Music Magazine Evaluation
Over the last few months I have been creating a Music Magazine based on a specific genre of music I could relate to. Ever since beginning this task I have been doing a great amount of research and developing to make my magazine as professional as possible. During this task I have learnt a lot about new programs and techniques I have learnt whilst progressing further into this task.
Whilst researching ideas for the layout or design of my magazine I read over real rock based magazines which I used conventions of home style fonts and colours which makes the magazine its own, different designed pages for double pages which feature band interviews, as well as layout designs. My Music magazine uses similar conventions towards these real magazines. For example when I was doing my double page spread I notices that the real magazines I read have a different home style for the band they were interviewing has a home style which reflected the bands image, I used a similar convention for my double page spread which had a different home style to reflect the bands image. On my front cover I used similar major conventions such as the inclusion of the barcodes, price, date and issue number. I also used a background image which had main focus on the subject of the magazine with space on the left so I could show the stories which are featured within the magazine. I believe I have done very well to use similar conventions to real life magazines.
The reason why I chose to do a Rock/Metal type magazine because it is the music I can relate to, and with friends that have the same taste of music as I do I asked there opinion first of what a Rock/Metal magazine should include. After getting some ideas of what to include and how I should present my magazine I started to work on it by creating rough drafts which had conventions of other Rock/Metal magazines and with representations of social groups (From the help of my friends). After completing my magazine I took it back to my friends who I originally asked for help to see if it represented a magazine they would read. They suggested that I included less sub headings on my front cover as well as use a new background image, they said that the contents page was good and needed no improvements but the double page spread was greatly criticised. They suggested in my double page spread that although the band which was featured had its own home style it did not look good, they also said that there was top much information, less images and the images that I did include were squired images that did not look very professional. With this criticism I have received I asked them on ways I could improve both my front cover and double spread pages, with some ideas on what to do I started to edit my front cover and double page spread. After a few hours editing my pages I completed the front cover and double page spread which I was proud of, although I did need audience feedback on anything I could improve. After re-visiting my group of friends once again they said that the pages looked a lot better and were very appealing with little ways to improve them. I found that audience feedback threw different stages of development was a good way to make my magazine represent a social group.
I believe that the media institutions that may distribute my music magazine may be a magazine I once researched when I started this task which was Kerrang magazine. I believe this is because that Kerrang and my magazine have similar audiences with the taste of Rock and Metal music as well as other types of Rock/Metal music that fall into the same category (Rap-Rock, Death Metal, Electro Rock etc). I also believe that my magazine looks rather professional looking and would be a magazine that people would be interested in purchasing and reading.
The audience I believe that would be interested into my magazine would be the fans that like Rock/Metal music as well as other genres of music which fall under the same category. I did some research within different groups of social groups which enjoyed similar music, I asked for ways which I can include there interests in music within my magazine. The most noticeable comment was that the best way to include there interests within my magazine was to make separate articles for different genres of music, although I did need to limit my genre choices because I could not include a lot of music genres which did not fit into the Rock/Metal scene.
When it came to attracting my audiences I started to create questionnaires which I would let friends which helped me improve my magazine as well as new people who have not seen my magazine so they could evaluate my magazine. After letting the audience evaluate my magazine with the questionnaire and copy of my magazines front cover, contents page and double page spread, they believed that my magazine looked presentable and included some decent information but because they were not interested in the genre of music I chosen my magazine to represent or that they are not interested in magazines. Despite these comments I also received some comments that some people would purchase and read my magazine if it was a real magazine. This was a good way to find audiences and make my magazine well known within different social groups.
During this task I experimented with using different technologies which could make my magazine look professional as possible. Although I was not comfortable with using Photoshop I did use it for some image editing as well as creating some graphics, although I did not use much of the graphics. I was more comfortable using Adobe Fireworks and Microsoft Publisher to create my magazine. I believed that this was a good way to create my magazine as professional as possible by using Fireworks to create graphics and edit images while using publisher to organise my magazine’s layout.
Over the entire task I believe that it started off good but eventually I went slower and did not put a lot of interest as I should of done, but once I eventually got back into working as hard as possible to make my magazine look very professional and would please the audience I have chosen. I feel like the design and layout of the magazine has improved whilst the task has been moving on. I also believe that the research was a great way to make a magazine by looking for conventions of other Rock/Metal magazines as well as customer feedback to make a magazine that the audience would purchase. Overall I believe the entire task went good and I am very pleased with the magazine I have produced and the research that has been put into the task. Although I do believe that my efforts did go down at one point and I did not put as much work in as I should of done. For my final comment I believe the magazine went well but my efforts could have been better.
