My task was to produce the front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine using Adobe Photoshop. On the pages I have created I attempted to copy the stereotypical conventions of a music magazine.
My front cover consists on a masthead, ain headline, a pull quote and images of free gifts which in my magazines case is posters. The masthead is of a large size and is a bright red colour so that the name of the magazine 'RIOT!' is made clear and easily noticed by the audience. I also chose the colour red because is could signify anger which goes with the chosen name for my music magazine. The font I used for my masthead is quite crazy and messy and goes with the genre I chose my magazine to be. The mid-shot image I used is shown clearly and the model named as 'Lola Way' who is the lead singer from my made up band 'Bad Influence' is making eye contact with the camera which will make the audience feel like she is communicating with them, she is also stretching her arms out so it looks like she is reaching out to the readers to pull them in to read about her band and their fame. The main headline and pull quote says '
I decided to make my contents double paged. This is because I wanted to use a photo from the Paramore gig I went to on the 11th November 2010 as the image is very affective and matches to the genre of my magazine. The image will also be from the article in my magazine which is the Paramore Tour catch up. The image works really well because the lights on stage are red, so it goes with the colours I chose for my magazine. I made sure that I put the mast head on the contents page to keep it consistent so that the reader will always notice the magazine name 'RIOT!' I also kept it the same font for continuity of the house style, I also kept the colours red, black and purple consistent. My contents page has a list of all the contents with there page numbers, there is also a features section and there is also a section so the audience know about upcoming gigs they might be interested in attending, I also got the band logos to use in this section. The font I used on my contents page is also used on the front cover and is easy to understand. It is white and stands out against the background. The title 'Contents' is a large white font which is used on the front cover of the magazine, it is easily noticed.
For my double page spread I did an interview with my made up lead singer 'My chosen target audience is teens who love alternative rock/indie music. There is no specific social class for my magazine, but students would usually tend to fall into the working class with them been in full time education and weekend jobs, which is why I chose my magazine to be £1.50 because I think that would be an appropriate price been a student myself and not exactly having lots of money so it is quite a cheap magazine along with the free gifts you get weekly. My audience would most likely be stereotyped as indie/emo/scene kind of teens cause they are the sort of people who tend to listen to the sort of music my magazine is about. The name of my magazine represents the audience because Riot means to lash out and be rebellious which most individual/scene people are like, not necessarily their behaviour but the way they dress and how they make themselves different. The model on the front cover represents the audience and I chose her because she is a fan of my chosen genre herself and dresses like the target audience. If I were to publish my magazine I would most likely publish it with Editors Freeway, who publish Rocksound magazine which is the same genre as my magazine, so the audience would most likely buy it.
I spoke to a few people about my music magazine, them been friends and teachers. I showed them my music magazine and created polls on my blog and got lots of feedback on what was good and what was bad. Font was the main part of my magazine that people pointed out as bad so I changed that to a font that was more appropriate for my magazine. People then commented on the masthead saying how it looked a bit lost and how it did not really stand out, so I had to resize it and add a stroke effect. Good comments I got where about my images. Apparently they suited the genre of my magazine, so I was very pleased as not to many challenging changes had to be made.
When I compare this project to my preliminary project I feel I have learnt a lot more about using Photoshop and I have learned more about the conventions that are needed to make a decent magazine. My college magazine was not very professional looking, if I would have to go back and change things I would. I preferred making the music magazine because I love music and because there is so many stereotypes of music it was easier because with research I was able to see what styles appealed to the different audience. Because of the research I also learned what looked good and what didn’t to make a decent magazine.
