Evaluation
My magazine follows the conventions of a music magazine. For my front cover I have used a masthead which is large and bold so the audience can see it clearly. I have used a brand image which is clear to see and to show this will be the feature of the magazine. I have used headlines around the image. The straplines are in a different font as the masthead. I have placed a bar code at the bottom of the front cover which is conventional. I have also put the price, issue number and magazine website at the bottom. It is issue 2 so it is a new music magazine. I have used the colours black, pinky red, white and gray. I have chose these colours because the pinky red connotes femininity which is suitable for my target audience and the other colours are stereotypically of rock music. These colours are continuous throughout my magazine to show its all part of one magazine. I have used three fonts throughout my magazine. The ‘Fragile’ font is used for the masthead. The font is large and draws the audiences attention. I have used the ‘Hard Rock’ font for the headline 'Jessica' and ‘OCR A Extended ’ font for the captions. I have used teasing contents at the bottom of the page so the audience will want to read more. The lightning symbols in the teasing contents are symbols that are stereotypically used in the rock genre. Bands such as ‘AC/DC’ use them in their name. A puff is used which is placed near the top right. The text in the puff is tilted just like Jessica’s head so when the readers are looking at Jessica they’ll see the puff.
On my contents page the masthead is at the top of the page. I have created an editors letter and placed it near the top left. I have included a small copy of my front cover to show the contents page is for the same issue. I have placed all the ‘features’ section on the left and the ‘regulars’ section on the right. Some of the captions are intertextual. For example under the feature ‘Deep Purple’ I have added ‘Knocking at your back door’. This is a Deep Purple song so audiences will expect to know this. I have used a larger page number next to the image of my main artist Jessica as it shows the audience this is the main feature of the magazine. The white background is so the audience can read the text clearly. I have included two different images of different people. One is of a male which shows the magazine isn’t just all about females and the other image is of another female. Having different images is conventional for a contents page. It also shows the magazine isn’t all about Jessica.
The double page spread includes a quote in a white font from the artist, clear for a big impact amongst other articles. I have used a lead paragraph which starts with a drop cap which is stating what the article will be about. This is conventional in music magazines. The article is written in columns which is conventional. I have made a interview so the questions are in a red font and the answers are in a white font. I have made a small album cover of Jessica’s album and placed it at the bottom. This is so she can be interviewed and also promote her album. I have placed an image of Jessica on the right to show she was a part of the interview.
I used photographs of a female throughout my magazine because it is aimed at female audiences. The audience can look up to her as a role model. The costume she used was a black leather jacket, a leopard print dress and black tights. She had her hair half up and half down and had bright lipstick on. Her costume attracts an audience because its stereotypically what a rock singer would wear so the audience will know it’s a rock magazine. I used long shots so the readers can see the artists costume. The use of costume, her serious facial expression and her hands on her hips on the front cover connotes the artist has attitude which is what rock singers stereotypically are known for. Her clothes look like something you would wear to a party so they could connote she is ready to have fun. On the front cover the image of the model is in the centre which connotes she is dominant and it also draws our attention to look at her as she is looking at the readers.
My magazines competition is Future Publishing as they produce Classic Rock magazine which is the same genre which I'm doing so I chose IPC Media as my institution to go in competition with Classic Rock magazine. Classic Rock magazine features similar artists as my magazine so I included different ones to attract more audiences. For example Jessica, Fall in Line and JC.
For my media product the target audience is mainly C1 and C2 females aged 24-35 years old. My magazine will also have male elements so the magazine will have a larger audience. The magazine will be aimed at rock fans. It's mainly aimed at female as usually rock magazines are stereotypically aimed at men. I have chosen to aim at C1 and C2 audiences because they will be able to afford the issues as they would be working.
I have asked ten people what they thought about my music magazine so far. (see audience feedback questions post on blogger for questions). Eight people said they would buy the magazine. The people who said they wouldn’t was because they don’t like rock music. Three people suggested I use less red and add another colour and the other seven people liked the colour theme. Two people said my magazine resembled Classic Rock magazine because it features the same type of music. Four people suggested my photographs need editing better as you can see where I have cut them out. I agree with them as this doesn't make it look professinal. Ten people said the layout was easy to follow. Six people suggested I should add more photographs on my double page spread which I agree with because having more than one makes the interview more interesting.
From constructing this product I have learnt how to use Photoshop. I found it hard to use at first as it was all new to me. I practised on random photographs to help me when it came to editing my products photographs. If I had created my product on a program such as Publisher then my work wouldn’t have had looked professional. Photoshop also has better brushes, fonts, and image effects. The different image effects allow you to make different drafts to see which one you like best. For example changing photographs to black and white. Photoshop allows you to make plenty of drafts where you can keep adding onto.
I also learnt how to use Blogger whilst constructing my product. I used Blogger to put my work on. I learnt how to follow people, attach photographs, make blogs and my own profile. The advantages of Blogger is being able to post my work by using links, videos or photographs and also being able to have comments from teachers to give me feedback on what I have done to help me. It allows you to use a range of different ways of showing your work.
Looking back on the preliminary task I have learnt how to time my work. When I was creating the college magazine I didn’t time myself and had to rush the contents page near the deadline. With my music magazine I carefully timed my work by following a list of what to do. Since the preliminary task I have also learnt new terminology relevant to music magazines. I have used these terms to help with my final product. I also took more photographs for the music magazine. This allows me to have a variety to choose from.
