My music magazine follows codes and conventions of a typical magazines of the same genre, of ‘rock’. Firstly, I chose the colour scheme of black, white and blue, because to similar magazines like ‘Rocksound and ‘Kerrang’ they use very dark colours with usually one or two bright colours.
For example in ‘Rocksound’, Black, blue, white and yellow are used. The image is simple but overcrowds the cover lines, and title, but still has an impact on the way it should attract the audience. I did this with mine using those colours, minus the yellow, but used a close up shot of a male around the same age of most members of ‘rock bands’ I thought this would be a great idea because although it deviates from the medium close-up’s other music magazines use, it stills gives that immediate attraction to the audience. The image on Rocksound uses a simple background that doesn’t complicate the image, and also contrasts to the picture with Black on White. I did this as well using a plain black background, but also as the image appears white, it contrasts.
The title on ‘Rocksound’ doesn’t jump out of the page, and is positioned so that it’s not very clear. I strayed from this and chose to make mine stand out a lot. As it’s the largest font on the cover i chose to make it much more unique. The typography I used was both sans, and sans serif. I decided to use both where other magazines keep to one because my audience reflects both. On one side you have a hard edge font with connotations of loudness, and energy, and the other connotes a classic audience, educated and appreciates the music and lyrics rather than just
The coverlines on my cover frame my main image just like my example, so that it doesn’t cover up the image. The usual positioning is to the left, so I chose to put it there, but also as it gave room for the main cover line to spread across the page. I coverline is one or two words long, and has 1 line of information about the content.
Almost every magazine I looked at had a banner at the top or bottom of the cover, so i chose to do mine at the bottom as it would have been too much at the top and made it top heavy with such a large title. They usually use band names/artists, or something along the lines of ‘top 100 best gig venues’. I chose to use bands as it is what my audience asked for, but also as they are well known. This gives a magazine an advantage, because if the audience see a popular band/artist on the cover, or even their name, they immediately want to know about it. The barcode is small and out of the way on the cover because it doesn’t overlap the advert on the back page.
For the contents page I kept to all of the codes and conventions in the development. Both contents are very similar in terms of the layout. I chose to use two columns for all content as it left me more room to put more text, but also so the page did not look dull, and too simple. I used headings of ‘Features’ and ‘Regulars’ to divide the sections and used a small description to say what the articles are about. In order for my magazine to look like a Rock magazine, I took pictures of people with a serious look and their clothes and style had to reflect on the existing Rock bands/ artists. I used a typical feature used on most contents – a guitar, as it connotes the genre of rock, and also immediately tells us it’s about music. I have used a consistent colour scheme to the Cover and DPS and kept the same font.
The title on ‘Rocksound’ doesn’t jump out of the page, and is positioned so that it’s not very clear. I strayed from this and chose to make mine stand out a lot. As it’s the largest font on the cover i chose to make it much more unique. The typography I used was both sans, and sans serif. I decided to use both where other magazines keep to one because my audience reflects both. On one side you have a hard edge font with connotations of loudness, and energy, and the other connotes a classic audience, educated and appreciates the music and lyrics rather than just
The coverlines on my cover frame my main image just like my example, so that it doesn’t cover up the image. The usual positioning is to the left, so I chose to put it there, but also as it gave room for the main cover line to spread across the page. I coverline is one or two words long, and has 1 line of information about the content.
Almost every magazine I looked at had a banner at the top or bottom of the cover, so i chose to do mine at the bottom as it would have been too much at the top and made it top heavy with such a large title. They usually use band names/artists, or something along the lines of ‘top 100 best gig venues’. I chose to use bands as it is what my audience asked for, but also as they are well known. This gives a magazine an advantage, because if the audience see a popular band/artist on the cover, or even their name, they immediately want to know about it. The barcode is small and out of the way on the cover because it doesn’t overlap the advert on the back page.
For the contents page I kept to all of the codes and conventions in the development. Both contents are very similar in terms of the layout. I chose to use two columns for all content as it left me more room to put more text, but also so the page did not look dull, and too simple. I used headings of ‘Features’ and ‘Regulars’ to divide the sections and used a small description to say what the articles are about. In order for my magazine to look like a Rock magazine, I took pictures of people with a serious look and their clothes and style had to reflect on the existing Rock bands/ artists. I used a typical feature used on most contents – a guitar, as it connotes the genre of rock, and also immediately tells us it’s about music. I have used a consistent colour scheme to the Cover and DPS and kept the same font.
My double page spread( bottom images) I used a consistent font, with both pictures, as does the example from Rocksound magazine. The image usually bleeds across both pages, so i took the image from the Blue October gig i went to, and thankfully it was a really good image to use for my DPS. I used 3 columns, to the right hand side page, and the image’s eye focus’s across the page, drawing attention to the article. I created a stand first keeping the same colour scheme as my cover and contents, and let my title spread across both pages. I credited myself with both images and article which is shown by the byline.
2.How does you media product represent particular social groups?
I had an image in my mind what kind of music I was going to produce a magazine for. The ‘rock’ genre has many sub genres to cater for, so I decided that I would incorporate all of these into my magazine, instead of just using one typical genre of ‘rock’. With this, it appeals to a broader range of my audience. From classic rock, to screamo rock, from rockers, to moshers. My media product represents teenagers and younger adults who are into any genre of rock, as my magazine consists of sub genres like Punk rock, indie rock, pop rock. My magazine was aimed at these teens and so I produced it so they would like it and want to buy it. I tried to make it unique yet simple and not too wordy as most teenagers like facts, and pictures, and ‘looking at cute guys’. Moreover, the target audience I was trying to attract were mainly boys however girls are not excluded, as my audience is technically aimed at anybody with a love of Rock music. The colours used are dark and dominating, yet modern and simple; blacks, greys, and blue’ which connote anger, although the blue contrasts this with a relaxing tone. Which relates to the target audience I was going for. Their interests include style through fashion, and music. Therefore the types of clothes which they wear are usually skinny jeans, t-shirts, converse, and possibly leather jackets, with bold hair, with flashes of colour, reflecting onto the colour scheme with the flash of blue.
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
The media institution that I think would distribute my product would be one involved in catering for teens to younger adults in a genre of rock because that is what my project is aimed to do. A well known publishing organization that can distribute my magazine would probably be Bauer Media(http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/); it is the largest privately owned publisher in Europe. Bauer own both Q and Kerrang magazines, both in competition with my magazine. Due to the competition, i think that a newer more stylized version of Kerrang would sell regionally, as it offers, not only the most popular bands, but for the smaller bands not yet known worldwide, like ‘Blue October’ Also the company specialize in TV, and radio, Moreover owning 7 music channels broadcasted on television, and Kerrang radio. Due to this i feel that if my magazine was distributed by Bauer my audience would be influenced, and as its sold by a very well known company it would get more attention than it being in a less known company.
4.Who would be the audience for your media product?
4.Who would be the audience for your media product?
A stereotypical member of my audience is somebody like Matt, who has a passion for Rock music, and lyrics. He plays the guitar/drums in his spare time. He usually wears skinny jeans, band t-shirts, and converse and spends hours on his hair- very style conscious. He was influenced by 70/80’s rocks bands, like AC/DC and Metallica. Matt lives in a regular sized house with his parents, his room being his place to hang out with his music and friends. He likes to listen to a bit of classic rock, although he listens to modern day rock, usually American bands, like ‘Lostprophets, 30 seconds to mars, and white lies etc.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it in the progression of it to your full product?
Throughout the development of my tasks, I feel like I have gained a lot of different skills. Using Photoshop before hand gave me the advantage, although I have developed my understanding, of some of the features Photoshop includes. Looking back at my Preliminary task, I could put effects onto my images, ‘cut out’ effectively, and had knowledge of text effects. During, my main task, I found out how to merge layers together once editing them.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it in the progression of it to your full product?
Throughout the development of my tasks, I feel like I have gained a lot of different skills. Using Photoshop before hand gave me the advantage, although I have developed my understanding, of some of the features Photoshop includes. Looking back at my Preliminary task, I could put effects onto my images, ‘cut out’ effectively, and had knowledge of text effects. During, my main task, I found out how to merge layers together once editing them.
From the preliminary task, I feel that my photography skills have developed a lot. I have learnt new ways in which to take the photos, the settings on the camera for the right setting, and the different camera angles to get a more effective look. I felt that I could be much more creative with headlines and the style of fonts and features to develop them in a more attractive way, for example, the title of my magazine from the main task. I used the brush tool to draw a pulse pattern through my title, which connotes how the heart’s pulse races when somebody is angry, which also tie in with the title ‘RAGE’
In finishing the project, I now understand that magazine front covers should ideally use a close-up image or medium close up for a cleaner layout. I now acknowledge that my preliminary task could have been improved by using a lot less colour and less font styles because it looked very messy and unorganized. I didn’t follow the conventions of how the main coverline should be he seconds largest font, therefore it looks like i don’t have a main coverline. In addition, I don’t think I should have used so much information or a busy background in my preliminary task because the cover looked too busy; little is more. I took all these points and looking over my main task i deviated from my mistakes. I used a close up image, but using only half the face. I chose to re colour his eye to the same blue as the title and coverlines so that against the pale face they would stand out a lot and capture the audience’s attention. The simple layout meant that i could frame the coverlines around the face and not crowd the layout, which worked well in my opinion as it looks fresh.
Before After
For my contents page I have defiantly improved my skills on Quark Express.
During my preliminary task i used columns although they looked very untidy and the cut outs of the images didn’t look right once on the page. Although from my main task, my column looks very tidy and simple. For the main image I had to edit it so that the colour matched with the colour scheme. It was originally red, but i changed the hue and contrast so that it effectively went with my design.
My double page spread allowed me to explore with my writing skills. Writing up about a gig, meant that i could describe in detail, the atmosphere and how everything was. Using language that my audience would understand was simple. The target audience are for people either in school or fresh out form education. The large image effectively takes away the immediate reactions to the amount of words on the page, where from my survey; people didn’t like really long stories. So with that I tried to use an interesting image of the lead singer so it broke the words down a bit.
