audience feedback

I will send out a questionnaire to students of ages 15-19, asking for their opinions on my magazine. After collecting the data I will include my results on this post.
Results...

ONE.

If you saw this product on a shelf, would it stand out against others?

YES

What genre do you think this magazine is?

ROCK MUSIC

Would you be likely to want to read this double page spread?

DON'T KNOW

Do you find the font clear enough to understand?

YES

Is the contents page easy to follow?

YES

How attractive is the front cover on a scale of one to five?
(one = lowest five = highest)

4


TWO.

If you saw this product on a shelf, would it stand out against others?

YES

What genre do you think this magazine is?

INDIE MUSIC

Would you be likely to want to read this double page spread?

YES

Do you find the font clear enough to understand?

YES

Is the contents page easy to follow?

YES

How attractive is the front cover on a scale of one to five?

5

THREE.

If you saw this prodcut on a shelf, would it stand out against others?
YES

What genre do you think this magazine is?

ROCK AND INDIE MUSIC

Would you be likely to want to read this double page spread?

NO

Do you find the font clear enough to understand?

YES

Is the contents page easy to follow?

YES

How attractive is the front cover on a scale of one to five?

3.5

FOUR.

If you saw this product on a shelf, would it stand out against others?

YES

What genre do you think this magazine is?

ROCK MUSIC

Would you be likely to want to read this double page spread?

YES

Do you find all the text clear enough to understand?

YES

Is the contents page easy to follow?

YES

How attractive is the front cover on a scale of one to five?

5

FIVE.

If you saw this product on a shelf, would it stand out against others?

YES

What genre do you think this magazine is?

INDIE

Would you be likely to want to read this double page spread?

YES

Do you find the text clear enough to understand?

YES

Is the contents page easy to follow?

YES

How attractive is the front cover on a scale of one to five?

4

SIX.

If you saw this product on a shelf, would it stand out against others?

YES

What genre do you think this magazine is?

INDIE

Would you be likely to want to read this double page spread?

YES

Do you find all the text clear enough to understand?

YES

Is the contents page easy to follow?

YES

How attractive is the front cover on a scale of one to five?

4.5

comparison to Kerrang!

FRONT COVER

The similarities between my front cover and that of Kerrang!s are not so distinct, but I have followed the conventions that Kerrang! have used. I have used one dominant picture in the middle of the page, which allows the reader to identify who is featured in the magazine and also the type of music that the magazine looks at.

I also used a big bold title, but mine does not go all the way across, simply because it is only three letters long. I decided to do this as I felt a short, snappy main coverline would be much more attractive than a long one.

I have used a slightly smaller cover line to show the main feature of this certain issue, and chose to place it in a very similar place to the one on the Kerrang! cover. I did this as I felt following the conventions would make it seem a lot more realistic.

I have used similar colours to those on Kerrang!. After looking at various music magazines, I found that many of them used these colours. Using a typical music magazine colour scheme makes my magazine seem more true to life, and also eye catching.

Using a different background colour means that my magazine would look original and bright on a shop shelf if it was to be produced, and this was my intention.

CONTENTS PAGE

The contents page I have created is not so similar to that of Kerrang!. This is because this certain issue of Kerrang! has used a number of images on the page, and the over all layout is completely different. However, I feel this makes my magazine both original and my own as well as following the conventions of a music magazine. My reason for not using more than one image is simply that the image I have used is very dominant on the page and sends out the message I intend on sending out. Also, it is easy to identify then who the magazine is featuring, and it is made obvious that the issue I have chosen to make is a "SEX BRIGADE" special.

The colours are too quite different. I have used a yellow background as I felt a white one would be quite boring to look at and I think having a brightly coloured contents page would encourage the reader to look further into the magazine. The colour scheme I used on the cover has been carried on to the contents page which makes the magazine look continuous.

The titles on both Kerrang! and my magazine are the same, in different positions. I felt using a similar title would make my magazine look as similar to Kerrang! as possible, and doing this makes mine seem more realistic. I also did this as I have used a bold and dominant picture, I felt using a bold title too would even out the page and make it look a lot more effective.

After analysing my contents page and comparing it to an existing product, it made me realise that the contents page I have produced doesn't follow the conventions enough to give it that professional finish. Therefore I need to further develop my contents page.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

My double page spread is quite similar to that of Kerrang!. I say this because the layout is pretty much the same. I have used a very dominant image on the left hand page, which was purposely done to immediatly attract the reader. Both the image I have used and the one in Kerrang! are black and white. I used very little colour on this page as I felt my front cover and contents page were very colourful, and having a page that contrasts to this would create more of an impact.

Similarly to the image on the left, I used a big, bold, eye catching title, that equally dominates the page along with the picture. This is so that it is obvious what the following article will be about and who the it is featuring. Using as little text as possible would make the reader want to read on, as the little amount of text I have used gives only an insight to what the following few pages will contain.

This is different to Kerrang! as their article is on the same page as the dominant picture, I felt using less text would make the image seem more dramatic, and it would have more of an impact without much writing.

making my double page spread

With my original artist focus here is the double page spread I had began to make. The article would have featured 100 rock songs, and it would have been presented as a list, as shown:
I then went on to change my artist, as I did not think the original band targetted my intended audience well enough. I also felt that I could have taken pictures that showed my genre a lot clearer, this is what I did. After I decided what image I would use, I imported it onto my double page spread, using a similar article. I have also followed a similar colour scheme but altered the order of the colours, this makes it look a lot more attractive and is much more likely to appeal to my audience.

I then figured that because it is a double page spread it will be on A3 paper. This means that just because the writing seems small on the computer screen it doesn't mean it will be small once printed. After printing out a sample, the writing was way too big and needed to be reduced. I looked at some existing double page spreads and realised my writing need to be made a lot smaller, to a font size of around 10, to match the conventions of existing magazines.

Adding a lot more text and reducing it's size meant it was harder to read with the colour scheme. Some text overlapped onto the picture which made it difficult to read. I changed the colours so that it was easier to understand, and then realised it did not fit in with my colour scheme. I found this problem difficult to over come, and so needed to find a solution to it. I needed to use the uniform colour scheme, and make sure that all the text could be understood. This is what contributed to changing my idea all together.

I looked through some existing magazines again and realised that my original article idea did not follow the conventions. I needed some form of text and decided to change my article to an introduction to an interview of a band. I also looked through my images to give me some ideas of what I could use, and found the perfect image, in black and white. This gave me the idea of using only black and white on my double page spread. This meant a lot of things had to be changed on my page and the layout would be totally different.

Here is what I came up with;

making my contents page

Screenshot of development...

The progress of my contents page is shown above.. Originally I found using one dominant image would look much more effective here rather than using a mixture of photographs as it would be clearer to reader who the magazine features, and what the style is, but after comparing it to existing magazines like Kerrang! I figured it didnt follow the conventions of a typical magazine contents page.

On my first attempt, the colours did not go with my uniform colour scheme and in comparison to the rest of my final peices it just didn't seem to look as good.

To improve this first of all I changed the opacity of the background and made it much brighter. I kept all the writing the same, but added some extra text at the top of the page and inserting some more images to make the page more divided and attractive; like the others.

making my front cover

Screenshots on development...

At this stage I have decided this band does not reach my intended target audience and I feel featuring a different band would do it better. I went out and gathered a group of friends, dressed them in a certain way and took some more photographs. I told them to dress specifically to look as though they belonged to and indie/rock band, which meant wearing contrasting colours like black and white, as well as bold colours like red, blue and green. The photos I have taken send out a much clearer message, these photos can be found on the post http://sezmac.blogspot.com/2009/11/images.html

Screenshots on development...

WITH NEW IMAGES

The development process I went through is shown clearly through the screenshots above. As shown, I made plenty of development changes to my cover to both improve it and simply just to complete it. From the start I knew how I wanted it to look after making it, but decisions I decided to make whilst making this altered the intended outcome. I prefer how it turned out to look compared to how I intended it to simply because of the colours and styles I have used. I feel that the appropriate message has been created here and therefore will appeal to both males and females of aged 12 to 25.

double page spread development

I made some changes to layout of my double page spread draft. Here is what I altered:
I changed the title to the other page so that it is on the top left corner, similarly to the cover. This is so that the reader can identify immediatly, the article and what the text belongs to. Also because the top left corner is the first place the reader will see, the title is the most important and so placing it here will mean it serving it's full purpose.
I also swapped over the side that the image was on with the side that the article was on. I did this so that the article can be read first and the image to follow. Putting the image under the title would not look as professional as in existing magazines this is not the case.
I added a quote that will be presented in a bigger and bolder text. This will both give the reader an insight as to what is being said, and to split up the text to make it easier to understand and more presentable. Before, the reader just had the writing. This quotes breaks up the page and makes it more interesting to look at.

contents page development

I made a few changes to my original draft of the contents page as I didn't feel it was at it's best. Here are the changes that I decided to make: I deleted one of the three images from the top of the page which made it look less busy. Before I thought that the image I ended up removing was too random and looked too out of place.
I also decided to move the other two images. I did this to make room for a bigger and bolder title. The images are now clearer to look at and the page itself is a lot neater. They are also more inline now that I have moved them which gives it that more professional look.
I changed the position that the date was in. I moved it from on top of the title to underneath it, as it makes more sense to place the title at the top. It gives it more of a purpose and will now be the first thing the reader will see.

front cover development

There where various changes that I made when developing my music magazine cover draft. These changes include:

The position of the top two cover lines... I moved this to make my magazine look less placed. I thought that my first draft looked too organised and found it wouldn't create the effect I want it too. Also I didn't think it would appeal as much as it could to my target audience, so I changed this.

The position of the "Win" circle... I changed this as I found the original position of the circle covered part of the main image that it shouldn't have. I felt it looked out of place and made the page look over crowded on one side compared to the other. I altered this by moving the circle.

I changed the side of which the main cover line was at to balance the conventions on the page. Before, it looked, again, too organised and I felt this didn't give out the intended message. After making this change, it does.

I changed the size of the word "Plus!" inside a cover line box. I didn't want it to look like the main feature of the page and so I decided it was too over powering for it's purpose. Altering the size of this made a real difference, and made the main cover line stand out a lot more than before.
I added another cover line to the cover to fill it out a little. To me, before, it was too empty and needed something to fill in the space. A cover line did this perfectly. It also partly took up some of the space of an image, making the image smaller. This also improved it because it made the main image look more obvious and eye catching.

double page spread

COMPUTERISED

Draft 1- double page spread

Draft 2- double page spread

Draft 3- double page spread

HAND WRITTEN

Draft 1- double page spread

Draft 2- double page spread



Draft 3- double page spread

the contents page

My contents page will be split into two different sections. The first section will show features (which appear in that particular issue only) and the second will show regulars (those items that are included in most or every issues)
SECTION 1- FEATURES
new rock band!
sex patrol special
Jodie Mitchell- alcoholic?
Party with Jonny Haggar
Gaga vs Little Boots
Pixie Lott's favourite Gig
SECTION 2- REGULARS
horoscopes
quiz
gig calender
interview- Tom Brankley
posters
competition
fashion page- blue banana

USE QUOTES ON EACH SECTION!

DRAFTS
COMPUTERISED
Draft 1- contents page

Draft 2- contents page


HAND WRITTEN
Draft 1- contents page


Draft 2- contents

the front cover

COLOUR SCHEME: red, black, white, yellow

-appeals to both genders

-targets everybody

-looks proffessional

-connotations of a music magazine

TITLE:AMP

a music prodigy

ARTISTS: girl band, four females. Dressed in red, black and white and holding instruments. blank expression on their faces.

STORIES: My front cover will consist of 2 or 3 cover lines to give an insight on what the magazine contains. I don't want my magazine looking too empty or too crowded so I think 2 or 3 stories on the front is just the right amount.

DRAFTS

COMPUTERISED
Draft 1- cover...

Draft 2- cover...

HAND WRITTEN
Draft 1- cover...



Draft 2- cover

I have created drafts on both Publisher and on paper. I did this to give myself a clear possible layout of what my music magazine may look like. It can support me whilst creating my final peice and I can use these to develop my idea and make them look as professional as possible.

main story

'Lead Singer Katie reveals her top 50 Rock Songs!!'

The Killers.. When You Where Young
Audio Slave.. Original Fire
Red Hot Chilli Peppers.. Tell Me Baby
Stone Sour.. Through Glass
Breaking Benjamin.. The Diary Of Jayne
Papa Roach.. To Be Loved
Hinder.. Lips Of An Angel
Thirty Seconds To Mars.. The Kill
Panic! At The Disco.. I Write Sins Not Tradgedies
Disturbed.. Land Of Confusion
Keane.. Is It Any Wonder?
Angels & Airwaves.. Do It For Me Now
Taking Back Sunday.. Make Damn Sure
Three Days Grace.. Animal I Have Become
Lost Prophets.. Rooftops
Muse.. Knights Of Cydonia
Gorillaz.. Feel Good Inc.
Cobra Starship.. Snakes On A Plane
Shinedown.. Heroes
God Smack.. Shine Down
AGI.. Miss Murder
Nickelback.. Rockstar
Plain White T's.. Hate
Rise Against.. Ready To Fall
Death Cab For Cutie.. I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Artic Monkeys.. Fake Tales Of Fran Sancisco
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.. Face Down
Bullet For My Valentine.. Tears Dont Fall
Evan's Blue.. Over
The Fray.. Over My Head
Blue October.. Into The Ocean
Evans Blue.. Cold
Hoobastank.. Inside Of You
Peeping Tom.. Mojo
Jack's Mannequin.. Dark Blue
Flyleaf.. Fully Alive
Avenged Sevefold.. Seize The Day
Thom York.. Black Swan
Crossfade.. Invincible
Jurassic 5.. Work It Out
Tom Petty.. Saving Grace
Evanescence.. Call Me When You're Sober
The Fray.. How To Save A Life
City and Colour.. Save Your Scissors
Snow Patrol.. Chasing cars
Fall Out Boy.. Sugar When Your Goin' Down
Korn.. Coming Undone
Black Stone Cherry.. Lonely Train
Silversun Pickups.. Lazy Eye
Weezer.. Beverly Hills

more planning: mood board - fonts - mind map

EXPERIMENTING WITH FONTS







MOOD BOARD



MIND MAP