Research & Planning

The information I gathered from deconstruction ia vital to creating a final piece. The Layout, images, colours, fonts, and features on covers have all been useful in helping me gain some idea on the front cover and contents of music magazines. This stage, I will develop ideas and use my knowledge of a specific genre of music to help create a final piece and some sort of proffesional structure to the piece I will produce. On the magazine cover I deconstructed I found that there was definate main model/s on the cover and everything is orientated around them, with features surrounding the image and headlines behind, the colours used and the language will all be key in developing a magazine of this genre.

Magazine names

From the research I realised that the names are usually genre specific e.g. Classic Rock, Metal Hammer. To have an original name it need to include connotations of the genre. There are many subgenres within, like heavy metal with bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and then thrash metal with bands such as Metallica or Slayer. My magazine will be based on a subgenre of rock called "sleaze rock" many bands from the early 80's followed this trend of parties and genrally living a sleazy lifestyle. The connotations of this word are messy, dirty, unhealthy. The Bands who followed this genre were Motley Crue, Guns & Roses and Van Halen to name a few, all infamous for their backstage antics and band party stories yet all of this behaviour got mainstream success. These factors would make up a perfect magazine with band stories and what they get up to at their shows. Because of this I think "The Sleaze" would be an appropriate name.

Logo Ideas:

This is my first logo idea. The imediate connotations you make are ones with rock and the life of rockstars. The accent above the "E" follows a tradition that many 80's bands of this genre did this as a trademark type of thing. The Byline "True Filth" lets the reader know that they will get the truth and uncover the rockstars dirty secrets. The fact that it is called "The Sleaze" gathers a very specific audience of sleaze rock followers and fans of included bands.

This logo still has a very specific meaning yet is more subtle in shouting out. The style of the font is quite femenine and script like this may appeal to a larger audience but is not the excact look for a magazine based on sex, drugs and rock. Still following the trend of the accent over the "E" or middle letter. The byline is not as crude or outgoing and does not have all the connotations but is still stereotypical language of a rock music magazine.

Results.

For this Magazine I think the first logo definately outlines all the style and culture of the genre of Sleaze Rock and I think it would make a perfect addition to a photo of a band with attitude to enhance the connotations of sleaze and what the band are all about.

Front page layouts.

Here are two suggested front page layouts. I sketched these according to the current trend in the latest music magazines, following this trend would mean a good front page. The masthead in the same place but all the banner and features are differently spread out. The model band are always in the middle and the name below or beside them, with the reviews and news in boxes above or below. The second layout for the band I hope to feature will be more appropriate because of the space and the feature boxes placement.

Main Task

Deconstruction:

This is the front cover of a KERRANG! magazine, widely distributed to a rock/metal audience. The features and the image on this cover are very streotypical of this genre of magazine. The band on the front cover was the headliner of the festival featured "Sonisphere" the mid close up of the character shows his stage presence and his performance skills, also he is a very iconic figure in the metal genre of music. The figure is covering the magazine name as this brand of music magazine is already well established. His facial expresion aswell as his costume/ clothes show a mirror image of a fan of this genre and the magazine. The features include reviews of festivals and a tour, these are on the cover to draw your attention and want to find out more. The background clour and the text contrast each other thus standing out and catching the eye. Along the bottom is the other reveiws and news of bands included on the magazine to attract even more of an audience. By having the white, bold "METALLICA" in the middle this takes the interest of fans of the band, this is also why I bought the magazine, along with the review of thier performance at Sonisphere festival.


Deconstruction:The contents of KERRANG! in this months issue relates to the features on the front page and also give a quick look at banner bands featured and what page. The images are typical and very informal for the genre, the way they are layed out is sort of like a photo album and sort of scrapbook style, this is unstructured and informal. Although the plain background there is imediate attention to the images and text, it is simply layed out and simple to find the feature you want to read.
The magazine follows this contens scheme each week, the fact that this is a weekly issued magazine ties in with the simple, not so glamourous printing style.
The connotations we gather from these images are quite anti-establishment and rowdy much like the music style of the magazine.

Deconstruction

Classic rock magazine has a more specific audience, the word "classic" connotes the age or quality of the music, some may think that this magazine includes older generations of rock aimed at the fans who are also older. The Black and white image of Jimi Hendrix shows a sad, depressed relationship to the feature on his untimely death. The title "Classic Rock" is in front of jimi's head as this magazine is not as well known as others in the field. The others features on the page also follow the colour scheme to attract equal attention. The band names on the cover relate to the genre of classic rock, Van Halen and Woodstock take peoples minds back to a classic age of rock. The grey background are also relvant to the age of the photograph. Above the title of Rock there is a headline in vibrant green, this contrasts the hints of blue in the logo and the grey, these colours are quite male oreintated and may draw in a male dominant audience. The costume Jimi is wearing is defintately brings out the classic connotation as his style and clothes radiate 60's/70's rock.

Deconstruction:

The contents page of Classic rock shows a femal character apposed to male dominant front page. Her tattoos have rock connotations of a rebelious side of life, classic rock being a great agent for this lifestyle and those who have lived it. Her pose and facial expression relate to the genre as does the white stone wall background. To her shoulder is the main features column, slightly behind her shoulder to make it look like an additon to the wall, also in black to contrast the white, with the heading of "regulars" this directs the eye and shows you were to look for specific features. On the womans stomach is the page number of her feature it describes it and makes you want to read it as it looks more important and bolder than the regualrs column. There is a theme of font that generally follows throughout the magazine, not outstanding nor plain it has small detail and is appropriate for the magazine. The models pose and overall outfit style state that she is based on this genre of music and her facial expression is stereotypical for this kind of character. The tattos connotations seem very male and out of place on a woman but for this genre of music it is totally acceptable.

Deconstruction:
This is a different approach to a front cover design. Because the magazine is printed monthly it can afford to be of a better quality and give free gifts and special covers. This is a cardboard sleeve with a theme of the new slayer album release, the extremities of slayer are mirrored on this sleeve due to the blood and violence portrayed, with the front of this having no features what so ever, but only hinting featured bands there is a back to the sleeve which reveals all in the magazine. On the otherside there is the main contents of the magazine and the bands featured across the top banner. With band logo's, as a fan if you recognised these you would be drawn into buying the magazine becuase it featured a band you are interested in. In red text it states boldly that there is a FREE 2010 calender and FREE 15 track CD, this along with the red catches the eye and the word free is easily misinterpreted as the CD and calendar are inlcuded in the price of the magazine. As this is a special cover and not done every month, there is a simple minimal front cover with a close up picture of the main band "Slayer".

This is the front page under the sleeve as the acutal cover. The picture shows slayer together, this is symbolic because they have had many lineup changes in the past, this shows them together as the orginal 4. In the middle is there controversial "eagle" logo and there motto "pain, murder, art". These things show strong aggression as does the band, in the past the band have faced court cases and law suits against the church, but the fact that they still persist in being together shows untiy through extreme measures. The picture is in front of the "Metal Hammer" logo as the logo is already on the front page but they are also a very well established magazine of this genre. The special effects used on the photo are stereotypical of the style of slayer gore, violence and anger. Many of the things on this cover may be percieved satanic or have occult associations, the band have not steered away from there roots because they know the controversy they cause through thier image and lyrics never needs to stop as long as they are a band.

The contents page of this magazine is bold and simple, the main features down one column, these change monthly and also the regulars which are articles from the contributing journalists. The text used in bold represents the subject in the features highlighting the imprtance of their role in the article. The pictures follow a theme with page numbers in the corners of the image and all have distinctive characters in showing what the article is about. There is also a reviews section and an incoming section, the incoming section is in red becuase it shows the new bands urgency and how they want to break through to mainstream labels and radio. In every issue there is a column from the editor, in this he describes the issue and the months events in the metal world. This is a simple contents layout and it has a specific meaning, easily navigated and drawing the eye into the feature you want to read.

Preliminary task
For our preliminary task we were asked to produce our own version of a school magazine using appropriate images and text for the audience of 6th form. For the contents page I chose a fairly free layout with only one image and the main features and their page numbers. The lines and colours on the contents are similar to the front page and the colour scheme for the school. Having the logo on the top of the contents and the front page show that there is a theme throughout.

The front cover for the magazine is iconic of the 6th form, the features and issues relate the the 6th form and students in the school. I used this image and the headline because this is the deputy head boy of mercury, the standard mid shot of a student states the general style of a 6th form student, relaxed yet able to lead. The setting of the image is in the 6th form.The features and text used follow the flow of colours and match the background.