Final Music Magazine Evaluation
Who is the audience
for your media project and how does it attract/address your audience?
Target audience: Music producers, Electronic/Drum & Base
music listeners, 16 – 25, male
The demographic of my target audience that I have chosen for
my Electro/Drum and Base music magazine is listeners of this type of music,
preferably aged 16-25 and male. The ages of my target audience are 16 – 25 as
these are statistically the age group that listen to this type of music the
most.
My type of audience are stereotypically seen as young and social party
goers that would be interested in upbeat and energetic types of music such as
the fast paced rhythm of drum and base music. They could also be seen as of the
age where they might have a disposable income and be willing to spend more on
entertainment such as music than other demographics.
My magazine has very unique features that I think would
appeal to my audience. I am confident in saying this as I am a member of the
type of audience that I have chosen for this magazine, this greatly helped me
along with looking at other magazines aimed at a similar audience that also
focus on this type of music to decide what design my magazine should include.
The
colour schemes, graphics and fonts included in the magazine suit the
stereotypical mind-set of a person aged 16-25 and according to reviewers of the
magazine suit the style of the music very well. The way the articles are
written and information displayed also suit the target audience very well
taking a slightly informal approach and including colloquial language such as
slang to make the reader feel relaxed whilst reading.
In what ways does
your media product use, develop or challenge the forms & conventions of
real media products such as other magazines and how they present information?
My music magazine tries to redefine many aspects of what the
reader would expect from a music magazine. It does this with the similar
looking, yet still separating and different layouts, colours and graphics. In
many ways Electro House/ Drum n Base music is usually paired with loud and in
your face graphics that try and present the music as energetic and fast as
possible. However my magazine takes a more subtle approach making the type of
seem classier.
It uses gentle graphics like the blue cosmos space background
and the serious and sane looking model that is just enjoying the flow of the
music in his pictures instead of acting crazy and jumping about everywhere like
it is stereotyped.
There is also a lot of free space used, I feel this can help
the reader by making them feel as though they are not being overwhelmed with
information.
A lot of other features of the magazine do resemble other
media items such as the placement of text, the word warp on the double page
spread, the titles and how the text speaks to the reader often using the slang
that is stereotyped for the type of audience in other media products such as
“The new artist gives us the lowdown on his experiences”
How does your media product
represent social groups?
The magazine is very representative of the stereotypical
attitudes of those who would be seen to listen to Electronic/Drum & Base
types of music. It takes advantage of the slang and colloquial language often
used by this stereotypical listener such as adding ing to the end of words to
shorten the sentence “DJ-ing” when asking questions on the double page spread.
The colours and graphics such as the cosmos space like background and dark and
purple fading colour scheme described as techno by some observers also suit the
stereotypical social group as not so much being energetic but calm, cool and
curious like the listeners and producers of this type of music would prefer
themselves to be described as.
What kind of media
institution might distribute your media product and why?
A media institution that distributes magazines would be
responsible for the content inside of the magazines that they distribute. They
are responsible for marketing and producing the magazines as well, some popular
examples of media institutions could include the BBC, Sky, The Bauer Media
Group and BBFC
My magazine, Trance is very electric musically orientated
magazine for a very specific demographic and not everyone in general like pop
music would be for. The Bauer Media
Group only has 3 music magazines in its collection, MOJO a pop music magazine,
Kerrang!, very popular rock magazine and Q which focuses on rock and roll. There is space within their music magazine collection for a magazine that
focuses on electronic styles of music like in Trance. The Bauer media group
seem to focus their music magazines towards the young and trendy demographic
like with Kerrang and MOJO using very bright colours and focusing on music that
is preferred by the younger generation around the age of 14-25.
This also
happens to be very similar to the type of demographic that I have chosen for
Trance. As a result I think that the Bauer media group would be an excellent
media institution to distribute and produce Trance as they seem to specialize
in magazines focused on a younger audience and seem to have a gap in their
music magazine portfolio for a magazine just like Trance as opposed other
institutions such as the BBC which tend to focus on an older demographic and
are seen to represent traditional British values, especially in examples such
as their magazine titled “Music”. This is aimed at a very high audience basing
its design elegance and sophistication.
In the process of
constructing this product what have you learned about the technologies
employed?
To construct my media magazine I used such programs as Adobe
Photoshop, Microsoft word, InDesign and google chrome. I have learned how to use many new features
in these programs as a result of my time with them and have improved in both
skill and creativity with the programs since I started the music magazine
project.
I have learned many skills when using Photoshop to edit the images that will be implemented in the final design for the magazine. This includes using different methods to select and edit areas.


This is me selecting an area using the Polygon select too to select areas when editing the model pictures. This tool is the best fro accuracy and quality when selecting specific areas.
This method of selection selects large areas of colour instead of inside a polygonal shape like with the polygon tool. This makes it very quick to select large areas.
This method of selection is the last one i used when editing the pictures used in the magazine. It is used to accurately and quickly select borders of objects inside of images using anchor points lite magnets. It is called the magnetic selection tool.
Example of the finished selection
Here i am editing the balance of the colours of the model. I did so to make the model fit in with the rest of the colour scheme used on the front cover design.
This is a comparison between the original design for the music magazine Masthead. I changed the name from Vibe to Trance as i felt that Trance suited my target demographic more and that Vibe was also the name of another successful music magazine that I was not aware of. I changed the design after some experimentation and research and I am happy with the end result. I think it fits in with the design of the magazine and calls out to potential customers clearly letting them know what the magazine is called. The design lacked something so I added spaced out letters in the center to give it some character and make viewers try and come closer to see what they say.
I have learned the basics with InDesign such as learning how
to move objects and images, format and edit text and import external images
into the program. I only used InDesign to finish assembling the different
images that the magazine consists of which I produced in Photoshop.
I wrote all the text that would go into the magazine in word
and copy and pasted it over to InDesign after completion. This helped as word
has spell check to tell me if there were any punctuation or spelling errors in
my work.
Are there any
possible improvements that could be made on the magazine design or the way it
delivers information to the reader?’
There are always developments to be made to improve the
magazine and make it appeal more towards its audience and convey information
more efficiently. Some important
suggestions for improvements have been mentioned in my peer assessment of the magazine.
Some good points brought up could include the fact that on the double page
spread the column on the right page is split into three and the text is wrapped
around the title in the middle of the page. This according to two of the people
that reviewed my magazine made it difficult to navigate the page for useful
information and over complicated the layout. I could improve by possibly moving
the title to a place that would not wrap so much of the text. I could also
decrease the number of columns as that would prevent the text from being so
separated.
I would not need to change the font or colours of the text as I feel
I am already
using a very simple and easy fonts and the colour contrasts the
background colour making it already easily readable. On the other hand if I
move to a 3 column layout this might not be as exciting or dramatic a layout
and may appear boring. As this is a magazine for a younger audience I would
like to retain the more interesting layout.
The background colours could also be said to be dull and not
attention grabbing, livening them up a bit by intensifying colours could make
the magazine more eye-catching. However I believe that the colour scheme
represents the style of music very well and changing it might pull the magazine
away from the target audience. Also the colours I am using for text and imagery
are bright, vibrant and contrasting against the dark background.
One last major improvement that could be made to the magazine
are the pictures of the model and how he is conveyed through the magazine. On
the front page the model is wearing very plain clothes that don’t entice the
viewer to make them want to read the magazine. The model is supposed to be
“DJ-One Volts” who is a DJ I created especially for this magazine. To improve, better
photography using a high resolution picture would enhance the quality of the
shot and editing techniques could be used to liven up the model and make him look
more attractive. He could also be wearing more interesting clothes or pose in a
different more exiting way. The images could be further enhanced in Photoshop
or a similar editing software to intensify colour and liven up the overall
appearance of the design which would make the magazine more attractive for
viewers to buy as they associate the reader with the model on the front.
I am sure that there are many other minor improvements that
could be made to the magazine however these are the main three that I have come
up with.
Looking back at your
preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product?
I feel that I have made many improvements over my last
attempt at a magazine. I shall show a comparison between the old school
magazine and the new music magazine:
I
feel the music magazine looks more visually pleasing as it includes eye
catching and detailed graphics when compared to the school magazine which has a
very plain and solid style. I understand that they are both aimed at different
audiences however I think that Trance does a better job of appealing to its
chosen audience thought the graphics, colour scheme, language used such as
slang and the way that the information
is laid out.
The Misbourne Messenger displays information In an almost naïve
way as the font used is curvy and the colour scheme is very bright. The topics
chosen are in my opinion very boring and would not interest me as a student at
the misbourne. One thing that the Misbourne Messenger has over trance is it’s
the main strapline on the page “Shocking Results” that does a good job of
incentivising the viewer to find out what is so shocking and important inside
the magazine.
Trance does not show off hugely on its front cover which is a
downside, it does include a variety of small yet still enticing straplines to
the left and does mention DJ-Voltz, the main artist that the magazine focuses
on repeatedly. I intend to rectify this problem and strengthen the font of the sub
headlines to make them clear and give them gravity.I
have learned many new skills and have honed existing ones in creating the music
magazine.
I
have discovered many new tools in programs such as in-design and Photoshop such
as how to gradients and how to
manipulate images so that they are more visually appealing such as the main
model image on the front cover. I have also improved in researching and
learning to address the target audience. The research I have done for this
magazine includes looking at different types of editorials that focus on the
genre of music I am covering and other types of music. I have also been looking
at how and what they do to appeal towards their chosen audience.
I have learned
to respectively identify what my chosen target audience would like by
interviewing those who I feel fit the required categories and asking what they
feel the magazine should include or look like.
One
last major thing that I have learned is trial and improvement. I originally named the magazine Vibe and had a completely different cover and design. I decided that It needed to
be hugely improved upon as it looked visually weak in my opinion and I was getting a lot of negative
feedback on the design, graphics and layout of the old version of the music
magazine.
The
colours were too bright, the background was a solid colour which left lots of
gaps in-between the features of the page, the articled were uninteresting
including a featured article about headphones and the main imaged was of poor
quality and unrelated to anything within the magazine and not given any reference or explanation. The Masthead was good but I later discovered that
there was already a magazine titled vibe so I needed a new name for the
magazine. I feel that restarting my design was the best choice as I had the
chance of learning from my mistakes instead of improving upon them.
I
am really happy with the final result of the Trance music magazine. The Purple
colour scheme makes it fit in with the music type and the mysterious space theme
make viewers seem curious and want to find out more. The model for DJ One Voltz
is an accurate representation of the type of audience that would listen to this magazine however does not look that good-looking and is wearing quite generic
clothes. He could be enhanced on an editing software like Photoshop and the
picture could have been taken with better equipment, this would improve the
shot and make him look more attractive. The bar code and QR code in the bottom
right corner are placed effectively and readers will want to scan the QR code
to visit the website of the magazine, which helps promote the magazine and
encourages synergy. The Masthead of the magazine is big and clear to read, it
almost grabs the reader and pulls them in. The small blue letters spelling out
Trance within the masthead give it flavor and prevent it from being boring and
white. The purple header bar at the top makes the cover instantly recognizable as a magazine cover and helps give the page character. There are some negatives
about the magazine front cover however,
the skylines are small, this makes them difficult to read if the reader
is far away from the magazine which decreases their efficiency at persuading
viewers to buy the magazine.
Contents
Page Annotation
Contents Page Annotation

The
contents page tries to continue the same rough design shown on the front cover.
The Title of the page is especially effective as it is obvious that it says “contents
page” however it is split up into different tiers making it seem unique and
make the reader stop and try and decipher it. This makes them involved with the
page quickly. The contents are listed out in a very simple design taking up the right column of the page, this is because the information should be easy
to read so that the reader can find a page within the magazine that interests
them before they lose interest. There is another background picture of space similar to that on the front cover in the bottom left corner. This, like the
front cover adds a mysterious feel to the page and makes it fit in with the type
of music. I have included some page advertisements such as the DJ One Voltz
one. This tries to make the reader visit popular pages that the author thinks
that they are most likely to read, making them chose a article that they will
find interesting instead of reading one that will lose their interest.
Double
Page Spread Annotation
Double Page Spread Annotation
The
double page spread uses a similar design to the other two pages, however
changes the colours to blue to add some spice in the magazine and make non-constant throughout. I would imagine further pages within the magazine would change the
colours and even design slightly to build upon this idea of non-constancy within the magazine. The model integrated with electrifying graphics is “cool” according to some people I interviewed. The only problems with the double page
spread is the fact that the text warping around the title in the middle of the
page makes it hard to read. Some of the people I interviewed agreed that this
was a problem and that it was a but complicated to navigate the columns. One
way to solve this without changing the position of the title would be to reduce
the amount of columns reducing the amount of gaps between the text.