- The document outlines plans for a new music magazine called "Bottleneck" aimed at audiences aged 16-20.
- The magazine will be released weekly on Mondays, with an end-of-month issue summarizing the previous three.
- It will focus on rock music and feature articles, interviews, reviews and freebies related to bands, concerts, and other music-related topics.
- The magazine will cost £2.49 per issue and use innovative cover designs and layouts to attract readers.
1. • Magazines are aimed at very niche audiences
as there are many different genres of music in
the world. This means that there are a lot of
different magazines and it is hard to get
noticed. Creating innovative concepts for front
covers and content is a key way of creating a
brilliant new magazine- and a new idea for a
magazine is what I will be outlining in the next
few slides.
2. • The title of my magazine will be punchy and brief.
• Most music magazines- but not all- are one word and are very
short.
• Bottleneck!
• This title gives off the kind of image that I am hoping to create
with my magazine.
• “Bottleneck” being a piece of equipment used with guitars gives
off the image that my magazine is all about the music- which it
is. Which bands- which artists- which songs- merchandise- tour
dates- etc. It’s all about the music.
• Also, bottleneck kind of brings images of bars to your mind
rather than clubs. Bars are the most likely place to find new,
fresh bands and therefore the opposite of pop artists, which is
the opposite of what I want.
3. • My magazine will be released weekly. As my survey
monkey results show that people are happiest with
the magazine being released in week two and four
the most; I am going to release a new magazine in
weeks one, two and three and then have the best
bits of each magazine in week four so that anybody
who has missed any of the three weeks is able to
catch up in a compact, concise end of the month
issue.
• The price of this magazine will be around £2.49, this should cover costs of printing-
paper and ink- along with profit; it should also make it cheap enough for students to
buy which is likely to be a lot of the audience as it is aimed at people from 16-20, with
many of them being in their last year of school, college or at university. Being only
£2.49 means that it is quite average for a weekly magazine- as hoped. Also, £4 was the
most people were willing to pay for a magazine; however, that was based on the
notion that the magazine would be printed weekly, so £2.49 a week is much cheaper
than £16.
4. • The genre of my magazine will be tailored to the
liking of my audience, it will be fixated around
the vague title of “Rock” but will- depending on
the month- have more elements of heavy metal,
punk etc.
• Metal to punk to original, etc. means that the
colours of the magazine are going to vary a little.
Where it is a heavy metal month, the colours are
going to be darker and there will be more blacks,
topics will be surrounding more metal bands and
so on. This would apply to other subgenres of
rock.
5. Steve, 18, from York, is a music fanatic, he listens to it 24/7,
He believes that rock is the godfather of music genres- and that is one of the
main reasons why rock plays such a large part of his life.
Steve reads magazines to get information on celebrities, freebies and to read
articles.
CONTINUED…
6. His fashion is therefore heavily impacted by
the music he listens to- and his social
gatherings are also effected as he loves to
attend venues to listen to live music.
CONTINUED…
7. You Me At Six and Sum 41 are at the heart of
Steve. Every gig he attends is centred around
whether these guys are on tour, not on tour or
are supporting; however he is open to new bands.
CONTINUED…
8. He likes the simple things in life; partying,
socialising and even studying. His favourite
colours are black and red, and his favourite
shirt is chequered with the same colours.
CONTINUED…
9. Being a student, Steve is not swimming in
money; however, when he does have spare
change, he makes sure to buy a music
magazine to satisfy his need for music
information.
Finished.
10. Main image: The main image will
consist of a close up of the main
artist and a medium close up of the
other two- this will show that the
front guy is the largest subject(Most
famous) in this issue.
A banner will be placed underneath
the main image. This will be used to
round off the main image, so that the
image does not just stop randomly in
the middle of the page, making it
easier on the eyes.
Buzz words: buzz words will be
placed in a small, simple banner
below the attached to the main
image; this will draw the attention
of the reader to the puffs, plugs and
sub-images along the bottom of the
page.
Plugs will be used on my front cover to show
subimages alongside freebies and competitions so
that the readers attention is drawn to them and
they can interact with the publishers.
Barcode&Date: these are common conventions
within the magazine market, they alert the reader
what date it was published, the price and it allows
the magazine to be scanned and bought.
Freebies: this sections of the front cover
will be reserved for freebies, it will show
sections of the magazine and therefore
alert the reader to aspects of the
magazine without them having to open
it up but it will also relate to freebies
that are going to be included in the
magazine too.
Subheading/image: this slot
will feature a small picture of
another artist going to be
featured in the magazine. It
will show the potential buyer
of what kind of bands are
going to be in store in this
issue and therefore they can
decide whether they want to
buy it or not.
Puffs will be used at the top of the
magazine so that the readers are able to- if
they wish- go to certain sites (FACEBOOK
etc)and follow the magazine, this would
allow them to gain further information of
certain articles and certain artists if
anything in the magazine had caught their
eye.
11. Layout: the black dots around the edges of the pages will have
images of artificial studio lights, this will hopefully help the
reader establish a closer connection as they will feel as though
they are in the same connection. The centrefold dividing the
two pages will be joined with a pulled quote from the Q&A
section along with the artificial studio lights, this will make the
transition from one page to the other easier and more
appealing.
Heading: the heading will simply be the name of the
artist/band. This will help those who don’t know the artist to
be able to understand more about them instantly. This is
similar to the Q magazine double page spread where the
name Lady Gaga was at the top of the page.
Pull quote: a pull quote
will help the reader to
jump right into the
article. Some articles
have titles that can put a
reader off but with a pull
quote, the reader can see
immediately what type of
article it is going to be
and entertaining they are
going to find it.
Drop cap: this will be
used to clearly highlight
where the beginning of
the article is so that the
reader knows where to
start. This will help the
reader to flow through
the magazine quicker and
more efficiently.
Mise-en-scene:
a chair will be
used in the
main image to
further create
the feeling of a
question and
answers kind of
arrangement
and having the
picture taken at
eye level with
the subject
looking at the
camera will
make it look
like the artist is
interacting with
you. The red
theme on this
page is will be
toned down a
lot, a darker
red will fit in
with one of the
three most
common
colours
expected in a
Rock magazine
according to
my survey.
Main image: my main image is going to be of a subject on a
plain black chair(if one can be found) this will compliment the
red tone of the picture. A leather/denim jacket will be worn by
the subject, with black skinny jeans and a patterned t-shirt to
complete the Rock kind of look.
12. A heading will be used to
clearly indicate that this
page is going to be the
contents page, this is for
the user to be able to
locate certain aspects of
the magazine and find out
where they want to go.
A main image will be
located in the centre of the
page to show what type of
music the magazine is
going to include. This
image will include a
microphone and an amp to
instil the idea in the
readers that this is a rock
magazine.
The little sub-images near
the bottom of the music
magazine are going to
consist of puffs and plugs,
this is to get the reader
interacting with the
magazine publishers to get
them to feel involved.
A column of subheading
will make it very clear to
readers what topics are
where. This will help to
maintain efficiency,
rendering a fulfilment of
the need to read quickly
for people at the
recommended reading age
as life tends to be moving
quickly for them.
13. I am using this flatplan to show an outline/example of what the
magazine will potentially end up looking like. However; as this is
only an example, the final one would include more pages of each
kind, except contents page, front cover and back cover, This
example flatplan is just used to show how the layout would look
as the main one would continue to follow such a pattern.
Front Cover:
Back Cover:
Article Pages:
Double page spreads:
Freebies:
Freebies:
14. This first font is
Marcelle by StereoType, the second
one is Dalek by K-Type; these two
fonts are Greek/Roman. These fonts
are appealing to me as they both
reek of sophistication and ancient
Greece often has connotations of
wisdom, power and obviously
longevity.
This font- with its many curves
and ovals/circles- portrays an
image of smoothness that I hope
to achieve with my magazine.
Teenagers around 16-19 are
often fashion conscious and
therefor hope to look cool,
smooth. Ergo, the use f this slick
font would hopefully appeal to
that side of them.
This font, of all of them, looks the
most rock themed. Being that my
magazine is a rock magazine, it
would only make sense for the title
to be rocky.