Max said he found the imagery interesting. He said he liked the use of yellow and black as they are both contrasting colours and the black makes the yellow stand out more. He also agreed that the use of black and yellow represents a warning sign, which i feel is a prodominent feel throughout the magazine. He also likes the use of the colour red, saying that it represents passion, anger and hell. He also said he thinks its an independant colour, making a stand and 'sticking it to the man'. Graham said he likes the logo and the way it looks 'used' and 'shattered'. He said it does look like a shatter due to a loud guitar and agreed that kerrang! an onomatopoeic sound. It represents the thrashing of a guitar thus illustrating the genre that ‘Kerrang!’ attempts to appeal to.
Josh said that he likes the way that the cover is busy and all three of the people and me agreed that right away, at first glance, we can see that the magazine is a rock/metal magazine.
We then discussed theThe cover lines help the magazine to appeal further to their ‘hardcore’ heavy metal audience as bands such as ‘Lost Prophets’ and features such as “25 metal anthems you must own” are included. Many bands (as with the three other magazines I have analysed) are featured in the cover line to influence fans of the genre and fans of the band to purchase the magazine. Furthermore the signature ‘Kerrang!’ tagline ‘Life is Loud’ infers further that their music is loud and that will attract fans of loud noise. Moreover, the ‘Life is Loud’ tagline is obscured by the band which infers that the magazine is so renowned that it does not even need to let people know it’s tagline every issue. The masthead of ‘Kerrang!’ is also concealed which further reinforces this message.
The background colour of black was also dicussed, and it was agreed that The colour scheme is dark which accentuates the dark, metal undertone of the magazine. Whereas the lighter, more mainstream magazines such as Rolling Stone and Q. avoid clutter in their cover, ‘Kerrang!’ seem to welcome it. This may be due to the fact that it is attempting to appeal to a particular genre and is more niche hence not needing to conform to the neat and tidy stereotypes of magazine covers. Moreover, the font is not as simple and bland as in the other magazines, illustrating a broader selection of fonts thus making the cover seem more abstract and further appeal to their target audience.
Max and Josh said that they prefered the bright, visual kerrang cover as opposed to the more subtle cover that Graham liked more. I think this opinion is generally divided to personal opinion and cant be tagged to a certain age group or class of people.
Next, i showed them a couple of contents pages. Everyone agreed that they were both very different and were both clearly designed for vastly different audiences. Max said that the kerrang contents looks very basic compared to the cover. We agreed that this is appropriate because the cover is designed to attract the audience and the contents to inform the audience. We also agreed that they cant make it look busy because there is that much information, it would become confusing. Graham agreed that the contents looks very derelict and continues the theme of the cover with the yellow and black representing 'warning' etc.Max also said that the kerrang contents looks more like a 'comic book' whereas the Q contents page looks more like a conventional contents. I feel that this is because the kerrang magazine is aimed at a younger audience, for pre-teen and teenagers mainly, whereas the Q magazine is aimed at teenagers plus. graham raised the point that we can also see this by the way that the kerrang contents is more visual than the Q contents. With the Q contents being more clear. We also agreed that one convention of the contents pages stayed the same; the way that its mainly pictures followed by text. This i think is a basis for a contents page and is essential so basically all contents pages for magazines follows this. Everyone agreed in this case, that they prefer the basic Q contents more than the visual kerrang contents. Which is expected since the Q magazine is more aimed at their age.
Lastly, i showed all three people a couple of double page spreads. Max immediatly said that he liked continuity in an article and he likes them to link with each other, like the title 'the teenagers' in the first article. Josh said that he like the teenagers article because it looked clean cut and basic with the white background etc. And agreed with Max that they liked the way they've made it so it looks like postors hung on a wall at angles etc. However, Graham said he likes a simple, easy to look at, basic approach. Max said he didnt like the way the teenage stereotype is portrayed and thought it was 'pathetic'. Everybody agreed immediatly that it was blatant what the target audience is for both of the articles. For examples the imagery of black and red for the my chemical romance article and blue and white for the teenagers interview. My chemcial romance are considered an emo band so we agreed that this is why they used black and red, which is a conventional colour selection for this genre and represents anger and passion, whereas the indie magazine uses mainly blue and white which is a more cheerful and happy colour choice. We also talekd about the way that it seemed like a deal between both the band and magazine. For example, both of the articles are like adverts for the band. Portraying them as a 'must' listen to and showing them as the next big thing and in return the magazine is covered with things like 'exclusives' which makes the magazine look as though its the one on the shelf worth buying.
Lastly, i showed all three people a couple of double page spreads. Max immediatly said that he liked continuity in an article and he likes them to link with each other, like the title 'the teenagers' in the first article. Josh said that he like the teenagers article because it looked clean cut and basic with the white background etc. And agreed with Max that they liked the way they've made it so it looks like postors hung on a wall at angles etc. However, Graham said he likes a simple, easy to look at, basic approach. Max said he didnt like the way the teenage stereotype is portrayed and thought it was 'pathetic'. Everybody agreed immediatly that it was blatant what the target audience is for both of the articles. For examples the imagery of black and red for the my chemical romance article and blue and white for the teenagers interview. My chemcial romance are considered an emo band so we agreed that this is why they used black and red, which is a conventional colour selection for this genre and represents anger and passion, whereas the indie magazine uses mainly blue and white which is a more cheerful and happy colour choice. We also talekd about the way that it seemed like a deal between both the band and magazine. For example, both of the articles are like adverts for the band. Portraying them as a 'must' listen to and showing them as the next big thing and in return the magazine is covered with things like 'exclusives' which makes the magazine look as though its the one on the shelf worth buying.
No comments:
Post a Comment