FORMAL PROPOSAL

I have chosen House Music as my genre as I already have background knowledge of the genre as not only is it in my personal interest but also its very popular today in society.

Therefore, I would know what would be expected in a House Music magazine referring to both articles (i.e.

reviews and interviews), imagery (bright and colourful) and connotations (nightlife and festivals). The other reason for choosing this genre was the massive possible market for it, for example TomorrowLand; the worlds largest electronic dance music festival sold out 180,000 tickets within less

than 2 hours and an addition at some moments there were 2,000,000 people on the online waiting list. These figures

along with income revenue of £136 million from Ministry of Sound, a big house music brand shows the market scale.

CHOICE OF GENRE

From my research, I have found out that the main target audience associated with House Music is usually young males,

but to make my magazine stand out more I have decided to oppose this and make my magazine appeal to both young males and females. Ages ranging from 16-20, as I believe this is the most appropriate age range to be involved with loud and fast

paced House Music, in addition because I too fall into this age range, I have an advantage as I would know what type of

material my age range are looking for. I have not specified an ethnic group as I think the genre appeals to all and it would be

hard to distinguish.

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

I have chosen my magazine name to be IN THE MIX, this is because not only does it fit well with my genre (ie dj-ing and mixing tracks) but also suggested involvement as ‘you’re now in the mix’. In addition, it also is very close to the lead selling House Music Magazine, mix mag which allows for market confusion and is much like the relationship between NME and Q’s style. If it looks alright, I will keep the first two words the same colour but then change the colour of each letter of the word ‘mix’ to represent the mixture. Because the title is short this enables me to use a smaller version on each page of my magazine. The font should be bold and if possible I will try to modify one of the letter I’s to include a record to show that this magazine is associated with my chosen genre. I also would also like the font to resemble the style of hand writing which shows informality which is what was a key apparent feature found out in my audience research requirement. Finally, I am not aware of another magazine with the same name, however there is a DJ merchandise storewith the same name and they have a really good logo which I could use to base my possible logo on, if required.

TITLE OF MAGAZINE

I am planning to use a medium shot of a DJ, if possible I will try to include a DJ set or DJ apparatus in the shot to contextualise his environment. Although I am trying to aim my magazine at both genders, I will use a male model, giving my male target audience something to idolise and females to be attracted to. In editing I will incorporate bright colour to reflect the nature of the genre. These bright colours which I decide to use will form my house colours which will be used through out the magazine (blue, black, pink and yellow). The image will take up the whole page, and will be positioned in front of the title to show importance. In addition, for the sell lines I will use a pull quote from my main double page spread article to anchor the image; any other sell lines will be related to the genre such as artist or events.

INITIAL IDEAS FOR FRONT COVER

Image example

I will include both title and the word ‘contents’ in a header, top right. These two will be in different colours to contrast against each other. I will

divide my page into a 2 column layout, the left being the widest allowing room for an editors note and large image, the other column for feature

bands with an appropriate image and then a banner at the bottom to inform the audience of key articles, no pictures will be featured in this

section. Page Numbers and Content will be also different colours to again contrast against each other, although not decided on these colours yet, I

am adamant that the black ground be black to not only represent associated nightlife

but also so that any text is easy to read. As already mentioned the large image, will not be of the same

person or environment of the initial cover imageand the other smaller image will be of one of the

bands featured in my band list contents, preferablyfemale as other pictures featured so far are male

Hopefully my magazine contents page should resemble something of the magazine ‘Mix Mag’.

INITIAL IDEAS FOR MY CONTENTS PAGE

For the double page spread, I intend to do a review of a ‘theoretical’ DJ set with the featured cover artist. It will be dominantly text based as I do not see much point in buying a magazine with no established

content. If possible and if it looks good, I will use a photo as the background across both pages with overlaying text, but if not

suitable then I will devote one page to the image and the other to text. In this case also I will include another image within in the copy

rather than making it one big chunk of text which on appearance would discourage reading. As I have not yet decided on the image

content, I can not specify what shot type I will use. A title and subheading will also be used in production and this will be spread across both pages on either layout solution. I will also make sure I use a pretty plain font to ease reading and use a drop caps feature

and need to remember to follow through with my house colours.

INITIAL IDEAS FOR MY ARTICLE