magzaine evaluation

In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real music magazine?

My magazine front cover has all the typical features and conventions of a real magazine. My magazine music genre is gospel music which is not very common; I felt this gave me a bit more freedom and creativity with the front cover. The main is of a group of young people in very sophisticated clothes (Sunday wear). The image is in a very natural background with clear windows, which gave it a very modern feel. I choose the main image because I wanted to capture a specific audience. The masthead of my magazine is bold and eye catching as it is an usually colour for an magazine title, it is also in capitals letters. The cover line of this issue is ‘Christian swagger’ which also have a question under it ‘what is the new Sunday best ‘. I choose this question so it would capture the audience attention and make them want to read on more. I wanted my cover to be simple but yet attractive, and to have cover lines limited as I didn’t want it to look cluttered. I also added a free T-Shirt promotion to attract buyers. The fonts on my front cover are all the same but in different sizes and colours. The two main colours on my magazine are pink and purple which I found worked really well together. I also added a particular style to the font so it would stand out more.

 How does your music magazine cover represent certain social group?

I think my magazine cover is very original as it contradicts society views on youths today. On the front cover my main image is a group of black youths dressed in formal wear. Now in the media you don’t see that very often and that is one of the main reason why I picked that type of wear. To in some ways to get the older generation thinking. The image also relates to the younger generation more as the boys are wearing ‘Era caps’ which most young boys wear. I also wanted the magazine to represent young Christians, so all promotions and cover lines are linked to a gospel artist or organisation. My magazine cover also represents youths as the colours are very light and not dull compared to other older generation magazines.

What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine cover and why?

The institution which might distribute my magazine cover would be WWMD (world wide magazine distribution). WWMD is a joint venture business owned by major UK news wholesalers. They distbute all different kinds of magazines, in different types of shops. For example DIY and garden centres, music stored, model shops and gaming stores. I would also want the magazine cover in WH smiths so it can get out to more of the general public. I think my magazine could also be available through mail order/subscription as this will help local churches get copies for there youth.

Who would be the audience for your music magazine cover?

The audience for my magazine cover would be youths and teenagers who are interested in a certain type of genre music, gospel music. Also youths who are interested in furthering their faith and want other features the magazine offers. For example advice column , daily readings and events list. There is a lot types of gospel music from country gospel to gospel rap. This ensures that the magazine can reach all races and different backgrounds.

How did you attract/audience your audience?

To attract my audience I used a usual colour theme .pink and purple which is bright and unique. Also my main image was original and instead of just being cropped and cut it remained the same. I also think the formal wear will attract my audience as it will be different from normal hip hop magazines. I also think the free t-shirt promotion will also attract teenagers as they like anything for free. Also the t-shirt is from a well known logo this will help with magazine sales.

 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this magazine front cover?

In our media department we were very lucky to be using the brand new apple Macs for our editing. This was very high quality. It was also the 1st time I used the Photoshop application which I found at the beginning very confusing, but I got the hang of it in the end. With Photoshop you can do all the basic like crop, cut and fill. But you can do so much more especially with font which I found extremely useful as I didn’t really need to adjust my image at all. I also like that it allowed you to control the layers in a mini window.

 If you were to make another front cover, what do you think you would do differently?

1. I would use a different image, so I could do more special effects and use Photoshop more to my advantage
2. I would do a more darker cover (as in colour) to see what It would look like
3. I would have half of the group dressed up in everyday wear so it would contrast the formal wear

4. I would change the title font.