Question 7

What I learnt in creating a front cover:

One of the things I changed from my music magazine was the insertion of the sell lines. While these were included as seen above in the original magazine they were inserted onto a black background which took away from the main cover image. In the second version white text was overlaid on the black background in order not to take away from the image. Furthermore I added 3 selling lines instead of 2 in order to give the magazine a bigger pull. The font also is more easy to read, with only BEX’s name in capitals.

Sell lines:

The prices were adjusted for the final copy while this is partly due to the change in style of magazine, people are more likely to be willing to pay more for a music magazine contrasting to a school magazine. However one change I did decide to make was the size of the pricing. Such a large price puts out a feeling of cheapness and low quality. However by having it small and insignificant on the EX magazine it gives a higher quality sealing.

Pricing:

The masthead on the school magazine was far less dominant than the music magazine. Furthermore it’s white colour blended somewhat into the background of the snowy image. In the creation of my final magazine I took inspiration from Q magazine setting my font to a red background ensuring it would stand out from the background. Additionally as each magazine is based around a different artist the masthead must be recognisable, this is a much more distinctive look.

Masthead:

Photo Editing

I improved my photo editing from my school magazine to my music magazine. I used the raw image on the school magazine in which the key figure of my school girl cannot be seen as clearly in the foreground. This was adjusted in my music magazine in which I used Photoshop to bring BEX to the foreground, in this way the magazine has a larger draw to a reader.

Costume In the front cover image for my music magazine my artist has a clear image. An empowered, rebellious teenage girl. This was carefully chosen even to the extent of fake glasses and the state of BEX’s badges. I wanted to convey a clear theme.

Contrastingly on the front cover of my school magazine while her costume clearly conveys a winter theme I neglected the school aspect to it, no school uniform can be seen.

What I learnt from the contents page:

Clear Magazine identity:

Something entirely absent from my school magazine contents page is that of a clear magazine identity. The same issue was seen on the front cover with the masthead, the magazine is not recognisable by a brand/logo, especially as in the end I chose to not insert my logo into the school magazines final draft. In my music magazine I rectified this inserting the EX logo into the top corner.

Date

While it is something minor a tradition of all magazines is that of a date over the top of the contents page. Had I done more research into the trends of magazine making on my school magazine I would have been able to rectify this.

Font size

In my school magazine I used a larger font size allowing the font to dominate the page, furthermore all the text is in capitals. In my research I discovered that capitals actually take the mind longer to read than lower case. For this reason I adjusted this in my music magazine. Allowing the page numbers to be more prominent, the page content is also written in lower case in order to make it more accessible.

Give away

Something I removed from my contents page was the concept of a give away. I felt for a magazine focussed around giving out an aura of quality this contradicted this idea. However the closest idea to this was the posters on the front cover. Both are designed to pull in readers with the promise of free gifts. However one appeals to much larger audience in the shape of a giveaway, the posters are more tailored to BEX fans.

What have I learnt overall: a change in creative mind-set

The major adjustment in mind-set I would say for me was realising that research of both already existing media products and target audiences should be the drive for creation. The school magazine was driven more by my own ideology, while the music magazine was specifically tailored to my targeted niche in the music magazine market.