11 Music mag double page evaluation

This is my completed double page spread of the music magazine. I used the running background of the explosion theme to keep it consistant and maintain my house style. The red yellow and black keeps in fitting with the idea of fire and the colours I have been using on the other pages. The yellow also stands out and creates an impact in contrast with the other darker colours so extra factfile boxes have been used for added snippets of information.

The aggression is shown on this page by the fact that the two artists are battling it out for success. One of the artists, Phil Harrison is attempting to show his dominance which I presented in the way he leans over the other band. However they still remain full of attitude due to the poses in which I asked them to do and the camera angle from below as if the band are looking down upon the audience.

The text was placed at slanted angles, this is because it adds interest to the layout and goes against what you would normally expect.

The image I used in the top left corner of the wide mouth suggest the artists are fresh and backs up the fact that the audience will want to get their teeth into them, backing up their desirability and creating more interest by adding another graphic feature.

I also included interviews from the artists to let them have their say and make them get on the same level as the audience looking more personal like the band are addressing the reader to buy their material.

My article can be seen as a closed text, this means it offers a prefered meaning and doesnt allow much space for the reader to interpret it as it is straight to the point.

I included myspace addresses to keep the bands up to date with modern technology, meaning that if the readers wish to find out more about the artists they can do so.

I got some feedback of my music magazine from members of the target audience. They thought I achieved my aim of creating a magazine which would appeal to them, as they were. The audience found that they liked the colour scheme, the style of pictures and fonts, and that the contents of the magazine would be what they are interested in reading.

Overall compared to my college magazine work my skills have developed over the task. I learnt how to improve my technological ability by using different programmes on the PC such as photoshop, and even my photography taking has improved using different functions on the digital camera.

10 Music mag contents evaluation

http://s781.photobucket.com/albums/yy95/EmmaGarbutt22/ Here is a link to my completed contents page of my music magazine. I found its production to be quite effective. I chose a layout of a bright red box down the left hand side of the page with the information on the articles. This meant that the contents of the magazine stood out against the simple black text. I chose this style to look simple against the decorative background as if I didnt it may look too fussy. The text which says INSIDE is in the same font as the title on the front page to make it continuos as if there is a running theme. I also features pictures of the artists which illustates what will be included in the magazine.
As for my editorial I tried to keep the readers on their feet by using exclaimation marks and short sentences. The rhetorical and unformal style is inclusive language which makes the readers feel as though the magazine is addressed to them and invites them in in a welcoming way. To the left of the editorial is a photograph of the editor. My only criticism is that it could have been more obvious that that was the editor of the magazine as it wasnt clearly stated. Words such as exclusive and win entice the reader to carry on reading as if not they think they will be missing out.
I chose to use a selection of photographs on the contents page as sometime pictures convey more of a message than words. However the way that the picture of the girl artist overlaps the band was what looking back I realised could have been adjusted so there was no overlap making it look neater. Despite this in a way the readers may like it as it goes against what is normally donewhich the auidience may find appealing due to the fact they prefer things that are different to the crowd.

09 Music mag front cover evaluation

In order to produce the front cover of my music magazine I looked at previous examples of successful covers that had already been published. These were frm the same kind of market and would give me an idea of what sells. This would enable me to base the kind of photography including models and poses, the colour scheme and headings around what sells the magazines.

For example this cover has the artists doing interesting poses to capture people s attention. I used a similar idea on my cover with the photograph I used where the models are posing at different levels of height with one leaning over and the other crouching. A band of 3 has been used like this meaning the band members can still be seen in detail but it adds more interest than just the one artist.

I used props on my photo with the cone being in the foreground. I used it because the cone fots in woth the colour of my house style. It also signifies that there has been an accident or there is no entry so this implies that the band are causing trouble. I also took the photo in an interesting location of a scrap yard. This meant that there was damaged cars all around creating a scene of demolition giving the band a hard image as they have entered this area.

I had trouble with the fact that the photo wasnt long enough so when the title was placed on it covered on of the band members heads. I overcame this by using my improved photoshop tools to merge the top of the picture and extend it to create a larger area of trees and sky in which text could be placed without covering the band.

In the end I didn't follow the flat plan design I had intended to use, this was because it didnt fit in with the photograph I used, as some key elements of the picture would have been covered. For this reason I changed the layout and didn't completely follow the conventions of a usual magazine. Normally the barcode is in a bottom corner but I had it going up the side to fit in with the other features. However my front cover does have the conventions of an average magazine. On my cover I included a headline which is the main seeling point, highlighting the main feature in the magazine, backed up by my feature article photo of a group of people who the reader would admire or want to be like. The mast head advertises the name of the magazine, I placed it at the top of the page, where the eye naturally falls. Below this is the banner ' We're on fire' which sums up what the magazine is all about. The kickers are in a bold font and backed up with explainatory text along with flash and secondary lead. The secondary lead is aimed to appeal to the readers if the main story doesn't for exta assurance of selling power.

The font I used on my front cover fits in with the theme of rock as in looks as though it is on fire. There are flames coming from the letters also fits in with the house styke which is fiery colours and the idea of trouble caused by the band. It backs up the name of the magazine as both smoke and fire are related to one another so it was suitable to use. Throughout the magazine I have selected and used only a few fonts to make it look more proffesional. This helps with the consistancy as if I used a wide variety of fonts they wouldnt fit in with each other and it would look less organised, helping to hold the house style.

For the text on my cover I used words that would be desireable and attract the reader, making them think that they were getting something out of buying the magazine or they would miss out if they didnt purchase it. These words were those involving exclusives and competitions.

With regards to photography I also took this photo which I used as a backgroung on the pages.

I made this image by zooming in to focus my camera which looks like an explosion of colour but is just the scratches and light on the scree. I thought it fit well with my house style and was original.

07 College magazine development

The college magazine will be developed in order to create my music magazine. As the audience is different they will be into different things therefor the house style needs to be different. The audience for the college magazine was much more educational as it contained activities to do with the college. In contrast to this the music magazine was for fun which meant it was activities for readers to do in their leisure time based on what they're interested in, music. For this reason the college magazine had to be much more formal but whilst still maintaining the interest of the young audience, however the music magazine will enable me to be less formal. That means that the language used in the two magazines differs, with the music magazine being more chatty and informal. My aim was to do this so that it creates a friendlier atmosphere for the music fans.
The colours used in the magazines will be developed to a style which suits the audience in the music magazine as it is much more specialised. The colours I used in the college magazine were bright red, green and yellow. This created a vibrant and fresh effect that would appeal to alot of people. However as the audience was more defined in the music magazine it enabled me to suit the mood of the music which is rock and slightly darker. For this reason I used complimenting warm colours such as orange and red, complimented with the main colour of black, creating a fiery colour scheme.
My magazine has the advantage that it is suitable for both males and females, so as it appeals to both genders the market for my magazine will be larger.

08 Moving onto the music magazine

I looked at plans of magazine covers to find out in which order I will put the features of the magazine, to see what looks best, including artists my readers will be fans of. I moved around the features to get the best effect depending on the image used. The flat plans helped me orgabise and plan what my front cover would eventually look like, helping me to have a better designed layout.

I intend to complete the music magazine project, completing a front cover, contents page and double page spread.

My target audience, those who I hope will be interested are young sociable people with a keen interest in indie music. I did audience research by conducting a questionaire to fans of the genre which will help me decide what to add to the magazine, seeing what is at the heart of my readers. For more information into the type of people who will read my magazine see the readership profile which includes information which I found. This shows the target audience to be creative intependant thinking older teenagers with their own ideas and views. They are interested in looking good, taking a pride in their appearance by searching for unique items from vintage shops, yet still shopping at the stylish topshop and topman. They spend their time at gigs and searching for new bands to listen to. They also really value their friends and many have a part time job to fund their various social activities whilst still attending college or university.

I believe that the media institution that would distribute my finished magazine would be EMAP. IPC Ignite! is another successful publishing group, however this is the company that publish the NME so would probably not go for magazine of the similar genre that an NME reader would already be interested in as it would create competition for the NME and the publishing group would be no better off. http://www.ipcmedia.com/ On the other hand EMAP do not currently produce any magazines of the music variety so there would be a gap in the market for mine to be distributed throughout the United Kingdom on a once a weekly basis. http://www.emap.com/ another advantage of EMAP is that it would be good for smaller publications to a smaller audience as it could be more reliable and trustworthy to stand by you whereas, ipc being the larger company may exploit the magazine.

05 College mag evaluation

Here are images of my completed contents page on the left and front cover to the right. Overall I am pleased with my work but I believe they both have their strengths and weaknesses. For instance I find that my front cover directly addresses the audience as there is a strong image pointing towards the reader. It makes people relate to the title look forward. I think this is a suitable title as students should be heading towards the future but also crates a positive effect. This positive thought is further backed up with the bright colours which I used. However the background colur sometimes makes it difficult to read the text as they are quite similar so I would rethink my colour scheme if I was to produce it again. I think that the image being placed under the priory creates a good effect as it is central and to the point. The priory is also a major landmark of Guisbrough, where the college is based. If I had to have a criticism of this it would be that the background is a litte unoriginal as I could've got a less obvious image. I also like the way on the contents page that the images are placed behind the text as it adds an extra element to the page as it is more interesting with other things going on. I will use my experience of creating the college magazine to develop it and be stronger on my main music magazine project. One way would be that on the contents page I was unable to remove the white strip on the background of one of my images. However I now have the photoshop skills to enable me to use the eraser tool which I was unable to before so can use the more effectively on my music magazine.

06 Planning the music magazine

Analysing an existing magazine cover

Now that the contents page and front cover for the college magazine are complete it is time to move on to the music magazine. To find out who my readers for the music magazine would be i put together another questionaire with more music related questions that were specifically towards the genre I am interested in. From these results the readership profile was put together where i had an overall view of what my readers interests and beliefs were and the meaning that i wanted to develop in my own magazine. I made this information look more presentable by including pictures from the genre.

To help with the music magazine I also analysed existing magazine covers. I found out what all of the individual features on the front of the magazine meant such as the menu strip and the kicker. I studied a front cover of Kerrang to see what impression it gave off. I also covered many different elements of the cover and what effect this created to the reader. This was by exploring the written, technical, symbolic and overall features.
Once I was familiar with the terms I arranged many different versions of my front cover using a flat plan design. This was altered by replacing, resizing and moving around the different features and placing a variety of shots in the background. The flat plans show use of space and the positioning of magazine conventions.
I am also working on my house style which will run through the magazine and be a consistent feature. This includes fonts, logos, banners, colour scheme and design. All of these will influence how my audience view the magazine and decide whether it attracts them or not.