Photos Name Ideas & Mood Board

Music Magazine 'SubSound'

My magazine is unconventional in the sense that it uses very different colours to other existing Drum & Bass magazines. However this is partly because my magazine is a Liquid Drum & Bass magazine and therefore unique as there are no known Liquid drum & Bass magazines out at the moment. Liquid Drum & Bass is a fast growing genre and there is definetely a gap in the market for this type of magazine.

In other ways my magazine is conventional (to its genre) as the deep and light blues are a typical characteristic of Liquid Drum and Bass. This theme is consistent throughout although the shades of blue vary.

Although the colours are different to other drum and bass magazines the fonts are quite conventional in having a slightly rugged look. Throughout my magazine pages my pictures are there to look nice(keeping the pages interesting), especially for my double page spread, rather than trying to show what the scene is about. However my writing is strongly based around the scene and language is targeted for the targeted audience, though I kept in mind that liquid drum and bass does appeal to a varied audience. Consisting of many people that had never listened to other types of drum and bass before.

The intended target audience for my magazine is people from 15 to early 20s, trying to appeal to both guys and girls; however I took into account that the majority of Liquid drum and bass fans were guys. Liquid drum and bass does appeal to a wide age range from 15 up to 40 years old, with many of the producers being at both extreme ends of the scale. However the majority of listeners are young men and therefore I focused on the younger audience of this genre. This is portrayed by having photos of young models to give the impression of young 'every-day ravers'.

I think the audience is first attracted by the colours and the title ‘SubSound’ on the cover of the magazine. The title is one of the first things they see and is a strong indication that this magazine is about drum and bass as the sub end is one of the main aspects of the music. The font and photo give a rugged look also suggesting this. Below the title the words ‘..Liquid drum and bass’ are printed as I wanted to be clear what music this magazine was about as it would be the first ‘SubSound’ magazine released if we were looking at this media product as if it were real.

The word ‘Linx’ (an artist that I made up for this magazine) also stands out as it is in large font which is also quite conventional for drum and bass magazines. It is printed on top of his T-shirt in an artistic/ rugged font which is very similar to the title. This makes it seem as though we are linked with him or that he belongs to the magazine, giving credit and status to the name ‘SubSound’.

This project allowed me to develop my knowledge and skills of both Adobe Photoshop and InDesign although I predominantly produced in Photoshop. I learnt various ways of cutting out images from both blank backgrounds and backgrounds with other objects and various colours in. I learnt that the magic wand tool was usually the best tool for this but the tools varied depending on what I was trying to cut out. Although some of the work in Photoshop was time consuming I found it quite enjoyable when I was working on some of the images. As some of the photos I took weren’t grate I had to do a lot of work with them to bring them to life. I especially enjoyed doing this for the image I used on the double page spread, however this was one of my better images where what I was trying to achieve went to plan.

Some groups that I think are represented through my magazine are British young men and British young woman. It is hard to state what groups my magazine represents as I did not try to classify and therefore cut off any customers as the genre is specific enough. Really I feel that any young English speaking person that loves the drum and bass scene can relate with the things talked about in the magazine. However the main characteristics of the people the magazine talks about and is about are both those that have a nightlife based around music and those who just love to chill listing to soulful Liquid DnB in there room. Overall my magazine represents groups that don’t necessarily follow the crowd and those that do there own thing.

The only values my magazine has is that the music comes first, looks, attitude and money have nothing to do with this scene. Although the scene is full of a huge variety of people this magazine represents the stereotypical look of jungle/drum and bass and liquid drum and bass lovers. This rugged/casual look is clearly represented by the photo on the front cover.

I would distribute my magazines through Vinyl shops, various shops where the D&B scene is big and on a website that I would create online. I would also advertise online on sites that sell specifically drum and bass, jungle, dub step and trance such as "www.trackitdown.net".

Inside the magazine I could include a password that would allow you to download a mix (mixed by a known artist). A new mix would be available on each release and would be created by a different artist each time. Including a password to download the mix is cheaper than offing a CD and can also be beneficial as it will lead them to a website. On this website I would advertise a deal where you could subscribe to the magazine and get the whole years release when each one comes out via one payment, offering 30% off and free postage.

During this project I have learned more about the media and the music industry. Through research I have learnt about many different magazines and how they attract there target audience. I have learnt about other different genres although I am a fan of liquid drum and bass I have learnt more about other more commercial genres. As well as this I can now distinguish between different genres with more ease. I now know how to take professional looking photos for a magazine and can edit these images with confidence after learning about all the different tools through being taught and by experimenting.