mixmag analysis (research)

Planning

After some research into popular music magazines, I have decided that my chosen music genre would be electro, though more specifically chiptune. I have chosen to do this because of the lack of magazines revolving around this genre, as well as my own personal liking for it. Because of my choice, I will be focusing all of my research on magazines that fit the electro genre (of all kinds, including dance music, dubstep, video game music etc.) as well as analysing the typical genre conventions around it and choosing suitable aspects to eventually include in my own magazine.

My main article is going to be about "The Music of Homestuck" which will be covering the amount of artists, albums and songs that are used in the collaborative project, all across the internet. This is going to be a brilliant subject of focus, especially because I'm going to a meetup for fans of Homestuck soon, and so will be able to take a lot of photographs for my cover and for the double page spread.

I intend to experiment with a lot of potential shots and photos, but I also intend on photographing in a safe environment.

The audience that I intend to release this magazine to is most likely radical hedonists, who like to break norms and are interested in things others may not be. Perhaps they are a little stuck in the past, and indulging their lost childhood with old video games and music that reminds them of when they didn't know the world sucked. I also suspect the age range to be from 16-25, maybe pushing it in some scenarios. People outside of this barrier would probably label the older fans as "big kids."

Ideal contents.

Work:

Books:

• Interview with John Green, author of The Fault in our Starts (featured)
• The Casual Vacancy. Is it the new Harry Potter?
• Book recommendations and reviews from readers
• Book of the week

Art:

• Spooky student only exhibition
• A look into local artists

Work:

• How to ace any interview
• Revision tips from readers
• Used cars cheap. Why buy new?

Play:

Events:

• Local even set up for charity. Music, drinks and fun!
• Exclusive coverage on Edinburgh Fringe Festival
• New bar with live music! Opening night 15th October

Music:

• Big Fun, music of the generation
• How to take part in local bands
• Why the charts are rubbish
• Top ten songs of the week

Films:

• Reviews and comments
• The Dark Knight vs Dark Knight Rises
• Read It First.
• 
  

Magazine cover and contents

After a week or so, I have finally composed my magazine cover for my student magazine.

Production schedule

• First I will photograph my modal(s) to fit my front cover design. Various props and make-up options are possible, though not entirely necessary. Experiment with various degrees of light and shadow (etc.) as well as different backgrounds (maybe working with a green screen.)
• Second, I will think of possible cover lines (this plays into working on the contents page) and experiment with fonts for the title.
• Thirdly, I will arrange all of these things together, making sure that the cover lines are clear, but also doesn't obstruct the modal's face, so that audiences are still drawn in and want to buy the magazine.
• Finally, I need to put it all together with appropriate fonts and images.

Magazine covers

Our fifth task in the first module was to create a rough design for a potential magazine cover. I composed three possible ideas, which I sketched up (incredibly roughly) before deciding which one to go with.

I was told that one wasn't a medium shot of a student (which I can see, as the people have their faces cut in half)

The second sketch is the one that I'm going to work with, as it includes everything the first sketch has, as well as the medium shot. 

The third sketch is a little boring, to be honest.

I sketched the second one up in a better style, to get more of an insight as to what it would look like.                                                               

How will I communicate these connotations? (referring back to The Student Magazine)

• Hard-working - A way that one of the magazines I analysed did this was by making the cover photo a picture of a boy doing work. To the side of him, he has a board, with equations and scribbles on them. For all we know, he could have been doing something else entirely, but we trust the magazine that they're showing us a hard-working student, as opposed to a lazy one. This could, of course, be an option. Another option is to have lots of cover lines showing for more educational side of the magazine, rather then the most interesting articles and the ones my target market would like to read. I think I'm going to go with the first choice rather then the latter, because I have reason to believe that it would sell better with those in my target market. 
• Fun, energetic, lively - The first magazine I analysed had a lot of interesting articles, highlighting television, gaming, gadgets, fashion and music, showing that some students will be interested in other things besides studying and school, that they like to have fun as well. The lively could easily be achieved with right colour choices and bright colours with the images (example, the white text over the  green grass. White text stands out more on any colour)
• Simple, easy, tidy - As you can see, each headline is laid out clearly and easily, the interesting articles at the centre of the page (revision tricks uncovered, all caps!), the other main articles to the left of the page (television and gaming, oddly) and articles that not everyone may be into at the bottom of the page (gadgets, fashion and music) Each tag for the article block are in a different colour, sectioning it off well, and let us know what we want to look at.