Music Magazine: Front Cover Ideas

For my music magazine front cover, I will go with the typical conventions such as using a medium shot, having a big, bold title at the top. Including all the necessities such as sell lines, a large anchorage title, bar code, price, date, etc. I came up with the idea of having a band of three called The Thieves who have recently became two, so for my front cover, I will be using a photograph of the band member that will be interviewed on the double page spread. I will also make the main sell line to go with the story. I also have decided to name the magazine 'DIVERSE' as it will include a diverse range of artists. I have looked at music magazine front covers for inspiration. Here are some things I have picked out:

 What I like about this front cover is the bar code. Instead of being horizontal, it is vertical. I like this as it gives the magazine that extra edge and uniqueness. I think I will do the same for my magazine front cover. I also like the colour scheme: it's mainly black, white and red. This is a common colour scheme for a music magazine. There is also a hint of yellow, which is also common, but I think it can look too much if not used appropriately. I don't think I will use yellow on my front cover.

What I like about this magazine front cover is the coloured banner going along the top with text overlaying regarding a competition. It's placement at the top is obviously to grab peoples attention and I think it does a good job of this and will consider this idea when making my magazine. I also like the banner going along the bottom which includes some of the other artists that are in the magazine. I want to include something similar to this in my magazine but put my own spin on it so it separates my magazine from this one.

 

Music Magazines: Font Research

I looked at a wide range of different fonts for my magazine masthead and sell lines. I wanted to see which suited the masthead first and then consider the other fonts for the sell lines so I tested them all through typing the title. Here are my favourite fonts out of the ones I have looked at:

 Buxton Sketch

Mesquite Std






Blood Crow



Birch Std




 Zombified




I really like all of these fonts but my favourite one that I think will be the most eye catching and look the best as a magazine mast head is the last one: zombified. However, I do want to incorporate the other fonts into my magazine. I will use a few of them for the sell lines. I think some will be more predominant that others. For example, Birch Std looks too formal to be used for any main piece of text as I want to keep the page looking interesting. I think I will use Blood Crow for my main sell line as it is my second favourite and I think it will help make the page appeal to the audience.

I then looked at band fonts. I managed to find three:

I will use all three for my front cover as it helps the readers familiarize with the band as they may recognize the font. Also, it will make it look more professional as these are the fonts that the band themselves use.

Music Magazine: Logos

In order to make my magazine more realistic, I will add logos to it. I will use the following images:

If I was making this magazine for real, then I would need to get permission to use these logo images.

Music Magazine: Concert Photographs

In order to give my magazine more diversity regarding artists, I will add in some concert photographs I have taken myself. These are the photographs that I can find and have to choose from:

 

One of the best pictures from a Beyonce concert.

This is the lineup for the photos that follow. 

  This is quite a good picture as it had the artists name in big, at the back.

 

There are a few photos of artists in the stage at the middle. These pictures aren't as good as there is no establishing pictures behind them and the artists them self almost blend in with the crowd.

 By this point, my camera died so I had to switch to a camera phone so the pictures aren't as good quality.

They consist mostly of the Capital FM Summertime Ball as I couldn't find any other good photos and I took these photos using a DCLR so considering the distance I was sat, they are fairly good quality. The other photo in this lot is from a Beyonce concert I attended. I took photos using my phone so they didn't come out very well. I thought if I add this photo in small then it could look good. I will experiment with the photos and discard ones that don't look good or fit well.

Music Magazine: Interview and Meeting The Crowd.

In order to get some realistic shots for my magazine, I staged a walk in and an interview involving the band members: Sam, Luke and Warren. I used extras for the crowd to also make it realistic as if it was a real interview event with a VIP studio audience.

 It starts off with the audience patiently awaiting the band.

Then the crowd go wild as the band enter.

Then band greet the audience.

We then move onto the actual interview.

It starts off all light hearted.

Then ex-band member Warren storms in.

He then settles and joins the interview.
 We also videoed the interview which was mostly improvised. We gave the interviewer some information about the band and the overall storyline and then watched what happened so that it didn't look scripted and fake. However, as I done this with a group, I have decided to do my own take on the interview and change it but keep the photographs. I have decided to take warren out of the interview also as I don't think this seems realistic enough for a magazine article. The video for the original interview is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVmDwtyIPiA&feature=youtu.be
 

We also videoed the meet and greet with the fans. The video for that is below.

http://youtu.be/pT0YvLBp_-

 

I add at least one of these photos into my magazine somehow. I will crop and edit if neccesary.

Music Magazine: Photographs of Luke

Some of the photographs from the photo-shoot with Luke:

I started off with Luke having my arms out naturally by his side. I decided that this looked awkward so in order to solve this problem, I asked Luke to put his hands in his pockets.

 

 The next pose I photographed was Luke looking at the camera. However, when he smiled, he doesn't look like the rock-star he is intending to be and when he didn't smile, he looked awkward. So we decided to move onto different poses.

The pose we moved onto was Luke looking into the distance (left and right). This worked a lot better so I ended up with more good shots from these.

This is the photograph from the shoot that I think is the best and fits the description of what I want. He has his hands looking natural in his pocket, he isn't slouching or looking awkward and his facial expression looks almost smug which suits the rock star look we were going for. I will use this one if I decide to use Luke for my front cover.