Magazine Evaluation

Holly James

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

Masthead

Main features

cover Line

Band names

What else the magazine includes

Image for the main feature

takes up the entire page

I used a bold font and white font colour for my masthead to give it a lot of impact like Kerrang does. Kerrang uses a font that explains the type of music featured in their magazine, it looks like broken

shards of glass so explains it’s a bit edgy, I have tried to do this but using an alternative looking font with the letters not being the

same size so it looks different from the norm, like alternative music is.

I talked about what other bands are features in my magazine, a typical convention of most magazines.

It draws more attention to the magazine as the readers

can straight away see the main focus

Image takes up majority of the page

Main focus is on the band, text doesn’t appear too long. I challenged this to make the image take up both pages of my double page spread rather that just one.

Bold title and tag line written away from article

Gives more impact when it is away from the bulk of the text. I have developed this to stretch the entire width of the double page spread rather than just one page.

Similar colour scheme

I used a similar colour scheme to Rock Sound as they are both rock magazines and black, red and white and all bold colour that connote edgy rock music

‘ Contents ‘ title found in top corner of the page

Large photos are the focus for the page

Draws attention to it straight away without feeling too formal

Text doesn’t feel overwhelming, gives a

more visual feeling to the page

Colour scheme used Makes the page look

more appealing than just one colour used

throughout

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

Bauer Publishing

Bauer Media are the publishers of Kerrang magazine which presents a similar style of music to that of my magazine ‘Fearless’. Both magazines are about rock and alternative music and feature the similar bands.

As well as Kerrang magazine they also produce a TV channel, a website and a radio station for Kerrang.

This would make them the perfect media institution to distribute ‘Fearless’ because I know they already produce similar products and can distribute in a number of different ways i.e. Magazine, website, radio station etc.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be teenagers who listen to alternative music, it would appeal to both males and females because of the style of music it includes which appeals to a wide audience.

They are the kind of people who go to gigs and dress alternatively, not caring what people think of them.

The other media they would consume is alternative/rock music channels like Kerrang, Scuzz, MTV2 etc. Other music magazines such as Kerrang, NME or Rocksound and music related websites i.e. band websites, gig venues or alternative clothing websites.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Bright colours to fit in with the alternative culture

Dark edgy colors to fit in with the conventions of an alternative/rock magazine

Featured bands that in keeping with that genre of music

I used an image on the front cover that I knew would attract attention

Used terms that relate to the genre of music featured in the magazine

I kept the language informal to address the teenage audience that would read it

Magazine title that suggests power and not fearing being different, appeals to the alternative genre

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

Since doing this project I have learnt a lot more about how to use Photoshop and learnt how to use InDesign which I had never used before.

The technologies I used were to try and get the same effect as a real magazine that would be published, Photoshop was used to touch up some imperfections on my imagery like magazine publishers do all the time in their magazines. InDesign and similar products are used by magazine producers to make their magazines because they can have total control over how they decide to lay it out, I learnt how to use this technology and think I used it well for my final product.

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

it to the full product?

While I was doing my preliminary task I was still fairly new to the technology I was using so I kept the layout fairly basic and plain, I learnt how to use the technology better to make it look more interesting to the audience.

With my student magazine I was very focused on it looking smart and professional so I kept it looking quite simple but after seeing how the end result turned out I learnt how to keep it looking professional but still maintaining the edgy feeling I wanted for my alternative magazine.

I have learnt a lot about how to use colour and different fonts to make things stand out, that you don’t always necessarily need to use a bright colour to get attention as long you use the colour correctly to create impact i.e. the colours I have on my front cover (blues and white) usually connote calmness and would normally be seen on something quite tranquil, but the way I have used them makes them stand out and draw attention as something a lot more edgy like my magazine genre represents.

The main thing I have learnt from the progression from my student magazine to my music magazine was how to use my photographs more effectively to get the best from them; I learnt how to use Photoshop better so could touch up anything I didn’t like in my photos and I now know how to present them better; knowing that the cover image doesn’t always have to be close up to draw attention as long as the focus is clear.