Sophie's music magazine cover evaluation

EVALUATION

Our task was to design and create a music magazine cover, with a clear, strong target audience. Our group decided to create a music magazine for young females aged between 15-18, we wanted our magazine to appeal to females with lively social lives and who particulally enjoy partying and also have an interest in fashion and make-up. We decided to name our magazine 'pout' as we beleive the word 'pout' connotes things such as fun, girly, sexy, glamour and is a strong symbol all females can relate to.

Here is the image we used for our magazine logo, as you can see it strongly relates to the name of our magazine.

Our magazine cover has developed forms and conventions of real music magazines, as it has all the same features of a real music magazine cover. For example we have used eye-catching, bold colours on our cover to attract costumers to buy our magazine. We have also advertised exclusive interviews, quiz's and articles on our front cover that are inside our magazine, we have done this so people can know what is inside our magazine just by looking at the front cover, also by our costumers being able to see whats inside our magazine, this will atrract them to buy the magazine in order to read whats inside. I beleive our music magazine also challenges other music magazines as there is not alot of music magazines on the market aimed at only females, whereas ours is. Although our magazine is based on music we have also cleverly encorperated strong elements of fashion and make-up into our magazine, allowing it to be more appealing to our target audience.

Our music magazine cover represents the 'rave', 'party' scene, which is an extremily popular trend many young people are interested in today. We have represented this fun and lively social group by using fun and 'cool' looking girls to appear on our front cover, dressed in brightly coloured 'party' clothes. Not only is this eye-catching on our cover but also our target audience can also relate to the main image on the cover, and get a sence of awarness and environment. the background of the photo on our magazine is a 'typical' rave/party scene, with pink and purple lighting, which adds to the 'girly' effect of our magazine cover, once again helping to attract our target audience.

If i was to make another front cover, i would edit the photograph we used to make it look more proffessional, which would of affected to whole cover, making it look more appealing and a higher standard.

Evaluation

The first task that we were set was to make the front cover of our own music magazine. we were first told to decide on which genre our music magazine was going to on. we decided t make our magazine a pop music mag. then we went through any pop magazines we could find so that we had an idea of how pop magazinzes lay out their pictures and text. we also had to decide what colours we wanted to use and how these colours would appeal to the audience. And for this we had to think about who our target audience was, in our case our target audience was teenagers and young adults because these are the people that mostly read Pop magazines.

we then had to think about the colours we were going to use and the text font. we decided to use colours like pink, orange, red etc. we wanted to use bright colours so that it appeals to our target audience. we wrote the text that was important in bigger text with brighter colours. for example "EXCLUSIVE" was written in green writing in big text at the top of the page. we wrote the competition at the bottom of the page with little writting but it still stood out because we wrote it in black so it stood out because that was the only dark colour used in the front cover. Our magazine would be sold around the whole of London, we wouold advertise the magazine on music channels because the majority of our target audience would be viewing these channels.

We are aiming our music magazine at teenage girls. the way our magazine shows that it is aimed at young girls is that the freebie is a lipgloss also the music artists are people that teenage girls like for example artists like Jonas Brothers, Hanna Montana, Sugarbabes etc. the main cover image we chose was to attact the teenage girls attention also its a picture that teenage girls can relate to. The other pictures we took was of me and Tasnima putting lipgloss on, wearing sunglssses and holding a cat. all these images were selected carefully as we decided that teenage girls love fluffy animals, makeup and fashion. The reason we chose the front to be me sitting down is because teenage girls like to see other teenage girls and since i am a teenager it would appeal to my target audience. The reason we chose to put this picture in the front cover is because when the teenage girls see the picture they would want to know who the person on the front cover is so they will pick up the magazine straightaway. The background colours of the front cover picture was dull but the vest i was wearing in the picture was bright red so it balanced out the pictures colour and made me stand out. the text in the magazine was all written in capitals so that it tells the audience that there is important/exciting information written in the magazine. Me and my group decided to name/masthead of our magazine POUT as this name relates to a lot of teenage girls.

In some cases the picture didnt look exactly how we wanted it to look so we edited some of the pictures on photoshop. for example in one of the pictures Tasnima forgot to take her city and islington tag off so we blurred the writing on the strap. Photoshop helped a lot because we didnt have many pictures so if we didnt use photoshop then there would be one less picture that we could use because we wouldnt be able to blur the CNI tag.

we also used the internet to get pictures of celebrities as we didnt have many pictures of ourselves. for example we got pictures of Hanna Montana, Hilary Duff etc. if i were to make the magazine cover again i would change the genre to Hip Pop because this would have been more easier for me because i have a lot of props that i could use for Hip Pop and also i have a lot of Hip Pop clothes/ costume. i would also make the magazine more cheaper because i think £1.40 is too expensive for teenagers because this would be most of their pocket money so it would discourage them to buy the magazine. i would change the price to 60p. i would also take more pictures during the photoshoot so that i have a wider variety of pictures to choose from.

Planning

In our second lesson we had to think about where we were going to put the masthead, strapline, main cover line etc. we also had to think about what writting we wanted in our front cover like what the strapline was going to say. Below i will state what was written for each section:

MASTHEAD: Pout
STRAPLINE: EXCLUSIVE! HILLARY DUFF TALKS ABOUT HER BRAND NEW ALBUM!!
MAIN COVER LINE: LOLLY TALKS ABOUT HER LOVE FOR POP AND CATS!
COVERLINES: "SUGABABES, GIRLS ALOUD, BRITNEY SPEARS AND MANY MORE."
"FIND OUT WHAT THE STARS REALLY THINK OF MILEY CYRUS"
BANNER: WIN A CHNACE TO MEET JONAS BROTHERS LIVE IN CONCERT, WITH COOL BACKSTAGE PASSES!
BARE CODE: DONE.
PRICE: £1.40
MAIN COVER IMAGE : Me
OTHER IMAGES: HILLARY DUFF, MILEY CYRUS, BRITNEY SPEARS, SUGABABES, GIRLS ALOUD AND TASNIMA/NAZNEEN PHOTOGRAPHS.
SPECIAL OFFER- FREE LIPGLOSS - FREEBIE

Making the magazine

In our first lesson of making the magazine we were told to look at all the photo's we took during the photo shoot and pick out the ones that we wanted to use in our magazine. It took very long for us to pick the front cover picture because we didnt have a variety of pictures to choose from. For the front cover we wanted a picutre that would stand out and be eye catching so that it grabs the readers attention.

finally we found a suitable picture which represents pop very well. it was a picture of me, however the picture was taken landscape so there was a lot of space left on the page because it was an A4 page and the picture went acroos the page instead of filling the whole page up. As the lesson was coming to the end we thought that we might aswel leave our work as it is and carry on with it on the next lesson.

EVALUATION

Our task was to create a music magazine, before we started this, we had to decide on what the genre was going to be for the magazine. I went through many different music magazines to see how their front covers showed their genre. What colours did they use? How was their font different from other magazines? I went through many questions like these, before deciding in a group that we were going to do a Pop music magazine. I think that my magazine has suited ideas from other pop magazines as the features on my front cover are the typical conventions seen on others. My magazine also offers a free lipgloss, this item would be branded by a well known company such as Rimmel.

I thought about what kind of social groups would relate to pop, I thought of the colours pink, red, orange and yellow. These colours were then used on my cover. I made sure that the text on my magazine cover was in these bright colours. The only dark colour I used on the cover was the colour black which was for the banner at the bottom of the page, I knew this would grab attention as it is the only dark colour on the magazine. Social groups are also represented to what kind of stars they would idolise. I have include e.g. Hilary Duff on my front cover because I think she is a dominant figure in the pop world.

My magazine would be sold in newsagents across London, I would advertise the magazine on music channels which only produces pop music. I would think about being in relation with other pop magazines so that my magazine will become recognised and sold efficiently.

The audience which I intend to aim my magazine at are teenage girls. My magazine represents this by using bright colours and everything on the front cover is something only young teenagers would be interested in, e.g. Jonas Brothers, Hilary Duff and Britney Spears.

We wanted the front image to attract girls. The picture had to look fun and something which all teenage girls could relate to. We took pictures with sun glasses, putting lip gloss on and holding a cat! I wanted the front cover image to be what attracted our audience the most. The image I chose was of Nazneen sitting down, I felt it would attract teenagers because she herself is a teenager. Teenagers would automatically pick it up because they'll want to know who she is. The colours in the photo were dull but Nazneen's vest was a bright red colour, which made her stand out. I also decided to attract my audience by making all the text on my magazine in capital letters. Our Masthead was also something which needed to stand out. My group and I thought of the word 'Pout' as the title of our magazine, we felt that the word 'pout' would relate to many female teenagers as it is a cool, hip kind of vocabulary used the teenagers today.

I used Photoshop to manipulate the photos we had taken for our front covers. I could brighten, blur and darken the photos. I found that Photoshop helped a lot, for example in one photograph there was a mistake, and this was easily blurred. I used the internet to access Google where I then got pictures of celebrities. The Apple Mac computer was easy to use and I learnt that it was a good idea to save all your work, otherwise you'd loose everything and this delayed the process of constructing the front cover.

If I was to make a magazine cover again I would make the price of the magazine cheaper. I think that £1.40 is far too expensive for young teenagers. It should be 80p, this would be perfect for a teenager, Considering each persons pocket-money. I would also change my mastheads font to something which is much more eye catching. My front cover image is of one person, this to me makes the cover look empty. More faces would attract more teenagers and fill up the front cover.

Planning..

MASTHEAD: POUT

STRAPLINE: EXCLUSIVE! HILLARY DUFF TALKS ABOUT HER BRAND NEW ALBUM!!

MAIN COVER LINE: LOLLY TALKS ABOUT HER LOVE FOR POP AND CATS!

COVERLINES: "SUGABABES, GIRLS ALOUD, BRITNEY SPEARS AND MANY MORE."

"FIND OUT WHAT THE STARS REALLY THINK OF MILEY CYRUS"

BANNER: WIN A CHNACE TO MEET JONAS BROTHERS LIVE IN CONCERT, WITH COOL BACKSTAGE PASSES!

BARE CODE: DONE. 

PRICE: £1.40

MAIN COVER IMAGE : NAZNEEN

OTHER IMAGES: HILLARY DUFF, MILEY CYRUS, BRITNEY SPEARS, SUGABABES, GIRLS ALOUD AND TASNIMA/NAZNEEN PHOTOGRAPHS.

FREE LIPGLOSS - FREEBIE  

 

Making the music Magazine..

Well our first lesson on the magazine didnt go according to plan. Nazneen and I just couldnt find the perfect picture, we just kept searching through so many photographs but just couldnt find the one. We wanted the picture to stand out, something that would grab peoples attention. We then realised we didnt have enough photographs, we should have taken more...

Finally as the lesson came to an end, we found a picture. It was of Nazneen this looked as though it would appeal to our audience. So we decided this would be the front cover picure. The picture was good, but we knew the colours in the picture were dull, so we needed the background behind the picture to be bright. The writing also had to stand out, so we decided to use capitals.

during our media lesson in the i.ct suit, we started making our magazine covers. We started off by looking through all our photo's we had taken the previous lesson.  Eventually we decided on the 'perfect' photo to suit our magazine cover.  the reason why we had chosen the final photo was because we thought the use of levels worked really well, and also thought we both come across as fun in the photo.

MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

Q magazine analysis

The mastehead is bright and bold, which contrasts to the rest of the magazine as the other colour schemes are dark like black and grey. The mastehead of the magazine also counts for the logo of the magazine.

The sub headings and main heading are either black, white or grey which gives connotations of sophistication and class. this could show the target audience for the magazine, which from the technical features of the magazine shows that it is of the age 25-35.

Magazine Analysis

Our Magazine is called 'Rock Sound.' I could see this from the large masthead, which was at the top of the magazine. This was in a large white font. The font had cracks in it which showed the magazines gender was Rock. There is also a banner alongside the masthead saying, 'MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE, THE AUTOMATIC.' This is in capitals, so it stands out to the readers. There are two graphics. One saying, 'FREE CD.' The Other saying, '3 AWESOME SLIPKNOT GIANT POSTERS' These are all in yellow, which is the only bright colour on the magazine. This maybe because the magazine wants the readers attention on this text. The main cover line of the magazine is 'TRIVIUM EXPOSED.' This is in a different font from the masthead. The font belongs to the group 'Trivium', so it gives the reader a picture of what kind of music the group produces. This magazine is aimed at Males over the age of 18. This magazine may also be especially read by Goths and Emos.

Magazine analysis

The name of the magazine that my group analysed is called 'Rock Sound'. it has many technical elements that i will list: it has a masthead which is the title Rock Sound, it also has a banner which on the magazine reads 'Mindless self indulgence etc, it also has graphics which on the magazine is a 150+ sticker, this magazine also has a main cover line which reads ' Trivium exposed'. the magazine also has a strapline which reads '3 awesome slipknot', the cover lines say Motor head, cancer bats, suicide silence etc. the masthead is written in white and its bold white, it also has a teared effect on the writing to show the audience that the magazine is hardcore.

magazine analysis

Q magazine analysis

Master head:A big, Bold and bright red square at the top left corner of the magazine, with the letter 'Q' in the centre of the square in white italic font.

Target audience:White, Males aged 20-40 years old.   

Main cover image:A close ups shot of an oasis band member. the image is in black and white and has a  vintage look. 

Main cover line:'OASIS ARE BACK' in black and red, bold, big font.