Blog 10 - Feedback

Blog 9 - Evaluation of the Finished Magazine

For my Indi/Rock magazine I looked at two simular magazines and tried to form my magazine around the features of these two succesful magazines of today, the two magazines were 'New Musical Express', and 'Kerrang!'. The name I gave my magazine was 'Twang' this, like 'Kerrang!' is onomatopoeia, the word sounds like what it means, or stands for, in this case. So Kerrang sounds like a noise that might be produced by a high volumed guitar with a fair amount of gain, as does Twang, although a slightly more softened noise, it still sounds like a noise that would be produced by a guitar. Kerrang is in such a text that appareas cracked, this would suggest that loud music has been played, causing this damage, although i have not followed this font idea, i have gained insiration from it and produced my own font theme. I have gone for a slightly messy look, and the capital 'G' at the end of the title looks like the base of a banjo type looking guitar. Out of the two magazines i researched; Kerrang! and NME, Kerrang! have displyed the name of their magazine infront of the front photo of the artists, perhaps displaying the magazines importance over the artists, or the lack of fame in the artist on the front page. NME, however, have placed the name of their magazine behind the artists head. This could be suggesting that the magazine is well known enough so the readers can recognise the format and colour of the title, and know what it is they are purchasing and not needing to know what the name is of the magazine.

Further more, I have also gained inspiration in terms of colour use, from NME's title. Although the colour might be slightly different, I have used a deep red as the main font colour, and outlined it in a fairly thin white line, making it stand out from the background which is a dark colour, also darkened this way to enhance the eyecatching titile.

Colour is vital when producing a magazine, I feel, to make it stand out from other magazines that are on the shelf in a shop. The colour scheme of both NME and Kerrang! both give a messy look, this also describes the genre well through character, there tends to be a colour trend, and the sub headings all stand out from the main picture on the front cover, this is vital if they are going to attract the reader's eyes, as this is what leads them to purchase the magazine and read on through the story. Colour recognition is a key input that needs to be considered, so a particular colour format is associated and catagorised under my magazine's layout.

Appealing to my target audience is very important to me and the success of my magazine. Speaking as a fond Indi/Rock lover, I think I have a good knowledge of what the readers of NME and Kerrang! want in a magazine. Not only the artists and genres to put in there, but additionally; colour, layout, image, font and text input are vital when producing and writing a magazine with a reasonably wide variety of audience.

I have gone for a fairly simple and basic layout for the contents page, simply so it is easy readable, and easy to find pages you are looking for. Although, this does not mean that it does not suit the messy and loud type effect that many successful rock magazines have today. It is infact just as atractive and attention grasping as any interesting magazine contents page.

There are plenty of adverts in magazines of today, looking at NME and Kerrang! i have noticed that they both try to sell themselves by introducing a perhaps lower price, this will attract and appeal to readers and this means they get their copy for a lower price. For the magazine, this also means when the readers subscribe, they get a garenteed sum of money. So i have included a text only advert, that displays an appealing way of saving.

In my double page spread, i have included a picture, which shows the artist that is being interviewed. I have gone for a slightly more adult approach in interviewing, looking through some magazines, I can see that there are many ways of constructing an interview. A more popular or well known approach, is to first state the question that is being answered by the artist, and then their answer to the question. I have written what the answer is, and the reader will easily be able to figure out what the question is that is being asked, on some occasions, the questions were answered fully, almost repeating the question being asked. The title is big, and the reader will firstly set eyes on this, perhaps grasping their attention to read on.

The magazine I have produced needs advertism, large stores like HMV, is a place where many records get sold every day, it has many customers that are very into music, and if they see a new magazine in their local music store, they are more than likely to seem interested. Magazine publishing companies such as IPC media, are well known and if I were to have my magazine published by this company, more stores and magazine selling shops would be more interested in the magazine because it is now published by this well known company. Othe places like WH Smiths, would also be more willing to place my magazine on a music magazine shelf, next to other successful magazines of today, such as kerrang!, Q, NME and top of the pops.

This is my blog 2 - comparison of magazines:

http://sdcmediaasianwhiting.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-2-target-audience.html

My target audience has not changed, and I think the magazine will fit the age group well, in terms of gender, the magazine is fit for both, involving all sorts of interesting appealing aspects that will interest them both, all though this sort of genre tends to attract more of the male, than femal population. So i have made it, if anything, slightly more masculin.

In my magazine, i took a photo of an artist with his guitar, this is because, without even looking at the title, or reading about the magazine, it simply displayed the genre and attitude towards their music. Posing is a different matter, in some magazines, artists look the camera straight and almost show how important and serious their music is to them. Posing however, suggests that they might be feeling a particular mood, and they fancy displaying this mood, in the photo above, the artist is displaying a happy and joyful mood, which maybe says that there are happy songs on this album. A simular pose is on my magazine front cover, a slight smirk, or display of happiness, would suggest he is enjoying life and joyful, melody music is played by him. Appealing to readers, people in a simular mood, might just feel obliged to purchase the magazine, because of a display of prowess to their music.

I have learned a series of things, starting with the most important, without this i would not have been able to produce such an accurate magazine. In design has taught me several things when producing a magazine, I have picked up what most of the tools do, and how they are used to the best effect. In addition to this, photoshop has also aided me in producing photos of top quality, that are of proffesional standard.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I think i have learnt several different skills, in the proggression from it, to the full product. My design skills have improved emaculately, this first kicked off by gaining inspiration from sucessfull magazines of today. I went out and purchased a copy of NME and Kerrang! to assess the key elements of features within the front cover, a contents page, and a double page spread. Furthermore, I also looked at the language used in these magazines, it is short, but yet full of information, I used a simular idea, and I cam to realise that if information was put in a too-longer sentance, readers' attention are drawn away, and become uninterested. So to grab the readers attention, firstly adding capital letters, or a brightly coloured font, for example, they then read on and read what they are interested in. I planned the Twang Magazine fairley well, and I am pleased with the finnished product, I think there is definately still more improvements to be made, but for a first attempt, I have done well.

If I were to do the project again, I would make sure I have more resources, in terms of pictures taken, and information to be included. This would then mean I could select the best photos, and key information would grasp the readers more, and make my magazine more interesting.

Blog 8 - Planning and Evaluation of the Article

Blog 7 - Photo Editing

In photoshop, I made this photo black and white, and adjusted the levels of the image. This resulted in me making the darks darker and the lights lighter, affecting the contrast of the image, resulting in the image being eyecatching becasue it stands out upon others.
I will not use this image in the magazine, I will, however, be using the image below in the double page spread, which includes the image above.

For this image, in photoshop, i used two images, and placed one ontop of the other, the top layer i made the opacity about 50%, making the other background layer visable. I also enlarged the image to make it stand out more, and look less like a clone.

In photoshop, i also have changed the levels to make the whites stand out, and the flash on the background of the image has been maximised to make it look as if the subject matter (the person in the photograph) is famous, and is a true model for the magazine readers.

This is a close-up action shot of the performer playing the guitar. It works well in black and white, simply because this is the colour of the guitar. The central part of the guitar is the whitest, whic almost concentrates the reader's attention to where the main sound of the srings comes from. Almost all of the photo is a dull grey, which i have modified so as to enhance slightly the whiteness of the guitar.

Blog 6 - Photos

Blog 5 - Fonts

To help me decide which font best suited the genre of my magazine, and the font that was most popular with my target audience, i produced a simple sample of 5 different fonts that i think suited the title of the magazine. 11 people in total voted, the most popular title was the last one on the page, as it had 6 votes.

Blog 4 - Flat Plans

Double Page Spread for Twang

This is my double page spread, it has got a very cheesey title, with the name of the magazine inbedded into it. There is a small space for text, that is in the far left of the double page. The picture of the rock group is large, and it takes up approximately 1/3rd of the page, streached accross the bottom, grasping the reader's eyes and willing them to read about them in the text. I have also included a small space in the bottom right corner for advert use.

Contents page for Peng

This attempt at drawing a contents page went down better than the last, i think this suits a rock magazine better,

Contents page for Twang

After looking at exising contents pages i have recieved inspiration from their work. So after gaining all the information I can, from other magazines i have come up with a couple of examples of what i think looks good, mixed with what i think the readers of a rock magazine will look for in a contents page.

Front Cover for Peng

Again i have forgotten to add sub headdings to this magazine front cover. 'Peng' is an attractive front cover, but i have used the wrong image for the target audience I want to attract. This picture would look good perhaps on a pop magazine, but not a rock magaizne, it would attract the wrong target audience.

Front Cover for Twang

This magazine front cover, has been laid out fairly simply, with the front cover artists, 'The Louds' posing for the camera, rather than at a live performance. They are looking into the camera, which could simulate looking into the readers eyes. Although there are not many subheadings, i will include some eyecatching ones in my real front cover, i had forgotten to include some, before i scanned it in. I think 'Twang' is a better front cover then 'Peng' magazine, simpley because it looks more like a front cover off a rock magazine.