Evaluation

My project was to design and create my own music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. I worked independently using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign to help me in the creation of this task.

At the beginning of my research for this project I wanted the sub-genre of my magazine to be disco but I realized it wouldn’t work due disco music now being out of fashion and if there was actually a disco magazine now there would be nothing to fill it with, also nobody in the real world would want to buy it. I then thought of doing POP but i didn’t want my magazine to be one dimensional so in the end i chose to include all different types of genres mixed together. This is because quite a lot of people like different kinds of music and are not just stuck into one category so really it is still pop in one sense because pop stands for popular music and the music that will be in my magazine will be all the popular music thats in the charts now. 

There are many different media institutions which distribute similar products and i believe would be interested in distributing my magazine. The Nielsen Company who publish Billboard magazine, Bauer Media Group who publish NME and Jann Simon Wenner who publishes Rolling Stone would be able to publish my magazine. As these are similar to my magazine and publish a similar genre of music they would be able to make my magazine a success and sell globally. My magazine is similar to the others yet other more in terms of news and reviews on singles. It has the potential to out sell each magazine and I believe that any of the publisher would take up the chance to fund my magazine. My magazine has a good colour scheme which can appeal to both genders were each of the other magazines usually target a specific sex. It provides a good layout which has been proven to be successful as it is similar to the Rolling Stone magazine yet offers better news and a greater potential to sell. 

To make the product successful, the magazine must be different and other over exciting things that competing magazines do not offer. The magazine must appeal to a large audience or it will not be successful. My magazine is aimed at people that have a varied taste in music...People that are heavily into metal or RnB etc. probably won’t want to buy it. Being stereotypical these people would not be interested in buying the magazine where as the majority would be targeted. This magazine has been made for both genders of people from age twelve to about thirty. This is a good age range for my target audience because they have more leisure time to spend listening to music which means they are more interested in music and would want to buy my magazine to learn who’s in the charts. They are right for my product financially as they have disposable income and what they do earn is spent more leisurely instead of on mortgages and bills. I made an audience  questionnaire to see if potential buyers would be interested. My results were very good and most people said they would buy it, Some people who liked their own kind of music and nothing else, said they wouldn’t buy it in a shop, but this is what i expected. Overall i believe the music stereotype which my magazine targets is the most common of all, as it is based on the best singles released at the time which must be the most popular as they are in the charts.

The audience that I questioned said they were attracted to the use of colour as they thought that the purple background and green and white text complemented each over well which produced a professional look. They believed the photo on the magazine was of a popular and good looking model who represented the magazine in a trendy yet professional way. The model was someone who they aspired to be as she has became famous but is still a normal girl who does not represent the common stereotypes of the current modeling industry. She has come on to the scene through her amazing new single which has topped the charts and has created a media frenzy. They also said that the font of the name of my magazine was clear, whilst still being attractive and that they could tell straight away what genre of magazine it was from the name of it. It is called NUMIX ‘NU’ for new and ‘MIX’ for mixture this is because the content in my magazine has lots of NEW artists and songs and its going to have a big mixture of them. The audience are able to relate and understand to the title as “NU” is youthful and an abbreviation of New which is used commonly by younger people whilst texting. The questionnaire results showed that the layout was organized well as the text did not take up to much of the photo and was consistent in working around the sides and in different sectioned parts. The name of the magazine is music related as NU which appears in the new genre NU rave and MIX can be compared to remixing. The colour scheme is unique and eye catching which will appeal to potential customers. The news which the magazine publishes is clear, modern and relevant as popular celebrities are included in the magazine. On my magazine i used short brief headlines which would make a customer want to know more and want to see the full story which could influence them in buying the magazine. 

The contents page has the consistent colour scheme of purple and green, which also has the another photo of the model as the main focal point. The contents page gives the buyer a a quick overview look at what the magazine contains. The contents page also has a section of the top 5 singles of the current week determined by the magazine. The contents page clearly shows what article is on which page and a brief description on each story. The page has been organized so that all the headlines from the front page are shown under on the cover at the top left and the other article are down the right hand side. The contents page also contains a quote and picture from a top celebrity.

The double page spread provides an insight into the life of the upcoming singer and recent chart topping artist Jessica Annie. This article will be very popular article as she has shocked the music world with her outstanding single “Sole”. I had managed to get an exclusive interview and NUMIX will be the only magazine to publish this article. This will ensure that any customers who want to hear any news about Jessica Annie will buy this magazine over any others. The colour scheme is consistent through out and has an attractive layout. 

Technology has been a big part of creating my magazine, The internet has provided me with the ability to research all sorts of different artists, magazine covers, contents pages, articles and headlines. It has helped me develop lots of different ideas and creations such as comparing formats and implementing them in my magazine. One of the best magazines that inspired me the most was this one because it has the headlines scattered around the picture, bright colours and all sorts of different fonts and sizes which make the magazine look exciting. I also liked the idea of the boxes around the text but it didn’t look good on my magazine. I first started making my magazine in Photoshop this software let me edit the photograph e.g spots, shadows etc. and it also let me change the colour of the background. This magazine has a great reputation and gave me the template in creating my magazine, i used the same format with a centre photo of model with a similar pose, I then added text around this photo and created a stand out background colour. 

I deleted the lines on the original . I kept the shadow of the sleeve to add character to the photo as this effect makes the photo look genuine. I changed the colour of the background as this gives the photo more effect and a better presentation as the original colour is dull and plain. I retouched the skin on Photoshop as this gives an image of perfection and makes the magazine look more professional as the model appears to have perfect skin, which everybody aspires to have. The contrast and brightness was edited as this allows me to add emphasis on the models features. 

I have learnt a lot from using technology like how to make your own blogs and put images on them. Blogger allowed me to work from home and at college as it was accessible via the internet through entering a password and username. It allowed me to edit any mistakes which were found at a later date and preview any work uploaded on to the site. I have also learnt that it is a very good way to present all of your ideas, research and information and i will maybe use this in the future. From using Photoshop and Indesign i have learnt lots of new things like changing colours of backgrounds, cutting certain parts of images onto other ones, making text vibrant and exciting by using all the different fonts and editing the shapes and colours. In Indesign it allows you to create your own magazine, advertisement, leaflets, banners and anything you want look as professional as possible. It allows you to move images, patterns, shapes and text anywhere you want, you can resize them rotate them and even deform them. It also allows you to use lots of different colours anywhere you like. You can also layer things over the top of each other so they are overlapping you can’t do this on many other softwares. In Photoshop you are able to edit photos in ways to create perfection. You can erase spots, wrinkles and bad skin, you can also edit the colours on the picture to make them darker, lighter or change the contrast or you can even change the colour completely. You can smudge images and this makes the picture look smooth, you can use this if your picture is blurred it makes it look a lot clearer. In Photoshop you can clone things on your picture for example if you had a crack in a wall that you don’t want on the picture you can copy an nice part of the wall and put it over the crack then it doesn’t look like there was anything there in the first place. 

 Overall using the software has helped me to excel in the making of the product, each piece of software has complemented each other in allowing me to design, create and edit each section. I believe that using the software enabled me in creating a more professional piece and the software provided me with so much potential whilst making the magazine. 

From looking back at the preliminary task it is clear there is an improvement from the work at the beginning and the final piece. At the beginning the piece was unorganized, dull and unable to capture professionalism throughout the magazine. The model used was not of a professional manner and would not be a could representative of the magazine. The font colours are plain and do not draw people towards them. The headlines are boring and have no relevance to anybody, they lack words which emphasize news. The colours in the final magazine are more imaginative and produce an attractive looking magazine. I used a model on the front cover which i transformed to capture a reader’s eye. I did this by making the photo the main focal point of the magazine, editing blemishes and deleting spots which then gives an image of perfection. I co-ordinated font colours and background colours to match pictures and give a neutral look appealing to both genders. I created better and more attractive headlines to capture a potential customers attention by using news which they could be interested in. I arranged the headlines similarly in both covers but with the final project i varied the font and the sizes. More I used the technology the better I became at creating the magazine as I was more comfortable in using individual tools and i was able to experiment whilst implementing them.