Colour Mood Board

My color mood board contains mostly neutral colors such as greens and browns as to reflect the stereo typically passive nature of the target audience as well as their stereotypical love for the organic and natural such as plants and growing, commonly associated with greens and browns. Furthermore, the purples and dark blues of my color mood board could be used to express the spiritual and slightly mystical nature of the mind exploration associated with this group of people.

You will notice I have not included any bright pinks or similar colors, this is because I believe they would be too garish and rather than attract the target audience could repel them.

Original Ideas Statement

Original Ideas Statement

I intend to make a music magazine based around the genres of psychedelic rock, stoner rock, progressive rock and other musical paths that relate to these. It will not just include music but information about merchandise, clothing and apparel stereotypical and popular with followers of these types of music. It will also contain information on events both musical and cultural at the interest of the target audience.

The intended audience is mainly 18-30 men and women who don’t fit the mainstream and take interest in exploratory tastes and the equivalent lifestyle; People who would attend camping outdoor music and entertainment festivals and enjoy spiritual and mindful experiences.

I have chosen this particular type of magazine as there seems to be nothing else like it for these kinds of people and I also have some personal interest in this field, adding to its potential for success and increasing the chance of the content being genuinely interesting and wanted.

Font Mood Board

Some of these fonts such as doodle gum and floralies include patterns drawn from the stereotype of psychedelic rock culture created around the time of Woodstock in the late 60s. Other fonts like blank eye and surfing capital tend to express the more alternative and less decorative side of the stoner rock and psychedelia through less decorative and more warped letters.

Lots of these fonts like wizard’s magic and Oliver appear to be of the fantasy genre which links to the outlandish ideas and music of the target audience I am trying to reach along with some of their appearance in a visual sense.

Another reason I chose the fonts that I did is because I thought they would be attractive to the eye and help to draw attention to the magazine during distribution online or physically. I thought fonts like floydian would be especially attractive to the target audience as they would recognize the font from pink Floyd’s logo and be intrigued to pick up the magazine and at least consider a purchase.

Advertisers Mood Board

I have chosen to include the charities Greenpeace and PETA as my target audience will more than likely be interested in helping these organisations and be passionate about their goals. Since recreational drug use and smoking are associated with the listening to of psychedelic music and stone rock i have included Raw cigarette papers in this mood board. These people are also thought to go to festivals such as glastonbury and latitude which appear here and drink cider such as brother, also on this mood board.

Knotty boy, a hair care product for dreadlocks also features here as the hairstyle is strongly associated with hippies who listen to psychedelic music, along with Earth Henna, another element of style associated with the target audience. The inclusion of HMV, Marshall and apple refer to how the target audience may purchase and listen to the music the magazine will provide information on, possibly the most direct advertising link included here.

The vegan society and quorn may also advertise in this magazine as it is another association that hippies who listen to such psychedelic music are more inclined to be against eating meat or dairy products through strong beliefs often expressed in the music.

Informtion on Magazine Publishers

Bauer

Bauer is a large European media group situated in Hamburg, Germany. Heinz Bauer is the owner of the company but his daughter, Yvonne, is the chief executive, taking the majority of control over the company at his father’s wishes. The company has been managed by 5 generations of the Bauer family and the entered the UK publishing market in 1987 with a women’s weekly, Bella.

Bauer own and run over 238 magazines in 15 countries including the music magazines Q which is now not only a music magazine but a radio station and a television channel. They also produced Kerrang magazine which, like Q, has become a radio station and television channel.

Bauer also publish popular women’s weeklies such as take a break and Closer, along with a film magazine Empire which is now published in 5 other countries including the USA and Portugal. As well as these genres Bauer publish motorcycle and car magazines not forgetting their men’s weekly ZOO.

Bauer media have also recently launched a digital, online voucher service called dabbl, a multi-platform product. They also have a 50% stake in the company box television which run lots of music television channels including 4Music, Kiss and Magic; some of these channels are also available as radio stations.

Overall Bauer has around a 50% owning of the magazine industry, with all of their magazines having social media pages such as twitter and Facebook accounts, increasing their online presence along with their official websites or pages within Bauer websites.

Future PLC

Future PLC was founded in 1985 In Somerset, England by Chris Anderson, in 2006 it was ranked as the 6^th largest media corporation in the UK with over 200 print publications, apps, websites and events.

They have a website which offers all of their magazines for sale which from a musical perspective include total guitar a monthly magazine based in the UK first published in 1994 which is Europe’s best selling guitar magazine. They also own Rhythm, a monthly drum and percussion magazine, the leading UK drum magazine.

Future PLC have recently launched a bookazine series for its technology portfolio of which a digital copy will be available free with each copy. These bookazine’s offer guides and how tos in fields including mobile phones, operating systems and business creation schemes.

Their popular gaming magazine ‘PC gamer’ hit recording breaking growth with not only page views up 64% but up 93% mobile page views as well, showing popularity on multiple platforms. These Games magazines included official brand magazines Xbox and play station, two rival consoles.

Their film magazines include SFX and total film, the latter of which has social media pages on Facebook, twitter and tumblr; there is also a total film forum which has been online since 2004 and has some loyal regular users. The focus of future plc, according to one of their websites myfavouritemagazines.co.uk, is consumer technology, games, entertainment, music and photography. In a month, their websites collaboratively receive over 57 million users.

Time Inc. UK (IPC Media)

Time Inc. (know previously as IPC Media) is the leading publisher of digital and print magazine content in Britain. Globally, they have a monthly audience of over 120 million people from their print services; they also reach an audience of another 120 million through their digital properties, which include over 50 websites.

IPC Media was formed in 1963 as the parent company of all business interests of Fleetway, Odhams, and Newnes (all media companies at the time). It then became Time Inc. UK in 2014 after its purchase by Time Inc. in 1998.

They also host events which received collectively ‘hundreds of thousands’ of people. These events included fortune most powerful women summit, this celebrated women in powerful positions across the globe, and got them together to make connections with other female leaders.

Time Inc. UK own the music magazine NME, who have deep roots in the English music industry although their sales are falling recently with their current circulation at just over 15,000, a ludicrously low number considering their past success. They now plan to make the magazine free in order to save it from completely dying.

They also publish sport and fitness magazines such a cycling weekly, which although down 3.8% in circulation in 2011 to 27,406. It dropped again towards the end of 2014 down 9.7% to 25,135.

Some of their other magazine brands include Horse & Hound, TIME magazine and centurion, all of which have an accompanying website for reader information and subscription.

Target Audience Mood Board

In this mood board i have decided to involve parts of nature, such as trees, clouds and walking bare foot as they help to make up the stereotype of the audience I am aiming to reach; coined 'hippies' they are listeners of psychedelic and stoner rock which is what my magazine will be based on. I have also included some bands such as pond and gum which are of the psychedelic rock genre.

Although a taboo area, partly because of its illegality, i have included some drug symbols and paraphernalia as these are also associated with listeners of these kinds of music. The finished product will almost definitely refer to such substances either through interviews or analysis of lyrical content. I also involved solar panels and the peace symbol considering the stereotype has a wish for world peace and a love for the Earth, thus harboring its energy instead of damaging it creating our own.

The mood board also includes an acoustic guitar and a poncho which listeners of this genre will be likely to own and a campfire which they will likely enjoy sitting around and enjoying nature.