Evaluation

The brief was to make a new music magazine and a new artist, including a double page spread, contents page and front cover, it had to relate to a certain audience and make a new artist stand out. We had to use our own images, and new fonts. Choose colour schemes and lay it all out similar to another music magazine.

When I produced my music magazine I tried to think of the conventions that real music magazines have, I analysed a music magazine (Q Magazine) and looked at what they put on their front cover, double page spread and contents page and tried to incorporate them into my magazine.

On the front cover I made sure I put a price, this is because if it doesn’t have a price on the front cover then people wont want to buy it, it could be more expensive then they think or cheaper, but because they don’t know, they wont buy it. All magazines also have a main image on all pages, an image that is the main focus point, so I Incorporated this into my own magazine, by making sure that the main image on the front page was clear and stood out, I put a main image into the double page spread too, the contents page doesn't have a main image though, as it has more than one story, so I made sure that it had more than one image. I put the same font on throughout, to make it look like it has had more than one issue, and that it could change just even something little like the colour scheme, each month. I also have most conventions of a real music magazine like the header and the barcode, these are on all music magazines, and without them it just wouldn’t look realistic unless it was a web magazine. The magazine also has parts of it that look really realistic like the way things are laid out, they are laid out in a way that most magazines are laid out like the header is at the top and the way the article is laid out in the double page spread, this is of something that a normal music magazine would have.

I also analysed other magazines, not just music, I analysed a fashion magazine too, because the fashion in a music magazine also has to suit the genre and target audience. When I analysed the fashion magazine I saw that they had an ‘On The Cover’ section, so I put this into my music magazine contents page, this is so people know what the cover star is wearing, and might buy it themselves. Because my music magazine is for girls aged 16-25, I thought that I would add this in, because there isn’t a music magazine out there already for girls that involves music and fashion, so I still added in a few conventions of a real magazine but just not a music magazine.

The way I designed my music magazine is also the same way a professional music magazine would design there’s too, as they use Photoshop top put effects on images and create the actual magazine, they also use the internet like I did to do certain research. I tried to make my photo's also look really professional and I dressed my model into clothes that I thought would suit the magazine, this is what real music magazines do, they style the model to what ever photo's they are doing. I also chose the model I wanted to do my magazine photo's as this also is what real magazines do, I picked her because she really did go well with my genre of magazine and represented the target audience really well. I thought about everything I did really well and made sure that everything I did was something that would be in a real music magazine that is already on the shelf. Of course every magazine has to be original and that’s why people buy it, so I made sure that I didn’t use all the same conventions as other music magazines and If I did I tried to make them look different, so that my magazine stood out from the crowd.
In real magazines too they always have things like websites that you can visit for further info or facebook and twitter pages in which you can add the cover star or any of the actual magazine on twitter where they add updates of what’s happening on situations to do with the magazine. I also wrote the article so that teenagers could understand it, if you wrote really long words and language that teenagers couldn't understand then they would buy it again, so I made sure to stick to language they knew.

My music magazine does represent a certain social group, this social group is teenagers. My magazine represents them because it involves things they do and use. For example, in my double page spread I have a little section of the magazine that has the cover stars twitter and facebook address, this relates to this certain social group because teens are always on these websites and are always using the internet. Another thing is the competition, I did some questionnaires and researched a certain group of teenagers and 50% said they would like to see Rihanna the most out of these female solo celebrities; Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Jessie J and of course Rihanna, so I did a competition where you could see her in concert, this was targeting the needs of this specific social group, making them want to buy the magazine to find out more. If you picked someone like Rod Stewart, people are not going to buy the magazine, because teenagers rarely listen to him and its not the genre for the music magazine. The clothes that my model is wearing on the double page spread and on the front cover are really up to date and relate to the magazine genre, they also relate to what teenagers wear now, so a teenager will pick up this magazine and want to know more. If the model was wearing really out of date clothes then people think that the magazine was out of date and that it doesn’t have any new music or news in it, the model portrays more than you think. The model is also the target audiences age, so she represents teenagers today in a really good way, as she has made a life for herself.

The price also is really good for the magazine, as when you look into what teenagers buy on a weekly basis, especially female teenagers, its usually clothes, bus tickets, food, cinema tickets and magazines, so £3.50 a month doesn’t seem expensive to this particular social group/ the target audience.
If I could have any institution distribute my magazine it would be Bauer Media, this is because they only have men’s music magazines, and music magazine for genres like Indie and Rock, they need a new music magazine that reaches out to females and this would work really well. This magazine still has conventions that Q magazine has but they are a little bit different, if you let a magazine company distribute your magazine that already has a magazine similar to it, that magazine is going to do better than this new magazine, and no one would want to buy it if they was really similar so going with a institution that doesn’t have a magazine like this already would be really good, they could finally reach out to different audiences. They also do really popular fashion magazines for females so I don’t see why a music magazine for females wouldn’t do really well too.

The audience for my music magazine would be females 16-25, this is because there isn’t a music magazine out there for females, most music magazines are for males and involve rock or indie music so I thought id do a new pop/indie music magazine that targets women, I did a little fashion section on the contents page to make women when they flick through see that it is a women’s magazine and isn’t for men. When I did some audience feedback I asked 20 people who they thought the magazine was for and 14 out of the 20 said that they thought it was for females, so I think that I have given the right impression on my magazine.

I attracted my audience by making the magazine different, I did the effect of it looking like it had being drawn, not done on the computer. I also made colourful fonts and did good pictures that made it obvious that it was for a music magazine, when I asked people in my audience feedback questionairre, I also found out that 10 of the 20 people liked the colour scheme but the other 10 thought that it was lacking in colour and needed a bit more, I also then asked 20 people if they liked the handwritten affect on the magazine and 17 people said yes, only 3 out of the 20 said no, so this must have attracted people to the magazine, if something is really different is stands out to people. I tried to address the audience by showing a new artist too, if the artist is old people wont care and wont even look at the magazine

When creating this magazine, I though that using Photoshop was really easy, sometimes it would be hard to construct and blend things together but it did seem really easy to do. I used brushes for things like the stars and microphones and had to download fonts onto it and it wasn’t made complicated, but I did find it hard to cut around images and have empathy for the people who have to do this on magazines and who have to edit images. I have learnt that if I did do it again then I would cut around the images a lot better and take more time, to make sure that it was cut out more perfectly, I would also experiment with more brushes and types of blends and fonts. I also leant that technology can crash, so making sure that everything was saved constantly was key.
When doing the preliminary task I learned that in this new music magazine, I had to experiment with fonts more, as on the college magazine I stuck to the fonts that Photoshop provided but found out that professional magazines don’t do this, they use original fonts to make it stand out more so I did this myself. I also leant that I have to take more photo’s to get the right shot, in the preliminary task I only took around 10 photo’s and thought I got a perfect shot, so on this music magazine a lot lot more to make sure I got a variety of shots and took them in different locations so that I could use them in different parts of the magazine too. I also took a lot more time doing this magazine then I did the college magazine, making sure that it looked more realistic, and something you would defiantly see on the shelves in a shop.

When doing the questionnaires I found out that my magazine got a really positive response, there wasn’t a lot of bad comments, I am really proud of the end result. I think that my music magazine does have the same conventions of a real music magazine and would be really good in shop on the shelfs.

Drafts

Both of these contents page drafts were done on publisher

This is a contents page that I did on publisher, this is just to help me design mine when it comes to the real thing. I want my contents page to be similar to this but more detailed and a lot better. This is just a rough draft. I like the numbers at the side as it makes it easy for the audience to navigate their way through the magazine. I like where the pictures are located as they show an image with a number next to them also making it easy for the audience to know what page to go to, and thats what a contents page is all about, knowing what page to go to, to see the article you want to read. I made the 'Article' writing big as this will be the title of an article and the description in a bright pink as it stands out and tells a little detail of what would be on that page. There is also a contact us section as it is easy to see and in lots of magazine they have this on the contents page. I think when it comes to deisgning my real contents page, I will make it more colourfull, but the layout to me is fine and will definantly do something like this.

I like this contents page, and am definantly going to produce something similar to this in my final one. I think its edgy and easy to see, its modern and will catch the eye of the audience which is 16-25 year olds. I like the pattern and the colours that match it, the only problem being that the colour scheme is mainly targetted for girls. Im not keen on the layout of the contents page, I think that its too formal and needs to be jazzed up abit. It also doesnt contain much wiritng or information so it just looks to simple. If it was much more complex and had more writing then this would look much more professional but because it doesnt, It needs more work.

Final Piece Drafts

These are my final pieces (Contents Page, Double Page Spread and Front Cover), but these are only drafts, they are not the actual final pieces, I intended them to be in the first place but I needed to make a few improvements to them.

My Magazine Idea's

Fonts Already Used On Magazines

I want the name of my magazine to be very simple, but yet still catch the attention of the target audience. I also want thee font to be modern and match my magazine and what music is in the magazine.

This is the font for billboard magazine, its simple but still very eye catching with the colours in the dots, it also matches the colour scheme.

This font is for NME magazine, its Red, White and Black, its eye catching and also runs through out the colour scheme. As soon as you see this font and logo, you know what magazine its for and its instantly recognisable.

This is probably my favourite logo, this is because its so simple yet so eye catching, it can be seen anywhere and it again, instantly recognizable. Its small and doesn't spread or ruin any magazine covers, its easy to say and read, and the colours make it stand out more.

Font Ideas For My Magazine

All fonts are from (http://www.dafont.com/)

LL Rubber Grotesque

                                                                  I really like this don't, this is because its very edgy yet simple, it still stands out without it being too fussy and it can be easily read. I think it matches the target audience and it goes well with the choice of genre.

This font to me looks like a dance font, something that would be in a new dance music magazine. Its too modern and way too simple for the genre of magazine I'm doing.

This font works well for other magazines in genres like Dance or Alternative music magazines. Its too jazy and it doesnt really look suitable for a music magazine.


Charlie Brown

This font does what the title of the magazine says, its loud, bold and really does stand out, Its really easy to read and kind of goes well with my genre being new music (pop/indie).

This is a scibbled effect and I like this font but again it doesnt work well with the genre of my music magazine, this would work well with a acoustic genre or a more unqiue sound of magazine.


Name Ideas

Loud -The reason I thought of choosing a name like Loud is because its very edgy and short, it would catch the attention of people and would sound like an easy thing to say when mentioning the magazine. Its also got to do alot with the magazine, saying that the magazine is trying to make a loud statement, and that music is also loud, so the name of the magazine is very relevant.

TNMusic-This means 'The new music', I do like this name for the magazine and it does look good when written down, its not too hard to remember and it represents the magazine. Just like Q it means something other than just the name of the magazine.

Songz- This name is very boring and has no real relevance to the magazine, im not keen on this name as it doesnt really mean anything and has nothing to do with the magazine as it doesnt just involve songs it involves new artists and information about music.

Beatz- I like the name beatz, there are some headphones called this and I think that they represent new music as all the artists wear them, this would be good to call a magazine this, but the only problem is that it sound too dance, and my music genre is new music (pop/indie) so it doesnt really work well.

Audio- This is another word for the sound of music, I like this name, its catchy, it stands out and its very easy to remember.

FONT NAMES

Qubix

Rubberstamp

Back to heavy coat fat ground

Birth of a Hero

Ghetto Marquee

Clementine Sketch

JB Fil Std

Maksukehoitus

Artist and Photo Ideas
When thinking on the genre I was going to do, I thought of artists that are relevant to it, so I can maybe do something very similar. I wanted to use artists like Marina & The Diamonds and Ellie Goulding, this is because they are both Pop/Indie artists.

They both use acoustic sets and when doing my own pictures I would like to involve a guitar. I would also like you to be able to see what genre the magazine is straight away, Which is a Indie/Pop modern new music magazine.

Research On New Artists

By doing this research it will help me see what new artists are like, so I can maybe recreate some of the aspects that they have, like style or what genre they do. This way I know its popular and that my magazine will look modern and new.

(Left to Right) Far East Movement, Jessie J,The Wanted, Drake, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Katy B and Wiz Khalifa are all new artists or artists who have dramtically made an impact on music today.

Far East Movement - These are a new hip hop band that have collabarated with many famous faces on thier new album 'free wired' including keri hilson and snoop dogg, they came into the music scene around about late 2010 early 2011 with there smash hit ' Like A G6'.

Jessie J- 2011 was a really big year for Jessie J, she came onto the music scene with her song 'Do It Like A Dude' and from then it really took off, after that was then 'Price Tag', with another famous rapper B.O.B, this song went to number 1, the future looks bright for Jessie J with her album also doing really well that it had to be pushed forward a couple of weeks due to popular demand.

The Wanted - Very successfull boy band that came with 'All Time Low', the reason they are different is because there isnt that many young boy bands out there right now, and these are taken off so quickly and become so popular fast.

Drake - This is a very different type of rapper. Drake has friends including Rihanna (In which he collabarated with in Whats My Name), Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Eminem. These have all given him his big break

Justin Bieber - He has become one of the biggest stars of 2010/2011. Most teenage girls love him and his music and he has only just come onto the music scene, showing that even at the age of 17, you can become popular so quickly.

Nicki Minaj - She is the only female rapper who is popular today, her album didnt do so well on first week of release but its now flying up the charts. She has worked with Drake and Eminem.

I want my artist to be like this because they all stand out for different reasons. They have made a quick jump into the music industry and if my artist could stand out like they do on a front of a magazine then that would really change the minds of the audiene buying the magazine.

Price

All magazines have a different price, this can depend on many things like who will buy the magazine and whats in it. Here are some prices of current music magazines now, and also when they are published.

Kerrang = £2.20 (Weekly)
Q Magazine = £3.90 (Monthly)
NME = £2.30 (Weekly)
X Factor Magazine = £1.95 (Weekly)
Mixmag = £3.95 (Monthly)
Billboard Magazine $6.99 £.5.50 (Weekly)

For my magazine I think I'm going to do a monthly magazine because then you can make the magazine cost more and get more profit, I also think that when its monthly, the magazine has a lot more content and information then just a rushed quickly done magazine every week. Since my target audience is also 16 - 25 year olds, I don't think that at this age, its wise for the magazine to be too expensive and most people this age wont want to go out every week and buy a magazine.

I want to make my magazine £3.50 each month, this is because I think this affordable for each month, its also something that will make the magazine a profit and its also a price that is cheap, and will attract people to buy the magazine.

Target Audience

All types of magazines have a target audience, this is what they think of when the are writing and publishing the magazine. Some magazines think about a younger audience around the ages of 5-15, some think about 18-25 year old and other magazine think about older people 40+. The target audience also doesn't just have to be about age, it can be gender (Male or Female) or even income or employment, which is shown by letters, A is the type of people earning the most and E been the people who earn the least

A-  Upper Middle Class (Doctors and Lawyers)
B-  Middle Class (Teachers and Police)
C1-  Lower Middle Class
C2-  Skilled Working Class (Builders)
D- Working Class (Shop Workers)
E- Underclass (Students and the unemployed)

By doing some research on other magazines, I will be able to see which target audience is the best suited for my music magazine.

This magazine is an American fashion/music magazine called 'Teen Vogue'. Its pretty obvious who there target audience is, as it even says in the name of the magazine, but there are other aspects of the audience they do cover. Since the cover star is Justin Bieber, not many boys will think of buying the magazine, so in this case girls are more of the target audience, also older people don't really like or even know Justin Bieber, so people around the age of 40+ will not buy this magazine. The price of the magazine is $2.99 and in pounds that is £1.89 (http://www.dollars2pounds.com/) so this is a reasonable price for teenagers to pay for a magazine as its not too expensive but still enough money for the magazine to make a profit. There are also cover stars who feature on the front of the magazine like Selena Gomez and Nikki Read, who also are teenage stars, so its very obvious who this magazine is for and they don't make it confusing. Even the language they use is more suitable for that target audience, words like 'Cute' wouldn't be seen on a magazine targeted at older people.

This is an English radio/TV magazine. The target audience for this magazine is older people, people around the ages of 35+. This is because they feature articles and stories about programmes and radio channels that younger people wouldn't even listen or watch. The feature on this magazine is Gail from Coronation Street, which is 50years of corrie. Older people will be more interested in this then younger people as they wasn't even born then, older people tend to watch coronation street too. The price even though not stated on this magazine is £1.10. This is a weekly magazine, and its affordable to the older people, people who don't have enough money to pay for the more expensive magazines, no matter what job you are in, you could probably afford this magazine. Radio is also something that most older people listen to, especially stations like Radio 2, younger people listen to stations like Galaxy and Radio1. Gender doesn't matter on this magazine as both females and males buy it.

Nylon Guys is an American magazine. The target audience for this magazine is Males, it says in the name of the magazine Guys, so this is obvious to the readers and it even says in the font not for girls, although in cases like this girls might buy the magazine due to the cover star being Zac Efron. The age is 18+, as the magazine can sometimes contain explicit material. The cost of the magazine is $3.99 but in English pounds that's £2.53 (http://www.dollars2pounds.com/) this is an okay price to pay and most people wouldn't find this expensive, as most magazines are this price now. The cover stories also fit the needs of men and wouldnt suit women. I think it doesnt matter what job you are in to buy this magazine too, as it still okay to read for the rich or poor.





Artists that suit a certain target audience
Many music artists have an audience that like them more than any other, some girls like an artist more than boys do and some older people like an artist that younger people do, by doing some reasearch on what age/gender and social class people like, i'll be able to find out what I should put into my magazine to suit the needs of my target audience.

This reasearch is sterotyped (so what I think people this age would listen to) and is not all what people like, I have done what I think is the most popular and to what my own taste is.

16-30

People this age mainly listen to recent music, music thats in the charts and what most people like. There is a small percentage that listen to old music, but that percentage is very small. Artists like Lady Gaga, are what people listen to, boys and girls. There are many types of Genres too what this age range like, it could be Rock (Paramore), or even Country (Taylor Swift). People this age are willing to look up and research new artists and look them up to see when there album is coming out or when there doing a tour. The artists on the left are very popular now too (Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and The Black Eyed Peas) so these will be the people who will be feautured in most magazines now and there the people who's music will be on the radio and on the TV. If you dont put a recent or popular artist in your magazine then the target audience wont buy the magazine so you have to make sure of what people like.

Older people (50+)

Older people will not know recent music as much as younger people do, so they wont want to buy a magazine full of people they dont know. Older people like music that was out when they was younger, artits like The Beatles and Rod Stewart. Men and Women do have different taste in music but there still both the same in listening to older artists. Of course this is just a sterotype and what most people do listen to, some older people do like to listen to more recent music but this is the majority and what most people do think. When older people do watch the TV or listen to the radio they listen to Radio 2 or watch programmes like Top Of The Pops 2.

After all this research on the target audience I have decided Im going to do my magazine based on people aged 16-25, this is because I know what this age group like, I am also this age myself so I know what to base it upon and what artists fit into it.