My assignment brief for my main task was to create The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of four images per candidate.
I found this assignment to be a good challenge for me as I do not know music magazine that well for I would have needed to look and as many music magazines as I could in-order to get a wide range of idea. I needed to look at the simulates of the magazines and the differences, so it would help me in the construction of my magazine and make it look like an actual magazine of which people would buy. i first started brain storming on the type of magazine i was going to create this took me some time because i needed to think of what music style people liked and how they would like The magazine set out. My ideas were;
Idea 1Doc’s Diagnostic: Looking into the depth of band.
Focusing on all genre of music This is a magazine that looks into the depth of bands and what they really do and think also upcoming gigs etc. I’ll be keeping with a colour theme of white.
Idea 2: Clash of the bands This magazine is also a magazine looking at all genre of music but will look at conflict between bands and different music’s such as; Metal and rock, RnB and crunk.
Idea 3:the shock of rock \m/ This magazine is going to be your normal rock magazine like Kerrang. It will have the same basic layout with the main band of the magazine at the front and sub story’s on the side. The name of the magazine is the shock of rock \m/. \m/ meaning the rock sign.
I thought about these a lot and couldn’t make up my mind which ones I wanted to do the most I was stuck between the shock of rock and clash of the bands. The shock of rock was the music genre i knew the most and I had a good idea of a pink paint theme and the clash of the bands i had an idea of trying to use contrasting colours to so the differences of bands. So I decided to look at other magazines in-order for my to make up my mind with the right magazine genre and idea.
I looked in to magazines such as Q, Kerrang, NME and Blender. All these magazines are well-known magazines and they all have different themes and music genre that they follow. I found a simple pattern / trend in these magazines front covers such as the picture location, the fixed logo and the use of bold bright colours for the names of bands to create something that will catch the reader interest. I found that I would need to keep the same placements for my magazines in-order to make it like a music magazines. I studied why magazines do this and what it accomplishes these were such things as to identify their magazine and to make important band names to stand out and draw the customer in more. Although they are all different when it comes to colour schemes and text styles this is how they make themselves different to over magazines this is what I made sure i used in my magazines. Now the contents I found that they were very well laid out and had specific things are highlighted in-order to catch attention. I made sure that when it came to my magazine I needed to make everything clear as possible so that my magazine didn’t come confusing and difficult to read. finally when I looked at double page spreads I come to the conclusion that they have one structure of the main image on the left and the text on the right but they and that was the only similar techniques they have for the double page spread and everything else was placed different.
Once I finished looking at all the different magazines I decided to create my shock of rock \m/ magazine because I felt it would be more simple layout and I could create something different to all the other music magazine with the colour schemes and the layout of the pictures and the main image.
I then started the construction of my magazine i did a draft first so I could get and idea of what things worked and what did not. this was my draft I used a pink theme so that I differ from other magazines I liked the picture and the text of the magazine on the bottom half because they stood out well i but i realized that when I came to my main and final design I would need to create a more noticeable master head because this is the main thing that should stand out in you magazine. but I felt that my draft was good for everything else I would be using most of the element of it in my final design.
As you can see my final front cover design is very similar to my draft i the sub stories text on the left hand side and the use of the black shadow background with the black and dark pink border I felt that i gave the text more of a pop and was not blending in with the surroundings as much as magazines like NME. ad you can see the master head is a lot different from the draft because in the draft it didn’t stand out at all well so I decided to go for a colour that is very easy to spot which is yellow. the yellow really made the master head a lot better but i needed to make sure it was keeping in the colour scheme as the magazine so i made the text black and had a pink stroke go round the outside Of The yellow which keeps in theme with the magazine nicely. for the exclusive story text i needed to change it due to is was not read able with the image. I used and simple white text with a pink and black boarder which does standout more than other texts but not as much a the master head which is what I wanted. I moved the price because in my draft to forget it give the magazine an issue number. I am quite pleased with my front cover but I could have got an image similar to the draft because it works very well.
For my contents draft I needed to keep the paint theme so that I knew it would work through out the magazine because if it didn’t I need to create a theme that could go though the whole magazine. the draft I felt was OK I thought that the layout was fine but found it very boring I needed to create a title for the word contents and make it more standing you and I also needed to create a better a shock of rock title. I then need to add more pages and make every more willing to read.
now i my contents page is the best part of my magazine with the layout and design of it. I made many changes to it compared to my draft, To start with I have moved the word contents up to the top because it is more noticeable and makes it easier for the reader to identify the page. I used the same style of text and made it bigger but I got rid of the pink black background surrounding it. i wanted to make my contents different to the usual magazines where they just have contents and the name located it a different place. I put the master head over the word contents because I gave the page a more unique feel for the reader. I made it look Like it was spray painted over the top of the word contents. I kept the green text and I decided to put more into my contents for page numbers because the draft didn’t have that many and it made it look more like a contents. i also kept the titles and the pink boarders.
this I felt was not a good draft at all and i thought when i came to my main i needed to create something a lot better I didn’t keep the paint theme in this page a the image doesn’t look right in the page. the only thing of which i liked was the text of i liked how the green and black worded together and made them stand out but I thought that I needed to use a lighter green. this is the final copy of my double page spread i changed a bit because i was not happy with the draft i placed my main heading on the top left because going down in the middle vertically was not easy to read and did not look right. I created a background for the title and its now very clear easy to read and draws in The reader’s attention. I placed a picture underneath so that i kept of all the other magazines such as kerrang and NME. now they hardest part of the double page spread was creating the text then placing both images and text in away that looked right. I tried a lot of different places for the pictures and text. I decided to put the pictures in first and put the text so it goes round the pictures this make a good flow for the text. I used a green and black coloring For. the text just like my draft and it worked really well as it stands out.
once i had finished my pages and they was at good standard in my eye i created a questionnaire for people to fill out and wrote on what they thought about the magazine. the main points i got back from the questionnaire was that the magazine was not really for that they didn’t think the magazine was for men and i do agree. there is not a specific gender i was aiming for When creating this magazine but I think that my target audience is really women who are in to rock. The images i used make it more appealing to women due to they are young lads in a band dressed smart which women like for example bands like boys like girls or you me at six. So my target audience for my magazine is young / late female teens Another point i got in my questionnaires were that they liked the contents title with the master head sprayed over it. One bad point which people pointed out was spelling mistakes and that they didn’t like the placement of the 1 St. Edition on the front cover they thought it look a little out-of-place. I think that I will not move it because I put it there in-order to cover up a small space. But I moved it up so that it didn’t look as much out-of-place.
My magazine is the same as many other magazines such Kerrang magazine. Kerrang magazine consist of having a main story on the front cover with a picture to draw you in to read it. I feel my magazine does the same with the picture and the main story being boldly presented to catch readers’ eyes. Although Kerrang magazine has the advantage of using celebrates to draw in readers i had to use a good story and a unique design to draw the reader in due to it is a small start off magazine and not a national magazine sold in stores. My magazine A shock of rock \m/ use sub story to interest the reader into buying the magazine in case they do not feel the main story intrigues them. This allows my audience (16 to 19) to read my magazine and allows a wider range of teens to buy my magazine instead of just the one social group. Kerrang magazine also uses simple colours so their magazine is not too complicated so that the stories are easy to locate i have also done the same. I feel if I was to make another magazine I would try to get a better main image because I feel it doesn’t draw the reader in as much as it could. This is the only thing I feel I would change as I am quite pleased with my magazine. If this was to be sold I believe it would be sold in local news agents.
In conclusion to my magazine I feel that it is a good music magazine for college teens(16-19) I think it appeals to them through the use of my background and story lines which makes my magazine eye-catching. I feel my image attracts my audience as they will be thinking about why that image is there and will then be willing to found out what it is about. Although using a big image restricts placement of other features of my magazine because i have to work around it. In my next magazine I will use a smaller image in-order to allows more freedom in my magazine. i also need to work more on my double page spread as it lack appeal. i feel it needs to be more eye grabbing and more creative instead of plan and tidy, due to it does not make my magazine want to read it as much. Above all I concluded that my magazine is good but it needs some changes in the double to make it more appealing.
