Mood board for future photo ideas

Fashion mood board

Double page spread analysis

Double page spread 1 from Alfie Morgan

Fonts evaluation

Research mood board

NME cover analysis

NME is quite a busy magazine in terms of there being a lot going on in the cover. NME has The names of Turner and Kane, their band name, ‘first major interview’ and a tagline. Many magazines are simplistic but this cover isn’t. This may be because their magazine is so popular that people just need to glance at the magazine to know it’s a well-produced magazine. Other simplistic magazines may be simplistic because people need to just be able to scan across a magazine to decide whether they like it or not; however, with NME, it is so popular that people already know that they may be interested in the magazine so it doesn’t have to be simplistic. The text ‘NME’ is behind The Last Shadow puppets; magazines often use this technique in order to make the band members stand out. It also implies that people don’t need to see the whole title to know what the magazine is and therefore making the magazine seem even more popular. The background and the band keep with the same colours, black and white, this gives a simplistic look to the picture and the busy text around it make the picture less dull. This works very well. Their hairstyles connotates to the early 2000s mod culture, as do their coats; bringing in a crowd of people who are into the early 200s mod scene. Turner states on the front cover “I was worried the Monkeys would think I’d had an affair”. Them both being other artists as well as The Last Shadow puppets, it can draw people in to reading the magazine because they may believe it is a taboo and therefore breaking the rules. This may draw teenagers in because they are notoriously rebellious. So as a result of this, NME are drawing two different crowd of people in, mods and teenagers, many of whom may be on both target markets. 

DIY cover analysis

In this issue of DIY, it features a pink background which would make it stand out in shops. It also has white, bold text; this means that the cover is not too busy and there is not too much for the audience to look at. The white text is simplistic and spread out in just the right way. Slaves’ front man, Isaac, is wearing a t-shirt saying ‘festival guide 2015’, this markets towards teenagers or young adults who are interested in music and therefore their target audience. Isaac is screwing his face up, this may link to Slaves’ music genre because it is heavy and loud, it would not look right if he was pulling a peaceful, neutral face because this would imply that they are not a loud band. The contrast between Laurie’s (other band member) tattoos, Isaac’s screwed up face and the pink background can cater to the male and female audience of DIY magazine. Pink is a feminine colour and can show how it can be a women’s magazine. The aggression of Laurie and Isaac can also cater to the male target audience; this widens DIY’s audience and target market. This would be a reader’s first impression on first glance at the cover. On further inspection, the reader would be able to read the tagline “We’ve earned our place. It’s time to prove what we’re made of”. This is an aggressive tagline because it implies that the band is going to do something drastic and people aren’t going to expect it; the use of this tagline can draw people in because they wonder and anticipate what Slaves are going to do which may make hem buy the magazine. Isaac is wearing a deep red varsity jacket which can have connotations with school bullies or jocks which furthermore implies how the band is aggressive. This can therefore contrast even more with the pink feminine background. DIY may have used this contrast to make the magazine different and draw different kinds of people in, and maybe selling more copies.

DIY cover analysis

 On the front cover of this magazine, black is the main colour used. Other colours include bright ones like pink, blue, purple gold, green; all of these bight colours can be feminine because of the tone that the colours are. Therefore the black advertises to the male audience and the bright colours also show that the magazine can be for girls and this widens the market for the magazine. The tagline for the magazine, “The genius of grimes”, covers the part of the photo that didn’t have much going on in it, I can use this for if my photo features a space that isn’t being used. DIY has also left space at the bottom of the page so they can place other artists there; this informs the target audience of what kind of genre the magazine is. There are a lot of different kinds of artists at the bottom and so it widens the audience for the magazine. Smaller text is below the masthead and this features in very DIY magazine; it gives information about the issue number, the date it’s released and their website. It also states “set music free” above it, which can target to the kind of rebellious audience and stereotypically teenagers are rebellious and therefore this magazine can target to teenagers interested in music. The masthead itself is big, bold, and simplistic just like most other magazines. Magazines often use this kind of font because it stands out and people viewing the magazine, even at a glance; can recognize what magazine it is that they look at. Artist’s names at the bottom of the page, are all the same size. This even includes Kanye West being the same size as much smaller bands such as ‘YAK’. DIY may have done this to show how they aren’t a huge commercial magazine and that they do not give bigger artists a bigger spotlight than smaller ones. This can market to the kind of audience who enjoy reading about any artists even if they are not big which also shows that they may be an alternative music magazine.  

Preliminary cover and contents

Preliminary drawing of cover and contents