Contents Page First Draft

This is my first draft contents page, I have done it in the style of an Ipod Touch, as this is a device used for listening to music, which the majority of all music listeners have owned or used, I thought it would be appropriate.
I have used similar headings to those found in other contents pages that I have studied, and have applied it into my design, I have also invented recurring features that will appear in the magazine such as "NOW! NEWS!".
This again is a first draft so ammendmants shall be made, I designed the template on Serif Page Plus, as this provided with my the shapes I needed to replica an Ipod Touch shape

Double Page Spreads

For my main article I have had to do it over two double page spreads, this is because the thousand word limit we were given is too much to fit into one double page spread. I have gone with the same style that the front cover consists of, it is in the style that the pictures and the writing are being held on by cellotape, which again represents the style of the music i am writing about, a rough "indie" look.
I have added a cork board background so that it looks like the text and the pictures are being attached roughly to a board.

I have gone with bright colours to also represent a rave scene, the magazine represents the modern times of music hence the name "The Now".
This is still a first draft so it will be improved from this.

Front Cover First Draft

This is my first draft of the front cover, The programme has had a problem and has not allowed me to use the fonts that i wanted to use, so i shall upload the version i have on my own laptop at a later point. I have gone for a slightly informal style, making it look like the writing has been applied with cellotape, i believe this represents the music industry and gives it a slightly "indie" look.

I have used a group photo of the band that i am doing my featured article on, I have placed the writing so that it looks like the band memebers are looking at the writing, going for my own unique style of making the picture look fully involved with the writing.
I have tried to make the magazine look as though it was applied cheaply, giving it a unique style.

Magazine Logo

This is the logo for my magazine, i made it with bright colours so that it represents the type of magazine that I am writing for. The logo is an arrow which is a metaphor for going forward, this hopefully will be picked up by the readers as this is the message that i want the magazine to represent. I have made the writing transparent so that it makes it look more "involved" with the cover image, giving a better blend of logo and image.

Decisions Made From Research

After analysing many articles from magazines such as NME, Kerrang! and Q, I have come to the conclusion that I shall be writing an article in the style of an NME article.
The reasoning for this is that articles in NME are fairly formal, they are presented in a formal manner, but the content of the text is slightly informal to communicate well with the target audience of an average of twenty three year old people.

I chose to do this so I can use my talent as a strong writer of English, it will give me a chance to express myself and write for the audiences that are in the same age range as myself.
I do not like the articles written for Kerrang!, because I feel they use too extreme wording for my likening, that style of writing does not appeal to me, therefore i believe that I would find it hard to write in that style.
The articles in Q magazine are too long winded, which I feel will lose the interest of the target audience that i am hoping to appeal too, i again would also find it harder to write in this style.
I am writing an article on an interview with a band, i have already chosen the band and have organised an interview, as of yet i have not done my interview, it shall be posted here when the interview has been done.

Preliminary Ideas

Due to my research, we have come up with some sort of preliminary ideas for our music magazine.

An idea for the name of the magazine is "The Now", we chose this name because my target audience is for people within the age range of 16-23 year olds, We thought that younger people will listen to current music, hence why we called the magazine "The Now".
The magazine is aimed at both genders, this will appeal to a larger audience, thus increasing the popularity of the magazine.
The colours we are propsing to use are dark red and dark blue, this will hopefully keep the magazine looking fairly formal, but modern with a hint of informality.
We have discussed some possible regular features that will appear within the magazine, these are
-"What's Now"- A current insight into the current music world (weekly news)
-"Fashion Now"- A different band each week gives fashion advice.
-"Fan mail"- As seen in NME, allows readers of the magazine to write in and share their views.
-"Album Reviews"- Albums are reviewed each week and are rated out of five stars.
-"Featured artist article"- Interviews with the featured artist/band.

The font we are going to use is that of a formal/ relaxed look, similar again to that of NME.
The types of music and possible artists we are going to cover are a wide range of modern artists, with the majority being Indie Rock bands due to the knowledge We have gained from our research. The range of artists we have for ideas at the moment are.

-Kings of Leon
-Mumford and Sons
-Two Door Cinema Club
-The Wombats
-The Libertines.

The ideology we are trying to attempt to embed into the magazine a features such as an in depth report with the band, gig and concert reviews and that we go by the idea that the readers are very passionate about the music.

Music Research

Over the half term i conducted some research, in which i asked 15 people what they would prefer to see in a music magazine, these are the results.

1.)Are you male or female?

Male: 8
Female: 7

2.)In what age range are you?

12-15: 4
16-23: 6
24-35: 2
35+: 3

3.)What is your favourite genre of music?

Indie: 5
Rock: 2
Dubstep/Drum 'n' Bass: 5
Rap: 3


4.)What do you look for in a magazine?

Good customer feedback: 6
Pictures: 4
Lots of articles: 5


5.)What genre of Tv do you watch?

Comedy: 7
Drama: 8


6.)How do you purchase music?

Itunes: 6
Shops: 4
Online such as amazon: 5


7.)How often do you buy music magazines?

Once a week: 3
Once every two weeks: 8
Once a month: 4


8.)Do you have an ipod/mp3 player?

Yes: 11
No: 4


9.)Do you go to gigs/concerts?

Yes: 12
No: 3


10.)Have you ever downloaded music illegally?

Yes: 8
No: 7

In conclusion to my research I have discovered that the majority of people that read music magazines are in the 16-23 age range, prefer Indie rock and/or drum and bass or dubstep type of music; look for good customer feedback the most in music magazines, prefer to watch drama over comedy which can relate to the type of music they like too listen too also. I have also discovered that people in the majority purchase music of itunes due to its practicality, this is good to note because it could influence free gifts available in a magazine. Also i discovered that people would prefer to buy a music magazine over buying one every week or every month; it is a good middle value. The majority of people that i asked also have an ipod or another form of mp3 player, this shows that people are more keane to listen to music on the move, i also found out that most people go to gigs or concerts, to see their favourite band live but the majority of people have admitted to downloading music illegally online.

Article I Have Written For A School Magazine

Although this post is not particularly based around music or music magazines, i previously wrote in my school magazine about how i felt about leaving compulsary education whilst i was in year 11, i wrote it in the style of my own thoughts, perhaps a stream of consciousness is the best way of describing it...

Contemplating The End

Despite the depressive sounding title, this piece of writing is not about death or an actual end to anything. This piece of writing is near enough a stream of consciousness (thoughts out loud)
Of what is running through my head as I near the end of my time of compulsory education at Hitchin Boys’ School.
Although I do plan to stay on to continue my education at Hitchin Boys’ in sixth form, I can’t help but think to myself that this is the end of being a full time student at the school, and as my dark blue blazer with the crest of the school embedded upon it now grows old and more tattered by the day, and my blue striped tie begins to count down the days until it will never be knotted again, I become more anxious to the fact that I am not guaranteed a chance of walking back through J block come September, I can only hope that I reach the necessary standards to be aloud a place back in the school.
As I walk out of my final lesson of the day, I usually find myself in a trance by the building, taking in every concept of it. It is only now that I can truly appreciate the amazing beauty into which the building consists of. I tend to look across the school field, looking at the middle in particular, I look here because it is there that I remember my first realisation that I was now at “big school” back on my first ever day in year 7.
Although at the time of year 7, school still felt as it usually does, as stressful and as strenuous as ever. But I do miss the innocence of those days, where the most worrying aspect of a school day was what excuse I was going to give to my teachers about why the homework was only half done. I miss the fact that Gcse’s seemed a lifetime away, and that it seemed at that time, that they were never going to happen.
But now as I sit here on a cold Winters night, with only the majority of four months left in my final year at school, the stresses of exams and the lack of sleep due to the “fun” aspects of revision now seem to be my only constant companion, I can’t help but miss the school already, knowing that one era of my life is now ending, and a new one is slowly but painfully being brought into existence.

The reason why I decided to write this is for a few reasons. One to let my anger out onto my keyboard, to make it realise the stresses that I am now facing, but to also make the reader of this article realise that although coming to school seems to be the worst possible scenario right now, School will be missed, because school is where your friends are, where an almost seemingly endless library of information is, where the summer lunch times consisting of football on the field are; the times when you tripped over in j block and got laughed at by your peers, the times where you told all your friends about the new girl you met.
Hitchin Boys’ School is a place where not only do you learn, but it makes you into a man. I wish I had realised these thoughts before now, but hopefully you, the reader will take this in.



Daniel Rawlings.

I posted this onto my blog to show that i have past experience in writing for the school magazine, this article was put into the magazine and was read by the majority of the school.

Music Magazine Practice Interview

In preperation for the magazine article that we are going to produce, we did a staged interview with myself as the music artist. I was asked questions infront of the class and had to answer them in the style as if i was a genuine pop artist. We took notes of how the interview went, and then had to write up the beggining of the interview in a music magazine style.
This is how the beggining of my write up of the interview went...

Daniel Rawlings interview.

The sun shone through the windows, as the cold autumn wind clashed lightly against the windows, we sat there anxiously, waiting for the new icon of music to walk through the doors. We waited what seemed hours before Daniel Rawlings, finally appeared through the small wooden door of the small building that was allocated to host this interview.
“Sorry I’m late guys, overslept.” He stated as he walked in, he quickly sat down and greeted all of us there. He was passed a cup of tea and drank it slowly as he slouched back in his chair and waited for the questions to be thrown at him.
We discovered that Dan once had a pretty mundane lifestyle, he was asked what influenced his music, the deep meaningful lyrics and the power rifts that appear within his guitar solos.
“I was getting pretty bored of my life”, he said “I thought I need to make a change to my life and to others, so I started writing songs and it all escalated from thereon.”
We know that Daniel has only been on the music scene for a fairly short period of time; however he has been playing in small pubs and clubs for some years, changing his music persona throughout the years.
Last week, the public managed to see his huge tattoo on his back, after a sneaky photograph was taken of him at beach resort, he explained to us what the meaning of this huge dragon surrounded by fire actually symbolised.
“It symbolises my personality”, he claimed, “I am quite a passionate person that wants to have a depth for ferociousness behind my youthful exterior. The tattoo was a sort of calming placebo on me, it made me feel that people could see my personality without even having to get to know me.”
We clapped at this statement, for a young lad he expresses tendencies that exceed expectations of a young boy with everything going for him right now. We mentioned his relationship with the beautiful Pixie Lott; he begins to blush as he hears her name.
“We are thinking of doing a duet, which will involve a lot of chemistry between us.”
We can see that the way he expresses his girlfriend, shows that he is not just interested in her looks, but also cares about her as a person, which we have utmost respect for him for.

This was my first attempt at writing an article in this style of writing, I am fairly pleased with how this article went.

Music Magazine Research

Research music magazines

View more presentations from danielrawlings.

This powerpoint was produced so that i can show my research upon music magazines, how their articles are written and set out.
I studied NME magazine, Q magazine and KERRANG! magazine, all three magazine tend to cover different forms of music, NME being new bands, Q magazine tending towards more traditional bands and KERRANG! tending towards more punk music.
I feel that in my research, it has helped me decide on how i want my magazine and its articles look, for example i want my music magazine to resemble the style of how NME magazine sets out its pages and covers, going for a formal approach but having informal text content, i feel that i want my magazine to have the target audience of roughly 16-23 year olds, covering new bands, particularly indie rock music.

Daniel Rawlings Post 5 School Magazine

This is how i wanted the contents page to look, i used white font with a black background so that the colours would compliment eachother completely. The contrast in colours is not traditional so it gives the page some originality.
I used a different picture for the contents, it is in long shot form, which gives the page a different look to that of the cover page. both the pictures are of the same person, therefore it still relates to the cover page, and compliments it quite well.
I used the same font for the title "Contents" as i did for the title of the magazine on the front cover, this again makes it a relation to the cover page. I also used the same font for the list of pages found in the book as the lure headings that were applicated to the front cover.
I have gone for a slightly formal/ relaxed look, which I believe resembles school life, as in the fact that you are there to work, but also have a good time, which is the message i would like the magazine to express.

To conclude i am reasonably happy with my cover and contents pages for my preliminary task, however if I were to do them again, i would improve on the complexity of the features on both the pages, because i am new to using the programme Serif Page Plus, my IT skills on the programme are very limited, therefore if I were to do them again, I would make them look more complex if i become more skilled at using the programme.

Daniel Rawlings Post 4 School Magazine

This is my second and final draft of my school magazine cover, i have improved on the design by making it look less formal and more interesting. I have kept the title the same font, because i believe that it represented the old fashion style of the schools in the Consortium that the magazine is representing.
The school logos that were used in the orignal draft unfortuantely had a background to them, and through attempting to get rid of the background i found out that it would take far to long to reach the specific deadline, so i added white squares which matches the colour of the logos backgrounds, and tilted them around to make it look less formal.
The picture unfortuantely is not completely medium close up, but in the allocated time i was given i did not find it possible to retake a picture that completely matched the requirements, however i still believe that the picture used does slightly resemble that of a medium close up, therefore i am content with how the magazine cover looks.

Daniel Rawlings Post 3 School Magazine

Following showing people my first draft for my school magazine cover, i received feedback from three different groups of people.

The comments were as follows,

Group 1:

• Overall effect: Professional, good title layout
• Images: Good composition although the logos seem to big
• Text: Simple but catchy

Group 2:

• Fits the brief
• Nice Picture
• Layout of the text around the image is good
• Use of the logos is good bye the white background does not look to good.

Group 3:

• Medium close up picture ✔
• Laid out correctly ✔
• Masthead ✔

As you can see all three pieces of feedback were written in three different ways, this may make it look more confusing, but it gives me a more widespread outlook on what i have done right and wrong.

I believe now that with more practice of the programme Serif, i shall be able to "neaten up" my page and add better and less formal looking graphics.

Daniel Rawlings Post 2 School Magazine

As my partner for the research has been away for a while, i have had to the begin part of the research by myself, i have studied some successful school magazines in class, but i have also studied successful magazine that the media mass produce.
Magazines such as OK! magazine are big sellers, especially to women consumers.
The front cover is set out so that it has many lures, over lapping pictures and bright colours, this will grab the potential consumers attention and will make the cover look a lot more appealing to potential purchasers.

I have made a first draft to my School magazine cover, I am very unfamiliar with the programme Serif Page Plus, because I have never used it before, but that is the programme that is best for the job, so at the moment I have a very simple front cover, with very little effects, but i hope to improve upon my design as i become more familiar with the programme.

The picture is bad quality because i don't have the software to save it as a Jpeg format, so therefore i had to take a picture of the printed copy. i shall be improving on the logos, the title and the lure captions will also be improved, i will have to improve them as i become more familiar with the software however.

Daniel Rawlings Post 1 School Magazine

My name is Daniel Rawlings and i am studying Media Studies for AS level. I have a great interest in Media and i am intrigued at how people create successful media products that appeal signficantly to different groups of society.

I started my project by analysing different stereotypes that are represented by the public, I then studied at how the media cope with this and target their product successfully at the target audience. I have also currently taken part in a work shop programme at the BBC White City studio in which we used a programme to help us make a professional looking magazine cover.

For my preliminary piece of work, i am currently studying how to produce a successful school magazine cover, which appeals to teenagers to pick up about their school, and for my main piece of coursework i will be producing a music magazine cover that could appeal to a wide range of people with a wide age range.