Final Music Magazine Evaluation

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.

Page Annotations

Front Cover annotations

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.