Mast Head Ideas (Design Wise)

To make my mast head i will use vibrant colours, preferably colour schemes that people are already aware of as people are more likely to look at things that they have seen before.
The font used should be bold and with minimal horizontal spacing, as this makes it feel as if it doesn't  take up much space, but at the same time is still large on the page.
However some more unusual things could be done such as using a thin font, it would be less suitable for a mast head but it is still worth experimenting with
Here are a few things we made in class.

The top one ticks all the boxes, except the colour is too calming and does not really catch your attention. The second one also has similar qualities, but has a unique feel, it does not really fit the purpose either

The last one has some text manipulation and has more suitable colours, i think i will use this for my magazine.

Possible Magazine Content

I would like to get aspiring rappers who are not very big right now, but looks as if they have potential, or better yet are growing rapidly but have not quite made it. I already have a couple of candidates in line for this:
People such as Witt Lowry, or Ivan B.
However people that are well known that will draw them into the magazine would be rappers such as G-Eazy, Logic and Hoodie Allen.


As I will find it hard to get an actual interview with these rappers I will have to use media that hey have already put out to make my articles, this may be things such as lifestyle, clothing, or just about what they have planned to come up. However if they have not put out much information, or they are the main article, I will have to put out information about all 3 in one article.
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Something that could happen regularly in my magazine could be a spotlight for the weeks best underrated rapper. This would not only help smaller rappers get noticed but also give people a chance to find new music. It also means that you do not need to get permission from the rapper & you do not need to try to convince them to give you an interview. There are already lots of you-tube channels such as 'SwagyTracks' (which I hate the name of) dedicated to this sort of thing so it would be easy to find someone each week.
I would name this section; 'Nearly On'.

Target Audience

My target audience is going to have a quite a large range of ages. It will be able to range from 16 - 28. I have done this as rap music and other popular music of similar styles is quite popular with a large age group, as it can fill older people with nostalgia and also younger people with their favourite current music. I have not only picked this type of magazine as it is my favourite music choice, but also because it will fit into the age group that is most likely to buy a magazine (Aged 27 on average).

My target audience will most likely be people in the 'aspirer' category as they care very much about their appearance to others. However they usually are not pushed away from spending a bit more money, than the typical mainstream category. So my target audience may also fall into the Succeeder category. It can cover a wide area, which is good in some aspects but advertisers would find it hard to target the audience very easily.

My target audience will be predominantly male, as the other magazines i have looked at have also had a higher percentage of male readers over female readers. (XXL had more than 60% of their readers as male, from the media kit that i looked at)

My readers will fall mainly around the B, C1 and C2 group as they are not extremely rich but still like to spend a lot of money on luxuries if they can. However there may be a percentage of D as well as they are not all as rich as the rest. There will not be many uneducated people that read my magazine as they will not be educated enough to actually enjoy reading it at all, or wish to spend money on buying a magazine.

Magazine Name

I have decided to call my music magazine:

- PRMNT

As it stands for prominent, a synonym of famous or important, just with a modern kick & a bit of interest to the word
The full capitals will mean that if it is mentioned in another magazine it will be very easily visible and, almost more visible on the page and would jump out on you. It is also similar to other well known magazines such as XXL. Which are also the same style of magazine that I am trying to produce. However my target audience is slightly different to XXL as i am not going for as 'hood' a style of music.

Contents & Cover

 I have finished my cover page & contents page. I thought about the design heavily & i have slimmed it down to making sure that the text was easily visible, the layout was clean, attractive yet easily readable. However the design i feel could have been a bit more suitable for a college magazine and could have done with having more friendly colours and not being grey and red. A blue may have been more suitable as it is a more calming and welcoming colour

I designed a small logo for branding and so that i could have a more clear house style. It is located in the bottom right of each page, and very small.

I think that the cover page could have had a better image that is slightly more suitable for a college magazine as the books in my hand are not quite enough to make it obvious of the subject matter.

I found it hard to make the text readable on the cover page as the image itself was quite a neutral grey and either colour i put over the top of this would have made it hard to read. The blurred invert did not work quite as well as i had hoped, but if you are trying to read it you can still read it.


Other people liked the layout and said that they thought that it looked professional. They also liked the effects that I used, my making images greyscale & overlaying a red shape to tint the image. They also liked the lack of text that was on the cover as it makes it look east to read, they implied that it would make it more likely for someone to pick up.

Article Analysis

The article has a large header text and is very bold and fills the space provided. it is very prominent on the page. The rest of the text is not as bold but is effective in taking up the space. There is a medium sized quote located in the centre of the page which gives you an idea of what the article is orientated around as well as the header itself. The layout is very professional but it means that it is easy to read. There is a very symmetrical feel about this article.
 

The next article uses images a lot too. This seems to be a recurring theme through all the magazines that i have looked at. I think that the text was rather small but the same could be said abotu their cover page. I think that this is just their house style and it used to make the magazine seem more upper class than it actually is and have people be proud to read it. Large texts can be associated with children's books, so small text must do the opposite.

The header text is not noticeable as it is in brackets, but it is still larger than the rest of the articles text so you can tell that it still is technically the header text.

Contents Pages

The NME's contents page contains lots of images and different elements which as a quick glance would make the magazine more exciting. They have promotional offers on brighter areas also which draws attention to them. The text is all roughly the same size however the more important information is in a slightly more quirky font & is usually capitalised. 

The language used makes the magazine seem more fun and laid back, which is what their target audience want, unlike a newspaper which required proper english and no profanity. However the piece of information centred in the page says 'Pete Doberty said to me, You're fucked , you need to go to bed' which is quite possibly the least professional quote they could have used. 

Similarly for XXL they used the use of images to attract the readers attention. This particular contents page is a small list of text alongside another picture of the supposed person on the cover of the magazine.

The header text is in a modern font which is very true to the audience, they like things to be new and fresh, however the rest of the text is very swirly and calligraphic which is still appealing but looks more like a restaurant menu rather than a magazines contents page. I repeat, it is still attractive. The text is more professional and do not allow profanity, the quotes are more interesting than the NME's however are not as large so you are not likely to read them as you are to read the NME's.