Evaluation of the Finished Magazine

This is my finished magasine.

I am very happy with my finished magasine. I decided to name my magasine DnB as it matched the genre of music i was designing my magasine for, i believe that if people were going to buy a magasine for this purpose then this would be drawn to them purely because of the name of the magasinee. I think that the picture i used for my front cover was good because the picture shows the main artist i am interviewing on my double page spread in a shot that shows him in action with a microphone. I added the blue glow around him because i thought that it would emphasise him more as the rest of the background is very plain. I decided to make the background on all the pages a plain black colour as it sets a theme for the magasine, having the blue and white writing is also carried on throughout these main pages of the magasine which also sets a theme which people may like. I used the same font for the main pieces of writing for all the pages i have designed, i think that this shows they are all related and keeps the feel of the magasine as one.

I used a similar font for the title as the fonts in the magasine i have previously researched, which was Mixmag magasine. I chose to research this particular magasine as it is a very similar genre to the one i have desgined so it would have a lot of points that lead me to make the decisions i did for my own design.

This is one of the front covers i looked at when i first began to design my magasine, i got my idea of having a plain background from this one, i thought that it emphasised the artist they wanted people to be drawn to and the artist was also wearing matching colours, which i also imitated with my front cover picture. Also i liked the layout of this magasine so mine is similar in a couple of ways, for example the colour matching on the text and on the picture and also the way the text is layed out down the side of the magasine. My magasine also features the masthead at the top of the page which is the same.

This is how my magasine is similar to others, the reasons why it would stand out is that the masthead is not accross the top of the page as many other magasine have theirs, i have designed my magasine so that the masthead faces downwards on the page which i think gives a different look to other magasine so people would be more interested in the look of it.

The media institution that i think would sell my magsine wuld be IPC media as they have also produced music magasines, for example NME and Guitar & Bass. I think that music shops like HMV would stock my magasine as the people who go into these kind of shops will be interested in it. I also think some speacialist record shops would stock this kind of magasine because it is specific to a certain type of music.

A typical reader that i will be aiming my magazine at would be male, in their late teens or early 20s. Their income would be around £18 - £24k. As my magazine will not be mainstream because of the genre, this will suit individualists, these are people who want to show that they are different. The persons lifestyle would be that they tend to have a lot of money to spend, for example clubbing every weekend and spending money on music. This is mainly what the target audiences were for the magasine that i researched as they were similar genres.

I feel that my magasine does well to attract its target audience, i think that the look of the magasine is youthful and fun and also the artist i am interviewing on my double page spread is a young person as well so the target audience will be able to relate to the person in the interview that i wrote. The language used is informal so people will be more likely to read through it. The pictures i have used also will attract people to reading this magasine.

The software that we used was very useful, i had ot previously used any of this software before so it was a challenge at first to learn how to use it. However, once i knew it allowed me to do a lot of things that i didnt think i would of, for example the way Adobe InDesign layed out your pages mage it very easy to place the things on your pages exactly where you wanted to, i also found it good that by using www.dafont.com you could chose form many fonts that were not previously available which helped me in making my magasine one of a kind and different. I also used Adobe Photoshop for the first time and that really helped me in editing my pictures the way that i wanted them to be.

I feel that i have learned a lot from the preliminary task that i carried out, it helped me with preparing my blogs and also using Adobe InDesign to make my magasine as good as it could be. I feel like my skills in using certain programmes have progressed a lot. It helped me to plan more thoroughly in this task to create the best magasine i was able to. I feel like the preliminary task helped me to understand what was needed to make this magasine as realistic and as detailed as it could be.

Planning and Evaluation of the Article

In this blog i am going to be looking at 2 double page spread articles to compare to the one i am going to be writing. The main things i am looking for in these is the type of language used, for example whether its formal or unformal, and this will depend on my target audience because it has to appeal to them. I am also going to be looking at the layouts of these pages to see which is the most appealing. It is very important to get the article right as it is the main one in the magasine, and it will also be representing the main picture on the front of my magasine.

This is the first article i am going to look at, this is a good one for me because one of the choices i drew as a flat plan had a similar layout to this one with the large picture on one page and the article on the other. In this article it is done as an interview with the person featured, so it is written down as her speaking and then the journalist telling us about her. The language used is quite informal as at one point they describe her as 'sticking out like a sore thumb'. This is informal and humerous language which shows it relates to the target audience as the people reading this will prefer more informal language to be used.

I also looked at another article from MixMag magasine. This article i looked at was a review/interview article where there were questions and answers from the artist. This is the design that i have decided to use for my article. I still want to have it as an interview and i am going to have questions from the interviewer and then the artist answering. I am planning on doing an informal interview which i think will suit my target audience as it will have some humour and it will tell you a little bit about the artist at the beginning of the page. I have also decided on my double page spread i will add a quote onto the large picture to point out a good part of the interview. This will draw the target audience in to reading the article because it gives you a preview of what it is going to be like.

Photo Editing

The first picture i have edited is the mixer, i have made the rest of the backgorund black so that you can only see the mixer on its own. I did this so that nothing else in the back of the picture took the focus of it and it wasnt a picture that needed a background. It lets you see only what you want to see and makes the piece of equipment show in the centre of the picture.

The next picture that i have edited was the one with the microphone on its own, i have edited this picture in a very similar way to the first which is just making it so that the background is just one solid colour. I did this for the same reason as this picture also didnt require having a background and it helps focus on just what the target audience wants to see when they are reading.

Another picture that i have edited is the cover picture, i had to edit this picture so that i only had the person and the microphone in the picture so i could then have a black background for the cover of my magasine, this was more complicated than the other two and i edited 2 different pictures. The first was making the background of the piture black, with a white glow around the person, the other picture i edited of it was the same but with a blue glow around it. Here are these two pictures :

I decided to use the picture with the blue glow as it goes with the rest of the theme of the magasine. I think that having this effect on this picture will attract more of my target audience.

Photos

These were the first pictures i took, i am planning to put these on my contents page as a preview into other features of the magasine. I took 3 pictures, all from different distances and angles to try to create the best picture i needed, i took a few because it gave me a wide variety of choice for how i finally decided to have this picture. The one i finallly chose was the middle picture, this was because i thought it showed the best view of the microphone. I think this picture will appeal to my target audience because they will be interested in the top equipment used in this genre of music. I didnt mind about the background and what was in it because i decided that i will edit this photo to create a plain background, this will make sure attention is not drawn away from the main objects in this picture that i want my target audience to be attracted to.

I then took a few pictures of a mixer, this was for the same part on my contents page so once again i was aiming for a plain background so attention was not taken from the main object. The background didnt apply when i was taking these pictures because i had already decided that i was going to edit the pictures so that you do not see the background. I took 3 pictures to ensure that i has got the right one that i needed and it was 3rd picture that i used because it is a good view of the mixer and you can see it better than the other 2 attempts i made. As this is a top of the range mixer i thought it would be very appealing to my target audience.

I took much more photos for my front cover main picture, the reason for this is that i wanted one that looked natural so the person who was in the picture just acted normal while i took these photos so i caught a natural pose. The jumper he is wearing has blue strings on it which i aimed to compliment the rest of the theme of the front cover which is black and blue colours. Most of the pictures were not good enough for me to use for the cover, however there were a few that were. The background in these pictures did not matter as i had already decided that i wanted to edit these pictures so that you can only see the person and the microphone, also the sunlight on the persons body does not matter because i will edit that out of the picture as well.

The last picture i am featuring in my magasine is one of the artist from behind. This picture is going to be on my double page spread filling one whole side, on the opposite of this i will have the article. I decided to take this picture because i think that the background creates a good look for the person i am capturing and it creates a mood. I think this will appeal to the target audience as it is in relation to the article about where he comes from.

Fonts

I have researched to look for the right font to use for the title of my magasine. I have been looking for a font that will appeal to my target audience and draw them in to look at and buy my magasine. I narrrowed the choice down to 4 main fonts that i was interested in and liked.

This was one of the first fonts i saw and liked, i thought that it would appeal to the target audience well as it is an edgy design which will suit my target audience of individualists who may read this magasine, as the title is the main thing you see on the magasine this will draw them in.

This was the next font that i considered,

I liked the fact it looked like it had been

drawn and I liked the letters, however I thought that this may be a bit too dark as I wouldnt be able to colour it and I wasnt sure how good it would look on a front cover.

This was one of my main considerations when i was deciding what font to use, i thought that it would look good on the front cover, however the title i wanted had a lower case n in the middle of the word but you cannot get one when using this font so it wasnt suitable to put on my magasine. i liked this font as it had thick outlines and i liked the style of lettering.

This is the final font i was interested in and i have decided to use this font for the title of my magasine and also the contents page title that i will have. I think that this font will look good on my magasine as it looks 3d which is an interesting look and i think it will suit my target audience, meaning that i think this font will draw interest from them to look at the magasine and hopefully buy it.

Analysis of Existing Magazines

These are both front magazine covers from the popular dance magazine Mixmag. the title of the magazine does not change from month to month, this means you can get a recognisable title style that people will immediately recognise. On both of these magazine covers there is a picture of one person on the front, these pictures are taken to create an effect that will draw readers in to want to read their magazine from just the first glance that they take. The picture of the woman on the right shows complimentary colours being used with the background and her make up and clothes, and the picture of the man on the left shows contrasting colours with the red, fiery background against the yellow title and the main flash. Another thing to note is that neither of the people being photographed are smiling in their pictures. The cover on the right also has the main picture covering a small part of the title, many magazines are able to do this as people will be familiar with the design and look of their title. The language on both of these covers is quite informal, there isn't many sentences on the covers just quick main sells to let the reader see the style of the magazine. The layout of the magazines are similar and the title is in the same place, they both have similar pictures and the main sells are always in the sample place down the right side of the magazine, this can create a recognisable magazine. The same font is also used for the main flash on both of them. The design of these covers is tailored to meet the needs of the target audience as this is younger people which can relate to the colours used and the language, and also males will be more likely to read it so the colours will attract them. There is also a free CD on the front of every magazine which will attract people to buy the magazine more. Both of these covers will appreal to the magasines main target audience because of the features on it like the free cd, colour and the images on the front of the magasine. I am also analysing a contents page from the same magazine as the two covers pictured above. This contents page has a big, main picture that takes up most of the page, this picture is very noticeable when you turn onto this page and is interesting to look at, the picture covers one of the main articles of the magazine. The page is not titled as a contents page it is titled as 'Tunes', this will definitely attract a younger audience due to the informal language used and the design of it is very bold and noticeable. All the rest of the content from the magazine is written below the main one down the left side of the page, these are all listed with not much detail so you want to read on and see what they are about. as there wasn't one on the front cover, there is a strap line across the bottom of the contents page, it has 'all the hottest releases reviewed and rated'. This is a good and attractive strap line because it used alliteration and also the rule of thirds, this is a very good method to use when you want to attract more people to read on in your magazine.
This is a double page spread from the magazine Mixmag, this double page spread has a large picture completely dominating the left page, this can catch peoples attention and show who the whole article is about. Then on the opposite page there are two samller pictures to compliment the big one. There is no bright of eye catching colours on this page, they are all very neutral to create a theme, this theme should be appealing to the target audience as this is one of the main articles in the magasine and one of the main things someone from your target audience will look at possibly before buying the magasine because if they are not interested in the main article then there is less chance of them buying it. There is also a quote on the largest picture of something that the woman being interviewed had said and this has been put there to draw the audience in by giving them a small piece of the interview to judge whether they would like to read it.

Target Audience

The target audience for my magazine will be similar to magazines like Mixmag and K magazine. K magazine has a main audience on 16-24 year olds, this is some of their figures:


http://www.kmag.co.uk/about/advertise/119

Age -
15-24 = 49.3%
25-34 = 38.4%
35-44 = 7.2%
45-54 = 4.3%
55+ = 0.8%

Gender -
Male - 73.8%
Female - 26.2%

Income -
Under £18k - 28.2%
£18k - £24k - 32%
£25k - £34k - 25.1%
£35k - £50k - 8.3%
Over £50k - 6.4%


http://www.mixmag.net/content/reader-profile

The Mixmag website states that the median age of a Mixmag reader is 26 - 72% male, 28% female - and they tend to be urban and single.

These figures show that males are more likely to read this genre of magazine than females, it also shows that the main age bracket for people who read this magazine is 15-24. This means that younger people prefer to read this type of magazine which will be helpful to know when i am designing it.

A typical reader that i will be aiming my magazine at would be male, in their late teens or early 20s. Their income would be around £18 - £24k. As my magazine will not be mainstream because of the genre, this will suit individualists, these are people who want to show that they are different. The persons lifestyle would be that they tend to have a lot of money to spend, for example clubbing every weekend and spending money on music.

Knowing your target audience is very important for being able to publish a successful magasine, you have to be sure that your magasine will appeal to your target audience well otherwise your magasine wont sell very many copies and it would not be successful. when thinking about your audience you could consider the gratification theory, this means that when we decide to read a media text like a magasine its not just mindless reading we actually want to get something out of it for example information about whats going on and personal identity, for example a model that we can base our behaviour on. I will think of this when im making my magasine to put things on the cover and inside that people will be attracted to.