Choosing the right masthead

In the end I came to the conclusion that the last font was the most effective. The letters aren't too bold yet they still stand out against the bright background. The font itself is swirly which helps to represent how casual the country music concert was.
However I think in the final editing process for the front cover, I should play around with the masthead so it doesn't overlap the music artists face as much, when I did my research the magazine titles were nearly always behind the people, not in front.

Masthead Designs

I browsed the web and came across this really useful website 'Fontspace', it provides a wide variety of magazine fonts. I then typed in my company name "CM Vibe" and scrolled through pages and pages of fonts - following on from that I selected a few that in my opinion, would be the most successful for the Country genre.
Country magazines should portray a relaxed and friendly theme, and the mastheads above don't look overly formal which is what I was trying to achieve.
Before I came to my final decision on which one to use, I placed them on top of the magazine front cover to see which one was the best fit.

Magazine Name Ideas

In order to create these masthead names, I racked my brain for words that could be associated with country music but it couldn't be more than two words otherwise it wouldn't attract the audiences attention. The common word was "country" but I thought it lacked originality. I came up with the idea that I could abbreviate the words "Country Music" to "CM" to make it short and snappy. Buzz words are key for selling a product so I thought of "now" and "current" - nobody wants to read old articles do they?
Overall in my opinion "CM Vibe" was the most successful name because the noun "vibe" itself comes from the word "Vibration" which is then of course related to music. But also the word vibe means an atmosphere felt by others so perhaps this would catch the eye of people who go to concerts/gigs.

Chosen Front Cover Design

Front Cover 3rd Edit

Front Cover 2nd edit

Front cover 1st edit

Original front page photo

Here is one of my favourite shots of the country music band in the midst of playing a tune. I love the relaxed, friendly vibe that this photograph portrays and it was set in the perfect location - in the heart of the countryside in South West England. The age of the performers perfectly matches the target audience and the instruments used here are the similar ones suggested in the questionnaire.

Survey Conclusion

Overall, with the survey I created and received answers from, I came to a decision on the target audience for my product (magazine).
As you can see from the answers, the teenagers didn't listen to country music as much as the adults, and in addition to that, all my friends which are roughly the same age as me (17) were more interested in rock/pop than country. So the target for the magazine would be middle aged/young adults, who are also interested in this genre and perhaps are located in the countryside - this wouldn't be aimed at any particular gender however.
The reason behind me asking what instruments they would expect to see was to ensure I included the same ones in the magazine, as I am not too familiar with the country genre myself.
Their colour suggestions were very useful in this planning stage because it pushed me in the right direction towards choosing a suitable colour scheme.
Lastly, the fact that they all went to gigs/concerts, gave me the idea that I should capture a band playing at a gig for the front cover of the magazine. This could help grab the audiences attention.

Survey answers

1. a) 17 male
    b) 19 female
    c) 30 male
    d) 40 male
    e) 49 female

2. a) "Orange and brown"
    b) "Brown and Green"
    c) "Brown and perhaps white"
    d) "Brown, or just generally earthy colours"
    e) "Brown, green and maybe grey"

3. a) "No"
    b) "Sometimes"
    c) "Yes"
    d) "Yes"
    e) "Yes"

4. a) "Acoustic guitar, drums"
    b) "Vocals and the guitar"
    c) "Guitar, drums and piano"
    d) "Guitar"
    e) "Electric/Acoustic guitar, drums"

5. a) "Yes"
    b) "Yes"
    c) "Sometimes"
    d) "Rarely"
    e) "Yes"