Planning Ideas

This page is mainly about putting my ideas about the magazine all onto one page. The first section is a mind map of all the the things i want to incorporate within my magazine and what would be the normal interests of a typical reader of the magazine that i am trying to produce.

There are eight main sections to this mind map; listening to music, motoring, bands, food, festivals, technology, instruments and alcohol. These are all things that i believe my target audience would want to read about.

The second section of the page is a mood board.

This tries to incorporate all the ideas a put into my mind map, but show them in a visual way - which means that someone who knew nothing about the magazine could look at this section and instantly recognise some of the key aspects/ features that the magazine focuses on.

Analysis of Double Page Spread Articles

Double Page Spread Analysis

These two double page spread articles were chosen to be analysed because they are both from music magazines, with a woman as the main focus (Shakira in the first and Florence Welch in the second) - I liked these two spreads because they both showed women in a positive light and both article layouts are completely different.

The first article is about the artist Shakira, the main thing i liked about this page is the layout - the different sections of the page is very appealing to the eye, as the contrasting colours of each different section grabs the readers attention.

What is also interesting about this piece is the smaller picture of Shakira where she is not wearing a top, i find this interesting because at first the picture seems slightly random on the page but it would grab the readers attention, also the way they have shot the photo reiterates my idea of being able to create photos of females with them wearing no clothes, however the photo not being explicit. The one other main point that i like from this article is that they use interesting quotes in the middle of the article (these are in a much larger font than the rest of the text) which any reader might see before they actually read the article which means it is like an advertisement for the rest of the article.

The other double page article I analysed was about Florence Welch (or Florence and the Machine), the photo is very strong on this spread as it takes up almost 2 thirds of the page but also moulds into the rest of the page and text which makes the whole page flow together and seem like one. The photo basically somes up the rest of the article as it shows the artist in a military styled outfit sitting on an American flag, with the concept of the article being the artist has managed to get into the American music market (conquered).

There is also very little text on the page which makes the article seem less of a 'drag' to read, the headline "USA got the love" is a play on words because one of the artists song's is called "you got the love" but as the article is about the artist's music making it in America then 'USA' was substituted in. The main text also begins with an accent on the first letter (larger and different font), which draws the readers eye onto the text which gives the article more chance of actually being read.

Analysis of Contents pages

Contents page analysis


I analysed the contents page of Q magazine, i focused mainly on the different sections of the page, because this would help me decide where to put each section on my page - the special section really interested me because it gives this version of the magazine a unique selling point which makes it more attractive to any potential readers.

The position of the photo in comparison to the other sections makes it the main focus of the page and the way the photo is shot makes you realise it is a band straight away, but the low angle of the camera gives the members of the band a more rock genre. I also like the review section on the bottom of the page because it is to advertise the magazine directly to music fans as they would be the only ones who would be interested in others opinions on songs and albums.

The second contents page i analysed was from the magazine NME, the main feature of the page that i like is the that all the headings are individually boxed in the contrasts of black and white. It makes each heading stand out nicely so any reader would know what each section of the page was about immediately. The colour schemes of the page are effective because they contrast nicely with each other, the main uses of red, black and white gives the magazine the feel of an indie genre.

The photo used isn't one you would definitely recognise as one from a music magazine, but it is affective with the use of the heading and the short description underneath, which shows that the magazine's audience is one of devoted music fans, as they would understand the photo without the description underneath. The subscription section focuses on trying to make readers loyal to NME magazine rather than stray to other magazine like Q or Kerrang - the use of yellow font on this section really grabs the readers attention as it is unlike the rest of the text on the page.