Jacob's Blog

In this unit I have been asked to create a magazine cover, contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine for a contemporary musical genre.

I began by finding conventions of music magazine by deconstructing three front covers, three contents pages and three double page spreads of music magazines. I then used these conventions to use and challenge in the making of my front cover.
I followed the convention of having the masthead of my magazine at the top of my magazine starting from the left to the right. This contains the magazine logo because if the magazine was placed on a magazine rack customers would be able to see a section of the logo and identify the magazine from this.

Another convention I found about magazines is that most of the cover lines on the front cover of magazines are positioned within the left third of the magazine, this is because on the magazine rack this section sticks out from behind the other magazines. My magazine cover challenges this as there is only one cover line situated within the left third. However the cover line that is in the left third of the magazine is in a graphic, this is to make this cover line stand out as I think the graphic will make people pick up my magazine to read it.

I also included a sell line to my magazine which is strongly related and close to my masthead. This is for the viewer to see after they have seen the masthead of the magazine, this is a catchy slogan which I think will make the viewer want to read inside the magazine. A sell line is a convention of music magazine, as on some of the biggest selling magazines they include attractive points to the magazine such as ‘Q’ who put ‘Britain’s Biggest Music Magazine’, them putting this as the selling line will make people think because it is the biggest magazine it will be the best one for them to read. ‘Kerrang’ magazine also have a sell line, which is attractive to its target audience, there sell line is ‘Life is Loud’, which relates to their target audience because they are aiming towards metal fans, which is generally a loud rough genre of music. I have chosen to follow convention by having one, which is ‘Can you feel Beat?’ this is related to the magazine name which is ‘Beatwave’ I had chosen this name because music tracks of this genre are called ‘Beats’ and I chose to call it ‘Beatwave’ coming from the word heat wave, which is something the UK love as they rarely get hot weather. The sell line is ‘can you feel beat?’ coming from can you feel the heat a saying within the film and TV industry through WWE wrestling which attracts a big UK audience. I also think the magazine name and sell are attractive a wave could be related to radio waves, where music can be picked up, implying that this magazine is accessible to them.

I included a main cover line which conventionally links with the main story (which is on my double page spread). It takes up a large amount of the type face along with main cover line teller. The main cover line is the band name which is the main feature of this issue of the magazine. The teller, is to tell the audience that they are in the magazine for an ‘Exclusive Interview’ the word exclusive was included in order to say that it can only be accessed in this magazine.

My main image follows conventions of a magazine cover as it takes up most of the cover. Also conventional is that it is integrated to the masthead to which gives the effect the main image in front and is top in order of importance. This is because the power of images is greater than that of words as people can glimpse and identify what the magazine is all about which attracts them into the magazine as it more presentable to look at. If there was no image and all words the cover would be ugly and the magazine would not sell. My image is also conventional of music magazine at is of musical artists.

A convention of music magazines is to have a three part colour scheme to the cover. I have followed this convention as the colour scheme for my magazine is blue, black and white, I chose to follow this convention as I think that this makes the magazine cover more attractive and the cover is the main selling point of the magazine and institutions want sales in order to sell their magazine and make profit. In relation to profit I also added a barcode which is a convention for magazines created to make a profit, as most retailers in the UK use a barcode system in order to sell their products. Near the Barcode I included the price, I have put this near the barcode as this is conventional of magazines as people automatically look to the barcode to find the price of the magazine.

I also included the dateline and issue number of the magazine. This is conventional of magazines to put the date on so readers know which date the issue is for. The issue number is also conventional for people who like to make a collection of magazines. On the cover I included these again next to the barcode as people already know to look there to find them as it is conventional. Also putting them there is beneficial as it is does not ruin the attractiveness of the cover.

I included the web address, on each page of the magazine. This is becoming more and more conventional with time as the web is always developing and growing in popularity. Many people surf the web and may want to find out more information about the magazine, before buying or along with buying the magazine.

A convention I found of music magazines it to include images throughout the magazine to make each page interesting for the reader. Included the main image on the front cover, three pictures on the contents page and 2 on the double page spread. The images take up most of the pages they are on. This makes people want to read the pages as they are more attractive, and people are often reluctant to read a lot of text. A convention of magazines is to provide anchorage to all the pictures within the magazine. I have done this so people know what is going on the images and can find out what is going on a little amounts of words.

I have used graphology as codes throughout the magazine. The masthead is a different, modern and curvy and font which represents the genre in that it is an individual and modern genre. This font only occurs in the magazine as the magazine name. The font used throughout the magazine is a more square font which provides a comparison to the masthead however is still modern. This font creates a more computerised feel which is related to the bass in the music. It is also clear and easy to read. I used different fonts for each band featured in the magazine to show they are all individual bands.

Planning my magazine consisted of researching into the magazine industry. I went through and analysed the media texts, deconstructed them and then found what I believe was the magazines target audience. I then began by selecting my target audience and having selected a reader profile of my target. I then came up with names of cover lines, names of stories, bands, colour schemes for the magazine.

I then began by creating rough drawn drafts. I then thought about which would look best and which one I was going to use for the magazine. I then created an IT draft for each of the magazine pages, and then began creating them.

I first began creating the front cover of my magazine, I started by drawing drafts and then went on to create IT drafts. I then decided which one I think would work best and then went on to start creating the front cover. I then got audience feedback about the front cover and then on the back of this decided to change the cover. I began the process again of drawing drafts, then created an IT draft of the layout I wanted to create. I then began creating the cover again.

I then drew drafts for my contents page, but then in my IT draft decided to change the layout in order to improve it. I then began creating the contents page.

I did the same for my double page spread.

I began creating my text by taking images of the main artists featuring in my magazine with a digital SLR camera. I took many images in order to give me a range to choose from in order to get the best image. I then began to use Adobe Photoshop to create the magazine. I started off by creating the masthead and selling line. I then cut out the image of my musical artists from my main image and then integrated it with the masthead, I decided to get rid of the background from the original image as I do not believe that it suited the kind of genre my magazine is covering. So I created a background on Photoshop using the rectangle tool, created a pattern overlay and then a colour overlay, changing the opacity of both overlays to make them look like a background. I then added the main cover line using a different font and creating a stroke. I then added the rest of the cover lines, imported a barcode image, graphics and added information to complete my magazine cover.

I then moved onto the contents page. I took more pictures with a digital camera and used one image from the original images I had taken. I began by adding, a logo, the page title, issue number and issue date with a graphic to the page on Adobe Photoshop and added the same background as on the cover, just a more subtle colour to create a house style between the pages of the magazine. I then added 3 image to the contents page, I then added the page numbers to the image and added anchorage to the images. I then left the section on the right of the images to add story headings, sub-heading and page numbers and section to the regular pages, in a graphic.

I then finally created the double page spread. I decided to cut out a rather different image of ‘Robbie’ my model from the original images and placed it at the bottom middle of my double page. I then added the text from the front cover, but transformed it to make the text look more interesting. I also thought the page did not have enough going on so decided to add another image from the original images and placed it in the top right corner, however changed the opacity to not effect the look of the page. I then added a sub-heading under heading. I then added all the text to the page using bold for questions and normal for responses so it is easy to see which is which. I also added page numbers and web addresses, finally I added the house style background to the page.

I then put the image into Microsoft Office Publisher the DTP programme and printed out the magazine.

The language in my magazine was designed in order to engage with my target audience. The style was quite bright and interesting which meant that 16-35 year olds could relate to the magazine as they are younger people. The contents was all about the drum and bass and my magazine targeted drum and bass fans.

If my magazine was to be sold it could be sold by an individual institution that only produces magazine or could be sold by an institution that produces a range of media texts, it could be sold by music producers or a TV channel etc.

To record audience feedback I have carried out a short survey poll on my blog, allowing me to view the opinions and suggestions of the readers. However as I have only been able to collect other students to fill in the survey poll I only have an inaccurate view and only from students which don’t represent a large amount/variety of the audience.

Firstly I had posted a poll to record feedback of only my front cover first, using the poll I have found that 36% of people think my front cover is eye catching compared to the other 63% who don’t appeal to the front cover. I have also fount out what aspect of my magazine cover should be changed according to the audience’s opinions; 63% of people recommend I change the colour scheme, as 54% voted more towards the text, 72% thought the layout should be edited and 36% thought the cover lines should be changed.

I also had students vote on what colour would look more effective than the yellow background I had used for the masthead in my original copy of the front cover. Through doing this I have found; 58% prefer blue, 25% red, 8% green and also black and no one preferred purple or orange to be used because the majority of people chose blue this is why I decided to change my colour scheme from yellow to blue.

Using the poll I had also asked if the reader would rather see a magazine reasonably prices at £1.70 or see and increased price with less advertisement, what gender the reader would say is primarily targeted through my magazine, what age range the reader thinks my magazine is targeting and what genre of music the readers thinks my magazine is covering.

The Preliminary task was a simple and easy task for me to do. The main task however challenged my developing skills on Photoshop and make me considering thinking mainly about the audiences view rather than my own considering the main aim of my magazine is to attract the correct target audience.

To use Photoshop for the Preliminary task wasn’t difficult and less editing and management had to be done for the cover of the college magazine due to the magazine being a less detailed and containing a lack of information compared to the music magazine. To collect a large amount of images of people was mainly the beginning of my process to create my magazine.

The more music magazines I analyzed the more aware of the codes and conventions I had become, helping me apply these additional codes and conventions to develop my magazine and help it gain more of a professional appearance. Whereas when I was creating the college magazine I found there weren’t many conventions to follow therefore the cover page looked more simple and basic.

Textual analysis has helped me learn how to analyse my own magazine and applying LIIAR to my own magazine as well as other, which had become a new technique of improving my magazine.

Looking at other magazines had helped to be aware of what colour schemes are appropriate, suitable background and images which were relevant to the genre of the magazine. Aspects such as thinking of cover lines and masthead names and band names were my own ideas and other magazines and bands had no influence on creating names.

The main struggle in creating my music magazine has been the choices of colour schemes to use and what colours I can combine with the font of my magazine. In the beginning I chose to do my magazine in yellow, black and white however this needed to be changed as identified in my audience feedback. I think my new magazine colour scheme looks a lot better and I ended being happy with my overall magazine product. Another problem I had was getting the text right on Photoshop in the beginning my text was pixelated but second time around it was much sharper and clearer. I think that all areas of my magazine ended up going well and I am happy with the result. However if I was to do this again I would take new images, which are clearer and brighter. I would also get models who fit the genre a little better. As they look a bit subtle for the genre.