KERRANG! Front cover!
The colour used in the background is black and makes the text and images stand out on the page. The title ‘Kerrang ‘looks really powerful as it is black on white background. The name of the magazine ‘Kerrang!’ sounds like a guitar being strummed. There are only four colours used to make it simple and easy to read. The focal point is the main picture of a singer who is featured in the main article of the Magazine. You can tell instantly that the magazine is featuring ‘paramore’ as it is the largest word on the page except for the name of the magazine.
The text on the front cover is very vibrant as it is dark text on a light coloured background. Also the use ofexclamation marks after the phrases makes itlook direct like it is being spoken out to you. The main feature on the front cover (the singer) is looking directly at the reader to make them feel involvedand important. There is also a light shining her face.
All the text is in capital letters to grab thereader’s attention and has been clearly spread out to fit around with the main image.
There are also free band posters advertised on thefront cover and we can see that themagazine is aimed at age 14-20 year oldsas people in their mid-twenties are unlikely to hang posters on the room.
There are also hints about what’s inside the magazine to persuade more people to buy it.
The bands in the smaller images are all wearing black/dark coloured clothes to suggest that they are dangerous and mysterious.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When deciding my target audience i wanted to narrow it down alot so it was clear who my media product was aimed at. My magazine is aimed at the following audience:

Demographics - Female/Male aged 14-20
Class: Working Class
Job title - Student or have part/full time work
Economic Status - Living at home or have a flat with Friends or on their own
Psychological group - Main streamers & Aspirers

When producing my magazine have researched and looked at my target audiences interests and hobbies. I gathered together some images to represent my target audience and put together a mood board. This included things like fast food, guitars, radio station they would listen to for example Kerrang! radio or Radio 1. Also the type of music they listen to and popular artist they like. I made sure to include all these things in my magazine so that i had a large audience and a successful magazine.

As this is a music magazine at least 86% will play an instrument and 100% will be involved in music one way or another. I also looked at what my target audience would be doing on a night out/in. Research shows that a high number are part of a music group/band or popular 'hangout' places such as the cinema or McDonald's. Also my target audience attend regular music festivals such as download. Once i had narrowed down my target audience it made it easier to produce the magazine and use as many things as i could to attract my target audience.

Common bands and brands that are popular with my target audience include:
Dead good, Topshop, Rock collection or any high street shop that isn't too expensive as my target audience will still be in education and earning little or no wage.
Paramore, You Me at Six and All Time Low - popular bands that have had lots of success in the past year, a new album out or gone on tour.

My audience would be seen in highsteet brand clothes and maybe 1 to 2 designer items as my target audience is working class 14-20 year olds that will still be in education or earning a small amount of money.

After looking at my target audiences interests i have decided what to advertise in my magazine.

Food: Advertise restraunts such as McDonald or KFC as healthy eating rules are normally broken my target audience

Music: Advertise concerts and festivals. To attract attention i could put in a competition to win concerts or festival tickets. I could also promote tracks to buy off itunes of popular bands as we know that music is a big part of their life.

Fashion: Many bands have their own clothing brands such as 'Down but not out' or 'Drop dead'. I could also advertise tour t shirts and band merchandise.

Film: Film posters advertising films such as '127 hours' as my audience spend most of their weekends a the cinema.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

All magazines need to be distributed. Some magazine decide to publish the magazine themselves. Well known publishers include 'Bauer'who distribute Kerrang! magazine and IPC Media who distribute NME magazine.

There many advantages if using a well known publisher such as Large publishing companies like 'Bauer' and 'IPC Media'have links to large record labels.This will enable better connections with the artists you want feautured in your magazine. The better connections you get the more sucessful the magazine. Also, well known companies are instantly looked at as sucessful as other media products have already used them and learnt the advnatages and disadvnatages of being connected with a popular publihser.Magazines that choose to self publish are doing so at their own risk, as unlike big sucessful publishers, they have not been tried out before. I is also hard to fund self publishing and the magazine may not be as sucessful. Using a well known publisher will also able the magazine to be more well known and popular. Large publishing names distribute to well known magazine retailers such as the UK's largest magazine retailer, WH Smith.

Some of the disadvnatages of using a well known publisher are that they might take alot of control over your magazine and you may feel like ownership of your magazine is being taken from you.

After looking at the advantages and disadvantages of large publishing companies i have decied to use 'IPC' to publish my magazine as they publish NME magazine and NME is a very sucessful magazine so i can see that my magazine will have more chance using a large publishing company. I have decided to self publish as it is expenisve and when producing my media product we need the money to feature artists and bands in the magazine for things such as interveiws and photoshoots.

I didnt use Bauer to publish my magazine as they already publish Kerrang! magazine and my media product is very similar in style and genre so there is less chance of them choosing to publish my product as it is very similar.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents several social groups. The rock stars in my magazines are representing working class people and also ‘grungy rockers’. Even though the rock stars I chose to copy are bad role models a lot of people try to copy them. I got my models to pose in a way that made their posture attract certain audiences. The main image on the front cover, the model is seen posing head on one side and pouting, this could be a role model for teenage girls to copy that rock chick look or the male rockers will find attractive. For the front cover of my magazine I wanted a close up shot as this angle is the most striking and will attract the attention of buyers, also states a clear picture of who the feature band are, so the image needs to be large to be recognizable instantly. The images I took and used for my contents page and feature article are long shots and smaller images as by the time the reader has got to the contents page they should know what band it is from the large images in the front cover. The lighting of my images varies depending on the context. For the front cover I used bright lighting as this sets a cheerful mood and stands out on the shelf. I also took some photos of the band that were just silhouettes to create a calm, mysterious mood. The models I used for my media product are dressed in typical rock star clothing. I have dressed my models in popular clothing appeals to my target audience. When researching my target audience I looked their style and what they are likely to wear. I also researched what ‘rockers’ wear and tried to follow this theme when dressing my models. My magazine is aimed at one stereotype so that I could focus on it and find out what my target audience is interested in.
The only part of my magazine with lots of writing is the feature article. I also kept the quotes from the artists as they had said them, because the language they used fitted the style of my magazine and also using the slang language that the artists use, shows the audience that the band were involved in producing the magazine. My magazine is aimed at both sexes. The colour scheme I have chosen also supports this. I chose red and purple as these colours appeal to both sexes. For example, if my magazine was all pink, not many males would buy it. It could be aimed at teenage girls as they like to hang up posters in their rooms and also read all the gossip about artists. It could be aimed at males as they will like to look at photos and also hear about the latest updates of the bands in the magazine.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media magazine uses the same conventions as a real media magazine. I thought out the title of my magazine very well as I wanted the name to sound good when said. I went for kerplunk as it has the same ‘k’ sound at the start of the word as it does at the end. I also wanted a short snappy title than can be easily read as some names used in media products are too long. Kerplunk is also an unusual name so people are likely to remember it.
When taking my images I decided to take them in a variety of different places such as the beach, the park and in a house to see where I got the best effect. I got my models to pose in a certain way for the pictures and also used props such as guitars to fit the rock genre of my magazine. I also got them pose in front of plain backgrounds otherwise a fussy background would draw the eye away from the main product. I got my models to dress in clothes that matched the colour scheme of my magazine as too much colour can be distracting. I also got them to dress in typical ‘rock star’ clothing including grungy jeans and t-shirts. I wanted my models to look like mainstream artists the regularly appear in magazines. I chose to focus on bands such as paramore and you me at six and try and create a modern rock look.
When it came deciding what font I would use I decided to stick to three fonts, Calibri for small writing, Scratch Punk for main titles and heading and Britannic Bold for important information such as price or issue number. I made my own font for the main title of the magazine as I wanted it to be unique and recognisable on the shelf. I also didn’t want the font to be perfect as its ‘messy’ appearance reflects the attitude of a ‘rocker’. For the colour scheme I chose to stick to three colours so that it didn’t look too much in your face. I chose red and purple because neither colour dominates but together they stand out. They are popular colours that appeal to both sexes.
When I interviewed the feature band I didn’t want to mild down their attitude/language as they shouldn’t be made out to look perfect. I also read some interviews in magazines and they have kept the quotes as the person said them. I also used pull quotes to draw attention to reading the article but also to show the most important parts of the article. The audience will also feel that the band has had a lot of involvement making the magazine. I also used a drop cap to state clearly where the article begins.

My contents page challenges other music magazines as I have designed a new layout and put a large image at the top and the page numbers at the bottom, this could be a new layout that is used throughout magazines. I also stuck to the same font and colour scheme so that my magazine wasn’t too fussy.

Front cover

Contents page