Evaluation of Flat Plan: Front Page.

For our next task, we were asked to design a flat plan for our music magazine. Whilst carrying out this task, I took into consideration what I had discovered when completing my questionnaire and when carrying out my market research (i.e. researching indie magazines and the conventions of two particular magazines - mine being 'Q' and 'NME.' Below is an analysis of my front cover. With this, I'll justify the decisions I've made and what I plan on changing when producing my magazine cover.

The name for my magazine is Indie Jam. I had an idea of what I wanted my magazine to be called for a few weeks and I feel this name is catchy and easy to remember. I decided on 'Indie Jam' as I wanted to put across to my consumers that this is in fact an indie magazine. The word 'jam' is usually associated with teenagers and young adults as it's slang. Although when you hear the word 'jam' , you instantly think of the food however, 'jam' also means to hang out with friends. Due to the fact that this is in fact a music magazine, I decided on 'Jam' as it also means: to play an instrument with great intensity.


Colour Schemes:

For my front page, I settled on the colours; red, black, white and blue. These would continue on onto the contents page and double page spread. When designing my flat plan, I decided to have my background as blue and this would appeal to my male audience. When looking at my front cover after I had completed it, I decided that I wanted my background to be white to represent the conventional indie magazine. I feel this represents my target audience (16-20) as the colour scheme is simple and concise. On my front cover, there is only one image and this instantly grabs the consumers attention as there isn't much to look at.

Articles:

On my front cover, I've included well-known bands such as Paramore, Kings of Leon and My Chemical Romance as well as the world phenomenon we know as Lady Gaga. I've chosen these artists as my target audience is more familiar with them. I've picked out key words on the front cover for example: 'Has 'Gaga' gone GAGA?! has this outrageous aritst become FAME hungry?' I used her popular album name 'The Fame.' to get the readers interested and to familiarise themselves with the artist.
For my main article, I chose to write my artists name in a bigger font than the other articles in order to show its importance.

Selling Line:

The selling line for my magazine is 'THE UK'S LEADING INDIE MAGAZINE.' I chose to have this as my selling line as I want the consumers to notice that people are buying my magazines and liking it which increases interest in new readers.

Main Image:

The main image is of Jake Bentley Ross who is an up and coming singer/song-writer from South London. I've decided to have only him on my front cover as I don't want my front page to look too cluttered. He takes up the entire page making him the exclusive purpose of this issue. The outfit I have picked out for my model is a dark blue cardigan, a light blue plaid shirt, skinny jeans and blue converse. - I decided to have this outfit to represent that this magazine is unisex.

Button:

For my button, I chose to include the singer; Ellie Goulding. By including this artist, more people will be interested in buying my magazine as she has often been regarded as a fashion icon as she has an edgier style.