Conventions of magazines are somewhat gradual as they get
more and more refined through layers being targeted towards certain groups. For
example, conventions from magazine to magazine will be the same (to have a
masthead, etc) but conventions of music magazines will be more specific, and
conventions of a rock magazine would be even more niche.
House Style
Having a house style is one of the most important parts of
designing a successful magazine. Having everything in the same order for every
issue is an example of a house style, as it is custom to the magazine and will
always be continuous through every issue. Other features of having a house
style are logos, positioning, masthead style, some colour themes, and image styling.
In order for a house style to be successful it must be appealing to the target audience,
and show that through altering certain things within the style of that magazine
to make them pleasing to the audience that the magazine is trying to attract or
maintain. For example, Kerrang! uses its house style effectively throughout its
issues. When looking at lots of Kerrang! issues together, you notice that
similar colours are always used. Black, white and red always feature on the
cover of this magazine, and these colours connote darkness and particularly
rebelliousness and danger, which are traits the publisher wants the reader to
be interested in or to ‘aspire’ to. Also the masthead shows a fair amount of
continuity throughout issues as even though it might change colour it remains
the same size and in the same position. This aspect of having a house style is
primarily so readers know what they are looking for on the newsstand, and are
able to identify with a magazine cover.
My image for my front cover was shot with natural light in
order to maintain a realistic, down to earth feel, as through research I found
that even though my audience cared about presentation, they preferred looks
that were more naturalistic and less over exposed and fake. For this reason I decided
to keep editing of the picture minimal and only added a clean coloured filter,
upped the saturation whilst lowering the temperature. This along with the monochrome
colour scheme of the fonts (bar one, which was a dusky, pastel pink, which was
used as a bridge between the image and the headlines on the image as it accompanied
the colour of the flowers on the models shirt) should be an effective house
style for my magazine as it looks sophisticated and put together properly as it
uses only 3 fonts, and also makes it look minimalistic (something my survey results
said was preferred)so should attract people who care about clean,
sophisticated, yet intricate design. When my magazine cover is placed next to
Kerrang! you can see how different they really are. It shows how much of a big
part the magazine cover plays in attracting different people, as my magazine
cover doesn’t have the same conventions as Kerrang!, meaning readers of
Kerrang! would be unlikely to pick up a copy, and vice-versa. When creating my
magazine it made me realise how much of a big part researching your target
audience is. If I hadn’t done a survey, I might not have known that people who
were interested in a classical x pop genre wouldn’t mind not having a musical
instrument on the front cover, or that they preferred things to look stylish yet
classic. Without this information I might have made the magazine too obviously
this genre by putting obvious references to classical instruments and using
bright colours, when the people I’m aiming the magazine at actually prefer
something more refined and clean.
Overall, I haven’t broken boundaries with my magazine design,
and have kept to the 4 F’s of magazine design. I felt that deviating from a
theory that has been in practise for so long with so much success would be
risky and could jeopardise the outcome of my magazine. Not following this
widely respected theory requires a lot of bravery! It leads to an unusual
looking magazine that can have negative reviews. Even though David Carson
pushed the boat out during his time as art designer at RayGun and made
wonderful magazine covers that didn’t always stay loyal to the 4 F’s, he did
make covers that weren’t universally appreciated and weren’t completely
practical or logical. I decided not only to play it safe and follow the theory
because the structure would suit my target audience better, but also because
modern publishers are reluctant to make magazine covers that are too out of the
ordinary, and are very unlikely to invest in a magazine that has no structure
of loyalty to theories of magazine design.
To conclude, I think that the way I have constructed my
magazine uses conventions in a traditional, safe way. The desire of my target audience
to have a style that is a hybrid of safe traditional and modern minimalistic is
new and could be perceived as a way to develop genre and the conventions of
other genres that use devices I have used. I think that development of
conventions is healthy, as magazine design is a visual art, and art and design
is always modernising and moving forward with fashion as it evolves to show new
trends and styles. Merging styles together simply means that not only is it
moving forward with pop culture, but staying true to its roots by following
theories and using things that show a traditional side to the magazine, making
it trust worthy. Most importantly, this is what my target audience are
interested in, and it is suited to them, with is a starting point for sales of
the magazine and making money through advertising which is ultimately the aim
of a successful magazine.
Demographics
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Socio-economic status: ABC1
Religion: Atheist
Education: Grammar School, BA in Law
Occupation: Lawyer
Income: £39,000
Status: Dating, middle class.
Nationality: British
Psychographics
Emma is a law graduate who works as a junior lawyer for a
top London law firm. She graduated from Kings College
with a degree in Law, and went on to the job of her dreams. At heart, Emma is a
girl who loves to be at home, and is incredibly loyal to brands. However, she
is willing to try new products, and if she likes them she will definitely stick
with them. She loves thinking back to her time at school where she spent
countless lunchtimes practising the violin. She first started playing when she
was six, and at one point wanted to be in an orchestra, but once she developed
her full character she realised she wanted a job that was safe, and had stability.
She still plays in her spare time. She likes shops like John Lewis, Anthropology,
Cos and Reiss, as they bridge the gap between modern and stylish as well as
being trustworthy and reliable. She loves hearing about developments in the way
classical instruments are viewed, and enjoys hearing about ways that teachers
are making classical instruments seem more appealing to the younger generation.
She is a fan of organisation, and needs things to be tidy and everything to be
done and have its place. Emma also loves to go out to bars with her friends and
her boyfriend at the weekend. Her boyfriend is a banker who works in Canary Wharf.
They live in Fulham and either go out around where they live, central London,
or in Shoreditch. She always reads the newspaper, which is The Mail, The
Telegraph or The Times, and sometimes flicks through her boyfriend’s copy of
the Financial Times. When she’s relaxing, if reading books she tries to go for
classics but often reads some “chick-lit”, and when she’s watching TV she
always tries to watch intellectual programs, but normally ends up watching BBC3
or family guy. She loves things that are traditional yet have a slight edge to
them, and hopes to incorporate her unique style into her wedding planning.
Whenever she goes on holiday she likes to mix it up between city breaks, and
trips that are adventurous to exotic locations, or to France.
To ensure my magazine would be appealing and suited to my
audience, I did a survey around people of my target audience (people aged
16-30) My chosen genre is classical/pop crossover, so bands like clean bandit
or music that has heavy influences from classical instruments. Even if a pop
song is played mainly on a classical instrument it is still applicable to the
magazine. Due to this, the people I chose to ask the questions to were people
who were either in the age bracket, or had a keen interest in classical
music/instruments. I chose to ask them verbally and just take notes myself, as
often people give answers which affect the way they want their opinion to be,
rather than their actual opinion. It is proven that when people don’t have the
chance/time to decide how each possible answer will make them look, they will
go with their true opinion.
Questions asked –
·
Do you prefer a band or single person on the
cover?
·
Do you like a cluttered or crowed front cover?
·
Do you like colourful covers, or use of
complimentary colour schemes?
·
Would you like a high budget, monthly magazine,
or a lower budget weekly magazine?
·
What social demographic are you?
Results –
·
Out of the 20 people I spoke to, 16 preferred
the magazine and its cover to be more focused on one artist rather than a band.
They all said that a band of the front made the cover seem claustrophobic and too
busy.
·
When I asked the last question, the majority of
people linked their answer to this question into it. Most people prefer a
minimalistic cover, where everything has a place and it is not being crowded.
·
This was a 50:50 split, with 10 people saying
they liked colourful covers because they were eye-catching, and seemed
positive, but the other half said that the use of complimentary colour schemes
made magazine design instantly more sophisticated and seem more ‘put together’.
·
100% of people I asked said that they would
prefer a higher quality magazine less frequently.
·
90% of people I asked were ABC1
My results will be so incredibly helpful when designing and
constructing my magazine. Most importantly, I think that I must stay true to
the results that I have found. To be in a position where I have a clear knowledge
of what my target audience want, I am privileged. Many publishers have to take
risks to guess what their audience want, and seeing as I have got the information,
I should value it.
Choosing the name of a media outlet is incredibly difficult.
Not only does it need to be catchy and stay in the readers mind, but it needs
to be a word that has the potential to become an entire brand. The majority of
magazine names end up becoming a defining word to describe someone who fits the
typical target market of the magazine. For example, you might hear somebody say “He/she
is so vogue!” This is a prime example of how a name has the chance to become so
iconic its purpose can change from noun to adjective.
I also liked the idea that the name ‘Greyscale’ shows that music doesn’t need to be vibrant and loud to be interesting and complex.
The magazine name I ended up choosing is ‘GREYSCALE’
The definition of greyscale uses the word ‘monochrome’. I
initially had monochrome as my magazines name, but decided that the word seemed
to ‘blunt’ and didn’t seem to have a ring to it, due to an imbalance of syllables
on either side of the word. Greyscale has a smoother sound, and also means
similar. The importance of monochrome or greyscale being used was the
fashionable connotations of the words, as I pictured my magazine as a
publication which is modern yet also not so outrageous it couldn’t be timeless.
I also liked the idea that the name ‘Greyscale’ shows that music doesn’t need to be vibrant and loud to be interesting and complex.
Publishing in the UK is dominated mainly by two large
companies, Bauer Media and Time Inc UK.
Any form of text that is published is usually produced and
regulated by a publisher.Bauer Media
Bauer Media is a branch of the Bauer Media Group, a large
media group which manages more than
600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around
the world. This makes it Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group. Bauer
Media Group is now headed by Yvonne Bauer in Hamburg, Germany. In the UK there
are two divisions of Bauer Media, The main UK business trades as H Bauer
Publishing, under CEO David Goodchild. Its sister company is known as Bauer
Media (Bauer Consumer Media Ltd) with CEO Paul Keenan. Bauer media currently
publishes the music magazines ‘Q’ and ‘Smashhits’.
The Bauer Media website
says
“OUR MISSION
“Our aim is to
connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touchpoint
brand platforms. Wherever, whenever and however
they want”
“Winning Together
Through Passion, Innovation and Speed”
We will grow and
win only by working together • We will relentlessly seek out new ideas and
develop existing products • We will always be driven by our customers and their
changing needs • We will respect and trust one another • Innovation and
excellence will be at the heart of everything we do.”
Time Inc UK
Time Inc UK (formally
known as IPC Media) is owned by Time Inc. It is a consumer magazine and digital
publisher based in the UK which sells over 350 million copies per year, making
them Britain’s leading publisher. It publishes the music magazines ‘NME’ and ‘Uncut’. The Time Inc
website says “There’s a
difference between getting impressions and making one. Our 90 iconic brands
open the world to people and your brands like never before, spanning stories,
experiences and passions for a more powerful” impact.
Volcano Publishing
Volcano is an example of an independent publisher. Magazines that are particularly niche seem to usually be published independently, as they have an appeal to incredibly dedicated readers and are published in a way in which they look ‘of the time’ or could be classed as a collector’s item. An example of a magazine like this is Shindig!, which is specific to a certain genre. “A publication put together with genuine understanding, sincerity and utter belief. We seek to end mediocrity in music magazines... to bring the scope and knowledge of old fanzines and specialist rock titles to a larger readership: quality journalism, columns, music and film history; exciting new bands and culture. From the most far-out ’60s sounds through country-rock and folk to soul and electronic experimentation. It's all there.” Is the description put on Shindig!’s website, just proving how niche to a certain time period it is. However it has a steady circulation, with 26,000 readers.
