Evaluation Of My Music Magazine ‘Volume’ By Jessica Nelson

Masthead

Flash box

Main Image

Skyline

Lead line

Cover lines

Date, issue number and Barcode

Banner

I choose the black background from the Kerrang! magazine as I thought it would give my magazine a rock edge. Also the black goes well with the pinks and purples in my magazine and makes the writing and images stand out well.

I decided to add a skyline (at the top) and a banner (at the bottom) like this Kerrang! Magazine front cover because, it makes the writing stand out more and it brings more colour into my magazine. Also I think it makes my front cover look more professional.

I liked the idea of the main image being in front of the masthead as it makes the main image stand out well and gives a little bit of a 3D effect.

I chose to do the colour scheme of pinks and purples like this Bliss magazine as they contrast beautifully with the black and seem to stand out well. In addition to that the pink adds the pop genre to my magazine.

Pull-quote

Title and skyline

Banner

Colum'sIntroduction

I decided to put a little introduction into my contents page like the one in the sugar magazine's contents page. I decided to do this because it gives my magazine a more intimate and more personal feel.

I choose to do my images and page numbers like this because, I liked the layout and it makes the page numbers stand out.

I did my contents columns similar to NME magazine because, the layout is quite clear to read. And the backgrounds for the sub titles make the them stand out well.

I added a skyline like this NME one because it adds colour and makes the title stronger than it would on its own.

I included this in my contents page because, it allows you to add more pictures to the page which means less writing which could get confusing. Also I think it makes the page look more attractive and fun.

Originally I wanted to put a V in the background of my contents page for ‘Volume’ as it would carry on the house style. However, it didn’t look right so instead I coloured the skyline behind the title purple as well as the introduction and the banner at the bottom behind the subscription box. I decided to this because it added colour and also as it is purple added a house style to my contents page. Moreover, the purple makes a C shape for contents so adds a bit of quirkiness.

Drop cap Pull quote in a flash boxTitle

Main image

Pagenumber

Colum's

Bannerintroduction

I decided to highlight the interviewers questions like on this Kerrang! magazine because, then all the writing doesn't all flow into one and also this way you can make the double page spread a lot more colourful and consequently a lot more eye catching.

I done my drop cap quite similar to the Kerrang! magazine one as I didn’t want mine to be too big so that it would take up too much space and distract the reader from looking at the writing.

I think it represents teenage girls as being individual and complex as this music magazine includes artists from both pop and rock backgrounds. Moreover, ‘Volume’ also shows that teenage girls are not straightforward pop or rock lovers and do not belong to a stereotype.

After doing some research I have decided that the media institution that might sell my magazine would be the publishes Bauer. I think this because, they publish Kerrang! magazine which is one of the magazines that mine is based on. Bauer also publish magazines such as heat as well as publishing 4music.

The audience or readership of my magazine would be Teenage Girls who are interested in buying monthly magazines who would perhaps have a part time job are in voluntary jobs or who are unemployed/ students as my music magazine doesn’t cost much as it is only £2. My audience would also be interested in both POP and Rock and indie music genres. And see music as very important to them. They would also be people who enjoy going to Gigs and festivals. In addition to that they would also be people who are maybe fashion conscious or enjoy clothe shopping. They may also be facing common teenage problems and may not feel very confident in themselves. In addition to that my audience would be people who enjoy finding out new and young up and coming artists.

From this question result I decided that my target gender for my magazine would be Females. Due to this I decided my colour scheme as well as articles.

Most people who done my survey were in their teens with the highest percentage being in the 16-20 category. Due to this I decided that my target audience’s age would be middle teens and up.

From looking at this survey respondents answers I decided that my target audience would be interested in a range of music genres and styles. Which is what I originally wanted my magazine to include anyhow but these answers showed that my target audience would be manly interested in POP Rock and Indie music.

Although most people said that they never read music magazines the second highest answer was monthly .

When I asked people to comment how much they would expect to pay for a music magazine most people commented around the £2 bracket. And when I quizzed people about whether the price was right most said it was just right.

When I asked this question I was hoping that the majority of responses that I would receive would say yes. But these results confirmed that you can have a magazine which is not clean cut pop or rock etc. Also due to this question I decided that the magazines I would look at would be ‘Top Of The Pops’ ‘Kerrang!’ And ‘NME’.

Due to this I put the an article about top 10 festivals you do not want to miss as well as gig reviews.

From these responses I decided that my music magazine would manly be about music and would contain not much, but still some usually magazine articles such as astronomy . And Trend or Tragic.

I have learnt how to use Photoshop correctly and efficiently . As well as, the fact that when taking photos you need to have a professional camera and usually proper lighting as well otherwise the photos may come out blurry or dark.

I used dafont to create my masthead for my magazine as well as the titles on my contents page and double page spread.

I used survey monkey to create my surveys for people to fill in about my magazine pages.

I used both of these network sites to distribute my surveys for my magazine.

I used photo shop to do all the construction work for my magazine pages.

Looking back at my college magazine and my first try at my music magazine I think I have learnt a lot about the importance of the layout in the magazine. As well as, the colour scheme used.

1st try. I changed this idea because there was too much blue, and the articles didn’t stand out enough.

There seemed to be a bit of confusion as to what genre of music my magazine was.

Even though most said they did notice a particular style it was almost 50 50. So I decided that I would have to change the colour scheme because of this.

I then decided from this question that the masthead needed to change as it is supposed to be one of the most important if not the most important parts to the magazine front cover as it is the part that when people are flicking through the magazines they can identify and find the one/ones they are looking for.

2nd I changed the image completely as before the image was blurred and I now decided to not do a Christmas edition of my magazine. I have also changed my masthead as the other one didn’t stand out very well, and my cover lines slightly. Moreover I have now added a banner at the bottom of the page. And have changed the colour scheme so that there is a better house style running through this page.

Most of the responses I got here was about the articles and the lack of colour.

3rd try I then decided that I needed to add some more colour to my magazine to make it stand out better. I also added a few more cover lines. And moved the text of ‘With our step by step guide!’ Down and to the right a little as well as increasing the font size.

4th version of my music magazine. I have coloured my masthead and lead line in to make the front cover more colourful and eye catching to the readership of my magazine. I have also added a flash box also to bring more colour into my magazine.

5th and Final edition of My Music Magazine ‘Volume’ Front cover. After having some last minute feedback from my media teacher I got rid of one of my cover lines as it looked too much and I also moved the interviews down so that it didn’t look a part of the main cover line.

1st try I ended up changing this page as the title needed to stand out more as it blended in with the skyline. Also the fonts were not all the same colour and need to stand out more so I made them more bolder. I also ended up changing one of the photos as it was too dark.

2nd version of my music magazine contents page. Here I had to change the front cover picture as I had changed my front cover. I also changed the bottom right picture to a different one as the last one was too dark. I have also darkened the edges of the title slightly as before it was hard to read. Another thing I have done is that I duplicated the text layers so that the text would be bolder. Moreover, I darkened the background slightly as it was too bright.

3rd and final version of my contents page. After some final feedback from my media teacher I put the page numbers in front of the text rather than behind because it was hard to read the page numbers. I have also moved the introduction over as I realised that it would have been where the staples in the magazine would have gone.

1st try. Due to the responses on survey monkey I added a few things to my double page spread.

2nd edition of my double page spread. Here I have gave my flash box a outer lining to make it look more creative and stand out more. I also change the introduction colour to pink and wrote less. In addition to that, I added another photo in the bottom left corner as this was suggested. Moreover, In the banner at the bottom of the page I added a where you can follow Taylor Ann on. I added this in because, when I did my reader profile I found out that all the people who did my survey said they listened to music on YouTube.

3rd edition of my double page spread. I have now got rid of the pull quote at the bottom of the page because, it didn’t fit or look right.

4th and final version of my Double Page Spread. Yet again after some final feedback I made the smaller image bigger and the text smaller. I also added a title and a 10 facts box as well as the page number. I have also added more colour into this page.