My magazine evaluation

Evaluation of Media Magazine

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Final Front Cover

Final Double Page spread

Final Contents Page

Double Page Spread Second Draft

This is better than before. I have changed the heading's font to a different font, that more represents the article about William Stone. It's a very 'flowy' font, which could represent Stone setting free and becoming an awesome solo artist. I have also change the summary sentence to a different font, which is more formal, as classic rock magazines have a clean cut, more formal look about them in comparison to other rock magazines such as Kerrang which is seen as quite busy and for a younger generation. Even though I'm making the fonts more formal and all clean cut, I'm still aiming it at a younger generation, but by keeping them in the loop and not excluding them from certain features, it creates the sense of identity and belonging to the same group of people who the love the same genre of music as you. I have changed the font of the article, to make it more bold and clearer to read. The image of Stone drumming is now in black and white, to draw all of the attention to Stone instead of the shelves behind and make sure all the attention is drawn to Stone's facial expressions. 

Double Page Spread First Draft

Here, for my first draft I have used a basic structure for my double page spread, including an eye catching title, drop capitals, a summary sentence and an image. I have picked these features from magazines such as NME. I decided that some things needed to change, such as the title, it looks as if it's for a fairground rather than representing a one man band in a double page spread. The summary sentence also lacks colour, e.g. a highlighted word or phrase which has been a used feature in Uncut magazine, highlighting an important quote or name. There is far too much space which has been left unfilled, which definitely needs to be filled up with other features from other classic rock magazines. The colour image at the bottom definitely needs to be in black and white, to represent the classic rock look a lot more. There are too many colours in the background on the shelves which distracts the attention from William Stone rather than focus on him. However it does lack some colour!

Contents Second Draft

I have now added an issue number and date to the contents page. I have now placed lines that segregate the image from article numbers, and lines that segregate the issue number and date. This gives it a more clean cut look which is again very much like Uncut's contents page. I have now changed the title "contents" to the same red which is used for the masthead on the front cover, to fit the colour scheme and tie in. Although more features have been added in here, there are still a few more things that need to be added such as a page number and article on the photograph of William Stone.

Contents First Draft

This is a basic draft of  my contents page. I have built the main structure using a black and white image of William Stone playing his bass guitar, he is concentrating hard. I chose this photo as it is very similar to photos that are used in Uncut's contents pages. It represents the artist as ambitious and very much in to their music. I have used the basic structure of a contents page, it is extremely similar to Uncut magazines contents page. The fonts that I have used here are good, the colours just need to be changed. Also, a date and issue number needed to be added to the contents page as well as other things such as a reviews column. 

Front Cover Second Draft

I have started positioning things differently and changing the colours and added a new feature. I feel that changing "William Stone" to a teal colour instead of red was more pleasing to the eye as it didn't make it all 'in your face'. The teal colour flattered the black and white contrasting image a lot better and complimented it. I have also changed the sub articles to the same colour (teal) to carry out the colour scheme. However, I have left the band names in "Impact" font and in white, as it draws the eye in, especially to well known bands, as people are more than likely to care if it's someone that they know well. This was a feature of Uncut magazine. I have left the title the same colour and font as I think that it suits the picture, and is bold and stands out, which draws the intended audience in. Another feature I have used from Uncut magazine are the band names/artists above the masthead. The bold colours (white and yellow) are very eye catching and pull the reader in as they are bright and stand out. 

Front Cover First Draft

Here is my basic idea for my front cover. It hasn't got a set design to it, it's a bit all over the place and hasn't got a real structure, which isn't the style of a classic rock magazine such as Mojo or Q. However, the fonts are a feature of a classic rock magazine, the bold straight font to show bands with a phrase underneath in smaller writing, a bold mast head to draw attention and the main article is very bold. The colours are appealing, however the structure for this draft is a disaster. The "free CD" doesn't look very appealing either, it looks tacky and doesn't go very well with the picture. 

Possible Images

These are the possible images for my front cover. The first image (top left) I edited. I saturated the colours and changed the shadows of the image in Photoshop. I did this to make a more aged looking image, which could have represented the classic part of rock. However the shot also has some graffiti on the church doors behind, showing that the photo was taken in more modern times. But I didn't feel that it could be the final image that I used for my magazine because the facial expressions and body language weren't right, and the image was taken at a more low angle, which was unflattering on the face and wasn't very appealing. The second image (bottom right) was taken against the brick wall of the church. The colours contrasted well with the facial expressions here, and the mouldy green bricks brought out William Stone more. However I didn't feel that this image was just right for the front cover as I wouldn't have been able to mould the features of the magazine around it very well, and it would have looked messy, which isn't the style of a classic rock magazine. I decided to go with the last photo (top right) because it was a mid-shot, I altered the colour to black and white in Photoshop, as many other classic rock magazines use this technique, showing "classic" as represented through the artist. It also shows more about the artist, e.g. clothing, which is a beanie hat and a military style coat which could be said to be a feature of clothing from the classic rock genre, and represent the intended audience as what they wear or what kind of clothes they aspire to wear. 

These are the possible images for my double page spread. The first image was a good idea, as it's a mid-shot and you can see William Stone playing his bass guitar, and you can also see the concentration on his face, showing that he's really concentrating on it, and paying plenty of attention. The second image I thought was better than the first image as it shows concentration of playing the drums, but it also shows the drumsticks in motion, as I turned the shutter speed down to capture this. I decided no to go with the first two possible images because they were both in colour, and although they showed William Stone concentrating on playing his drum and bass, they didn't express happiness, and that's why I chose image 3. Image 3 is similar to image 2, however, Stone is smiling and playing the drums as well as concentrating. The drumsticks in motion has also been caught in this image. Because of the facial expression of Stone being happy, I thought this represented how he's broken free of an old band and become a solo artist, and is eager and happily making his own music, making a really good job of it as well. I changed the image to black and white in Photoshop as it fits the classic rock theme, and theme going along with my front cover, so it would all fit together, and make the front cover, contents and double page spread look like they all come together very well and don't look out of place. 

Contact Sheet

For my front cover I took the images in a graveyard, as it was a dark setting with plenty of walls as a background. The brick walls were quite plain in most areas, with small details of graffiti dotted around. I decided to use a more plain background to photograph my model against as in classic rock magaines such as Uncut and Mojo, majority of the time the artists featured on their front covers are photographed against a plain background. This brings out the facial expressions of the artist/band featured on the front and draws you in. I also took a lot of shots where there was eye contacts with the camera, this is because other classic rock magazines have done this as a way for the artist to connect to it's intended audience. I have mostly done upper mid-shots or close ups, as you can see the emotions and body language used. The reason that it's important to use shots where the intended audience are drawn to emotion is to represent the type of music that that band/artist produces. For my front cover, I managed to get shots that were serious shots, or sometimes serious shots with a hint of smiling in them. This represents the type of music that "William Stone" makes as quite serious, however he has a soft side to him, and overall a nice personality.  The reason that I took all of the photos in colour was just in case I decided that I wanted to edit and play around with the colours, then afterwards turn the photograph black and white using Photoshop. It just gave me more options, than if I were to take all the photos in black and white. In some of the front cover shots I have the model hold a pair of drumsticks. Just holding the pair or drumsticks represents his solo career. By it only being him in the picture, it shows he is the only person that's creating the music and no one else. 

I have also taken photographs of myself, this is so that I can make a small badge for the band "Citrus Cream" which is another eye catching feature of a magazine. Classic rock magazines have also used this feature, especially in Uncut magazine. It shows who the band is. Also the small image helps paint a picture of who they are e.g. appearance, age and identity. I have taken photographs with me wearing a silly red cowboy hat, and a sailors hat. Representing "Citrus Cream" as a bit whacky and obscure with their ideas. 

I took a set of photos showing the instruments used by William Stone, with him playing them. It shows that we can explore what he does, that we aren't completely shut out of how he produces the music, although he does prefer to work alone. Again, I took the images in colour so I had a wider range of options to edit the pictures later on in Photoshop. I lowered the shutter speed in order to capture the movement of the drumsticks as he was banging about the drums. These photographs represent him as very much a solo artist, putting songs together via recordings and a computer. In majority of rock magazines, the images for the double page spread aren't usually the band members playing with their instruments, unless its a double page spread reviewing the most recent gigs. So I decided that since William Stone was solo, he performed for himself at home, like a home gig, as when he's live he gets help from specifically chosen band members to help him. So I thought it would be a true representation of his work. 

Publishing Houses

Bauer Media

Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group. The group offers over 300 magazines in 15 different countries; they are a worldwide media empire. They also provide for television and radio stations. Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group. Their two main offices are based in London and Peterborough in the UK. Bauer distribute three music magazines: Kerrang, Mojo and Q.


IPC Media
IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands. Their print alone reaches two thirds of women based in the UK and 42% men in the UK. Overall reaching almost 26 million UK adults. They distribute two music magazines: Uncut and NME. They compete with Bauer with music magazines as well as other magazines such as Look and other chat magazines. Majority of magazines are aimed at women.

I will use IPC media to distribute my magazine. This is because they have similar music magazines to what mine is e.g. Uncut and NME, which means the genre of music is familiar and would be more likely to be bought. I also feel that there’s a gap in the market for my magazine. My magazine is aimed at a younger generation of people who enjoy classic rock and other sub genres and have an overall deep appreciation for music. It would be a good opportunity to unleash my magazine and enlighten young adults and give them more information about the artists they listen to.

Magazine Ideology

My magazine is aimed at males and females aged between 17-24. Majority of them are in education such as college or university, however some of them are working, or have just come out of university and are searching for work. The genres featured in the magazine are varied; however classic rock is mostly featured with bands such as Def Leppard, The Who and AC/DC. The other bands featured that wouldn’t be classed as classic rock could vary from Gorillaz to Red Hot Chili Peppers. The intended audience like to listen to a variety of music ranging from old to new, but they have a big appreciation for music that was made with passion, rather than just making something up quick on a computer without much thought given to it. They believe that being themselves is more important than being mainstream and don’t worry about being extremely popular amongst a group of people. Thus meaning they don’t feel it necessary to listen to music such as R&B or rap because they feel as if most of it isn’t made with talent and doesn’t excite their ear holes. The intended audience will use social networking sites such as Facebook to keep in contact with each other. Majority or teenagers and young adults use social networking as a way of knowing what each other are up to and organising events. Facebook would be a good concept to include in my magazine, e.g. having a “like” page for the magazine.
The name of the Magazine is Unchained. The reason it’s named this is to represent the magazine as being a little different from other classic rock magazines, being aimed at a younger and sophisticated audience that appreciate good music and know how to be independent. It also brings in genres that maybe have been forgotten about like Rock & Roll which are still appreciated by people, including teenagers and young adults. It releases to its intended audience more genres to them, and allows them to take a bigger interest in music rather than the usual music that they listen to. By connecting people with old music that’s new to them, it could incorporate with their emotions and create a desire to read more of the magazine and be quite interested.
Music magazines that I have drawn inspiration from are “Q” and “Uncut”. I feel that both magazines have featured a variety of genres over the year’s e.g. Uncut magazine featuring Bob Marley and Q magazine featuring AC/DC. And this is a good approach to make sure that readers can get the most out of music and appreciate it fully, but also discover new bands and artists that they hadn’t known about previously. My magazine will feature similar concepts, however it will be aimed at a younger audience and will be styled around meeting their needs such as venue reviews (so they know where’s best to go to gig). And a wider range of genres. The design of my magazine will be similar to Uncut, it will use black and white images, but a colour scheme that catches the eye will be used to draw the intended audience in. Colours such as red, white and yellow. I know that this will appeal to an audience aged between 17-24 as I myself are interested in this type of music and different genres, as are my friends. Also, magazines featuring classic rock are aimed at an older audience rather than a younger one. I believe there is a gap in the market for this magazine as many young people would want to read it rather than reading magazines aimed at an older audience, it would also feature things that would interest a young person such as a free CD.
It would be good for the magazine to come in to circulation as there aren’t magazines that feature genres such as classic rock that are aimed at younger people. It would create a wider audience and allow more people to come together and listen to the music together e.g. at gigs. It would make everyone feel more involved in something that they have a passion for rather than being secluded from it and being pushed elsewhere to go and listen to music.

Reader Profile

Analysis of Results From Zoomerang Questionnaire

Linking My Questionnaire on Various Sites

I used Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to post my questionnaire on to, as I know that the friends and followers I have are of around my age and older which is who my magazine will be targeted at. I found this a useful way of gaining responses as it gave a true idea of how people felt about certain things.

Link to my Questionnaire on Zoomerang

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EAU5YKQVB

Mojo Magazine Analysis

NME Magazine Analysis

Kerrang Magazine Analysis

Analysis of Magazine Front Cover

How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?

The magazine front cover that I’m analysing is The Official Xbox 360 Magazine. The intended audience are people who like to play Xbox games and most likely male, although females do read the magazine. The colour of the magazine front cover is dark grey/black which connotes to us that the intended audience of the magazine is male because the colours are seen as bold, dominant and powerful.

 The mast head font is large, bold and white, which stands out against the dark background. The style of font is quite basic, it shows that the intended audience that buy this magazine aren’t drawn in by the title, but instead the large image that covers the majority of the front cover of the magazine. The sell line below the mast head is also quite minimalistic, which just states that this certain magazine is official, bringing in a wider audience because the sources of are seen as more trustworthy than other gaming magazines. The font that is more or less centred is large and has a slight medieval style, which represents the game that the headline is about “The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim”. The rest of the font on the page is just like the masthead font, very basic. They have made it so that the “world exclusive” story catches our eye the most as it is different to the rest of the font.

The layout has been centred around the image, which makes the image the main feature of the front cover, making other items on the page less important. Features on the front cover and been put where they can fit, making it a messy style of layout. The messy layout appeals to a younger audience of male teenagers because they’re stereotyped as unorganised and careless, e.g. having a messy room and not caring about personal hygiene. At the very top of the page, there is a banner which says that there’s a free disc that comes with the magazine if you buy it. “7 PLAYABLE GAME DEMOS” would drag a gamer’s attention towards the magazine because a gamer would want to play demos of a game to test it out before they considered buying it for a much more expensive price. The colour of the banner is in bright green to ensure that it’s one of the first things that someone will spot when looking at the magazine.

The image is quite brutal, angry and in your face. The man looks extremely angry and vicious, which goes side by side with his muscly physique and armour that he’s wearing, this appearance is very masculine. The pose that the character is in looks like he’s about to murder someone, making him look quite intimidating. It appeals to a male audience as games make you feel like you’re in a different world, if they use a bold and extremely powerful and macho image, it makes men feel as if they could be like this, or feel as if they are that character when they’re playing the game.

The typical type of intended audience for the Official Xbox Magazine could be a group of people that still live with their parents, with an age range of 15-19. There is actually an age rating for the magazine which is 15, as it shows on the bottom of the magazine.  Hobbies would most likely include gaming because if they’re buying a magazine that’s about 6 pound, it must be very interesting for them to read about game reviews, and for the magazine to suggest games that might appeal to the audience. They most likely wouldn’t have a job, because they’d be too busy at their job to have time to play games on an Xbox. They would most likely be in college or no education at all, depending on how interested in gaming they are, would be how much they would play it. 

My Version of a Newspaper Front Cover

My front cover is based off of the Guardian newspaper with an audience of people that are middle class adults interested in politics, informational topics such as the economy and are logical thinkers. It’s easy to see that it is aimed at a different class of people compared to readers of a tabloid newspaper like The sun or The Daily Star because the language, layout and images are vastly different to those of a newspaper like The Times or The Guardian. The language of The Guardian is formal with a complex use of vocabulary.

I haven’t directly represented the rioters. “The rioters aren’t the only people to blame” shows that there are people or groups that also hold responsibility over what had happened during the riots. Although the rioters aren’t directly represented, the image still shows all of the damage and chaos that was caused by them rampaging through the streets like wild buffalo. The image shows no appearances which isn’t putting anyone on the spot on a largely read newspaper. I feel that this is a fitting representation because the guardian have also showed that it isn’t just the rioters faults, other things could have been put in place to protect the streets of London, especially as it carried on for almost a week.

The police are the main focus of the image on my front page. The riot gear that they are wearing shows that they are defending the area from rioters. “The rioters aren’t the only people to blame” suggests that they or the government could have done more to put high ordered measurements in place to ensure that there would be less damage ruining the streets of London. Also, the copycat riots that happened in places such as Liverpool could have been held under more control as it was inevitable that riots would take place else where other than London because of the ideology behind the riots. I don’t feel like I have represented any group particularly negatively, maybe a little suggestive as to other people being to blame.

I chose not to directly represent any group of people as a whole because the other newspaper articles that I have seen from the guardian aren’t directly blaming anyone, but they are hinting towards who could have done more about the situations and how we can handle things differently to than how it was handled. My front page layout is quite neat and precise like the Guardian to make it appear more formal and readable by the audiences of middle aged adults. I chose only to have one picture so that the front page wasn’t busy or over loaded with unnecessary images or advertisements, which would otherwise be seen in newspapers like the Daily Star. I have made it clean cut by lining up where the text would be with separation lines making it easier to read which would have a cut to the chase story displayed. A text box on the image shows what is happening within it, and again gives another insight to the story. I feel that the front cover that I have designed is similar to the Guardian and holds the same type of qualities that the Guardian does, obviously not to such a high standard because I’m no journalist.

I know that the Guardian have an audience of middle aged adults that like to read about stories that are important in our society like what’s happening with the government, or the goings on in other countries like Libya. They layout is neat and well though about in order to get a middle aged adult audience to read it. So the layout isn’t all over the place and busy, it’s just straight forward and gets right into the story. This affected the way in which I designed mine because I wanted to get a similar sort of layout in order to create a similar front page. 

Preliminary Task Contents Mock

Preliminary Task Front Cover

I have designed the front cover of my version of a school newsletter. I have chosen this certain layout for different reasons, and also the images, font style and motto.

I chose the name “Negus Express” because the news that is shown in the newsletter is fresh and quick, it would also be of interest to the students because the stories involve them. Also the newsletter being handed out at a designated time regularly is like a small service within school, and it involves people working on the newsletter to get it ready for students to read. The font I chose it to be in looks like it’s been written, maybe by a student, which represents the students that study at the school, and how they write a lot in class.

Below the masthead, I put the date and issue number. I put the issue number on the left, and the date on the right, it has been neatly aligned. The reason I have aligned these neatly is to represent the students at school, being organised and ready to work and do well. I have also designed a motto and placed it within a banner, the motto being “Happy to Help”, which would be seen as quite friendly and welcoming, like the students of the school can go up to someone and ask for help with something and not feel intimidated by students or teachers.

I have then featured two main stories on the front of the newsletter. The first story “Plans prepared for Wickham” and the second story “Friday is treat day!” The first story being more important and informing the school about changes that are going to happen, which would make them happier and have a better environment to work in. The second story is just something to entertain the students and encourage them to eat in the canteen, which could mean students are eating less junk outside of school at lunch times, making food in school more exciting and likeable. I made the title of each story bold, underlined and black, with large font size. This makes the headlines stand out to the intended audience. The article font is smaller and purple, which ties in with the colour scheme of the newsletter, as the colour scheme is pastel green, pastel purple and white, with the headlines being in black. I have chosen this colour scheme as it’s quite relaxing, as the students are hard worked a lot of the time, from pressure of exams and course work.

I used an image of the school student room for the first article to display where the students go at the moment to do work, and the article was saying how it’s going to be improved. The second image is a medium shot of the school dinner lady looking quite happy. The article is about the food and how it’s changing which has a lot to do with the dinner ladies as they’re the ones who prepare all of the food for the students.