Evaluation of my music magazine, PuLSE.

Victoria Webb

Introduction

• The product I chose to make was an R&B/Pop music magazine which I produced individually, called ‘PuLSE’

• I created a cover, a contents page and a double page spread which involved me having to write a feature article about my chosen group.

• Pictures that I included on all the pages of my magazine are pictures thought-out and taken by me.

Audience Testing Results

For part of my evaluation I had to ask 5 people for feedback and these are my results:

1) What does the title suggest to you? - Most people had put that the title of my magazine suggests to them that it’s a modern interesting music magazine.

2) What genre/type of music does the magazine focus on and how do you know this? - Most people had put that my magazine seems to be focused around the genre pop and R&B. This was because of the featured singers.

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Question 3:What makes the pages look professional and what

stops them looking professional?

Professional Unprofessional

Text Well thought out, article sounds professional

Some fonts make it look unprofessional

Layout Good use of space

Colour The front cover, background makes it look unprofessional

Images Makes the pages look professional

Barcode Gives a realistic effect to the front cover

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Question 4:How genuine does the front cover seem?

A graph to show how genuine the front cover seems, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best).

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Questions 5-7:

5) Does the ‘Contents page’ simply inform or does it also manage to interest you in reading the rest of the magazine? - The contents page does both; it informs to a certain extent but it also makes me want to read on.

6) Does the article sound like a piece of journalism? If not which bits don’t sound right? - it sounds like a professional article because of it’s informal quirkiness which you usually find in real pop magazines.

7) Does the article’s layout make you want to read it? If not why not? - yes it does, due to the different colours and the way the pictures have been arranged.

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In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?

I used a bold title at the top of the page which is a typical magazine convention. It’s a vital part of the front cover because it gives the audience hints as to what kind of magazine it is. And loyalty to the audience so they buy each issue.

I made the main headline ‘Scandalous’ in big bold writing to attract the audience to the main feature artists. The heading of other articles use conventions to create enigma to encourage the audience to read the magazine.

The barcode is something that is on every real magazine so I have put one on mine to make the cover look more authentic.

The large image used on my front cover dominate the page and follow the conventions of a real magazine as the models used are making direct address and their mese en scene fits the R&B/Pop genre. I also think the different poses and levels the models use are interesting and shows that the group are the main focus of the magazine.

The colours I have used have been purposely selected to make the magazine stand out from any others. I have stuck to black, pink, purple and blue as my colour scheme and I continue to use these throughout the magazine. I have used these colours to show that the magazine is for both male and female the blue, black, pink and white connotes this. The continued use of these colours also creates a clear home style, which is typical of magazines.

Another convention of magazines is the strapline at the bottom with other feature celebrities. This is to encourage readers to read on when there favorite artist is mentioned.

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I have labeled my pictures with numbers to make the page more visually interesting and it enables the reader to flick straight to the page. This is a typical convention of contents pages in magazines to advertise the best and most interesting articles to encourage the reader to read on.

I have enlarged the picture of another feature ‘artist’ to make it look more professional and interesting. It also dominates the page to get the readers attention. The large image thats dominating the page also gives the audience something new, as it is braking away from the conventions of typical magazines.

I have used subheadings on my contents page to break up the text, making it easier for the reader to read and select the page they want to skip to. This is another typical convention of magazine, so that readers don’t get bored by reading all the text.

I have used a variation of different fonts on my contents page as well as on my front cover, this is to make the page look more interesting and appealing for readers. I have also stuck to my colour scheme of blue, pink and purple which is a typical convention of a real magazine. Once again, the continued use of the same colours creates the ‘house style’.

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The headline of my feature article is the name of a song from the artists. Which in some magazines is conventional, yet rare. It’s big and bold and it stands out from the text, so it will attract readers into wanting to read the article.

My article starts with an introduction, introducing the artists and what they do. It also interests the reader into wanting to read more as well as creating enigmas.

The rest of the article has been laid out like an interview, with a clear colour scheme; blue to show that the interviewer is speaking and black to show the girl band is speaking. This is a typical convention of magazines, to make the text easier to follow and more interesting for the reader.

I have set the text out into columns to make the page look professional and easy to follow. There have been clear margins left to break up the text, to make the article seem less compact with writing. I have used the typical convention of text grabs in my article to brake up the text to make it more interesting.

I have used a variation of pictures on my double page spread for people who don’t read the text, but like looking at the pictures. They also make the article more interesting. And a large picture/s are used to dominate the page, and to show who the article is about - this is typical of the magazine genre.

Typical conventional magazines tend to use quotes from the artists as text grabs, for people who browse through magazines. It also interests the reader to read the whole article to find out what they are talking about.

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How does your media product represent particular social groups.

In my product I have represented a female R&B/Pop girl-band. The way the models are dressed and their facial expressions show which social group they are representing. There mese en scene and facial expressions fit with the R&B genre, as R&B artists have been known to have a certain ‘bad boy/girl attitude’. The girly colours used (pink/light blue/purple) also fits in with the pop genre as well as sticking to the stereotype of the ‘girly’ colours.

The outfits of the teen girls suits the social group of a girly/R&B girl-band because of their colour co-ordination of black, blue and grey. The lead singer stands out from the other two because of her bright blue top. Black is a typical colour for R&B as it is classy and looks good. The bright blue is a typical colour for pop as it is bright and girly. They also look trendy so that female audiences can familiarize themselves with the girl-band.

However, I do think that the way the artists are dressed don’t represent the glamourous side of R&B and Pop. But, they are modern and fashionable which can appeal to younger audiences.

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For my feature article pictures I have kept the make-up and hair simple. This is to fit with there ‘fresh’ and ‘real’ image. Their clothing however are a little trendy and the black, blue and grey colours are classical R&B/Pop colours for clothing.

The poses are again simple, but interesting as they show the girl-band’s fun and quirky personality. I think this pose works well as fits with the liveliness of pop artists of todays music industry.

Judging on the way the models are stood and their actions in

the shot, you can tell what kind of relationship they have with each other. You instantly get the impression that they are good friends and they get on well, which I think represents the social group well as you usually see in this type of magazine, the artist’s getting along well and having fun.

The girls’ personality is also noticeable from where I have mentioned it in the article, “came into the room already chatting and smiling”. This kind of behavior represents the social group of Pop.

Even-though, I have created them to be more R&B artists, I now think they fit in more with the Pop genre. However, on my contents page another feature artist ‘Chantelle’ has a fierce look which relates more to R&B. The way she is posing also shows ‘attitude’, which is even more noticeable in her facial expression. I think the picture works well in the contents page and it fits in with the representation of R&B.

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What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

During my research and planning, I found myself getting ideas and looking at Vibe magazine. I think my magazine has the similar details to it as Vibe magazine.Vibe magazine is an American hip-hop magazine and it features all the latest gossip and music news, to television and movie information. However, mine is more based on music, fashion and celebrity gossip. But, like Vibe magazine, it is aimed at teenagers which is why I think InterMedia Partners (publishers of Vibe) would publish a magazine like my product; PuLSE. However, InterMedia Partners are based in New York so an alternate UK publishing company can be considered. IPC Media are another company likely to publish my magazine. They publish magazines like NME which is also a music magazine and are based in the UK.

Another reason why they might publish my magazine is because a hybrid of music, fashion and gossip magazine is rare and even-though Vibe is more based on hip-hop, R&B isn’t that much different and the artists that feature in Vibe are similar to the ones that I would feature in PuLSE.

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Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my product would be:

• Age - 13-19 years old• Gender - both female and male.• Race - All races, but suits mainly British or American as the artists that are featured come from a British or American background• As the target audience is teens, most of them will be students, or in part time jobs, so therefore, have a socio-economic status of E.

The target audience I have chosen for my magazine works well with the genre as R&B/Pop music is very popular and can appeal to a wide range of people. Also with the magazine being a hybrid, it makes it even more appealing.

I have thought about the price of the magazine and I finally decided on a price of £1.20 (every fortnight), which isn’t at all expensive. Teens are a better audience for this kind of product as they are likely to be more loyal in buying the magazine every time a new issue goes on sale. This is because they have more free time on their hands and are more interested in being up to date with the latest gossip, music and fashion.

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How did you attract/address your audience?

There are many factors that attract and address my audience into buying my magazine.

Firstly, the title I used, ‘PuLSE’ which is at the top of the front cover of my magazine attracts the audience mainly because of it’s unique and effective name which suggests that the magazine is a fun and lively music magazine which involves gossip and latest news about the music world which you cannot find anywhere else. I think the title works well for my genre, as it connotes a modern and authentic music magazine.The front cover has been purposely designed to be bright, bold and different to attract my audience. The picture on the front cover, is original and large to make sure the artists get noticed. It also stands out from the background and text to make the models the focus of the page. It appeals to men and women because both sex’s are equally interested in music. Even though it seems more of a magazine for females, males may be attracted to the girl band, or interested in knowing about the other feature celebrities.

Captions: “Cause a scandal in the studio” creates an interesting scenario about the group which makes the audience want to buy the magazine to see what they are up to.Headline: “Scandalous” is big, bold and stands out from the background, to make it dominate the page as well as the image, so that my audience, know who the main focus of the magazine is about.Feature celebrities: The featured celebrities are labelled at the bottom of the page, so that when my audience read what is on the front cover they can see which other related celebrities will be mentioned in my magazine.

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On my contents page, I stuck to the same colours as my front cover, to make it look more professional. I have also made the headings different colours and fonts, to make them more interesting and easy for the audience to read.

All headlines have been labelled with a page number, which is a typical convention on contents pages to make it easier for the audience to skip to the page they want to read about.

Not only have I used text, but I have included images with numbers to make the page look less boring and more effective. Again, colours have been used to outline the pictures so they stand out.

The enlarged picture (main image) which dominates the page, is the main attraction of the page, as it over rules everything else on the page, due to the boldness of the colours from the model’s mese en scene. This is so the audience gets drawn in to the page, and encourages them to read what is featured in the magazine. The pictures also attract both men and women, although the colours are known as being girly, they can still attract the eye of a male.

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The headline is also interesting, because it almost doesn’t make sense therefore, makes the audience want to read the article to find out how ‘they have the world on a string’. You then find out as you read, that the title is a name of one of the groups songs.

On my double page spread I have seperated a photo into three parts, and set them out on the page. They are large, and the text fits in nicely with them. This is so when browsers flick through the pages, they get drawn into the article.

I used big quotations from the interview to break up the text and to attract the reader to read through the article.

The colour scheme is also kept simple but interesting to attract the reader, but also to make the text seem shorter and more easy to read.

The two smaller pictures have been bordered and slightly angles to add character to the page as well as making the two images more interesting.

The R&B genre that this girl band follow, may appeal to men as well as women. Even though they seem very girly, R&B music is a genre that is liked by both sexes, therefore, men may want to read about the girls. Another reason is that males may find the girl group attractive and just want to look at the pictures.

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What have you learnt about techniques from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of researching and constructing my product, I have realized how much work, effort and time goes into research, planning and then actually designing and constructing the product.My first task was was to create a blog to record all my planning, research and development of my product. I did this using www.blogger.co.uk. I logged on to blogger several times a week, posting all my ideas and development which has been useful in recording this.

InDesign was the main program I used to create and edit the pages for my magazine. At first it was hard to get used to but once I knew how to use it and after I used it more often it became easier to work and I started to use the program well. I learnt many skills and tips for making interesting pages professionally, such as positioning pictures on the page, cropping and editing them. I also learnt how to do different effects like circles, boxes or banners (transparent or block colours). This program could do anything that is needed to be able to create good magazine pages, from inserting text and pictures, to editing and effects.Photoshop was also hard at first, but after having to use it several times to edit pictures, I got used to it, and in the end it seemed very easy. I used Photoshop to edit the light and to cut out the background from my pictures. It enabled me to copy and paste images easily onto InDesign with a transparent background which made it look more attractive on my pages. It improved the quality of my pictures because using Photoshop allowed me to enhance the boldness and the colours of my pictures. I had to learn how to use the studio lights, to create a professional effect for my photos. After learning the different positions for the lights, I found it easy to use different effects for the photography of my photos. I did however, use my own camera so it was easy to use and it was a good quality camera which produced some good quality pictures.Overall the programs and technologies I used to create my product felt professional and in the end easy. However, plenty of time and patience was needed when using InDesign and Photoshop. Even though, I have enjoyed using the programs I wish I could have been introduced to more tips on how to use the programs more effectively.

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Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the

full product?

When creating my preliminary task, I felt worried that my final product will be the standard of my college magazine attempt. But, I have learnt so much, and I didn’t expect my final product to be so much more professional.

After completing my preliminary task, I didn’t feel happy with the end result due to it’s faults and lack of professionalism. And it shows how little I knew about the programs; InDesign and Photoshop, which I also used to edit the picture and page.

I have learnt so much about, how to make a picture eye-catching and how to lay out the page so that it looks interesting and original. I have also learnt how to present text so that it’s less boring.

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Conclusion

Overall, I am pleased to say I am quite happy with my final product. Although, there are a few minor things I would like to have changed. If I was to edit my magazine I would change the background of my front cover to something more interesting. And I would layout the text differently, to make it look more professional. On my contents page, I would keep the text of the pages, simple so that it’s not too complicated. However, I am more impressed with how my contents page has turned out than I am about my front cover. My favorite page is the double page spread as I think Iit has turned out looking more professional, and contemporary. I am really pleased with the feature article and I don’t think I would change anything about it. The only thing I regret now, is the way I have styled my models. If I was to change something, I would make sure their hair and make up are done with a little more thought. Though I still think their look works well with my genre as, they are fun, fresh and girly with a hint of R&B attitude.

I have enjoyed the task of making a magazine, as it is interesting as well as fun and challenging. By doing this task, I feel like I have learnt a lot and I feel like I have achieved not only an exceptional piece of coursework, but I have gained a lot of knowledge in designing high standard products.