Artist Profile

 I created an artist profile, using words and images that I think will some up my artist. For example, I've included a picture of Billie Joe Armstrong's guitar, which is very brightly coloured and looks like it is done with graffiti. Pop-Rock is a genre that will catch your eye, like this guitar. I have also included some music videos of songs that fit into the Pop-Rock category, including So What? by P!nk, and Mr Brightside by the Killers. These songs are very different but both fall into the Pop-Rock genre, and I think that it is good to show this, because Pop-Rock does cover such a broad spectrum of artists. Designing my artists profile was useful, because it has allowed me to analyse the images of people based in this genre, which I will be basing the outfit my model wears around. Also, it allowed me to analyse the bright colours that I will need for a magazine of this genre.

Shot list (Front cover/contents page)

I've created a list of the shots that I am going to need for my magazine of my model. First of all, I will need a shot of my model for the front cover of my magazine.

I will be using a medium close up shot for my front cover, which I have decided from studying the two magazine covers above. I like the way that each image fills up all the space on the page, which I think it important, but there is enough room for text around the edge to be added in. Each magazine also has an angle of gaze as well, so I will be including that on my front cover. 

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I will be using a medium long shot for my contents page, the image of which is based on this picture:

Therefore, I want my model to be standing in the same stance as the man in the picture. I will have the text for the contents page appear in the same place as on the image as well.

Pop-Rock Genre (Prezi)

I made this prezi about the genre of my magazine, Pop-Rock, including some of the previous artists that have represented the genre, as well as some of the magazines that currently cater for it. Looking at previous artists in the Pop-Rock genre was helpful, as it gave a clear idea of the kind of music that my magazine would be looking at, as well as informing about the sort of artists that would appear in my music magazine.

Rock-Pop/Indie Magazine Cover Mood board

I created a mood board of magazine covers, and am looking at the defining details of all the magazine covers. I wanted to find an interesting way of presenting my mood board, and so I did it as a Youtube video. It has also allowed me to get a good look at things such as colour schemes and fonts.

From looking at the mood board, the first colour that stands out to me is red. This only highlights that red is a colour that I should include in my music magazine. Also, the boldest things on the covers will be the name of the magazine, and the artist included on the cover. Also, there will never be much space on the cover; instead, every little gap will have something filling it, to make sure there isn't a lot of space left over to make the magazine cover look empty.

Reader Profile

For my reader profile, I asked my best friend to type up a description of herself, including her favorite genre of music, artists and what she likes in music magazines. This is because she likes the genre of music that I'm thinking of making a magazine on, and therefore, I think she fits the description for a good reader profile.

"Hi! My name is Meghan, I’m sixteen years old and I live in South Norwood. I study Spanish, history, art and product design. I love art, and drawing, and bright colour in general! Also in my spare time, I enjoy reading, going to the cinema and watching movies, and going to concerts. I love doing that as well- my best friend Holly and I go too a lot of shows together. Over the years, we’ve been to festivals like Slam Dunk and Butserfest (which is really good because it is for under twenty one’s so there’s no drinking or anything there), and we went to see Green Day perform in the Emirates Stadium, which was so cool! I don’t really have a favourite genre of music, but I don’t really like rap. I suppose I enjoy pop-rock, or acoustic music? Some of my favourite artists are Don Broco, Lower Than Atlantis and Mallory Knox, who are all quite rock-ish. I like music magazines that have a lot of colour, but not ones that I have to buy weekly, because that can get a little expensive. Ideally, I like monthly magazines, because they tend to be more suitably priced, and seem to have a lot more in them." 

Interview Analyzing 3 Different Magazine Covers

For my focus group, I spoke to my brother as he is a teenager, and like Indie/rock-pop music, which is a genre I am considering doing my magazine on. It was useful getting his perspective, as he likes art and designing, so looking at the magazine covers and getting his opinion on them was very useful.

The covers I used were:

1)

2) NME

3) Q Magazine

I chose each of these magazine covers, because I think they are all quite different to each other, and they all have different qualities. Therefore, there are different things to draw upon from them, such as the size and style of the artist on the cover.

From listening to what my brother said, having bold clear fonts is a must. It must be clear and easy to read, but not over take the image. Again, we realized that bright colours quickly attract more attention, like with the second image. The fact that it uses the primary colours makes it effective, because they contrast with one another, and make it bolder and brighter. It was also effective that there were more pictures on the second magazine, which was something that both magazines 1 and 3 didn't do. On the third magazine, there was a lot of colour, but maybe not enough text and my brother pointed out that he didn't like the fact that it isn't obvious who else is featured in the magazine. It is therefore important to include other artists featured in the magazine so that it appeals to more than one person.

Another common feature in all these magazine covers is that they both feature the colour red quite heavily. The red is a loud, eye catching colour, which tells me that red is a colour that I must use when creating my magazine. I should ideally also include more than one image on the front cover, but also make sure there is the correct amount of text; not to much, not to little. 

Research Rationale

I will be able to talk to my friends and ask them some questions about what music magazines they read/what genre of music that they like. I’m going to create a survey, in which I will ask people questions about music magazines that they buy/how much they’re willing to pay for a magazine/what makes them buy a magazine, and will present the survey answers in an interesting way on the blog (I’m not sure how yet).

I will organise a focus group and create a video with an interesting and hopefully unique way of organising the people that I interview (I am going to try and make it like I’m conducting a science experiment). This is because I want to find a different way of presenting my focus group, whilst showing that I can present my work in a variety of tasks. I will also conduct a survey, to find out what genres of music people enjoy the most/what they like in music magazines. This is because I need to find questions to ask my focus group and I can base my questions of off what I find in the surveys. I am also going to ask my friend as topics of conversation what kind of magazines they are interested in, so I can find out what they like in magazines without it having to be on a camera, and this will give me an idea of what to base my questions for the survey on.

I will need a camera that can record videos, as well as a focus group to actually work with. I’m going to set up a day when people can come and be a part of my focus group. Also, I will need to use sureveymonkey.com to create a survey to send to people for them to complete.