Final Evaluation

The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.  I was asked to produce a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a new music magazine. My front cover contains a bold heading which catches the attention of the audience and is a main convention for a successful music magazine. The heading on my front cover ‘INDIVIDUAL’ is very eye catching in my opinion as it is bold and stands out well on the dark background. The reason for my choice of title ‘Individual’ was because my magazine is aimed at indie music lovers and individual connotates independence and independent music. The strap line on the front cover is also very eye catching with a yellow outer glow on black text which works extremely well together. I tried to follow the layout which a real music magazine consists of by making the layout similar to a music magazine currently on the market such as NME or Q.   My main image on the front cover is a medium close up and it dominates the page which is one of the main purposes of the main image on a magazine front cover. Another way my music magazine conforms the conventions of a real music is through the use of strap lines on the front cover. The purpose of the strap lines are to give the audience more information about the magazine before they have read it. My strap lines are located to the left and right of the main image as this is where they are usually located on real music magazine. One of the strap lines I have used contains the album cover of Kings of Leon’s new album ‘Come Around Sundown’ which gives the audience more of a visual image of the album and persuades them to buy the magazine and read more about it. Around the album cover I have used a yellow outer glow around it to make it stand out more and appeal to the audience. The main colour scheme I have used is mainly yellow, blue white and black. I have used these colours as I think the yellow and black contrast well with each other and the white stands out well on a dark background. The font I used for my title ‘INDIVIDUAL’ was Eras Light ICT as I think it was the right font to suit the style of my music magazine. I used this font for the front cover, contents page and double page spread to maintain a consistent house style throughout my production. My contents page also conforms the conventions of a real media product as it contains page numbers, text images etc. I have attempted to maintain a consistent style throughout my production but I believe I could of made them look more professional. I struggled to make my contents page follow the same house style as my front cover.

My contents page also conforms the conventions of music magazines currently on the market as it contains page numbers, a title and an image to preview a page in the magazine. I feel my contents page is my biggest weakness because the design of it isn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I have used a yellow outer glow around the advertisement of the beady eye poster to make it appeal to the audience and catch their eye. I feel the best part of my contents page is the band index as I fell it looks very effective. I alternated the colours of the font in the band index to give a different effect and I also used a grey outer glow effect to contrast the yellow font. I used yellow font as I think it makes the page look more exciting and reader friendly. My contents could be improved by filling some blank spaces on the page as there are a few white areas.

Social groups have been targeted mainly on my front cover on my music magazine. One of the strap lines is ‘two free tickets up for grabs’ for Leeds Festival which is mainly targeted at students but could also be targeted at 18+ who enjoy going to festivals. Having an advertisement for having the chance to win tickets for a festival which is very expensive is a good way of selling more magazines. The socio-economic groups I have targeted are C2, D and E. This is because my magazine is targeted at customers with lower income so they can afford the magazine. The magazine would be published monthly as I believe that a weekly magazine is too frequent and won’t gain as many readers. C2 are skilled working class, skilled manual workers. D are working class people, semi and unskilled manual workers. Grade E is aimed at those at the lowest levels of subsistence, casual or lowest grade worker, pensioners or those who rely on the welfare state for their income.

I carried out some customer research via a questionnaire of 40 people. The most popular genre of music was indie with 67% of the vote. This made my choice of music genre easier knowing that indie music is a popular genre for students. The majority of my poll was male with 73%. 75% of the poll read music specific magazines, and 66% of these people buy one monthly.

An organisation I feel my product could be distributed by is NME as they are the institution which are most related to my magazine style. Other institutions which could distribute my magazine are MOJO and Q as my magazine could be a subsidiary of these mainstream magazines.

The audience I have targeted my magazine at are students who enjoy listening to indie music and mainstream bands such as Kings of Leon, Kasabian etc. I think that students are a good audience to target because they are a large percent of the population who buy music magazines. I took out a survey to find out how many people buy music magazines and what age they are. This was so I knew what age group I needed to target and write the relevant information.

The model on my front cover was wearing fashionable clothing which connotates the magazine is  sophisticated. The model wears dark jeans, a white printed tee and a denim jacket. The reason I chose to dress the model in these clothes is because they are stylish yet unique. This attracts young and stylish individuals to purchase the magazine. I used a guitar as a prop on my front cover image, this was to make the image relevant to music so the audience know that it is a music magazine. I took my photos in the green room in the media department as I could create good effects with the lighting and introduce different props into the image. I used male models because I think the magazine is targeted more at males rather than females. The shot I used for my front cover image was a medium shot, it conforms the conventions of a real music magazine. For my contents page image I used all three models in a medium shot to give a preview to the audience about what their specific page will be about. For the image I used a chair as a prop to create different levels within the image.

I thought the program Adobe Photoshop was difficult to use as it is very complex and there are many different tools which you can use to create different types of images and different effects. . I wanted to make the products follow the house style but make them unique at the same time, but it was difficult to do this because it was my first time producing a music magazine and at a good standard. I used blogger to upload my ideas and research but I don’t think it is a very reliable programme because I lost some work at the start of the project which I had to redo. This took a lot of time and made the project harder to do. I took my images for my magazine using a college camera which was a very good quality and high megapixel. I feel that I have progressed from the preliminary task as I have put more thought and experienced ideas into this project. I have used my Photoshop skills to better effect when editing photos and feel I have taken better quality photos. I have also used different effects I never knew how to use for the preliminary task such as outer glow effects which help the look of the magazine. I feel that I have put more thought into this task compared to the preliminary task as I knew what to include this time.

I feel that I have researched the music magazine industry in detail to help the production of my magazine and to understand the conventions which need to be included to produce a successful music magazine. The double page spread could have been improved by taking more images to give myself more variety to choose from. I think there are many improvements which could have been made to my production. I think my main downfall was creativity, as I struggled to come up with some good ideas at some stages of the production process. Photoshop still proved pretty hard to use as there are many tools to use which I didn’t use to their full potential.

Front Cover-Final

Contents Page-Final

Double Page Spread-Final

Questionaire

The follwing questions were asked to a pool of fourty people;

Gender?
Male 73%
Female 27%

Age?
16-18 64%
19-21 36%

Occupation?
Student 82%
Retail Related 18%

Favourite Genre of Music?
Indie 67%
R 'n' B 22%
Other 11%

Do You Read Any Music Specific Magazines?
Yes 75%
No 25%

If So, How Often?
Monthly 66%
Randomly 22%
Weekly 12%

Own A PC?
Yes 72%
No 28%

Have Internet Connection?
Yes 94%
No 6%

Own A Digital Music Player?
Yes 25%
No 75%

Favourite Terrestrial TV Channel?
Channel 4 55%
BBC 23%
ITV 18%
Channel 5 4%

Favourite Newspaper?
The Guardian 40%
The Sun 35%
Other 25%

This is one of the songs that inspired my genre choice for my magazine. It is called 'Pyro' by Kings of Leon. The song is quite chilled out and has some good lyrics.

contents page draft

first draft

This is my intial draft for the front cover of my music magazine 'individual'. I have used yellow for the heading, but i am debating whether to change that to white or not as it may go better with the light blue font.

Price of magazine!

The magazine I will be creating would be published monthly as it will give the publishers time to create the next magazine and get a lot of information for it. Seen as though the magazine will be published monthly, I will sell it for around £3 as it will appeal to the socio-economic groups C2, D and E. I think £3 is a suitable price as it isn't too pricey  for these groups. The target audience in relation to age is about 16 to 30 as I think this is an age range that will mostly be interested in an indie-rock magazine.



A- Higher managerial, administrative, professional e.g. Chief executive, senior civil servant, surgeon


B - Intermediate managerial, administrative, professional e.g. bank manager, teacher


C1- Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial e.g. shop floor supervisor, bank clerk, sales person


C2 - Skilled manual workers e.g. electrician, carpenter


D- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. assembly line worker, refuse collector, messenger


E - Casual labourers, pensioners, unemployed e.g. pensioners without private pensions and anyone living on basic benefits

NME double page spread!

Language: This double-page spread from the NME issue features Lily Allen. She is wearing an iconic costume such as a 'lumberjack' chequered shirt, which is iconic of Indie. Her hair is also black and swept to the side of her face, which is an iconic hairstyle. The make-up she is wearing is also thick black which is iconic. She does, however, keep some part of her girly style by the use of the prop necklace, which allows her to express herself as still girly and not a 'tomboy'. The text is also connotates punk as the iconic punk band 'The Sex Pistols' are often wrote in that font style. She is slightly leaning, connotating that she's a bit tired or fed up, but she is still happy, and has her hands on her waists, allowing the girly side of her to still be seen. The layout of the article remains conventional; minimal text, large dominating image taking up one whole page and a large headline, in this context, in the form of a quote. It then, above the article text, has a small headline to start it off. The colour scheme, reflecting the cover models personality, is red and black, connotating, through mise-en-scene, that she is not as good as she appears to be, she has a darker side and is dangerous (the use of red connotates this). The colour of her costume (shirt) also connotates this as the mise en scene of this is the colour red, mostly dominating the article, and the black lines on her shirt. There is also high, artificial lighting showing her good side.

Institution: The publishers of NME magazine are IPC Media. The magazine has been publishing for 58 years and still lives on as one of the most popular music magazines in the world.


Ideology: The ideas in which NME is trying to convey is that Lilly Allen isn't a 'chav' anymore (that was her first image) and is now quite cool and indie. It also shows us that she's quite sexy which is connotates through the use of her costume (shirt) being unbuttoned at the top.


Audience: The target audience is 'indie', style-conscious, UK teenagers from the age roughly 15-25 years of age. They would be in a low class system as they wouldn't have lots of money, but wouldn't necessarily be poor as they would be in to the latest fashion.


Representation: Lilly Allen is represented as a bit of an 'indie/emo' person due to her costume, makeup, and the text associated with her. She is also represented as quite rebellious in the way she, unconventionally, isn't looking directly at the camera lens. This makes the image look professional but not conventional. Social groups such as chavs or 'gangsters' (people who idolise rappers or R&B artists) as these are the styles and forms of music which NME doesn't deal with, and therefore would clash with its overall image. To properly convey what I am trying to say about the text use and The Sex Pistols, here is a poster of them, and note the similarity between the two texts.

digital images

Analysis of Mojo magazine contents!

Language
The contents page of 'MOJO' magazine features, at the top of the page, the word 'MOJO', as apposed to  contents. However, the reader can tell that this is the contents page due to the typical conventions such as page numbers, feature headings in a bold text, information under the heading about that feature and also, images relating to one, or more, of the features in the magazine. The title text 'MOJO' is bold, large and in a simple font, making it stand out and catch the readers eye. On the contents, there are featured pages that they have highlighted in red, and have an image next to them with a page number also. These pages are suggested to the reader from the publishers. The contents page is effective because they have used a white background for the actual page numbers and text, and used black font so it stands out to the reader. Also, they have used an artistic background behind the white page to give the overall page some depth.

Institution- The publishers of 'MOJO' magazine are Bauer Media who publish many other magazines such as Q, Kerrang and FHM. Bauer Media are Europe's largest privately owned publishing group and they publish over 300 magazines in 15 different countries. They also publish online, T.V and radio stations.

Audience-The genre MOJO music magazine is a mix of traditional music such as The Beatles and bands such as Oasis and Radiohead. People interested in old music such as The Beatles will be interested in the magazine, as well as people interested in new bands that are evolving in the music industry.

Ideology- The reason behind the contents page is to inform the readers where specific articles and contents are in the magazine, and they use page numbers to do so. The contents page needs to be effective and straight to the point because when people pick the magazine up in shop, they usually look at the front cover, then the contents page to find out what is featured in the magazine. If they like what's on the contents page, they are more likely to purchase the magazine.

Representation- The contents page represents the magazine in a positive way as it has a good balance between text and images which is an important convention of a contents page. This could symbolise that the magazine is a good balance of all music genres so it would appeal to the majority of music lovers new and old.

Q Magazine contents page!

Language- The contents page of Q magazine contains a heading, a main image, sub-headings and some sub-text. The colour scheme on the contents is very similar to the front cover which is a important convention of music magazines. The Q logo is located in the top left corner next to the contents heading. The sub-heading is white with a red background which works well together and stands out on the page. The large image on the right hand side of the page is the main feature on the contents as it dominates the space and is very noticeable, and the image has a caption containing the brief information about the band in the image, and the page number. The front cover and contents page show continuity as they both have the same colours and fonts throughout. This contents page is effective as it's set out to be easy readable for the audience. A common convention in this magazine and most music magazines is the section that is there every issue, and they just change the things they write on it every issue.

Institution- The producer of the magazine is Bauer media who also produce other music magazines such as Kerrang and Mojo. They have to make sure they produce magazines that are going to sell regularly, so they have to be a good standard.

Ideology- The idea behind the contents page is for readers to be informed what is featured in the magazine, so they could skip straight to a particular page they are interested in. The producers are trying to promote the magazine to be bought as people that are interested in buying a magazine in a shop, usually look at the contents, so the contents has to be a good standard.

Audience- Q magazine do not have a specific music genre which they target for an audience. There are different genre's of music throughout there magazines. This gives the magazine diversity and a good opportunity to introduce different music genres into it.

Representation- The main image on the contents is of the band 'The Courteeners' and they are represented in a positive way as they are the main image. The image is an accurate representation of the band to make the magazine look as real as possible.

Analysis of Mojo magazine front cover!

Language- This magazine follows the general conventions of a music magazine with a large masthead, main image and some sub-text. The masthead is large and stretches across the cover to catch the attention of the audience. The main image of the band 'Oasis' is the main feature of the magazine and we as the audience know this through the image and caption. The shot they have used for the image is a close up shot. The headline 'Oasis' stands out very well on the cover as they have used a glow effect on it, as well as on the '2008'. The house style of this magazine is predominantly black, white and red which I think works really well together. To generate more sales, Mojo add promotions in the magazine such as a free CD when you purchase it. They have also included a picture of the CD so the audience know what they are given if they purchase the magazine. Above the masthead 'MOJO' there is some sub-text showing the features in the magazine accompanied by images, because everyone likes to see pictures.

Institution- The publishers of 'MOJO' magazine are Bauer Media who publish many other magazines such as Q, Kerrang and FHM. Bauer Media are Europe's largest privately owned publishing group and they publish over 300 magazines in 15 different countries. They also publish online, T.V and radio stations.

Ideology- The publishers of the magazine are trying to promote a sense of quality for the magazine by using Oasis on the front cover as they are a huge band all over the world and they are featuring in their magazine. This symbolises that the magazine use the biggest and best bands for their articles.

Audience  The genre MOJO music magazine is a mix of traditional music such as The Beatles and bands such as Oasis and Radiohead. People interested in old music such as The Beatles will be interested in the magazine, as well as people interested in new bands that are evolving in the music industry.

Representation- The magazine are representing the artists (Oasis) on the front cover in a positive way. The name 'Oasis' is lit up in neon light to attract the attention of the reader and the sub-text says ' The boys are back in town' which makes the reader want to know what they have been doing. Also, there is a quote from the band on the cover ' We've been to the dark side' which makes the reader want to read on and find out what they mean by this quote.

Q magazine analysis!

Q Magazine analysis

Language- The iconic 'Q' logo on the magazine is located in the top left of the front cover, below the subtext. The red logo stands out on the fairly dark background. This is a major convention of music magazines as there is a distinctive logo on them all so the audience know what magazine it is. This magazine in particular is targeting the band 'Kings of Leon' and this is shown through the main image of the band, and a large strap line across the middle of the cover. Another convention of this music magazine is the promotion of a product on the cover to attract customers to purchase the magazine. In this particular magazine, they are giving away a free CD.

Institution- The producer of the magazine is Bauer media who also produce other music magazines such as Kerrang and Mojo. They have to make sure they produce magazines that are going to sell regularly, so they have to be a good standard.

Audience- Q magazine do not have a specific music genre which they target for an audience. There are different genre's of music throughout there magazines. This gives the magazine diversity and a good opportunity to introduce different music genres into it.

Representation- From the image of the band on the cover, we instantly know the they are a band as they are all stood together and the majority of music lovers know that Kings of Leon are an iconic band with their rock star image. For people who don't know what the band look like are assured with the large strap line across the image saying 'Kings of Leon'.

Ideology- The idea behind the front cover of the magazine is to give the readers an insight into what the magazine is going to include when they read it. They do this by using an exclusive band who will be interviewed in depth and they use an exclusive band throughout the magazines they publish. Also on the cover they have other stories which will feature in the magazine to back up the main feature.

Music genre choice

Genres:
-Indie
-Rock
-Indie rock
-Pop
-Blues
-Rap
-Hip-hop
-RnB
-Classical
-Reggae
-Heavy metal
-Disco/Club music

I will base the choice of the music genre on my personal interests as I will be able to relate my interests to the music magazine. There are already rock music magazines on the market eg. Kerrang, but I think I want my genre to be rock/indie with bands in my mind such as Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, The courteeners,  Oasis etc. These bands are not so heavy as the ones related in Kerrang.


NME biography- NME is a British weekly music magazine. Featuring agenda-setting news, the UK's most comprehensive gig guide, definitive reviews of the week's hottest gigs, tracks and albums, and fiery comment from the nation's most opinionated writers, it's the essential guide to the week in music.
Arctic Monkeys, The Smiths, Klaxons and Oasis were all introduced to the world via the pages of NME, while in recent months we've given Pete Doherty a lift home from prison in our car, inadvertently made Noel Fielding cry in the middle of an interview, and exclusively broken the news of Blur's reunion before anyone else.

Liiar interpretatation of the brief.

L - What does each of your products need to contain e.g. The front page will need to have a masthead etc (list the conventions that are relevant to each product). Which camera angles do you think would be most effective for each of the products? Any ideas of colour schemes that will help you to create a house-style?
I - Perhaps you could pretend that you are producing a magazine for an existing publisher, whose other publications have something in common with yours / are totally different to yours (gap in the market)
I - What message / moral / values do you intend your magazine to convey about your chosen music genre and your target audience?
A - Briefly outline the target audience (you can develop it later when you've made more decisions)
R - How do you intend your target audience / artists / music genre to be represented? i.e. positively / negatively / accurately / stereotypically / unconventionally? etc.


Language: My music magazine cover will require an eye-catching masthead which will be a main selling point for the magazine. I will use a mid shot for my main image, as this is one of the main conventions of an image on the front of a music magazine cover. I will use a consistent house style throughout the front cover, contents page and double page to give my magazine a professional look and I  want my colour scheme to be sleek and sophisticated.

Institution- The institution of a magazine is the producer who publishes the magazine. The institution of Q magazine is Bauer Media for example. These different institutions are always competing to make their magazines better than other competitors on the market. I will look to fill a gap in the music magazine market in order to appeal to my target audience.

Ideology- Every magazine on the market has a set of morals, values and messages which they try to portray within their magazines. I want my magazine to give off a positive image about music, and in particular, the music genre i will be focusing on.

Audience- All magazines have particular audiences in which they target. Audiences are categorized into groups which are defined by age, gender, type and social class (A, B, C1, C2 and D and E). Music magazines also target specific genres within music to appeal to different interests customers have. NME have categorized there audience in to two groups: 'young socialites' and 'first time earners' and they have taken out a very detailed survey. This is what i plan to do so i can meet all my audience needs.

Representation- I want to give off a positive image on music in my magazine. I also want it to be intresting, and become a regular purchase for customers. I want my magazine to target my specific genre, rather than music in general. 

Current music magazines on the market!



'Q' magazine



'Blender' Since its launch in 2001, Blender has been the fastest growing music magazine in America. Each month, Blender provides its 2.3 million readers with insightful, comprehensive and entertaining coverage of the ever-changing world of popular music. From the striking graphics and edit of its FOB "Burner" section to its engaging compendiums and countdowns to its authoritative CD reviews section, Blender speaks to contemporary music fans with a unique voice that combines critical authority with the irreverence of the music it covers.

'Q' magazine

'VIBE' a hip-hop/RnB magazine.

IPC Media are an institution who publish the music magazine 'NME'.

NME has become a truly unique multi-platform media proposition. Across the magazine, nme.com, NMETV, NME Radio and the brand's live events and awards, NME reaches over one million music fans every week. NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music, including award winning features, the latest releases, live reviews, the definitive guide to the best new bands in its Radar section, as well as a regular look back through the magazine's incredible 58 year heritage.

Bauer Media are another institution who publish music magazines. They publish the rock magazine 'Kerrang'. Kerrang's audience profile is:

Individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty.

'MOJO'-Audience profile: Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominately male (72%) and affluent (36% AB). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality.

Q Magazine. Published by Bauer Media. Audience profile- Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy.



Main task for music magazine.

The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Evaluation of Front Cover!

Evaluation

My task was to produce the front page of a new college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium-close up range plus some appropriately laid out text and a masthead. Also I had to create a mock-up draft of the contents page. After researching other college magazines I was able to use them conventions in producing my front cover of a college magazine. I think I have produced a simple but effective college magazine cover.

The audience my magazine was aimed at was Wyke College students and I believe my front cover appeals to this audience. Students would be interested in reading my college magazine for information on all aspects college life from UCAS points to sports results. People planning to enrol at the college in the future could also read it, to get an insight into what’s going on in the college. I’d say the front cover is aimed at students interested in sports initially, but when they read on it appeals to a wide range of people and their interests.

I believe my front cover meets the conventions of a college magazine in many ways. The masthead is eye-catching and specific to the college which is required in a masthead for a college magazine. I used the font Eras Light ICT for my masthead and sub-text as I think it’s a clear font and makes the cover look sleek. I chose the name ‘wykeside’ as I think it’s a sophisticated name and it represents the ins and outs of the college from a student point of view. I matched the magazine conventions in my research to my final design with the digital image covering the masthead slightly. I used a turquoise background for my cover because it symbolises happiness and relaxation which gives off a positive image on college life. For my digital image I used a medium shot of the second team football captain as I think he is a good role model for other students. I linked the image with a caption ‘seconds skipper speak soccer’ so the readers know what to expect when they read the magazine. I also added an outer glow effect and made the font purple to the sun-heading to make it different from the sub-text to show it’s the main discussion within the magazine.

The institution of the magazine cover was I as I constructed all of it. I also carried out the research of existing magazines so I could relate my work to those conventions. I think it also helped that I am already a student so I know what students want in a college magazine and I could adapt to these requirements.

I think my cover gives off a positive image on college life as it’s vibrant and quirky. The model on the cover is smiling slightly which represents humour and happiness which is a great aspect of being a Wyke college student.

I believe I could have improved my magazine cover by taking more digital images with a natural background on them, so they could show off some off the college a bit more. I also think I could have been a bit more creative in my production as it is quite a simple layout. All in all I believe my work has been a success as I planned well ahead of the deadline, giving me time to produce the cover.