Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas for title, colours, fonts, stories and pictures

Initial Idea for Magazine

Having researched 3 different magazines, I’ve decided to make mine based on a rock/heavy metal genre. With a target audience of both males and females, aged between 17 and 24. In this case, I’ll need to make my magazine look interesting yet slightly sophisticates like Q magazine.

Initial Ideas for my Title

Rage! – This title fits perfectly for my rock genre magazine. It connotes an angry, exciting, loud and exaggerated image which rock music also does. Although it’s only word one, it’s short and simple and creates many different feelings. The first thing that pops to mind when you read it is a rock music feeling. It’s different to many other rock magazines as it’s not an abbreviated word and it isn’t initials for anything.

Loudmouth! – This title creates a rock image also and is exciting and eye catching. The interesting choice of words means that many people would look at it, intrigued as to what it’s about, however, the whole title is quite long and wouldn’t have the same effect if it was abbreviated to LM!

RMN – This is an abbreviation of ‘Rock Music Now’ which is quite good for a sophisticated rock magazine, such as Q. It captures a rock emotion to it, yet in a neat way. I like this title a lot, however, it is too similar to magazines such as NME and is a bit too dull for the style I’d like to do.

Initial Ideas for Colours

Red, White + Black – When I thought about a rock magazine, these were the first colours that came into my head. They are stereotypical to rock music and through analysing magazine, I found these to be the most popular colours. The white and black are rock-like but a bit dull so the red brings the colours to life and adds to the rock feeling.

White, Black + Grey – These colours are generally associated with rock and heavy metal but are also a bit depressing and stereotyped towards ‘Emo’ people. My magazine is for a rock/indie genre and although these colours would match, they give off elements of the wrong impression.

White, Black + Yellow – These colours are thought of also when a rock magazine is in mind. The yellow brings excitement to the page and the white and black give off the rock impression. The colours are simple yet would work well and attract the attention of readers. However, the only problem is that the yellow could make the magazine more gender specific towards girls.

                                    

Initial Ideas for Fonts

Idea 1 – I used the website ‘DAFONT’ to find this font as I needed one that would fit into a rock magazine and that would be easy to put onto my front page. The letters are all very bold and block and the way it looks as though some of them are splattered really fits into a rock magazine. This font would attract audiences very well. This is my favourite of the 3 as it has a rock image but isn’t too furious. This font is also very unique and funky in a way.

Idea 2 – This font is also from ‘DAFONT’ and demonstrates a rock genre but in a different way. The letters are all very big and bold and quite scary and have a furious atmosphere. This would definitely attract my target audience but I feel it would take away the attention from the main story liens on a magazine which is mainly what sells the magazine.

Idea 3 – Also from ‘DAFONT’, this font is very big and bold but quite dull as there isn’t anything very interesting about it. The letters are very far apart which make it very clear to read but also not as ‘rocky’ as it should be.

Initial Ideas for Stories

“Rock band goes Gay!” – This story line would be really good to use as it’s not too short or too long and it looks really interesting. It tells you the story without giving too much away and it’s obvious to readers that it’s about a band that went gay. The target audience would find this story interesting as it’s about the rebellious lifestyle of one of their favourite bands.

“Breakout – Going solo!” – This story would be about a band member who left their group to go solo. I think readers would find this interesting and eye catching to read. The quote is short but has excitement in it still.

“From Hating it to Loving it!”  - This story is about an artist who hated life before the freedom of being able to express herself in music. This would be a good feature headline as it makes the readers wonder what was so good and so bad. Also, it creates variation as the magazine will give off an angry, lively feel and the story would be about how an artist is happy again.

Cover Line Ideas

-Top 100 Rock Anthems

-Festival Line Ups

-Fresh Blood – New Bands

-Gigs and Concerts

-Band Break Up!

-Tattoo Spectacular

Initial Ideas for Images

Cover image – My first idea for the feature image is a full body length, long shot, allowing the readers to see the whole person. I think this would be effective and good advertisement for the magazine as you can see what the person is wearing and therefore, what genre magazine. Also, if people see their favourite artist on a magazine they will aspire to dress like them. It also allows for ore personality of the model to be seen and props can be used

My second idea was to have a close up of the models face. This of course would mean a lot of make up to show the personality of the rock genre. It would catch the reader’s eye as it would have a fixed eye line sight to make it seem as though the model is looking into the reader’s eye.

I may also have a couple of smaller images that illustrate the other stories in the magazine.

Content page – On the contents page will either be a long shot or close up (depends on what image is on the front page) of the same model. This will attract further attention towards that particular story and make the reader feel closer to the model.

There will be a few other smaller images to illustrate the other stories in the magazine so that the reader can feel even more interested in what the magazine has to offer. Also, instead of having heaps of writing there will be something else to look at rather than lots of words.

Double page spread – Through the research, I discovered that the conventional magazine has one page covered by a picture of the character and has the story on the next page. This is a good idea as it makes the reader more alert to the story rather than thinking that there’s so much to read. Also, I could use multiple images of the character instead of just one so that there is more to look at.