Print Coursework - Evaluation Continued...

Throughout the process of constructing my finished product, I learnt to use several new technologies. These were:

• A new model digital camera. I used the camera to take my photo's during my photoshoot in Manchester. I was able to learn to work the flash and relevant elements of the device in order to take simplistic shots which I could then edit in Photoshop to my desired effect.
• I learnt to use most of the Photoshop CS3 Extended Edition programme. The main features I learnt to use were blending options, cutting out tools, text tools, layer manipulation and colour effects. I also made use of the healing brush to give the band in the picture a professional airbrushed look.
• I learnt how to use the specific colour printers to print my coursework.
• I also learnt how to produce a blog successfully over the internet.

I have progressed significantly since my preliminary task. I have learnt how to use the Adobe Photoshop programme alot more effectively since the preliminary task in which I only had basic knowledge or the programme in comparison to now in which I would like to think i have intermediate level skills within the programme and am efficient in its use. I also developed in my creative ideas, and was able to think of more creative photo opportunities and different elements to incorporate into the style and layout of my coursework as a whole.

After successfully finishing my product i first got feedback from my media teacher who said ", i also got feedback from friends and peers who said the magazine looked professional and that they would definitely buy it as it looked like a real magazine and was effective in drawing in the desired target audience.

Print Coursework - Evaluation

Brief
Create a Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread for a music magazine.

Research
For my chosen brief I chose to create a music magazine aimed at 16 -25 year olds. I created a front cover, contents page and double page spread in an indie style. The magazines key demographic would be for all music lovers but particularly those interested in the indie/electro genre. The magazine is non-gender specific and could be read by either males or females. The price of the magazine reflects that of similar magazines in circulation, which would mean the magazine would fall into most people’s price range. I chose the target audience of 16 – 25 year olds as, as I fit into that particular category myself, so I would be able to relate to the target audience better, surely making my magazine ideas more successful.

Before I began the actual production of my magazine I researched the different types of music magazine available and which were the most popular and successful. I also analysed what features made them successful and certain design features of the front covers. I researched a wide variety of magazine including, Kerrang!, Mojo and Q, but I decided to analyse three magazines in detail. They were NME, Rolling Stone and Clash. I chose to study these magazines in detail as they reflect the style and ethos of the magazine I wished to create well. I thus decided that my magazine would focus on an indie style similar to that of NME, but also incorporate a varied mix of genres similar to Rolling Stone.

The magazine I finally chose to base my magazine around was NME Magazine. It is a youth music magazine. It covers everything from electro to rock and indie music. Its youthfulness is shown via the use of bright and bold text on the cover and its different approach to layout, with its main headline often being centre page etc. NME also changes its colour scheme and layouts on a regular basis. This however is what makes NME such a diverse and popular magazine because by changing its appearance regularly it appeals to a wider target audience. Yet it is still able to maintain its brand image via its well known logo and layout style. NME magazine has the same target audience as my magazine. This is one of the major reasons I have done a lot of research into NME and similar music magazines.

Planning The Production
In planning my magazine I had several factors to think about including the style of layout, the colourscheme and what would best suit the target audience's preferences. I also had to plan my time/manage my time effectively in class, when I had access to Adobe Photoshop and other media software.

Evaluation
I feel that my music magazine 'BoomBoxx' has used and developed the conventions of real media products. It has followed a similar style to magazines such as NME and Rolling Stone yet has developed its own sense of stylistic features.

My media product is representative of a couple of social groups. The first being music conscious teenagers aged 16 and upwards and the second being younger festival/music event goers aged 16 - 25. A reason for this is that the magazine has a distinctly young and fresh feel given the interesting fonts and layouts and the refreshing colourscheme. The front cover image also displays a young band yet again emoting a sense that the magazine if for a young adult audience. Also the magazine is relevant to any gig/festival goers as it covers a wide variety of genres and events. The magazine is based mainly around popular music with an indie theme, similar to that of NME. The magazine also has features relating towards festivals and gigs.

The kind of media institution that would be most likely to distribute my media product would be IPC Media or Wenner Media Inc. IPC Media distributes NME, and as my magazine bears certain similarities to NME such as target audience and the types of music focused on in the magazine, it would be ideal. Wenner Media Inc. distributes for Rolling Stone magazine. BoomBoxx and Rolling Stone are similar as both include a wide variety of genre's within their pages.

The audience for my media product would be as stated previously, teenagers aged 16 and upwards and possibly music fans up to the age of perhaps 25. I would predict that there would not be a male of female dominated audience and that figures would be approximately equal with perhaps a slightly more male dominated target audience. In all my magazine is aimed at the youth generation of readers who are interested in music and everything that comes with it.

I attracted my target audience in several ways. One of the ways in which I did this was by using a youthful band as the front cover image. Youth relate well to youth, so that is the reason I chose to have a young band. The target audience were also festival/gig goers also so for that reason I included a feature on festivals and incorporated stories about gigs and tours on the cover. The colourscheme was although professional it was not a simplistic grey colourscheme. I used vibrant colours in parts in order to give the magazine a more youthful/playful feel. Another was the way in which I did the layout for my double page spread. I used a standard three column layout but I also added slanted text boxes and interesting titles to give the magazine an alternative feel to that of one someone aged 30 would read. I also split the page into several different sections, so that the page was not just blocks of writing. Youths are more engaged if the page is not just simply writing.

Print Coursework - Project Development - Double Page Spread

The final stage of my project was to make a double page spread. In contrast to the front page and contents page I created the double page spread within the microsoft publisher programme. I really wanted the double page to stand out yet still keep with the style of the magazine so it did not look out of place. I therefore wanted one side of the double page to be in pink, which is the statement colour i had previously been using to highlight important aspects within the front page and contents page. As the first page was all in colour I decided not to use any images as it may have been to much. I instead took a quote from 'the interview' and used that almost as a title for the interview with a small blurb above it. The quote was in a different font from the interview yet was not standalone as the font was in use on the second page and within the front page and contents page. I also placed a quote within a box within the middle of the text, similar to very many other magazines and in order to keep with the youthful style I tilted it so the layout did not seem so regimented. The text within the first page was in either black or white with white being used for the interview questions or standout quotes etc.

The second page was very different from the first page of the double page spread yet because I sontinued with the colourscheme etc it was still ovbious they were part of the same magazine. As I had not incorporated any images into the first page I incorporated three into the second page. Two were positioned towards the top of the page and I made them look like polaroids using the border tool. I also added a caption to one of them so that they were not just randomly placed pictures, they linked to the interview. The third image was of the entire band sitting down. I edited the image within Photoshop by 'cutting the band out'. I then transferred the image in Microsoft Publisher. I wanted the band to be 'cut out' rather than just using another conventional rectangular image as, it is interesting to look at, it is very reminiscent of popular magazines today and it also adds a little bit of contrast to the other two images. The text within the second page does differ slightly from the text within the first page in that the main body of writing is still black yet the questions are in pink in opposition to the white on the first page.

I wanted to incorporate something other than just the interview within my double page spread, this is why I added a column. I positioned the column on the right hand side of the double page spread and it was filled with a gold colour. I incorporated an album chart and also a 'gig' review of a gig I had recently been to.

Print Coursework - Project Development - Contents Page

Whilst completing my front cover, i also began work upon my contents page. As I wanted my contents page and front cover to have continuity I used the same colourscheme. The first thing i did was to choose the images i wanted to use. I had seen in some already well known music magazines the use of cutting an image into a circle and i thought it was very effective. I therefore chose to incorporate this particular style within my contents page. All the original pictures were taken by myself, either during my 'photoshoot' or at Leeds Festival. I placed the images down one side of the page as I wanted to have the actual contents almost in a curve on the opposite side. I think I managed to do this quite effectively. Also in order to highlight the main story I highlighted the page number in pink in order to draw specific attention to it. In a continuation of the colourscheme from the front cover i used white and red text. After i had created the initial contents page consisting of the title. the three images and the five main stories. I was unsure as what else I could add to the page without making it look to cluttered. I looked at magazines such as NME and saw that they incorporated a band index very successfully into their magazine. I however created my own version to fit within the layout of my contents page. I also then added another almost 'sub-contents' highlighting some of the magazines staple features or less important sections. I also added a subscription box as after continuing my research i saw that many magazines do offer subscription packages. There were however several things throughout the process that I changed in order to see if they would have less or more impact etc. For example:

• I changed the background colour from black to white in order to see if it would have a more approachable feel. However I felt it then fell out of context with the magazine as a whole and that black had more of an impact than a plain white background.


• I changed the background colour of the page numbers from blue to white as I felt that to incorporate blue alongside my original colourscheme would be to much and make my magazine look messy and unprofessional.


• Originally the 'Band Index' section was under the title of 'Bands' I changed this as band index looked more professional and also filled the space better giving the contents pagge better symmetry so it did not look like everything was on one side of the page.

Print Coursework - Project Development - Front Cover

After 2 weeks of work on my cover and contents page I have reached a certain stage of completion, I experiemented with different fonts in order to see which stood out most and which were the best for my style of magazine and appropriate for my target audience. This is a sample of my cover, I have two versions with slightly different layouts:

The 1st style of cover I produced was in a similar style to that of NME Magazine. I feel the fonts I used were very effective and youthful. The fonts I included within my cover were all from http://www.dafonts.com/, including 'punksnotdead', 'tomshandwritten' and 'Sam's Town'. The colour of the fonts also compliments the style of the magazine. I have used a black, red and white colourscheme with splashes of pink and yellow to draw attention to certain aspects of the cover. I feel the cover image is strong and very original. I tried to veer away from stereotypical band portraits. I decided that an image including them all lying on the floor would be very effective and grab the readers attentionon. I have used two other images he cover as well. The first is of artist 'Dizzee Rascal', the picture was taken by myself whilst at leeds festival, and the second is of 'Sophie' from the band. The images are small snapshots of what to expect on certain pages. I implemented them into the cover as I feel that they made the magazine more effective. Many popular music magazines incorporate other seperate images on their covers to link with stories inside to good effect. The 2nd style of cover was very similar in that it contained all of the same font and colourscheme features. It did however had a slightly different layout and certain objects were sized differently,

• The 'Clockwork Kids' logo was made slightly larger
• The 'Win Leeds O9 Tickets' icon was made smaller and moved to the top right hand corner of the magazine cover.
• The 'Dizzee Rascal' picture was edited so it had a pink stroke effect rather than a pink box surrounding it, and was positioned further down on the right hand side.
• An extra feature was added to the bottom of the page on the left hand side.
• The colour of the font for the price was changed and the date was added.

Magazine #1 Magazine #2

Print Coursework - Project Development

After evaluating all of the different types of magazine's I have decided to base the style of my magazine around the selected style of NME, however I wish to keep the magazine looking professional so I wish to use certain elements from Rolling Stone magazine to create this effect.

I have also decided that the name of my 'magazine' will be 'BOOMBOXX', i feel that it works well as it is very powerful and draws attention to youths as it is directly linked to youth culture.

I have taken a variety of images for my magazine cover, contents poage and double page spread, I did however have several i wished to use as a front cover and has to make a conscientious decision as to which was most effective. In concerns to the photo shoot, I was extremely impressed by the whole experience. I shot my photos in central Manchester around the ‘Urbis’. I chose the location as it had a very contemporary look and it gave me the chance to experiment with different poses for the band. I also bought some old coloured vinyl records to use as props for the photo shoot. They definitely portrayed a distinct musical feel and it added something extra to the photo rather than just a band posing. I asked the three members of the ‘band’ to wear particular items of clothing. Here is a breakdown of what each person wore:

Sophie: Long flamingo detailed vest, Striped cardigan, Black leggings and dolly shoes.
Chris: Blue checked shirt, Navy skinny jeans, and black plimsolls
Patrick: Black polo shirt with red and white detailing, Black jacket, Skinny jeans and black plimsolls

Here are my images:

I feel that the first image is a good shot of 'the band' yet is does not stike me as a strong cover image. It lacks something which makes the picture stand out form any other front cover. I have decided not to use this image for the fron cover but would like to include it in the double page spread.

The second image is very striking and is a good close up shot of the band, it has lots of attitude and the use of the smashed record vinyls on the floor would definitely inform a reader that it was a music magazine, I feel this would make a very good front cover image.

The third image is also a very good band shot yet it lacks the attitude and originality of the second image, although it works well I feel that the second image would grab the audiences attention better and be a more striking front cover.

The fourth image is original, and although not necessarily a cover shot, I think it would work very well as an image for the contents or the double page spread.

Print Coursework - Music Magazine - Cover Research continued...

'Clash' magazine is almost a mixture of elements from 'NME' and 'Rolling Stone' magazine. It is generally aimed at an older teenage audience as it has a smart and clean layout yet mix's this with bright text etc. As with 'Rolling Stone' it cover a very wide variety of genres and unlike 'NME' is not genre specific. It has an interesting logo and is different in that it has 'stories' on the left and right of the cover. Like 'NME' its headline/title is not either left/right justified, however it is not central either. As the image on the left shows it often use's a clean background in order to make the cover image stand out. As with 'Rolling Stone' it also uses bright colours for its font in order to compliment the image. The image on the right however show's the subtle versatility of 'Clash' magazine. As with the other image it uses a blank background to make the 'artist' stand out. A bright colour has been used within the colourscheme, yet in antithesis to the previous image it just outines the text rather than fill it.

Print Coursework - Music Magazine - Cover Research continued...

Rolling Stone is a magazine which although aimed at youth can appeal also to an adult audience. It covers a very wide range of genres from, rock, hip hop and jazz. Its older style can be seen through its classic layout and and simple, yet original text. Unlike NME its headlines are justified to either side of the cover rather than central which gives the magazine a more mature look. The issue on the right pictures Amy Winehouse, in a style very generic of Rolling Stone, often only one person is pictured on the cover against a subtle background. The colour of the text is a key feature within this image as it allows the picture to jump out from the simple background.
However in contrast to this the cover pictured on the left depicts a 'scene', which is another typical feature of a Rolling Stone cover. The text colour and the general colourscheme of the image compliments the image well. Kanye West has been depicted as a 'jesus-like' character. It is a very dramatic picture and would grab a readers attention almost instantaniously as it is not typical of a music magazine cover. This is one of the reasons why Rolling Stone is so successful, because of its ability to present a classic cover image and a dramatic one also.

Print Coursework - Music Magazine - Cover Research

As stated in my previous blog, I have researched several music magazines in order to analyse them and find out what factors make the cover successful. Magazines I researched include: NME, Rolling Stone, Wire, Mojo, Kerrang!, Q, Dazed & Confused, Billboard and Clash.




NME Magazine is a youth music magazine. It covers everything from electro to rock and indie music. Its youthfullness is shown via the use of bright and bold text on the cover and its different approach to layout, with its main headline often being centre page etc. This particular issue pictured above shows NME's playful side whereas the image on the right shows NME's dedicated music roots. As this shows the issue's can differ dramatically from week to week. This however is what makes NME such a diverse and popular magazine because by changing its apperance regularly it appeals to a wider target audience. Yet it is still able to maintain it's brand image via its well known logo and layout style.

Print Coursework - Music Magazine - Intro Blog

PRINT COURSEWORK

For my coursework, I have decided to use the medium of print. I will create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine. In order to create a successful magazine, I first researched the 'current market' looking for what was popular and what kind of magazines worked well and which front covers stood out. 'NME', 'Clash' and 'Rolling Stone' were good stimulus for my magazine as I wish to create an Indie/Popular Music magazine. The magazines I used as stimulus focused on a young adult audience, which is the selected audience I wish to aim my magazine at. Music magazines are particulary popular among youth culture and the young adult audience.

I also analysed the magazines, looking at font type, cover images and headlines in order to see what grabs the readers attention and what colour schemes etc are most effective. I feel this is particularly important as it can determine whether or not my coursework desgins will be successful or not. For example the image above is from a current music magazine titled 'NME', its features a popular band on the cover in greyscale with overlapping pink edged writing. The contrast of the colour of the writing to the greyscale effect of the picture makes the text stand out grabbing the readers attention making the cover successful.

I have come up with a comprehensive list of possible names for my magazine: Dizzee, Indigo, Phish, MoCo, Rascal, Propaganda, BoomBoxx, BloC, Tape, Noize, Neon, ClockWork and Ramone. I feel each one of the possible identities for the magazine is attention grabbing and 'youthful'. However I have narrowed the list down to 'BoomBoxx' and 'Rascal'. 'BoomBoxx' is very inline with youth culture and emotes a sense of fun and energy. 'Rascal' however has a very indie theme to it, bearing relevance to 'Dizzee Rascal' and 'The Rascal's'.

Test

Simon Donnellon

AS Group 07

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