Front Cover Draft

Article Planning

(Article Plan and layout)

“Pull quote from interview”]  

[Heading to go with interview] 

[Anchorage text:] 

 Pop-Punk Prophets Full Metal Repertoire has just released their highly anticipated new album “Talking with Satan”. I was lucky enough to sit down with frontman Michael Fahrenheit and get an exclusive interview about their new album and what they’ve been up to. I’ve listened to their new album and the only way I can properly describe it is if American Idiot had a love child with Enema of the State, it’s been sprinkled with Ska-Punk and it’s taken too much LSD. They take the average sound of punk, turned up the treble and set the gain to the max. the beautifully written melodies, intricate chord progressions and fired up lyrics altogether create an album.

 So, Mr Fahrenheit, what have you and your band been doing for the past six months? 

 Well we’ve been taking it easy, you know. We’ve been practicing a lot but not like we usually do, we took a new approach to song writing and everything. Like we all share the song writing of everything on the new album now. Sometimes we come not the studio and just sit about all day procrastinating but it helps, you know? Like we’ll start working on some new riff or something and leave it for like a day or two and when we come back to it we’ve got all these new ideas and stuff. 

What I really wanted to talk about was your album, “Talking with Satan”. It’s quite an interesting name, where’s the inspiration behind this album? 

 Well really it’s about the government. I’m sick and tired of these bloody politicians screwing people over, its wrong and unethical. “Satan” represents the man at the top trying to keep us down. The album addresses modern day issues in society like post Brexit racism, homelessness, youth crime. It’s a judgement on society. The album title is kind of wear the album artwork came from, I wanted the duct tape over our mouths to show how normal people like ourselves don’t have a voice. It wasn’t done last minute but I think it looks cool. Hopefully other people like it as well. It’s just the man trying to keep us down, you know? 

 What are your favourite tracks from your new album? 

Probably “Please God”, I really liked that one and thought it was a good opener for the album. It really set the tone, you know. My next two are probably “Give get go” and “Me and the Workers” They’ve got really energetic choruses and powerful lyrics; I’ve put some subliminal messages in there as well as a treat for the fans and if you wanna find the messages just focus on the first words. I think “A Star Away” is good one to end album, it takes all the emotion and anger from the album and spits it out into an acoustic ballad. 

Why did you decide to make a concept album? 

 Well I feel like a story always makes a song more interesting and most the songs I write have some kind of plot and its always easier if each song could follow the other like chapters in a book. I think it also makes it more real, if you can see it as story it’s easier to imagine. 

Double Page Spread and Article Plan 

 In my research, I found out that a large majority of people wanted to read album reviews and read about their favourite artists. From this information, I have decided my article should be an interview asking the frontman of the Band about their new album and adding my own comments about the songs here and there. The double page spread will consist of a short introduction explaining what the article is about and a little about the frontman of the band “Michael Fahrenheit”. Above the article there will be a big pull quote taken from the text and then a slightly smaller title for the article so they catch the reader’s eye and then some bold anchorage text to explain what the article is about. 

Page Designs

Double Page Spread Plan

 In my research, I found out that a large majority of people wanted to read album reviews and read about their favourite artists. From this information, I have decided my article should be an interview asking the frontman of the Band about their new album and adding my own comments about the songs here and there. The double page spread will consist of a short introduction explaining what the article is about and a little about the frontman of the band “Michael Fahrenheit”. Above the article there will be a big pull quote taken from the text and then a slightly smaller title for the article so they catch the reader’s eye and then some bold anchorage text to explain what the article is about. The photo may take up the entire two pages and the text will probably be over the photo as that was the most popular choice of style in my audience research.

Artist Planning

Artist Profile: Michael Fahrenheit – Frontman

 My artist, Michael Fahrenheit, the epitome of cool. Best known for being the frontman of the band “Full Metal Repertoire” and now has a fifth studio album coming up. He is 25 and the most well-known member of the band as he is the frontman and lead guitarist. His band is primarily pop-punk but occasionally experiments with other genres like Ska but people wonder if their sound will alter significantly in their upcoming album. He is seen as the driving force behind the band because of his extravagant stage presence and Hendrix-like guitar skills. His band grew to fame because of their anti-establishment lyrics, harsh judgements on society and political connotations in their songs. People want to know if he is sticking to the bands original style and developing their sound. 
 His favourite guitar is a Telecaster; he often goes against mainstream and any labels attached to anything and leads a fairly simple life as far as rock stars go after he came out of rehab two years ago. The biggest inspirations in his life are Bands Like Green Day, Sum 41, Queen, The CLash, Reel Big Fish, Sex Pistols, Bowie. he likes them because they go against the establishment or norms of society, their styles of music has influenced his sound significantly.

Band profile - Full Metal Repertoire
 His band Full Metal Repertoire are a trio consisting of Fahrenheit the lead vocalist and guitarist, Sturge the bassist and Ally C the drummer who holds them together. They work hard together, often arguing and disagreeing on everything but always coming together agreeing what works best for the music. All of them are passionate about their music and want to make the fans happy.

Why Michael Fahrenheit is doing the interview
 He is doing the interview as he's the face of the band and most recognisable. They have a new album out so he has done an interview with Rebel magazine to promote it and talk about what they've been doing.

Colour Scheme Ideas

For the colour scheme, I pondered a few ways it could look keeping my young male target audience in mind. The dark colours seemed appropriate for my magazine and it would also make the bright text stand out effectively so it seems striking and aesthetically appealing for my audience. However the bright background and dark text also worked very well. I have looked at each one, analysing them to see which one would suit the magazine best.

House Style Colour Schemes

Masthead House Style Designs

Rebel / Rebel

Simple bold look makes it look smart, the italic version looks cooler, the slanted effect makes it seem non-conventional which is appropriate for the name and genre of the magazine.

Rebel

This font gives a smart serious impression which is appealing for proper fans of the genre of music as it is important to them. The smartness may indicate its formal and won’t focus on un-serious artists. 

Rebel                                                                                      

Comic Sans makes it seem informal but it could be seen as childish so people wouldn’t see it as a serious magazine. I will probably not use this one as it won’t be seen as serious or appeal to my target audience.

Rebel

This font is good because its unique, stands out and gives a visual feel of genre, gives out a grunge type look, almost as if it’s trying to be vintage but chaotic as well. It’s also similar to Sex Pistols iconic albums text. 

Rebel

Very stylistic and unique however it could be seen to be aimed at women and I need mine to appeal to a young male audience. It also doesn’t really suit the genre of pop-punk.

Rebel 

This font is good because its unique, stands out and gives a good visual feel of genre, gives a tough, “anarchist” type feeling. It communicates to the audience what type of magazine it is.

Magazine Name Ideas

Punk – Makes it sound old school and against the system, gives it a “tough” sound, appealing to young people.  

Beat – Implies it focuses on music a lot, short and simple makes it memorable so it’ll stick in people’s heads.

New Sound – Makes it sound new and modern, appealing to younger readers however it is kind of boring and un-creative.

Good Vibes – Positive sounding name, “Vibes” indicate the music aspect is important and shows to the audience it focuses on “good” music.

New Waves – Makes the magazine sound good and links it to music, “waves” reference to the sound waves making it sound intelligent.

Repertoire Now – Sounds cool and would suit the magazine as it focuses on modern music, it would intrigue my audience as they would want to keep up to date with music.

Rebel – This name is good as pop-punk derives from punk which core value is about rebelling. It also a reference to a Green Day and David Bowie song. 

Magazine Genre Idea

I have decided to develop a pop-punk magazine as the genre focuses on positive and political things in its articles and it would be good to do for the artists.

Initial Magazine Ideas

Idea 1: Rock

·         Popular, it will appeal to a lot of people

·         Covers a wide variety, most artists would fall in this category so it would be easy to fit things into this genre

·         The style is easy to copy as it can be changed a lot

·         Slightly more male orientated audience – bold, male associated colours and design

·         Covers other areas of music sometimes

·         16-25 age range – needs to appeal to modern youth

·         House Style mainly stays the same throughout – only changes sometimes

  

       Idea 2: Pop-Punk

·         Popular especially with younger generations

·         This kind of style is easy to recognise and mimic

·         14-20 age range

·         Focuses positively on artists instead of harsh reviews

·         Looks back at artist’s older work and compares new material – articles focus on a variety of things such as new album reviews and artist’s old and new sound

·         Will express political views of artists

  

       Idea 3: Pop

·         Mainstream and popular- needs to appeal to everyone

·         Artists are usually very generic – it’s easy to mimic their style

·         Articles on new material generally has to be positive

·         Female orientated audience – needs to appeal to young women

·         Sometimes focuses on fashion – should cover relevant fashion industry news

Readership Profile

Readership profile - Male audience between 15 and 18 years old

Michael Jones, 17, sixth former. He is into creative subjects like music and art, plays the drums. Into popular TV shows like The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad and watches a lot of YouTube. He listens to a variety of genres but mainly likes Pop-punk bands and sometimes to listen to popular songs from artists like Taylor Swift and loves older classics like Queen and Bowie.  His dislikes are pop songs with no soul, he is uninterested in politics and marvel movies bore him. He is from a middle-class family and works a Saturday job so he has a small disposable income to spend on magazines. He uses main social media websites like Facebook and Twitter and keep up to date with the news and follows some celebrities. Magazines he already reads are Kerrang and Rolling Stone and occasionally another magazine if a certain artist has done an interview with it.  Buys products like Skull Candy headphones, hair gel, and Lynx.

Magazine House Style analysis

Each magazine has its own distinct style and look. This style is the font of the title, cover lines and any text, the colour schemes used, basic layout of the magazine pages, etc. the house style of any magazine is apparent throughout, especially music magazines has it has its own distinct style like Rolling Stone for example, its title’s unique font makes it stand out and easily recognisable. Another good example is “Kerrang”. It’s bold unique style of font is used for its main title, cover lines and pull quotes, this lets the reader know its Kerrang as soon as they see it.

The first thing you notice in the Rolling Stone is the dominant image with the text surrounding it which is very unique. This is used a lot making it very easy to identify straight away. The page also features a “Q&A” in red with a black line going through the top of the page letting the reader know what the article is about. The typography of this however, changes sometimes but always having the red “Q&A” and black line.

 The article page has the Name of the Celebrity (usually a musician or sometimes actor) in the top left corner with a few things the article covers in red and a big bold drop cap to start off the page. Most of the font is Times New Roman, giving it a smart, serious look.

Rolling Stone has names of artists and slogans along the side of the front page. All the text is bold, some being in red or highlighted in black with black lines occasionally on the page. The dominant image takes up most of the page and is always in front of the Title and the text usually made to fit around them 

Kerrang has a very iconic font. The bold yellow typography is easily recognisable whether it’s in the magazine or not. Its grunge and broken look for its titles makes it suit the genre. Each article title has a page number in red next to it to show where it is and stand out. The headings are bold and yellow in black keeping the style throughout the magazine. The page has many small pictures laid out randomly around the page giving it a chaotic look, suiting the style of magazine this is. For popular stories a small star has been out next it to highlight it. 

Kerrang has banners at the top and bottom of the front page featuring pop-culture pictures and things like bands. “Green Day” takes up most of the page with slogans around it. The band is behind the text but in front of the “Kerrang” title as it is already recognisable. Kerrang usually either has a single artist/band or a collage of musicians on its front cover.