Evaluation
To fit the coursework requirements for media, I have designed and created a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread, by using different medias’ such as Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe InDesign CS6. I have been able to produce this from researching successful published music magazines which are currently on the market, which my magazine would be up against on the newsstand. By researching well known music magazines such as ‘NME’, ‘Q’ and ‘Billboard’ I have been able to gather inspiration and influence which will help me to produce a magazine which will also be successful once published. I was required to create a magazine based on one type of music genre and suitable for a certain age group. To do this, I looked at current music magazines and the types of different music which is popular at this moment in time. When researching I discovered that there is a number of magazines targeted at teens and young adults on the genres of Pop, RnB, Chart music and Rock, with these being the most popular. I used this information to find out other popular genres of music which I could devote my magazine to which could fill a gap in the market. With the festivals Leeds and Reading being well known annual festivals gathering almost 100 thousands of people each year, encouraged me to base my magazine on a genre of music which is played at these festivals due to its popular demand. I also gathered information through handing out a questionnaire to 15 people between the ages of 16 and 20years+, which allowed me to find out the demand and how I could produce my magazine ensuring that it would be successful. From my results, I decided to base my magazine on the genre ‘Indie’, with the target audience of teenagers and young adults.
When creating my magazine, I used the inspiration of current magazine’s layouts and compositions to encourage my design to be realistic and accurate. I wanted to create a simple but eye catching front cover, suitable for its target audience and the genre that I had chosen for it. To do this, I created a cover in a similar layout to the magazine ‘Billboard’ due to the reason that I believe the magazine is affective and appropriate for its target audience, encouraging the magazine to be successful. To ensure that my magazine was as accurate as can be, I included everything on my cover which was included on the current published magazines including a masthead, main image, inserts of text, subheadings, a barcode, the magazine’s price and the issue date or number. For the colour scheme for my magazine, I have made sure to keep it repetitive throughout the magazine, making sure each page links well together and so that it is clearly part of the same magazine. I have used an olive green as my background as I believe this colour is suitable for both genders and is a mature and simple colour appropriate for its target audience. I have also linked this colour to the main image featured on the cover, an artist named ‘Birdie Greene’ which highlights its relevance and the reason for my choice in colour scheme. I believe that the image which I have taken for my cover is suitable for the genre indie due to the choice of clothing my model is in and the way she is represented in her location. I have included subheadings and small inserts of text which is relevant to the magazine, and would be found interesting by my choice of target audience. By being able to use the programs Photoshop and InDesign, I have been able to make my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread as realistic as possible, featuring all of the right functions. Due to my magazine being targeted at teenagers and young adults, with a huge population of them being students, I have decided to price my magazine at the price of £1.75, which I believe to be a realistic and suitable price for my target audience. I have also chosen to publish my magazine monthly instead of daily or weekly, so that readers are able to collect the magazine without it costing them too much, encouraging them to stay loyal to the magazine. A Media Institution such as the company that the festivals, Leeds and Reading are run by, which is called Festival Republic, I believe would be a good Media Institution who could distribute my magazine. I believe that this could work well, suggesting the magazine to reach a good amount of advertising from it possibly being handed out or sold at the festivals yearly to make the audience aware of the magazine. With the magazine being based on a genre which links to the festivals, and holding relevant information including information on the yearly festivals, allows each the festival and the magazine to back each other up, allowing the two to link well together. I believe that linking the two together will increase the success of the magazine due to the huge population who attend the annual festivals.
To conclude, I believe that the idea and design of my magazine’s front cover, contents page and double page spread has been produced to its best ability, reaching the right requirements for this coursework. I have shown the mixture of softwares that I have used and the ability and skills I have when using them, allowing me to produce a final outcome following up the research and planning which I did. I have discovered during this project, how I am able to use such medias like Photoshop and InDesign to help me to create realistic and accurate piece of media which could be published like any other magazine. I have been able to notice a difference between how these programs and the program Microsoft Word works, comparing my basic preliminary task of my school magazine to my practical music magazine. My technology of these medias have now increased after this project, with me having a wider knowledge of how to work and create something in these highly developed programs
When creating my magazine, I used the inspiration of current magazine’s layouts and compositions to encourage my design to be realistic and accurate. I wanted to create a simple but eye catching front cover, suitable for its target audience and the genre that I had chosen for it. To do this, I created a cover in a similar layout to the magazine ‘Billboard’ due to the reason that I believe the magazine is affective and appropriate for its target audience, encouraging the magazine to be successful. To ensure that my magazine was as accurate as can be, I included everything on my cover which was included on the current published magazines including a masthead, main image, inserts of text, subheadings, a barcode, the magazine’s price and the issue date or number. For the colour scheme for my magazine, I have made sure to keep it repetitive throughout the magazine, making sure each page links well together and so that it is clearly part of the same magazine. I have used an olive green as my background as I believe this colour is suitable for both genders and is a mature and simple colour appropriate for its target audience. I have also linked this colour to the main image featured on the cover, an artist named ‘Birdie Greene’ which highlights its relevance and the reason for my choice in colour scheme. I believe that the image which I have taken for my cover is suitable for the genre indie due to the choice of clothing my model is in and the way she is represented in her location. I have included subheadings and small inserts of text which is relevant to the magazine, and would be found interesting by my choice of target audience. By being able to use the programs Photoshop and InDesign, I have been able to make my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread as realistic as possible, featuring all of the right functions. Due to my magazine being targeted at teenagers and young adults, with a huge population of them being students, I have decided to price my magazine at the price of £1.75, which I believe to be a realistic and suitable price for my target audience. I have also chosen to publish my magazine monthly instead of daily or weekly, so that readers are able to collect the magazine without it costing them too much, encouraging them to stay loyal to the magazine. A Media Institution such as the company that the festivals, Leeds and Reading are run by, which is called Festival Republic, I believe would be a good Media Institution who could distribute my magazine. I believe that this could work well, suggesting the magazine to reach a good amount of advertising from it possibly being handed out or sold at the festivals yearly to make the audience aware of the magazine. With the magazine being based on a genre which links to the festivals, and holding relevant information including information on the yearly festivals, allows each the festival and the magazine to back each other up, allowing the two to link well together. I believe that linking the two together will increase the success of the magazine due to the huge population who attend the annual festivals.
To conclude, I believe that the idea and design of my magazine’s front cover, contents page and double page spread has been produced to its best ability, reaching the right requirements for this coursework. I have shown the mixture of softwares that I have used and the ability and skills I have when using them, allowing me to produce a final outcome following up the research and planning which I did. I have discovered during this project, how I am able to use such medias like Photoshop and InDesign to help me to create realistic and accurate piece of media which could be published like any other magazine. I have been able to notice a difference between how these programs and the program Microsoft Word works, comparing my basic preliminary task of my school magazine to my practical music magazine. My technology of these medias have now increased after this project, with me having a wider knowledge of how to work and create something in these highly developed programs
My Evaluation through a Broadcast
To create my evaluation through using another type of media, I have read out my scripted evaluation by reading off of a screen prompter and have filmed myself doing so. I have stood in front of a green screen which was showcasing my music magazine's front cover, contents page and double page spread allowing the viewers to put an image to the text. Below shows a copy of the video of my evaluation broadcast.