The original images for my college magazine.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Evaluation : Technologies
I have learnt a lot about modern technologies from this magazine project. Lighting was an issue I found of huge importance as bad lighting can make a model look terrible whereas good lighting could connote anything; also I found that lighting could be fixed on programs such as Photoshop with brightness and contrast. I also learnt that contrast could be used stylistically to bring a different look to a picture and reducing graininess. I had to get the right props for the shots including drum kits, keyboards, mics etc. These fitted in with the musical aspect of the shots, I also made sure all my models were in clothes that would be deemed cool by my target audience. If the clothes were deemed against the target audience’s style it would reduce the chance of them purchasing it. I learnt about using house style to make a magazine appear more cohesive and give it a look. I also learnt about editing pictures such as removing backgrounds or fading them out, as well as messing around with colour filters. I also learnt that strangely using the rule of thirds makes the double page spread look more professional, and some conventions such as having a big letter to begin a piece improve the look of the magazine a lot. I also found that giving headings black outlines makes them look a lot more professional and eye-catching. I looked at a lot of different music magazines to make sure I didn’t miss out any conventions and took a few style ideas from them as well. From this I learnt the best way to set out the front cover e.g. masthead at the top, tagline underneath as well as the price, the artists names bigger than the rest to draw the audience in, the writing to the side to give the main image space and barcode bottom left. The main image has been edited so it looks more glossy and the background has been cut out using the lasso tool, also one of the people has been made bigger to fill up empty space. The contents page uses black shapes to separate the different sections and make it look more stylish, it also makes it easier for the reader to see the different sections And again using outer glows to provide definition for the text. I used quite smart looking font and only used a few colours to keep within the house style. I had trouble getting the black shapes to look good until I used an outline in a different way to create the right shape for it. I had trouble with a rectangular photo that needed to fit into a square box, to fix this I cropped the photo so the main image was still remaining but it fitted and did not get distorted. For the double page spread I found a way of using markers on every 6th length-ways and text boxes to make the columns the same size each to make it look more professional, I also found a way to copy colours from other sections and use them in different areas, this allowed me to maintain a house style. I also found cutaways and introductions a learning experience match different fonts and styles to different areas etc. I also gave the main image a shadow and a slight slant to give it 'a photo thrown on the page' look.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Evaluation: Addressing my audience
I chose to address my audience by using a lot of bright colours and stand out fonts so make it appear fun and similar in style to dance music art and clubs in general. I used a fairly informal mode of address in my double page spread, writing as the way it had been said to make it more identifiable for the audience. The bands featured in the magazine will all be of a similar age to the target audience so they can identify with them as well. The language I have used for the magazine is fairly informal mode of address and uses a few slang words but keeps it understandable for anyone as if readers find it understandable it is very unlikely they will buy it again. For my double page spread I used a question and answer style interview as some other ways of writing about artists such as biographies or discographies can be less interesting for people in my target age range to read. It also puts the writing into lots of small sections that readers can easily dip in and out of. The front cover text is bright, eye-catching and easy to read, as well as the contents page as again I didn't want to risk losing readers due to them not being able to read it, also the messy style is more associated with more 'rock' orientated magazines. The text on the cover shows the artists in the biggest font drawing the audience in by showing them their favourite artists and it also makes them want to find out about the artist mentioned e.g. ‘guess who’s back?’. The photos I have used: The cover picture I’ve used 3 people in a live style pose, this connotes a hardcore lifestyle, I edited this by removing the background and increasing the contrast to make it look cleaner cut. The contents pictures: The first one is another 'live shot' and connotes the same as the cover page and I only changed the contrast with this, the other picture is a few people in a club, the clothes connote the club culture and with the background suggest the location, their body language connotes having a good time and partying which is fitting for a club review. The double page spread picture has all 3 members looking into the camera which connotes confidence and their posture looks relaxed, I put a keyboard in the background and gave it a look of a studio to make it appeal to the target audience. I also increased the brightness to increase visibility. All of the pictures would interest the readers as they contain ideologies, people and fashion that the readers aspire as well as being aesthetically pleasing.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Evaulation: Target Audience
My music magazine represents a few main youth subcultures. The demographics of this group are mainly males aged 15-24 with a social status of groups C1,C2 and B, mainly students as for ethnicity I think my magazine appeals to all races that can understand English. The psychographics of my target groups are mainly individuals and the lifestyle they lead would be: living with parents/student accommodation/flat, going out at least 3 days a week to bars, clubs or gigs. They keep up to date with music and fashion and will mostly likely own cars and mp3 players. The audience would be most interested in advertisement for: mobile phones, gig tickets, festivals, games consoles and clothes. The bands they would like most would probably be brands such as topman, River Island, bank, Nike apple, Sony Eriksson. Their favourite bands could range from Daft Punk and Late of the Pier to more rock influenced bands such as Enter Shikari and Pendulum.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Evaluation: Institution
When my magazine first comes out I think it would be wise to side with a publisher such as 'Dennis' since it’s the UK's second largest consumer publisher, with 22% of the market, as this would boost the profile of the magazine and the public's awareness. A big publisher would also have links to all the chain magazine sellers such as WH Smith, making it easier for a new magazine to get around. However a big publisher like this could start to try to control the magazine, taking more profits, editing or completely removing stories and making the magazine more suited to the advertiser than the reader. Going with a smaller publisher would give the magazine more independence but would also give it less awareness. The final option would be to become a self publisher, this would require a big initial investment, marketing and links would have to be established well, but if it is pulled off the magazine would have complete freedom and all of the profits. It is hard to create a successful magazine this way though.
Evaluation: Representation
The main cover image connotes performance and the lack of eye contact suggests they are more concerned with making music than what people think. The guitarist on my contents page also connotes this but the pictures of members of the public do not, suggesting a difference between artists and the general public. I think the front cover picture connotes a lot of attitude which my target audience will think is cool. The fact my magazine deals with multiple genres makes it harder to be shown as a single representation of that subculture, although it could be argued that its pictures represent the aspirations of its target audience, the youth. My double page spread picture has the same 3 people from the cover giving eye contact to the camera, with no attitude and looking a lot friendlier, this goes against the representation on the front cover. My target audience is 14-25 year olds that like going out, 14 is really the youngest someone could enjoy this magazine from as there is a lot of talk and competitions about gigs, which are 14+. I have made sure I have not represented the youth in a irresponsible way, for instance if I had pictures of underage artists drinking and doing drugs, the readers may think this is the norm for those that go out a lot and may feel it is acceptable to do so.
Evaluation: Forms and Conventions
My magazine's genre is mostly electronic music with some indie and punk; these genres are associated mostly with young people and party/club culture and bands such as: Late of the Pier, Prodigy, Pendulum and Arctic monkeys. The conventions of these genres and youth magazines in general are bright eye catching colours and more focused on having a fun time than subtleties and getting meaning from music. The types of articles they will usually feature are interviews with big acts, club and gig reviews and competitions as they are what people interested in the culture will want to hear about. There are a few magazines that have this kind of look, such as Mixmag and NME.
I have followed a few conventions of Mixmag in terms of style and articles, but I have challenged conventions in terms of including non electronic genres in there, and incorporating other youth cultures in there as well. I think my magazine can fill a gap in the market because as of yet there is no magazine that combines the youth subcultures into one magazine, giving it a wider audience and making it appealing as it has everything they want. My magazine is called Forward as I wanted it to make readers feel as though they were being brought forward to the newest and cutting edge music scenes fashions and bands which I tried to represent through my magazine. 
My front cover has a lot of regular conventions such as cover lines, the mast head, bar code and tag lines.
My front cover has a lot of regular conventions such as cover lines, the mast head, bar code and tag lines.
I added in a tag line below the title 'feel alive' which is implied through the magazine is through going and having a fun time and this will draw the reader in as they will want to know how to have the best time. The masthead uses a rave/club style font giving the appearance of being made up of LEDS, this fits in with the conventions of the genres I am trying to portray. Below the masthead is a circle made to look like a sticker which displays the price, which is quite low for a monthly and another point that will draw readers in. I have 
used primary colours for the front 
cover as it will be more eye-catching and hints at the house style of yellow and black, and blue and red. The image I have used for the front cover is quite an energetic photo and connotes live rock music due to the amp and drum kit, it’s a group shot and has had the contrast altered and the background removed to give it a futuristic look. The last thing to see on the front cover is the barcode which is a common convention of magazines. The next finished product is the contents page, which follows the house style brought in on the front cover. The contents make it easier for the reader as it gives them short descriptions of each article and page numbers with photos. It makes the house style a bit darker, with more black to make it slightly less eye catching and smarter looking and easy to read. I added the masthead to give it a sense of continuity. I had a large picture of the cover band with a tag line showing the page number of it, this makes it really easy for the reader to find the article they want and also make the cover look more professional as writing the page numbers of articles on the front cover isn't a convention and looks 
unprofessional. I wrote the word contents in a smart semi techno looking font to go in with the genre of the magazine. I used it because this fits in with the ideas of the magazine and fans of the genre enjoy it. The contents is split into regulars and features each with their own title and black outline, I gave all them all descriptions below the page number and article name to make it sound interesting. These were written in an informal way to connect with the reader more, even using some of their slang. I tried to make the contents appear 'hi-tech' a theme that I am trying to use throughout my magazine. All the photos I have used have models in them that are connected to the club culture or more rocky drum and bass culture. I left most of the photos unedited as since they are part of the youth culture the backgrounds of stages and clubs are interesting on their own. The only photos I did edit were to make them look more hi-fi or eye catching to stay in with my themes. Another conventions I used was page number on the contents and double page spread, this makes it easier for the reader to locate specific parts of the magazine and makes it look more professional. My last finished product was the double page spread, and I went for the convention of an interview for it. My mast head says 'Prodigy is back!' in eye-catching fonts and colours, this suggests that the prodigy is something great that has returned, they are also known as a huge electronic/rock band which is really what my magazine is about, so this will appeal to my audience. Below that is a by line which shows who the article is by and also offers a peek at what’s going on. I used italics as that style is an obvious convention as well as the drop cap which is another convention used a lot to smarten up writing and make it slightly more eye-catching So I used it twice in the double page spread. The gutters in my writing are quite small which connotes busyness which is good for a magazine of this style as it is not meant to feel relaxed and spaced out and should instead appear fast and exciting. I had to make sure all the columns where the same width otherwise it would of appeared slightly odd and unprofessional. I used headings to break up the article making it appear less of a huge load of writing. Headings also help readers to read certain parts they find interesting
I also used pull quotes of small parts I thought the reader would
find particularly interesting or said something important about the band. I used a shape as an end sign as it is a common convention and is obviously useful for the reader. The writing style is interview with questions in italics. This is a very common form and like the subheadings also the reader to read small sections at a time and the questions they find interesting, it also works to split up the text. The image I have used for the double page spread is a group shot, on an even level, connoting that the band are on the same level as the reader which is something they will like. I shot the picture in a music studio with a keyboard in the background to give it more of a band feel, as it connotes that they just paused work to do the interview. The image is tilted and given a shadow so it appears to be messy and more like a scrapbook, which worked well considering the rest of the article, looks smart. My first cutaway box is a list of the ten artists that influence The Prodigy the most, the cutaway is a common convention and by bringing in a separate style for the page it looks quite good as well. It works to give the reader more choices about what to look at, the list goes from one to nine and gives the reason why underneath it, this makes the reader feel as though they know the artist better which is great. The second cutaway box is a gig review. It first states the supporting band and the date and location as well as the rating. For
the rating I used a technique I have seen in a few other magazines which is to take the first letter of the title of the magazine with the same font and colour and use that as a rating system, I think it works quite well here to demonstrate the magazines cohesiveness. 
used primary colours for the front 
cover as it will be more eye-catching and hints at the house style of yellow and black, and blue and red. The image I have used for the front cover is quite an energetic photo and connotes live rock music due to the amp and drum kit, it’s a group shot and has had the contrast altered and the background removed to give it a futuristic look. The last thing to see on the front cover is the barcode which is a common convention of magazines. The next finished product is the contents page, which follows the house style brought in on the front cover. The contents make it easier for the reader as it gives them short descriptions of each article and page numbers with photos. It makes the house style a bit darker, with more black to make it slightly less eye catching and smarter looking and easy to read. I added the masthead to give it a sense of continuity. I had a large picture of the cover band with a tag line showing the page number of it, this makes it really easy for the reader to find the article they want and also make the cover look more professional as writing the page numbers of articles on the front cover isn't a convention and looks 
unprofessional. I wrote the word contents in a smart semi techno looking font to go in with the genre of the magazine. I used it because this fits in with the ideas of the magazine and fans of the genre enjoy it. The contents is split into regulars and features each with their own title and black outline, I gave all them all descriptions below the page number and article name to make it sound interesting. These were written in an informal way to connect with the reader more, even using some of their slang. I tried to make the contents appear 'hi-tech' a theme that I am trying to use throughout my magazine. All the photos I have used have models in them that are connected to the club culture or more rocky drum and bass culture. I left most of the photos unedited as since they are part of the youth culture the backgrounds of stages and clubs are interesting on their own. The only photos I did edit were to make them look more hi-fi or eye catching to stay in with my themes. Another conventions I used was page number on the contents and double page spread, this makes it easier for the reader to locate specific parts of the magazine and makes it look more professional. My last finished product was the double page spread, and I went for the convention of an interview for it. My mast head says 'Prodigy is back!' in eye-catching fonts and colours, this suggests that the prodigy is something great that has returned, they are also known as a huge electronic/rock band which is really what my magazine is about, so this will appeal to my audience. Below that is a by line which shows who the article is by and also offers a peek at what’s going on. I used italics as that style is an obvious convention as well as the drop cap which is another convention used a lot to smarten up writing and make it slightly more eye-catching So I used it twice in the double page spread. The gutters in my writing are quite small which connotes busyness which is good for a magazine of this style as it is not meant to feel relaxed and spaced out and should instead appear fast and exciting. I had to make sure all the columns where the same width otherwise it would of appeared slightly odd and unprofessional. I used headings to break up the article making it appear less of a huge load of writing. Headings also help readers to read certain parts they find interestingI also used pull quotes of small parts I thought the reader would
find particularly interesting or said something important about the band. I used a shape as an end sign as it is a common convention and is obviously useful for the reader. The writing style is interview with questions in italics. This is a very common form and like the subheadings also the reader to read small sections at a time and the questions they find interesting, it also works to split up the text. The image I have used for the double page spread is a group shot, on an even level, connoting that the band are on the same level as the reader which is something they will like. I shot the picture in a music studio with a keyboard in the background to give it more of a band feel, as it connotes that they just paused work to do the interview. The image is tilted and given a shadow so it appears to be messy and more like a scrapbook, which worked well considering the rest of the article, looks smart. My first cutaway box is a list of the ten artists that influence The Prodigy the most, the cutaway is a common convention and by bringing in a separate style for the page it looks quite good as well. It works to give the reader more choices about what to look at, the list goes from one to nine and gives the reason why underneath it, this makes the reader feel as though they know the artist better which is great. The second cutaway box is a gig review. It first states the supporting band and the date and location as well as the rating. For the rating I used a technique I have seen in a few other magazines which is to take the first letter of the title of the magazine with the same font and colour and use that as a rating system, I think it works quite well here to demonstrate the magazines cohesiveness. Sunday, 29 November 2009
Skills Development
I feel I have learnt a great deal since the preliminary task, one of the main areas I have learnt new skills in is Photoshop. I have learnt of the many different ways Photoshop can be used to improve pictures, achieve a good layout, establishing a house style and use different fonts to achieve a professional looking product. My time management skills have been forced to improve also with bad management early on leading to little free time. Looking at real magazines has also helped me further my skills as I learnt the conventions and the traditional techniques to make it look better. Another section I learnt a lot about was design. I learnt how you need certain models and composition elements to make your magazine appeal to your target audience. I also learnt that creating a professional product requires planning and drafts as opposed to starting from scratch. I found the best way to find out what my target audience is and what they want is by asking them(with questionnaires)and that the answers are more important than what you think would look good in a magazine. Another part of my learning was how a slight error; stretched or blurred image, spelling errors or bad composition, can greatly affect how you view a product and how much it would effect whether people would read your magazine. I also learnt about the concept of a double page spread, how it needs separate text, have pictures, pull quotes and cutaways to seem interesting and make the reader want to read it.
Target Audience Research
For my audience research, I needed to find out allot of relevant information to identify what people would buy, what elements people want to see in the magazine and perhaps a gap in the market. This is so more people want to buy my magazine over another, some of the factors that would effect this are price, contents and genre. The best way to do this in terms of qualitative answers was with a questionnaire. I created the questionnaire below and asked 20 boys and 20 girls to fill it out. I have used the answer to create the graphs below as well.
Questionnaire
Place a tick next to your answer.
Are you male or female?
Male
Female
How often do you purchase music magazines?
More than once a week
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly
Never
Which subcultures do you enjoy hearing about? (Tick all appropriate)
Emo
Indie
Rave
Club
Metal
Rap
Which genre of music do you enjoy most?
Rap
RnB
Rock
Metal
Dance/Electronic
Pop
What do you think would look best on a front cover?
Band performing
Attractive Women
Rave/Club/Party picture
Close up of singer performing
Other (Please Specify)
Which music magazine do you think is best?
Kerrang
NME
Mixmag
Smash Hits
What would you like to see in the magazine? (Tick all appropriate)
Interviews
Music Reviews
Gig reviews
Competitions
Club Reviews
Fashion
Letters
New music technology reviews
New bands
Gossip
Name two colours you think are eye catching and work together.
1.
2.
DO RESULTS
Do you prefer music magazine to cover one genre or multiple?
Single
Multiple
Is there an area of music you think is not covered enough?
_________
DO ANSWER
Do advertisements in magazines appeal to you?
Yes
No
Thanks for completing this questionnaire :)
Questionnaire
Place a tick next to your answer.
Are you male or female?
Male
Female
How often do you purchase music magazines?
More than once a week
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly
Never
Which subcultures do you enjoy hearing about? (Tick all appropriate)
Emo
Indie
Rave
Club
Metal
Rap
Which genre of music do you enjoy most?
Rap
RnB
Rock
Metal
Dance/Electronic
Pop
What do you think would look best on a front cover?
Band performing
Attractive Women
Rave/Club/Party picture
Close up of singer performing
Other (Please Specify)
Which music magazine do you think is best?
Kerrang
NME
Mixmag
Smash Hits
What would you like to see in the magazine? (Tick all appropriate)
Interviews
Music Reviews
Gig reviews
Competitions
Club Reviews
Fashion
Letters
New music technology reviews
New bands
Gossip
Name two colours you think are eye catching and work together.
1.
2.
DO RESULTS
Do you prefer music magazine to cover one genre or multiple?
Single
Multiple
Is there an area of music you think is not covered enough?
_________
DO ANSWER
Do advertisements in magazines appeal to you?
Yes
No
Thanks for completing this questionnaire :)
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Friday, 9 October 2009
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