'Guitar Techniques' Magazine Front Cover Textual Analysis

Initial Ideas Statement

After looking at existing music magazines, I soon realised that I wanted to produce a unique magazine that would appeal to a large group of people. With 1 in 5 people being guitarists, I decided that a guitar-based magazine, appealing to all types of guitarists, would prove a big hit.

My magazine would be based around existing guitarist magazines such as 'Total Guitar' and 'Guitar Techniques,' two very popular guitar magazines. Common features of these magazines include tutorials, tabs, interviews with both high-profile and up-coming guitarists, new equipment and tips for improving your playing; I hope to incorporate some of these features in my magazine.

My colour scheme will follow the dark and moody colours of rock and roll such as dark blues, reds and black with whites for highlights and text. The majority of the main cover will probably be taken up with a medium shot of either myself or a friend of mine playing the guitar, a large main cover line and all the other cover lines.

'Total Guitar' Magazine Textual Analysis

Contents Page

My Student Magazine

Written Magazine Cover Evaluation

Student Questionnaire Evaluation

Student Questionnaire Evaluation

Gender

We nearly asked an equal number of both gender, with 16 males and 14 females. This allowed our results to give a more accurate representation of the whole college, gathering interests from both sexes.


Would you read a college magazine?

Unfortunately, 66% of our results said that they would not read a college magazine if one was made available to them. This is disappointing as it means that a college magazine would not achieve the kind of reception we would like. We need to insure that all the factors of the magazine meet it's specific target audience so they are attracted to it and would read it.


How regularly would you like a magazine released?

The clear winner, with 17 out of 30 answers, is weekly; however, a few people said daily and slightly more said monthly. I think weekly is a good pace for a college magazine because it means that everything in the magazine would be recent and relevant and a large amount of content can be added to cover the whole week.


How much would you pay?

We asked people, based on how often they thought a new issue show be released, how much they would be wiling to pay for each magazine. Understandably, most people said the they would only pay less than a pound for a magazine. This is understandable as most students are on tight budgets and cannot afford expensive luxuries such as college magazines.


Top 3 interests?

Our most popular interests, that students would like to see in the magazine, were University and finance; this is not surprising as these are the two biggest things on students minds at the moment. These were followed closely behind by Jobs, fashion and What's on; by implementing these top interests into the magazine, we can attracted our student target audience.



What Colours?

Our most popular colours for the magazine were blue, red and black. These are all very gender neutral colours that can appeal to all, as well as being eye catching and vibrant to attract people to the magazine. Using these colours on the front cover will catch people attention and entice them to read the magazine. 

How would you like to receive?

33% of students surveyed said they would prefer to receive the magazine virtually; this means that all the features of the magazine are produced clear enough so they are not distorted when compressed. Also, a digital copy needs to be created at the final stage.

Willing to contribute, Problems Page and Discount Vouchers

These answers will not really affect the overall aesthetic of the magazine, but are key pieces of information in the construction and distribution of the magazine. However, the high demand of a Problems Page and Discount vouchers presents us with a  key selling point; if we advertise these features on the front cover, the magazine will attracted it's target audience and sell well.