Magazine Evaluation - Micheala Whitely

Above are the real magazine front covers that influenced my magazine front cover. My music magazine develops the conventions of real music magazines because it follows a similar structure and layout to magazines that are on sale today. The use of a right-aligned masthead, main cover image (of a someone looking at the camera to connect with the audience), banner, graphic, right aligned cover lines, bar code, price and issue date. My simple yet organised front cover is very similiar to the Vibe Magazine cover (1st image above)in accordance to the cover lines, straplines and simple colour scheme. On the other hand my magazine is similiar to the Rolling Stones front cover (last image above) when taking into consideration the background. As with the Rolling Stones background i used a colorful image for my background. Another way my magazine front cover coincides with the forms of real magazine front covers is that as with all examples above my main cover image covers part of my title. This is to show that my magazine is quite popular so that even if part of the masthead is covered readers will still be able to recognise it.

Music magazines are usually targeted at men, this is where my magazine challenges the forms of magazine. My target audience is young female therefore the content, font, and colors are going to appeal to females. My music magazine cover represents young trendy females who have a passion for RnB music and an interest in buying and reading music magazines. This is usually young people living in urban city areas who have access to media such as the radio, television and music stores ie. HMV. This is because young females living in the countryside most probably are not exposed to this sort of music and also older women will be interested in something more mature than what my magazine D2E has to offer.

The print/music institution EMAP might distribute my magazine front cover because it is a mainstream institution that is involved with products/subsidiaries such as Kerrang, Heat, Closer, Q and Mojo. Some of these are music magazines that we studied earlier in Media Studies.

To attract my audience my main cover image was Catherine dressed in trendy clothes looking into the camera connecting with the audience. In the magazine Catherine is acting as an RnB artist that younger females will look up to. I also used bright colours and tried to continue with the conventions of a music magazine. I also used bright colours to advertise a free wooly hat. This was the same hat Catherine was weraing in the main cover image. Using Photoshop on the Mac computers i have learnt how to manipulate images. Such as using the magic wand to cut out images and place them into one photo. While constructing my magazine i have learnt that technology can use a photo to put some one in a place they've never even been or use an image an edit it to interpret a different meaning from what it actually is.

If i was to make a magazine front cover again, next time i would make sure my plan is more detailed structured and covered all aspects in the process of making a front cover and also stick to the plan. For example i would have liked to plan the location for the photoshoot more throughly so that it went along with the genre and target audience, planned the layout of the magazine, the coverlines and insert pictures before hand. I would also broarden the target audience so that it is not defined down to once specific genre. This would make it easier to appeal to both genders.

Photo Shoot Day

Today we took photos for our magazine front cover. We started inside the classroom where we were given a brief on what to do and how to use the camera, we filled in our contact details in case of an emergency and then we were given our allocated cameras and we were sent on our way. We decide to do the winter shoot first; we got changed into out winter costume and set up by a plain white background at the end of the corridor. We took many shots in different positions, poses and angles. We took group shots and single shots. We then changed into our autumn attire and took photos by a plain blue background. After that we went on to the spring shoot which was still by the blue background. Finally we went back to the plain white background and to complete, did the summer shoot. We finished by taking one big group photo.

Mac Room – Putting the Cover Together

Today we took photos for our magazine front cover. We started inside the classroom where we were given a brief on what to do and how to use the camera, we filled in our contact details in case of an emergency and then we were given our allocated cameras and we were sent on our way. We decide to do the winter shoot first; we got changed into out winter costume and set up by a plain white background at the end of the corridor. We took many shots in different positions, poses and angles. We took group shots and single shots. We then changed into our autumn attire and took photos by a plain blue background. After that we went on to the spring shoot which was still by the blue background. Finally we went back to the plain white background and to complete, did the summer shoot. We finished by taking one big group photo.
Mac Room – Putting the Cover Together
Today we started putting our magazine together on Photoshop. To begin the technicians told us how to change our page settings so that our work showed properly on the correct page. First we opened Photoshop and changed the settings to International Paper – A4.
My original idea was to take pictures the individual pictures of the group members and then use the magic wand tool and cut them out and place them on the same A4 sheet. Some images proved tricky to use the magic wand tool because of the variations of lighting (i.e. the camera flash), so then I had to use the magic lasso tool. This needed a steady hand and a lot of concentration. After doing this for each person in the group and putting them together I came to the conclusion that this was not essential and never went along with the conventions of a music magazine front cover, so i decided my idea needed adjusting. I then experimented using each individual picture of each member of the group on the front cover. However the picture i had in mind and what was on the screen differed dramatically. One of my partners was also having trouble adjusting there season to their idea and so Oyin and I swaped seasons. I was now doing winter and Oyin was doing spring.
This change proved to be better for the both of us. Now things started to get on their way. To begin I had to chose the same font as the other members of my group and add the same effect. I chose a picture of Catherine for my main cover image where she was lookin straight in to the camera, this attracts and connects with the audience. My main cover line was had the biggest size font because this si the main story. I then went on to Google and got a picture of trees and snow, this went along with the winter theme and the Christmas theme. I choose my cover lines which all had something do with each member of the group. The text had a red, brown and green colour scheme to go along with the Christmas design. I used a bright yellow graphic to advertise the free goodies. The yellow colour is bright and stands out so that reader are automatically drawn to it. I completed by adding my final touches...adjusting the layers, adding the price and barcode.

Oyins Final Media Front Cover!!!

Me and my media group consisted of four members (including myself), Michaela, Catherine and Kirsty. We are four teenage girls so we decided to enter the minds of teenage girls and think about what they would be interested in. We came to the conclusion that the most common genre of music for girls in the U.K was RnB, so we decided to base our magazine’s music genre on RnB particularly, the slow jams and the love songs. We also decided to target our magazine to a specific target audience which was, teenage girls between the ages of 16-21. In order to attract the girls, we decided to base the magazine on teenage girls' favourite subject...Boys...and other things, such as music and fashion. We all agreed that the name of our magazine should be something that portrays us as individuals and as a group. So we called it ''D2E'', which simply stands for ''Down To Earth'', because that's what we need to be in order to reach out to our targeted audience. We based our magazine on any ethnic backgrounds. Our magazine attracts urban, streetful, lively and zesty girls, so slang is expected in our magazine because that's how urban/ghetto teenage girls communicate with each other. We use American as well as British artists in our magazine to convey diversity. Our magazine quality is of a good standard but we decided to sell it cheap in order to make it affordable to most girls. We expect shops like, corner shops, magazine shops, grocery stores (Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s etc...) to sell our magazine because these are shops that you would most likely find teenage girls walking into. We also feel that, the cheaper your magazine, the more people are likely to buy it. We made sure that we stuck to our original plan, which was to advertise boy’s a lot in our magazine because that's what we know teenage girls in today’s society are interested in. I made sure that the colours on my magazine were kept plain and simple (black, white and red with a bit of orange), I did this because, teenage girls haven’t got a very long concentration span, and they appear to get distracted easily. So in order for them to be able to get the message on the magazine, I felt that I needed to keep it simple to not confuse them. Also because it just looks more presentable to have a limited amount of colours, rather than having colours flying everywhere. The main focus on the front cover of my magazine is David Le (a student from my media class)...I made him the main focus because, he's a young hip-hop/RnB/ghetto boy, and the day of the photo shoot he was wearing a RnB/Hip hop t-shirt that I know many people would have noticed. So I thought it would be a good look to have him on the front cover. On the front cover, David Le is looking towards our left (he's right) and towards he's right were little headlines of stories inside the magazine e.g. ''Catherine Goes Solo''...I did this because I felt that if the buyers saw David Le looking at something, they too would turn to see what he is looking at, which were headline stories inside, which would attract the readers to buy it in order to read it. I also used names of people within my media class, because I felt the need to keep it real. I think my magazine falls similar to other magazines because it has some similar properties to other magazines, such as...main picture, a famous background (sometimes), big headlines, ''famous'' artist on the cover and headlines for stories inside the magazine. However, I feel that my magazine challenges other magazines because it uses unique and new information which will come in handy because soon people will get fed up of hearing the same ‘’gossip’’ over and over again, then they will turn to a new source of information...MY MAGAZINE. My magazine represents me and my social group. I’m a teenage girl, who loves to be ghetto and ‘’hip’’ and I too went through a faze of only being interested in teenage boys, so why not assisted some girls while there going through there faze and give them what they desire...EYE CANDY.

By Oyin Balogun.

Magazine evaluation - Catherin Troung

Magazine Evaluation

The ways my music magazine is used to develop and challenge the forms and conventions of a real music magazine, is by containing different information comparing to a normal magazine which I have done. It includes fashion and make up which is aim at females that is one of the main things that is part of a young girl’s life and which you rarely see on music magazine. I represented it by having a picture of my friend dressing to impress the young females out there, with the trend that is going on now, as you no young females like to be up-dated with the latest things. I’m also giving away something entirely different when it comes to a music magazine, as you no my ones is mainly aimed at young females so I decided to contain it by giving out flip-flops which is free, for the girls out there to wear for the summer, and my issue is based for the summer. Another thing challenging the real magazine is that most of them include much older singing artist, my ones based on young teenagers, and it is a very mixed cultural as well.

My magazine cover represents my certain social group which is young females, by attracting there attention, I placed a male mainly in the middle of the magazine, to attract the opposite gender which is young females, and also by having girls surrounding him to make him to make him a very attracting and wanted male. I also made them all wear a certain type of clothing to represent young fashion in the summer, which is bright t-shirts, sunglasses, vest and shirts.

The company that would distribute my music magazine is the magazine publisher “Bauer”, because I believe that the company’s magazine which includes fashion, makeup, cars and music etc..., most of thing things that this company is looking for is mostly in my magazine front cover that I have included as well. Bauer magazine has so many different types of materials that they choose to promote and take on in there company, so they have a wide range of selection of magazine for the audience to choose from. They also give free goodies away with there magazine, which is especially for young females and it is the same as my one too. Some magazines that they have, is based on young females as well, so both magazine has the same intentions as one another to attract the right audience.

My audience for my front cover magazine is mainly for young females 16 – 21, or whoever that is really into music as in RNB and Slow-Jam. Also they would like to no all the exclusive information in the celebrity world, the magazine also includes fashion and makeup which young females are so into at there times, they would like to no the latest fashion and make up tips

My music magazine is aim to attract young females, which has an interest for RNB and Slow-Jams. My magazine attracts there attention by having bright bold headings, a very bright colour background, which always catches your social groups eyes, having certain images which young females tend to like, having a good-looking young male singer in-front of the magazine. Pictures of female singing artist dressing in there best gown, which let then have the intentions to read and buy it themselves.

I have learnt that the use of technology in the past few years has gone very advance. Whilst I was creating my front cover magazine, as I am a new student to media and I haven’t really came across with the use of making video’s or designing a magazine, or even using Adobe Photoshop, I’m totally new at all that. However, as I was working on this new software (Adobe Photoshop) I found that it is quite easy to use; there were so many different tools, one of I did not know about which was quite famous in magazines, which is cutting out the image and placing it on a different type of background that you want.

If I was to make another front cover, the different things that I would have done is aiming the magazine at both genders, male and female so it will be more sales because it is attracting both sides. I would put more text and cover lines on the magazine, going into more detail in the teenage life which might include real life story, love life and quiz’s which they can do within the magazine because it gets kind of boring just reading at some point. I would also like to include more information on music and artist singers, by adding more images, because that tends to attract your audiences eyes most. I would change the colour of the font and the background to a much brighter colour for example; the main headline will be green and the background yellow. I would make the font much thinner and bigger, and do a white outline instead of black.

By Catherin Truong

MAGAZINE EVALUATION-KIRSTY

When I was making my magazine front cover, I thought about the different ways I could make It original and make it stand out from other music magazines on sale. After looking at different front covers such as MOJO and Q magazine, I had an idea of the different things that make them stand out. I think my magazine uses some of the conventions of music magazines in general such as, the title being it the very top left hand corner so that it can be seen on a shop shelf, the classic things such as the price, bar code, and the "Autumn Edition". The use of the main strap line "featuring HOLA" is also a classic convention of music magazines, to entice the readers to buy it.

My magazine challenges the convention of real music magazines because of the following:

• The bright pink background- real music magazines generally use quite dull colours such as black, red and white. Using the bright colour for the background is definitely going to make it stand out on a shelf.
• Also the way I have placed the cover lines is very unconventional to real music magazines. I placed the cover lines on each of the people on my front cover as well as to the side. The idea I had for this was to make it seem like each of the people has a specific area in which they specialised, as well as being in the band ""HOLA".

My magazine cover represents a mixture of social groups. The fact that the majority of people on the cover are of black origin can show that mainly people of black origin are interested in RnB music and RnB magazines. However, the ratio of 5:1 being girls to boys, shows that girls are also largely interested in RnB and it is not just boys who are into it. The age group of my magazine was to appeal to teenagers, 15-18, and this shows on my front cover. We are all aged 16/17 and therefore we fall in the middle of the age range.

As I said before, the target audience for my magazine would be both sexes, aged between 15-18. This is because teenagers are more likely to spend their money on a magazine like this than anybody younger or older. Also, the magazine is likely to make a good amount of money, and have a loyal audience, who are going to want to buy it 4 times a year, and they may not mind if the price needs to go up slightly every now and again, because they are loyal and want the magazine.

I tried to attract my target audience by, firstly, making it an RnB magazine, which is the most popular genre of music that is listened to by my target age group (15-18). Also I made Ola the main attraction with a group of girls behind him which is going to make boys and girls want to bye it. The many different things my magazine offers, appeals to teenagers in my age range, such as, music, fashion, and gossip. The price is very affordable for college students £1.99 which includes free gifts with each issue. With my issue they get a free CD.

The things I have learnt about the different technologies we have used in the time we were making the magazines, is how much quicker the whole process is, using Photoshop to make the front cover. All the different ways you can make it seem real, and sometimes 3D as apposed to always 2D and computerised. Using a blog to keep track and note down everything we did step by step and every time we learnt something, instead of forgetting it, we wrote it in our blog and could refer to it later. Also, it is really good if you make a mistake or need to change something, because you can just go to the blog and edit it until your happy. Another good thing is that you can insert pictures as well, so that everybody can see your magazines and all the pictures and covers you had to look at to get inspiration for your cover. The only bad thing about using technology, is that it can be unpredictable sometimes and therefore you don't have complete control over what your doing, it can sometimes make things a bit more complicated than it has to be, but it's all worth it in the end.

If I had to make the magazine cover again, there are a few things that I would change and do differently:

• I would make the background colour different and more fitting to a music magazine.
• I would make the overall colour scheme more fitting to the fact that it's the autumn edition. i.e more neutral colours.
• I would use a natural background, such as a picture of us outside, instead of just block colour.
• I would also take a group picture instead of individual pictures out together.

This is because when I look at other peoples magazines who have done the things listed above, I feel that their covers are much more suited to the task.

Lastly, the distribution of my magazine. I think I would like my magazine to be sold in a big store such as WH SMITH, and big retailers like that, this is because they are popular and well known and therefore my magazine will be seen by thousands of people. Also, music stores should stock it aswelll, obviously because it is a music magazine people will be interested in it who shop in that store. I don't think it would be practical for ordinary corner shops to stock it. This is because, as my magazine it quarterly, it would get lost in all the weekly magazines that everybody is used to buying, and therefore no sales.