First Thoughts: My Ideas for Magazines

I enjoy every genre of music, from Rock to Drum & Bass, so trying to decide on a specific genre of music wasn't initially an easy task. I particularly like the idea of searching for up and coming talent, which is what JWunsigned is designed to do. Jack Wills is a lifestyle clothing company, so naturally it tries to find unsigned music artists which should appeal to their own target market. Some of my favourite artists have been found from JWunsigned such as Andy Knox. I like the design of the magazine that has been made to coincide with the website, which is available here.

I quite like the design of the front cover, because it pays homage to Victorian shop designs, except so subtly you could easily miss it. I like the use of the key colour of baby green, which is used to highlight important view points on the magazine, such as the 'interview' and the large number 1, which indicates the number of the issue. I might try to incorporate a large issue number on the front cover of my magazine as I think it looks really effective. The number 1 is most likely connected to the preppy clothes you can by from Jack Wills as many of the sporty tops like Rugby shirts have large player numbers on the back. I'm assuming the use of green will not stay the same, as it is likely a different colour will be used for the next issue.

I like the way the pictured band is in black and white which fits in with the rest of the design. They almost look like cartoons to match with the shoe design. Looking back to the hint of Victorian inspired design, the companies preppy-private school educated clothing design image is created. A clearer design of this can be seen from one of the 'handbooks', a seasonal catalogue (pictured right). The only thing i'm worried about is the way this magazine goes quite far away from the normal private school image Jack Wills normally conveys, especially in contrast to the handbook. On the other hand, I agree that JW has probably understood that as far as marketing music for the middle classes goes, they couldn't edge too far away from what people already knew. This is most likely why they went for a relatively underground, but fresh look to the magazine.

I particularly like the pages inside. I'm interested with the layout of the magazine layout, with the three columns of interview with the band Monte Carlo. I think the continued use of green is effective throughout the magazine. We could connote from the colour green that the magazine is representing 'new beginnings and growth'. Although, ironically for the magazines first issue, this could also symbolise a 'lack of experience'.

I really like the way this page (right) is designed to look like a record on a record player. Again, the use of green depicts the most important points of view, like the centre of the record, which says 'Reviews'. This is the title of the article, which is interesting and creative as opposed to the normal magazine articles which tend to have a large article title across the top of the page or double page spread.