I have completed my contents page mock up. I tried to make it formal and simple for the parents but also wanted to make it look slightly unorganized so it will be appealing to the children. So while the layout of the masthead, contents, puffs and information that is important to the parents is quite straight forward, the pictures are scattered in the background, something that children are interested in and represented in a way that they will be preferable to younger people. I also wanted to refer back to the main page. I'd make the main picture again to do with results (the main story on the front page) and the main puff is referring to the same thing. The contents are the most important thing, which is why this is the biggest part of the mock up.

I have almost finished my front page for my peliminary. I was going to photoshop a certificate onto the paper they're holding but now that the image is smaller, it seems fine to leave it the way it is. So this is possibly my final piece. I may come back to it.

Check back for updates!

Rolling Stone is a well known magazine that was founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner. Throughout the years it has boasted interviews with famous stars, a lot of which are music icons. The main focus of the magazine is in fact music. But it does have elements of politics and other popular culture. Rolling Stone is pretty diverse when compared to NME and Kerrang, who rarely have women on the cover, and appeal to a smaller audience. As we can see above, we have a pop icon on one cover, rock icons on another, and fresh new artist on another. They all have played a part in different kinds of music, and the colour schemes and fonts are compeltely different, and relate to the personality of the figure on the front or the mood of the magazine. Other magazines tend to stay within the same rules when font, puffs and contents are in mind. However, the masthead has always stayed the same font, which is all it needs to be recognized, as many people are familiar with it. I find it particularly interesting that in a great majority of the Rolling Stone covers, the masthead always has obstructions covering it, generally the artist/s head on the front. This shows that they do not need to advertise themselves, the content is the most important part. In the cover with Lady Gaga on, we can only see the letters "Ro" of Rolling and "One" of stone, but it is clear that this is Rolling Stone, because this font is so distinctive. There are bubbles surrounding her, maybe representing her personality and making it exciting because she is a fresh star. No letter can even be distinguished on the cover with Guns 'n' Roses as the main attraction. The Michael Jackson tribute issue is very simple, giving a sense of loss, and respect to the former singer. This makes the issue look classy and surprisingly makes you want to look inside, something puffs are generally used for, by keeping the content a mystery. I have enjoyed looking through the Rolling Stone covers, because there are so many, and they also different from each other. They also don't have too many distractions in terms of content information, making it looks more artistic and stylish.

For the past few days I've been looking at some of the frequent features that music magazines use on their front covers to advertise their product and it's content. I found Kerrang particularly interesting, they seem to grab the attention of the possible audience by putting big names in music on their front cover. I've noticed they've used Metallica, Muse, Slipknot, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Green Day and many more, which all have a massive fanbase and are well respected bands. This cover caught my attention with it's masthead: "25 years of Metallica: Inside the world's greatest metal band."

It's also frequent in most magazines that the title of the magazine can be almost completely covered by the band on the cover, because they know they are so well known they don't need the logo to be the focus of the magazine. Kerrang aims for a 'rough' look, using jaggered banners, with quotes and messgaes placed randomly on the page.

Metal magazines in particular are popular for being different. They appeal to people who like the music they advertise on the front page, whereas a majority of people may have never heard of them. The most important thing is that they do not use false advertising (like a lot of women's magazines) to appeal to a wide range of people. They clearly show what they are selling, and it is the audience's choice to buy or not.