Evaluation of the Finished Magazine

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine is a typical rock magaizne i think. its got a rock style font and also has a similar layout to magazines like Kerrang! and NME. the band on the front look like a rock band and the picture is similarly shot to one you might see on another rock magazine. I have used the convention that the title goes at the top and is quite bold to make it stand out when its on a rack with other magazines. i also made my front cover picture of the band looking towards the reader and making eye contact.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think my Magazine falls in with the teenage/young adult market who are into this stlye of music. on the contents page it talks about competion you can win which could also attract other types of people to the magazine. The Band are of a similar age to people who may want to buy this magazine so

this could attract some readers to it.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magzine is an indie rock style magazine so it could be sold in record shops who specialize in that style of music but i also think it could be sold in popular retailers like WH Smiths who sell similar style magazines like Kerrang! most of the bands are quite mainstream anyway so the genre would appeal to a wide audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be teenagers or young adults who are into the indie rock style of music. i think it would mainly be males who would buy it but females would be a smaller percentage of its sales i think. the socio economic

group that would buy my magaizne would be working class to middle class becuase these are the two main classes that have a higher musical interest for this style and for buying magazines of this genre. the readership survey for kerrang! shows

ABC1: 57% C2DE: 42% men: 69% women: 31% 15-44: 90% 45+: 10%

which is a similar style to my magazine so you would expect it to be similar to this.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract the auidence to my magazine i put a list of most of the bands that are featured in my magazine to have a wider appeal. so if one person doesnt like the band in the main feature but may like another band that are inside they may still buy the magazine.

There is also other things inside the magazine to appeal to the reader such as a competion and album reviews. I used a bold title in Blue to make it stand out from others. i think its a very distinctive title and would stay in people memorys to buy it again.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Ive learnt lots of skills on indesing and photoshop while making this magazine. and ive had to learn how to use each piece of software from scratch. i was able to use photoshop to edit my photos in the way i wanted them to fit in around the text i was putting in on indesign. one problem i had was that photoshop was quite complicated to use and took me a while to get used to so i only found that i could manipulate the images the way i wanted nearer the end. i did find photoshop a great help on my front cover picture because i spent a long time editing my picture to get it to look right on the front page.

Photo Editing

these 3 picturers above show the 3 stages of editing i went through to get the final picture for my front cover. i started with the original but it was to short as i needed more brick wall above the band so i coppied and pasted the brick wall to make it look like there was more in the first place. i spent a long time on this to get it looking as best as i could so it would not be noticable. i then blured the top part black to blend in with the black background of the magazine cover. i tried it without the blur and it looked wrong with the picture cutting off at a straight edge.

I edited this photo to put a lighter over exposed patch in the corner to give it a bit of a more highlted look to it. becuase hes the front man of the band i wanted to draw attention to him. i also this this makes him stand out becuase of his dark clothing. this over exposed look on the brick wall also makes the rock/ grungy look more exagerated i think.

Photos

This picture is what i used for my front cover. I used it becuase it shows the singer in front of the drummer and guitarist, and makes him stand out as the front man. I made them stand infront of a brick wall becuase it gives it an urba/rock feel which is the style of the band and magazine. they are all wearing dark clothing which again ties in with the rock stlye of my magaizne. the picture is cut off from the chest down. this works best for the front cover becuase it leaves room above for the title of my magaizne.

This photo is similar to the last one but is off the band sitting down and shows the whole of them. this one is more natural from the other one and i used it in my double page spread. the whole band are laughing in this one which makes it seem very casual and natural.

this picture is very natural but i wont use it becuase some have there eyes shut and are looking in oppostite directions.

this is a good photo to use for the individual band members on the double page spread. its in a very relaxed postition with the brick wall behind him which again helps represent the rock genre of the band and magazine.

i have used this setting again and shot type for the individual band members photos with the brick wall and the relaxed casual pose.

this photo is slightly different to the other individual band pictures because insted of having his whole body in like the others its just his head a torso. i took this differently becuase hes the front man and needed to stand out.

Fonts

This is the font i will be using for my brand logo. the reason i chose this is because my magazine is rock indie and i think this font looks like that kind of style. because my magazine is in the same sort of catagory as kerrang and the font they use for their brand logo is similar to this so i chose this because it fits in with the style. i chose 3 other fonts to use for my brand logo but this one was the one other people said would look best becuase its eye catching and fits in with the style of my magazine. The font looks quite eye catching will appeal to the reader. the way the name of my magazine 'sounds loud' looks in this font is interesting because there is a swirl coming off one of the letters which makes it more interesting than a plain font.

this is the font im going to use for my main cells because its easy to read and as a big block of text will not be to confusing because its very simple. this font is serif so this will help the text to flow when its in big blocks. the main cells text in kerrang and NME (which are in the same genre as my magazine) and most other magazine of any genre use similar texts to this becuase there is no point in using really swirly or interesting fonts if people cant read it easily. there wasnt many other fonts to use for my magzines main cell text becuase i knew i wanted to use a simple text so its easy to read and looks good in a block of text. i chose this one becuase it was the simplest one i could find.







this is the font im going to use for my main flash. this was one of the fonts i was going to use for my brand logo mut decided it would be better for the sub headings. i like this font becuase of the way parts are taller than others but its still easy to read. i couldnt use this for for my main cells becuase of the way the height varys but i think as a sub heading will look good becuase it stands out. this font also looks like it will fit in with the rock indie genre. the font is serif which suits this font becuase im using it for a subtitle which also makes it stand out.

Analysis of existing magazine

The name of the magazine is in capitals and in red and this is the same for each issue of the magazine so it is recognisable for its readers. the name is also at the top of the magazine so that it can be seen when its on a shelf this is true for all magazines. on each issue of NME there is a photo of the band/singer which has the main article in the magazine and the name of the band/singer is written in big letters so fans can see easily if a band they like is in that issue. NME use the same font for most of its writing on the front cover this is so its recognisable as NME font which is bold and stands out. the colour of the writting varies each issue to do with the back ground colour this cover has white and yellow becuase there is a dark background but on other covers where there is a lighter back ground the font colour is black and red.

Kerrang!'s title is very recognisable too and its font stands out so the readers can recognise it. even though some of the title is covered up you can still tell its kerrang! becuase of its font. much like NME there is a picture of the band which the main article is about. and at the bottom of the page there is a list of all the bands in this issue so its like a summerised contents. and down the right hand side of the page in a list of more bands in more detail. The name of the band that the main article is about is in bold and in a large font. both magazine front covers try to use the majority of the page and fill it with as much information as they can so they give the reader as much knowledge of whats in the magazine as possible.

this contents page is quite structured because its got all the articles and page numbers on the right and highlighted the main one with the largest picture and said what page that articles on and other articles are placed around the main one and numbered. this helps the reader to find what they want. the pictures also help the reader find the article there looking for because they should recognize what the band there looking for look like. there are also sub headings to the contents list on the right, e.g news, live reviews and album reviews. there isn't enough space on the page to list every article in the magazine so they only list the largest and most popular articles.

this is a double page spread from the live review section of kerrang. the way its layed out in important because it gets the readers attention if it looks interesting. the way the pictures have been put in at all different sizes and levels make it look quite rock like and the way there on the page make them look a bit like posters on some ones wall. the actual review is quite small considering its a double page spread. as it only takes about a quarter of both pages. the way kerrang review albums and live shows instead of stars they use k's. this is also included in the article. the name of the section of the magazine, e.g lives is in the top corner of the magazine so if some one is just flicking through they can find what there looking for. the colour's used are black and white are quite neutral but the overall look of the page is dark and rock style.

target audience

Kerrang is a similar genre of music to the magazine I'm designing. Kerrang! was first published on 6Th of June 1981, edited by Geoff Barton, initially as a one-off supplement in the 'Sounds' newspaper. ACDC were the first band to appear on the front cover. more men buy kerrang! that women. 290000 men buy it a month and 127000 women. And most of its readers are young at 378000 between the ages of 15-44 and only 39000 aged 45+. 57% of Kerrang! readers are in the socio economic classification ABC1 and 42% are in the socio economic classification C2DE. The readers of this magazine are likely to be Individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty. a large number of the readers are likely to play music or have some music experience.

ABC1: 57%
C2DE: 42%
men: 69%
women: 31%
15-44: 90%
45+: 10%

Because my magazine is of a similar genre of music to Kerrang! I will be aiming it at similar target audience; younger male audience in the socio economic classification ABC1.

Introduction

The genre of magazine I'm designing is indie rock. i will be using the same techniques i used for my preliminary coursework on the college magazine.