Evaluation of my music magazine

Target Audience Evaluation of my Double Page Spread

To get an idea of what people thought about my magazine, I used the website 'Padlet' to create a wall for people to comment on my cover, contents page and double page spread. I asked my target audience to make notes on their opinions of 'Lisztomania' and this programme allowed me to do so easily,and in a visual way. I first showed them my product and they wrote their comments on the wall below.

Created with Padlet

Target Audience Opinions of my Contents page

Created with Padlet

Target Audience opinions of my music magazine cover

Created with Padlet

My Double Page Spread final copy

After completing a draft of my magazine, I showed it to a group of my peers. They noticed that the article had no journalist by line! So I went back and added this into the kicker.

My Double Page Spread (draft)

My Contents page

My contents page (draft)

My Magazine Front Cover

Double Page Spread Flat Plan

I decided to use an image which covered the whole of the right hand side of the page. From my research, I found that on a lot of double page spreads, a photo does take up a whole page, or even one and a half pages. However, I think my photograph would fit better on just one page, as if it went over the gutter, it could potentially cut off an essential part of the image (such as the models face). The image is one of the main focuses of the spread, and so, this is why I have decided to make it a dominant feature. 

I placed the title of the spread at the top left hand corner of the page, and I made it quite large, as again, from my research, it has become apparent that a large title is used to capture the reader's attention, which I intend to do here on my own double page spread. The title will have the largest font on the page, and this will  mean that it will be large enough to attract the reader's attention. 

Below my title, I want to place my kicker, which will give the reader a small introduction to the article, before they read on. This is a convention of all magazine articles, and so it was a necessity. I will use language which will make them want to carry on reading. 

From my research, I also found that captions that go with the images in the likes of NME tend to go right in the corner of the images, along with the page number, date and magazine title in the opposite corner.Within the article, I have also placed a pull quote. This is also a common convention of magazines, and I will use this to break up the main body of text, and also to entice the reader to read the article - the quote will be in a different colour, and will also have language in it that will pull the readers in (they'll have the shock factor). 

I have also used 3 columns of text for my article - this will make sure that the page doesn't look too crowded, as this may put the reader off (too much text may bore the reader). 

Contents Flat Plan

For my contents page, I looked at NME for my inspiration. I have used several images instead of overloading the page with text, as this may put the reader off. Several images will keep the reader interested, and will be more eye catching, making them want to turn the page.

 Instead of using the conventional title of 'Contents' for the title of my page, I swayed more in the direction of an NME style title by choosing 'This Week'. I have placed this at the top, and I want the font to be quite large to stand out to the reader. Because this is the contents page, I want to overlay the page numbers over the images in a colour that will contrast well will the background of all the images, to catch the reader's eye. I will use images that I have taken from the concerts I went to in February, and the photo shoot I had with Ellie which will link to the cover and double page spread. I will use this for my main image on the page. 

Front Cover Flat Plan

This is my flat plan for my music magazine front cover. I took my inspiration for the layout from NME - I looked at several issues, and combined them to come up with this layout. I have used a banner across the top of the page as this was a very common feature across music magazines. I will make the banner have a ripped effect to connotate the main coverline (I have not decided on my main cover line yet, but it will have something to do with rebellion or chaos, which the ripped effect will connotate). 

I have also placed a boost on the left hand side of the page. This will promote another coverline, and will be slightly transparent (as this is an effect that I have also seen on issues of NME. This will be bigger than the smaller cover lines on the right of the page, suggesting that this is a very important feature in this issue. The main cover line will be a similar size to the masthead - this will show that this is the most important feature. I have tried not to over crowd the page with text, as for most covers of music magazines, the image is the main focus (as it will be for my own cover - the image is by far the biggest feature on the page showing its importance). This is because most people are actually drawn by images to magazines, rather than the text. 

Title and font

I have decided to choose 'Lisztomania'  as my final title. Although this is a very long name, NME started out as 'New Musical Express', which was later abbreviated to it's current title. 'Lisztomania' would be shortened if it later became established. I have also considered which font I should use for my masthead. 

These are a few fonts that I looked at. After previously looking at rock magazines (mainly NME), they tended to use a sans serif font for the masthead, so I discounted the third one. I looked at the NME masthead, and it looked very professional, as it was very simplistic. I think I prefer the first one for this reason - the simplicity of it makes it look more professional and the boldness of it would allow me to colour it, making it bold for it to stand out to the reader. 

Edited Photographs

This is another shot that I have edited. I think I will use this one for my front cover.

Firstly, I was debating on whether to use either of these two photographs, but I preferred the positioning of the second one, and so decided to edit that one.

I wanted to create a vintage feel to this image, as my target audience would have an interest in photography and art, and so a vintage style of editing would attract them. On Photoshop, I initially used the spot heal tool to remove any blemishes from her skin, and I used the clone stamp tool to minimise the shadow of the rock behind her head. Then, I went to Image, the Curves and cross processed the image, by creating an S shape with the red and green curves and a, inverted S shape with the blue colour curve. The result was the image below. 

I am happy with this image, as it reminds me of a shot that has been taken on a lomography camera, which is quite a vintage style of photography. A vintage feel was my aim for this shot. I took many inspirations from shoots in the magazines I looked at (including the edited photographs in Pigeons & Peacocks and the Lindsay Wixon photos hoot) and I feel the end product is exactly what I wanted from the shoot. 

Edited photographs

After my photo shoot, I decided to try to edit my photos in order to make them look more suitable for my magazine. I tried to use techniques that I developed previously when creating my school magazine for the preliminary task, and also techniques that would develop my images in the style of photographs that I'd seen in previous NME magazines. 

Above is an image that I took at the Scotch Piper pub in Lydiate. Above is an original photo, and below it is another image from this shoot that I have edited. I got the idea for this shot from several sources like the Jake Bugg NME cover, where he is sat at a bar with a drink and the black and white shots of Lindsay Wixon in Vogue. I really liked this image as I think the pink lemonade and the outfit that Ellie was wearing captured the 'girlyness' and youth of her (this was exactly what I wanted to be portrayed through the connotations of the elements of the image as I mentioned in my previous post). To edit this photo I used the spot healing brush on photo shop to remove any blemishes from her skin (like spots and the dark circles beneath her eyes) and I also used the clone stamp to remove the yellow sign from the window behind her. I boosted the contrast and brightness accordingly and also boosted the saturation of her lips to exaggerate them when I turned the image black and white. A print screen of this is shown in between the photographs. I will use this photograph for the front cover of my magazine. 

I think that this image is effective in portraying my model as how I wanted. The mid close up allows for her expression to be clear, and her expression (the way she is staring down the barrel of the camera) makes her seem strong and independent. Also, the back-lighting almost creates an angelic glow around her, which connotes an innocence that suggests youth (which is a characteristic I want to represent through this image).  

Analysis of NME double page spread (Jake Bugg)

Click the link below for my analysis of this contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoeradford/8683834567/in/photostream/

Analysis of NME double page spreads (Libertines)

Click the link below for my analysis of this contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoeradford/8683831955/in/photostream/

Final shots from the Photo shoot

During my photo shoot, I tried to take as many different shots as I could in order to get the perfect shots for my magazine, however I ended up taking a lot of photos, so in order to find the shots I wanted, I narrowed it down to some of my favourite ones from the shoot. As well as shots from the photo shoot, I also needed photographs of other artists for my contents page. I have been to several concerts recently, and have decided to use some photographs from the concerts on my contents page -images of Jake Bugg, Miles Kane and Two Door Cinema Club. This will ensure that my magazine looks more realistic, as because I am using NME as my inspiration, the layout of their contents page includes many images of several artists, not just the one on the front cover. These are a few of my shots from my photo shoot.

Analysis of NME contents page (Jake Bugg issue)

Click the link below for my analysis of this contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoeradford/8684838752/in/photostream/

Analysis of NME contents page (Libertines)

Click the link below for my analysis of this contents page on Flickr. Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoeradford/8683719533/in/photostream/

Photo shoot planning for magazine

I have planned to do my photography shoot for my music magazine on Wednesday the10th of April, and have organised it so we can travel to several locations to take my photographs. I will do a photo shoot at Crosby beach, then travel to the Scotch Piper pub in Lydiate to take another set of photographs. From there I will also take another set of photographs in the woods next to the pub and at Lydiate Abbey as well (a ruin of a church next to the pub). I would like to try and take photographs that capture the youth of the model, and also the 'girly' side of her, so I'll be using several props including a polaroid camera, a lolly ice and also a vintage bottle of pink Rose Lemonade to try and capture this. The model I'm using is Ellie Bray (see permission forms post for permission and contact details). I have used several things as inspiration for my shots, including images from previous NME magazines (the main magazine I have been researching).  

Shot lists for music magazine Photo shoot

Before I take any photographs for my music magazine, I have planned some shot lists for some possible images that I would like to capture, and explained why I would like to use those type of shot for my magazine. This will help me plan for my photo shoot, so I will already have an idea of what I want to achieve by the and of it. I considered the photo shoots from Vogue and Pigeons & Peacocks to inspire me on what type of shots I would like to take.

Permission (Contributor release) form

This is the contributor release form that I asked Ellie (my model) to sign before I took any photographs of her, so I could have her permission to do so. I knew that I wanted to use Ellie as my model for a while, so I asked her to fill the form out previous to the photo shoot. 

These are the risk assessment forms that I filled out for the event. 

Analysis of NME cover (Libertines edition)

Click the link below for my analysis of this contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoeradford/8684901074/in/photostream/

Analysis of NME cover (Jake Bugg issue)

Click the link below for my analysis of this contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoeradford/8684903232/in/photostream/

Pigeons & Peacocks - indie fashion magazine inspiration

Because I am interested in fashion, photography and graphic design as well as music, I am always on the lookout for independent magazines that feature these topics. I managed to find a completely independent fashion magazine called 'Pigeons & Peacocks' which was actually published by London College of Fashion in collaboration with the students, staff, graduates and the fashion industry. It's only on it's 5th issue, and I bought it because of the completely unique look to it - it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. 

Unlike most magazines, it has no cover lines at all, and challenges the conventions of most common magazines in general. The actual material it's made from is almost as thick as card, and the photography within it is very editorial. The gold masthead and tagline 'A Fashion Magazine for the Post Apocalyptic Blues' stand out from the block black background, and the image of the model Jade Thompson (winner of Britain's Next Top Model 2011) endorses the front cover. The image is very striking, and this is what drew me in to buy it. I want to use a striking image for this reason - to attract the audience and make them want to buy the magazine and read the articles inside. 

This double page spread was also something I looked at. I really liked the hot pink colour used in this article,  the images used and the unusual spacious layout. The colour scheme on this page reinforces the female audience and the images would definitely attract the photography lovers within the audience. Also, the topic of tumblr would be very appealing to a younger audience, which is one that I would be aiming for too. As with the pink on the Vogue front covers, I think I will definitely use a shade of pink within my house style to connote the female audience. Throughout the magazine, there are many interesting double page spreads and photo shoots that I looked at. 

The photography on these pages (the editing, positioning and the colours within the images) are all so eye catching, and the layout of the pages are also very appealing to an audience which would be interested in design. The indie style to this magazine is something that definitely attracts me, so within my own work, I also hope to produce something which I would buy myself. I will be taking into consideration all of the features of Pigeons & Peacocks, Vogue, and NME when creating my own magazine. 

Vogue - August issue analysis

I looked into last year's August issue for inspiration in closer detail.  

In this issue, the actress Emma Stone is the main focus, taking up the cover and the main double page spreads. Here, Alexa Chung (a famous style icon, model and journalist) has an interview with her - her style of writing is very descriptive which is a quality I really like. This is apparent in the pull quote 'Stone is the cool, quirky girl from school; the one you'd sit next to , hoping you'd become cooler via osmosis.' I like this interview, and due to the fact that 55% of the people I asked in my questionnaire said they'd prefer an interview to other articles such as a review, I will try to create something similar for the article of my on double page spread. Similar to NME, the image of Emma Stone takes up the whole of one of the pages of the spread, and this seems to be a reoccurring theme across many different type of magazine. As I mentioned before, the pink colouring on the cover of this issue is a detail that I find very appealing, as my audience is going to be mainly girls. 

As well as the Emma Stone double page spread, I also looked at the images that were taken for another article in the same issue with the model Lindsay Wixon. 

I loved these images, as they show the youth and feminine side of the model. This are connotations that I wish to convey through my on photographs, and so I want to use these as inspiration for my own. I love the use of props (they drink and the ice cream) and also the use of black and white. 

As you can see from this double page spread, similar to the Emma Stone pages, the image takes up a whole page, and the article takes up the other. I like the layout of the article here too - the 3 columns of text, drop cap, kicker and the title of the page come together to create a neat and professional looking double page spread.

Fashion magazine inspiration - Vogue

As well as looking at NME for my inspiration, I also looked at other magazines from different genres, not just music. I decided that because my magazine is going to be aimed at mainly girls, who also have an interest in fashion I should look at the conventions of Vogue, an extremely popular and established fashion magazine. Over the past few years, I have bought many issues of Vogue and I keep these along with my issues of NME. Here are some photographs that I took of a few of the issues I own. 

As you can see from these covers, the main image is just a single mid/ mid close up of the model and the colour scheme, as with NME changes for each issue. I particularly like the pink colouring on the two issues, as it stands out to the reader and has connotations of a female orientation. This may be something I consider for the colour scheme of my own magazine. Also, the bar code is always in the right hand corner, again, similar to NME. I also like the cartoon font that is used on the third cover - it looks handwritten and glossy, and the colours of the font also have feminine connotations. I will definitely consider the conventions of Vogue when producing my own magazine, as the audience (females who are also interested in fashion) would be similar to my own. 

Music Magazine Ideas

These are some of my initial ideas for my music magazine. I have thought about what I might include on my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Target Audience Considerations

Qualities of target audience I want to reflect - For my target audience, an important quality could be that they are artistic. This would be reflected in my magazine through the use of artistic fonts, and maybe even graphic design/ illustration components which would make the product arty. Another quality could be that they are very up-to-date with new bands etc, but are also very educated in older music (they have a broad music knowledge). This would be reflected through the type of features that I could include throughout my magazine.

Aspirations of target audience - My target audience would maybe aspire to be creative in their futures, and this would be reflected in the design and creativity of my own magazine. They might even want to go in to desgining their own magazines in the future.

Features ideas - 'Libertines Reunion?', 'Strokes New Album 'Comedown Machine' Review', 'Peace's New Album 'In Love' Review, 'Interview with Two Door Cinema Club', 'Haim's New Album pending Hit or Miss?', 'The Smiths 30 year anniversary', 'Jake Bugg: One amazing year'

Regular ideas - 'Live!', 'Gig Guide', 'Crossword', 'This Week', 'Best Newcomer this week'.

List of advertisers to approach - If I was to actually create this magazine, I would be approaching advertisers such as IPC Media. IPC are the distributors for NME magazine, and as my magazine is also of the indie genre, they might be interested.

My School Magazine

This is my school magazine cover and contents page. I wanted to recreate something that looked more like a magazine, rather than  'newsletter', so after analysing the two newsletters from other schools, I decided to try not to include some of the features that I noticed which made the newsletters look unprofessional. 

I edited the photographs on Photoshop (as seen in my previous posts), and then put the two pages together in Word Publisher. On the cover, I used the Deyes badge and also a simple colour scheme of red, white and blue as these are the school colours, and they also contrasted well against my background image. I actually sampled the colours from the badge to use, as I couldn't get the right colour by eye. I used a serif font for the headline as that type of font has connotations of being more established and traditional (which was one of my ideologies for the newsletter) but I also used a simple serif font (Calibri) for the rest of the text, as it looked unusual with all sans serif font because this contrasted too much against the font used in the masthead (which is actually taken from the Deyes sign at the front of the school). 

For my contents page, I used the same sans serif and serif fonts that I had used on the cover (again, I only used the Sans serif font at the top as it looked too much to use it through out the whole page). From research into established magazines such as NME, I had noticed that on the contents page there were also a number of smaller images that related to other articles inside, so I inserted several images to accompany the one from the main article (from the cover). I added a small line of text to anchor these images, and page numbers. The page numbers only go up to 20, which would be very unusual for a normal magazine, however, this is a school magazine, and so, from looking at the newsletters I had analysed before, it is clear that a typical school newsletter would not include as many pages as a typical magazine. I added a slight shadow to the images on the contents page to make them contrast to the background. 

Mood board of the Indie Genre

This is a mood board of things to do with the 'indie' genre of music I have made, including bands and artists,  lyrics from songs and even some of the artistic side of the genre (such as album covers and typography). I have also included small things which give an idea of the type of style that an indie musician/ artist may wear in relation to the type of magazine I want to create, for example, the three girls from the indie girl band 'Haim' (the black and white photo near the centre of the mood board) - their dress sense will be something I consider when deciding on what clothes I would like the people in the 'band' I create for my magazine to wear. 

Title Evalutions

I have narrowed it down to 3 possible titles; Charged, Lisztomania and Reckless. 

Charged - There are several connotations of the word 'Charged', including it being suggestive of electricity - an electric charge, which could be suggestive of an electric guitar. Indie music is very reliant on electric guitars, as they are one of the key instruments used in the genre. Using this as a title would conjure up that image which would be effective as the title of an indie magazine.

Lisztomania - I originally came across this word when I first started listening to the indie band 'Phoenix' as it is a title of one of their songs. I didn't really know what it meant, but I was curious, so I looked it up and came across an article in which the term 'Lisztomania' was described, "Lisztomania or Liszt fever was the intense fan frenzy directed toward Franz Liszt during his performances. This frenzy first occurred in Berlin in 1841 and the term was later coined by Heinrich Heine in a feuilleton he wrote on April 25, 1844, discussing the 1844 Parisian concert season. Lisztomania was characterized by intense levels of hysteria demonstrated by fans." I thought that this name was quite unusual, but quite appropriate, as if the target audience is as intended, they would be familiar with this word if they listen to Phoenix (as it could be quite confusing for someone who listens to rap music for example). As well, the fact that this word basically means fan hysteria, I thought it would be good for people who are very interested in bands that would be featured in my magazine (my target audience). 

Reckless - I looked through all the music on my phone for inspiration of titles that may have came from bands names, album titles or song names, and I quite liked the sound of 'Reckless Serenade' by Arctic Monkeys. I thought that the two words together may have been a bit long for a magazine title, and just the word 'Serenade' may have sounded a bit too classical to be the title of an Indie music magazine, so the word 'Reckless' seemed more appropriate. I think this title would be good for the heavier side of indie rock, such as if my magazine focused more on bands like Arctic Monkeys or The Libertines, due to the fact that 'Reckless' has connotations of a more manic music fan (and their music is definitely heavier than that of bands like Foals or Two Door Cinema Club). This may mean that I'd have to solely concentrate on bands which produce heavier music if I used this title.  

Ideas for Magazine title

This is a mind map of all of my ideas for the title of my music magazine. I thought of words that linked to the indie genre, music in general, and also some bands I like that may have names or songs that could be made into a title.