Initial Design Ideas

Many ideas were proposed for the main image, some breaking and some conforming to genre conventions. The first idea conformed to genre conventions by being at eye-level and showing the model facing the camera with their arms crossed. This conforms to genre conventions as it connotes rebellion, which is an applicable theme to indie, this can also be associated with Osgerby's 1998 theory stating that " Youth is trouble, youth is fun". A secondary main image idea would have been a high angle close up of the model. This would have played on the downward social comparison gratification of Blumler and Katz' uses and gratifications theory as it would show the model from above, giving connotations of them being lesser than the reader. This is also relative of Keith Gandal's 2007 theory of audiences being drawn to 'rags to riches' stories.



There were multiple titles that were considered for this magazine such as; Just Rock, Amp(ed), and Heavy Roller. The name decided upon name, Amp'd, was derived from Amp(ed) as it was believed to be the most appropriate for the given genre of the magazine, that being indie rock. The name Amp'd has appealing properties that would resonate with a younger audience specifically between 15-24 years as it uses a contraction apostrophe to replicate the way many people of a younger audience speak in terms of removing 'unnecessary' letters from certain words, such as how the 'e' is removed from "Amped" to produce "Amp'd".