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I recently found a 'NME Radio' app for my iPod touch. I thought it would be a good idea to listen to it from time to time as I would gain knowlege of new artists and bands so therfore, I could but some research into them and it could help me with my music magazine.
NME Radio is the radio station from NME magazine, that broadcasts in a new and alternative music format. It first began broadcasting on 24 June 2008. Click here to listen to the live show.
This is a double-page spread taken from the popular music magazine 'NME'. The focus of this double-page spread is a band called 'The Vaccines'. 'The Vaccines' are a London-based alternative rock band that formed in 2010. This tells us a lot about 'New Musical Express' and that it introduces new, unknown bands into their magazine.
The colour scheme for these pages is black, white and blue. I think it is good how the editors of 'NME' have use a bright, bold colour with the black and white because this draws your eye to different parts of the page. The editors have also put in the blue a quote from one of 'The Vaccines' band members. By making the quote in a different colour from all of the other text, the quote now stands out and the reader of this particular article can quickly read a quote from the text and then get some idea of what it is all about. As well as the quote being highlighted, the letter at the start of each paragraph is blue, this adds to the visual aspect. Finally, another thing that is in blue is certain words in the subheading, this makes the reader see what word are important and also get the gist of what the article is about.
There are only a few different fonts that are being used in this article and this corresponds as a good thing. When choosing fonts for a magazine you do not want too many because it could make the page look too 'busy' and messy. If you use no more than three or four, at the maximum, different font it would make your magazine page look neat and tidy rather than too 'busy'. The title is in a bold, plain font. I think this looks good as although it is plain and simple, it is also affective.
'The Vaccines' picture is covering more than just one page and then the text is neatly placed on the far right-hand side. I like how 'The Vaccines' look in the image as it brings across to the reader the genre of their music just in the way they are dressed, and their stance. I like that the picture is relatively big because it does not make it look like there is that much text on the page, and some readers could be put off reading the article if there is too much text.
Overall, I really like the look of this double-page spread. I like how the picture looks and when taking photos for my magazine I may make my model look like a member of 'The Vaccines' or/and pose in the same way they do. I also like the use of a bright colour with the black and white, because like I have said before: this draws your eye to different parts of the page. Lastly, when I come to do my double-page spread, like 'NME' have, I think I will be using some sort of subheading to give my reader a quick preview of what is going to be in my article.
Above is another double-page spread from the music magazine 'New Musical Express', but this time the article is about indie rock artist 'Florence and the Machine'. I seems that this specific piece of text is about a gig that 'Florence and the Machine' did.
The colour scheme for these two pages is black, white and pink. As I have said before, I like it when the editors of magazines use a bright colour with black and white because it draws your eye to different parts of the page and you can also use the bright colour to make word and pieces of text stand out. This then means that you can get the important information more easily across to reader of the article. I think it is also good how the editors of 'NME' have chosen colours that link in with the pictures on the page. For example: they have picked out the pink of the flowers and then used it as one of the font colours.
The fonts that are used in this article are bold and the title of the double-page spread 'Call of the Wild' is in big, black writing. This is good because it stands out from all of the other text on the page and you can instantly tell that this is the title. The subheading is in a different font to the rest of the text, this is another advantage as, like the title, you can instantly tell what it is and separate it from the other text in the feature. For the main part of the article the text is plain and simple this is good factor to have because you would not want anything too over the top and fancy when there is a lot of text to read.
There are quite a lot of pictures on the page, all different sizes. The pictures on the far right-hand side of the page, I think, look good because they are arranged in a randomly overlapping pattern. Whilst the picture of Florence Welch on the left-hand side acts almost as a background. With the title overlapping it. The pictures used in the article are from a gig that is talked about in the text. This is good because the images relate to the article so this is positive because at just a quick glance the reader would be able to get the gist of what the article is about.
Overall, I like how the colours of the text relate to the colours in the main image on the page. I also like how the editors of 'New Musical Express' have used imagery. For example: how the images look down the right-hand side of the page. I also like how the images relate to the article. When I begin to think of ideas for my double-page spread I think I will make sure that the title of the page is bold. Just like this one from 'NME'.
The final double-page spread I an analysing is also from 'New Musical Express'. The focus of this article is a band called 'Oasis'. 'Oasis' were an English rock band that formed in Manchester. By having an article about 'Oasis' in 'NME', this tells us that 'NME' does not just focus on the new and up coming artists and bands they also focus on old bands/artists, including bands/artists that may have split up; in this example, 'Oasis'.
The colour scheme for these pages is black and white. I think it is good how the editors of 'NME' have just used black and white for the article as it gives it an old, vintage feel and you could say that the editors have done that for the purpose of saying 'Oasis' are an old band. The editors have also made the images in the article black and white. This again is a good factor to have because it gives off different vibes and makes it look and feel like it is from the long forgotten past.
There are only a few different fonts that are being used in this article and this corresponds as a good thing. When choosing fonts for a magazine you do not want too many because it could make the page look too 'busy' and messy. If you use no more than three or four, at the maximum, different font it would make your magazine page look neat and tidy rather than too 'busy'. There are subheadings in a bold, plain font. I think this looks good as although it is plain and simple, it is also affective. Also, it makes the quotations stand out.
The images used in the article are at the top of the page, and the text at the bottom. This makes the article have a neater, formal look and it does not look messy. The two larger images at the top of the page merge in to each other, this is a visual aspect. Like other article the pictures relate to what is inside the double-page spread which is aways a good thing.
Overall, I really like the look of this double-page spread. I like how everything is in black and white because it gives it a different feel to if it were in colour. I also like how the text and images are in two different parts of the page. This makes it look neat and tidy. When I begin to start planning for my double-page spread I will keep all of these ideas in mind
This is a picture of the contents page for 'NME', a music magazine. The contents list is aligned t the right-hand side of the page. Also there are subheadings being used. This is a good thing because if a reader or readers is wanting to find a particular article, it will be a lot quicker for them, so therefore it saves time.
To the left-hand side of the page there is a 'Band Index'. The 'Band Index' is a good bit of information because it tells the reader what artists and bands are featured in the magazine, so if you were in a shop and you were just browsing through the magazines you could see if any of your favourite artists or bands were in the magazine and this would perhaps make your more eager to buy it. Beside the contents list there are small red arrows pointing to various parts of the list, this shows us what articles featured on the front cover of 'New Musical Express'. Again, like the subheadings, this would be a time saving aspect.
Colours being used are mainly red, white and black. These colours all link in with the 'NME' logo. Colour is not only being used to make certain text stand out, it is being used to just generally make the page look nicer and become more pleasant to the eye. I like how the editors of 'New Musical Express' have put the pages numbers in the colour red. This looks affective and it also makes it easy to see them.
As you can see on 'NME's contents page there is an article that is named: 'The moment that... Oasis kicked off their world tour.' A small article on the contents page could be a good aspect to have as it gives your reader an idea of what is going to be inside the magazine. Also it could show what music genre they are aiming at, by using an artist or band with the same genre in the article. With the article there are two pictures. Both seem to be taken from an 'Oasis' gig, this could suggest that there is going to be more gig reviews inside the magazine.
Finally, 'NME' have a small advert at the bottom of their page trying to persuade people to subscribe to their magazine, with a discount offer of 33%. Like the other devices used on the contents page, this is a good factor as the reader sees it straight away, it is eye catching because of the colours being used and it is something promoting 'NME' and could consequently make their sales figures rise.
Overall, I like how 'New Musical Express' used subheadings in their contents list as it makes it easier for the reader to locate a particular article. I also like the use of pictures on the contents page because it then makes the page nicer to look at and eye catching. However, there is a lot of things crammed onto 'NME's contents page and when I am coming to make and design my contents page I do not think that I will have so much things on it, as I think it looks a bit over crowded.
