Evaluation for AS media Course work

I have looked at many music magazines, and have looked at all the design conventions. My product doesn’t challenge many of the music magazine conventions, for example the convention of most magazines, to have a music related images, a free gift or competition, a main image along with a headline and masthead, some slugs to build enigma with the reader and the date and barcode (along with price.) my magazine has one main image and the magazine title but no headline or mast head (breaking the conventions) there is a competition, some slugs and the date and barcode. My magazine breaks one of the main conventions of having a masthead, this was intended to add more enigma towards who the band are, along with the slugs my intentions were to create enigma.
My magazine definitely represents social groups, it is aimed at young heavy rockers, this is done by using a young rocker on the cover, his hair is long and scruffy, his shirt is un-tucked and sleeves rolled up, giving him the young ruffian look. The colour is yellow in combination mostly with black, in nature yellow and black (bumble bees and wasps) is a representation for you to fear the animal. Yellow is also a bright luminous colour which is similar to the kind of lights used in heavy rock concerts when the “mosh pit” ensues. On the DPS the guitarist has a completely heavy rock guitar the shape and the colour, he is wearing a band t-shirt and is standing in a room with a bricked background (connection to the front cover) the guitarist has medium long hair which is stereotypical in the heavy metal social tribe.
Since my magazine is intended to aim at the market that don’t want to be mainstream or “conformist” i feel that it should not be distributed by Bauer or IPC, etcetera and it should be published by an independent publisher. It should be distributed to areas like Camden where the readers would know the only place to by such magazine would be in a place where there social class lives.
The audience for my magazine is male aged from 14-25 because at around 14 most teenagers start to get into music and most university students would still be quite into their music and would be interested in a magazine related to their particular genre. It is for people who enjoy louder faster and heavier versions of rock music more commonly known as speed metal, death metal or thrash metal and so on, but it is aimed at new up and coming musicians in this genre of metal, since most metal fans prefer to like a band who isn’t well known, i have seen on countless internet forums of people saying they knew the band before they were famous and that they were annoyed at how the band is now mainstream. By creating a magazine dedicated top up and coming fairly un known artists it allows the fans to find many new bands and since its a non mainstream magazine the bands shouldn’t be able to turn escape the genre.
I attract my audience by using enigma and offering prizes and competitions, the address is very casual and informal allowing the reader to feel its not a serious magazine and it would be similar to having a conversation with a friend who was interested in the genre.
Some technology i have used has been photoshop to edit the pictures, i have used photoshop to remove objects by moving the background to cover them up as if they were never there, make things appear to pop out of the page and as if they were crossing over/over lapping.
` photoshop has many tools to resize and fix pictures to make them look how u want them to look. Blogger has been very usefull as i have been able to upload text documents and Jpegs, i have been able to receive feedback on my posts using the comment bar or the poll tick box. I have used excel to make the graph for my questionnaire which was very simple, all i was required to do was input the values and the graph filled it self up.
I feel based upon my finished product, it went okay, i did not plan enough and did not use my time wisely, i got unfortunate with my first photo shoot (very bad quality) and very lucky with my second photo shoot. I completely removed my original contents page based upon the feedback was my idea was very poor, i feel my final contents page looks quite professional, my dps started with two completely different pictures but similar layout, as the feedback showed this was not a good idea i quickly changed the photos and they seemed to work quite well.

Analysis of DPS

my DPS originally started with three pictures of a band playing, unfortunately the quality was extremely low and i was advised to scrap them, i then planned out the layout, once i had taken some new photos i had already planned where to put them, my feedback was the pictures looked to bundled up and crushing the text and many people said it was odd how the guitar was cut off. so i removed one of the pictures and re arranged the text, i then changed the picture to one where the neck of the guitar was over lapping onto the next page the feedback was then very positive saying it looked very cool and similar to a rock DPS but the pictures looked very similar, unfortunatly the only other photos i had where from the same photoshoot and i attempted to use a different one but it looked completely out of place with the other larger image.

Analysis of contents page

Alot of people disliked my original contents page as it was extremely childish and very bland, it followed the front covers yellow black and white colour scheme but it was very poor, i quickly scrapped the whole idea as of the many negative comments, i then looked at many content pages from music magazines like kerrang and NME and copied their layouts and schemes, it occured to me there was a patternt to mant magazines contents pages, i then got good feedback based upon my new contents page and many people said they felt it looked exactly like what they would expect to see in the contents section, the colours layout and spacing. i feel my contents page went very well.

Analysis of Front cover

My feedback upon my front cover has been mixed, most people have applauded me and said that the simple colour scheme along with interesting font the magazine looks interesting and realistic, some people said it was too plain with not alot happening and that the model on the front looked out of place in a suit. i left the suit because i felt he looked as though he was rebelious against the suit by untucking his shirt and rolling his sleeves. the puffs on the side are not too much according to most people only a few people said that they looked un-even i attempted to add a fourth puff but i felt three was a good number and the arrangement was the best i could get.

It appears most people prefer the ideas, but are not drawn towards the metal music genre, this is most likely because of the area i did the survey, for example if i had taken the survey in camden my results would be very positive towards metal music.

Questionnaire

Q1. What kind of magazines are you interested in

A.) Film/TV B.) Music C.) Fashion D.) Politics/ economy

E.) other

Q2. What would a reasonable price for a weekly distributed magazine?

A.) 50p-£1 B.) £1-2 C.)£2-3 D.)£3-4

Q3. What kind of music do you like?

A.)Rock/Metal B.)Classical C.) RnB/Rap D.)punk

E.) other

Q4. Would you be interested In a heavy metal magazine?

A.) Very much B.) yes C.) no D.) not at all

Q5. Does the idea of a “promotional CD of the top 10 songs picked by the readers” entice you?

A.) Very much B.) Yes C.) No D.) Not at all

Q6. Would you like to be part of a community of a mutual liking of metal music?

A.) Yes B.) Yes but not metal music C.) No

Q7. Do you like the idea of having regular updates for upcoming tours and gigs?

A.) Very much B.) yes C.) no D.) not at all

Q8. Do you like the idea of mainly focusing on unsigned/underground bands?

A.) Very much B.) yes C.) no D.) not at all

Q9. How lengthy should the magazine be so that it has enough information, yet doesn’t appear to “drag on?”

A.) 10-20 pages B.) 20-30 pages C.) 30-40 pages D.) 40-50 pages

Q10. Would you be willing to purchase a magazine weekly?

A.) yes B.) no C.) no but I would monthly

this is my final draft of the front cover, i removed the star, re sized the bar code, adjusted the text positioning.

This is the final Draft of my Contents page

This is my final draft of my DPS

This is my rough sketch of my dps, giving me a vague idea of how i want my layouot to look, where i want the text and where i want the images.

Analysing the NME

Manic street preachers

 

The NME (New Musical Express) is a mainstream magazine targeted at young males that are interested in mainstream bands. NME is the most popular magazine for rock music on the market. Its main opposition is Kerrang. Kerrang averagely sells around 64-67 thousand magazines and NME sells averagely 70-72 thousand although Kerrang has topped NME on occasion.

First impressions of the front cover suggest the magazine is aimed at older rock fans, after analysing the front cover further i would presume a target market of around 24 to 40 year old fans and younger indie fans.

The sell line in the circle has modern band names inside allowing them to target the younger generations, the band featured on the cover is a band from the late 80's even though they are still making music and are in no way "ancient" the bands fans would majoritably be middle aged males, this added to the sell line with the "newer" bands gives them a wider target market.

They use just one colour; red, they use it very maturely to make to make the magazine sensible yet red symbolises danger, which maintains the mature rock status for the older readers. The positioning of the three members on the cover is very militant the red haired member has very square shoulders facing directly towards us with a direct mode of address. He has the Welsh flag on his cheek since Wales is his country of origin. This could be seen as a representation of battle as in medieval times when men on horseback would bear their flag on their cheek in the same way during battle. The other members are wearing slightly military jackets.

The positioning of the members on the cover there is a space to the left of them for the extra band member who they mysteriously lost. The image creates a direct mode of address with the audience and the two to his left and right are relaxed and smiling. The band looks mature and serious this is applying to the mature rockers who are know dads or business men and need to be mature but yet still have the rock spirit inside.

After analysing the NME cover I have come to the conclusion that NME feature "older" established bands and "newer" younger bands in an attempt to cater for a fairly wide rock/indie audience and report on new trends. In my opinion they have succeeded very well by establishing a clear target market.

First draft of front cover. Music magazine

Here is my first draft, im not very happy with the yellow star.

Magazine cover practise

This is my practise attempt on adobe in design to make a magazine cover.

Preliminary task

This is my practise attempt at a front cover for a school magazine. i used it it photoshop for its effects on colour.

AS media 101

I am an AS media student, Studying in my first year at regents college.