Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Do i really need to answer this? The comparision between my two magazines is non-existant. On the left we have amatuer work with no overall plan, no fancy ideas, not even straight text! Where as on the right we have a masterpeice that has 'Oh yes' written all over it.
My prelminary work doesn't even follow any conventions other then the very poor masthead. The photo quality was poor, the editing was poor, the design was poor and it just looks so dull. The text varies from one sentance to the other, the images arn't in line nor in a correct size.
The improvement from that to my current work is vast, you can clearly see that my work has become far better. The editing is good, the design is great, the genious new ideas, it all adds up to one great package. The preliminary taught me exactlly what not to do in a magazine but this is wear my first draught suffered from. Instead of doing too little like i did before i then went and did too much and the first draught just too crowded, this time i have found a good space between the two. The preliminary also taught me that time, patience and detail are everything. Although you can't see it that well my pug has a huge amount of detail in it, as well as the background to my double page spread. The preliminary was a good test run and taught me what i shouldn't do and yes i did learn from it. Apart from obviously learning more about Photoshop, i have learnt more about proffesional looks, how to anaylse and use bits of design from just about anything (see question 6 step 4), how to make things look eye catching, how to appeal to a specific type of reader and flood them with everything they want, could want and what i'll force them to want.
Although there is one major difference between why the magazines have certain things. I mean i wouldn't add on skulls, make it all dark and drab if i was trying to appeal to school kids like i did in my prelimary because thats not what they want, so the preliminary has definitly taught me to research into my target audience and find out every little thing about what appeals to them, in this case it did happen to be skulls and dark colours due to this being about Thrash Metal.
Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Thorought the design process of this product i have used various peices of technologies and have been let down by a certain area of them. The first stage of the magazine's design was to go out and take some pictures of my models, backgrounds and anything else i required - I used my digital camera for most of these but it soon ran out of battery, so my phone stepped in to the fill the seat and worked great. I had trouble with lighting at times, so a few of the main pictures i was going to use ended up being cut up and only have little snippets of them being used. Other then that the picture taking process was without incident.
The next process was to put this pictures on a computer and start on the main design processes for the magazine. We were given time to use 'Photoshop' on Microsoft Macs most of the time but this soon was a complete let down as the photoshop didn't have half the features mine did at home, so doing what i wanted to do was rather hard most of the time - especially when instead of saving my work, photoshop decided to crash and forget it all. My working Photoshop with many more features proved hard to work with as for some reason all my colours turn out looking like sand (problem with my computer) so that re-mastering process took a while to fine tune afterwards but other then that Photoshop was fine and i learnt many skills and tricks with it. The demonstraight how i have constructed my pages, i will show you how my contents page got from zero to hero.
Step 1
First of all; a blank page. I look at my planned designs and see what one/what parts of each would be suited now i have this overall idea in my head. I quickly wrote out what my contents page would include, the title and draw the two boxes at the bottom, read when they get their content.
Step 2
I then tidied up the text and added in the content for the two boxes at the bottom. The pictures where simply cut out from the ones i had taken earlier and reduced in size or simply had the undeed parts taken away (the camo background was not reducded, anything over the size of the box was deleted) For the 'Mad Mad Mass' stories, the background was made from the 'Clouds Filter' tool. I did experiment with 'Difference Clouds' and adding bit of 'Gaussion Blur' but i realised that the simple clouds i already had where fine. What i did acquire from the Difference clouds and Gaussion blur was the line down the middle, by mistake i made the entire page have the clouds effect, but i saw what a good effect it had made i decided to keep a small part of the line which then became the content seperater you now see. I then added in the early beginnings of the 'Editor Speaks' area.
Step 3
I then added in the rest for the Editor's section including a reduced picture. I then used the layer style 'Stroke' to add a small border around the picture. I also polished off most of text, made sure it was spelt correctly and added in more layer effects - mainly drop shadows and bevels. I also added a small line over the Issue date for more aesthetics. At this point i saw that major parts of the page where still empty but i didn't want to move my design around. After a red bull and some thinking i came up with a plan.
Step 4
I was wandering around my looking for inspiration and nothing really hit me untill i saw book my dad had on the shelf. It was a book on the pacific front in world ward two, the Imperial Japaneese flag was the background of the front cover and it worked so well. I decided i would use this, so i instantly jumped on the computer and had 4 attempts at trying to make the shape on a new layer with the Polygonic lasso tool and failed misrebly. So i downloaded a shape that looked like it and put it as the background of the front page (Custom shape tool and Opacitiy changes). I tried having the colour of it as a dark red since thats what had worked so well on the front cover of the book and since my magazine uses dark red alot but it blended in the with text too much. I still had too much empty space in parts of my page. I tried adding a image in but no matter how big or small it was or were i placed it, it was too out of place untill i remembered what i did with the background. I changed the opacity right down and it looked pretty good but was still off. I messed around with the blending changers and found that 'Luminosity' worked wonders. I had forgotten to move the layer down and it was over my 'Editor speaks' section, but i thought it looked quite good. After asking a few people who fitted my target audience they told me that it was fine and looked good so i continued to use it - as well as the fact it looks like the cover of a album that my target audience likes.
Step 5
Now there was just one problem left, empty space in the top right corner. At this stage i realised i didn't have a pug but putting one on would make it too ugly, so i had a good plan - masking tape. I decided that instead of just having the usual bland and boring pug i would make it as if someone had come along and left the editor a note (a bit of suttle advertising in the end) I've not seen a magazine that has had something that looks like masking tape on it before so we're already ahead on originality, then instead of just writting 'New Merchandise in the Store!' and spoiling the whole effect, i added in 'CJ, Don't forget to talk about the new merchandise - Merch Dept'. Placed right next to the 'Editor Speaks' section it works at; Advertising, Focus pulling and making the magazine seem more 'One to One' instead of being mass produced for everyone.
To attract my target audience i included everything that would be interested in as well as including everything related to them. My double page spread is designed to be worn down and destroyed (General metal) whilst my front page is black and dark red (More extreme metal). The model on the front cover is exactlly what you'd expect from a metal guitar and is dressed in black accordinly, this appeals to the audience directly since they either want to be like him, may already be like him or because he looks like a member from their favourate metal band. The use of wording in the magazine also directly appeals to the audience; since metal doesn't pull any punches when it comes to their fast and fruious gigs and their fast and furious lifestyles. My magazine does have swearing in it dotted around the place such as "It's F@!#ing Whiplash!" because metalheads just straight don't care whether they offend people or not, they just want to rock - so the fact this magazine is using their own sort of language back at them would directlly interest them since they'd see this magazine and realise that it's just like them, from the clothes the model is using on the front, to the content and use of language.
I've just realised that parts of my magazine do look like things my target audience have/want. My front page for example:
Sort of looks like it. I'm included in this target audience and have that shirt, so it's pretty obvious that small peices like this can and have worked at reminding audiences of bands that could be in the magazine. If someone does see that issue number, they wont instantly go 'Hey that looks like Metallica! They must be in this issue!' but they will unknowingly reckognise it and be drawn in by it.
Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would be the previously described Metal Head community; i already have a example of what this type of group of people would be like in terms of buying potential, spending allowance, loyality, interests etc Here and Here. This group of 18 - 30, middle class people would definantly be my audience for Whiplash since if you like one genre of metal your pretty much going to like 75% of the rest, including sub-genres - so they are always going to buy my product out of interest.
Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The choice of publisher is important for a sucessfull magazine. Wheither it be the avaliable funds for advertising, nearby printing presses or simply the ability to publish the magazine well - whatever the choice, it is crucial it is the right one. Various publishers could take on my magazine for various reasons;
Something different - The publisher wants to expand into new areas of the industry, taking on my magazine would be the first step into conquering Metal magazine publishing:
IPC Media ACP Magazines Heinrich Bauer Verlag
Expand influence - The publisher wants to simply increase their grasp on the metal magazine publshing industry. Possibly even making the two magazines Rivals to inspire compition, increased sales due to rivalry and more:
Future Publishing Springer Publishing Dennis Publishing
I did not want to add in any of the major players of publishing such as IPC Media since they already publish well respected and well selling magazines, they would not need to either expand their grasp on the industry, whoever they could possibly be persauded to quickly snap up and publish my magazine Whiplash since this would cut off their competitors and stop them from gaining and advantage
Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups
My media product will directly represent and stand for a particular social group; the 'MetalHead' community. Usually between 18 - 30, these long haired, denim and leather wearing, middle class people will be always be seen wearing a t-shirt from a band they enjoy, although unlike other genres of music fashion, the only mandetory part is wearing a T-shirt since some people cannot grow their hair long. The images used for my product have partially keep to these rules with two of the models used dressed in a Denim shirt and jeans or simply all in black. Although this does not apply to all models since once again the dress code isn't manditory. The metal genre is associated with all kinds of satanism, death and various other wierd categories such as those, as such metal colours are black, red, grey and generally dark colours - my magazine uses all of them, as well as the 'grungey' type design of my second page showing how worn down and used the page is, much like how worn out and destroyed people are after going mental at a metal concert.
The models used in my magazine are middle class, white people which is what the majority of the metal community is, you don't have to be rich to rock out. The choice of equipment the models are using and the location of one of them shows the early beginnings of what a metal band has to go through (playing in a garage with very little equipment) since they can't afford studio time being from such a background.
Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product sticks to the majority of magazine conventions such as a masthead and pug whilst not sticking to the conventions of them. To give a example; this is a usual magazine pug
A circle with some kind of offer/advertisement on the front page. This one happens to be positioned out of the way of the main focal point of the front page and is fairly small.
Whereas my pug is on the contents page - instantly breaking the common rule of it being on the frontpage. It is not a circle with a small amount of words, instead it is written as a personal note from someone to the editor slapped on afterwards to remind him to talk about the new merch. So it's less of a 'billboard' style advertising and more of a suttle approach. It's also not positioned right next to the main focus-pulling object of the page, since the pug itself is bright compared to it's surroundings it is in a great place to stand out. Other ways my front cover keeps with conventions yet develops them futher would be the slanted banner running across the bottom of my front page, just not at the completel buttom like most magazines. Mine is slightly high off the bottom of the page so i can add in more bands that are included in this magazine. Whilst this does make the magazine look somewhat odd, it fits in well since this issue of the magazine is about finding new bands, new genres, new...things - such as the colour, the choice of colour of my magazine is also relatively new. With the possible expection of the 'Revolver' front page that i anaylsed, no other magazine uses a completely dark and mysterious colour scheme such as mine. Sure 'Revolver' is dark as well but it's not completely dark, the picture of the band frontman in the middle of the others wears a white shirt, making him and everything around him the focus pull of the magazine where as mine is dressed in dark clothes as well. He does blend into the background somewhat but not enough for him to completely disappear, this could appeal to peoples sense of curiousity if they don't completely see him at first glance. Anyway, due my model being partly unseen and all the objects/text around him standing out, this makes my magazine work really effectively at challanging conventions and making it work.
The effect of these new ideas for the rules that magazines stick to make out my magazine to be something different in every form, not just what it in includes. If all magazines on a shop's shelf look the same since they all keep to conventions, customers will caught a glimpse of this magazine and instantly be curious about the contents since it's so unique.
This is Dave, John, Steve, Joe and Craig. They are 19 and 20 years old, live in the city of London. They currently all have part time jobs and spend their money on equipment for the band they want to start so they do not have too much money to spare. They all have a keen interest in heavy metal with 3 of the 5 also branching into the sub-genre of 'Thrash Metal'; the main bands they like include: 'Metallica', 'Anthrax', 'Megadeth', 'Machine Head'. They have all been interested in music for a huge time and as so; they all took music in school. They all have around 6 C/D GCSEs so they are not the smartest bunch around but they make up for it with their creativity. They all enjoy going to concerts, drinking, partying and just enjoying music to the full. They dress in the typical rocker manner; Leather coats, denim jeans and band t-shirts.
+ Devout to music
- Lack of funds
Friday, 5 February 2010
Analysing ‘Revolver’
Anaylsing Colour
Black - Dark, Gothic, Leather (Metal clothing is denim and leather, also the main band is wearing black)
White/Grey – Contrasting against the black and red, no real connotations
Red - Blood (Metal genre: Grim, dark, death)
Colour scheme of magazine is traditional rock and metal colours, being the heavy use of darker colours. This helps to follow a house style for the music magazines aimed at the genres of rock and metal.
Analysing Design
Big images of 3 members of 2 very well known bands. This magazine is focusing on these two bands since they are touring together, this will be huge for the metal genre. Since this is such a big event the people here are overlaying the title of the magazine to symbolise how big they are. Other band news and interviews are written on the magazine underneath the main news to attract people who like these bands as well
Analysing Images
Main image shows members from 2 bands (Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold) teaming up and working together on their new monster tour. Again the main image overlaps the title to show how important this event will be. By combining members of bands into one picture the fans of these bands will see it and instantly gain a huge interest, especially since they favourite band is teaming up with another hugely liked band.
Pose
The bands play heavy metal and thrash metal; both being naturally fast and aggressive so the members pose reflects this with the scowls and grit teeth on their faces.
Use of words on cover
The words on the magazine are not used to do anything other then advertise what bands are in the magazine. This keeps the front page clean, simple and not over crowed.
Overall impression
This magazine’s focus is all on the main event of the magazine; this being a combined tour by 2 monster bands. The magazine is clean, simple and does what it says on the tin by showing you what bands are in this magazine and give you the choice to take it or leave it, it does not over complicate things by having a huge amount of different stories on the front cover.
Revolver double page spread
Colour
This double page’s colour scheme is typical of what you would expect from an underground metal magazine, the background is a mixture of some kind of greyish brown – keeping with the traditional metal colour scheme of anything dark and raw. Due to this being a interview the names of the two people being interviewed and in different colours to show their importance, not that it really needs to be pointed out since Ozzy Osbourne practically invented the metal genre. Zakk Wylde is the other person being interviewed and is known for being totally insane and unpredictable; red represents fire and how it can spread uncontrollably so it is a perfect choice for such a man. The album artwork from their latest album is used on this double page spread, being very grim and dark it fits in well with the dark industrial setting that these pages have.
Design
The article in question on these pages is an interview between three people so the text itself is going to be the most important part and needs the most attention. So the design of this page has the importance of the text in mind, so the choice of the only two pictures in this article is the album artwork for their upcoming album and a picture of the guitarist Zakk Wylde; two very different pictures but not a lot to say about them both – meaning the readers attention is on the text for a lot longer.
Images
The images on these pages are of the upcoming album artwork and a picture of the beast of a guitar player that is Zakk Wylde. If you are even remotely like metal music (which you should be since you are reading a metal magazine) then you will know who Zakk Wylde is and how insane the man is and how he is the what every metal musician should be like; drinks to excess, lives life to the full and looks like a Viking from head to toe. This image of Zakk instantly draws in his fans and anyone who wants to see the face behind the blistering guitar solos; linked in with the fact he works with one of the pioneers for the genre (Ozzy) helps to bring in his fans as well.
Pose
The pose held by Zakk Wylde in the picture is one of huge strength and power; the odd angle he is leaning at is portrays him as an unstable character possibly crazy which he is. The confidence he is showing with his pose indicates that he knows what he’s doing; he’s been there and established himself past all the bad times of the early days of a band and is now a very successful artist.
Use of words
The use of words in this article is very important since it is an interview. The interview opens with a summary of what the interview is going to be about, drawing in anyone who quickly skims the article to see what it is about. The language used in the article is simple and often including swearwords since the audience this magazine is targeting is reading this magazine to find out about their metal scene and not to have their magazine made of fluffy lesser genres.
Overall impression
This double page and the interview wherein is a great display of artistic work by the colours, choice of chosen images and poses within the image. The usage of dark colours as a basis, bright colours for emphasising points and breaking the flow of the page. The dark choice of colouring goes well with the rest of this magazine since it does cover the more darker and extreme areas of metal sub-genres. Ozzy Osbourne; one of the people being interviewed and the person in the album artwork, is nicknamed ‘The Prince of Darkness’ so the use of a dark colour basis and background perfectly fits his nickname as well as the music genre.
Revolver double page spread
Colour
This double page’s colour scheme is typical of what you would expect from an underground metal magazine, the background is a mixture of some kind of greyish brown – keeping with the traditional metal colour scheme of anything dark and raw. Due to this being a interview the names of the two people being interviewed and in different colours to show their importance, not that it really needs to be pointed out since Ozzy Osbourne practically invented the metal genre. Zakk Wylde is the other person being interviewed and is known for being totally insane and unpredictable; red represents fire and how it can spread uncontrollably so it is a perfect choice for such a man. The album artwork from their latest album is used on this double page spread, being very grim and dark it fits in well with the dark industrial setting that these pages have.
Design
The article in question on these pages is an interview between three people so the text itself is going to be the most important part and needs the most attention. So the design of this page has the importance of the text in mind, so the choice of the only two pictures in this article is the album artwork for their upcoming album and a picture of the guitarist Zakk Wylde; two very different pictures but not a lot to say about them both – meaning the readers attention is on the text for a lot longer.
Images
The images on these pages are of the upcoming album artwork and a picture of the beast of a guitar player that is Zakk Wylde. If you are even remotely like metal music (which you should be since you are reading a metal magazine) then you will know who Zakk Wylde is and how insane the man is and how he is the what every metal musician should be like; drinks to excess, lives life to the full and looks like a Viking from head to toe. This image of Zakk instantly draws in his fans and anyone who wants to see the face behind the blistering guitar solos; linked in with the fact he works with one of the pioneers for the genre (Ozzy) helps to bring in his fans as well.
Pose
The pose held by Zakk Wylde in the picture is one of huge strength and power; the odd angle he is leaning at is portrays him as an unstable character possibly crazy which he is. The confidence he is showing with his pose indicates that he knows what he’s doing; he’s been there and established himself past all the bad times of the early days of a band and is now a very successful artist.
Use of words
The use of words in this article is very important since it is an interview. The interview opens with a summary of what the interview is going to be about, drawing in anyone who quickly skims the article to see what it is about. The language used in the article is simple and often including swearwords since the audience this magazine is targeting is reading this magazine to find out about their metal scene and not to have their magazine made of fluffy lesser genres.
Overall impression
This double page and the interview wherein is a great display of artistic work by the colours, choice of chosen images and poses within the image. The usage of dark colours as a basis, bright colours for emphasising points and breaking the flow of the page. The dark choice of colouring goes well with the rest of this magazine since it does cover the more darker and extreme areas of metal sub-genres. Ozzy Osbourne; one of the people being interviewed and the person in the album artwork, is nicknamed ‘The Prince of Darkness’ so the use of a dark colour basis and background perfectly fits his nickname as well as the music genre.
Analysing Revolver contents page
Colours
Revolver’s contents page is unlike many other magazine contents pages in many ways. In terms of the colour most magazines have their contents pages keep along the same line as their set default colour scheme that they would use, as seen in Kerrang! Below. The colour of this contents page is obviously not the important part of the page but it does a good job of placing all the of readers attention into the image of the lady in the dress in the middle of the page. The white text on a blue background is still easy to read as well as being different from other magazines – this magazine is obviously not conformist and so you will not expect to see anything you would usually see in from other magazines.
Design
The contents page is not designed with simplicity in mind; well it’s not designed with anything conventional in mind. The contents page clearly has an exclusive plan in mind with the actual stories it is trying to advertise well out the way and in a very small font. The page was obviously designed with the image of ‘Christina’ as the one and only focal point for the page, to tie in with the advertisements on the front page. This is nothing like what usual magazines would do and it shows that either this magazine is not terribly good; which you will soon see is not the case when you see the content and exclusive stuff they have inside, or the magazine truly has its own unique image that no other magazine has got anything close to.
Images
As soon as you turn the page you are confronted with the only image on the page and the only thing that really warrants attention; before you is a close up of a woman in a bright red dress sitting on a box. This magazine is all about the ‘hottest chicks in metal’ so this image obviously as to go along with the two main points in the advertisement;
1) Hot chicks – well you have a pretty lady in a dress showing a lot of leg – attracts males
2) Metal – she is wearing black lipstick, her hair is black and she is wearing leather accessories – attracts people who like metal
So this image not only reinforces what this magazines main feature is about but it also targets a good range of buyers.
Poses
The one and only pose on this page is purely done to reinforce the fact that this magazine is all about the ‘hottest chicks in metal’ so the pose the model has obviously has the chance to entice a male audience towards buying this magazine, and it does. Obviously putting on a seductive pose, the model sideways glance is obviously a more sensational way of appealing to a male reader.
Use of words
The small usage of words in this page is simply there to do the job of advertising the rest of the magazine as well as helping readers to find what article they wish to find. The text is out of the way of the main focal point for the page, as to not interfere with the messages it gives off and make the whole page look sloppy, uncared for and rushed. The text does not have any fancy effects towards it, it is just put there because it has to be, giving off the message that the magazine is being forced to have this in place but since it is so far out the way and uncared for it is not interfering with the content of the magazine.
Overall impression
The contents page is exactly what you would expect from a main feature in the middle of the magazine, not a contents page. This shows that magazine will do things it’s way and will not conform to magazine traditions. The unique and exclusive design that this magazine has gone for shows it is far more independent then most other magazines and has no need to conform to their way of thinking.
Black - Dark, Gothic, Leather (Metal clothing is denim and leather, also the main band is wearing black) White/Grey – Contrasting against the black and red, no real connotations Red - Blood (Metal genre: Grim, dark, death)
The bright red title of the band instantly draws in your focus from the unimportant colours around it. Red is as a symbol of blood which is a main lyrical topic in the metal scene (will attract more people who like this genre)
Analysing Design
As with all music magazines, the main band in this magazine has centre stage on the magazines front cover with the name of the band in big writing to alert all of their fans to get this magazine. Since this is a well-known magazine and everyone knows the name of it (which you can mostly see anyway) the main band on the front is over the magazines header, to show just how big this band is. The magazine keeps with all usual magazine conventions; content banners at the top and bottom and small sub-section advert for content
Analysing Images
The first big image you come across is of the main band of this issue (Metallica). Being a giant of the metal genre they are put as a huge image on the front page to attract their huge fan base. The front man for the band is at the front of the group picture as he is the most recognisable; he is displayed in front of the title to show his importance compared to his fellow band members. Their new and relatively unknown bassist is given a small portion of the front cover.
Pose
The leader singer is standing in a smug position with a smirk on his face to show he knows how great his band is and how lucky the magazine is to be having them in their magazine. Their poses portray confidence, reassurance and general positveness.
Use of words on cover
Metallica is a huge band and is the most well known mainstream heavy metal band around, they were responsible for influencing hundreds of bands over the years and as so you can not take them lightly/. The huge important of this band on the whole genre and music history in general means the huge, thick text on the front of the cover shows this. Metallica is a giant of a band and this huge text will shows they are not to be taken lightly
Overall impression
This effective cover draws in passers by, it’s simple yet effective design added with the bright colours, huge text and influential band means that anyone even slightly connected with the metal scene would defiantly need to get this magazine
Double Page Spread
Colour
The colour scheme used in this double page is simply a black background with white text contrasting over it. The occasional spot of yellow is used to emphasise certain points and advertise what the article is about. This colour scheme does keep with the front page in a sense since it keeps the use of yellow to emphasis points and has the text in white (like most magazines) The reason for using this colour scheme is not to connote anything like ‘Metal Hammer’ magazine; it is trying to grab all of the readers attention and put it into the easily readable text, with some images to help.
Design
This page is designed to have the images in the middle of the page as the dominant feature. The images are centred in the middle; with them taking up ¾ of each page. The text around the outside is broken up with some pictures being to big and forcing the text over, as well as the occasional emphasised point in yellow. The images are used in such a way it looks like a collage or snaps someone took on a camera whilst they were there. The images are positioned incredibly well, as soon as you open the page they are right there in front of you so you can see what great bands this article has.
Images
The images used in this double page spread are of the bands that are playing at ‘Sonisphere’ festival, which is what these pages are about. The pictures are have been put in the magazine in such a way it looks as if they have been pieced together to from some ones snapshots from attending the festival before, instantly showing that it was good enough to attend again. One of the pictures is of the audience raising their ‘horns’ up at a band playing on stage, once again telling readers how great this festival was and how the following article will let them capture the magic of it.
Pose
The poses of most of the band members captured in the images are doing what you would expect of a band member from a heavy metal band at a concert; playing their instruments, shouting at the audience and head banging. This is what all heavy metal bands do, reinforcing the point that this is a heavy metal festival and the audience is expected to do what people attending this sort of festival should do; head bang and go insane. The poses all show the characters to be in a very strong position (a feature of metal music)
Use of words
The words used in these pages are not the focus point of this page and as such are not forced open the reader in any way; they are more accompanying the images along because they have to. The images have small captions to add some humour to lighten up the heavy atmosphere of this magazine to some extent. The one extract from the article is in huge bold letters to signify its importance or the importance of the person who said it, in this case both due to the extract trying to point out how amazing this festival was and having the front man from the band that was headlining it to say how amazing it was as well.
Overall impression
These pages are all about showing the reader how great the festival in the article was. The images are what you would expect to see from a heavy metal show and the use of wording in the article form this one big package that states how great this article is going to be. The odd design of the page works well with the chosen images and the ‘out of the way’ text is effected by the images drawing the readers attention to getting them to want to know more about this article.
Contents Page
Colours
Kerrang’s contents page keeps its colour scheme as white, black and yellow to emphasis points or show headings, this colour scheme is prominent through all Kerrang magazines. The black text on the white background instantly contrasts and makes the text easier to read as well as standing out much more, the use of yellow on a black highlight. After looking at the main picture that is set before the reader their eyes are then instantly drawn to the index on the right with its clever use of the black text on white background and yellow text on black background at the same time.
Design
Kerrang’s contents page is a standard contents page you would expect from any magazine; main stories with images to accompany them and an index down the side. The page is designed with simplicity in mind so that the reader can easily look for the articles that they want to read whilst the images help them to pick as well as advertising what is in store for the reader such as the competitions, interviews and reviews.
Images
The images on this page all play an important role in advertising the magazine. Four of the images are of bands either posing for a photo shoot or on stage playing their instruments – allowing the reader to easily scan to see what bands are included in this issue. The rest of the pictures are also used to help advertise what is in this issue with a picture of a Gibson electric guitar that you can win in a competition in this magazine as well as a picture of a band front man walking with women either side of him (defiantly going to attract male readers to that article).
Poses
The poses on this page vary from picture to picture. On the one hand you have the normal band members playing instruments or just messing about at a concert – obviously attracting the audience that prefers the live, frantic articles and news but on the other hand you have the staged photo shoot and picture of a ‘glam rocker’ who take their image above the music – which attracts the more relaxed crowd that prefers to buy the albums and listen to them in their own time casually. The poses here attract both audiences very well, whichever category you fall into.
Use of words
The choice of wording on the contents page is important – it needs to be enough to warrant the readers attention but not too much to give the whole article away in one sentence. In terms of text features there isn’t a lot to say, Kerrang want to keep this contents page plain, simple and easy to read so it does not put off any potential readers (although the main picture on this page says otherwise)
Overall impression
The impression received from this content page is how plain it is – but not in a bad way. The fact that this contents page is so plain means that the team has spent far more time worrying about whether the content of the magazine is top notch instead of placing all their time and effort on making it look good. The plainness of this content page is not so much to make you think that as soon as you open the page, what strikes you at first the amount of ‘top stories’ since they have pictures accompanying as well as the add promise of hopefully winning a guitar.
Black - Dark, Gothic/extreme (Genre) Brown - War atmosphere (Relative to main band on cover), Dark (Genre) Red - War (Relative to main band on cover)
All these colours put together really stick to the conventions of colour and artwork within the metal genre; dark, raw and not 'polished off'.
Analysing Design
The main promoted/interviewed band in this magazine is the main centre of focus for the magazine front page with the band’s rhythm guitarist taking up the centre (as well as the majority) of the front-page picture. Due to this issue being boxed with cardboard (which I lost) to keep in the issues free items, the magazine itself has no real need to be filled with various stories and other titles saying what is in the magazine since the cardboard already had it on there. Making the band member the biggest image on the page is instantly going to catch the attention of any of the band’s fans.
Analysing Images
In this issue it is a band called ‘Five Finger Death Punch’ who’s own theme is about the military so the front page reflects this with tanks and military gear all over the front with colour scheme to match. Being a metal music magazine, Metal Hammer keeps to the conventions of the genre artwork by having its entire graphics in a grunge/distorted style with evident wear and tear to them. It is a dark and 'industrial' magazine with nothing remotely close to any sort of bright colour or anything connoting a happy thought. Magazine title is in big huge letters, enforcing the fact that this is a heavy metal magazine.
Pose
As soon as you see this magazine you have this picture of a big guy, surrounded by tanks, in a war zone. This connotes all about the music that is heavy metal; highly amplified distortion, overall loudness and generally insane music that is too macho to be anything but this extreme. The camera is tilted up towards the main character on the front of this page, showing that he is strong and powerful like the music genre this magazine is about. Add in the props of a handgun, assault vest and grenade and this incredibly ‘tooled up’ character is still showing off how extreme this magazine will be.
Use of words on cover
The small amount of wording on the cover of the magazine is enough to put across what it is trying to do, sell this magazine. “Got Metal?” is on the cover to show it is a metal magazine if you hadn’t guessed already with the band name, “Five Finger Death Punch” underneath to attract the bands fans to getting this magazine as well as showing that this magazine doesn’t just have any old band in its pages, it has the best around. Overall impression
This magazine is simply a raw metal magazine that is what its target audience wants. People who buy this magazine want to hear about the music, the bands and everything in between, they have no need to have a pristine polished magazine, it’s all about the music. Metal concerts and the music in general is not pretty it’s raw and uncared for so the magazine reflects that, if this magazine and the metal genre was a film it would be a dirty gritty war movie instead of all the other boring ‘documentary’ type magazines that are about other genres.
Metal Hammer double page spread
Colour
The colour scheme used for this double page continues the same dark and raw colour scheme from the magazine’s front page. The small amount of colour that was on the front page is still here and is slightly more used as the background has more explosions in it. The main colours on these pages are still the same Brown, Red, Black, and Yellow/Orange that was on the front page, going along with the band’s military theme; these colours make the background out to be a very grim, dark and dirty battlefield with the band members in the photos themselves keeping with this colour scheme as well, showing that they are the dominate force in the battlefield behind them, possibly implying that the battlefield could be the battle to be the best metal band around and these band has done it? Battlefields are generally extremely loud and violent places to be; the band’s gigs are also like that as well as the metal genre in general; this show of force is obviously going to impress anyone reading this magazine.
Design
The page is designed with the main image, background and title to take centre point. The small amount of small text is placed so it does not warrant any major attention nor take it away from the main images on the page. The whole of the first page is just the two band members, some weapons and the battlefield behind them and the thought of ‘wow these guys are good’ in the back of your head. The second page has the title “War inside my head” in huge letters; this title could possibly explain why there’s a war going on behind them, this could possibly be the lead singer’s head (fighting off failure?). The font used with the main title and small cutout from the article is all scratched and used, keeping with the thought of the battlefield and military theme this page has. This is another great way of putting across the raw, dark feel of metal music and it will defiantly interest any read.
Images
This double page features two members from the main band of this issue; Five Finger Death Punch. The battlefield behind them just shows what insane and angry people they are and how ferocious their gigs will be. This is a defining feature of metal as the gigs are frantic and very loud, the same as the battlefield behind the band and how the bands gigs are; it all links together to help draw in any potential readers.
Pose
The poses the band members have are quite different. At the front is the leader singer who has a fairly unsettling grin on his face whilst he clutches a live grenade; this man will be furious and insane at gigs, in this magazine and in general. Behind him is another band member clutching a assault rifle whilst screaming at someone; is he barking out orders to show he is in control and a confident man or is he screaming at his enemies who know their time is nearly over thanks to this madman. Overall the poses show these people are crazy, have a very aggressive attitude and have a lot of energy to spare for rocking out
Use of words
Whilst the small amount of wording on these pages are out of the way to make room for the huge band members, the wording does show off what you can expect from this band, from the magazine and from the metal genre in general. The wording used for this magazine is fairly simple and boring but the language used isn’t, especially since the article starts with the lead singer swearing his head off. The language used is much more stronger and heavier then compared with other magazines; but this is metal, it is not meant for the weak, it is meant to be strong, violent and furious. Metal music general makes people angry and this article certainly already is.
Overall impression
This double page is hugely effective at portraying what is to be expected from the oncoming article, from the band and from anything that involves the metal genre. All the colour schemes, images, poses, props all link together to produce one big shining example of this furious, heavy, angry magazine filled with furious, heavy and angry bands. The design, the wording, the images and the contents of this magazine will have any reading begging to know when they can get the next issue.
Anaysling Metal Hammer contents page
Colours
Metal Hammer’s contents page is a fairly standard contents page with its Black and White colour scheme. There is also a brighter Red accompanying these two colours along, mainly used to make page numbers and tag lines stick out. The red effectively points out what is inside that article for example;
Hard Rock Hell 3 Access all areas
The black text used against the white background makes the name stand out whilst the red then draws your attention to what is happening and why there is an article on this. This is very effectively used to draw readers’ attention to the main areas attention away from the bland areas that have to be filled up and straight to where the articles they want will be.
Design
The contents page design is simple and what you would usually expect from a magazine. Title, contents going down with images from later in the magazine scattered around as a taster. The fonts used are only seen a few times afterwards to show that these are exclusive fonts only used for the best pages and most interesting captions.
Images
This page is filled with images from later on in the magazine to show readers what they can expect later on, mainly images from the best parts of the magazine are shown here. This is to emphasise how important some of the stories in this magazine are as well as giving readers a small glimpse into what to expect.
Poses
The poses on this page vary as each image is used to advertise a different a story but in general most of the pictures are keeping with the traditional metal conventions of being in a powerful, angry and confident pose. Most people who are connected with the metal genre will see this as the typical metal thing to do the magazine isn’t doing anything new at this point.
Use of words
The contents page the wording is obviously important so people who are tempted to buy the magazine will look at the contents page to see what they will get if they buy this magazine; the contents page wording needs to show the reader that this magazine is well worth it. Metal Hammer puts a small line underneath some of the more important features/interviews to show how important these will be and to help the reader judge whether it is worth reading or not. The font used is also fairly big as well so it’s not a strain on the eyes to try and read this, another useful feature of the magazine. The language used in this page is also like the others; not using ‘soft’ words to describe anything, just the raw facts.
Overall impression
This contents page is exactly what you would expect from a normal magazine and exactly what you would expect from anything coming from the metal genre, put together. The contents page is designed so it is like any other but it certainly has the metal influence with the angry poses of the featured bands in it, the gothic text and the dark colours.
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