My Cover Photo (Mise en Scene) (Main Task Ideas)

The Brand of my magazine will be as 'Monstercat (Electronic Music)' and will use the featured arists and designs of the existing brand, though I will be taking new pictures and developing a different style without any templates from them (apart from the logo), I will be referencing the style of their branding artwork. Made by Ryan Petirep, who can be found here : http://petirep.deviantart.com/

Here is some of his artwork for the brands compilation albums...


I will be taking the style model of the EDM weekly magazine that shows an interesting style, this will allow me to be a lot more direct and refined with the style of the magazine than any other magazine model would allow me to be. I will be doing a lot more research on a case study for the company that produced EDM weekly.

Here is another picture presenting the style model that my magazine design will be based on.

EDM Weekly - My Audience interpretations

From looking at the magazine 'EDM Weekly' and doing a bit more research into the fans of the genre the things that I have managed to pick up are as follows; 

Gender - Male and Female, males are more targeted, but there is often a minimal colour scheme more representative of the featured artists rather than for audience attraction.

Age - The age range for readers of this magazine are around 15 to 30. The reason for such a wide age range is because the genre itself has increased so largely in the past year and has become a feature of a huge amount of peoples life. There is both producers, and listeners that will want to read it, and as an older producer, this is why the age range becomes higher. Alternatively in listener ages it would be around 16 - 25 because it is dancefloor/headphone orientated music, therefore this is the regular age to visit shows and gain more personal music tastes.

 As an example I have pulled up this fun cover of EDM Weekly, this shows just how diverse a sensible magazine can make itself depending on context. this is proof as to why my Gender target can be male and female, and the age range can be a lot wider, since it is aimed at teens aswell.

I have made a note of the fact that sexual orientation does not effect this kind of music genre, along with race and education... because these factors are separate from the factor of how people like to enjoy their music.

this magazine has a price range of roughly £5 english money, so we can tell that it is a well written and thought out magazine, and that the audience of the music, whilst loving to 'dance' to the music, also must be intellectual to want to read about it, and therefore will have income to disperse at their will.

From this I have decided that my magazine will cost £5.00 and will be aimed more at people who are gaining 'pocket money' or small forms of dispensable income.

Since the music magazine I have chosen is going to be aimed at a singularly brand of music range, it will be a lot more obvious that the fans/buyers of the magazine will have some loyalty already to the brand and artists that will be featured for it. There will be a bit of an ideal lifestyle design as the readers may want to learn about parts of music production, or things about the artist that they love...

Magazine Research (Close representations)

Before I get into fully producing my magazine cover I have tried to do as much research into a magazine that is already being produced of the same genre. Unfortunately for myself there is only 1 magazine that is being published around this revolutionary genre, and it is an online magazine.

The genre of my magazine is Electronic Dance Music (EDM) covering all the various genre's of music within the musical society of EDM.

The magazine I have done research into is EDM weekly, this is an online publication featuring big names of the genre, and is published by a self indepent online company of the same name (EDM Weekly) (This also happens to be hosted by two lead members of a big record label who promote the same style music.

The cover is a lot simpler than other magazines, this is for two reasons A) it's an online magazine ( A lot of features aren't needed) and B) the style of music bases itself around technology, so a more stylistic and blocked out font is fitting, along with Logos of musicians.



There is also a nice neat set up for the rest of the pages which include this range of block style fonts and smart placement. this also fits the genre of music.

Music Magazine Conventions... (Presentation)

Music Magazine Conventions (Usual and Unusual) from ASmediaJasonSmith

Here you can view my full presentation on comparing and contrasting two magazine covers choices of conventions.

Music Magazines, Online differences...

To show a bit more understanding, and perhaps to gain a bit more understanding myself I have tried to compare the style of an Online Magazine cover to a physically purchasable magazine.

The reason I have chose to do this is to show how each magazine breaks out of usual conventions and to show much an online cover can differ from a physical. First off, Barcode. there is none on the EDM issue, it doesn't need to bother, as the price will already be discoverable somewhere close by on the device they choose to read the issue on.

Both covers once again have the artist in exceedingly large text with some form of slogan/catch phrase next to them to draw in the readers. Also each magazine has a notable masthead which is a brand logo that audiences/readers will know the magazines for...

The online magazine is a bit more rigidly produced and takes a more sensible style and shape to the physical issue, this is because of two reasons A) the style of music is electronic, therefore a more organised outlook is imagined with the music anyway, and B) as the magazine is online, it is expected to be a sensible yet pleasing to look at cover, which attracts a larger audience.

Overall I think each magazine still uses the obvious conventions of magazines, such as other taglines of information in the issue, to convince a reader to purchase, but i think the online magazine has to have a more professional outlook to brand itself, as it will have a much wider audience, whereas the Kerrang! magazine will already have a regular and understanding fan base for it.

Typical conventions of some Music magazines.

I have chosen to point out some typical features/conventions of two different music magazines (you can see a more detailed review of these features in a coming presentation made by myself).

I have shown three conventions and their placement on each cover, this is to show that though each magazine breaks conventions, they must stick to some regular features (Like the ones that I have listed)

Masthead placement on DJ Mag and NME is very similar in the idea that it is a brand logo, that their audience will know, therefore it is regularly.

The main coverline idea is impressive, as both magazines use the same idea of using the band/artist title, then using word placement before each artist title to give a sort of 'draw in fact' for the audience/readers.

An obvious feature, though I thought it would be nice to point out how the placement on both the magazines is exceedingly similar once again, it is placed in such a way so that it's out of the way, but is still easily readable.

Music Magazine Cover Conventions...

I have chosen to research very specific music magazines to my own taste and a more broader taste for others. For this reason I have chosen the magazines Dj Mag, NME, Kerrang, and EDMweekly (online).

Here are four covers from each magazine.

The reason I have chosen these magazines is to show two things ; A) I have a broader knowledge of different conventions that different magazines will use to appeal to their audience, B) To show that aswell as my music tastes (EDM magazine), I have appreciation for how other peoples music will appeal to them (However I like all the artists on the featured covers above).