Magazine Double Page Spread Research

This double page spread is from RWD magazine. On the both pages you can see that the story concerns The Black Eyed Peas is on there.

On the double page spread you will be able to see that unlike the front cover of the magazine only four colours have been used.

If you look at the typeface on the left hand side of the page you will be able to see that the font looks quite young and funky. This suggests that the magazine is trying to keep up with the young generation because if they see something funky like this then they would instantly take an interest in reading the contents of the article. Also including an image of The Black Eyed Peas, a famous band in today's musical culture, would help to encourage the people to see what the advertisement is all about because of their popularity with so many people. This also suggests that RWD are trying to keep up to date with the latest singers in order to keep the readers interest.



The main image shows how three members of the band are washed out whereas the other remaining member isn't. This suggests that he is the main member of the band and in doing this the readers will want to find out what stories the magazine has got to offer on all four members of the band. You can also see the main image of them covers the whole of the left page and the majority of the right page as well. This implies that 

This double page spread has got a clear layout which makes it easier for the readers but there is quite a lot of text on there. This can be seen as a negative concept because not every young person enjoys seeing things that has more images so than text so I know that this is a factor that I will have to consider when I am making my double page spread.

Magazine Front Covers Research

Kerrang is a popular magazine that is mainly aimed at those who are interested in the rock and roll genre type of music. The main colours that have been used on the magazine front cover are black, red, white and beige. The use of these constant colours suggests that this magazine is constantly trying to put across the same theme and same ideas to its target audience as well as other people that take an interest in the magazine and its ideas. These colours fit the general association that concerns Goths and Emos because these are colours that they tend to wear.

Kerrang sounds like a loud noise that a guitar would make when the amplifier is increased and, as rock music is associated with being loud - the name for this magazine just seems appropriate. If you look at the typeface on the masthead it looks like shattered glass and the loud guitars could be the cause of this. This is suitable for the front cover of the magazine because that is normally the effect that the amplifying sound from guitar would have. The masthead has been placed above the main image with the bottom section of it slightly layered over the main image.

According to Wikipedia, publishing for Kerrang first commenced on the 7^th of June 1981. Initially, Kerrang was only supposed to be published on a one-off basis but since that day, Kerrang has become one of the most popular music magazines that are around today. The message tries to put across is mainly for those who are stereotypically known as Emos and Goths. The styles of music that are mentioned in the magazines help to promote the magazines sales because people would be interested in the latest bands and singers so if the magazine includes this in their magazine then people will go out and buy the magazine.

Kerrang mainly targets the teenagers and the young adults because they are the ones that tend to have more of an interest in this genre of music. Having this magazine would enable these music lovers to have something other than the internet, television or radio as a source of where to get the latest music, gossip and information from. The reason that you can tell this magazine targets the younger generation is because the bands on here such as Slipknot, are bands that the generation of today would listen to.

I personally am not a fan of rock music so I don't really have any interest in reading this magazine, however, I will be able to use some of the ideas that they have got and incorporate them into my magazine. I would also be able to use the messages that they convey to their readers and do something similar with the readers of my magazine.

RWD is a magazine that focuses on the Grime, Hip Hop, Dubstep, Pop, House and R'n'B music. RWD magazine is short for ReWinD Magazine and the use of this abbreviation suggests that. On the front of this magazine edition you will be able to see that the main colours on the front cover are: white, orange, green, yellow, black, turquoise and pink. The use of these different colours suggests the clashing of different genres fusing together as one. The main image is of young people and the designs on there are young and funky which appeals to its target audience because nowadays young people are into all of these different colours and mixing them together.

RWD first became exclusive to the public in 2003 (a time where some of the music genres that this magazine focuses on where becoming well-known in the underground music circles. that magazine connects to them and something that they are very passionate about.

If you look at the masthead of the magazine you will be able to see that the ‘R’ is in a circle and has two triangles on its left. This is similar to the rewind symbol and using a technique like this is something would come of interest to the target audience because they would want to see what others interesting factors the magazine has got to offer other than the fancy images, texts and designs on the front cover of the magazine.

Similarly to Kerrang, RWD targets young teenagers to young adults seeing as they are the ones they tend to have an interest in these different genres and they are also the ones that tend to create these types of music.

Liking these styles of music could make it quite easy for me to incorporate some of the ideas of this magazine into my magazine. For example, I can use a range of different colours without using too many colours at the same time.

VIBE magazine is a magazine that is based on R'n'B music. Looking at the front cover of this magazine you will be able to see that the main colours that have been used on there are: green and white, which makes the magazine come across as simplistic and it gives out the message to its target audience.

The name 'VIBE' sounds like something one person would receive from another person maybe through song or personality. This means that maybe the magazine is trying to send different 'vibes' to the readers of the magazine.

This magazine targets, just like the other two magazines, young teenagers and young adults. The main in image on the magazine would help to get people to buy the magazine because the main image is of Chris Brown. Chris Brown is an extremely popular singing sensation with the youths of today so using him as the main image would encourage more people to want to buy the magazine to see what story is concerning Chris Brown. This would cause more popularity for the magazine because the reader knows that the next time they would like to purchase the magazine they will find new stories about other popular singers.

When it comes to making my magazine, I should consider using a suitable image that I know would grab the attention of my target audience and would encourage them to continue reading the contents of the magazine.

Magazine Contents Pages Research

This is the contents page for Kerrang magazine. The colours that have been used on the contents page have been consistent to the ones that are on the front page. Using the same colours on the contents page and the front cover of the magazine implies that Kerrang are trying to put across the same message of consistency to its target audience.

There is a range of different images on the contents page that show what the reader would expect to find the magazine. The contents page shows the main image in the left corner of the page with all of the secondary images boxed around it. With the ratio of images and text you will be able to see that there is quite a bit more text than there is to images. On the contents you will be able to see that the images are all of the latest bands. Using these images would encourage people to want to read on because they would want to see what contents the magazine is going to offer them. This in turn will help to generate more sales for the magazine because similar to the front cover, if readers do not see any interesting content on there then they would not want to continue reading the magazine.

Looking at the contents page, you can see that whatever subjects they have to offer are grouped together. In doing this it will make it easier for the readers to find what they are looking for instead of having to go all the way through the magazine to find what they are looking for. As a whole items on the contents page are easy to locate and this is al positive because people will have more time to read the magazine rather than be looking for what to read.

The second magazine contents page is from RWD magazine. This contents page, unlike the Kerrang magazine does not follow the same color scheme. With this contents page you are able to see that the only colours used are black and white whereas on the front cover the colours used are: white, orange, green, yellow, black, turquoise and pink. The change in colours suggests that RWD are always trying to keep up with things seeing as young people are always changing their interests and mixing and matching is something that young people like to do a lot.

There is only one main image on the contents page and the rest of the page is filled with text. This makes the layout look simple because the image is at the top half of the page and in doing so the reader would find it a bit easier to locate things. Unlike the Kerrang magazine, this contents page is not cluttered but it does have quite a lot of text on there. Young people are not always interested in reading pages filled with text so a mixture of image and text is always a good thing.

The main image is of a young girl breakdancing. This would catch the interest of the youths because this is a concept that features quite heavily in some of their lives so they would continue reading the magazine in order to see what they could personally benefit from it.

Both magazines show different things that I could use in my magazine but there are also different concepts such as the layout and colours that I should consider when I am doing the contents page for my magazine.

Preliminary Task

This is the front cover for my magazine. I went around taking photos, of aspect of the sixth formers even though my magazine can be aimed at the whole school. On this magazine, I have put on there straplines, a kicker, a main image, the date and four secondary images.

I used black, pink and green as the main colours on my front page whereas on the contents page black and red are the only colours that have been used there. I chose to use these colours because I felt that they went well together and they are also colours that I like - personally. Looking at it now I have realised that using these colours seems a bit too much because if you look at the main image you can see a range of different colours and they clash quite a bit the colours especially the lime green.

If you look at the masthead of the magazine then you should be able to see that I layered the main image over the logo and the title then I used the black paintbrush and dabbed it around to shows sections of the masthead and the school logo. The same was also done for the bottom of the magazine but it was done with the white paintbrush. Personally, I don’t think that it makes the magazine come across as suitable. It does make it look quite childish and when it comes to me making my music magazine I think that I should consider this as something that I would be able to change.

I used Nelson (right) and Jordan (left) as the main image on my magazine because being sixth formers, they were representing the image that I wanted to put across and that is that life at Lordswood is not always hard work. In this image you will be able to see that the rule of thirds has not been used and that there is a lot of headroom in this image. In order to improve this next time, I should make sure that I consider the positioning of the models in the photographs and I should also think about the background of the image. Even though the background does quite go with the image as whole, it is quite distracting when the main focus is meant to be on Jordan and Nelson.

The secondary images are a range of different things that do and don't relate to the years 7-11. All of these four secondary relate to the rest of the school in different ways but because my main audience is the sixth formers I just decided to use the images of the sixth formers.

I also did a contents page for the magazine to show what features would be in the magazine if I was going to continue with this magazine. The main image on the contents page is actually the secondary image with the heading of 'Clubs' (which is on the front cover of the magazine). On the main image of the contents page, I used the photocopy filter from Photoshop to change the style of the original image. Similarly, to the main image, I also layered the text beneath the main image and then I used the black paintbrush to show it. It does look quite effective, however, it does not really look suitable for the front cover of a magazine so next time this should also be a factor that I consider when my music magazine is being made.

Overall, I think that there are some aspects of my magazine and front cover that are good, however there are other aspects that I need to take into consideration such as the colour usage when it comes to making my music magazine to ensure that I do not make the same mistakes.