First Layout Drafts

Here are four layouts for my magazine, let me know which you think will work best. (The band picture will appear to the left side, the heads being near the top and naturally legs/feet at the bottom)

Fonts!

Please comment letting me know your favourite font out of these :)

The Treatment - EP Magazine

The Magazine:  EP

 

Target Readership:  EP is a magazine targeting a similar audience to the already existing Q Magazine, published by the Bauer Media Group, which is described as “Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don't define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion”.

 

EP will be read by those who are indeed open minded when it comes to music, but more specifically an audience that is interested in discovering new and upcoming indie, underground or little-known bands (hence the name, EP). The age target will be from around 15 to 20 years old as these are typically the ages in which people are interested in new, upcoming indie music. In terms of finance, the 15-20 age groups will likely be able to purchase EP themselves out of their earnings or pocket money in the C1/C2 classes. The audience of my magazine will mostly be men interested in gigs, musical interests, and high expenditure on music in general.  EP readers will tend to be musically aware or talented, with greater appreciation for new types of music and the background behind it. They will also be people with a wide interest in various bands and music genres that influence indie music in some way. EP readers will be those with aspirations in the music industry or those wanting inspiration from artists. Readers will be those who have music as a main part of their life, not afraid to actively search out music on the internet, be recommended new bands/groups and listen to older music that is not as popular as modern day music.

 

Form and Style:  EP is an A4 full colour magazine which contains interviews, album reviews, roundups of collections/records, gig coverage, news and new/alternative bands or groups. Covers use models of approximately the same age group as the target audience and use non-garish colours such as blues and purples, with appearances of clashing colours to highlight things (e.g. green).  EP will regularly feature unknown, new, or up and coming bands on the front cover, to introduce readers to them and intrigue them to buy and read EP.  Cover lines will be related to the above mentioned albums reviews, interviews (Though this will often be the main headline), news etc. Graphics used will be to try and show the audience that this magazine is good value for money, with sticker-like graphics and turned-page graphics creating a jam packed front cover whilst remaining refined.  The magazine will sell at £2.75, a new pricing scheme for a fortnightly EP issue rather than the usual monthly or weekly.

 

Themes and Typical features:  EP will have many regular features typical to that of indie or alternative magazines such as Q.  Every issue will include gig coverage, album or band reviews, and interviews with artists as well as (if possible) a new band each issue.  There will be a strong focus on indie music although it is not solely indie and covers new genres as well. EP will also attempt to include reader opinions on reviews and gig coverage, though this will obviously not be in the first issue. The magazine will also include the latest news from the alternative/indie scene and articles could include things such as music lessons, advice, tips and tutorials the writers will use language familiar to the target audience to make the magazine, using some technical music vocabulary, showing that the audience will have to be knowledgeable to read the magazine.

 

Potential advertisers:  A range of brands will advertise in the magazine each week, particularly those relating to the typical interests of musically interested people. These will include game advertisements from companies such as Ubisoft, EA Games or Bethesda Softworks. Adverts will naturally also include album adverts for recently released or upcoming releases. New band DVD releases could be included, such as “The Beatles – Cirque du Soleil” .Finally, there will naturally be adverts with details of upcoming gigs and events.

 

Editorial Team:  The editorial team for EP will be made up of experienced writers and designers from Extended Play Media Group. The team will be mostly made up of young, musically interested and experienced men around the 20 year old mark, however, readers of the magazine will also regularly be asked to contribute their ideas in the form of e-mail or letters and older writers can contribute to the classic/older music features. The team will do extensive research on competing magazines to attempt to include fresh articles that the competition isn’t including, or are doing so only on a vague/basic level  The aim of the team is to bring fresh ideas to the target audience whilst also having a wealth of reliable experience.

Audience Research Survey Results

I used speedsurvey to gather information on you guys, which helped greatly. Unfortunately, it only runs up until 25 respondents, then wants you to pay to see the results. However, i was lucky enough to view the results just before it went over and can remember a substantial amount. The answers were as close to as follows:

Are you male or female?

24 Respondents MALE

1 Respondent FEMALE

--- This shows me my target audience will largely be male and could shape the content for them.

What age range are you in?

About 40% of people were in the 21-30 age rage

About 50% were in the 15-20 age range

The other 10% was spread to the ages above 30.

--- This shows me that i am mostly aiming for a fairly young, teenagers and those in their twenties audience, so will have to include modern content and also enables me to refine my content to specifically cater for this age range.

If any, which music magazines do you currently read? (if none, put none)
and what do you find good or bad about your current choice of magazine?

The majority of the respondents did not currently read a music magazine, but those that did liked their magazine because of the genre of music it covered. None read Kerrang! however, showing that perhaps the popularity for a weekly rock-based magazine is fading. The magazines that were read were NME and Q because they liked the bands they covered. The things they did not like was incorporation of things too mainstream into the mags.

---The lack of people actually reading a magazine from the respondents shows there is something missing from the current market, which of course i am aiming to fill with my indie-based magazine. The complaints about mainstream content should not be a problem with my magazine, as most of the bands i would feature would be new, underground and indie bands. The NME and Q genres are not a far cry from my genre, so it bodes well for me that they like their genres.

What would you look for in a music magazine in terms of features/articles? AND What would you AVOID in a music magazine?

Preferred features:

• Interviews
• Album Reviews
• Gig coverage
• Simple, clean page designs
• Free gifts (e.g. CDs)
• Roundups/collections of records you should buy

Disliked features:

• Adverts
• Bad page layouts/over complex
• Text that is too small to read properly
• Garish colours
• Overly critical/trashy reviews

---My response to this is fairly simple, try and include the liked features and avoid doing anything in the disliked section. I plan to make page layouts as intuitive and clean as possible with easy to read text and stick to my intended blue themed design (not garish). I can also try to include the liked features, which shouldn't be too difficult.

What is your favourite genre of music?

There was almost one vote for every genre of music, but the main focus was on trance and indie (with 4 votes each).

---As trance will not be appearing in my genre of magazine, the preference for indie is a good indication that i am targeting the right market.

Would you prefer a more expensive monthly magazine, or a cheaper weekly mag?

The spread here was fairly even, with a slight preference for monthly.

---This was interesting to have as a result and made me think about going away from the normal two trends of weekly or monthly and go straight down the middle at a fortnightly magazine (allowing more time to save for the magazine, and alleviating pressure to buy it weekly) so that it is a good all rounder.

What sort of price range would you be expecting to pay for a WEEKLY magazine?

Most people here voted for the £2.00-£2.50 bracket, with a few in the bracket below in £1.50-£1.99.

How much you expect to pay for a MONTHLY magazine?

Most people here voted for the £2.99-£3.49 mark, with a couple going for the above bracket £3.50-£4.00

---As the above prices are fairly close together, i think my earlier idea of a fortnightly magazine is a wise one. I could set the price inbetween these two brackets at £2.75 and make it fornightly, so that it isnt as expensive as a monthly, is only slightly more expensive than a weekly one yet would potentially have double the content. 

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Overall, i think my audience research survey helped me to make many decisions and had enabled me to focus my magazine's content and can now complete a treatment  sheet in the near future.

1st Photoshoot Edited Results

Here we go, edited versions from the photoshoot.

Now contains: 4 individual band member shots, likely for use on the double page spread somewhere, the front cover and two images or the contents page.

Front cover (Auto-Tone, Contrast + Colour in Photoshop CS4):



Contents Page Photos: (Saturation up 5%, Auto-Tone, Contrast + Colour in Photoshop CS4)




Individual shots, for double page spread:


(Clone Tool along with healing brush, blur and smudge tool used to cover up tarnished wall with the blue board in Photoshop CS4)

(Auto Tone and Contrast, colour left original in Photoshop CS4)

(Black levels up, clone tool used to eliminate cables, patches on the walls etc, rendered spotlight effect on the subject from top right, Auto-Tone, Contrast and Colour used)

(Crop of original image to focus on Gareth, 75 points of sharpening applied in RAW editor in Photoshop CS4)

Colour Research

I found this chart on the Internet to help me decide which colours to use (i.e. which compliment each other and which clash) as i was having difficulty deciding on what colour scheme to use.

Being an indie based magazine, EP isn't refined to dark colours like a rock magazine would be, or light ones for a Smash Hits! type magazine.

As the red side of the scale is already used for Q magazine, i think i will choose something different to this. Greens and yellows i think are too garish for my magazine and will not stand out well against a colour picture. It is because of this, i think i will go for a blue-themed magazine, perhaps using the occasional clashing colour for emphasis of cover/healines.

Please comment if you have any objections to this, otherwise i will assume everyone happy with my choice :)

1st Photoshoot results:

I have narrowed the photos down to two available for use on the contents page, one available for use somewhere on the double page spread, one for the front cover but currently there are none available for the double page spread yet. I will post again with edited versions which will hopefully look better. :)

Here are my best ones, followed by the alternatives:

Contents page:

Front Cover:

Appearances on Double Page:

And, some others which i don't believe fit the bill as well as the ones i have selected, yet i will post just in case people rock the vote en masse :)