CREATING MAGAZINE: Process and evaluation

I have decided to make a magazine in the genre of urban music. Music such as:

• Hip-Hop
• Rap
• R&B
• Grime
• Dubstep

Here is a presentation showing he process in which I took to create my musica magazine front cover and contents page:

Process and evaluation of magazine

PLANNING: Sketch of Flat Plan

Before starting on my magazine I brainstormed ideas about the genre and purpose of which I wanted my magazine to be and have. Here are two pictures od the brainstorms and initial ideas that I had.



After that I then sketched a flat plan of my magazine

THE FRONT COVER

This is a midshot of a girl smiling with her eyes closed and chin laying in her hands. I used bold text and added a logo, heading and other smaller photos. The body language of the girl shows that she is calm and relax. It looks as if she is happy and off in her own world dreaming.

 

THE CONTENTS PAGE

I put an editorial in as it is a common feature to have in a magazine contents page. I wrote in collums when putting in the features of the magazine and page numbers as magazines almost always write in collums. A mid-long shot of a girl holding a microphone and singing, this is appropriate as it is a music magazine

RESEARCH: Front Cover Analysis

Both Kerrang! and Xfactor magazine have a continuous colour scheme and font. Kerrang! uses the colours white, yellow and black give a rock type atmosphere. The font used has sharp edges and is very bold which may portray the audience of the magazine. Xfactor use a hot pink, black anf white colour scheme to give it a slightly more feminine look.

The generic music convention codes employed by Kerrang! magazine suggest the target audience are young (15-30 year olds), mostly male, people interested in rock. These people are the alternatives, they do not listen to pop (popular) music like most people do and are rebellious and different. This is why not only the masthead but the staplines are in distorted  and different font. The font has a broken and shattered look which gives a sense of movement which goes well with the masthead of the magazine, Kerrang! as this word is very onomatopeic as a kerrang sound is the sound that would be made when struming a guitar, whereas the masthead of the Xfactor magazine is the very well known logo of the Xfactor TV show. Xfactor magazine appeals more to a very young (8-15 year old) audience that watch the very popular TV programme The XFactor and are interested in pop and very current music. These people are mainstreamers who like to follow trends and be current. This magazine also uses onomatopeia in the language used. The onomatopeia used in both magazines gives the magazines a sense of movement and excitement to engage the reader and give the magazine a lively atmosphere.

The main image of Kerrang! is a low angle, midshot picture of a male playing a guitar and facing away from the camera and at the guitar. The picture being of a male is what tells us it is targeted at a male audience. A male will buy this magazine as they might aspire to be like him or look up to him, this is why the image is a low-angle shot so that the audience will literally look up to him. Also the man looking at the guitar instead of the camera shows us that the magazine is all about the music as even in the photo the focus is on the music.

The main image in Xfactor magazine is a close-up of the 4 judges of Xfactor the TV programme. The picture of the judge, Cheryl Cole is the biggest picture and as it is a close-up this tells us that she herself is the main focus.

The language used on both Xfactor and Kerrang! magazine covers are short an snappy. They consist of very simple sentences and onomatopeia. This is because when the reader buys a magazine they don't want to spend all there time reading long essays when deciding what magazine to buy. They want to know what they are going to buy in as little amount of time as possible.

PRELIMINARY: Evaluation

Presentation1

View more presentations from Jade Igilima.

PRELIMINARY: Flat Plan & Electronic media used

There were several different types of media and eletronic devices I used when creating my cover and contents page.

I first used a program called Photoshop on an iMac computer to create things like my masthead, sudheading and other things. It is a very sophisticated program used to edit, create and design things such as photos, drawings, animations and many other things.

I also used a digital camera to take all of the photos on my cover and contents page so that I would have my own original pictures and photos rather than using copyrighted photos or photos from the internet. For the picture on my magazine cover I added special effects from Photoshop to give more of an artsy look and feel to the magazine.

Using a program called iPhoto I was able to transfer my pictures on the digital camera to the computer and save them to the computer inorder to import photos onto my magazine cover.




FLAT PLAN

Before even beginning to start my preliminary task on the computer I made a rough sketch of a flat plan

 of my magazine to help me get started with my magazine.
I began with my front cover of the magazine and used several convention of magazines which I found out about in my research and applied it to my front cover and used a mid-shot image  of someone painting something as this is related to art. I then went on to my contents page and then my double page spread.

RESEARCH: Masthead research

I then began to look into the mastheads of the magazines.

This masthead is aimed at people 15+ interested in rock music. It is not for your average mainstreamer, this is targeted at alternatives. The writing is very bold, big and has very sharp corners. This may suggest that the readers of this magazine are quite bold and sharp people.

In my opinion I think that the masthead of this magazine is targeted at young girls aged between 8 and 14 year of age. The vibrant and bright colour suggests that is it for children and young people. The colour pink especially has connotations of femininity. Also the font of this magazine is very bubbly with rounded egdes. This is to make the masthead seem soft an more girly.

This masthead is very simple. I think that it gives the impression the magazine is quite serious and based on the artists music rather than gossip about what te artist did last weekend with their new girlfriend. This masthead doesn't particularly seem like it is targeted at a specific gender and its age group is quite broad compared to magazines such as Top of the Pops.

The masthead of this magazine changes very regularly and frequently. In different issues the masthead will be different colours, red, blue, yellow etc. Sometimes the masthead will have a shadow, somtimes it won't. Other times it will slightly 3D and alost coming off the page and other times it won't. At times the main image will be behind the masthead and other times it will be infront. I think this may be to show the diversity of magazine and to show the readers that they are not just wasting their money on buying the same thing they bought last week. It makes the reader feel that this weeks issue is full of fresh and new things.

This masthead is a simple black backbground and white  coloured font. This font is slightly distorted and has slashes in it. This probably to give the masthead a sense of movement and to make it seem exciting and different. Slashes make it seems more dangerous and rebellious for its young teenage readers.

RESEARCH: Uses & Gratifications

After looking at the psychographics and demo graphics I then started to look into the uses and gratifications of these magazines.

The main reasons why the readers of Top of the Pops magazine may read it is for socialbility and surveillance. This magazine tells you a lot of gossip and 'what's going on' with the pop music artists so whoever reads it is reading it forr surveillance and to know about the pop world but also to be able to disscuss with their peers aboutthings that are happening.

The main use and gratification of NME is for surveillance. NME magazine focusses more on the actual music rather than the artists and their lives, its more about giving information on where and when the next big giggs are. It tells you about what is going on in the music world.

RESEARCH: Psychographics & Demographics of the target audience

Before beginning my music magazine I decided to start off with a bit of research into other music magazine to help me understand what  music magazine should look and be like.
I analysed the magazines, Top of the Pops and NME.

I began by focussing on the target audience and their psychographics and demographics. In my opinion I think that the target audience of this magazine are young 8-14 year old female mainstreamers. I feel that this is so as this magazine using the colours pink and yellow. These are bright and vibrant colours to draw the attention of young kids. Also the colour pink has very feminine connotations. I analysed all the advertisement in this magazine as these would give me an insight into what the reader of this magazine would purchase. The advertisements were mostly make-up tampons and sanitary towels, which are obvioused purchased by females. The features of this magazine include mostly female celebrities giving out advice. This  is because a young female mainstreamer would look up to these celebrities. There also also freebies that come with this article; stickers of a majority of female celebrities and a minority of male celebirities. This minority of  male celebrities are for eyecandy as one of the thing that 8-14 year old girls think mostly about is boys. An example of the kind of music people that read this magazine is:

This magazine obviously has a very different target audience than the previous magazine. I feel that the target audience of this magazine are young males from 16-28 who are interested in rock music. Every feature in this magazine is about a male musician/s. The features include things such as gigg dates unlike 'top of the pops' which is more about gossip etc. this tells me that the readers of this magazine are not mainstreamers and are more alternatives as they care more about the actual music rather than knowing what colour top make you look slimmer.

The advertisements are mostly the latest computer games, which tells me that this magazine is not aimed for men over a specific age, and albums which tells me that the magazine is definately for people who are seriously into the music itself. The prices for the products in the advertisement reached a maxium of around £50. This tells me that the readers of this magazin would have low disposable income.

target audience
features - intervies
advertisements
colours
freebies

Introduction

My name is Jade Igilima and I am a 16 year old student studying AS Media studies at La Swap. I am interested in several different areas in music; I listen to things such as r&b, rock, hip-hop, pop and many, many more. This is a very positive and good thing as it will help me a lot in this coursework. In this coursework I will be analysing two seperate music magazines. An example of my kind of music is:


I have been given a brief in class. This brief stated that I must create a music magazine consisting of a front cover, a contents page an a two page spread.