For my AS media coursework I had to create a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. I think one of the most important things was that we understand how to attract an audience and to use conventions since this is related to reality. I decided to create a music magazine which is not specialized which would attract a wider audience. However the issue that I produced tends to be a little bit rock and punk since the artist is a songwriter as well as guitarist. I think that is the most important element about my magazine is that the style and the genre it deals with may change every month. Overall, I really enjoyed producing a magazine since we can use our creativity however this was sometimes difficult to express because of too little knowledge about the technology.
To get some ideas about what to put on my front cover, contents page and double page spread I did research on the internet and I found different types of music magazines. For my front cover I used a similar design of a music magazine; on the cover you see a box with text in it, this is really effective and organized therefore I put that on the bottom right of my magazine. However beside the box I used I also phrased a text from the interview which magazines often use to make people interested. The most attractive item about my cover is the image that I used because you can literally look into the models eyes; his expression is mysterious which gets the audience interested. Since the imagery used is dominating the design I used minimum anchorage text otherwise it may be distracting.
The conventions I used on my music magazine are the medium close-up at the front cover as well as the masthead on the top left corner. These two things are examples of the conventions I used since it are typical things people expect to see on my magazine. At first I thought about ‘Duchess’ as name for my music magazine because this is a royal name, but then again it is not a proper name for my audience which is why I decided to name my music magazine Musa, because she is the goddess of music, literature and arts. I think Musa as a masthead attracts a wider audience with the age of seventeen to mid twenty because it sounds classy but also artistic and it is unique. The masthead I made is the representation of the music magazine and people can recognize the mirror reflection S.
The second page of my music magazine is the contents page. The contents page I designed is really simple but stylish and organized since the images used are related to the anchorage text. The text used is short and catchy but for example the text: Is the music business really hard to get into? Real-life experiences, gets people questioning. Especially because it is real life stories and we know that people are interested in other people’s experiences and stories.
The third page of my music magazine that I created is a double page spread. The design is again simple but stylish because of the double black line which crosses the page horizontally; this connects the two pages of the double page spread together. The language used for my double page spread is very friendly and easy to read, it contains questions about the artist’s personal life as well as questions about his music and the music industry.
When thinking about the audience it was a good idea to conduct a questionnaire which gave me a better analysis in relation to the audience.
From the questionnaire it is clear to see that people like different types of music, however the genres R&B, pop and rock were the mostly mentioned. This is why my magazine is not specialized in one genre but covers all kind of music to attract a bigger audience.As for the question what would you like to see on a music magazine cover the majority said an attracting and/or interesting male or female artist. Also a striking headline seems to be important as well as anchorage text. As for the contents page this has to be organised and pictures which refer to articles appear to be liked.For the double page spread it is really important that it includes an interview with the artist on the front cover, although there are differences in the amount of text, the audience likes to read quite a lot and wants quite a personnel interview.The first thing that gets the audience attention for all pages is as expected the image as well as the colours used. I also asked why a magazine is bought; there was a choice between because your work requires it, because they are informative, because they are entertaining, because they are interesting. The majority said that they buy magazines because it is entertaining followed by because they are interesting, then because they are informative and least popular was because your work requires it.
Before I started with the main task we had to create a college magazine front cover which improved my skills with programs such as Xara and adobe Photoshop. I approached creating a music magazine by analyzing other music magazines to know what a typical music magazine contains. After that I started to work with Xara which allowed me to use different fonts. However with Xara it is not possible to edit an image which is why I used adobe Photoshop. This program has tools such as lasso and photocopy which I could use to edit images for my double page spread. I used the lasso tool to crop photos after which I photocopies it in several colours for example; the right bottom photos on my double page spread. However since we have to construct reality I faced some difficulties using these technologies, especially with the backgrounds of my front cover. Using adobe Photoshop I tried different kind of background which varied in colour such as orange, purple, black and grey, but all mentioned did not construct reality so eventually I decided to use the original tiled background.
I organized my human resources by using my brother as the artist ‘Joshua James’.
To make him look like a real artist and to build the right tone in my photos I used several props such as the Wii guitar, a glittery hat and a bandana. I used this to form a typical iconography of an artist such as James Morrison and Gavin Degraw because they often have a characteristic style which is kind of scruffy. However the style I produced is somewhat more punk. The location I used to make photographs is the bathroom which is the background of the magazine cover. I also took a photo of the guitars at school which I used for my contents page. The other images I used for my contents page are from concerts I’ve been to, my friend and lastly me and my friend together. I could use those pictures because they are linked to the anchorage text. For my double page spread I took a photo of the artist jumping in the air while playing the guitar. This is because it is more effective as it gives a very powerful image and facial expression.
Wednesday
EVALUATION MUSIC MAGAZINE.
Results quistionnaire
From the questionnaire it is clear to see that people like different types of music, however the genres R&B, pop and rock were the mostly mentioned. This is why my magazine is not specialized in one genre but covers all kind of music to attract a bigger audience. As to the question what would you like to see on a music magazine cover the majority said an attracting and/or interesting male or female artist. Also a striking head line seems to be important as well as anchorage text. As for the contents page this has to be organized and pictures which refer to articles appear to be liked. For the double page spread it is really important that it includes an interview with the artist on the front cover, although there are differences in the amount of text the audience likes to read quite a lot and wants quite a personnel interview. The first thing that gets the audience attention for all pages is as expected the image but also the colours used. I also asked why a magazine is bought; there was a choice between because your work requires it, because they are informative, because they are entertaining, because they are interesting. The majority said that they buy magazines because it is entertaining followed by because they are interesting, then because they are informative and least popular was because your work requires it.
I have two possible front covers, I think this one is good because the colours are black and white and the only colour used is purple around my masthead.
However I am almost sure I will use my other background because that one is more organised.
Ideas for music magazine
Musa -ae f. [a muse; a goddess of music , literature and the arts].
I think I am going to call my magazine musa and then the S in mirror reflection.
also like the name Duchess (Used as the title for such a noblewoman) and then I could also do the mirror S.
I like Duchess because it has something royal.
The genre of my magazine is not specialised on one genre.
MUSIC MAGAZINE NAME: MUSA (mirror reflection S)
ON THE COVER: I want to have a picture of a boy with tattoos and it has to look a little bit punk, for props I could use our wii guitar!
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD: interview
