Feature Article Artist Planning

Artist Plan

The Band

The band Demon’s Blade have exceeded far past their origins of Kabuki-cho, Tokyo. A black metal band, Demon’s Blade consists of three members, who don themselves in lavish makeup, a homage to their hometown known for its over-the-top performances. There is the guitarist Kazuya, the bassist Tatsuda, and the drummer and vocalist Oni. These are all stage names, another by-product of the birthplace of Demon’s Blade. Their strange infusion of folk melody with wailing guitar and oppressive bass invokes feelings of bands like Kiryu and Ensiferum, but the screaming guitar solos bring obvious influence from bands such as Slayer and Cannibal Corpse. They manage to fuse old and new in a way never seen before, bringing a fresh sound to the metal landscape. Demon’s Blade have released two albums so far. Their first was recorded in Kazuya’s garage, which encapsulated the raw, violent sound of black metal. Their second was studio recorded, and perfectly infused their now iconic sound with the production quality of a chart topper.

The Members

Guitarist Kazuya is a performer, plain and simple. He feeds of the crowd’s energy in order to create his magnificently epic solos, while keeping the crowd’s attention the entire time. His stage presence leaves viewers in awe and shock, and his skill on guitar impresses his peers and idols alike. Off stage, Kazuya takes a much calmer approach. His warm personality and light sense of humour make him popular with people of all ages, and his appearances on Japanese television reflect this.

Bassist Tatsuda is a similar character to Kazuya. He projects a presence on stage that has not been truly seen since the great Cliff Burton. His style drifts more toward crowd hype than pure, face-melting bass, and this creates an incredible alchemical fusion of energy on stage. Tatsuda knows exactly what to say and do in order to really rile up a crowd, a skill that is under-appreciated by many modern bands.

The drummer known only as Oni, or Demon, is the real draw of the band. Having founded the band in 2004, he has managed to stay completely anonymous to everyone except his two band-mate. His ability to meld explosive drums and haunting vocals with Kazuya’s symphonic guitar has captured the attention of metal fans across the world. Oni never takes part in interviews or TV appearances without his signature blue demon mask, creating the sense of mystery that fuels the band’s popularity in the Japanese underground music scene.

Their Appearance

The band takes a lot of visual inspiration from their home in Kabuki-cho, and from the very popular Japanese genre called ‘visual kei’. For their live performances, the band dresses in lavish garb predominantly made of leather, the colours mainly being black with highlights in a brighter colour, like purple or green. Both Kazuya and Tatsuda wear makeup in the ‘visual kei’ style, while Oni wears his blue demon mask. In photo shoots and TV appearances however, they choose to wear suits and ties in order to look professional, while still wearing their makeup and masks respectively in order to keep up their mysterious image.

Why are they appearing in my magazine?

Dragon’s Blade are releasing a new album, titled ‘Raid of Sound’, and are hoping to use it to kick-start their careers in the west. They believe that appearing on the cover of and being featured in a magazine will give their band the coverage they need in order to sell their album, and perhaps organise a world tour.

Other band names for contents page and front cover:

Laceration Plague - A metal core band from the USA, popular for their high-energy live performances

Edition - A popular British metal band that has found some chart success.

Cobalt - An Eastern European metal band that produces albums with no lyrics. Popular among avant-garde fans.

Crescent Sun - A Mexican band that fuses mariachi with metal. Their music never sells particularly well, but their fun attitude is popular among most music fans.

Magazine Colour Scheme

Colour Scheme Planning

Looking at the results of my survey, I can see that the most popular choice of colour scheme was a combination of black, white, and yellow. Therefore I have decided to use these colours as my house style.

Black - I will use this as the base for backgrounds in my magazine. This is so the "dark" atmosphere created by the Metal genre is carried throughout the magazine through the visual style.

White - This will be used as the typeface colour, as it contrasts with the black background without being tacky.

Yellow - I will use this to highlight certain areas of my magazine, such as titles, sub-titles, and other areas like banners.

Red - This will be used to highlight small areas where the yellow would not stand out enough

Orange - This will be used for page numbers, website names etc.

House Style Font Planning

Font Planning

Title Font:

Body Font:

Masthead Ideas And Designs

Mastheads

I have created four possible masthead designs and analysed how good they would be as a masthead. I outlined my choice at the bottom

I like this mast head design. The typeface is easy to read whilst still popping out at the reader. The Gothic styling fits with the tone that the magazine should set, and it also reflects the tone of the material being discussed within the magazine.

The typeface in this design is much too ‘fancy’ and uses too much embellishment. This makes it hard to read, so I am definitely not considering using it as my mast head. I feel that it is so inconvenient to read, that I will not be able to use the typeface anywhere in my magazine whatsoever. The preview of this design looked much better than the result.

I don’t think this design could work as my mast head. While I like the way the typeface looks, the ‘worn’ texture of it makes it too hard to read. This may be useful as a smaller typeface used in another area of the house style, but it does not work as a mast head.

I like this design, as it is similar to the first, but I feel its less blocky design makes it too plain so it does not stand out as much as the first design. However, as the typeface is very similar, it would be very good to use this typeface for titles and such, as it will look very similar to the mast head without being the same.

I have decided to use the first design as my mast head as it conveys the style of music through its gothic appearance. The blocky style also makes it seem more raw, without being unreadable.

Ideas for my magazine's name

Name Ideas

Rocknroller – This name will grab the attention of both rock and metal fans, however as I am making a metal magazine, it may not properly convey the genre to potential buyers. I feel that, given the chosen genre, this name is too vague and generic.

Metal – This name is much more accurate to the genre covered, however it is a bit ‘on the nose’. It does not have any nuance or personality to it, and this could put off some of the target audience, who may want a magazine that feels like it has a personality and is ‘different’.

Black – This name has a bit more nuance to it. It refers to a particular sub-genre of metal, called ‘black metal’. This name would convey the genre, but only in the context of music magazines, and it is also quite plain.

Obsidian – This name is similar to ‘black’, and carries the same dark connotations without being quite as literal. It is also specific enough that it can be used as a brand, like Q. It is also not as broad as ‘Rocknroller’, so fans of rock and other genres, aka those outside the target audience, are less likely to buy it and be dissatisfied.

Pickup – This name refers both to the component of an electric guitar, and what you want people to do with your magazine. However, I feel this is too vague and could possibly get confused with the confectionary of the same name.

Loud Sound – This is a simple but effective title, it quickly conveys to the reader the contents of the magazine. I feel that this name could be good, but does not convey any specific genre past the fact that it is a music magazine.

I have decided to use the name Obsidian, as while it does not directly convey that it is a music magazine, it does imply the genre when taken in the context of music magazines.

Magazine Readership Profile

Readership Profile

Character Profile:

David is a Sixth Form student studying a wide mix of subjects. James feels that music is a big part of who he is, as he enjoys being creative, but he also enjoys appreciating a well-made piece of media, like a film or album. He thoroughly dislikes pop music, as he feels it is “overproduced” and “doesn’t require any talent”, so James listens to less mainstream genres, but his favourite is metal. He mainly listens to music on his phone, as the bands he listens to are not popular enough to be sold in the shops, as they are either incredibly unknown or from a different country like Finland, Sweden, or Japan. Therefore he spends the money he earns from his part-time job on concert tickets or equipment for his guitar, like effects pedals. He enjoys playing and writing music with his guitar, and spends most of his time either playing music or talking to his friends, who have a similar taste to him.

Mood Board:

Initial Ideas for a Music Magazine

Initial Ideas for a Music Magazine

My chosen genre for my music magazine is at the bottom of this post.

Idea 1 – Metal magazine:

• ·         Target readership is slightly wider than the usual for a music magazine, as it is males between the ages of 16-35. This is because a lot of metal bands have been consistently making albums since the 1980’s (such as Slayer and Cannibal Corpse), who still have a large amount of fans. Additionally, there are new bands who appeal to the younger generation, and traditionally these are both covered by metal magazines, as only covering one limits the target audience too much to be profitable.
• ·         The style is usually darker than most music magazines and creates a brooding atmosphere. This is because the aesthetic of metal is almost always dark, and often has satanic undertones (or overtones depending on the subgenre).
• ·         The colour scheme is dark, and predominantly uses black with white for text, and washed out colours to highlight feature articles and the mast head.
• ·         A metal magazine’s articles would mainly be about new albums from artists, either reviews or features. There would not be any gossip, as metal fans are not interested in it. Articles may also cover older albums, either to talk about what made them successful, compare them to newer material from the same artist, or to review how well it has held up over the years.
• ·         The font is usually quite Gothic in order to fit with the dark theme.

Idea 2 – Rock magazine:

• ·         The target readership for a rock magazine is younger than that of a metal magazine, and it can also be aimed at both males and females between the ages of 16-25. This is because many modern rock bands are focused on their image as much as their music, which appeals to younger people more than older people.
• ·         The style is usually very bright, to create an exciting tone to the magazine. Almost all of the material covered in a rock magazine is new, so the exciting tone links to and reflects this.
• ·         The colour scheme is usually very bright for a music magazine. A common colour scheme is white or light grey for the backgrounds, black for the body of text, and red for mast head, titles, and highlighting. Red is often used as it as multiple meanings, it can either be love or passion, or it can be danger, or excitement.
• ·         The articles in a rock magazine are almost all about something new, whether that be a new artist, or a new album from an already famous artist. Older material is almost never covered outside of “special edition” magazines, as new material is what sells.
• ·         The font in a rock magazine is mainly simple, perhaps with more exciting fonts for the mast head or the titles of articles. This is because the tone is mainly set with the colour scheme, so the font is kept simple so it is easier to read.

Idea 3 – Pop magazine:

• ·         The target audience for a pop magazine is usually quite young, to reflect the age group that pop music is aimed at. This is usually males and females between the ages of 14-21, perhaps more toward females than males. This is because pop music traditionally uses techniques that are pleasant to listen to, such as generic chord sequences, and younger people are less likely to be bored by this, compared to other age groups.
• ·         The style is usually very exciting, to fit the almost flamboyant atmosphere that modern pop music artists convey.
• ·         The colour scheme uses a myriad of colour in order to seem exciting, so colours like red or blue are sometimes used as background colours, with text in either black or white. The mast head and feature article titles could be any colour, but it usually fits in with the colours used in the rest of the magazine.
• ·         The articles are always about new artists or albums in a pop magazine, as older albums are no longer popular, and do not appeal to the audience who would potentially buy a music magazine.
• ·         The font in a pop magazine can vary from ‘incredibly eye-catching but hard to read’ to ‘very easy to read’.

Looking at the survey from my research, the most popular genres are Metal and Rock, however as there are very few Metal magazines compared to rock magazines, I have decided to create a Metal magazine.