Final Music Magazine Front Cover

Evaluation - Music Magazine Front Cover

From completing this task, I have learnt a lot of new skills, particularly when it comes to creating a well structured, professional magazine. This includes doing things like research into existing magazines, as well as physically creating the magazine until it looks as good as it possibly could. Photoshop has also taught me how to create new layers via copy, as, since learning this, I have been using it quite a lot when it comes to me screen shotting text from the internet, as I used texts from font websites like Da Font and Cool Text. In creating my magazine cover, the main form of technology I have used has been the Apple Macs and computers in Oak 55. The main program I have used on these is Adobe Photoshop, and this has been because Photoshop is able to provide the things and resources I need to make my front cover look well structured and professional. I have also used a Sony camera in taking both my test shots as well as my final pictures, as well as editing them on Pic Monkey and IPiccy. I did research to find out what was generally in a typical magazine, and found that the typical conventions in a magazine are things like the plug, masthead etc. When finding out these, I also evaluated existing magazines, for example NME and Q, and talked about what I liked and disliked about them. I also did research on typical 'mod' makeup and mod hair. All in all I am happy with the way my magazine has turned out, as it has all the typical magazine conventions and also a good colour scheme and it looks attractive. If I were to do this task again, I would probably experiment with different colour schemes, as I think that the sorts of blacks and whites that I have used are quite plain. I would maybe use some brighter colours, for example reds or oranges etc to make it even more eye catching. As well as that, I would also change the layout of my masthead, as my masthead is in quite a typical place; I could change it to be on the left or the right instead of just in the centre. Also, I would maybe edit the picture of my model or even change it completely, for example, instead of my model being sat down, I would take a photo of them standing up, and then edit the background out so that I could put them on a plainer background that would match my colour scheme, for example a plain or white. I would then finally change the text type, as I believe that this is also a bit plain; I would prefer for it to be again a bit more eyecatching and more vibrant.

Test Shots

Before physically creating my music magazine, I took a number of tests shots of my model, Helena, in her makeup and hair that I did myself. I decided upon going with the Twiggy style makeup, as well as a small 60s beehive. I also then dressed Helena in her own yellow dress from the shop Chinese Laundry as it was typical 1960s dress. I then took a number of photos, however I have only included the one's that aren't blurry or have bad hue and saturation.

Magazine Analysis - Front Cover

In this task, we had to find 3 existing magazines of any genre of which we feel the images are successful. We had to state why we liked the images and how they would help influence my own choices. Here, I have chosen 3 front covers that I really like and that stood out to me personally.

Costume Design

When it came to hair and make-up, I decided that I wanted to use bright colours on the body, however have relatively plain, straight outfits, hence why I have chosen the a line dresses; these reflect the typical 60s style. This meant that I wanted to have more focus on the eye make-up as well as the hair, so instead of just doing typical winged eyeliner, I decided that I wanted to make the eyes as big and as bold as possible. To do this, I researched the most well known model of the 1960s called Twiggy, and looked closely at how boldly and brightly her eye make-up was done. I found both pictures and a YouTube tutorial to make sure that I am getting it as close to Twiggy's look as possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF9XoqLyBg8 I also decided that I wanted to go big with the hair, and again decided that I wanted to go for a typical 1960s hairstyle, and, at that time, it would have been a large beehive. I did, however decide upon doing a slightly smaller beehive so that the attention was drawn towards the eye make-up. I again found both pictures and a YouTube tutorial on how to create it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuukNqeutTA

Social Class and Demographics

Demographics

What is demographics? Demographics are measurable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, education and income level. They are characteristics and statistical information that distinguish a group of people. These characteristics commonly include age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, interests and other quantifiable criteria. A business' target demographic captures the group of people at which their products or services are aimed. By looking at these characteristics of an audience, it helps us understand how to target a product, it helps to differentiate how to appeal directly to an audience. The Google definition of 'demographics' is: statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it.

Colour Scheme Ideas

Name Ideas For My Music Magazine

Name Research

Google Mock Up #3 - Contents Page

Google Mock Up #2 Front Cover

Google Mock Up #1 - Front Cover

Mod Music Mood Board

Genre Research

Reader Profile Mock Up

Why is a Reader Profile important?

 

A reader profile is something that would appear in most magazines, if not it would be included on the magazine's website, and consists of facts and information about the magazine itself.

 
A reader profile is important because, in general, it describes the audience that reads the magazine, like in NME for example. It talks about their likes and dislikes, and also about the audience themselves, for example if they are male or female, and if so, what is the percentage difference between the 2 genders, as well as the average age. As well as this, it would include how many issues of the magazine are sold worldwide on average.

 
It also includes what is typically included in that magazine, just like the NME reader profile I analysed had. For example, it would talk about things like music, mainly because it is a music magazine, and also things like films, for example if they do film and cinema reviews on the films that are out, just like NME did.

 
A reader profile shows the reader the importance of the magazine, as it lets them know how reliable and suited that magazine would be to those looking at the reader profile, and if it would be suitable for them; it lets them know the main and necessary information about the magazine itself.

Reader Profile Research

Conventions Analysis Double Page Spread #3

Conventions Analysis Contents Page #3

Conventions Analysis Front Cover #3