Prelim Work Reflection

1.) How does your prelim work reflect particular social groups?

The title of the magazine represents the punk movement/sub-culture and all it's variations simply because it's called "PUNK!". The exclamation mark reflects the loudness and aggression of punk too. On the cover I've got Luke (the model) shot from a low angle which is to reflect how punks intimidate conventional society, especially back in the 70s/80s. Luke is also holding up both his index and little finger with the rest down, inspired by the legendary Dio, to show his passion for rock music and punk is one of, if not the most passionate genre of rock. The colour scheme for the title is purple and yellow, which are a very popular combination of colours in the punk scene.


2.) Who would be the intended audience for your product?

 The intended audience for my magazine would be anyone in the punk scene. This is why I have called the magazine LC PUNK! because it is a broad name for anyone in or who are interested in punk and it's music. I have also included a model who is in two local punk bands and the big caption going across him features a post-hardcore punk band. The content will include articles from punk bands, be them local or legendary and in whatever sub-genre or extension of punk music itself. This is why the magazine's target or intended audience is anyone in the punk scene.


3.) How did you attract/address your audience?

one of the devices that magazine editors use a lot is yellow on black in the colour scheme. Yellow and black are the two colours that when put together are the most eye-catching of combinations. I will be using this technique in the magazine. Purple on green is also popular in the punk scene so that will be used as a combination too.


4.) What have you learned from technologies in the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt the basics of photo shop in making the prelim magazine. This includes techniques such as free transform and merging layers to put it together as one image.

Article draft

Luke Kendrick Article

Analysis of institution that would publish my magazine

For the magazine, I would need a publisher who puts out rock and alternative magazines. Kerrang! use a publisher called Bauer Media Group. Because Kerrang! have music very similar to my magazine, a publisher like Bauer would be interested in publishing LC Punk!.

another publisher that would be interested in LC Punk! would be TeamRock. This is the same publisher that publishes Metal Hammer magazine, and because my magazine will also go on the heavy sides of punk music, I think TeamRock would be interested in LC Punk! too.

Graphic designer research

David Carson is an American graphic designer. He is well known for his innovative magazine design and experimenting with typography. He was art director for popular American magazine "Ray Gun", which is where he got known for his typography styles that have been inspired and copied by many other designers since. He is widely accepted as the pioneer for what's known as "grunge typography".






These are some examples of Carson's work and his strange typography.










Since Carson left Ray Gun, he set up his own independent studio, where he has also done work for big brands like Niké and Pepsi.

relevant fashion and styling for the modern day punk.

snapbacks

khaki shorts

Camou Shorts

skinny jeans

crew neck sweaters

band merch

beanie hats

double page spread analysis

Double Page Spread Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

Contents Page Analysis Media

colour palette analysis

 This one goes from green to brown/red. The boldest colour in the palette is the green on the far left. This palette gives a woodland/forest feel to it because of the mix between the green and brown, which are the conventional colours of a tree. This palette is fairly divers in its different shades and how it uses two colours to create the centre one. However, it’s all very blended together so it’s not as diverse as it could be.

This palette might suit an alternative kind of hard-core genre. Bands that fit into this description, such as La Dispute and Counterparts, like to use pictures in their artwork that involve woodland landscapes to create a tranquil atmosphere. This fits the title of the palette too (Comfort).

This one gives more of a resemblance to fire and hot things. This is because of the blends of very bold, loud oranges coming from it. It also has a dark green and a grey. This makes my think of rocks and mountains. Putting these two ideas together creates this atmosphere of volcanoes and lava. The title translates from Portuguese to ‘carrot soup with salmon’ which begins to make sense with the oranges for the carrot and the other colours which are what salmons look like, when they’re alive and intact anyway.

This palette could suit a heavy metal band, probably more from the European region of metal seeing as they tend to keep more to the conventional kind of metal that originated in the 80s (classic and thrash metal), such as Evile. This is because of the firey colours giving a feeling of aggressive power, a kind of persona that heavy metal likes to adopt.

This palette is calmer than the previous but it holds a little more excitement to it to say that it’s tranquil, so to speak. All the colours are loud and bold, making it quite divers in its use but still sticking to some kind of theme with the similarities in the colours. The title is “lovely” which shows in the use of colours. The colours are very feminine and are not aggressive either.

A pop artist, band or act in the more conventional way would use these colours. Most likely a girl bands like Lil Mix. It’s very girly and easy to swallow at the same time, and it resonates with their kind of audience (teenage girls).

This palette definitely fits its title. It’s not diverse at all and all the colours blend together very well. The same colour is used on both sides. It’s all very loud and poor eyesight may even see it all as one colour.

I can see an electronic act using this palette. For example Deadmau5, a house music artist, likes to wear full body tracksuits along with his trademark “Mau5 head” on stage. It’s all one colour, like bright red, blue and so on.  

This one actually reminds me of an ice-cream parlour. The pink looks like strawberry ice-cream and the beige looks like vanilla ice-cream. Ice-cream parlours are often associated with fun and good times so it fits its title. The colours are fairly diverse but they all fit a common theme and are quite soft. The boldest colour is the purple but that’s just because it's the darkest.

I can again see a kind of a pop act using these colours. They create happy and upbeat emotions that would show in a pop act.  

This one reminds me of what it's based on. Going from right to left it shows the stages of a sunset with the focus colour being pink which is right in the middle. That pink is the loudest of the colours although they are all fairly bold. There is some diversity in the palette but not much as the colours tend to be very similar apart from the dark brown on the far left.

I can see an indie or hipster band using these colours as things like sunsets are popular in those sub-cultures and the colours wouldn't go amiss in them.

this one uses pink and purple colours to give an idea of sinking in to hell. Perhaps it is to romanticise the idea of going to hell, which makes the pink very morbid, so it serves as an oxymoron.

this uses diverse but very basic block colours with a grey added on at the end. there's no flow through the colours.

this one focuses on blue and purple to represent a periwinkle and it's colours.

this one has a shade of green that takes up most of the palette that fades into a pink-like colour.

Magazine Pitch using Animoto

Analysis of Other Magazine Titles

Metal Hammer is a powerful name. Being a heavy metal magazine, it has "Metal" in it. The "Hammer" is a hard, powerful word which hold some of the great atmospheres that heavy metal creates.

Kerrang! is just an onomatopoeic word for the sound a guitar make when a power or simple barre chord is executed upon it. I like this as a title because it's loud and it stands out especially with the exclamation mark.

NME stands for New Musical Express, which is a pretty basic name without the kind of attitude Kerrang! has but it gives the impression it wants to. NME is a mainstream rock'n'roll magazine so it doesn't need to pander to a specific audience in rock as it always does acts that are popular with the masses. However, NME sounds a lot like "enemy" which gives it a rock and roll attitude. Whether this was intentional or not is left for interpretation.

Language Register

When it comes to Rock magazines, Be it metal or pop-punk, the style of writing and the language they use is very casual and is done to connect to the audience on a personal level. Rock and Roll has never been about talking formally and being conventional, so it only makes sense that the magazines be that way to. After all they're made by fans of the music themselves.

therefore, the language I will use in my magazine will be casual and made to connect to teenagers and young adults that are into the punk scene so they will feel that the magazine is talking to them rather than at them and will keep them interested.

Examples of other texts

Kerrang! always have covers that are very cluttered but structured in a way that the average person can make sense of it all. Their most important band or act is always the main view of the page. They also have their name in big, in your face going across them. and a short phrase to give an impression of what their section in the magazine is going to be about.

Kerrang! also include other artists strewn across the magazine so there's enough to attracts all kinds of rock fans and keeping it so that the main attraction of the magazine is still clearly distinguishable. a huge KERRANG! also goes across the top of the cover, usually placed behind the band.

Kerrang! always have studio locations so they can rely heavily on editing and costume to create an atmosphere for the band.

AP like to also have a lot of information on their magazine covers but there is a lot less and it's a lot less cluttered than Kerrang!. There's always a huge AP logo at the top of the magazine, also placed between the main attraction of the magazine, who are in this case Paramore. again, just like Kerrang!, AP put the band name across the front of the page with a short phrase as a very short summary of what their article will entail.

AP also add the names of other acts and artists around the page to attract more people who may not be interested in Paramore so they can see who else is in the magazine.

The photography for AP is always brilliant in terms of creating an atmosphere for the bands they have on their covers. although it costs more to find the locations, it means there can be less editing because their background is so to speak built in to the photo. i'd like to do something like this for the magazine I'm making.

Metal Hammer are considerably less cluttered and more simple with their covers than the other magazines. I like that they do this because it give more space for some great photography for the main attraction, in this case a parody of Sin City, and because it shows that they know what their fans want to see so they don't rely on other bands cluttered around the page to attract more customers.

I love the way they shot the band like this. It's a well loved and known movie (Sin City) and it's a nice way to introduce and article giving reference to the bands most recent album at the time (City of Evil).

Audience Profile: the modern day punk

My magazine is based on punk music. There's no side of punk in particular which broadens my audience profile, which is a good thing for magazine exposure.

A lot of the profile of my audience has been explained in my Audience Research post a little further down the blog. It explains the range of people that would be interested in a punk magazine. However, I'm aiming the magazine mostly towards the modern day punk kids of my generation, namely the pop-punk kids and the hardcore kids.

Pop-Punk Kids:

These will basically be anyone who is in to pop-punk bands such as Blink 182, Green Day and Fall Out Boy. The cliche kind of look to a pop-punk kid will usually be one who's in to skateboarding, wear's skinny jeans, snapbacks, beanies and likes lip ring piercings. The average Pop-punk kid will usually wear a little more colour than the average emo kid, however hairstyles in both subcultures do correspond with each other.

Hardcore punks

Hardcore Punk's way of dressing can tend to be very similar to pop-punk kids' way of dressing. Snapbacks are big in the hardcore scene and so are beanies and skinny jeans. However, hardcore punks are a lot bigger on crew neck sweatshirts and tattoos. They also like wearing shorts a little more and are big into camouflage style jackets, shirts and other pieces of clothing that sport the camo look.    

Audience Research

Because I'm basing the magazine's music genre on punk music, I have looked into where the different sub-genres of punk are accepted.


It turns out that punk Is very widely accepted. Pop-Punk is very big with the masses and the mainstream because it's a lighter and more catchy side to punk. Pop-punk is accepted in UK tribes like emos, skaters, scene kids, DIYers, indies, Tumblr kids, Trendies and so on.

Hardcore punk is mainly associated with the hardcore movement. A can-be very elitist side to punk. They like short one minute songs that are full of shouts and scratchy guitars and messy drums. However, because of a side to Hardcore known as DIY punk (Black Flag fit into this one) DIYers will also accept hardcore punk.

Classic punk like the Sex Pistols is pretty much accepted by most UK tribes. Everyone and their dads know who the Sex Pistols are. 

The same very much goes for Grunge; Nirvana were the biggest band of their time, all kinds of sub-cultures and UK tribes liked them.

Magazine Title

My magazine title will be "LC PUNK!"

I chose this because the "LC" keeps the relation to the school. The "PUNK!" shows what kind of music magazine it is and I added the exclamation mark because it makes it look very in-your-face and shout-like, just like punk music. The exclamation mark is also inspired by "Kerrang!" because I thought it was a nice touch to a rock magazine.

My Magazine's Music Style

My magazine will be based on mainly rock and roll music, but leaning more towards the punk side of things. the adavntage of this is that punk is a very diverse genre and is widely accepted across a lot of different sub-cultures such as Emo, Hardcore, Skaters, DIYers and indies. 

My magazine will cover a range of punk music like Pop-punk (Blink 182, Neck Deep), Hardcore punk (Black Flag, Counterparts), Grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam), Classic punk (Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, The Circle Jerks) and so on.

The colour scheme will include contrasts of green and magenta/purple. this is because they are complimentary colours and they are popular in punk so it will resonate with fans of punk music. 

Magazine Cover Analysis

Magazine Cover Analysis

Punk Mood Board

Media Punk Mood Board

Other ralated magazine companies: short analysis

Other Text Examples

Some Of My Favourite Magazine Covers From 2013

Magazine Cover: LC PUNK!