Music Magazine Double Page Spread Font Research

Font Research

Here I will test out which fonts I will use in my Music Magazines Double Page Spread.

Initial Research

I have decided to use the font 'Orator Std' as my Double Page Spreads Title font.

'Orator Std' Research

Music Magazine Double Page Spread Research

This design features a large image of the male model which covers most of the left hand half of the page. The background of the image however covers the whole double page spread, which allows the image to in fact cover the whole page. The double page spread has a very large title, which is positioned at a slight angle and employs the use of 2 different colours. I like the use of a very bold title which catches the eye very easily. The main body of text is split into three uniform columns which contrasts against the light grey background,





This design also uses a large image on the left side of the page, with a bold, two coloured title. The body of text however is only split into two columns, and has three seperate images along the bottom. It also features a smaller vertical white strip on the far right side, including more information.

Music Magazine Contents Font Research

As seen from my research into contents pages, we can see that a popular design idea in Electronic music magazines is having a header which is written in Bold San-serif font in block capitals, with a different San-serif font as the main body of writing.


I have decided to follow this trend in my own magazine, using a previously used font as the Bold font, which will be the Lemon/Milk font. However I needed to find another font to use for the main body of text, which I will find out here.

Music Magazine Contents Research

‘Q’ Magazine generally features a large image on the right hand side of the page, with an elongated area for text along the left of the page. There is a consistent theme of a header featuring the name of the magazine, along with the word ‘contents’ in bold. Other minor details such as the issue number and date of publication are also present, which I could incorporate into my own magazine. The font used in the design is fairly simple, although the page layout is quite full on, with little space left, and has a somewhat cramped feel to it, which I would like to avoid in my own design.

However I would like to use the combination of dark grey and white colours, which fit very well with my current design for my cover, and also with the modern theme of electronic music.

This contents page has many of the same design traits as the previous one, with the large image on the right and text on the left.  However again, feels quite cramped. I do however like the large header.

Again, I also like the use of modern colours (grey, red and white)
I like the combination of large and small text, which draws in the readers eye and then supplies them with information on what the particular story is about. 

This design is from ‘Electronic Sound’ which focuses completely on electronic music, which is the genre that I am focusing my own design on.

As such, the design is highly relevant to the style that I will be making, and I really like the simplistic yet stylish and modern feel this design has. It combines the use of a lot of images with frequent but small sub headings with a brief description of each topic. 

This is also from Electronic Sound, however uses a lot more colour while maintaining the modern and stylish feel. I very much like the top half of the design, with a large image covering the width of the page, along with a colourful box with the magazines title and ‘what’s inside’

The boxes below with the subheadings follow the same sort of design as the previous contents page I looked at, with each subheading featuring an image with a brief description.
This layout is much more spread out than the first 2, which I would like to do in my own contents page as I feel that a more spacious design looks better than a cramped one.
The large image with a writing overlay is a nice feature, which looks good and also does its job as a header.
The boxes below have a colour 

Clothing Research For 2nd Photo Shoot

From my research into the clothing worn by popular modern electronic music artists, I have found that generally House/DnB producers often wear simple clothing such as a pair of jeans and a plain t shirt or vest top. Due to the dynamic theme of the genre, and the open variety of age and gender of musicians, clothing is not not very closely observed by the audience, and so simple clothing, is suffice. Although often certain types of producers will wear a trademark item of clothing, for example Deadmau5 wears a distinct mousehead 'helmet' and Daft Punk traditionally wear masks, other more basic producers such as Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia and Eric Prydz choose to wear much more basic clothing.

 Eric Prydz
(T-shirt with design and jeans)

 

Calvin Harris

(Plain coloured T-shirt and jeans)

 Krewella
(Vest top with basic designs, with jeans for male, leggings for females)

Swedish House Mafia
(Plain black T-shirt and jeans)

Image Research For 2nd Photo Shoot

There is a clear trend in Electronic music magazine cover designs, to show a single image of a model (normally male) facing the camera with a light in front of him, casting a shadow across the opposite side of his face. I will use this style of photography in the image I use in my final piece, as it creates a modern and stylish feel to it which fits nicely with the genre of music that is based around. From the four magazine cover designs I have chosen here, we can see that creating a shadow across the right side of the models face is a popular idea which I would like to follow in my own design.

With the exception of the first design, the others all employ the use of plain black. simple clothing, which I will use as well. By using simple clothing it draws focus away from the unimportant aspects of the image, instead placing full focus on the picture of the musician. Another feature of the cover image is the very simple, plain background, which once again puts the readers attention on the main image, and conforms to the modern, futuristic, sleek feel of the electronic music genre.

I will use an image similar to the 2nd design shown here, which is a close up shot of the models face with a very dark background contrasting against a bright light being shone on the models face.
The text around the image will be a very vibrant colour (examples in my research are orange and green text against a dark background) with white subtitles.

Music Magazine Font Research

After considering alternatives, I have decided on using the magazine title 'stereophonic sound'

Which is a type of sound reproduction (playback) This is usually achieved by using two or more independent audio channels through a configuration of two or more loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing. This is a large part of electronic music due to the nature of the genre.

The fonts I use will need to be modern and sleek looking, which will coincide with the modern genre of music that my magazine will be based on. 

I will explore these types of Fonts here.

'Comfortaa'

'Equinox'

Choice of font for Magazine Title.

I have chosen to use this design for use as my magazines title. The font is called "Comfortaa" and is appropriate for use in my magazine as it has a very modern design and looks good in the colour white against a dark background, which is what I will use for my design.

For the rest of the cover I will use a combination of the fonts 'Slant', 'Strasua' and 'Lemon/Milk'

As they are sleek and modern looking font and will fit well with an electronic music magazine.

Target Audience: Three Examples

I have chosen three people that will evaluate my completed music magazine. The chosen people must be interested in the genre of music I have based my magazine on, and be willing to assist me by critiquing my finished design.

My first choice is Josh Scott, he is 19 and regularly listens to a wide range of music but with a strong bias towards electronic music. Because of this, Josh will will have at least a basic knowledge of what he would be interested to see in a electronic music magazine and will be able to give me advice on what I have done well and what I could do to improve it.

My second choice is Aaron Moroney, he is also 19 and only listens to electronic music. Aaron also produces some electronic music in his spare time so knows the genre well and will be excellent at giving advice to what could be done better

My last choice is Michael Bevan. He is 18 and once again only listens to electronic music. like Aaron, he also produces some House/DnB music in his spare time, as well as spending a lot of time listening to electronic music, and so will also have a decent knowledge of the genre and will be able to give suggestions for improvements.

The three candidates I have chosen all have shown an interest in the genre and are of the suitable age for the audience I will be targeting my magazine at. Because of this they will have similar lifestyles to my target audience and will be a good source of critique so that I can model my magazine to what the audience want.

Due to their interests in not only listening to electronic music, but also producing their own, they will be interested in magazine content such as news on new software's and also other music production aspects such as mixing tables. along with this the magazine should contain information on popular electronic music acts. This information will assist readers with their ability to produce their own music, with some information on current acts as well, so will be both entertaining and factually informing. This will appeal to a large majority of the electronic music audience as it contains a variety of information on production of music, as well as famous acts.

Music Magazine Target Audience

The target audience for my Electronic music magazine has a very wide audience range. However the main bulk of the audience will be between the ages of around 18 and 25, and of both genders. Electronic music does not have a specific gender or age definition, although the above are the most common. Due to the style of music, and lack of gender bias, I will use a modern and professional looking design, that fits with the modern style of music. The general listeners of Electronic music are around University aged, of working/middle class. The genre is associated with clubbing and party cultures, so will need to be relevant to this scene. The audience of my magazine will also be regularly involved in nightclubs and 'party' scenes, as that is the normal location in which electronic house/DnB music is heard. 

For my cover image I will use a teenage male, with appropriate lighting directed towards his face and a dark backdrop. This is appropriate to the genre and will work well as a front cover image. The fonts I will use will be sleek and modern in design, with modern colours (white/silver etc)

Music Magazine Research

The following magazines are based on the electronic genre of music. The first magazine cover features an image of Deadmau5, and the second shows an image of David Guetta. The magazine seems to focus on a very popular headliner artist as the front cover, with having smaller less known musicians featuring inside the magazine, for example “America’s best DJ” is not actually named on the front cover, which puts more focus on the image of Deadmau5 and means you must read the magazine to find out who the ‘best DJ’ is.