had him in the centre of page with him leaning to the right hand side swinging the guitar with a hateful look on his face. He is shown to be smashing the Q sign with the guitar. He is only standing on one foot so he could be about to jump in the air, or he could have already jumped and is landing on the floor again. Overall the body language and composition of this shot shows movement. The design is very simple using one big picture with two rows of sell lines. Also the colours are limited to around three different shades of greys whites and reds. Overall the front cover is pretty simple and easy to follow.

Deconstruction Front Cover

With this front cover I like the way the image is on the right side of the page and the composition of Alex and Miles both dressed in black same hair style and standing back to back, this also makes the white text stand out against the background. Although I dont like that there is only a very small part of the left side leftover for text I think it looks unproffesional and I think it would have looked better if there was more space or if the text moved to the shape of the image. i like the title (NME) and how alex's head hides part of the sign, this also makes the image stand out and seem arguably detached from the background. Another idea id like to take from this front cover is that I like the back circle with the writing inside, it grabs the readers attention as it doesnt blend in with the rest of the sell lines. I like the conventional traits the magazine has like the three main colours black red white, this is so the audience dont get too distracted from the main features like the image and sell lines etc. by lots of ditracting colours, it would also look very unprofessional. even though its only a small part of the front cover i dont like the yellow text that has been used, it looks out of place and messy.   

Brief

I am choosing to complete the print task for my coursework. I will create a front page, contents page and a double page spread for a music magazine. I present my record my research and planning to show  my progress and how my ideas improve and develop.