For my final project I have completed a front cover, contents page and two double page spreads. The magazine is aimed at an older audience, such as readers of Uncut, MOJO and Q therefore the look of the magazine throughout is simple but classy. In order for my magazine to be as successful as these, before I began making I researched layouts, fonts, imagery, content & also prices, logos and other smaller details. I tired my best to stick to all these conventions even though I added my own little quirks to make my magazine a bit different and more original. I chose to use a colour scheme of Gold, red, black and white, similar to the one of Q magazine and put high contrast on the images to make them stand out.
I think my magazine would be distributed by the same people of magazines made for an older generation such as the people who distribute Uncut, but they could be a bit put off by the fact on the front cover the focus point is on someone of a younger generation. The magazine would be sold in places such as newsagents and supermarkets probably on a monthly basis.
Apart from being aimed at an older audience I would also say my magazine is aimed at a more cultured audience who like alternative music. Therefore the audience is broadened and a small amount of teenagers may prefer my magazine to more busy magazines such as NME and Kerrang.
During the process of creating my magazine I have learnt how to use various different technologies including the use of a digital camera during my photo shoots – using different flash/lighting effects and filters.To edit the front cover and contents page I used Photoshop. This was a good program to use because not only could I appropriately edit my images I could place on text layers in the correct places using different fonts and colours. The image front cover needed some editing done to it as the lighting was a bit poor and the background looked unprofessional. I played about with the brightness and contrast of the image and also used the magic eraser tool to completely get rid of the background. I also edited the models skin to make it look clearer so that the magazine would look more professional as I had concentrated on smaller details. I then dragged the image onto an A4 page so the magazine had a plain background. This worked well the picture had a high contrast and the text really stood out.
I got my fonts from the website dafont.com giving me a large variety of fonts to choose from meaning I wouldn’t have to use original fonts, making my magazine more original. I also learnt how to use Microsoft publisher when creating my double page spreads.
I think my final magazine is much better compared to my preliminary magazine. On my preliminary there was a lot of empty space and also as I hadn’t grasped photoshop at the time the picture was of poor colour and wasn’t very clear. It also didn’t really follow a colour scheme and the front cover and contents didn’t link together in anyway looking like they were both from separate magazines.
From audience feedback the general opinion was that the magazine was really classy and although it was simple it was really effective. They also said that the colour scheme and high contrast image would help the magazine stand out on a shelf. The double page spreads were the most popular as people liked the way I started of with a simple double which consisted of a picture spread across both pages, with a title and short introduction placed on top. This was in comparison to a more busy page with more writing and smaller images.