Final Name Design

This is the final design for the name of magazine. I have chosen it as I think that it will be visually appealing to my audience and it will become very recognisable. It also represents a good understanding of the iconic colours and fonts of the indie rock genre.

Name Ideas

For the name design of my magazine, I have took ideas from some of the leading rock magazines in the UK. Their designs predominantly follow red, white and black colours, as this is iconic and conventional to the genre. Here are some images of the examples which I have took inspiration from, including different variations of the NME logo.

The name of my magazine will follow the red/white/black colour scheme, iconic to the indie rock genre and used in NME, Q and MOJO magazine. It will also be in a bold font, so that it is easy recognisable to the audience. A lot of the artists logos have an unusual or disorientated look to them also, which I have chosen to interpret into my own magazine.

I chose three similar colour schemes with the magazine name, which of course will be used as the masthead, so it is very important that it stands out and is easy recognizable. I will of course decide which the the three colours I will use when it comes to my final design of the name/masthead.

I then chose four different fonts and have presented each of the fourteen names which I though of. It is important that the name design looks visually appealing to my audience, so it is important that I take this into a lot of consideration. I presented them in this way so that I can see the great range of different options available and will then decide on the final name design, which I will then decide on a final name design.

Prop Ideas

As my magazine is a music oriented magazine, based on the indie rock genre, why not have the subjects within my magazine using music and musical instruments as props. So, a subject within my magazine, might be pretending to use a guitar, a microphone, a keyboard, or a drum kit. They could also be holding a sample of indie rock music which is relevant to the articles written in the magazine. For example, if my magazine had an article on the Arctic Monkey's new album, AM, then one of my subjects could be holding that album or vinyl in the image. However the props don't necessarily have to be musical, it could be as simple as an umbrella or a camera. Often a magazine plugs a give-away or a competition of some kind, to which then the prize is used as a prop.

Mise-en-scene Location Ideas

For this, I have thought of some of the locations which might be associated with someone who listens to indie rock music, or perhaps music in general. These are locations that my readers will enjoy visiting, for business or leisure.

A decent percentage of my readership are students, so they will likely be attending university, college, or even school, however I wouldn't expect very much of my audience to still be at a school age, so university or college are more likely.





Something that is hugely associated with the indie rock genre is music events, like gigs and festivals. The audience of my magazine will likely be attending these events very often, perhaps even every week.




My audience will obviously be interested in music stores, as this is were they will purchase all of their musical needs, like albums, singles, CDs, vinyl's, as well musical equipment such as guitars, drums, keyboards, headphones or amplifiers. However, the amount of music stores there are available is slowly decreasing, as things like iTunes or Spotify are becoming increasingly popular, because of the convenience of having all of your music collection being on your phone or PC, rather than being scattered around the home.

Costume Designs

I have chosen a large variety of different outfits, which I feel would likely be associated with someone who would listen to Indie Rock music, and therefore my magazine. This means that the audience and social demographic of my magazine will find them visually appealing and this could persuade them that the magazine is for them. The clothes which the subjects wear on the front cover of the magazine have a big impact on the readers first impression of the magazine. The majority of subjects and models used in my magazine will be male and the majority of outfits shown are male, as the readership of my magazine is predominantly male. However, there will still be many female readers of  my magazine, so it is important that I consider female interests and convey them in my magazine.

From all of the costume Ideas that I have chosen, I haven then chosen three costume ideas that I feel best suit and therefore what is the most iconic to the indie rock genre. As explained, the readership of my magazine is predominantly male, so out of the three costumes chosen, two of them are male and one is female.

I have also included different sections of clothing which would be associated with the Indie Rock
genre, such as shirts, footwear, accessories, etc.

Social Class and Demographic of My Product

The social demographic that will be reading my magazine are middle-working class people in the United Kingdom. This is because the genre of Indie Rock is mostly associated with this social class and also the Indie Rock genre originated in the UK and is still most popular in the UK. 

To adhere to their needs, my magazine will feature things which I think would appeal to the middle-working class. For example, my magazine will feature live performances from Indie Rock bands, such as gigs and festivals. An effective way of featuring this would be through a plug or a competition to win tickets to such gigs or festivals, as the audience of this genre of music are often are associated with those sorts of music events and an opportunity to win free tickets would certainly appeal to them, making them read the magazine. In my magazine, I could also have competitions for a chance to win new technology, such as a mobile phone or a tablet. These devices are usually associated with young people, and the audience of my magazine will be of young people, or even students, so I think that this would appeal to my audience greatly. As a proportion of my audience are students, a good plug to use could be a student card, possibly with a given discount when the magazine is bought. 

It is important to take notice of the social class table and target audience when thinking about the feature stories, as they have to be appealing to the reader because they take up a good proportion of the magazine. So the articles won't be incredibly formal, however they will be written in a professional manner and feature information which relates to the target audience, and information which I feel would appeal to the target audience. Articles should be presented conventionally, including the images and how they are arranged on the page and using other conventions such as stand firsts and drop caps, which are used to grab the reader's attention. I will not include too much written information in my articles, as the reader doesn't want to feel overwhelmed by the text as this will not persuade them to read. So the articles should include all the written information that is needed and it should be as relevant as possible.

Style/iconography of my product

Indie Iconography

In this genre, there are a lot of dark colours which are used in the magazines, as well as a lot of information, images and adverts of live performances from artists relevant to the genre. These are conventionally presented as a background of the bands website or on one side of a double page spread of a magazine. The backgrounds used on different media form is usually either very dark or very light. To contrast with a dark background, red or white font is commonly used, and on the other hand, a dark black or dark red font may be used to contrast with a white background. Banners or logos that are used are usually just the bands names or a name of a new album, which will always be presented in a bold font, most conventionally, black, red or white. The banners and logos are usually very simple, making them look aesthetically pleasing.

There is a very common trend associated with indie rock bands, with using dark backgrounds. More popular and more established bands/artists would use more vibrant colours, making them look more different. In my magazine I will either use a dark background, or I may decide to use a white background, with darker images and fonts to contrast with the light of the background. If I were to use too bright colours, the magazine would start to look much less like an Indie Rock magazine and therefore I would not interpreting the iconography and conventions of the genre very well. I will try to use a minimum of two different colours of font on my magazine cover, similarly to my college magazine, however the sell lines will be presented more conventionally as I would have had much more time to plan how would be most conventional to present it.

The masthead which I will be using on the front cover of my magazine will be done in a very bold font, similarly to that of the NME logo, as I feel as though this is very effective in drawing the readers attention. The simplistic-looking logo and banners of the Indie Rock bands convey the bands casual image in a less formal manner.

The main image of the front cover of my magazine will include an Indie Rock band or artist, as this is conventional on an Indie Rock magazine cover. Their body language and pose will display an informal image. I could also make use of some props with the images that I use, such as a microphone or an acoustic guitar, which relates to the style of music. The artists featured on the main images, as well as secondary images, will always wear clothing associated with the Indie Rock genre. This typically includes things such as denim jacket, black jeans, Harrington jackets and desert boots. The artists are also usually seen with unusual haircuts/styles

Included in my mood board are several different styles, relating to the Indie Rock music genre, which my music magazine could feature. It is very iconic that different media forms associated with Indie Rock have  a slightly disorientated style. For example, the album covers which I have chosen to include in my mood board are 'Melophobia' and 'Up, Guards, and at Em!'. Both of these album covers are primarily black and white, and have a disorientated vibe about them. The bands names are written in a bold, black and white font, which is conventional for the genre of music. Apart from 'Foals', all of the logos of the bands featured on the mood board are disorientated in some way, to make them look more different to other bands, to interest the viewer and make the style of font used more recognisable to that band. 

The two main magazines which feature Indie Rock bands/artists are Q and NME. Both of the logos for these magazines are in a white font, with a black background, as white and red is iconic to the genre of music. I think that, because of this, it would be suitable for my music magazine to have a red and white masthead.

On the mood board, I have also included some other images, containing iconography of the Indie Rock genre, including images of live performances, clothing styles associated with someone who listens to Indie Rock and guitars, which are a large part of the music itself, and are often used as props for the subjects featured within a magazine.