The document describes a student's music magazine project. They tried to model their magazine after professional magazines like NME by including cover lines, photos, and color schemes typical of music magazines. They discuss challenges in designing the layout, such as positioning photos and text, and ensuring the cover lines represented the target genre of rock/indie music. Conventions like clothing styles in photos and color palettes were used to clearly communicate the genre to readers.

1. Evaluation for Music Magazine

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When thinking of my music magazine I tried to make it look like other similar professional magazines, for example the strip at the very top, like the one below it informs the reader what is on.; In some ways like a cover line. This makes the reader interested as sometimes you might get something for free when purchasing the magazine. I tried to make I tried to make the picture as good as I could, as I only had around 10 good quality pictures. Never the less I thought this photo suited the front cover. My picture is similar to the one below as there is two people, and in both pictures they are looking towards the reader to add extra effect. I thought of this while producing mine and thought it would add more effect if I did so. The cover lines are similar too. Cover lines are used to inform the reader about what's included in the magazine and are often used to add extra effect. As my main colour pallet was red white and black, I decided to stick to it and hence the reason the cover lines are this colour. The NME magazine includes cover lines on the actual picture, I did not want this as I wanted the picture to stand out and to be different. I do not think it would of suited my magazine if I added more cover lines especially over the picture, perhaps if I had different colour background maybe, but I liked the fact the background was black and it made the headline stand out. The NME background is white and i wanted to add this to my magazine, but I seemed to like the colour black and stuck with that. With white it made the picture stand out a lot more as it was a dark coloured effect, with bold white writing. I thought this looked good and was effective; also when someone picked it up if you liked that type of music you would be interested in buying it.

3. I used this magazine to look at the colour pallet, and to help with the cover lines needed to produce my very own magazine. As you can see the main cover line in the middle of the main picture is bold white and red. This helped me as I was doing the same genre as NME and could see how to develop my magazine even further so it looked professional. Nearly all NME magazines have this strip at the top of their front cover, and it either promotes adverts, free things such as downloads, and another cover line. In this magazine it promotes yet another cover line followed by a picture. This gives the audience further information about the story involved inside. I was thinking about doing the same layout as this magazine but I wanted mine to be different. I thought that the barcode layout was great as it didn’t take up much space and looked neat. Like below I tried to do the same colour pallet suitable for the genre Rock/Indie. This was hard but as I had the NME magazines to base my magazine on it helped having these to give me ideas. I wanted the strip at the top to be a different colour so it stands out from the rest of the front cover. I tried a various amount of colours, some did not work but on the other hand some did. I thought Yellow went well with the rest of the writing and therefore I used yellow even though people did not say they wanted yellow in the magazine. I tried to stick to certain colours like the magazine below, this was quite hard as I had to move around the text and find the right font needed. Instead of just one picture on the front cover I decided to include another one as it would take up more space and it suited the cover line. Like the others I had to cut out the background and smooth down the edges so that it would look right on the magazine.

4. This is my school magazine, and like my music magazine all the cover lines are on the left hand side so when people / your audience picks the magazine up, the cover lines will be the first thing they will be able to see. The cover lines had to suit the audience and this was the same with my music magazine too. I tried to keep to the codes and conventions of magazines, but as I was new to InDesign I do not think it was as good as it could have been. I had a lot of spaces when it came to my school magazine, as in my music magazine I tried to solve this problem by increasing the size of the text, adding more cover lines and a picture, and by making the main picture bigger which made it stand out even more. I could have made the main picture bigger so that there would be less space, and also I could have increased the size of the Headline. This would of made the whole front cover better as less space would have been seen as a result. Also I did not like the way I had the Holy Trinity Logo tucked into the top left hand corner. As it was to cramped, and was not well filtered. Instead of tucking it away in the corner I could have mad it smaller and placed it somewhere else on the magazine, but if I did it would have to be better quality as this one is just not right or suitable. I think it is not right in the codes and conventions to have 3 pictures on your front cover. Although it looks fine you will never see a professional magazine have 3 pictures for their front cover, 2 may be acceptable ( which is what I have done in my music magazine) but 3 is a definite no. 2 will be the max amount of pictures for the front covers. In my school magazine I created this simple theme, in which I thought looked fine, but now looking back at it looks babyish. *School Magazine…

5. In terms of the picture they both contain musicians or band posing., in certain clothes to suit the genre. The way they are dressed highlights the type of music presented in the magazine, as opposed to stories that are not musically related. Like I said the clothing is a convention I used to achieve my target audience. Both Musicians are wearing something that would appeal to the rock audience. The model I used is wearing a checked top with black jeans, this suggests that she is promoting rock music and perhaps is a rock artist. NME also used clothing to promote what their magazine was based on. They used dark colours such as brown and black and added a effect which makes their skin a little darker too. The pictures… I think it is important to try to promote what genre your magazine is on, such as rock in this case. People need to know what kind of magazine it is and has made me notice how important it is to get this through to people . Use filter to make the pictures different and suitable for the type of genre for the magazine . Checked tops and other clothes that are dark colours might suggest the type of genre, as some individuals/groups will be stereotypical . One main image -- This is the focus of the magazine, it is clear to the audience that this is the main story. This main image has to stand out from the rest. It is often bigger in size and a different colour too, but has to blend into the background. (no rough edges!)

6. The pictures are very important and in need to do their main job they need to stand out . I tried to make mine stand out as much as possible. It was a pain though as I had to get rid of the backgrounds then smooth the edges down, adjust and filter and then place it onto the magazine. In many cases I had to add a certain glow, as the edges were too rough and it went into the magazine’s background too much… the background was black and so was some of our clothing. As you can see the bottom half of us are dark colours. This is the problem I had while producing my magazine. As some of our clothing was dark colours I had to try to make it stand out a lot more then usual (more then I actually would of liked to). Getting the right glow effect was hard. You had to judge when to stop, and when it was to much. I didn’t want it looking unprofessional, and I figured if I added a lot of glow it wouldn’t look right. So in the end I ended up adding a little bit of glow and went on Photoshop to smooth it down again. I did this a few times just to get it right. Getting the pictures in the right place was a challenge. I looked at other professional magazines for various genres. This helped as most pictures were on the right hand side of the front cover and the cover lines on the left. This is because when the reader picks up a magazine, the cover lines will be the first thing they will see. This means that the cover lines have to be memorable. Cover lines have to stand out in any magazine, and one of these cover lines has to relate to the main picture, and may suggest what a article might be about.

7. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My magazine is based on Indie rock/rock music. This represents this because of the colour plate. I used the colours Red, white and Black and I wanted this to be consistent throughout. These colours are normally used in rock magazines and this is what I was aiming for. Also the cover lines show that my main target audience is fans of rock and Indie. ‘Kings Of Leon’ are a well known rock/Indie band and by listening to their music often, and reading about them in magazines, most fans seem to be interested about their music and gigs. This is why I have included them in my magazine as it would reach a lot of individuals. As it a Indie magazine also I had to include other famous artists that may be involved in this genre. To do so I used my own imagination and made a band of my own up. I based it on me and my friend and just changed their names and the storyline of course. Even though I thought the magazine was hard to write it was soon produced and it was included. This also shows Indie/rock because the article’s about a rapper joining a rocker girl and her drummer. I have known other artists or famous people that have joined certain groups and have been successful, so I decided to do this. In addition, in my opinion I thought that the headline suited the social groups (Indie and Rock). It just seemed to suit the magazine. I think I could of made it a bit bigger so it stood out more but that could be something to improve on in the future. I also needed more text, like cover lines, but as I missed 2 weeks of media it was hard to play catch up. I tried to make my Headline as believable as possible. Like the NME I tried to make it stand out from the black background. I think I did well as when I stood back I could see that it did in fact stand out with the main picture. The NME Headline is Bold and simple. It is unique and can be remembered easily.

8. NME: In the preparation of making my magazine I referred back to the NME website often as I was doing the same type of genre. This helped in searching for the correct colors and the type of font I wanted to include on my front page, content and article. http://www.nme.com/ NME inspires me towards my magazine in many ways. The use of NME’s pictures and photos used in their articles and front covers are very effective in their own way. The use of Colour is very effective and inspired me in making my actual magazine. The red and the black really stands out against the white and both of the characters or artists are looking towards the camera and the audience making it more personal to the reader. Also this suggests that both of the artists are equally important. NME’s website inspired me to come up with my own ideas regarding my own magazine. This can be partly because I can relate to the kind of music as it is what I tend to listen to but also because I too also read NME

9. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? IPC is one of the United Kingdoms leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, selling over 350 million copies each year. Music magazines they own is: • NME and Guitar and Bass. I have chosen IPC because this is focused on NME based magazines and I have focused my magazines based on these certain type of magazines as my main genre is rock/Indie. In addition they produce millions of copies each year in different genres. The company have many different brands within them and publish over 80 magazines that are of various genres to attract all audiences. These two headlines have various similarities; Big bold writing, with a black background to make it stand out. The colours have to match, and this is how I compared my music magazine with IPC! As IPC produce some NME magazines, I linked my magazine to them but made them my own way. IPC are well known and as they produce thousands of copies I decided to make my magazine about this institution. http://www.ipcmedia.com/ To understand IPC in more depth I went on the website and tried to find out other information which would increase my knowledge about them. (the link shown left) <<

10. Who would be the audience for your media product? All Magazine producers have to consider a variety of elements when deciding on their main target audience. They have to think about whether they are going to focus on a specialized market ( a niche ) and what genre the Magazine is about . Other aspects to take into consideration is : age range. Gender, Social class and the list goes on and on … For my Music Magazine I have decided to concentrate within the age range of 15 to 23. (teenagers to young adults.) I think that from the age of 15 you start to have a better idea about life and the problems involved. Also they are more open minded and can accept certain musicians. My choice of age range will show by the front cover and constantly throughout the magazine. I have chosen this because I think it might link to young adults and teenagers and the type of music they might listen to or hear. Certain individuals may be able to link/relate themselves to the artist. Maybe they have went through the same problems and you like their music because it’s talks about this. Some others just simply listen to others music because they think it is ‘cool’ and sounds good. I have also decided to base my Magazine on both types of sex. The reason being is because rock is for both types of sex not just the one. Also I think it would be wrong to just make a magazine just aimed for one type of sex, it has to be mixed. It would be wrong to stereotype and say certain people can’t read my magazine because of who they are but in fact if they like the music and the magazine, there is no problem. Different people like different music types. For example posh people could be in heavy metal and children could be into classical music.

11. How did you attract/address your audience? To attract your audience you have to have interesting colours and make it different (not to different) and it has to be eye catching. Like this on the left it stands out and is different; because of it’s use of colours and what it is. This is what I wanted my magazine to be like, however I didn’t want it to be too different, as I didn’t want to lose marks, but I took risks where I could. As I wanted it to be creative I created my own barcode; it was online as I couldn’t do it anywhere else and didn’t have the time else where. It didn’t take long at all and all I had to do was add the date and price. I had to be careful when doing this as it was hard to get the correct font and text. When deciding on the price it was tricky. I couldn’t decide on a price range for my magazine and how much I thought it would have been worth if it was actually produced. I remembered that I had people fill out questionnaires, in which one question was about the price and the greatest range was between £1.50 and £2.00. Of course I want to make more profit so I decided on £2.30. To me this sounds like a possible price. The date was tricky too as I had to figure out a date that is in the future that’s not so far away. I couldn’t have a date that went. In the questionnaire I asked if people wanted to see more text or images. There reply was both, which is why I included one more picture on the front cover. Although I had the main front cover image, it seemed as if I needed one more. Also other music magazines have included more then one image on their front cover, so this also added to me to including one more.

12. Cover lines… Cover lines are used to inform the reader of what is included in the magazine. It was hard to think of cover lines that were suitable for my type of magazine. Like every magazine I thought I would include a little love story and this is shown on the bottom left.. For my Cover lines i used different magazines to get ideas of what I could do. Like I said in every magazine there will always be a love story so I thought I would include on in my magazine, and show it by adding it as a cover line.. Derrick and Katy a item once again? This adds extra effect and makes the reader know there is a love story included. The cover lines are the first things the reader will be able to see as they pick it up so the over lines have to be good. In some cases, certain magazines have a picture with a cover line for effect and greater impact. I decided to include a picture of a boy who is in a band going on tour with his mates. I had to photo shop and filter it but never the less I think it suited the magazine. For my main article I decided to make it on two friends coming together and performing for the first time. Because of the fact it is my main article it HAD to be on the front cover, and the main image had to relate to this too. Cover lines can include quotes and this is what I decided to include in mine. I even have a rhetorical question. For my magazine I used these throughout to help produce my magazine and to give me ideas and to help improve in all areas. I also looked for inspiration in other magazines in real life. The little adverts at the top were great and helped me to include one in my magazine.

13. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I developed my understanding of how to use the software; such as InDesign. I found it hard as I never used it before, but in some ways it was similar to Photoshop so I could understand the basics of InDesign. On InDesign you have to place everything on a different layer. This can be confusing at times as if you do not have everything on a different layer problems will be involved. In most cases you have to place everything onto InDesign from Photoshop. This includes the background, and the pictures that have been edited. We could not place text from Photoshop into InDesign as the quality wouldn’t be to the best standards .

14. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I have learned that you need to have a lot of patience to work on InDesign. It is harder then Photoshop but is great quality to produce magazines and other work that you want for great quality. You need to have a different layer for everything. For example; the background on one layer, and then the picture on another. It can get very confusing at times. When doing my work I had trouble with the layers, and had to start again because everything was on only one layer. The Picture, the text, the colours was all as one. So I had to start again from the very start and put everything one separate layer. I put all the pictures on one layer then text on another and sometimes I even locked them so they could not be deleted. I am used to photo shop so I did not have any trouble with it, there was times that it wasn’t responding and it was really annoying but I managed to do what I was wanting to do. I edited most of my pictures on here and was great help. Editing the pictures was easy it was the placing that was hard or tricky. You could say I had some difficulty with working with InDesign, it was hard to figure out at first but know I have a better understanding of it, I would like to use it in the future.