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The music genre I have chosen to study and replicate a magazine for is 'Classical Music', I think there are many types of magazine that can come out of this genre and by choosing this, feel I have widened my area of research. I am going to look at a few magazines from the genre and analyse the designs, taking ideas for my own design I will be creating shortly.
The first magazine is simply titled, 'Listen', this connotes a simplistic style of music associated with this lifestyle where the music comes first, it is there to be listened to and that is what the readers will do.
The design is very plain in black and white with the only colour coming from the Masthead, which is in a thin yellow font, as well as the thin information bar on the left hand side, which is also coloured yellow. This style of design is connoting simplicity once again and let's the audience focus solely on the main sell.
The black and white design is connoting a more 'old fashioned' approach to classical music as opposed to the new, younger audience focus that is being pushed by the media to create more revenue from wider audience sales.
The cover only has 4 coverlines and straplines which is relatively few in number compared to other magazines in this genre, this tells us that these articles are going to be very detailed and informative to fill a magazine. This also focuses our attention on the main sell once again and carries the air of simplicity further throughout the design.
The main icon is a picture of a rather grand looking man sat in a full suit, smoking a cigar with his legs crossed. The room he is sat in has a window looking into an adjacent room with a grand piano in the centre. Smoking a cigar connotes that he is a high class gentleman, the suit and way he is sat (legs crossed) promotes this idea of a high class member of society. The piano in the background clearly gives the reader the impression that this man is the owner/player of the piano. This icon plays up to the traditional way of thinking about classical music, that is is the music for the higher classes and not for working class people. Working class public would not have worn suits or sat smoking a cigar, sat in this way.
I like the simplistic design of this magazine and will hopefully be taking a similar approach to my magazine. I will not, however, be portraying classical music in this fashion, I do not believe it is only the music for higher classes so will be trying to create a wider audience profile when designing my own front cover.
This magazine is named 'Music' and is a BBC magazine. The very broad title suggests that the magazine is not fully directed on classical music but upon reading the coverlines and straplines it is clear to the reader that classical music is the agenda targeted by the BBC in this magazine. The main image of a man wearing a tuxedo with a conductors baton posing in an animated fashion also connotes that he is standing in front of a full orchestra which is commonly associated to classical music.
The colour scheme is quite plain and mainly black and white, this connotes sophistication and a 'no-frills' approach to the music. The black and white theme also says something about the age group they are trying to get the attention of, if they were trying to integrate a much younger age group into classical music they would have made the front very flamboyant and attractive to look at with many different colours, by not doing this they have sent a message to an older age group connoting that the type of person who would read this magazine doesn't need to have bright colours all over the page to be able to read it. This also connotes an expected higher average intelligence of reader, making the magazine more exclusive and aimed at a higher class in society.
This magazine has more coverlines and straplines than the one above, I like the idea of keeping a level of sophistication with a simple colour scheme whilst also having a lot of content information shown to the reader. I think perhaps the magazine above looks slightly too bland and would not attract enough readers to be successful. Both the magazines have a very simple colour scheme in common and I think I will use this feature to create a sophisticated look but will be using more coverlines than 'Listen', probably about the same amount as 'Music' have used.
In this entry I will be analysing a few magazine front covers that I have found on the internet that attracted my attention. These magazines are ranging through different musical genre's, mostly of which I am not familiar with.
The first magazine front cover I looked at was this one from 'Classic Rock' magazine. The target audience for this magazine would be a Traditionalist, Hedonist/Post-Modernist Male/Female aged 28-60 with also a small focus on the younger music fans beginning to listen to classic rock and would fit in any category of the Jicnar scale. The magazine is about Classic Rock, as the title tells us, and focuses on the style of Rock music that was most prevalent during the 1970's - late 1980's, the magazine also publishes articles from newly produced bands who have the same mindset and style as the older and more achieved bands.
The front cover has a masthead in a thick, white, upper-case, Serif font with stars either side of the 'Classic' sign, a main image of two 'AC/DC' band members in black and white, there are four coverlines down the right hand side of the page and a freebie CD covering about a third of the page.
The Masthead being in upper-case, serif font connotes dominance and simplicity so it is not to detract from the music. The serif font with stars either side of 'Classic' could be connoting that classic rock fans are important and worth an almost prestigious or exclusive title, this is also a parody of a set list for a gig. The colour choice of white with no outline connotes that classic rock is a pure form of rock and is a respectable music genre. The main icon being in black and white connotes a classic and vintage style of magazine. The four coverlines are promoting the material and articles inside the magazine. They are all very famous classic rock bands/performers e.g. Van Halen, Slash etc. This connotes that the magazine is of good quality and has the reputation and funds to include four famous performers in just one issue of 'Classic Rock' magazine. The 'freebie' CD is in a substantial, full bodied CD case rather than a small CD sleeve and is of the '15 High-Voltage New Bands', this also connotes that the magazine is of a high quality and has an extensive knowledge of the genre of music they portray, excercising this knowledge by creating a compilation of the best new bands in that genre.
I think that this magazine has a very large focus on quality and conveys the idea that the audience is paying for a great deal of information and entertainment when buying the magazine. The amount of high profile artists that are included on the front cover is a good example of the high quality image that the magazine attempts to portray.
The next magazine I am looking at is this front cover from 'Classical Music' magazine. The target audience for this magazine are aspirers, achievers and succeeder traditionalists in the A and B section of the Jicnar scale. The gender would be female or male and from an age group of 35-70. The subject of the magazine is classical music as, once again, the title tells us. The focus of the magazine is to report the news from all areas of the classical music profession and make it available to the masses.
The front cover has a white masthead, the font used for 'Classical' is a thin, curved, serif font without an outline. The font used for 'Music' is a straight, thin, serif font, also without an outline. The main icon is a respectable looking man wearing a suit, shirt and no tie, sat on a wooden bench in front of a plain brick wall. He is sat with his legs crossed looking off screen at something to his right hand side. At the top right hand side of the front cover there is a small 'reversed out' coverline, this is promoting an article inside the magazine and is written in a white, rounded font with a red background.
The serif, curved font used for 'Classical', in the masthead, connotes a level of sophistication and a feeling of high class that is related to this genre of music. The serif, straight font used for 'Music' in the masthead connotes a level on simplicity in the magazine as well, showing that the music genre itself is complex and sophisticated, but the magazine is simply about the music without any distractions. The main icon connotes that the magazine is tailored for the middle-upper class citizens who would wear a suit and shirt as leisure wear, once again promoting the idea that the music is for sophisticated and educated people to listen to and enjoy. This icon is playing with the old fashioned belief that individuals involved in classical music are always wearing a tuxedo and looking stern, and changing this into a slang version of a man sat, open collared in a leisure suit, smiling with his head over to one side. The reversed out coverline connotes that the magazine has a lighter side as it is a slightly comedic feature. The rounded white sans serif font creates the idea that the magazine is friendly and on the same level as the audience, creating a better customer - seller relationship.
I think that this magazine has focused mainly on creating a sophisticated and intelligent feel to the content, this leads to a certain psychographic/demographic audience who would stereotypically be associated with listening to classical music and being interested in the news that surrounds classical music.
