This is my evaluation of my final ideas of my music magazine main task.

What Genre Of Music Are You Going To Use?


The genre I am going to use is a punk/rock theme. Although it will only be a mild take on the genre. I have chosen this genre as it includes some of the artists I as a person enjoy listening to such as; Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Sum41, Good Charlotte, Paramore and My Chemical Romance, Kings of Leon. These bands are mild, quieter than some of the other bands in this genre. I don't like all of the types of bands in this genre, so I have selected a few in which I like and will elaborate ideas to create a good standard of music magazine following the codes and conventions of the typical punk/rock genre magazine layout.

What Media Exists For This Genre Currently?


For this particular genre there are already types of magazines, radio stations and television channels. There is a weekly magazine, Kerrang and NME which does, or have included the artists I have been looking at, this is very well known and very popular. There is also a couple of music channels which include this genre of music, Scuzz and Kerrang. Each artist I have been focusing on have there own official website, filled with merchandise, songs, tour details and more.

What Is Typically Included In The Current Publication?


In the magazines for this genre they follow the general conventions of any magazine. Local magazines include Kerrang. This magazine follows the conventions by using general things to sell the music and magazine. Using posters and other offers to attract the audience to buy that particular magazine. There also lots of detailed stories, ideas and tour dates for popular artists within the genre.

How Much Does It Cost? How Often Is It Published? How Many Pages Does It Have?
The magazine Kerrang costs around £2.10. The magazine is published once every fortnight. The magazine usually has around    pages at each issue.

Who Is It Aimed At?
This genre of magazine is usually aimed at the teenage target audience, although people in any age group would be appealed to this magazine for the in depth information about the artists within the magazine.

How Successful Are They?
The creators and editors of this magazine are very successful in reaching there ideal target audience. I think this because they include things such as; posters, offers. merchandise and inside information on some of the best known artists within the genre. This would appeal to the target audience as this is the kind of things they would like to know or obtain, to support there favorite musical artist.


What Are They Called?




What Might  You Call Your Magazine And Why?
For this task I may call my magazine something like Smash, or Crash. This name would imply rebellious feel, which is what a typical music magazine of this genre creates the feel of. It also implies that the music within the genre is loud, which it is, so a title like this would be ideal for my music magazine. I have decided on the name of speakers blown for my music magazine, I chose this as it implies the music in this magazine would be loud and interesting.

When Magazine Genre Is Chosen Find 3/4 Front Covers:
Who/what Is On The Cover?, What Kind Of Shot Is It?, What Is The Person Doing?.  

This is a typical music magazine for my chosen genre.
On the cover, there is an image of a well known artists to the genre, he is big and over the masthead, to prove his importance. There is a masthead which is smashed, suggesting destruction and loudness, with the slogan 'life is loud' over it. There are also smaller pictures of cover stories, of artists well known to the genre. There is also many elements of 'puff', making the magazine seem important and no other magazine could compare. There is a price, barcode, and issue number in the bottom right hand corner, this needs to be visible on all good magazines.
The type of shot on the main character is a medium close up, although the camera seems too be looking up to the artist, which would stress his importance.
This image looks as though it has been taken at a concert, in mid action, so naturally the artist is playing the guitar and in a pose which looks as though it is very abnormal and interesting, proposing that is what the music is actually like.


Fonts In Which Could Be Used For The Masthead.

These are a few fonts in which I could use to use as my masthead for my magazine.
1. I think this font is appropriate for the genre of music magazine as it's simple yet effective as it is bold and clear.
2. I like this font, I think this may be the one I chose to use in my final piece, it plays along the Kerrang type masthead, this shows it would be an effective font to use in my music magazine.
3. This is my third font I have suggested, I really like this font as it has an effective serif swirls and has an anger and rock theme look to it, this would fit my magazine perfectly.
4. This is my fourth font, although this looks an effective bold and strong like the genred music I have chosen, it is difficult to see what exactly the writing actually says, this is why I wouldn't chose it for my final masthead, it would not catch the audiences eye.
5. This is my final idea for my masthead. I think this is an effective font as it looks bold and big, like the music, however something doesn't appeal too me about this font, which is why I wouldn't use it.

I have chosen to use purple as my main colour within my magazine, I chose this as it is a brighter take on  black yet the colour is just as as effective. It makes the writing look more interesting and much more appealing.

Music magazines.

This image is of the music magazine Kerrang. It follows the codes and conventions of a music magazine.
-Headline: Smashed, under the main image. Big, Bold recognizable.
-Images: One big image, artist famous to the genre. Main story. Other smaller images of well known bands to the genre. Cover stories, not as important.
-Text: Text is large and catching. Minimal, straight to the point. Cracking and gaps in the letters, contributing to the genre.
The genre of this music magazine is mainly rock. Rock is set as a very controversial genre. Breaking the rules, and not sticking to the usual way in which music is made.
The text relates very much to this idea. Breaking the rules and not following the strongly built writing, instead filled with gaps and a worn away effect.

This is a typical 'Pop' genre magazine. There is a lot going on and is very hard to see which part is which.
However the cover sticks to the codes and conventions of it's genre.
Headline: Small, looks very unimportant, not recognizable, Saying the magazine itself should say what the magazine is about as it is so well known.
Images: The page is very much so filled with images. Usually artists well known to this genre. This is way each image speaks for  itself and a fan of this magazine wouldn't need to know the title because they would recognize which magazine it is by the images.
Text: There is very little text just headlines to show what each image is representing. Although the text which is on the cover, is very bold and bright, and has a usual colour scheme of pink, yellow and black. This is so the magazine genre is easily recognizable.



This is the official classical music magazine. This is very sophisticated, neat and tidy.
Masthead:

Evaluation Of Preliminary Task

 The aim of this task was to create a front cover and a contents page to what would be a college magazine. I used programmes such as in design and photo shop to achieve the fonts, colours and effects that I have used. I have successfully completed both. I first used photoshop to crop out my main picture object from the background. I found this quite challenging as I was not yet used to the programme and it's tools. Although I think my images came out well and to a good standard in the end. To improve I would have spent more time going round the images and making them sharper and a lot more professional looking.

I then went on to placing the images onto my magazine front cover. I used the template from the programme indesign. I put my main image so it covered the whole space. I then chose to place my smaller image onto the cover. I placed the image in the bottom left hand corner of the page. This way it stood out and there would be room for my main bullet pointed announcements. I next put my writing in. I chose blue, mixing in with the South Downs college colours. I then chose to put a white background under so the words stood out. I used the font apple casual. I used this as it is interesting and easy to read, this way it would appeal to a younger audience. I also used a shadow on the letters, this made the writing look more dynamic and eye catching. I think my text for my main stories worked well as they are simple and straight to the point. I then went on to adding my text for my title of the magazine, I a font in which would grab the audiences attention, so it had to be big, bold and straight to the point, I chose a title simple of South Downs College, this way anyone who would have looked at it would have directly know what the magazine would have been about. I chose to colour the text white to contrast with the blue, to make the white have more of an effect I chose to use  a white background, so it looked clean and professional.

After I went on to make my contents page. I stuck with the blue and white colour scheme to follow the conventions of a magazine. However to make it more interesting I changed the colours round and had and had white background on a blue canvas. I added my own images in which I had cropped out on photoshop and another image I left how it was taken, this makes the magazine feel more real. I think my contents page worked well as it was clear clean and straight to the point. I also sticks to the codes and conventions of any other magazine.

                                                                Here is the front cover of my preliminary task.  I think this went well as I used a good colour scheme which related to the audience and what the magazine was actually for. I think I reached the objective of making a well thought out interesting college magazine.

I stuck to using blue and white as my colour scheme as I thought that each colour would stand out and be eye catching.

I used a full page size picture as my background to attract attention. I also used students from the college as the magazine would then become more real and attract and audience.

This is my college magazine contents page. I think this worked well as I used the same fonts and colour scheme. I used different pictures in different places to emphasise the different places of the college so my magazine would have more of a varied audience.

I used the same white background for the text as I did on the front cover this showed a good use of colour scheme and connection.

These are pictures I have taken to place on the front of my college magazine. To make the magazine look more professional I have edited the pictures so that they have a white background, showing just the subject itself.  I used photoshop to crop out and use the pen tool to make the edges sharper so the picture looks more professional. I think it worked quite well however some of the detail was lost due to bad cropping. 

This screen grab was my first attempt at using the programme indesign. I learned how to import a picture in and place it according to the size of the page. I also added text, and explored different texts, colours and fonts. I liked the effect of my 'title' as it looks appealing and interesting. I also used the gradient tool to create a sharper look on the lines I have drawn. When doing the lines I decided to use the tool to bend them, to make them look more interesting. I used an effect to make a shadow under the lines, I like this because it makes the line stand out and look more interesting and appealing. I also wrote a word using lines, and added a different type of line and arrows to make enhance how effective the writing would be.