So we've finally started to plan for our own music magazines and here are my drawn up plans of the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

The genre for my magazine is indie music. I decided to feature a character called Zoe Mac. The colour scheme for my magazine will be red, white and black. I decided this because they are quite simple colours that go together. Those colours also arent pointed towards a certain gender. Those colour will be used throughout the cover, contents page and double page spread so that the magazine is consistent. That will be the same for the font which i chose to be quite unique to suit my genre of indie music. My double page spread will be all about the character Zoe Mac. There will be an interview all about her upcoming album.

Mixmag Magazine Analysis

I think Mixmag magazine is all about dance and clubbing music which is usually played at raves and parties. I think this because of several reasons including the images and colours used and the content of the magazine.

The image on the front of the magazine is of a man with a blue lined background behind him. The background makes it seem as if the man is in his own little world which is usually the cae with people at clubs and raves who are often doing drugs and/or drinking alcohol.

The colour used on the magazine colour are very bright and stand out alot on top of the dark blue background. The colours are very 'in your face' which is just what clubbing and dance music is like.

The coverlines are very obvious to point out the genre of music such as: 'who parties harder', 'best underground rave', 'free party spirit' and 'return to rave'.

This is what I think the audience profile is for mixmag:

Age: 16-25

Sex: male and female

Class: C1/C2

I think the target audience is people aged 16-25. I think this because that is the age when teenagers and young adults start to rebel against things by going out to parties and doing drugs/drinking alcohol. Also it mentions Ibiza in one of the coverlines. Ibiza is a place where many young people choose to go on holiday and is known to have raves and foam parties there.

The model in the image is around 20 years old. The younger end of my target audience (16) would buy the magazine becaue they want to be like the model who is older than them and looks like he is having fun because he can legally do things like drink alcohol etc.

Contents Page

This is the finished copy of the contents page for my school magazine.

I think the text and images are well laid out. The text is relevant to the images I placed next to it. I also placed an image at the bottom of the page so there was something else to grab the readers attention as well as just the text.
I used the same colours for the contents page as I did for the front cover to make sure the magazine was consistent.
The improvements I would make for my school magazine contents page would be to change the colour scheme to red and yellow to fit the schools colours. I would also use different images. I used the same images on both the contents page and front cover so using different ones would make it more interesting to the reader.

School Magazine

This is the finished copy of the front cover for the school magazine that I designed.

The colour I chose for the background I a light blue. I chose this because it’s a bright colour which I thought would attract people to read the magazine. I also made it that colour so I could blend it in with the colour of the sky on the image so the magazine cover wouldn’t put to ‘put together’. 
I chose the image of the school ground because it is relevant and I thought it would represent the school well. It makes people see the school as a clean, bright, happy and peaceful place to be. I had to edit the photo quite a bit on Photoshop to get it that way a originally the background of the image was very cloudy and looked quite miserable.
To improve the front cover of my school magazine I would change the colours. I would make the colours red and yellow because they are the schools colours so it would look more like it was made for St Marks school and not just any magazine. I would also put another image on there and a few more cover lines to make it look more busy as I think it looks quite plain. I would also include the fact that it is a free magazine to attract more people to read it.

School Magazine

For our next assignment in preparation for making our own music magazine we had to design and create the front cover and contents page for a school magazine. Here are my planning page for it.

Front Cover

Contents Page

Healthy Magazine

For part of the planning for our own music magazine we have to analyse magazines. The first magazine cover we analysed was Healthy.
The cover is the most important part of the magazine because it’s the first thing people see so it has to draw them in and make them want to buy it. The way the cover looks is dictated by the publishing and editorial strategy that it is designed to put across.
There are tow selling lines on the cover of Healthy magazine. The first one, ’The UK’s top selling health magazine’, draws the reader in by saying it’s a popular magazine so therefore it must be good. The second selling line, ‘Your natural health expert’, says a bit more about the magazine. The vocabulary used draws the reader in. By saying natural, the reader immediately thinks no toxins or chemicals and by saying expert the reader thinks professional advice.
The main cover line and important cover lines are shown on the left side of the cover because in shop where not all of the cover is shown it still needs to draw the reader in, this is called the left third. This also means that the title must be easily recognised so the publishers use a recognisable typeface so that in cases where only the left third of the magazine is shown regular readers can recognise the magazine and pick it up quickly and easily.
The image on the front of the magazine is important because it is usually the biggest and most upfront feature on the cover. There is usually only a single image however multiple images may be used to illustrate the contents.
The models in the images are chosen to look younger than the target market (except in teen magazines) because, in the case on Healthy magazine, the readers will want to buy the magazine thinking the advice and tips inside will make them look as young and as healthy as the model.
When the cover image is being shot photographers focus on the eyes with wide-open pupils because it invites the reader in and makes them feel welcomed.
Numbers are used a lot on magazine front covers and the bigger the better. Editors prefer numbers such as 88 (as shown on the flash button on the cover of Healthy’ to 80 because it sounds like there are more things in the magazine.
The colour red is used a lot on the cover because it stands out and contrasts with the blue background. Editors tend to avoid the colour white but I think it has been used in this case because it signifies purity which is related to being healthy.
The month and year (date line) is shown on the cover so in situations like when someone is reading it on a train etc the know how recent or old the magazine is.

Nature Magazine

For our first assignment we had to design and create a nature magazine using photoshop. I found it quite difficult to use photoshop as I had never used it before but I soon learnt the very basics.



I came up with the idea for the title because ‘Al fresco’ means open air in Spanish. I thought this fit the criteria because nature is all about the outdoors and natural substances. It also sounds very crisp and I think it is catchy and something people will remember. The font I used for the title is crisp and fresh which also fit’s the brief for the nature magazine. Although I thought the title and the font I used went well with the specification I think I made it too big and it takes up too much space on the front cover.
The images I used is a picture of a waterfall which is very natural but I think there I too much going on in the image. It I quite distracting and because there is so many different colours in it I couldn’t place and text over it because you wouldn’t be able to read it properly.
The cover lines I put on the cover were both about nature. They are about different types of nature which would attract different people so I would have a wider range of readers but at the same time they fit the brief.
I placed the barcode where it could be seen easily by the customers and they people scanning it in a shop. However because the top part of the magazine is too plain it looks like it I just hanging there and draws too much attention away from everything else. I priced the magazine at £3.99 because it would be a monthly magazine which is high quality and packed full of information.