Font designs

 Because I wanted my magazine to differ in style compared to other popular music magazines, as to make it more individual and unique, I thought that I could do this by having a font for my masthead that looked completely different to other magazine titles. The main thing I noticed about them was that most of the titles were in capitals (NME, Kerrang!, MOJO). I wanted to challenge this approach to music magazines by perhaps having a title that only had a capital letter at the start of my title. Although, I did experiment with some fonts that all the letters were capitals, as I thought this would be easier to present on my front cover than if all the letters weren't. Here are some of the fonts I considered for my masthead:

Out of all of these, I narrowed it down to the 3 shown below:

I liked all 3 of these fonts, but I knew I had to choose one. The one at the top: 'Urban Jungle', I liked because the letters were big and bold and they had the image of buildings sprouting out of the ground. I could use this font if I wanted my magazine to have a modern, urban house style. The one below, 'Telegrafico', I thought of as having sharp, clear looking letters that portrayed a sense of elegance and formality. It occurred to me that a font like this would be used in a magazine that came as part of a newspaper (source: The Telegraph) If I wanted to use this font, my magazine would have to be quite formal and have music genres that were less offensive to the wider public. The last one: 'Gunplay' looked quite militarised with an element of toughness, but I thought that this could still be friendly towards the wider public and I found that this font fitted into any background, regardless of colour or the intricacy of the background

Magazine Names

  I made a tally which consisted of 31 people voting for the best name:


  Indie - 2 (6%)

  Viral - 6 (19%)

  Viva la Musica - 2 (6%)

  Musique - 3 (11%)

  Vantage - 12 (39%)

  Armonia - 2 (6%)

  Synch - 4 (13%)

  This was a good result as my favourite name was Vantage, and this clearly won  the vote with 39% of people voting for it. I thought that the actual word sounded good when said and the name could connote that it has the advantage over other music magazines. Also, I am going for an alternative house style for my magazine, and this is shown through the alternative Masthead, as I am going against the normal by having an altered version of the word: advantage, whilst still retaining some sense and comprehension in the title.

Magazine Analysis - Inside

 How many pages are there?

• 170

 How many pages of adverts?

• 35

 Categorise the products advertised into types

Music:

• Pink Floyd new album (double page spread)
• Noel Gallagher new album (1 page) 
• Florence + the machine new album (1 page)
• Nirvana album (1 page)
• Pearl Jam new album (1 page)
• Björk new album(1 page)
• Peter Gabriel new album (1 page)
• Ryan Adams new album (1 page)
• Mastodon new album (half page)
• The Subways new album (half page)
• Ben Howard new album (half page)
• DJ Shadow new album (half page)
• Livemusic tour (half page)
• Pajama club new album (half page)
• 11 page spread of various artists, concerts and albums
• Coldplay new album (1 page)

Fashion:

• Levi's (double page spread)
• Topman (1 page)
• Ray-Ban (1 page)
• Last exit to nowhere (1 page)

 

Video games:

• Forza Motorsport 4 (double page spread)

Food + drink:

• Pringles (1 page)
• Tiger beer (1 page)

Fragrances:

• Carolina Herrera 212 VIP (1 page)

Cars:

• Peugeot 508 (double page spread)
• Mazda 3 (double page spread)

 Categorise the features/articles into types

•  As this is the 25 anniversary of Q magazine, they have signified this by having interviews with 26 current good artists. These take up most of the magazine, as it is the main feature of this special edition
  

 How many double page spreads are there? What are they about?

•  There are 40 double page spreads, mostly interviews with the artists featured on the front page in the caption: "THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE". There are also a few articles on gigs and upcoming artists.

 Are there any "advertorials" where it is not clear if something is an article or an advert, or a mixture of both?

•  There aren't any advertorials but there are reviews which are similar to advertorials as they help to promote the product that is under review

 How does the magazine achieve a unified "house style"?

•  The house style in continuously bright and colourful throughout the magazine, with lots of white space which makes the inside clear and easy to read

Magazine Analysis - The Cover

 The title: why is it called that? What does the title connote?

•  Q magazine was originally meant to be named 'cue', as in cueing a record, meaning it was ready to play. But the company thought that people may confuse it for a snooker magazine, thus the name was changed to Q. The also thought that the simplicity of the single letter 'Q' would differ from other music magazines at the time and make it stand out more

 The masthead/title logo - analyse it.

•  The actual title, or Masthead: 'Q' is recognizable as it is just the single letter and the size stands out from the rest of the front page. It also differs from other music magazines as it is a unique name and no other magazines have a name anything like it. The name may also persuade readers to enquire as to the history and meaning of the name, as it is a unique and strange title for a magazine

 Is there a strapline? Analyse it.

•  The strapline for Q is 'Discover great music', which is the magazine telling us that there is great music that can be discovered by reading the magazine, thus subtly telling the potential customer that they should buy the magazine if they want to 'Discover great music'. The font used for this slogan is sans-serif, which gives the phrase a sense of understatement, however the phrase is actually a very meaningful one, therefore irony is presented here

 What is the main image?

•  The main image is a close-up camera angle of the artist 'Tinie Tempah', a well renowned rap artist whom many people will be a fan of, and they will be able to get an insight into what "music changed his life' as is the headline associated with the main picture. The angle is an eye-line match and is looking at the reader, thus giving the reader a sense of importance due to the artist's attention being focused on the reader. The picture could suggest Tinie Tempah's formality and sleekness due to him doing his top button up, this could also be representative of Tinie Tempah being suave and could be seen as him being an attractive idol from the detail of this picture

 What content is promoted by the cover lines?

•  The cover lines are promoting the 14 artists and Tinie Tempah as they are featured in the magazine. This is a good advertising scheme as potential customers can look at the artist as the main image and the ones featured, and if they like them, then they will be persuaded to buy the magazine, so as to find out about the '"THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED (the artist's) LIFE"'

 Explain the connotations of of typefaces (fonts), graphics, colours etc.

•  The typeface consists of 3 fonts on the cover: '"THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE"' (image bottom right), the list of 25 artists (image left) and 'Tinie Tempah' (image top right). Both 'Tinie Tempah' and the list of artists have very similar fonts, used to create a sense of formality that suits the artists in the list as well as Tinie Tempah. '"THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE"' has a much more formal serif font, perhaps taking the matter more seriously, for this is the music that made who the artists are today, and the magazine has felt it to be more appropriate if they address the subject with a more formal fashion as due to them being a music magazine, they need to have more importance surrounding music articles and features in their magazine. The colours (pink and light blue) presented with Tinie Tempah illustrate his sensitivity and chivalry, whilst his glasses give him a sense of mystery and a life separate from that shown in the media. The other colours included in the layout compliment those that Tinie Tempah is wearing: his pink and light blue shirt go with the background of '"THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE"' and '#01 of 25 covers' are also pink and light blue; this colour schertrerwdsrw aqn eme defines the house style which is coherent with the inside of the magazine

 What sort of language/language features/language devices can you identify? How does the cover "talk" to its reader?

•  The font for the words 'Tinie Tempah' are in informal text, and through their use of mode of address, a reader could relate to and feel like the magazine understands them. The magazine also makes use of the words: 'The music that changed my life', the background of which jumps out at the reader, indicating that the text inside the background is important. The reader could also relate to this text as they could compare the music that changed their lives to the music that changed the artists lives featured in the magazine

 Does the cover look similar to other magazines? If so why? What does this magazine offer which rivals don't?

•  The cover distinguishes itself from other music magazines as the layout differs strongly from other music magazines: it has a white background with bright colours and not much else is on the cover, whereas NME has a background made up of more darker colours, and a magazine like Kerrang has lots of things on the front cover. It also offers a 'collector's edition', which a potential customer could view as a special edition and may be better than other music magazines at the current time because of this 'edition'

 Is there anything else distinctive about the cover/format?

•  The words "The Music that changed my life" and "01# of 25 covers" have graphics that all jump out to the reader, making them highly noticeable, thus advertising to potential customers. It also has the words 'Tinie Tempah' written across the main image, informing the readers who the person on the front page is in case they do not know
  

Magazine Analysis - General

 What company produces Q?

•  Bauer Media Group

 According to the Q's website, what is the target audience?

•  Sophisticated people who enjoy the comprehensive coverage of the current music scene, as well as the music trends that may have been more popular years ago. This can be shown by the advertorials of Pink Floyd's new album set, and Coldplay's new album. The magazine also has interviews with artists who are more into more recent music trends and those who relate more to past trends.The market audience is split into 75% male and 25% female.

 How much does it cost?

• £3.99

 How often is it published?

• Monthly

 What is it's circulation?

• From January 2011 to June the total circulation was 80,418

 What do the approximate monthly revenue streams from advertising and circulation tell you?

•  Q's monthly revenue stream is about £220,867 from circulation and advertising attracts around £300,000. We can infer from these figures that many companies want to advertise their products in the magazine as the price for advertising is so high. For example, November's edition of Q featured 28 pages of adverts, and £300,000 split into 28 is a lot of money for an advert. We can tell that a lot of people purchase Q, as approximately 55,355 issues are sold per month. Companies will want to advertise in Q as a lot of people will see their products advertised, thus adding to the advertising revenue stream.