Skills development

While completing the main task I found that doing the preliminary task was very important, the research on interviews and magazines of the same genre were very important. Looking at styles colours and the way things could be adapted to my own magazine. I was good on Photoshop and ok with a high quality digital camera. Doing a questionnaire was important it gave me more of an idea of what to do, and how to do it, things like quality and price were important. The practice when writing became important to give my magazine more of a quality finish.

Technologies

I was already quite good on Photoshop so I felt that I could use those skills into making it look quite professional. Occasionally I required a small bit of assistance but thought I did ok. As far the photography went im not an experienced photographer but felt that I got the images that I wanted and once on/in the magazine they looked good which was pleasing. If I where to change them then I would have looked at my lighting so that it would come out a lot clearer. Luckily I was able to use Photoshop to make it brighter so that it would come out better and jump off the page more.

addressing my audience

It’s male and female and with a small income either from parents or a part time job. My audience's language is basic but not slang as it’s aimed at a mainstream upper class categories, the layout is quite typical of a magazine in the genre I have picked, bright colours but so they aren’t to over powering. I have a main centre picture of a guy so that I can use that as the main focal point of the magazine so people can be drawn to it because of its colour and size. The cover lines are important they are clear to read and also have a large cover line underlining an artist's name as another pull. The contents page and magazine cover have a very different feel the contents page is very straight and clear cut and good looking, compared to a more relaxed layout for the double page spread. This is so it doesn’t come across as heavy reading, a lot more people find it easy reading because of the easy colour style and layout.

Target Audience

The target audience would be from the ages 14-22 mainly the time of higher education. The demographic of my magazine is along the lines of what I've previously stated already, a male/female gender target but more predominantly male open to all races, looking at mainly the C1 category of social status. The area that im aiming it at is the English speaking countries it features artists from the UK USA and Australia so those countries would be more inclined to purchase it. The psychographic of the magazine is the mainstreamers and individuals. A lot of music people are artists trying to get noticed and are individuals taking an interest in artists similar to themselves and the mainstreamer's like to follow this person that’s what makes artists successful in my opinion. The sub-cultures are mainly the group that say they aren't in a group, I’m also aiming it at the Indie culture though as well as the group that spend a lot of time either online or downloading hence the title of the magazine.

Institutions

My magazine would need large publicity to hit the mainstream properly so it would hit the most people and make the most money. The advantages of this are that a big publicist could get the magazine around the world and into the majority of places you want it to, it could help reach out to my demographic and it means that your able to do it in big quantities and it would suggest your quite well known already with the backing of a big publisher. If I used a small publisher I wouldn’t be able to hit the mainstream in the same way and would be putting a lot of my audience at the position of not been able to attain my magazine apart from online. If I went to a publisher like WH Smiths because they aren’t just a shop they have a big impact on how well a magazine would do because they are well known and if put on a good section of the magazines it would sell well because of their reputation.

representation

The way mine differs is that by using bright colours and keeping it looking fresh rather than metal, I thought I made it more inviting to lots of people rather than keeping it at a minimum audience. My magazine is quite different to other's I've focused mainly on the download market, I thought that with the current influx of online communication that a download magazine offering tips on what’s coming soon, new releases and the best deal's, that I’d be cracking a niche market against magazines around me on the shelves. Most magazines like 'Smash Hits' for example look at the early teen culture with boy bands and male and female artists. I’m looking more at the new breed of music with indie hitting the market in the face and doing very well.

forms and conventions

In this coursework when we had to look at music magazines and then go on to create our own. The genre of my magazine is of a pop/indie style; this is a common genre base and type and has grown more over the last few years with indie music becoming a lot more popular with the teenage age group with masses of bands and single artist's coming into the music business and succeeding. The layout is quite similar to various music magazines nothing out of the ordinary but I have a large cover line that is just the name of an artist, I'm trying to use the name of the artist as a pull, so that people would see that and buy it with that been a main factor. Although 'Classic Rock' isn’t the same genre type I tried to create similar styles as I went along. I realised that it wouldn't look as good if I decided to go with them though. Classic Rock has a very metal look when I wanted it to be more free flowing and rough looking at the same time without the fonts and background looking to tacky.

Double Page Spread Final Product

Final Contents

Final Front cover design

Original images

Double Page Spread Sketch

Contents Page Sketch

Front Cover Sketch

Contents Page Analysis.

DSCN1022
Originally uploaded by carrious15

Double Page Spread Analysis

DSCN1040
Originally uploaded by carrious15

Click on the image to read notes

My Target Audience Research

This is the Music Magazine Questionnaire which I handed out to various people who i thought might buy my magazine.

1. Are you.....
Male
Female

2. Do you buy music magazines?
Yes
No
Sometimes

3. What magazines that currently exsist do you buy?
_____________________________

4. How much do/ would you spend on a good music magazine?
£1.50
£2.50
£3.50
£4.50

5. How often would you prefer to buy a music magazine?
Weekly
Monthly

6. Which music genres do you mostly listen to?
Indie
Metal
Screamo
Pop
Punk
Rock
Other ________

7. What do you like to read about in a music magazine?
Interviews
Gigs
Album
Releases
New Bands
Reviews
Competition's

8. How should a music magazine address its readers?
Jokey
Casual reading
Serious

9. What are your favourite hobbies?
Music
Sport
Computer games
Going out with friends
Shopping
Movies
Other _______

10. What do you mostly spend money on?
Style
Music
DVDs
Audio Equipment
Nightlife
Other ________

My magazine idea's

Working title of magazine: Download

Price point:£2.99

Issue released:Weekly

Content: Download information and lastest reviews on new releases

Front Page- Main image of an artist underneath a red stand out title. Cover lines leading people, so they'll want to look inside.

Contents Page- Includes several pictures of bands/artists that can be found in magazine, will include features on bands, latest reviews. Made out to be a teaser.

Double Page Spread- Band review, quizing an artist
Style: Made to look like a poster but spread over 2 pages, although still having a newspaper style to it.

USP: Pop Download
Colour Scheme:Red Yellow White Black

Analysis of Hip Hop Connection's Magazine Cover

hiphop connection
Originally uploaded by carrious15

The Target audience is early 20's with a suburban back ground

CLICK on the image for more detailed analysis.

Analysis of Artrocker Magazine Cover

artrocker
Originally uploaded by carrious15

The Target audience is..
For detailed analysis click the on the image

Analysis of Classic Rock Magazine Cover

classic rock
Originally uploaded by carrious15

Classic Rock magazine is aimed at 90% males who are aged on average at 39. CLICK on the image to see detailed analysis.

Planning my College Magazine

When designing my magazine cover I had to do a lot before I started doing the official design. We looked at college magazines around the country aimed at colleges also. We did this for a few reason's some of which were that we could gage what we could do, size of the fonts, boldness of pictures. All of which proved to be very handy, the thing that I benefited most from this was the template design, although I didn't use it on my final design for the cover, it enabled me to have a base then work off it which I believe helped my final design. Doing a questionnaire was a huge help, this meant we could focus on different area's and a thing I was worried about previously was been to vague with what I was trying to put across to the audience, but doing this meant I could identify what I needed to do and properly pin point each section of the magazine whether it be the title, the sell line or the picture placement. On the front I wanted to grab peoples attention with the headings. That was another plus point of the questionnaire we gave people a large choice of options to pick from when it came to content, it was great to have a target and attempt to hit it, which I think i personally did. When I first started playing around with the different tools I didn't have a clear image of what I wanted to show or how I'd show it. I set about contrasting different colours backing a variety of texts so I could eventually come up with something I could be proud of. Without planning my cover from the start with research and sketches then it'd wouldn't even be close to a standard I felt I could get it to in my own expectation.

Original image

Photograph i used for the front cover of my magazine

contents page

Magazine cover

Evaluation

My magazine cover which was based around and featured items about college I felt when designing it went very well. The name 'Ink' wasn't a name I'd heard used when research other magazines so thought it would be fresh, new and original. I gave the first impression of quite a relaxed but creative magazine, but like a blotch of ink when painting for example, although not quite as messy. I felt that the front cover was quite sheik and glossy, I wanted to create the feeling of professionalism over it. The blue starting at the top and running down the right hand side is suppose to give off the impression of the sky, I did consider having a sun in the top hand corner to go with the sky look, but decided against it as I felt that it may lower the target age, as I've always thought of the sun been associated with children's drawings. As my target audience was a college i didn't feel it appropriate. Although the gold bar of colour running diagonally across is quite like a ray of light although i think that's more a mature tone and shape.
The image i have got on show is of a college student, i took looks of different pictures of different people male/female in different area's around the college. This shot was my favourite as the girl i used had a nice smile to give it a happy feel and the lighting was good, it was a sunny day and the shot was taken outside of the college. Its a medium close up which was the shot that was asked for. Shes in focus and placing a blue and some what fluffy boarder around it made it in my opinion quite appetising without been to open. It's just a happy vibrant magazine for fresh vibrant people.
The font i thought was very important each word is very important as its the front cover, you want the reader to admire that page, but at the same time turn over and read the content. If i was doing the design for every page, id want it to have the same effect as that. I put 'ink' in a lighter colour/shade of blue to make it stand out i put a black lining outside of each letter to make it that bit more obvious. For the sub heading concerning the buses i choose a black bold news type font, because that was big news at college effecting a lot of student's so wanted to make it quite serious. Whereas the sports news was set in a gold font, gold be the colour of success.
I think that my product is neatly presented and well laid out. I think some of the font colours could have stood out better so its something that with trial and error can be improved. There's a few spots of colour that need touching up and the blue around the main image is a bit unprofessional so with more patience. So those things are something that could be worked on in the future and will be looked at closely next time.
While working on this project I've learnt many different things including improving skills i already had on photoshop been the main one, my ability to look at and talk about magazine covers has improved. I do believe even the way i took a picture improved in the small amount of time i had the camera in my hand. Analysing a questionnaire and picking the right points to put onto a cover because of what they stand for and what meanings are behind them. I also believe that working with other people in the group and learning off each other improves the way that you work and look at things as you gain different perspectives of a text or image, so that's another form of analysis. Overall I enjoyed this task and am looking forward to doing more of the same in the future using what i already know and have recently learnt to my advantages.

Magazine, Orbital

theorbital copy
Originally uploaded by carrious15

Magazine cover, Click on it for more detail!