Above is the moodboard that represents my younger target audience of 16-25 year olds. The moodboard shows how the youth of today frequently indulge in todays party lifestyle as seen with the images of club events and Carlsberg adverts. Images of singing round a campfire shows the laid back, care free attitude of the 16-25 age bracket. Music is clearly a huge part of the social group I am targeting; images of festivals such as Glastonbury and the Reading&Leeds festivals show how they equally enjoy live music as well as buying CDs. A range of the music genres favoured by m target audience (and soon to be covered in my music magazine) are depicted through the images of Emeli Sande and the Arctic Monkeys.


An appreciation of more iconic bands and their backgrounds are displayed through the images of the Rolling Stones, band t shirts and statue of Freddie Mercury in Zurich. My moodboard displays how this age bracket also appreciate older forms of music production seen in the photos of record stores. The TV show "Skins" displays how my target audience have other interests outside of music. This idea is carried on through the images of the work of Banksy. Copuled with this, is the image of the ype of clothing often worn by my target audience, which could suggest both images show how younger adults like to express themselves. Images of London show how my target audience enjoy certain lifestyles and visiting certain places. Finally images of protesters show how young adults often become politically active as a result of becoming more educated as they reach University Degree level.

Above is the Album Artwork for the iconic Beatles compilation record "Red Album", containing their earlier  hits released 1962-1966. This image is legendary and immediately can be associated to the British Music scene, as the hits on this album have been house hold names for five decades, favouites at discos for generations, and inspiring the work of more modern music bands, so for these reasons I have decided to recreate this image on the cover of my magazine.

I compared the Beatles "Red Album" with the "Blue Album"; another compilation of their work containing their hits released in the later era of the band spanning 1967-1960. I felt that whilst the iconography of this Beatles image is great, I felt their earlier image was even more signifigant and memorable as they not only inspired the world musically, but sparked fashioned trends that have even resurfaced today.

My selected genre of focus will be the Indie, Mod, Brit Pop & Soft Rock, championing the icons of this genre whilst also providing ample coverage of the modern equivalents. I have therefore decided the target audience for my music magazine will be 16-48 year olds, focussing particularly on the 16 - 25 and 38-48 age ranges. I have chosen this focus because these music genres are followed heavily by members of both age ranges. The magazine I wish to create could effectively provide an education on all aspects of the genres, bringing the icons younger target audience, whilst also introducing the older target audience to their contemporaries. I feel my magazine could provide a comprehensive view of these genres of music.

The following is a list of possible Mastheads I have come up with for my magazine. It is in keeping with my chosen genres of Indie, Brit Pop, Soft Rock & the Mod scene. For inspiration, I looked at similar magazines whilst also scouring the back catalogue of songs of the more classic and legendary bands I would feature in my Publication.

• Modern World
• My Generation
• Twist & Shout
• Satisfaction

MODERN WORLD - this is the title of the 1977 hit by The Jam, of the same name. I felt this possible Masthead would be clearly nostalgic, whilst also the reference to "Modern" suggests a focus on contemporary music, or at least a contemporary journalistic approach to the music featured. I toyed with the idea of the Masthead "Mod." but I felt that this would be too genre specific, suggesting the magazine only appeals to the Mod scene, therefore off putting for people outside of this circle, due to it's possible cult status.


MY GENERATION - this Masthead was inspired by the 1965 hit by the band The Who. Similar to that of the first example, I felt this was again nostalgic, but also suggested a defiant youthful mode of address, appealing to a younger audience interested in non mainstream music; a niche market.


TWIST & SHOUT - this particular example is inspired by a song originally released by The Isley Brothers in 1961, and despite the record being 52 years old, it still bares a lot of popularity amongst younger audiences, due to it being covered by a number of iconic groups and bands such as The Beatles. This, I felt, boded well for the mode of address I desired; bringing classic and legendary music to the youth of today.


SATISFACTION - finally, this was inspired by The Rolling Stones 1965 hit. The Rolling Stones have achieved iconic like status, appealing to audiences of all ages. The mass scramble for tickets and merchandise released for their 50th Anniversary year is an example of this. A positive of this Masthead is that it gives the audience a sense of satisfaction when reading it, whilst also adearing to my concept for the magazine, that was previously stated. However I feel that it could possibly be mistaken for a Rolling Stones fan magazine, which could be misleading

Firstly I added a pug, displaying another element to the magazine, an article on the School Show, hopefully also enticing readers to part with their money to obtain the magazine. The Pug also makes the magazine look far more professional, complex and stand out compared to other publications, an important feature of any Magazine Cover, particularly in today's uber competitive market.

I added the images of both Mr Klappholz and the skull to the main cover I had already constructed. I felt that both stood out well from the stormy background as well as the Splash. I was particularly pleased with the crystalline effect on the skull. The Cover still felt a bit basic so I decided to draft a number of improvements to the conept....

For the images of my English teacher, I managed to catch him on a good day, which allowed me to be able to take a number of good quality photos to use on my Cover and my blog. I made sure to photograph the image with a contrasting background to that of the colour of my main image. Fortunately my teacher Mr Klappholz has a penchant for drama, and was more than willing and capable to portray a number of moods I threw at him on the day, to test a number of scenarios to be able to explore for the best possible photo.

Unfortunately, the jumper worn on the day was similar to that of the stormy background on my cover, however when combined I felt it only added to the mood of the overall concept. I managed to eradicate the background, which proved mostly successful; I removed the main obstructions however a couple of corners were cut off the top of the head of the model, however compared to the stormy image, proved to be a minute problem.

I encountered a minor problem when coming to photograph the skull for my front cover. The skull I had in mind from a model skeleton in my school's Biology lab had been decapitated by a group of rowdy pupils using the room as a dressing room for the school show, a number of years previously. However I found a skull which I believed to better than this; a slightly smaller scale skull in the same lab.

 The darker colour appeared to be almost crystalline, similar to that of the Crystal Skull in the 2008 film "Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull", which makes the skull appear far more mystical and given the ending of the film, sinister.

 

 

 

 

Here I tested possible positioning for my Main Image, where the picture of my English teacher Mr Klappholz and a skull, would replace my peers pictured here. Although the image would be created using layers on a computer programme, I felt it important to consider the positioning in regard to the background visible, spacing etc

I kept in mind the image of the poster for the film "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt2", so I needed to keep a space between the two figures to suggest an argument or confrontation rather than a fight already have taken place. I also wanted a considerable amount of the background ti be visible to add to the drama.

Upon discussing my Magazine Cover with my peer group, it became clear that one or two felt the stormy image to be too dark for a cover. I hence forth considered this image as it was still fairly overcast but far lighter in tone, in contrast to the one selected. However I felt that the confrontation had been taken out of the equation, and the image had lost much of it's identity; it seemed confused and was giving out mixed messages, was it friend or foe? In the end I binned this image and chose to use my original storm cloud picture, as the above photo made my cover more "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" than "Macbeth".

Upon reflection I felt that, although I believed I had made the correct choice of storm image, the text on the Masthead & Pull Quote did not stand out enough to act as an effective method of attracting readers. It is here I decided to use a thin black outline to these chunks of text, which produces are far more pleasing outcome.

Once I had adequately shaped my storm background to fit my cover, I began working on my Splash. I went for the a play on the 1986 hit "The Final Countdown" by the band Europe. I believed that the catchy and comical nature of the Splash would display the jocular yet direct form of journalism inside the magazine, much like that of BBC's "Top Gear Magazine" or "Empire Magazine". The words also suggest an apocalyptic nature to the story, which is backed up by the Pull Quote. The drama would hopefully attract yet more readers to purchase the publication.

As I wanted a Magazine Cover depicting a dark & stormy day with apocalyptic events unfolding within the main story, I decided to use a  real life image of a storm as the background to my Main Image to set the scene. I decided to cut out the City Skyline as although I initially intended on using it in my image, as I felt it would add to the drama, creating a "King Kong V.S. Godzilla" type atmosphere, in reality the Cityscape was obscured by the Main figures in the image.

 The first image I considered was too dark, and blended in with the header bar and footer line too much, which meant the details on such bars was lost. The image was also the wrong size to be reshaped without the pixels becoming distorted.

 The Second image I considered was the one I eventually used, as I felt the shade of grey was appropriate as it was light enough to stand out from the Characters on the main image and the header bar and footer line, but dark enough to capture the intensity I desired.

The last two images were far too dark I felt to use, but after intensely studying fifty shades of grey, I felt I had found the perfect background.

For my header bar and footer header line, once again, I chose black and yellow as a colour scheme because of the bars placing on the cover, at either end, I felt these block colours would act as bookends to the cover, helping to magnify the details on the print. These particular shades of yellow and black match the school uniform which helps make the magazine more familiar and personal to the school, which could attract more people to buy the publication from school, building a bigger "fan base" as it were.

 

 

The article regarding a teacher turning 70 was inspired by an article I'd seen in Q Magazine a number of years previously concerning former Beatles singer & songwriter John  Lennon. This too was in header bar format, and being placed at the top of the page suggested the man it concerned was of God like status, which, in a very tongue-in-cheek like manner, is how the teacher is regarded in our school, due to his lesson "antics". In comparison to that, I chose to advertise a freebee given away with this edition of the publication as a juxtaposition to the header bar, showing a range of things found on such spaces of a magazine cover. The word "FREE" in bold also attracts viewers to the cover.

To begin with, I focussed primarily on my Masthead as previously mentioned, there was a specific colour I desired. I also attempted to mimic writing seen in medieval typography, on Olde English Bibles and books. One such example can loosely be seen in the Medieval type story book seen in the opening credits of the "Shrek" Movies.

I decided to use this style of writing as it reflected the time period of the King in question, Henry VIII, and suggested a sense of grandeur, pomp and pageantry about the paper, which again reflected the monarch in question. Although the impressiveness of the font is lost when it is not used with a variety of painted colours seen above, I felt this was more than compensated for by the dull Gold colour. I also feel that the array of colours could only be achieved on a book format, and any attempt to emulate the cacophony of colours on a Masthead would draw away from a conventional magazine style.

 

The Main Image would consist of one of my English teachers, Mr Klappholz, side on, confronting a skull, mirroring him on the opposite side of the page, depicting the latest dramatic role of the previously mentioned English teacher. This image was inspired both by the Poster for the film "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2", and also classic Boxing Match Posters, such as Ali vs Frazier and one's depicted in the "Rocky" Films. This layout & setup depicts heightened drama, and, just like Film & Boxing Posters, would tempt audience members to part with their money to see the drama unfold.

Here I felt the Gold, compared to the usual magazine colour
schemes, made the colour stand out especially. I am aware that this is a Special Edition Cover of the magazine and not a regular feature of the publication, after extensive research, I felt that, compared to usual editions, it made this particular edition feel extra special, which I felt, would make my magazine cover appear to be of a different class to it's competitors.

My Masthead on my chosen design, would be Golden in colour, this being inspired by a number of editions of "Top Gear Magazine" I had seen that I felt were really prominent. This would also fit well with my royal theme. The title of "King's Coronet" not only complimented the name of my school, King Henry VIII, but also placed the magazine in a more sophisticated band of magazine genres, lifting it out of the "glossy trashy mag" status, if you pardon the colloquialism. I went for Gold above yellow, as I felt the black/yellow combo worked well as an eye catching header, and coincidentally used the same colour scheme of our school uniform, which I felt made the magazine more personal to the school. 

However I ended up selecting my second Magazine Cover design. My reasons were that I felt I had planned this particular design far more intricately, and the concept could be achieved to a higher quality in the time frame set.

The Splash would've been in keeping with the flower power theme of the Main Image, by choosing a flowery, bubbly writing, with the phrase "Sgt Phillip's Lonely Drama Club Band", implying the magazine's main feature focusses on our drama teacher, Ms Leanne Phillips.

The Main Image was inspired by the front cover of The Beatles' 1967 Album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but instead of the fab four's faces on the cover, it would have featured main cast & crew members from my schools recent successful production of "Carousel".

My first magazine cover design entitled "Drama Desk", focussed on the arts scene in my school, particularly, as the aforementioned title suggests, drama. A number of they key features of the cover are basic in design, as my aspirations for this cover were beyond that of my drawing capability.