Final Evaluation

AS Media Studies - Music Magazine Evaluation from NavdeepGhataora

Music Magazine Final Products

After looking over my drafts, I decided some changes had to be made.

After reviewing my cover, I decided there was too much space, so I moved the barcode to the bottom right corner and added another cover line.

The contents page looked too structured and predictable, so I decided to move the images around, cropping out the background from one of the images. I also removed the strip and made the entire contents have the graduated tint that was on the title strip.

The main issue with my initial double page spread was that the text wasn't legible (i.e the blue text on a green background), so I decided to duplicate the background layer and put a layer with a lower opacity (around 50%) and erased the initial background to make the quote and text from the article stand out more on the page.

Music Magazine Drafts

Here are how the first drafts of the music magazine turned out.

The Making of the Music Magazine Double Page Spread

As with the cover and contents, the double page spread was created with Adobe Photoshop CS6.
I began with an image and cropped out a house in the background, as that didn't give off the image I was going for in the photo. As a result of this I had to remove the sky from the image too. I then took a filtered copy of the image and erased most of it, leaving just the grass and parts of the plant in the background, as it created a shadow effect. I then created another copy and cropped out the models in the photo. I then added subtle stroke, inner glow and drop shadow effects to make them stand out against the rest of the image.

The blank edges of the image now seemed unnatural, so I added a rectangle behind (which is in the layers bar on the screenshot above) to make an artificial clear sky. I also added a simple title, "Meet the Blue Vines", in order to introduce the band.

At this point I decided I would add in a topic sentence to help introduce the article, as it is a Q&A styled interview, the sentence helps ease readers into the Q&A. I also decided I would use the quote "We just want to watch the world burn".

At this point, all I had left to add was the actual article itself. I put the text onto the background and decided that the questions should be a different colour from the answers. I also made sure that the text would be legible by adding a black rectangle behind the text and reducing its opacity to 15%, so that it only just masked the picture enough to leave the text legible.

The Making of the Music Magazine Contents Page

As with the front cover, I made this in Photoshop CS6.
With the contents page, I decided I would begin with a title (simply, "Contents") in a strip across the top of the page. The title would be in the same font as the masthead, so the strip must be a colour that isn't red (so the text can be the same recognisable red with the texture as the masthead was).

From here, I then added the images I decided I would used. For one image, I cropped out the background, as it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the contents page. For all the images, I added a subtly stroke effect to make them "stand off" the page slightly.

From here I decided to caption each image with their page number and a brief sentence about what the article covers. I placed a caption over the image I decided to relate to the double page spread that reads "EXCLUSIVE" just as I had a cover line that said exclusive across it.

Having captioned the images and laying them out how I wanted them, I decided to start adding in contents, using the 3 headings I had decided on in the research stage; Features, News and Interviews. I also added a small pug-like feature telling readers where to find the competition to make it convenient for readers.

The Making of the Music Magazine Front Cover

First I decided I would call the magazine "Damage".
I then found a font I liked using Photoshop CS6 and then went about deciding how to stylize the logo to make it recognisable when put next to other logos. I experimented with these ideas:

After deciding upon the the last way, I then went about adding effects to the logo.

I liked the look of the second font, as the faded colour and textured font seemed to reflect the attitude of an alternate rock/metal magazine. I then put this masthead onto a background to see how it would look.

  

After doing so, I saw that the masthead didn't show up very well on this background. I thought I should change the colour of the masthead and, at the same time try a background with a more subtle texture to it with a graduated tint towards the right hand side of the page (as this is where I want a majority of the cover lines to go).

Once I was satisfied with this, I then added a feature photo, which I layered with a filtered copy of itself over the top and carefully removed parts of the filtered image (using the Glowing Edges filter from Photoshop's filter gallery) so that it was only the models clothing and the guitar that were filtered (the lefthand image is the original one, the righthand image is the original layered with the filtered copy).

At this point I decided to add in cover lines and a pug, as there is still a great deal of blank space on the page and a competition would help boost the magazines sales (as shown from my research). I opted to add banners behind the cover lines to make them stand off the background.

The final thing I wanted to add to this cover to really complete it was a barcode in the left hand corner with the date of the issue and the price (£3.79, between £3 and £4 to fit with what I researched).

Music Magazine Photos

Here are the photos I took for my music magazine front cover, contents and double page spread.

 

Music Magazine Double Page Spread Research

Again, as with the front cover and contents page, I analysed some double page spreads to see what I need to include in my own in order for it to be successful.

Both of these double page spreads include a quote (that takes up a large amount of the page), a feature photo (that also takes up a large proportion of the image), a brief sentence to sum up the article and of course, the actual article itself. Generally the background of these spreads are quite barren of colour, with colour being provided by the feature photo and coloured text, which is used to highlight specific words in the quote or topic sentence.

Music Magazine Contents Page Research

As with the research for the front cover, I decided to analyse some contents pages to find conventions. This time I decided to look at the 2 magazines I decided to use as examples for my own, NME and Kerrang!

There's a clear heading in both that at least indicate that the page is in fact the contents page. In both cases, a fair portion of the page is text, with a lot of the text being in a different colour depending on it's importance (for example, how I have annotated the colour scheme on the Kerrang! Contents page).

Music Magazine Front Cover Research

In order to see what are considered conventions for the front cover of a music magazine, I decided to analyse some (including an issue of NME, which will be what I use as an example to base my own work from with magazines that aren't the same genre for comparison to see if other codes and conventions are present in those that aren't in NME).

It is noteworthy that 2 of the 3 magazine covers have feature photos that cover the masthead. Generally the masthead is bold at the top of the page and very little of the page is blank space. A majority is filled with the strap line (a short phrase used to describe or promote the magazine, which in fact, is not present on these covers), cover lines (brief sentences across the cover that give information on articles inside the magazine), banners or pugs (shapes, usually at the sides of the magazine that attract attention to something, usually a free gift or competition in the magazine. 

Music Magazine Survey Results

   After handing my survey to 50 people, I gathered the results to find what my demographic was and to see what would be appropriate to include in the magazine.
   The results showed that 90% of the people I had given the survey to were male and a majority were 15-20. This shows that the demographic that my magazine should be aimed towards are teenage and young adult males.
   Of the people that actually bought magazines, there was nearly an even split between Kerrang! and NME, with only 4% choosing the other options, so I should use Kerrang! and NME as references in my research of popular magazines. The reason for these magazines, 56% of the time was Bands/artists featured and 28% was Layout of the magazine.
   For the costs of the magazine a majority answered £3-£4, showing the magazine should have a certain level of quality in the printing, but not too expensive, so it's still accessible to a lower and middle class audience.
   The types of articles read were interviews (42%), features (30%) and news (28%). This means I should at least try to include an article from all 3 on the contents page and the best option for the double page spread would be an interview.
   The majority prefer their magazines to contain competitions.

Music Magazine Survey

In order to gather information about what kind of magazine would appeal to the public, I devised the survey shown below.

School Magazine Contents Page

Once I was satisfied with the front cover, I moved to designing a contents page. For this page, I wanted to keep the fonts consistent with what was seen on the front cover. I also added another picture of a building in the school, then removed the background and added a blue background across the page to avoid having 2 clashing shades of blue.

School Magazine Cover

After evaluating my initial design for the school magazine, I decided I would correct the initial designs faults. I changed the layout entirely, removing the banner and making the masthead larger. The logo was moved to the masthead so that the logo almost directs the reader around the page, first catching a glance of the masthead, then the logo and pointed towards a cover line. I decided to keep an image from the initial design, but removed the background as well as added an image of the school to the background to add some variety to the pictures and avoid giving the impression the school is cold.

First Draft of School Magazine

I initially chose a design that incorporated the school's colours, blue and yellow. The name, "versatility", was a symbol of how diverse and accessible the school is to all, showing that everyone is included. The colours chosen were fairly neutral (i.e. not particularly masculine or feminine). I chose to use these images as they show students hard at work and show off the schools facilities. The banner across the bottom would give room for a strapline or important news.

After reflecting upon the design of the cover, I decided that the colours of yellow and orange clashed too much. Additionally, the masthead isn't large enough and isn't noticed against the comparatively large images and banner across the bottom. The logo also looks visibly stretched and distorted.
The use 2 images where students are wearing hats make the school look fashionable, but also give the impression that the school is cold, not an impression we want to give.

School Magazine Photos

I took a collection of pictures to potentially use for my school magazine front cover.