Evaluation

Carrying out the preliminary task was very useful in helping me design a more professional magazine front cover. As you can see the outcomes of my magazines have improved dramatically. Creating the college magazine helped me experiment with all the conventions and features that are need in a magazine front cover. I have included the same conventions in both, but I think my music magazine is much more professional. I think the image is the most prominent visible change in the magazines and this is because of the editing I did on photo shop, where as the main image on the college magazine is not edited at all. The photograph has had the background removed, I've used the spot heeling tool, levels, curves, eraser and the patch tool, all of these have worked together to make my model look 'perfect', leaving her with no blemishes, making her look like a celebrity on the front of a magazine. As the main image is the most eye catching factor of a magazine I feel this has made a huge difference. Secondly I think the title has improved hugely. In my college magazine I used the more conventional red colour on bold text, however on my music magazine I thought much more carefully about how its going to stand out and link with my image so I again used a bold front, but I made the title in capital letters and created a gradient effect using the eraser on a soft edge to give a 3D effect. I also made my main image over lap the mast head, this is very conventional of existing music magazines and it helps in linking all parts of the magazine together. During the preliminary task I hadn't carried out much research on existing magazines so i was not aware about thirds, and as you can see, I have not placed the cover lines or image in a way which makes them look professional. You can see the improvement straight away when looking at my music magazine, as I've conventionally placed my main image in the middle with the cover lines either side. This creates a even and balanced looking front cover. If I was to create another college magazine I would defiantly improve my photograph by taking the photos in a studio and editing them. I would do this because overall its the most eye catching part of a magazine and I feel it needs to look good for the rest of the magazine to work. I would also work on the house style and cover lines. I feel the text is too small to read which makes it look lost in the busy scenery in the photo, to improve this i would make the text bigger and bolder, which would make it easier to see.
Overall I am very happy with the difference between these two front covers. I feel my music magazine is a huge improvement because of all of the research I have carried out and the constant improvement on drafts after my peer feedback.
If I was to create another magazine I feel I have improved on my skills and knowledge drematically to be able to create another professional looking front cover. I feel I know what looks good and what doesnt work as well to look effective, and I feel I could take all of my newly learnt skills and improve even more.

Evaluation

 As you can see this is an original image which I have taken on my camera. I am going to demonstrate how I created the effect on the photograph on my double page spread. I started with the original image and cropped her face so that her face takes up the full frame. This makes the beads on her face more visible and makes her seem closer to the reader. Its also conventional to have a close up shot on the double page spread in music magazines.

 Next I adjusted the layer by using 'auto' levels, this helps change the lighting and shadows in the photograph, making it easier to work with. I created a white layer behind the image. I used the quick selection tool on the image layer to select the background that I wanted white. Once all selected I pressed the delete button and this left me with the white background. (ensuring the image layer is on top of the white layer) This can some times give a very harsh and sharp effect, so to make the edges softer I took the eraser tool and made sure that it was set onto about 50% hardness, this helps give a soft effect. I carefully went around the edge of her face making the lines softer, making the edit look more natural and unnoticeable.

 Once the original image has been edited to how I want it, I duplicated the layer and created a black and white adjustment layer on one of these layers.

For the final stage I made sure that the black and white image layer is on top of the colour image. To create the coloured beads effect I took the eraser tool and made it the size of the beads on my models face, making sure it's on 100% hardness. I then clicked the eraser so that it removed the black and white adjustment leaving the natural red colour of the beads showing through.
I love the effect this creates as it looks very effective once all the beads are edited into colour. I tried this effect on many different images to see which I liked best and this is how I chose the image for my double page spread.

Evaluation

Once I had completed my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread I printed them out, constructed them in a magazine format and asked some questions to various people in my target audience age range to see what they thought of my magazine and to see if they liked it. This also helped me see what people dont like as much, letting me know what I would do to improve upon this if I was to do it again. I asked 40 people aged between 16-25, and these were my results...

Would you buy this magazine? 37 = yes, 3 = no

Whats the most prominent feature on the front cover? 22 = main image, 17 = mast head, 1 = exclusive

Do you think there is a constant house style that is effective? 38 = yes, 2 = no

Do you think the price is reasonable? 35 = yes, 5 = no

Does the magazaine look professional? 34 = yes, 6 = no

Do you think the image looks conventional? 34 = yes, 6 = no

Would you make any changes to any part of the magazine? 9 = yes, 31 = no

These questions show me that my magazine is appealing to the majority of the people I have questioned in my target audience. However these answeres show me some changes that I could make. Question one shows me that my magazine looks good, as 37 people out of 40 would actually buy it. Question two helps me see if my front cover is conventional and eye catching, this resulted in showing that the main image and mast head stand out the most. I was very happy with this as these features are the two which I wanted to look the most prominant to the reader. Question 3 also shows that my magazine is conventional as 38 people felt my house style flowed through all of my pages in my magazine, meaning that they all sucsesfully link together. The audience for my magazine also believe the price is reasonable, meaning that they think it is priced properly for the type and quality of magazine that it is. All of these questions helped me see that my audience like the look of my magazine, however the feedback from the last question has helped me find out some improvements that I could have made. One of the most common comments was that they thought I should have more images, an extra on the front cover and possibly a couple of extra ones on the contents page. I agree this could look good and improve my magazine as it would add extra colour and features onto my pages, and I feel it could help liven my contents page up. Another thing that my audience said I could change is the layout of the double page spread. It was suggested that I could try to fit my text around an image, which is the most conventional layout for this. I would try this as a draft for next time but overall I am happy with my double page spread and how is looks as I feel both pages work well together as the colours and story link together.

Evaluation

During my research I gathered a group of people which are around the age which I have aimed my magazine at, to ask some questions about different aspects of magazines to help me come to positions. I asked the questions
Would you prefer to download a magazine app or purchase one from a shop?

What do you look for when you purchase a magazine?

How much are you willing to pay for a magazine?

What would encourage you to buy a music magazine if you don't already?

How could existing magazines be improved?

What do you like existing magazines to offer?

Do you regularly purchase magazines?

What type of magazine do you usually buy, and why?

Would free gifts encourage you to buy a magazine?

Would you prefer to have interactions with the magazine, for example competitions and games?

What existing magazines are you interested in?

Would you prefare a one genre or a mixed genre music magazine?

This was a useful piece of information for me to consider as these people may be customers for my magazine, so finding out information off them including how much they would be willing to pay, and how often they perchase them really helped me to target my magazine at my chosen audience. In effect helping me make the decision to make my magazine a monthly issue, which is only £3.40 etc. Asking people of this age helped me instantly find out what my target audience like in a magazine , helping me include features that they like and would be willing to perchase.

Evaluation

I have biased my magazine on the Vibe magazine, and I feel Vibe would be a good distributor for my magazine. Vibe was founded by Quincy Jones and also in partnership with Time inc. I think Vibe could be interested in distributing my magazine as it's biased on a R&B genre, similar to my magazine.

I think that the audience for my magazine is both genders around the age of 18 who have an interest in music and enjoy the R&B genre and music scene, who want to keep up with their favourite celebrities. I feel the colours and cover lines help my magazine appeal to both genders and in effect this will allow my magazine to have a bigger audience, in effect making my magazine sell more and make more profits. I attracted and enticed my audience with my neat layout and the constant colour scheme I have used throughout all pages of my magazine. I also used a range of various different images to make my magazine look interesting. In my font cover I used a conventional medium close up photograph to help make my magazine stand out to customers. Some of the clothing that my model was wearing also matched the house style which made the photo link with the magazine house style. My house style was red, black and white, I chose these colours as I feel they look aesthetically pleasing together and I also like the way the black and white contrast each other and make each other stand out.

My reader profile is based on the NME reader profile as I thought the layout looked busy, interesting and colourful. I feel my target audience was addressed in the reader profile i created when carrying out my research. I included things like IPhones, leather jackets, Nike blazers, Jack Daniels etc. I chose these things as i think they are things that my target audience like. I believe all of these items relate to the younger audience of around 18-20 years old, and this is the age my magazine is aimed at. In my key stats I have wrote that the female audience is around 62% and male being 38%. I chose these figures because I feel magazines in general are more of a girl accessory so I feel that the percentage of female customers will be slightly higher. I included the quote 'this magazine is amazing' as customers may read this and it could persuade them to buy the magazine. The 'influential' and 'in the know' paragraphs are also used to persuade customers to by the magazine, they suggest that the magazine will make you popular and 'in the know' with recent music. To make my reader profile look professional I included details for customers to contact if they have any questions or enquiries.

Evaluation

My magazine represents stereotypes and age groups because of the many conventional features I have included in it. It was very helpful that I analysed existing magazines before I made my own as I was able to see what things worked best but also which things didn’t work so well, and this made me make decisions of what, and what not, to include in my magazine. My magazine includes many conventions that are very conventional for a music magazine and I did this so it looks professional and so it can compete with existing magazines in the shops. It includes many features that are stereotypical of a music magazine because of the contentions I have include, for example on the front cover I have a masthead, cover lines, a main image, bar code, a conventional layout, bar code etc, this in effect made it look like a stereotypical music magazine. In relation to content I again included most conventional features in my front cover, contents and double page spread that a music magazine should have, but I chose to include an include some extras to give my magazine an edge on other magazines like the smart phone scanner and my extra image in the left third of the contents page etc, but my choice to use mostly conventional features was because I wanted it to look professional.

Researching demographics has really helped me come to certain decisions when coming to designing my magazine. In particular it’s made me think about what gender, age group and social class I am aiming my magazine at. In regards to gender I have thought carefully about the colours, images, cover lines in my magazine. I’ve used a house style of the colours of red, white and black. I could have chosen to use colours which are more strongly associated with a particular gender such as pink and blue, but however I feel the colours I have chosen appeal to both male and female genders and this is effective as it allows my magazine to have a bigger target audience. When taking my photographs I was also thinking about how it is going to appeal to my audience. I chose to use a girl as my model as I felt this would appeal to more people as I thought females could relate to her, and males may want to know more about her and possibly find her attractive. I dressed my model in clothes that any girl might wear and did her makeup in a way which was unique but that girls can create their self, because of this I feel the female audience purchasing the magazine can look up to my model and inspire to be like her making it appeal to them. I also chose a young model to use on my front cover as my new and upcoming artist to suggest to the audience that you can get success at a young age, also the pose my model is doing is showing open body language showing that she is confident, giving out a positive message to the female readers. On the other hand I feel my female model could appeal to males as they may buy the magazine as they simply find her attractive, or again because they want to find out more about her. When designing the cover lines for my magazines front cover and contents page I had to carefully think about what gender the stories are aiming at. I chose ones which included successful and famous artists as the majority of music fans (of the R&B genre) will want to know about these. The giveaway I have included it also related to both males and females, as the product of ‘Dr. Dre Beats’ is a unisex product and can be used by both genders helping all aspects of my magazine appeal to both genders. In regards to aiming my product at a particular age group and social class, one of the most important features is the price. I’m aiming my magazine at people with a social status and grade of D and E on the demographics table and because of this my main target audience I've aimed at is between 12-17 and possibly 18-24. This is because the audience in these age groups may not have much, if any, disposable income, so I had to think carefully about how I have priced my magazine. I chose to make it a monthly issue and this was one of the main reasons for that. It means my customers don’t have to pay for my magazine weekly, only monthly which may give them time to save a little each week to buy the product, which brings me onto the price. I had to think about how much money people would be willing to pay for a music magazine. After my research about how much existing magazines are being sold for, I chose to choose a price at the lower end. My magazine is priced at £3.40 and $4, I felt this was a really reasonable price for a magazine, and I believe this is a cheap price for a monthly magazine which many customers will be able to afford.

The artists featured on my front cover are all of a R&B genre, however on the contents I have included a ‘GIG REVIEW’ column which includes bands of different genres, mostly indie. This could be seen as unconventional as all of the mise en scene I have chosen to include makes the magazine look like its only of an R&B genre. However I thought by including these bands it would again help increase my customer base as customers that prefer a different genre of music may chose to buy this magazine to read the gig reviews about the band.

Evaluation