Evaluation Question 7

Over the period of creating my magazine production, I have developed skills and become more proficient in different forms of applications and technology.

For starters, I have developed a deep understanding and now are able to fluently take advantage of Adobe Photoshop. Through using Photoshop, I have developed my image editing skills and can now edit images to my desire in good detail and maintain the sharpness of those images. Through Photoshop, I have also built up confidence during the overall process of creating a production.

I have also discovered how to use three different Microsoft applications more effectively and efficiently, Excel, Word and Power Point. First through Excel, I have discovered how I can use the program to use design graphs. I designed the graphs for the results of my primary research and I now feel more confident when using excel as I have learnt a new skill from using it. Word and power point were just places where I could save my work while typing it up. I had to use both of these programs.

In order for me to present some of my work in a power point format, I had to use Slide Share. At first using slide share proved to be a challenge and I was not sure on how to use it. However now I have used it multiple times I am now familiar with how to use this and I can now use this to its advantage and use it in later projects.

I used blogger as a website where I could host all of my course work. Before the begging of this course, I was unfamiliar on how and why I should use blogger. Through the duration of my production I have learnt how to operate blogger and how to layout/design a page. I can confidently say that my skills when it comes to using blogger have greatly improved.

Personal Reflection

I believe I did make a successful music magazine as I have established an obvious house style throughout my magazine, I have ensured to use conventional uses of typography, mis en scene, images and all of the other micro-elements. I have also determined my magazines success as I have made the design very appealing to audiences and ensured that it would gather attention.

Over the course of my magazine production, I most enjoyed the creation of the Cover Page. As this was the first chance for me to express my creativity and create, something in which I felt like represented myself and the musical genre I had chosen to work within.

However, I felt like I could of further developed, my skills with Microsoft Excel as I feel like I had only scratched the service on what I can do in order to use Microsoft excel effectively. I also feel like I could improve the blank space at the bottom of the double page by filling up with either a sub-image or more article.

Over the whole process, I have learnt the values of creating a production individually by developing my own ideas and channeling my own creativity and emotions into the production. 

Evaluation Question Six

Blogger - To begin researching i decided to set up a blogger account. All the course work i have done has been published onto my blogger. How ever a majority of it was written on Excel, Photoshop, Word and power point.

Survey Monkey - When conducting my primary research i had decided to use the online questionnaire website 'survey monkey. This allowed me to get my primary research questionnaire out to my target audience. This benefited me as it allowed me to quickly create and gain information from a questionnaire. Also it was free and if i had to decided to not do conduct my questionnaire virtually it would of cost money for factors such as transport and printing

Photoshop - When creating my production i decided to use Photoshop. Although prior to creating my magazine i had no experience with using Photoshop, i feel like i quickly gained a understand and the ability to use Photoshop throughout my production.  I used Photoshop as my school had already bought the app for student use which saved me money and also that it allows to me to quickly develop my magazine in a way which i can understand.

Excel - After i had conducted my primary research i had to find a way to post my results. Through creating graphs using Excel i found it easy to do so. As I am already proficient in using Excel I felt like it would make most sense and would be most time efficient to use. I made five accurate graphs through Excel.

Evaluation Question Five

Evaluation Question Four

Evaluation Question Three

Evaluation Question Two

Evalutation Question One

Double page spread article evaluation.

Final magazine with commentary

Double Page Spread Draft

Contents Page Draft

Front Cover Draft

Pre-producion paperwork.

In order to give my production images instead of using a camera and taking my own pictures i decided to ask a recognized band (The Amazons) who have already taken semi-professional pictures. I know the members of this band considerably well. The amazons have granted me permission to use their images. The reason's to why i have decided to use these pictures instead of my own are that for starters it is more time efficient to use and also they are more experienced than me when it comes to taking photos making the quality of the photos better than what i could. Also as The Amazons are a rock band i feel like it would be conventional to use their images over maybe a rapper or a indie singers.

Images received.
The band has sent me multiple pictures to use throughout my magazine. However i have decided that these images will be the best ones to use for my production.

The first picture i have chosen is this one. I have decided that this image will best suit being placed as the main image on the cover of my magazine. The picture was set in a bar. I can tell this from two reasons the first that alcoholic drinks are on display and the second being that the band told me it was. I feel like the use of a bar as a setting connotes the rock lifestyle and by using it will appeal to a rock audience as they either want to or do live this life style/ Another reason to why i have decided to use this as my magazine cover's front image is that the bright florescent colour scheme will bring attention to my magazine in stores and will catch my audiences eye.




The next image I have chosen to use is album artwork for their single 'In my mind'. As this is the song that launched the band to success and being currently well known. I felt that by using this image it will appeal to the large fan base the band already have. Also the use of the girls lips gives of a sexual atmosphere. Sexuality is a theme that is commonly used in rock music. I have decided to use this image as one of the two images on my contents page because it is very conventional to the rock genre and will take up space without negatively affecting the design of my production.

 Yet again this image is album artwork for another single. This single is there newest one released 'Black Magic'. Obviously as their large audiences will be attracted to new content from the band this will help me attract attention to my magazine. The words 'Black Magic' placed on the cards has connotations linked to alternative life styles that are linked to rock music. I will use this in my magazine for fillers on my contents page and double page spread. I may also use this on my front cover in order to intrigue audiences to read the article.

The last image i have decided to use is a promotional picture the band have made in order to advertise one of their previous shows. I will use this image in my magazine for my double page spread and in my contents page. It will only used in my contents page as a filler. As the article on my double page spread will be an interview of the band. This will give my audience a quick and snappy idea of what the article will be based on. Although i will edit out the dates and information placed at the bottom as they are no longer relevant to current events. The use of a urban environment as a setting yet again gives of auras of the gritty and hard working atmospheres associated with rock music.


Proof of band allowing me to use their images.

Magazine Proposal

The title of my magazine will be ‘Fuzzion’

The genre of my music will be a mixture of Hard Rock and metal.

The target audience of my magazine will be young men and women between the ages of 16 – 30 who are working/middle class who are mostly white and live in English speaking countries. The reason to why I have chosen this group of people is that due to research I have conducted into the demographics and audience profiling I can see that this is the group of people who are more likely to listen to Hard Rock and Metal. Also as I do not have the ability to speak or write in any other language I have no choice but to target my production to english speaking countries as by doing other wise will take up time and resourses that I do not have.

The House style of my magazine will follow the same kind used by other music magazines using the rock/metal genre, for example I will use the influence of the other magazine by using large bold fonts, large images and a dark colour scheme. The page layout will be in a three column layout with a few large pictures merged within the text. The font used for my Mast Head and headings will be Road rage by Yousef Habchi this is a very conventional use of font as it demonstrates the use of the emotions anger and rage. The body text will be around the font size of 11/12 and the font its self will be ‘Bebal’ as it is not typical constricted to any genre of music is easily readable but still maintains the bold attitudes that are wanted for a rock magazine. In the bottom left corner of every page (unless covered by an image) there will be a page number. This page number will be used in order for readers to easily be able to tell what page they are on and how to find their desired page. Which can be found from the contents page. I will use the images of popular up and coming band ‘The Amazons’ in order to bring in the attention of their fans who are already fans of the Rock genre. As this band are a rock band there logo and album art work are all conventional to the rock genre. The contents of the magazine will consist of one double page main article, six smaller single page articles and 4 with numerous amount of small article. All this information and what the articles are about where be displayed on the second page as a contents page. As the magazine is aimed towards the younger range of age groups the price will be set low around the £2/£3 prince range in order for it to be more affordable for the target audience. The reason for why my price has to be set as afforadable for my audience is that as I have established the main demographic of people who tend to read Rock and Metal magazines tend to be people who are regarded as members of group C of the socio-econmonic spectrum.  

Drawn design for magazine.

Typography / Font Styles

Introduction

Typography and font types are the art of lettering based on the style and size. It conveys how it can change how a title sequence looks like. In addition, the font fits the genre specifically of what has to be shown.

Examples Of typography used in different music genres

 Kerrang

This example of a font style works very well at following the conventions of the sub-genre of the magazine, which is metal. The use of bold letters in block capitals is a very strong and almost dominant use of a font. As the connotations of the font are anger and boldness, which are both already, connotations of the rock genre.

Bill Board

As billboard is a magazine that focus is on music in the charts and the charts is largely dominated by pop music, it means that billboard have to target there audiences and use the conventions of a pop magazine. The use of a light, curvy, gentle font will appeal to the female audience of a pop magazine as this light gentle style is something used regularly throughout pop compared to something darker and rougher, which is more, associated with rock.

Vibe

Vibe magazine is a Hip-hop magazine.  The use of bold letters work with connotation and conventions of the boldness of hip-hop music. In addition, the use of purple text over a more traditional white or black text work very well as portraying the conventions of a hip-hop magazine. As these colours stand out and are considered to be out of the norm and expresses individuality the same way hip-hop music does so. 

Examples of typography in the Rock/Metal genre

Classic Rock

This use of font styles is very conventional to its magazines sub-genre, which is classic rock. The font type used looks like it would be used during the 80’s. Which is obviously a connotation of classic rock.  It is the thickness and curviness of the letters that connote the 80’s rock scene. Also, that fact that the sentence is written in italics is also a commonly known convention of 80’s rock as it is made to stand out and be different the same way the music at the time was meant to be. 

Rock Sound

The use of a distorted, grainy font is extremely conventional for a Metal magazine. The distortion of the font reflects a common sound effect used regularly on instruments during metal music. The graininess of the font suggests emotions of anger and enragement, which are common emotions and themes associated with the metal genre. However, something, conventional about this example of typography is the use of bright yellow. As Metal music has a darker heavier tone to its sound it would make more conventional sense to use a darker colour to reflect the sound of the music and by using a bright colour instead does not correctly represent the genre of music.

Font Types I plan to use.

The first font I plan to use during my production is ‘Road Rage’ by Youssef Habchi. The Reason I have chosen to use this font is that atmosphere that this font creates is very much the same the Metal and Rock do. For starters, the broad messy strokes connote the feelings of anger and distress. These feelings are also regularly associated with the Metal / Hard Rock genre. Secondly, I feel like the dash underneath the word ‘Rage’ could help me to distinguish parts of an article. Because of that factor, I have decided to use Road Rage as the masthead and the headings of my magazine. The reason to why I am using it for both my heading and masthead is that with the continuous use of this font I will be able to establish a ongoing house style.

 

The next font I plant to use is called Bebas and is by .Ryoichi Tsunekawa The reason to why I have chosen to use this font throughout my magazine is that I feel like this font is very bold and will convey the emotions of boldness regularly portrayed through rock music. Another reason to why I have chosen to use this font is that although it is bold it will not attract more attention than the headings. I plan to use this font as my body text within my article and my contents page. This will also allow me to establish a house style by using this font continuously.

The last font I plan to use is South Gardens by Billy Argel. I decided to use this font as I have gained inspiration from the way Classic Rock magazine has used it before. As said before I feel like the use of thickness and curviness of the font is a representation of classic rock music. I will use this Font for sub-headings as I feel like it will drag attention to the body text underneath it.

Primary Research and Graphs

Primary Research 

Primary research is important as it allows you to gain many benefits such as Address Specific Research Issues, Greater Control, and Efficient Spending for Information, Proprietary Information. However, some of the disadvantages of conducting primary research include that it could be costly, it is not time efficient and the results are not always feasible. My Questionnaire was posted online on Survey Monkey, so any one with access to the internet were able to answer it. The reason to why I posted it online was that it was I knew it would be more time efficient and it would be out to a wider audience and would not cost any money. By doing this, I found a way to not have to deal with the three negatives of primary research.  Over all 20 people answered, my questionnaire the result were that young people between the ages of 14 – 25 read most magazines. These people were mostly working class and there was an even mixture of male and female. The most popular three music genres where in order Pop, Hip-hop and Rock. Through this questionnaire I have found how I can target my audience how and what I can do for it to be appealing to that audience

Graphs. 

 From this graph we can see that 50% of people who participated in the survey. Where between the ages of 17-25. While only ¼ of people where either under 16 or above the age of 25.

From the graph, I can tell that the main gender that, read musical based magazines tend to be men. With the 12 people who took the survey where men and eight where female. This means that 60% of the population who read magazines are male.

From this graph, we see that 55% of all people surveyed would read Billboard Magazine. While ¼ of people would read either Q or Keerang Magazine and only a small amount of people would read Clash. This will help me decided on what magazine I should use to influence my own production.

From this graph, I can tell that a vast majority (45%) of people would be interested in reading a pop magazine. Rock and hip-hop were tied at having 25% of people who were interested in reading a magazine based on that genre. Only one person chose Classical Music. From this survey, I can help decided what type of genre I want my magazine to focus on. 

From this graph, I can see that the majority of people who participated in the survey said they on average spend £1 - £4 when purchasing magazines. 7/20 people said they would only buy a magazine if it were under the price of £1. Only 3 people said they would buy a magazine for more than £4. 

Music magazine questionnaire

Create your own user feedback survey

Magazine double page spread conventions analysis

Magazine Contents conventions page analysis

Magazine Front cover codes and conventions.

Magazine front cover conventions analysis

Audience Profiling

Magazine Parent Companies.

Parent Companies

Parent companies are organizations that own a variety of different publications. Some examples of parent companies include Bauer media group, IPC, Time Warner, Hearst, International Data Group, Advance. IPC is an excellent example of parent companies owning numerous different publications such as NME, Now, Nuts.

If I have the choice to have my magazine published, I would choose to have it published by Bauer Media Group Company. This is because the music magazines they publish are very similar to mine. A few examples of the music magazines they publish include Keerang, Mojo and Empire.  I have chosen Bauer Media Group to publish my magazine as they have built up a very good reputation amongst the publishing and print industry, therefore my magazine will be received positively by their long-standing, established readers. In addition, I feel like Bauer Media Group would be the ideal choice for publishing my magazine as I have already established that they currently publish the successful Metal magazine Keerang, which is the sub-genre of my music magazine.  In addition, Bauer Media Group will be able to help introduce similar bands and artists that I would like to feature in my magazine. Bauer Media Group work in conjunction with many other different media platforms including television, magazine and online. This will allow my magazine to be advertised and promoted across many different platforms of media. This is positive for my magazine as it means that it will be more likely to be successful.