Draft Evaluation of my Project

Evaluation of My Project

Whilst creating my magazine, I looked at a range of other existing magazines to make sure that it followed the conventions and principal standards of music magazines today. The conventions that I found through my research gave me valid rules and regulations that I followed whilst making my very own magazine. For example, on the cover of every magazine I noticed that the title of the magazine was at the top of the page and in very bold, noticeable font and colour. I also noted the position of the cover image, puffs, anchorage text and buzz words etc. all of which I have on my very own front cover.

 

However, I also tried to make my front cover seem edgy and unique by using graphic features and editing the typeface and cover image using Photoshop. I also came up with the idea that each issue will have a different colour scheme. In this particular issue the colour scheme is pink, as it goes with the colour of the nails and makeup of the cover person. This is something that I hope will help readers in distinguishing my magazine from month to month and from other rival magazines.

 

My magazine represents a narrow range of social groups. It represents young people of the age 16-24. The type of people that listen to mainstream music and RnB/Hip Hop, and that can be described as sleek and glamorous. I believe it shows them in a positive light. This is because it there is no violence mentioned at all in the magazine and the gang, gun culture of today is not mentioned or endorsed in any way at all in the magazine. Rather it shows successful people in the music industry and public eye, and celebrates their achievements. I believe it also represents them as a quite culturally diverse and multicultural group of young people. This is because many different groups and artists are featured in the magazine. The Artists highlighted are not only from all over London, the UK and the US. But also from different parts of the world which gives my target audience the access to music and artists, who are not very mainstream. It could also be described as a sort of bubblegum, sleek and glamorous representation.

 

 

The audience I have aimed my magazine at are the 16-14 age group. I found through prior research that they are big fans of mainstream music and the genres that my product promotes. I’m only looking to attract people from the UK, London in particular, people who live in the city as they are more likely to be interested in the articles, artists etc. that are in my magazine.

 

I attempted to attract my chosen target audience by including things in the magazine that I believe they would be interested in such as unsigned artists, starts from abroad such as America, music reviews and listings of the latest gigs. I thought very carefully when deciding who to be the feature of this issue and deciding which image to use on the cover shortly after. I had to consider not only the person, type of shot, setting location but also what article would go with this and if it was suitable for attracting my target audience. In this issue I have featured “Alessandra” from up and coming girl group “The Pinkettes”. This group are a British band and are only known in Europe, mainly the UK. This is an example of how I have catered my magazine for my target audience. I also made US music video star “Melita” the cover girl of my first issue. I thought that this would be appropriate as these are the articles that my audience want to read which I discovered through research. I also decided that the mis-en-scene should be quite edgy, unique and quite rugged which is why it was taken near a brick wall near graffiti.

 

Media institutions that I think are best suited to distribute my magazine are IPC Media and Bauer. However, after doing further research I have decided that IPC Media is best suited rather than Bauer who are responsible for the distribution of magazines such as Kerrang, Q and Mojo. It appears that they cater for more Indie, Rock type magazines whereas IPC Media distribute a broader range of titles, such as Marie Claire, TV Times, Nuts and Loaded. I think that having IPC Media responsible for the distribution of my magazine would be very beneficial seeing as it is quite clear that IPC Media along with Bauer dominate the magazines market in Britain. This is something that will help my magazine immensely because of the fact that it is a new magazine and it is the premier issue. Being helped by such a well-known and successful distributor could help the sales and popularity of my magazine massively.

 

From creating this magazine I have gained valid insight into how complex and time/cost consuming it is to create a magazine. I have learnt that many things that need be considered when creating a magazine and making it available to the public. This includes getting the right artists featured, having to find locations and photographers, finding suitable distributors etc. I have gained valid insight into the key conventions of music magazines. These include topics that arise in this niche genre, the creation of cover images and who is suitable for being on the cover, how effectively catering for a target audience is crucial in creating a successful magazine.

 

The preliminary task helped me tremendously when creating my magazine. At first I was not sure about the conventions of music magazines. I wasn’t sure what cover images were suitable, how the title should be and what articles to write about. When trying to create a college magazine I had to target my magazine towards a college audience it. This in turn helped me when creating my music magazine.