For my
main task I created a Front page, Contents page and a Double page spread for a
music magazine idea of my choice. I followed this brief: create a 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.
For my initial idea, I had created a front cover based upon the Rock
genre of music and I used images from a live concert which I had taken myself.
After many attempts of editing and re-arrangement, I conferred with my tutors
and decided that the idea did not fit coherently with my aims and contexts, nor
with the stylistics of pre-existing products. I decided to start again with my
idea from scratch and focus on achieving my original aims and contexts and pay
more attention to the stylistics of my new genre and idea.
My new
idea was based upon a larger genre of music (Indie) to allow more research into
existing products. I decided upon the style of my magazine largely because of
the model I had used for another piece of coursework. I wanted a more
sophisticated feel to my magazine so I decided to cross-research my idea in
both musical elements and fashion elements. I knew from this that my magazine front
cover would not conform to the common stylistics so I decided to make my
product an exclusive issue to an imagined pre-existing product. I wanted to use
a cover image that would immediately catch the attention of a potential reader
so I decided to use a close up shot of my model looking directly into the
camera. Throughout my research stage I had found it common that cover stars
would look directly into the camera in order to create an emotional response
between them and the reader as it allows the reader to feel as though the star
is opening up to them only. I had also found it common that magazines would use
layering between the cover image and the Masthead of the product, they would
use this in a way where the Masthead did not fully cover the image, but the
image was placed to be behind the magazine, therefore making the name of the
product known and bold. I decided to follow this convention, but did so
carefully so the effectiveness of my image was not ruined. Due to the style of
my main image and the fact my product was aimed to be an exclusive issue I had
to find away to stick within basic conventions of front covers without damaging
the overall effect. For example, the entire of the pre-existing magazines I
analysed featured Cover lines somewhere on the front cover, when I was creating
my first draft I decided to place my Cover lines along the left hand side of my
image with the text overlapping my models face but I did not feel as though the
image should be covered so I followed the idea of having the Cover lines
mentioned within a banner at the bottom of the page so they didn’t cover the
models face.
I think that my magazine represents the typical teenager
social group who love music and fashion. The people that would fall into the E
grade of the social grades. “State pensioners/casual workers” i.e. students.
Because the image I used on the front cover has a model that is a similar age
to that of my target audience, I aimed that they can relate to it very easily.
In my questionnaire I asked, “Which age group do you think my product aimed at?”
and everyone said 16-24/5. I’ve used my
magazine to represent this particular social class as having good taste in
simple music, reflected in the layout design, colour scheme and general look.
Everything is really simple, clean and has a bold feel to it due to the effects
on the text used.
The institution that I would ideally like distribute my
media product would be Bauer Media. They publish magazines such as: Kerrang!,
Mojo and Q. I believe my magazine is similar to Q for the quality but I feel
that my magazine reaches a slightly younger audience than Q’s (25+).
Most existing magazines, regardless of genre, use a strap
line on the cover to establish to the audience what the magazine is about. I
decided this stylistic to be an essential for my magazine due to the fact it
was an exclusive issue and my Masthead was not a term associated with the music
industry. I came up with the phrase “To the point of new music”, it is a pun
towards the title and also establishes it is a music magazine.
For
my contents page, I wanted to keep it within the house style of my magazine
which was established within the design of the front cover. I wanted to make
sure that if you were to just see the contents page on its own, you would be
able to recognise which magazine it belonged too. I decided to use the image of
an arrow bending around the page instead of simply having the word “Arrow”
somewhere on the page. I used the same font and font effects of the contents
page as I did with the front cover. Throughout the research stage, I realised
that the majority of music magazines contents pages consist of sections such as
“features, news updates and
Interviews” so I decided to include the sub-headings down
the left hand side of my contents page within the arrow and the main article
titles down the centre of the page. As most contents pages contain snapshots of
articles included, I decided to place the images behind the text in the style
of Polaroid photographs but turn down the opacity on them so they did not contract
with the text too much. Although my style for the contents page has not changed
much since my original, I believe the back ground and image consistency has
improved it from the first one.
My double page spread was, what I feel, the main part of
my magazine which needed altering. Although I liked the original, after
speaking with my tutors and reviewing my research and aims, I decided that it
did not fit within the conventions of a music magazine but more of a fashion
magazine. I did another photo shoot with my model but this time I included an
acoustic guitar so it would establish that she was in fact a musician instead
of just a model.
I believe this adapted product is far better than my
original as I have had enough time to reflect, practise and improve my skills
in keeping within specific aims and context and also within digital
manipulation. My ability to use Photoshop has definitely improved since my
preliminary task. I am aware of layer techniques and how to put my thoughts
into practise in a way which is not too complex but realistic.
After re-starting my magazine idea, once I was finished,
I did another questionnaire of what people thought of my new product compared
with my old product to see if I had achieved my goal of making my product more
believable and fitting to the brief.
I was quite pleased with the results; 90% of people asked
said they preferred the 2nd style of front cover, 70% said they
preferred the 2nd Contents page idea and 100% said they preferred
the 2nd double page spread. The majority of people asked were within
my specified target audience age range so I believe my new product to be
capable of being more successful than my initial style. I am glad I reviewed my
initial audience feedback as it gave me an insight to what other people thought
of my product and allowed me to expand and consult new ideas.
