Music Magazine Brief

Music Magazine Brief

Create a:

• front page
• contents page
• double page spread

of a new music magazine.

Evaluation

Evaluation on College Magazine

Our task was to create a front cover and contents page for a college of our choice, in which the cover would include a photograph of a student in medium-close up shot, a masthead and appropriate text. Before I could create my magazine cover I needed to research into conventions of magazine covers/contents pages and also review existing college magazines. This helped me by showing me what I needed to include in my final magazine cover and my draft for a contents page.
                 I created mock-ups and drafts of front covers and tried to include the most important conventions of a magazine cover. I then gained feedback and created a final magazine cover. I received further feedback and then improved my cover again. First of all I experimented with logo’s/ magazine names that would act as the masthead of my product. I created two different logos that I first used in my drafts ‘Wyke news’ and ‘Freedom’. After receiving feedback I decided to use ‘Freedom’ in my final magazine as it links to the motto of Wyke college (‘Freedom to achieve’) However, after further feedback I realised my masthead/ slogan was not appealing to my target audience. I decided to keep the same logo but add a border to it so it stood out to the viewer. I also changed the ‘freedom-agazine’ to the proper word ‘magazine’ and enlarge it so it would be clearer to the viewer as to what the product is. My masthead in my final design includes the magazine logo/ title and the company logo (Wyke) to show whose magazine it is. Unlike existing magazines I did not include the date/ price in the masthead. I realised that my college magazine would not be displayed in any shops and so information does not need to be included at the top to see behind other magazines.
            I then took my images for the magazine. I decided to use the medium close-up shots as main images in my drafts to fit into the brief. In my final piece I also used some of my images as thumbnails that could relate to articles inside the magazine. I inserted captions underneath the images to show what they are about. After feedback I also included a banner on the front cover to entice people into reading the magazine. ‘Win- tickets to see Rihanna’ may encourage people of this age to pick up the magazine as they may get the chance to see a famous pop star. I created my house style to fit into the logo and colours of the college itself. For example, I used the colours green and purple throughout my front cover/ contents page as these are the colours used in the logo and other publications created by Wyke. I also used a similar font to the wyke college logo for my logo ‘Freedom’.  I then used this font for the price/ date and also headers on the contents page. By using a similar design to wyke’s this would show to the viewers that this magazine is associated with the college.
          The institution that I would use to produce my magazine is Wyke college. I have decided this after realising that using a bigger magazine company to produce my magazine would be unrealistic. My magazine is only focussed at a small target audience in only one area of the UK and so it would cost a lot of money to produce. My magazine is also free and would be funded by the college itself using fundraisers.
          My magazine has been created to represent students age 16-19 at the college. I made the front cover so that it would include both fun articles for the students but also show their hard work and achievements at the college. This would show that the college is a fun place to be but would also keep to the achieving morals of the college. The purpose and message of my magazine links to the motto of the college ‘freedom to achieve’, by showing ‘freedom’ (e.g. ‘win- tickets to see Rihanna’) but also achievement (e.g. ‘High science results achieved’). The audience of my magazine is students age 16-19 year olds but also teachers/ parents of the students. Therefore I created my magazine so that it would attract my main audience but also be suitable for other adults.

How I would publicise online

Publicity

I would publicise the launch of the magazine on the internet as the target audience (students) use the internet every day for work and socialising. Creating accounts/ groups on Facebook or other social networking sites would target my audience as nearly all students have social accounts online. I could also create adverts on the college website which could show when the magazine is published and where the students can pick it up from. I could also have links from this website that link to a website made specifically for the magazine.  

On this website I would also launch my college magazine to be readable online. This would also mean students would be able to access the magazine quickly and easier than having to pick it up from inside the college. Also other people outside of the college (e.g. parents, other teachers/ people with work involved with the college) would be able to read the magazine too and see what goes on there.  However inside the printed version of the magazine there would be money off vouchers/ competitions that they could enter. This would encourage the students to pick up the actual magazine and read it around the college. I could also advertise the online magazine by creating qr codes which can link directly to the webpage. These codes are recent in technology and are associated with android style mobile phones (which many students now own)- therefore many students may have a look at the website because of easy accessibility from their mobiles. Below is an example of a qr code. 

Final Magazine Cover Improved

After gaining feedback for my final design I was able to see what quick changes I could make to improve my overall magazine cover. 

Contents Page

Final Magazine Cover

From creating my drafts and gaining feedback I was able to create a final design for my magazine cover. I also gained further feedback for my final design so that I can make further improvements if needed.

Feedback for final design

From gaining this feedback I am able to see that there is an area where I could improve in. This is the magazines logo/ title which has gained mainly negative feedback. I can now gain more detailed feedback for my final to see how and which areas to improve and also how I should improve my logo.

                                         Person 1

Do you think the magazine cover includes everything you would need to know?

• Good use of copy on left and picture on right

Does it grab your attention?

• You could have a page turn triangle/arrow at the bottom right, with a promotion like ‘See inside for Prizes’, encouraging someone to look inside.

What improvements could be made?

• Indicate whats inside the magazine and where to find it. i.e. College fashion tips page 3, Wyke clubs page 5, Achievements page 7 (‘See page 10’ could be in white to stand out against black)
• Main photograph still needs to link into a story inside magazine
• Based on f shape- could have a catchy top right offer ie. ‘free…’ etc

What improvements could be made to the logo/ title of the magazine?

• Increase the size of the ‘AGAZINE’ text versus the word ‘FREEDOM’. i.e 1/3 of the height

                                         Person 2

Do you think the magazine cover includes everything you would need to know?

• Could add date of issue
• How does the image relate to an article…

Does it grab your attention?

• Bold colours/ text/ contemporaryImage grabs attention- why is she smiling? Want to find out by reading magazine article.

What improvements could be made?

• Bullet points to highlight different sections of text underneath title
• Competition/ free something to grab attention of students
• Could have inset photographs of people that relate to the text

What improvements could be made to the logo/ title of the magazine?

• 'FREEDOMagazine' not clear straight away. Could just say 'Freedom Magazine'

Drafts and Feedback

Drafts of Front Cover

FEEDBACK

'From looking at these drafts what good qualities can be taken forward to the final piece/ improvements could be made?'

Person 1

• Title should be at the top left like purchased magazines- people focus attention to that area. F-shape shows how people read/ hotspot areas where they focus attention
• Good consistent colour scheme- should carry through to final design
• Large text (on left again) is good
• Photographs are good and eye-catching but could link to a story inside
• Logo is clear to see/ date/issue (carry through to final)
• Prefer ‘Freedom’ to ‘Wyke News’
• Prefer drafts that have more information/ text about what is inside
• Prefer green coloured border as it looks brighter

Person 2

• Could have images that link to the text ie picture of principal
•  Like the green and purple colour scheme
• Like the smiley photograph- makes you believe the college is a friendly place to be
•  Not bothered about page numbers being on front cover as I would look in the contents to find the page number
• Prefer ‘Wyke News’ logo
• The college logo makes the covers look more official (use this in final)

Person 3