BLOG!: 2010

Alex Wise Media Music Magazine Evaluation

The task we had was to design and produce a magazine, and discover what features are used in magazines, what works well, and what doesn't. I Began the Task by writing the brief on my blog, which was created to showcase the progress of my work. The Blog consists Of The Brief, Conventions of a music magazine and contents page, Magazine Reviews, Front page, Contents Page, Double page spread and all of the drafts working towards them.

I began evaluating music magazines, and comparing them with one another, for example the effectiveness of the masthead, and the layout of the cover. As I began Work on My Magazine, I first came up with the masthead "Grunge", it is simple and targets a specific audience. the key of the mast head was to make it recognisable, and to look the part(of the genre of music). I chose a sharp font, in a 'murky' red colour, and added a 'ripped' effect to the masthead, this worked well as it suits the genre. I later 'tweaked' the masthead, darkening the red, and adding black 'hatch' effect, making it look more hand drawn.

I drew out a quick draft in Photoshop, I highlighted, where the masthead and main picture will be on the cover without going into much detail, the draft acted as a sort of 'map' so I know where to position everything on later drafts and then my final piece. I used a digital camera to take photo's for my magazine, I had taken photo's of two of my friends who would be in my fictional band that would be featured in the magazine. my first 'mock-up' of my front cover, was dominantly black and white with the acceptation of the masthead this was dull and boring but allowed me . the magazine was originally a special edition ('legends'). the photograph I had chosen was suitable for the magazine, although I wasn’t pleased with the placement. the Sell line "Grunge Remembers lost legends" was to the point, but was not very inviting. to improve, In the second mock-up I removed the "Legends" From the title, and made the masthead more prominent. The Main article was on the death of a musician, which was a more topical article, which was also not very inviting. I also added a new picture, un-altered, however I believe it didn’t work very well.

I Came up with three new taglines, 'keeping the pop out of rock', 'fighting the pop away' and 'Making Rock, Rock again'. all of which I believe suit the chosen genre very well, and would attract the targeted audience. I to go with the tagline "keeping the POP out of ROCK" as I believe it was the most appropriate. I then began on my third mock-up, where background was originally black and white, I had altered to be blood red instead, this makes the magazine more attractive and eye-catching I also changed the text yellow this contrasts against the background and gives a good balance of colour, this worked we11, but was still a bit boring. The Band on the cover I had named "The shithole's finest' this would have worked well towards the genre, but was not consumer friendly. The Cover picture, of a band member (my friend Sam). covers most of the page and a small portion of the mast head. this is good as it makes the picture the main focus point of the magazine. in the fourth mock-up I added minor articles, and added a vintage floral pattern, in the background this added to the look of the magazine and made it more eye-catching. I also changed the band name to "The Fungal Foe", which I then later changed again to "The Fungal Fish". I finished off my front cover by darkening the whole thing and raising the contrast, I also changed a few of the key words Red to make them stand out on the page, and draw your attention. I think the Changes made a big difference in the appearance in the front cover and I am pleased with the final result.

In my first draft of the contents page, I wrote up the and numbered each of the contents, I had made a few spelling mistakes, and the font colour was not suitable, but I believe that the contents worked well. As a mock up I Changed the font colour into a yellow and put it on a black background, with the word “Contents” enlarged and bold on top of the page. The chosen colour scheme is reminiscent of the band Nirvana’s merchandise and posters. In my second Contents Page mock up, I added a digital photo of Sam (Whom was on the front cover), I Made the photo, black and white using Photoshop, and also darkened it and raised the contrast, blending it with the black background. I added the “Grunge” masthead on top of the page, and made the “Contents” title smaller and less dominant. I then put the page number in the bottom right hand side of the page, keeping to the yellow and black theme.

I Added the finishing touches in the Contents Page on Photoshop. I Place a digital picture of James(who I was using for my Double page spread also), which I altered to match the photo of Sam. As well as changing the page number, making it more simple and less noticeable. Over all the contents worked well, as it is easy to read and navigate through.

After finishing my contents page and front cover I started to work on my Double Page Spread(DPS) I decided to stick to the same theme as the contents page with the yellow text, and black background. Unlike the Contents page and front cover however, the DPS is done on an A3 size page instead of A4, this meant that I had to alter the font size to fit the page. For my double page spread, I created a fictional interview with A band member, of “The Fungal Fish” (my fiction band for the magazine) I wrote a Q&A style interview, with the questions being in a red font and the answers in yellow. This helped separate the two different “speakers” and also added to the appearance of the page. The second page is a ‘plug’ of the band member’s (James) other project, which Is a musical. On the first page I put a digital photo of James, standing alongside the text. This balanced the page out leaving no unnecessary space in the page. I also put a digital photo of James on the second page, along with a picture of the musical , which I created on Photoshop. I believe the front page, contents page, and DPS worked well together, and I am very happy with the final result of the work.