Guitar World Analysis

Guitar World

The target audience for this magazine as I found out from their website are professional and beginner guitar players, whose average age is 33 years.
Their ideal reader owns on average 5.4 guitars, 61% of them purchased a guitar in the past 12 months, 55% of them plan to purchase a guitar in the next 12 months and 68% of them agree that they "love to buy new music gear."

The magazine costs £4.99, and it's rotation is monthly but at Christmas they do an extra holiday issue.

The cover
The title of the magazine is 'Guitar World' which immediately reveals to the reader the magazine is specifically about guitars and music.

The masthead is formed of two words, 'guitar' and 'world'. Guitar is the same colour as the background with a white outline, so it is not bold or stand out so it may not immediately catch the reader's attention, however it is made clear by having it in a large font. The word 'world' is in the contrasting colour black but as it is on a dark background and half of it is hiden behind the front man's head it does not make the name of the magazine obvious. However, that the title does not have to stand out is a strength as the magazine is well known and many people already buy it so know what they are looking for from previous issues.

The main image is three men from Lyntyrf Skynrd, a well known classic rock band, who are all holding guitars; the guitars immediately reveal the subject of the magazine. As the three men are well known by guitar players (and the average reader age is 33 years) the target audience will be immediately interested by the cover. They are all looking directly in to the camera, which makes it seem as if they are looking at the reader for them to personally read the magazine. My attention was immediately attracted to the middle of the front cover, where the man is standing in front of the other two so I assumed he was the lead guitar player as if he is better than the other two. All three men are wearing dark and menacing clothing which has connotations to their style of music, which is also reflected in their stern facial expressions. There is a slight high angle shot and their legs are spread apart creating a sense of power; that even at their age they are still ruling the music business. Their long hair portrays they are in the music genre rock. Expensive and well known guitars are owned by all the members of the band, whcih have been customised, they are wearing expensive jewellery and have many tatoos which reveals they are wealthy and have had a successful career.

There is a great deal of information which is promoted by the coverlines. The most famous artists are included on the cover to attract the highest number of readers, and less famous ones in a smaller font. 'Lynyrd Skynyrd' is in the largest font as they are the main focus of the issue. In the smallest font the 5 songs that have music included to convey the different things the magazine includes (this is their unique selling point), rather than just articles and photos. Also, they are included as some people may only buy the magazine for the music so will want to check quickly what songs are included. The vast amount of information is included on the front cover to reveal the magazine is packed full.

There are not really any structured sentences on the front cover, only simple phrases and single words are used so that it can be rad by anyone and will attract more readers. Exclamation marks are used to excite the reader and make them want to read on.

The background is a dark grey colour, and there is a light shining behind the three members in the band as if to reveal they are the light in the dark for the music business or to make them appear darker and more menacing as their dark clothes contrast with the light background. The red font is used for 'God, Guns & 16 pages of' and 'Rory Gallagher' because

Pictures for front cover

I asked my friend Tom to use him as my model for my front cover and he agreed. I showed him the different poses I wanted to try and we used them as we went along. We tried using different outfits including:-

- Jeans, no top, wires wrapped around his neck and chest, holding a fag in his hand or mouth, and with a microphone

- Jeans, a plain top, with a smart shirt on top

- Jeans, a plain top, a microphone wrapped round his neck (a grey jacket)

- Jeans, a plain top, an open checked shirt with a microphone wrapped round his neck

Above are some thumbnails of the many pictures I took.

Above are the photos I liked the most.

Moodboard

I have produced a mood board of many music magazines which I will use to help produce the different poses I will try with my male model. I particularly like the topless image and the one where the man is smoking. I have noticed that even though it is a music magazine only one of covers has a picture with a musician playing a guitar. The rest are with out any musical instrument what so ever or are posing with an instrument/ microphone. I will get my model to pose with a microphone to see whether I want to include it or not on my front cover.

Costume

There is no constant costume through out the magazines, it depends on the type of band to what type of image they want to convey. Jay Z has a smart suit on which conveys he is rich and feels as if he is in power of his music career. Where as another one of the artists is not wearing a top, to attract more women as he is a good looking a fit man. Prince is wearing a sparkly outfit, conveying his glam rock genre. The artist from HIM is wearing eye liner to convey they are a band that produces dark music, such as rock and grunge.

Camera Shot

Most of the magazines have used a medium shot with the exception of one close up, and one long shot on the top left. I will produce an image with a medium shot but will try a couple of long shots and close ups to see whether they look good or not.

Only two out of the twelve photos have the people looking away and the rest directly at the camera, to catch people's attention, as if they are looking directly at you. I will aim to have my model starring in to the camera to get this same effect.

Poses

These are some poses I will use in my photo shoot to see what they look like when my male model does them.

Contents Page and Double Page Spread Research

Similarities:

-Photo(s)

-Title at the top of the page

-List of contents

Differences:

-Q only has one image where as Kerrang! has a selection of different photos revealing what is with in the magazine.

-Kerrang! has an editorial introducing the reader to the issue, which could make them feel as if the magazine is addressed to them

-Kerrang! shows the option to subscribe to the magazine in the bottom right hand corner.

-Q has a definate house colour that is red which the majority of people know who have seen the magazine more than once, where as there is no set house colour for Kerrang! however they have used yellow through out this contents page.

-Q has an every month section where as Kerrang! just has 'This Week' and changes weekly.

-Q has a 100 greatest albums section in this issue which is highlighted as it would be the unique selling point for this issue, but then Kerrang! has the K! Awards special which would be the selling point for that issue.

What I will include on my own contents page:

-At least one photo showing what is to come in the following issue.

-Top ten songs of the decade

-Editorial
-Infected (the feature artist)
-Interviews paramore, void in context, you me at six, fall out boy, primus, tool
-Rory Bevis album
-Free posters
-Live reviews
-Competition
-Subscribe, with small thumbnail of magazine cover
-Single ladies, 100 most essential ladies singles

The main heading I will include on the front page, contents page and double page spread is the name of the band who are the feature artist. The genre of music this band produces will be rock, to go with the magazine and they person I will interview will be a well known bass player, who stands out in comparison to most bass players. I will use a talented artist so that more readers are interested, and I will use an attractive male to attract female readers too.

(Click to enlarge)

Above you can see a double page spread article produced by Kerrang! I like the fact the model is leaning downward and on the left side of the page, taking up the general side of the page and so I will use a similar pose for my double page spread. The mode of address in the article is very friendly and approachable, like a conversation, which will engage the reader and make them want to read on. This is done by including direct speech references making it seem as if the artist is actually talking to the reader. Colloquialism is used to relate to the way the reader talks making the article more user friendly e.g. 'emo'. They have included a quote above the main article to show what the main intention of the band is and to catch the readers attention and make them want to read on.

The page number and the name of the magazine have been included in the bottom right and left hand corner of the magazine. Two other photos have been placed under the article, which do not seem needed, but may have been entered as there was some space to fill and readers will want to see more pictures of the band to make it seem as if they are with them even more. A set of tracks produced by MCR are along the right hand side so that if readers are interested in hearing some new tracks they will immediately know there names and so will therefore more likely look them up.

The style of the double page spread is messy, revealing the creativeness of music.

What I will include with in my double page spread:

-A similar posed image to the one on the left

-Colloquial terms to relate to my reader, who I will later talk about the age of

-Direct speech in the friendly and approachable text to make the article seem like a conversation for the reader and making them want to read on

-The page number and name of the magazine at the bottom left of the page so that from the contents page the reader can easily find the article

-A quote at the top of the page to make it seem as if straight away the artist is talking to the reader

-The name of the artist at the top of the page so the reader can immediately identify who the article is on

-Text wrap around my model so that the text 'flows' around them in a messy style to reflect the creativeness of music

-Boxes of different heights for my columns of text to also give this messy look

Other contents and double page spreads that will help me design my own:

On the double page spreads I have included part of a Paramore article as this will help me in the production of my own double page spread article greatly.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Target Audience and Purpose

The target audience I will be addressing will be people ranging in age from 13-25, the popular ages I found out that people listen to rock music. It will be for both female and male, as I only found that a slightly higher percentage of men listen to rock music. The main interest of the magazine will be rock music, and will include many bands that are found on other current music magazines, such as Paramore. The purpose of the magazine will therefore be to inform the readers on music and bands they want to know all about (which will initially catch their eye from the pictures) and to include competitions that they will be interested in and will want to enter. By doing this I will be at the same time entertaining them. I will now go on to decide the cover lines and contents page information.

Choosing the Name and Font

I first researched names of well known magazines as shown above. Which also show the type of font they have used for an effective title, 3 out of the 4 use capital letters that are striking which I may use on my main task.

Titles

Two of the titles have a definite relationship to music; rolling stone(s) is the name of a classic rock band, which is the type of music I predict it will enclose and NME clearly shows it stands for new musical express. I like the fact they relate to music so that the audience can immediately recognize what it is for.

Below are the names I have brainstormed that I think suit a music magazine:

Wired

Amplified

Audio

Silence

In step

Loud

Listen

Noise

Speaker

Volume

Harmony

Melody

Treble

Out of all the above names Silence appeals to me the most but I think it would be better if above in a smaller font it said Anything But then below Silence, to convey the magazine is about noise/ music, as there is anything but silence.

Fonts

From the titles above, I saw that the majority of them were in capitals, and consisted of the main colours red, white and black. I think that the reason red may have been used is because one of its connotations is passion, which can be related to the passion of music with in the magazine.

I used www.dafont.com to look at differnt fonts, of which I have made a selection of my favourites below.

I selected two images to try the fonts out two of the fonts. Once I have the picture I want for my front cover, I will try the different fonts on it to see what it looks like.



I looked again on www.dafont.com and found a font I preferred called Infected which is below. I will used this for my front cover.


I will only use the above font for the title; for the rest of my text I will use smaller fonts that are more simple than the one above, so that SILENCE stands out. These other fonts are shown below:-






Choosing the name of the featured artist

I initially brainstormed some names below
Cover
Speaker
Fretless
The knotted
Nameless
Speechless
Infected
Eagles
Rascals

The name that I like the most from the above is Infected which I will use for the name of the feature artist in my magazine.

Preliminary Task

To produce my preliminary task I first looked at other school magazine covers to get some inspiration.















































Above is my final preliminary task.

Formal Brief

Formal brief
Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.
Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of four images per candidate.
The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination of two or more, of the following:
a presentation using slideshow software such as Powerpoint;
a blog or website;
a podcast;
a DVD with 'extras'