Isobel Hewitt NEA 2025

Planning Task 4 : Front Cover Design

Main Coverline:

For my first edition of my magazine front cover, the main coverline will be:

Finn Johnson: Student Turned Rockstar

The font for the main coverline on cover 1 will be Kingsley Rockstar. This replicates a signature and can be perceived as Johnson's actual autograph which creates a level of familiarity with the audience and artist.

For my second edition of my magazine front covers, the main coverline will be:

Emily Campbell: London's Latest Star

The font for the main coverline on cover 2 will be Brush Signature. This gives the feel of Emily's autograph and carry on the pattern of signature-like fonts for main coverlines which connects covers 1 and 2.

I have chosen these main coverlines because they hit different demographics inside the set brief's target audience of 16-25 year olds through 'student' and 'London'. A significant proportion of people inside this demographic are students either in secondary school, sixth form or college or in university. Therefore, the first edition's main coverline directly addresses this key demographic and appeals to them by promoting someone they can relate to being an ex-student.

The second edition's main coverline targets people who live in or around London mainly because of the explicit mention of London in the main coverline. London is also the capital of England and is an extremely famous city globally so those international audiences who have never visited London would be intrigued by my second main coverline. Furhermore, it appeals even more through the alliteration with 'London's Latest' that sounds pleasing to a reader.

Other Coverlines

Music to your ears / Best Songs of the Month (2)
Live it cheaper! / Best Gigs for the Best Prices (1)
Live like a pop star / One Week with Winona Riley (1)
Feminism in Music / The women fighting for equality in pop (2)
How to... / Guide to find the best new music (1)
EXCLUSIVE / Interviews with Reading and Leeds' headliners (2)

The coverlines above are what I plan to position around the model in the main image of my front covers to entice the reader to read more of my magazine and, subsequently, buy it. They are shorter and snappier coverlines than coverlines with kickers and teasers because my aim for my front cover is for it to not look overcrowded. The font for the coverlines will be Dream Orphans.

The coverlines address a wide range of subjects that music fans aged 16-25 year olds would be interested in like

Images

This images shows some initial outlines of potential images for my front cover and poses that my models could do. When I am taking photos, I can experiment with my model to see what fits and looks the best. To comply with the set brief of reaching two different social groups, one model will be female and one will be male.

Some vary from having direct gaze with the camera and audience whilst some do not eg, they are looking into the distance or they are playing the piano. The models in the images will pose as up and coming pop music artists that are being promoted in the main coverline and are being exclusively interviewed by my magazine for their future tours and albums. This addresses the audience research I conducted where most people wanted to see interviews, future events and promotion of new artists to the music industry as content in their music magazine; this increases the appeal of my magazine towards audiences making it more likely that they will buy a copy.

Page Furniture

On my two music magazine front covers, I will use a variety of page furniture to produce the covers.

Firstly, I will use content plugs at the top of my front covers that name other artists that is not main artist in the images or main coverline. The names include:

Lana Del Rey
Daisy Wilson
Naseer Aziz
Sam Fender
Elise Benoît
Tom Walters

The font I will use will be Dream Orphans, like the coverlines which will create consistency on the page between the coverlines and content plugs. The combination of names of already famous artists and 'new artists' shows that my magazine promotes new musicians but does feature pre-existing and successful music artists. This appeals to the audience and fans of those singers because they are connecting with their favourite artist whilst finding more. It also increases the attractiveness of my magazine because, in my research, I found that mainstream music dominates audience's interests so by having interviews with them and chances to win tickets to their concerts, I widen the potential market for my magazine.

Furthermore, the variety in names from different cultures and nations, eg, i-cirmcumflex, implies to readers that the magazine has international appeal and markets itself to all cultures.

I will also include a puff on the first edition to advertise that it is the first edition and thus it is half price to attract readers. It will say First Edition, Half Price! Therefore, the price will be slashed from the usual retail price of £4.99 to £2.50.

I will use a banner puff in the bottom right corner to promote the puzzle/game in the magazine that would help the reader win tickets for future gigs.

The date of publication will be incorporated into the mastead at the top of the page eg, on the other side of the stem of the 'p'. The barcode will be placed in the bottom left corner of the front cover.

Planning Task Three: Masthead Design

The first image uses Impact font for the masthead and Poplar Std for the strapline.

The second image uses Romanica as the font for the masthead and Gill Sans MT Condensed for the strapline.

The third image uses Roman Font 7 in the masthead and Gill Sans MT Condensed for the strapline.

The fourth image uses Call of Ops Duty as the masthead and Orator Std as the strapline.

The fifth image uses speedrace in the masthead and orator for the strapline.

The last images use Nortune font for the masthead and Vallite for the strapline.

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In conclusion, I will use the first image of the Nortune font and Villate font because it is simple and easy to read for all but still has some edge and something different to it. The strapline font counteracts the boldness of the masthead and adds an element of humanity to the magazine because the font mimics handwriting. However, when it comes to production, the strapline will be smaller to ensure that it looks like a strapline. This connotes to the audience that although the masthead is bold and eye catching, the content of the magazine is centred around people and music.

Planning Task 2: 60 Second Pitch

Planning Task One : Magazine Title and Strapline

I have chosen 'Apollo' as my music magazine title because he is the Greek and Roman god of music and I think it would intrigue the target demographic into reading the magazine. Apollo is one of the four main gods in Greek mythology which connotes strength and superiority onto my magazine.

For my strapline, I have chosen 'The Temple of Pop Music' because it enkeeps with the Greek mythology theme of the title whilst referencing the genre of my music magazine, pop music. 'Temple' is associated with worship and suggests that my magazine is where readers come together to celebrate pop music.

Research Task Nine : Target Audience Research And Analysis

For my research into audiences for the independent music magazines, I compiled a survey full of questions and sent it out to 27 people who then answered the questions. Questions in the survey spanned from 'what is your gender' to 'what content would you like to see in a music magazine'. The target of the survey was to find out the wants and interests that relate to music and music magazines; it was designed to give me a better idea of what to include in my magazine that would appeal to the audience more.

Eighteen girls and seven boys answered my survey with the majority aged 16-18 years whereas 6 were aged 19-21 years and 2 were 22-25 years. This shows that the results I have received are from a variety of sources and demographics which gives me unbiased results.

The highest rated favourite music genre is pop with 11 votes but many answers to 'what is your favourite music genre' had two answers which reflects the later question that of whether they think they have an eclectic music taste; 80% said they did. The most popular artists, according to the survey, was Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Lana Del Ray who are the most popular female artists in mainstream music right now. This shows that mainstream music dominates the music industry and fan's interests so to make a new music magazine, it seems that already famous artists would attract more of an audience on the first edition.

Furthermore, nearly half of people voted for pop music being the main genre of music for a new music magazine with rock, rap, and indie alternative being the only other answers to get more than one vote. This shows me that I should focus my magazine on pop music to appeal to a greater proportion of people.

Most of the responses in the survey say that they don't buy music magazines but the reasons for why vary: they use online platforms to find the latest music information, they are too expensive or there is no content in the magazine that interests them. I then followed on by asking how people get there information about music and, as seen below, the answer was overwhelmingly (92.6%) for social media which tells me that having a social media page is highly effective and beneficial for a music magazine. This is because social media platforms are more widely used by younger people and people in the 16-25 year old demographic.

The answers to the gigs/concerts questions on whether people go to many music events was more equally weighted: 13 answers were yes and the rest were no but mostly because ticket prices are expensive. However, many communicated their want to go to a concert but the only reason they can't is because of the prices. This shows me that there is a gap in the market for affordable concerts to be filled and that my magazine could promote these to bring in readers. This is shown in the pie chart below that shows the proportion of answers for what type of content readers would want to see in a new music magazine; a good proportion of the answers wanted to know about future music events.

To another question on what special features on a magazine, like CDs, specialised playlists etc, would appeal to the audience the most, the majority of the answers wanted codes to access presale tickets for concerts and possibly discounts off the tickets because they bought the magazine.

In terms of how much money people would ideally spend on a music magazine, 51.9% voted for between 4 to 6 pounds and 48.1% voted for 2 to 4 pounds so, to be affordable to people in age group (16 to 25), who are usually students or starting in low paying jobs so they don't have as much money, a lower price is the smarter choice than going expensive and trying to maximise revenue.

Reflection Point : What Have I Learned About Independent Music Magazine Websites?

Through my research into independent music magazine websites, I have learnt that there are common conventions that are used consistently. For example, hyperlinks were used in every website I looked at; this shows that hyperlinks are generic conventions for independent music magazine websites. When clicked on, hyperlinks take the reader to another page of the website, this can include an article/story that the magazine has promoted, a link straight to the album of a featured artist or just to a more specific page of information like how to contact the magazine. This provides easy navigation for the audience around the website so they have a pleasant experience because, if they don't have a good, fustration-free experience on the website, it is more likely that they won't visit the website again.

Furthermore, the masthead is always at the top of the page to signify whose website it is. The masthead is in the same typography as it on the front cover of the magazine, however, the colour may change depending on the colour scheme of the page. This communicates consistency and familiarity to the audience so they know that they are not going to get any surprises or differences in the content on the website compared to the content in the magazine.

Most websites show a copy of the front cover on the homepage of the website so they can maximise the promotion of the main revenue generator. The sale of the physical copies of the magazine are the primary source of revenue for the magazine so by showing that to the audience on the website it reaches a wider demographic. Nearby the front cover on the homepage is also other options of how to acquire a copy of the magazine digitally or buy a subscription, this increases the chances of a reader investing money into the magazine.

The layout of an independent music magazine website is simple and spacious; this ensures that the reader does not get overwhelmed with the amount of content that is featured. Typically, three or four columns are used to divide the content: two for articles with hyperlinks to the whole story and one or two columns for smaller and more brief hyperlinks that usually promote events or gigs that are happening. The brands take advantage of the infinite canvas that a digital website provides and they feature as many prime stories as they can but they update them reguarly to keep the content fresh and reader interested. The colour palette implemented on the websites is minimalistic and the background is, typically, all white which allows the reader's attention to be drawn to the colourful pictures that anchor the stories and articles which increases the likelihood that the audience will click on them and read the content.