Final Front Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread on Prezi

Evaluation

Before constructing my music magazine, I researched into stereotypes and how appearance and image creates assumptions about that individual’s character. An artist’s image or the way they present themselves onstage effects how their music and those who listen to it are perceived by the rest of society. Chelsea, the main feature of my magazine, is dressed in rock attire while wearing Glam Rock-inspired makeup which gives an idea what her music could possible sound like. The colour scheme I have chosen (red, black and white) also reflects the rock genre - I researched into other magazines and found that their colour scheme and house-style indicates the genre of the product, for example, a 'pop' magazine would use light pastel colours, a classical magazine would have a much more formal house-style and a rock magazine uses darker, bolder colours. My audience is in the bracket of ABC1C2 class and aged 16-25 because those are who would be able to afford buying it on a regular basis as well as being interested in the music genre and style.  

I think my magazine would fit in with the institution ‘Emap’ (http://www.emap.com/home2). Institutions such as IPC Media and Bauer already publish music magazines similar to the one I will produce (NME and Kerrang) so there would not be a gap here. Emap specialises predominately in the ‘b2b’ (business to business) publishing space and publishes magazines for nursing, retail and media. My music magazine ‘Demo’ is priced at £2.20, therefore could afford to be a self-published magazine without advertisements, which are what fund a lot of independent institutions which sell at a lower price. A competing music magazine like NME is priced at £2.40 which would make my own product more appealing to consumers. My magazine could be distributed through different shops if it joined to a popular entertainment shop (HMV, for example). If my magazine was self-published, it would gain full profit however there would not be as much advertisement and publicity involved which would affect the sales rate.

I found that the most appropriate age range is 16-25 year olds. The image portrayed from my magazine relates to a younger audience rather than a more mature audience like ‘Q’ magazine's. Having a female artist of the rock genre means it is not intended for a specific gender; I thought having a magazine which fixated on one gender narrowed the target market too much. When I was planning my magazine, I thought it would be more appropriate to aim it at a male audience because, after researching other music magazines and looking into their statistics, their target market is most commonly male. The colour scheme could attract both male and female readers. Considering the demographics and Socio-Economic Groups of the magazine, the working class are those most likely to be against the stereotype and label thrust upon them. When researching my genre of music and looking at the demographics, I found that the majority of my audience are frequent attenders of festivals. I therefore invented a festival name that could appeal to them based on the genre of music. Psychographics consider the attitudes of individual people and their values. I found in my research that, particularly in my chosen age group, that people use media products to imitate a certain style of living which gives them some form of identity by associating with a particular group of people in society. People who read music magazine are more than often interested in finding out about new music and gain access to less popular and familiar music to be a more unique person. these outer-directed people are enthusiastic and devoted to buying music and supporting the industry which relates to my story about music being leaked against the artist’s will – outer-directed people would normally purchase their music as a finished product instead of illegally downloading it before the artist intended for it to be released: “Why can’t I just put my music out when I want to?”. When trying to improve my understanding of my audience's psychometric profile, I found that many of them spend their leisure time with friends in social settings and most have attended a live music concert before - however some are more regular gig-goers than others. The majority of the people I interviewed have a part-time job and spend much their money on luxury items like music, clothing and entertainment technology. This information about my target market is useful for the publisher to guide the contents of the magazine as well as attract advertisers.

I created a survey using Microsoft Office Excel and asked 10 people within the target market to fill it in. I found that 100% of the audience new that the genre was Rock. 50% would buy it weekly which is what I intended my magazine to be and 50% would spend £2.50 on the magazine which is more than I initially had in mind which means I could possibly raise the price. 80% of the people who answered my survey said they would take advantage of the subscription feature. The 20% that said they would not said it was because they do not read music magazines often enough to want to subscribe even if they saved money on it. They said I could possibly give the contents page a better structure, the article could be longer and the genre could be broader.  

When constructing this product, I have learnt various techniques on Photoshop and other technologies which I have illustrated previously on my blog. 

When I started working on my front cover image, the first thing I edited was the levels and curves to make the image more prominent and richer in colour. I used the burn tool to enhance the make-up on the lips and eyes, and the eye colour as well as burning the edge of the page which frames the image. I originally planned to use blue and white for the title but eventually changed the colour scheme to red, black and white after much thought about what would be most appropriate for the rock genre (the blue looked more electronic than rock and also blended in too much with her blue-highlighted hair). I gave the title an inner glow at 75% opacity in black (24 PX size) and an outer glow at 100% opacity.  However, the blue highlights in her hair reflect her name and image by using the brush tool and changing the opacity of the brush to make some sections of hair lighter than others. I went through many different fonts before finally deciding on a font which I thought looked iconic and suited my genre; it also reminded me of the ‘ACDC’ logo. To create the mirrored effect, I duplicated the title layer, inverted it, and used the eraser tool to delete the bottom half of the text which looks like a reflection which is a more interesting feature for the front cover to have. To make my own individual barcode, I found an online barcode generator on Google and copied it onto Photoshop.  I originally put a box shape around the name ‘Chelsea’ which is in a different font and colour but changed this which I found stood out more when the writing was in bold black writing. When I first put in the red circle shape, I set it as a solid red colour using the colour blending option however this drew attention away from the other features on the cover. I highlighted the names of the artists and blended it by adding an inner and drop shadow. “Glam Fest 2012” is covered by the word “cancelled” to look more alarming and attract the audience’s attention – I had to use two separate layers for this. I highlighted the writing by adding boxes with a thin drop shadow on each so it did not blend into the colour of her skin. I added a drop shadow to the splash feature because I thought the white colour was too bright and is too big of a contrast with the rest of the page. On the double page spread, I airbrushed her skin and enhanced her makeup using the burn tool. I enhanced the blackness of her top as well as the purple in her hair. I adjusted the brightness and contrast, colour balance, exposure and channel mixer in the double page spread image. I found it difficult to choose the right font colour for my article heading because the background is both light and dark. I chose black and highlighted “my music” in red which keeps to the colour scheme of the magazine.

Audience Feedback

I conducted a survey on a small amount of people within my target audience using a paper questionairre, asking what their thoughts and ideas were for my magazine. These are the results:-

100% could tell it was of the Rock genre. The genre for my magazine is indicated through the artist's attire, my overall colour scheme and the heading "step aside for the new queen of rock". 
I asked how much they would be willing to spend on the magazine. The majority said they would pay up to £2.50 which is above my chosen selling price of £2.20.

I asked how often would they buy my magazine. My intentions were to publish the magazine weekly which is what 50% agreed with. Those who said they would by it on a less regular basis said it was because they could not afford it every week. I appreciate the fact that most of my target audience are students so a regular purchase may not always be possible for them.

I asked if they would consider taking advantage on the subscription feature. A large majority said they definitely subscribe - those I asked who said 'no' said it was because they would not usually purchase music magazines in general on a regular basis.

100% of the people I interviewed said that they could easily identify the main feature of the magazine. All successful magazines on the market use conventional features which I have introduced to my own design as far as I thought appropriate and this has proved successful for certain features (such as the main article) are noticeable and eye-catching. In conclusion, the majority of my audience would purchase the article weekly, spend up to £2.50 and would subscribe.
Improvements suggested: give the contents page a better structure, a longer article, a broader genre.

Creating a draft of a college magazine gave me the opportunity to learn about Photoshop and the various techniques which I could then apply to my music magazine. Compared to my music magazine, it is clear that this early draft has many blemishes. The page seems quite plain and empty, with no splash or puff to attract the reader. The house style only consists of two colours; green and purple which are not as eye-catching and attractive as three colours in the colour scheme. 

This is the final cover of my music magazine. Comparing this to the college magazine I first produced, there are clear differences for example I changed the house style from two colours to three after receiving feedback. There is much development of the techniques I used on Photoshop – I used more tools on the software such as the burn tool, I also found out how to airbrush the subject in my image.

It is clear that the college magazine is very plain, with a lot of space. I have used this space in my music magazine to display the main image as much as possible. The college magazine contents page is also very basic and not informative as contents pages should be, with no page numbers or any other story than the main ones displayed on the front. The college magazine content page is follows the same colour scheme which shows continuity. It lacks many features – those which are present are unevenly spaced. The layout and organisation of the magazine is incredibly important and it is visible that my skills using technology have progressed throughout the making of the final product. The feedback and ideas I have received have helped with the development of my learning and final outcome.

After producing my 1st draft of the contents page and double page spread, I was given feedback of which I feel I have taken into account and worked on.

Feedback

To Improve:-

- fill the text box on the double page spread

- very weak contents page

- add images to prezzie

- add comments to images

In my feedback, I have been made aware of the fact that the images in the bottom left hand corner lack anchorage and seem to be isolated from the rest of the page. In result, I have added more features to each image and re-positioned them to make it more of a formal and professional.
I have also added boxes to the main features and headings to make them more prominent. using the 'burn' tool, i have outlined the images and made the overall layout of the page more visually interesting.

Before creating the text, I made headings to section the entire magazine, making it less chronological and straight forward. It is also easier for the reader to find which part of the magazine they are interested in reading. 

I have added a drop shadow, inner shadow, bevel and emboss, as well as a stoke to make the text more appealing. I have also used the burn tool around the edge of the entire page which relates to the front cover. I found that this frames the page more and creates a subtle effect, making it less plain and dull.

I found it quite difficult when arranging my contents page and where the page numbers went. So I created individual layers for each page number so I could arrange them more freely. I put the down the left hand side of the articles however I still feel that they do not stand out enough so I plan on changing the blending options.

I edited the headings into a bold font for a more noticable effect.

I have made the headings of the articles bigger and in capitals. When researching and planning my contents page, I found that the description of the articles are most commonly in a very small font in order to get as much information as possible without boring the reader and taking away visual impact. 

I noticed that, by looking at other music magazine contents pages, they have shown the date or issue number in the contents page in a subtle way. 

I have put white boxes around the title because it makes it much more noticable and easy to read. It also relates to the front cover.

I changed the blending option to 'subtract' because I thought the black fit the colour scheme more. The white box also fit but I have used white boxes around the title and also white writing so a black box shows a more sugnificant statement.

I have used the 'dissolve' blending option to outline the text box to make it stand out.

I have changed the colour of the text to draw attention to the most interesting parts.

I found that most music magazine feature their subscription box at the bottom of their contents page; telling the reader how much they can save and where they go to to subscibe.

I have changed the blending options of the writing to make it more visually interesting and less plain.

This is the title of the contents page. I have used the same font and colour from my front cover in order to keep my house-style continous throughout the magazine.

Final Front Cover

I found it difficult to choose the right font colour for my article heading because the background is both light and dark.
I chose black and highlighted "MY MUSIC" in red which keeps to the colour scheme of the magazine.

I used the same technique I used on the front cover when I had the similar problem; I put a white box around each individual line and created a drop shadow on each.

I have added a drop shadow and inner glow to the box so it blends better with the image and it wasn't so harsh and sharp.

I created a dark box around the article to make it easier to read. Because the box was so dark, I was able to use a light colour for the article writing.

I found that it is common to show in a magazine who the photographer was.

I have adjusted the brightness/contrast, colour balance, exposure and channel mixer for this image.

I have made the purple in her hair more prominent, added light blue highlights and made the blackness of the top stronger.

I have airbrushed her skin here as well as making her black eye-makeup bolder.

This is the image I gave chosen to use on my double page spread.

Possible Images for Double Page Spread