Editing

The improvements i made included flipping the main image to make it look more professional. I also removed one of the pixelated pictures as well as adding a barcode and a slogan to my magazine. All of these things make it look a lot more appealing to my target audience.

This was my final front cover. However after feedback form my teacher i realised that there were several simple things i could do to make it look more realistic.

This is the photo I was going to use with the added title of the band. Again i created the title in photo shop and embossed it and gave it a drop shadow so that it stands out more.

This is an image I was going to use on the middle pages but decided not too in the end. I used the smudge tool to blur the edges and i think the brick wall looks really authentic on the magazine.

This is the final edit of the image I used on my front cover.

This is the first edit of the photo for the front page. As you can see it is not very good editing. After feedback from my teacher i managed to get sharper editing with the use of the magnetic lasoo tool.

This is the whole title I created for my music magazine. The top title was the one without the effects and the bottom title I have embossed and created a drop shadow so that it stand out more in a 3D kind of way.

This is the screen shot of the logo I created for my music magazine in photoshop. This was the first thing i created as it was the thing i needed to get right.

Mock up of magazine front cover

This is a mock up of the front page of my magazine. The main image is going to be the centre piece of the front cover with text and a smaller image around the outside. I have used minimal amount of text so that the main image really stands out and so that the page does not look too crowded with your attention being diverted all over the page.

Review of double page spread 2

As soon as you look at this double page spread, the first thing that hits you is the dominance of the colour blue. The audience will see the blue as being used to highlight any important parts, for example the title of the article, the facts, highlighted quotes and the name of the band in the picture. NME has used the colour blue as it has connotations as being funky, cool and young’ which is the audience the magazine is aimed at.
The magazine has stuck to a clear colour scheme of blue, black and white which altogether give the page a refreshing look. By only using these three colours there is nothing on the page to make it look dated which links to the title ‘the teenagers’. The audience will perceive this colour scheme as something teenagers will relate to. There is a quote on the page that hints that this band is very popular as it says that it is loved by the magazine which will attract the audience to the magazine article because they think that it ill be worth looking at.
The main image of the band relaxing on the sofa is how typical teenagers are stereotyped and teenagers will be able to relate to this image which will attract their target audience to read this. The language also supports this as a lot of colloquial language is used such as ‘filthy tunes’, teenagers and the target audience will also be able to relate to this. Although there is a lot of information in the page, it is very easy to navigate as it is segregated into separate boxes with blue borders around so the audience can easily tell where to look. The picture is very eye catching and the magazine has purposely included more images of women in the background of the picture which is also seen as a typical thing for a teenage boy to have in their bedroom, which once again will appeal to the target audience.






Summary of double page spread.

Within music magazine most of the pages are filled with articles about pop stars fashion and style tips and articles following the lives of musicians.

The pages often involve an interview with several different questions and pictures of the people in the interview. However some magazines would have a page for tips to certain events; For example over the summer, music magazines may have a festival guide with tips of which festivals play what music, who will be performing and fashion tips of what to wear at the festival.

Some magazines include questionnaires which help to get the reader involved and become an active audience instead of just reading articles. In a music magazine the questionnaire could be about what music suits you best or ‘releasing the inner musician within you’.

In the examples I have used, they have adapted conventional formats to look more appealing to the consumer, by doing this the consumer is more likely to read the double page spread as they are not overwhelmed with text.







These are three other examples of contents pages from music magazines. As you can see they are vibrant and eye catching and all of them have pictures on. I am definitely going to use pictures for my contents page. The pictures on all three of the pages are mainly on the left hand side and the text on the right so I am going to stick to this format when it comes to designing my magazine.

Review of a double page spread

Review of a double page spread

This is a double page spread that I found in a classical music magazine. I like this double page spread because it looks different from what you would normally find. Instead of using the conventional rectangles to put text and pictures in they have used bubbles. It is an article about 7 wonders of the musical world and this layout reflects that the article is about wonderful things because this layout is a lot better than the normal layout.
The use of the picture of a globe in the background adds extra interest to this article, it makes it very eye catching and good to look at. The use of pictures is very appropriate and relevant to the text.
Although I think this article is interesting, it is not designed for teenagers so I would like to create something more stylish for my magazine.

Examples of font styles

Contents page ideas

These are all examples of contents pages from music magazines. All of them have pictures on them from the actual magazine stories, I think this is a good idea and I am going to incorporate this into my magazine. I like the idea of having small picture boxes down the left hand side of the page and then the main contents towards the centre and right of the page. It is clear that most of the contents pages are divided up into three separate columns and I am going to stick with this idea.

Double page spread ideas

This example of a double page spread shows the text cramped onto the left hand side and a large image spread across the rest of the page, this reader can get a good idea of what the article is about without having to read too much. However I am going to do an interview for my article and this layout wouldn’t be appropriate.

This magazine article is more like the layout I am going to use. It leaves much more space for the text and includes a picture embossed in the text. I am going to put a picture in the middle of the text in my article.

These are both example of magazine layouts that I want my page to look like. The one on the left is an interview with the girls in the picture, I am going to use quotes embossed in the text and instead of having one big picture I am going to put several little pictures around the whole of the article. The magazine on the right has small pictures in boxes which I am going to put into my article.

Front page ideas

Front page ideas
On the front cover of the magazine I am going to have a picture of a band that has won a music award for creating a different style of music using mostly classical instruments such as the piano harpsichord and organ along with more contemporary instruments. This will show the audience it is about how teenagers are using different types of instruments associated with other genres of music to make young and funky music. To accompany this on the front cover I am going to have details of a new competition and a few other complimenting articles.

I intend to get the band to pose in many ways and I will choose one fo the pictures to put on the front cover of my magazine. I have found some images of magazines that have front covers like the one I would create.

Planning a music magazine

Main task- Initial ideas
After researching many different types of music magazines, I came up with some initial ideas.
Whilst looking into music magazines, I found out that there are many classical type music magazines for adults but not many for teenagers and young adults.

I have decided that I am going to try and fill this gap in the market and get teenagers more interested into classical music by creating a fashionable music magazine that also focuses on classical music.

I am going to add a twist to the classical music world. Instead of focusing on the typical classical music and composers I am going to investigate how young people are using classical musical instruments to create their own types of music. This has been going on for a long time without any recognition but is now coming to light.


To make the magazine different to other classical music magazines, I need to make it appeal to young people. There are several ways of doing this, these are;
· Using bright colours
· Advertising points
· Famous stars
· Competitions
· Unique and stylish layouts.


Before I start to plan my magazine I needed to think of an appropriate title. The few I came up with are:

Filarmoico- this is an Italian verb for music loving.
Melody
We’re jamming
Classico
Jive
Treble clef
Ispiri – This is the Italian for Inspire
Leading Note - The seventh note of the scale where there is a strong desire to resolve on the tonic.

After lots of thought I decided to choose Leading Note as the title of the magazine as it is original and relates to the topic of the magazine.
I chose this because it relates to music and by calling it the ‘leading’ makes the magazine sound powerful. Also leading note is a predominantly classical term and this will make the audience aware that the magazine also features classical music. As well as being a classical term, Leading Note still sounds quite modern and fashionable where as some of the other terms don’t. Another advantage of using this title is that it is not too complicated or long such as Classico or Ispiri which mean that the title is easy to pronounce and remember. I will also be able to incorporate a musical note into the title which will also help the audience recognise the magazine is about classical music.

Target audience
My target audience is going to be teenagers who have an interest in music. At the moment there is a gap in the market for different genres of music magazines, such as classical music, for young people as they are mainly aimed at the older generation.
To reach my target audience I will need to include several things that appeal to them, for example young and fresh fonts, catchy text phrases, eye catching pictures and an appealing colour scheme. If the magazine did not include all of these details it would not appeal to my target market and therefore wouldn’t sell.
To find out what would appeal to my target audience I created a questionnaire and some designs to find out what they would like to see in the magazine. I have chosen a sample of students who are interested in music.

Questionnaire results

Results of the questionnaire
Question 1:
From the result of this graph I can see that there is a clear demand for another music magazine within the market that covers different types of music not just pop music. This supports the reason for me choosing to do the magazine I have chosen.


Question 2:
As you can see on this graph the results are 50, 50. I think this element depends on the background of the magazine. If you have a coloured background, most people would prefer plain text but if you have a plain background, coloured text would look much better.

Question 3:
A high percentage of the people I asked about the magazine agreed that the text on the front cover helped to portray what genre of music the magazine is about. I think this is very helpful because when choosing a magazine to read in a shop many people only browse at the front cover, therefore it needs to be clear what the magazine is about.

Question 4:
After showing the people who took the questionnaire the type of text I would be using 50% of them said the text appealed to them, and only a quarter of them said it would not appeal to them, whilst the rest could not decide but agreed it was clear and easy to read, therefore I think this would be a good choice of text to use.

Question 5
This question is probably the most important because it determines how much I would charge for my music magazine, as you can see from my chart nobody would pay over £4.00 for a music magazine. The majority of people agreed with between £1.00 and £1.99. As I a aiming to make a profit from my magazine I am going to set the price at the top end of the majority price and make it £2.00. It is a nice round figure and is affordable whilst being enough to support the magazine.

Question 6:
It is quite difficult to put the answer to question 6 into a chart. Most people said that attention grabbing pictures of celebrities and bright font colours would attract them to a magazine. A popular answer was also good competition prizes listed on the front
cover. The price was also a major factor in what attracts the consumer to buy a magazine.



Question 7
From this chart it is very clear that providing free gifts and interesting competitions would help to persuade people to buy a magazine.

Question 8
This result shows me that pictures of celebrities are very helpful in persuading the consumer to buy a magazine. This is most probably because the consumer may ‘worship’ certain celebrities. Whether the consumer buys the magazine or not will depend on who the celebrity is on the front cover.

Question 9
99% of people who answered my questionnaire agreed that being able to tell the genre from the front cover is useful and would probably help them in their choice of buying a magazine.