There are several ways in which our magazine shows resemblance to other real music magazines. We decided to base the style of our magazine on that of NME magazine. We think that we achieved this successfully as we aimed our magazine at a similar target audience i.e. teenagers that are interested in a particular type of music that we would say to be indie/rock. We also attempted to replicate the style of NME by using similar fonts, headings and images therefore we believe that we have achieved our aim, creating a new music magazine similar to existing music magazines.
However, there are also several differences and ways that our magazine differs from existing products. Existing music magazines are obviously more professionally constructed. Also, we believe that if we managed our time more efficiently then we could have achieved the same level of professionalism as those achieved by existing magazines.
As we worked on the composition of our magazines separately, there are several similarities and differences which could be pointed out. The obvious similarities that we achieved were the fonts, the titles and the layouts of the cover, contents page and double page spread. However, the colour schemes differed in several ways. In the first version of the magazine (Nicolas version) the colours used were maroon and yellow. These colours contrasted successfully, however appeared more mature than the colours used in Amys version of the magazine, which were purple and green, and more suitable for a younger audience. However, as the intended target audience was teens, the colours could accommodate the expectations of teenagers of different ages; therefore this wasn’t much of an issue.
As we decided to aim our magazine at teenagers this would be the social group which we would be representing throughout the magazine. On our front covers, the pictures were of teenagers to give potential audiences an idea of whether the magazine was aimed at them or not.
Teenagers in the media can be represented either in a positive or negative way. We have decided to give teenagers quite a positive image through the pictures that we used.
For example, in both magazines, the models that we used were smiling in the images and were posing in ways which made them look light hearted and fun.
Also, the articles on our double page spreads portrayed the band members to be good natured and aspirational. These are not very common attributes that would be associated with teenagers in the media today.
There are several ways in which we attempted to attract the target audience of our magazine. The colours that we used are quite contrasting and striking in order to attract the attention of potential buyers. The images that we used are bright and effective at appealing to the eye of our target audience.
The fonts are also quite playful and eye-catching, as opposed to being formal and sophisticated which are fonts usually associated with magazines aimed at an older audience. For example, our title fonts contain an additional colour to the black, which gives it a playful edge and incorporates it with the colour themes of each magazine.
During the time we spent producing our magazines, we have learnt about the use of different technologies, e.g. the use of cameras and the use of lighting in the media studio, as well as the use of Photoshop.
When using the camera we tried using it both with the flash on and off, as well as taking photos indoors and outdoors, this was to find out which settings and environments our cameras worked best in.
When using the camera indoors, we used the media studio, which had a white background, as well as professional lighting, which we felt gave our photographs a professional look, which was of a suitable quality for a magazine front cover.
We also experimented with portrait and landscape photographs. We felt that portrait photographs were suitable for front covers, which we had found from previous research of existing music magazines etc, however, we also felt that our middle page spreads may benefit from some landscape photographs in addition to the text, and so took a variety of photographs for use on different pages of our magazines.
Also, when working on our magazines in Photoshop, we needed to edit our images, such as cutting the models out from the background so there were no distractions. We also wanted to edit the brightness of our pictures, as when we out them onto our magazine covers we found they looked slightly too dull, and not bright enough to attract peoples attention, so therefore we increased the brightness, which we also feel gives our magazines a brighter, more positive look.
We also used text in Photoshop, and we decided that in order to make our texts appeal to our target audience of teenagers, we needed to give them a playful edge, which we felt could be achieved through the use of strokes around our fonts, and the use off contrasting colours on the front covers. However, to ensure that our magazines remained similar, we used the same fonts and strokes, but altered the colours and sizes according to the covers and colour themes of our individual magazines.
As we progressed from our preliminary work to our final finished product, we learnt many new skills regarding technologies as well as aspects of the project such as time management. We asked people for feedback on our front covers, contents pages and double page spreads, in order to discover the opinions of others on our pieces. Overall, we feel that our project was relatively successful, and in our opinions, we achieved our aim of creating a new music magazine.