I decided to take a look at NME magazines and research into them as the music company suits my target audience (music obsessed teenagers). As a music obsessed teenager, I looked through many NME magazines and was attracted to the designs of the magazine e.g. the colours they used and style, and also the genre of music the magazine includes. The music that it includes has different tastes (genres), for example there are indie bands such as NIRVANA but also modern/ tech bands such as Two Door Cinema Club. They also include country genre music such as Mumford and Sons, and alternatives such as Haim. These are all different types of music but are loved by many teenagers, which I also found out while doing a questionnaire on teenagers.

I have used the NME issue with Haim on the front cover. The image on my front cover connects to my double page spread and contents page. I have a certain design that follows through all my pages which links them together e.g. the colours and text. I have made changes by adding more text on the front cover, this is because I didn’t feel as if it had enough information. I had a look at other NME magazine front covers and took some of the designs from it. The main similarities I have with conventional magazines are the bold mast head, which is at the top of the page to endorse the brand, and colours used on my front cover which attracts customers and stands out. I have also used quotes that grab the customer’s attention on my front cover, which the girls (from the band on my cover) have said on their interview from my double page spread, which persuades the customers to read more. On the cover, the image is also high quality and well edited, such as the image of Haim on the cover. I decided to keep the girls on my front cover a young age e.g. 17 and over so that my target audience can relate. I also added small features to the front cover to make it look more professional and what most magazines include e.g. barcode, date and price.

Large, Bold Masthead at the top of the page, bright colour that stands out

Large front cover photo, what the magazine is about

Date and price

barcode

Main title of magazine

I felt that the NME magazine I chose to research and use as an inspiration for my product didn’t use a lot of text on the front cover. It looked quite bare and simple, so I decided to search a couple of other NME Magazine to get inspiration from them.In this ‘Florence’ NME magazine it has a lot more information and text on the cover page them the Haim cover. This makes the page look a bit more complete and has more detail about the whole magazine on the front cover.

I used the colour red as my main colour throughout the magazine as I feel that it is a uni-sex colour, and also a colour that represents the music in my magazine. It will attract my target audience. As I looked at many NME magazines, I found that red was a colour used often, possibly because it is a bright colour that stands out but also is quite a rock/indie represented colour in the music industry. As my cover/magazine is based on a girl band, I tinted the red colour slightly lighter. I thought I would slightly change the mast head and make it my own, original design by changing the letter ‘Y’ into a pair of earphones (which symbolises music) shaped into the letter. I wanted my magazine to include my own creativity, which I agree that it did.

(The change I made to the magazine)

My masthead compared to a professional magazine

masthead. I have kept the font and size similar to it but changed it slightly to make it

my own unique design.

I have kept the content page similar with the layout. I have used my colour scheme that I have used throughout my magazine and the same text which is what all popular music selling magazines achieve . I have used images from the same girl band that that’s on my front cover to show that their story is the main feature throughout the magazine. I also included some extra features such as ‘Dery’ and ‘Anesu’, this gives variety of both males and females as it is a unisex magazine, which NME magazine is. There aren’t many differences between the two magazines, so I feel I have kept the features of a real media product.

I have kept the colour scheme and text through the magazine

Males in my magazine to keep the product unisex

I have used the same person who is on my front cover for a story in the content as the magazine is mainly about them

I have also included stories from other people so that my magazine has more variety and more interesting information

Masthead

Next to my content page, I included an advertisement which every music magazine contains. The adverts are related to music or the target audience. I chose to advertise ‘Converse’ as its a ‘trendy’ style most of my target audience follow. The group of people in the photo of the advert are similar age to my target audience

For my double page spread, I feel that it was my most accomplished page. I really likes the layout of the NME double page which I used as a model, it looked neat and professional (I wanted it to be easy to follow). I also liked how the photographs were used on the page and the amount of text. I used a main large photo which I thought was very aesthetically pleasing. I also kept the same colour scheme and text to keep it connected to the other pages of my magazine. I

hadn’t changed much for this page as I did to my other pages. I included a question and answer interview with one of the girls from the band on my front cover, this is because my target audience enjoyed reading these articles.

Right on the right hand side of my double page spread there is a small red fill column which includes more information about music. I really liked this feature of the magazine as it stands out and gives a short piece of information that is very interesting.

My magazine Professional NME music magazine

Main large photo of the double page spread

Photo in the centre of the magazine fold

Sticker/ Circle with important information in it. Used a different colour to make the information stand out more Question/answer interview

Enlargement of an interesting quote mentioned in the question and answer interview to attract the readers attention

Magazine masthead

Large title

Used the same colour throughout the magazine

Pink side box with extra information about the magazine