For my AS Foundation Portfolio Production, I chose the print brief. In order to fulfil this task I started by examining existing media texts of the same form. In brief I worked out the key conventions I would need to include. After this I analysed and did market research on existing different music magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads and selected my chosen genre. As I chose my target audience I then thought out the cost of my magazine and how often I would publish it to benefit my target audience. Then I began taking photos for my magazine taking into consideration my target audience and the stereotypical contents that would attract the eyes of these people. Photoshop, I found, was easy to understand therefore I started creating my magazine contents from there.
I wanted my music magazine to convey a positive image and to attract my chosen target audience with ease by having simple detail but it being effective. I have compared my magazine and it’s conventions to existing magazines and analysed the features they do and do not have in common.
‘UNCUT’ is that masthead on the magazine I am comparing to my own. The masthead is the name of the magazine and they are usually placed in the middle or on the left of a magazine so as they are stacked as shelves in stores they are seen instantly by the public. My masthead ‘SPACE ODDITY’ is in a large, readable font and is placed on the left has side of the magazine. Like the ‘UNCUT’ masthead ‘SPACE ODDITY’ is a specially designed typeface to be very recognisable and unique.
I decided to have a skyline on the bottom of my magazine like the one on the ‘UNCUT’ magazine as I think it is a great way to attract and audience and advertise great reviews that are published in the magazine. My skyline is in a white colour so it stands out against my dark background. White is a very good colour to use as like seen on the ‘UNCUT’ magazine it’s noticeable straight away.
By using a large image on a magazine whose face is easily recognisable will appeal to a more target audience. The large image that I have used show’s my ‘artists’ face and clothes to give a stereotypical view of what genre my magazine is based around.
The cover line usually links straight to the main image. My cover line is in a red colour and in capital letters to stand out to the audience and is in speech marks to tell the reader it is a quote said by the artist their selves being interviewed. Unlike the David Bowie cover line on the ‘UNCUT’ magazine, the cover line I have created is a different colour and in large font placed in the centre of the magazine whereas the David Bowie cover line is in a small black font which is only recognisable due to the very large ‘DAVID BOWIE’ text about the cover line itself.
Very much like the ‘UNCUT’ magazine and all types of magazines available I have included a barcode, price, date and issue on my magazine as these are usual items on a magazine. These are placed at the bottom on the magazine, either right or left.
‘UNCUT’ magazine have placed a small image on their front cover to enhance the reader to look inside the magazine for more images. I chose not to have any images on my front cover to make a reader want to read inside to see all the latest snaps.
In comparison to ‘UNCUT’ I feel that I have created a good whole colour scheme throughout the magazine. Very much like the ‘UNCUT’ magazine which have worked with the tinted dark colour of Bowie’s eye and the light blue background to create a mysterious look and this instantly attracts the eye of the target audience and that is how I have worked with my colour scheme. My artist has dark make up on which gives a modern indie look. Also I have matched the red lipstick on my image’s face with the colour of the fonts used on my magazine.
The message I feel that ‘SPACE ODDITY’ portrays to the target is a modern indie, Americana feel by having the main related information on these genres on my front cover very much like ‘UNCUT’ as this magazine portrays a positive rock, rebellious message. A music magazine that conveys positive values towards its selected genre is key for good sales.
I chose to have a continuous colour scheme throughout my music magazine with the mixes and matches of colour being essential on my contents page to appeal to the reader and for items to be easily read.
Like ‘NME’ my contents page has a selection of colour being used with easy readable font. The grey coloured background matches the grey colour of my masthead, ‘SPACE ODDITY’ on my front cover. Using this colour creates links throughout the magazine. The black and red colour against a white background makes it readable and the continuous blue colour for my page number as taken off the wall on my front cover links very well. Boxing off my index of information from other items on the page help it stand out.
Unlike ‘NNE’ I have 4 images on my page to enhance a reader to read more and excite them as more images appear inside. ‘NME’ have one large image on their page and this limits the target audience and fan on the genre. Boxing of my images and having a large dark font boxed around the images makes them stand out and they are placed to the left hand side of the magazine so they are the first things that a reader sees. Also having interesting images on the contents page helps artists promote themselves and sometimes gives a reader the chance to be interested in a different genre.
Having a news section, reviews section and a features section in a magazine appeals to an audience and always holds relevant information.
‘NME’ holds an advertisement on their contents page but I wanted my contents page to only hold the key and relevant information that was included inside the magazine.
I wanted my double page spread to look very simple but hold interesting gossip and information about the written artist that could easily be read by a reader and the colour used matches the content used on my front cover and contents page.
I have annotated and analysed a double page spread from NME with Lily Allen being the artist interviewed.
Instead of having a medium close up image on my double page spread like NME have, and that I used on my front cover, I chose to have a full long shot of my image placed at the bottom of my magazine and placed it against a background taken from my front cover to link all the magazine and make it continuous throughout so it looks neat and well presented.
My large headline is taken from the text and is in a red colour to stand out against the wall background. I chose to have this text in a graffiti style font to make it seem slightly rebellious and to create a graffiti on the wall teen appealing aspect. Comparing this to the style of font used on NME’s double page spread is slightly different as it is in capital letters and in a black and white colour placed as though the letters have been ripped out of a newspaper and this looks very effective as it links well with the information being headlined. Also I thought my headline font was ironic with the text as you would not assume that a graffiti artist’s guilty pleasure was classical music. Having the headline in clear large font makes it stand out and creates an impact.
I felt that having a photo credit / anchorage on my image was necessary. Also having an introductory paragraph and lead was a very good way to ‘set the scene’ for example so we have an idea of what the interview is going to be based on and where and when the interview was taken and placed.
Unlike NME’s double page I chose to have 2 pull quotes on the right hand side of the page because as the reader turn the page they will see the text first and I have placed my pull quotes in a red colour so the reader sees and reads them first then will be interested in reading more.
The colour scheme on NME’s double page spread is stereotypically rock and roll with the image matching the colours used. The black and white colour mixes well with the clothes that the artist in the image is wearing and the style that is being portrayed. I feel that my double page spread using continuous colours throughout and send out a positive modern indie feel. I am pleased that my magazine looks very neat and stylish with the right use of appropriate contents.
My media product represents a broad stereotypical social group that are of many ages. I aimed for a broad range of classic rock fans that would be stereotypically between the ages of 33-55 as the rock music they listened to when they were young will be written about in this magazine. But also I feel that the younger generation that listen to the classic rock and indie from ‘back in the day’ would benefit from the information that was being published so aimed my magazine at an age group of 15-24. The use of the stereotypical colour scheme of red, black, blue and the involvement of my image wearing a leather jacket, having medium long blonde hair, blacked eyes and red lipstick attract the target audience easily. The SEGs my target audience would fall into are group B and C1 as I would be addressing intermediate managerial and junior managerial. The information placed in my magazine would be easy to read and involved much interesting information for the older target audience. Having a simple contents page gives a mature feel to the reader so they know that they are not reading a tacky magazine that would be dull and of no use to them.
In my initial research into big media magazine publishers I knew of 3 main publishers, Bauer Media, Conde Nast and IPC Media, all publishers of different magazine types and genres. I feel that my magazine has similar properties and aims at similar audiences in certain ways like Kerrang! And of UNCUT. Kerrang! Is published by Bauer Media whereas UNCUT is published by IPC media. I feel that IPC Media would publish my magazine as it aims more towards their audiences as I found out from reader research that UNCUT readers are completely obsessed by music and rely on the UNCUT magazine to keep them up to date with new music, essential album and film reviews helping them choose what to buy, insightful features on brands/music and movies and information about classic music, new artists and new bands. UNCUT is full with music genres including Modern Indie, Rock, Classic Indie and Americana which are how want my magazine content to be full of and portray to that specific audience/social group.
As I have previously written on my blog my selected genres are modern indie, rock, classic indie and Americana for my music magazine. I feel I have chosen my genres wisely as they are genres that I am interested in so I could put a personal input in instead of a large stereotypical magazine. The psychographic groups that I have aimed my magazine at are, in the value of life styles, outer-directed because they are the people who belong and achieve and can be categorised into either a social group of being part of the self-actualisation group.
Specifically I aimed my magazine at group B and C1. I felt I have addressed and attracted both audiences well by the use of image and colour and also with informative and readable text. I priced my magazine at £1.60 and think this is reasonable to the demographic group that are in full time employment as it is affordable. Also my magazine will be published monthly to give time to have a large input into the next magazine and to the demographic group that are not in full time employment and in education gives them time to have the money for this magazine.
I have attached some audience feedback on the end of this evaluation on my music magazine.
Throughout creating and constructing my music magazine product I have learnt about many technologies using the application Photoshop. I started to learn more about the different effects that could be used such as a drop shadow. This places a shadow behind text to emphasise it. I did not put a lot of drop shadow on my college magazine and this shows on my final product. But as I tried and tested this application I found that it looked ‘spacey’ and thought it worked well behind the masthead of my magazine and also could say it is ironic due to the name of my magazine, ‘SPACE ODDITY’. Using the shape tool I felt that it emphases text and give it a block house style feel. To get the old school dark blue effected colour on my background wall I took a photo of a wall whist it had a spotlight on in the middle then effected the wall using transparency shapes layer (see screen shots). Also I change the opacity to produce the dark tint I needed then balanced it by using a blue blend. Trying out styles such as Satin and Texture were useful in creating the wall I was looking for. The blur tool was used to blend my image against the wall which made the whole cover look more realistic. My contents page used many effects from Photoshop. I boxed around my images for them to stand out placing them in a white coloured box does this. Around each box I placed an outer glow, used the colour red, linear burn and decreased the noise. Then I placed a colour overlay with a stoke which I felt looked effective. Using blocked boxes and mixing and matching the shapes created this light ‘wacky’ look. The transform and then scale tool keeps images clear and does not lose any pixels. I used this tool to place my smaller images into the boxes allocated. For certain texts to be placed on shapes and to be seen I had to layer them. I did this by placing layers on top of each other and by doing this it looks appealing.
Looking back at the main preliminary task in hand I feel I have progressed in the understanding of techniques, understand was appeals to certain stereotypical target audiences and how products are distributed and published. Comparing my past college magazine to my music magazine I can see a change and improvement in many things. Looking at font styles and colours for example my music magazine looks more appealing and eye catching whereas my college magazine seems plain and bare as I don’t have any content to catch the eye. I have learnt how to use different applications on technologies that will defiantly improve my work in the future and I am pleased with the final products of my music magazine.
Audience Feedback
Audience Feedback
1. Can you tell which genre of music the magazine concentrates on by looking at the front cover? Why?
YES / NO
Due to the colours and the image of the artist and the clothing she is wearing.
2. Do you think that the magazine is reasonably priced, based on its contents?
YES / NO
3. Would you buy the magazine? Why?
YES / NO
Not my type of music/interests
4. What draws your eye and interests you to the magazine?
The background image
5. Does the layout of the contents page look appealing? Why?
YES / NO
Very informative
6. On the double page spread is the text easy readable?
Yes it is.
7. Do you think the colour scheme works and is continuously used throughout? Why?
YES / NO
Yes you can clearly see that the reds and blacks are used throughout the 3 pages and they work well together.
Audience Feedback
1. Can you tell which genre of music the magazine concentrates on by looking at the front cover? Why?
YES / NO
Yes because of the cover image
2. Do you think that the magazine is reasonably priced, based on its contents?
YES / NO
3. Would you buy the magazine? Why?
YES / NO
Possibly, depending on what bands where advertised.
4. What draws your eye and interests you to the magazine?
The cover image and the headline
5. Does the layout of the contents page look appealing? Why?
YES / NO
It’s clear and understandable.
6. On the double page spread is the text easy readable?
Yes, it is very clear and the white background helps
7. Do you think the colour scheme works and is continuously used throughout? Why?
YES / NO
All links and matches on each page
Audience Feedback
1. Can you tell which genre of music the magazine concentrates on by looking at the front cover? Why?
YES / NO
Because of the clothes the artist in the image is wearing.
2. Do you think that the magazine is reasonably priced, based on its contents?
YES / NO
Because the product has a lot of contents and is quite cheap.
3. Would you buy the magazine? Why?
YES / NO
Because the magazine stands out and appeals to me.
4. What draws your eye and interests you to the magazine?
The colour scheme is good and I like the way it set out.
5. Does the layout of the contents page look appealing? Why?
YES / NO
The layout is fun, and has a few interesting, eye catching pictures.
6. On the double page spread is the text easy readable?
Yes, the font is clear and reasonably sized.
7. Do you think the colour scheme works and is continuously used throughout? Why?
YES / NO
They all have blue and red.
Audience Feedback
1. Can you tell which genre of music the magazine concentrates on by looking at the front cover? Why?
YES / NO
By the type of clothing that the main artist is wearing in the image, it suggests a certain type of person or group of people that the magazine would be aimed at.
2. Do you think that the magazine is reasonably priced, based on its contents?
YES / NO
3. Would you buy the magazine? Why?
YES / NO
Because it is not in the interest of my genre
4. What draws your eye and interests you to the magazine?
The main headline because it is the brightest most vibrant colour on the page and contrasts with the black of the persons jacket.
5. Does the layout of the contents page look appealing? Why?
YES / NO
Because there is a selection of images which give you a clue on who is going to be featured in the articles and the article names are all placed in the left hand side of the page so they’re easy to find.
6. On the double page spread is the text easy readable?
Yes, it is a suitable, readable font that doesn’t take up too much of the page
7. Do you think the colour scheme works and is continuously used throughout? Why?
YES / NO
The colour red has been used throughout the pages which suggest a house style.
Audience Feedback
1. Can you tell which genre of music the magazine concentrates on by looking at the front cover? Why?
YES / NO
Old school rock! Very clear!
2. Do you think that the magazine is reasonably priced, based on its contents?
YES / NO
Yes I could afford it being aged 17
3. Would you buy the magazine? Why?
YES / NO
No not my type of music personally
4. What draws your eye and interests you to the magazine?
The way the image stands out against the background
5. Does the layout of the contents page look appealing? Why?
YES / NO
Yes love the thumbnails down the side
6. On the double page spread is the text easy readable?
Yes pull quotes work well. Maybe would have put it in one column
7. Do you think the colour scheme works and is continuously used throughout? Why?
YES / NO
Due to the overused colours.
