MUSIC MAGAZINE COURSEWORK EVALUTION

1. MUSIC MAGAZINE COURSEWORK EVALUTION Gregory H-Shillingford

2. TASK TO COMPLETE • For my final piece of coursework I had to create a music magazine that was appeal to a certain target audience . • Before I started the creation of my magazine I had to figure out what my genre of the magazine. • What would be and the target audience of my magazine and what age ranch that I could appeal too. • The parts I would actually be designing are the front cover contents page and double page spread article. • After addressing these issues I began to form my ideas with experimenting on adobe Photoshop and Microsoft publisher creating drafts for my magazine

3. Magazine drafts 1st draft • When designing my magazine I initially wanted to conform to how music magazine looked due to that there wasn’t any UK funky house music magazines means that I had targeted a niche target audience and had to refer to over genre of music to make my music magazine a success. • With my 1st and 2nd design for my front cover it seems that I have conformed to how hip-hip rap music magazine generally are with original image which has a lot of light making it seem bright making it seems to jump out at you like with XXL and Vibe do with there magazines The bright colours make the magazine seem or approachable , but with my 2nd draft the image seem stretched out due to it is a landscape image and I tried to turn it into portrait. 2nd draft

4. Magazine final design • With the final design of my front cover it seems that I have subverted to how music magazine generally conform to norms I had changed my original image to greyscale which with in music magazines go's it seems that most front cover images are in full colour and are bright making it seem that it will jump out at you like with XXL and Vibe . The greyscale effects seems to make my magazine fee very understated, but the use of bright pink and baby blue seem to have made my magazine seem cheap even though the colours do stand out against the image. • There are lots of sell lines on the front cover to take away the absence of the image by its self if anything the sell lines surround the image making you focus on it more • The use of Photoshop enable me to create the wave effect on the master head which you are unable to achieve in publisher and gives the front cover a different characteristic rather then conforming to a standard masterhead straight across the page.

5. Content page Draft • For my content page draft I didn’t seem to push the boundaries of conforming and subverting but made it rather simple the picture like all of my image where taken with a white sheet behind the models to keep the style of the magazine simple and not to make things to dramatic. • i tried to use the theme of black white and grey throughout the content page even in the font so that it wouldn’t look to different from the image and would blend in • There are some details that readers may not actually notice like the fading gradient bars on the top left- stripe of the page which fades from black to white. The fading gradient could be overlooked but I feel it contributes to the overall atmosphere of the content page as the theme of grey black and white work together.

6. Content page Final • For my final content page unlike my draft version of it I didn’t us a single image to selI or fill up the place of the page, I used different image so that it looked more attractive and clear unlike the draft also the colour scheme of black green and white went well as everything was easy read and you could find the article you need to find easy. didn’t seem to push the boundaries of conforming and subverting but made it rather simple as some music magazines like ‘kerrang’ have this layout of contents page. • The overall use of pictures was great as it conforms more to the standard of a music magazine, all so the use of columns easily separate the information making it clear and understandable.

7. DPS Draft • When creating my double page draft spread on Photoshop I created an interview type double page spread more seen in gossip magazine which subverted from music magazine as they generally have an image on one page and the article on other where as my image takes up both pages and the article seems to be built around the models in the picture this may be due though the fact that they are a group and if it had be, and I may of had a single model things may have been different, and I may of have to conform to the typical style of how a double page spread is laid out for a music magazine.

8. Double page Spread FINAL When creating my double page spread on Pages I created an interview type double page spread more seen in film magazine which subverted from music magazine as they generally have an image on one page like my second draft and the article on other where as I used two images and caused a more classic style of interview which is normal seen more documentary type of interview, and I may of have to conform to the typical style of how a double page spread is laid out for a music magazine. This style does subvert from UK Funky house as non of the mise en scene relates to UK Funky house. And I believe the conventions of my DPS should conform to my draft as above. The use of red and white make it clear the difference from questions and answers. This is also effect as it makes it clear and easy to read unlike my content page.

9. Final products • Front Cover Content Page

10. Final products.. continued Double page spread

11. Target Audience Who was the intended target audience for my magazine? My magazine target audience was between the ages of 16- 21. Also my target audience would be the youth who are interested in garage and funk MTV Dance or listen to BBC 1xtra. When creating my front cover had to keep in mind what would attract this target audiences by making features that would attract that kind of demographic. Which was the youth in London. Additionally to find out what my target audience were interested in I created a questionnaire and with the results it gave me an understanding of what my target audience were keen on and what I would need to do in order to attract them to my magazine. Although my magazine appealed to widely aged audience I feel that my magazine was more towards female.

12. Institutions I would want my magazine to be sold and distributed in all type of retailers from small convenience stores to reputable retailers like WH Smith’s HMV and Tesco’s as this would make my magazine available to all demographics even though my target audience is niche One big institution I would like my magazine to sold in is WHSmith, as it is a big institution for for books, magazines .WHSmith sell a lot of magazines which are of all different genres. This diversity in their store shows that it appeals to a wide ranch of people that go there to shop. In conclusion it would seem that WHSmith is a good place for my magazine to be sold as so many people go there to buy magazines, and I’m sure that my target audience would probably pay a visit to that store and would happily buy it as WHSmith’s reputation as a wholesaler is very high. Another big branh that could distribute my magazine is Tesco, due to that they are a supermarket sells a lot of material items including magazines and books. A large number of people shop there daily and it could attract a large audience. So people could buy the magazine on their weekly trip to the shops. Finally HMV would be a great institution to sell my magazine due to they sell all types of media in the shop and and would be great place to start due to that it would be easier to be recognised as a music magazine unlike in Tesco and WHSmith because they sell magazines of al kinds. These are all place in which I would like my magazine to sold to my target audience. Where would my magazine be distributed?

13. Technical/Construction issues When creating my merchandise I used a range of software to construct my Front Cover, DPS and Contents page. For my audience research and planning I used programmes such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel to show the research I had undertaken for this project. I also used these programmes to construct some of my work e.g. Picture analysis and front cover analysis. For the creation of my magazine I used a mixture of Adobe Photoshop CS4 to edit the pictures I had taken and Photoshop had lots of image editing tools that could help me create my front cover, contents page and DPS, but I also used publisher and a mixture of pages as it had template constructions layer out for my DPS and Contents page. As I hadn't a thorough understanding of how to use Photoshop, I wasn't able to use Photoshop to it full potential as a software.

14. FRONT COVERS comparision Vs.

15. Front Cover My front covers look completely different but there are some subtle similarities that make a big difference to the quality of my final cover Firstly the image used for my preliminary doesn’t seem clear and doesn’t have a lot of lighting making it seem dull. However the image used for my final front cover is more vibrant and jumps out at you clearly and my eye is more drawn to it. The masthead in my preliminary task looks very simple but the use of two colours white and red makes it eye catching and stands out from everything else, however my final cover has effects added to it that make the masthead shape in the way of a wave onto it giving it a more professional look . Also the way of how my final is set out cover is very different to my preliminary as my first cover seemed empty and need space to be filled within the this was due to the fact that there wasn’t enough sell lines on the page this makes it look unprofessional. Contrasting with my cover for my final I have a lot of sell lines to fill the page. There are some similarities with the to productions like how the masthead is in the top left of the corner and the consistent use of two colours to create a colour scheme to make them seem more professional for example the price. Thee placing of the competition are in the same place on both cover but for my final cover there isnt an image to sell the competition and its sell line I made bigger to make it stand out on its own. yet it didn’t take away from the main article.

16. CONTENT PAGES comparision Vs.

17. Contents Page With my content pages there seems to be more similarities then differences with my, content and structure. Firstly In my preliminary task there is only one image as with my final content page which my point of this was to make the read focus on the article for the DBS. I didn’t have any images that reflected some of the sell lines that were on the front cover which doesn’t conform to typical music magazines For my preliminary task contents pages has a column on the left hand side really to display the page number but on my final context page it has 3 columns due to there was more content and article that need to be displayed. The subheadings to make it easier to find the article of choice also there a lot more use of pictures to make the page seem bright and vibrant to suit more of the genre of funky house. I felt that with my preliminary content page there was such information and it was unclear for the reader to see especially when the from cover the image. I felt with my final content page I did’t repeat the process as the font is clear bright and vibrant so its easy to Read and is clear clairvoyant and is easy to read.