Title notes and feedback

My possible titles were: Now Indie, Indie Weekly, Indie Now and Indie Music For You. I decided to go with Now Indie after analysing my survey results and seeing that the majority of my responders preferred this title over the other options. These responders were in my target audience so this gave me even further reason to use this title in my work.

House style mood board

When creating my mood board I made sure to include a variation of magazine covers, fonts and mastheads. This gave me a better understanding on how house styles are established through colour and typography. You are able to see the difference between the high and low production value magazines by the use of colour and the quality of the images. The photographs with a plain background with the shot in focus have high production values, because the magazines can afford to have professional photo-shoots of celebrities for every issue. The low production value magazines usually use bright, bold colours, but this is not always the case, as evidenced by the Q Magazine logo pictured in the bottom right of my mood board. All of the fonts, despite the high or low production  values, are in capital letters to stand out.

There is quite a variation of colours but black, red and blue are the main colours present on my mood board. These are the colours I want to include across my magazine.

Font styles

I am aiming to use quite masculine fonts to make sure my magazine appeals to both genders. Using a female throughout my magazine will appeal to the female members in my audience because it gives them someone to relate to, but I am trying to avoid using any femininity through typography and colour. This is why I am focusing on using fonts like the ones below (at the bottom of the page) which are not seen as too feminine or too masculine, so it wont appeal to just one gender in the audience. For the double page spread the text will need to be quite small to ensure that all of the information fits onto one page. I will have two columns in my double page spread, because when considering how the page will fold I decided to have the main image take up half the page, and the text and masthead to take up the other half. I am also considering using a drop cap or an initial letter at the beginning of my article to give my double page spread a more sophisticated appearance.

The two fonts below are included to show examples of the sort of font I am wanting for my masthead. I am using my understanding on how some fonts can look too masculine or feminine to make sure I avoid using these fonts, which will ensure that I am appealing to both genders. In terms of the two fonts pictured below, I would be more likely to choose the top font because it is bolder and capitalised, whereas the bottom font isn't in capital letters so it doesn't stand out as much.

Masthead design and feedback

After thoughtful consideration I decided to use the bottom right masthead in my magazine, because the bolder font makes it stand out more, which makes it gain more attention. The sans serif used makes it look more informal, because although formality usually connotes professionalism, using sans serif will attract the audience because the masthead looks more friendly and welcoming. The colour choices I am mostly likely to use are black or white, although it is more likely I will use black because I wanted the background to be white, to follow genre conventions and connote high production values.  I will also ensure that the masthead I am using will be in capital letters, to emphasise it and gain more attention. 

Photoshoot planning

Images I will need for my magazine:

• Front cover - One medium close up shot of an individual looking directly at the camera. There needs to be a neutral facial expression shown and the shot needs to be in focus. If I use a female I may consider presenting her in a slightly sexualised manner to follow typical genre conventions.
• Contents page - One medium shot of the same student or a different student to show variation within my magazine. I may also incorporate smaller images from my photoshoot within the main features section.
• Double Page Spread - One long shot and two medium shots - The long shot will be used as the main image and the two medium shots will be used as side images in the article. Maybe a mix of facial expressions, such as straight faced in one image and laughing in another, which will connote happiness, thus showing that my magazine isn't totally serious.

• Location - The location is most likely to be in the photography studio based up at Woods Browning. This way, I can ensure that the lighting is of a high quality and the shots are in focus due to the use of a professional camera.
• Costume - Indie clothing will need to be worn to represent the genre (any casual clothing like a dress, a checkered shirt with shorts/jeans etc.)
• Person - My person can either be a boy or a girl, it doesn't really matter as most indie music magazine target audiences are aimed at both genders equally.
• Representation - A white background will be needed to be used throughout my shoot to show professionalism and connote high production values.
• Camera shot - The student needs to be looking directly at the camera and every shot needs to be in focus. The camera angle is likely to be eye level to make the audience feel more personally involved with the student and magazine.

Institution Notes

I have chosen Anthem Publishing to publish my magazine because although they don't typically publish magazines relating to my chosen sub-genre of music, they publish a variety of different music genre magazines which target similar audiences to mine (both genders in social grades C1 - D aged 17-24). It is also not one of the massively known worldwide companies, such as Baeur Media, that use famous celebrities consistently in their high production value magazines.