Magazine (Final)

How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Final)

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Since my preliminary magazine I think that I have made a massive improvement in almost all aspects of making the magazine. The layout of my preliminary magazine isn't very good and looks like things have just been put anywhere on the page with no consideration of how it looks. The colour scheme of my original magazine is also very ineffective as it isn't very boldand doesn't stand out at all. The text is also very hard to read. Ialso think that the barcode is too big. However i do think that my cover photo was fairly effective as it is a mid shot showing a student which was my target audience for that magazine though the facial expression in the photo looks 'fake' and doesn't look very natural.

In my music magazine i think that I have learnt from all of these mistake and implemented all my ideas better. For starters I think that my colour scheme is better by a long way as it is very easy to read and all of the colours compliment each other unlike in my preliminary magazine. I also think that the general layout has improved dramatically as itlooks like a real magazine such as 'Q' or 'NME'. The shot style in my cover photo is very similar as it is again a mid shot like before however I have learnt from before and got the pose, body language and facial expression to look a lot more natural and 'real'. This change alone make the magazine look a lot better and will appeal to my audience.

The contents page is where I feel I have improved the most as in my preliminary the layout is extremely poor and doesn't look at all professional. The colour scheme was also awful as it was a just a very plain black and white. There was also no real layout and it looks as though it has just been pasted straight onto the middle of the page. On my music magazine contents page i think that i have improve a lot as it now looks professional and how a real contents page looks. My contents page now has a proper colour scheme instead of the very plain black and white. The

layout is now set out a lot better and includes information about each section whereas before there was no information at all. My contents page is now also very easy to read and follow as it is a little like a list but with more impact with the pictures, detail and colours.

How did you attract/address your audience? (Final)

To attract my Audience I used elements from various magazines that my audience would also read such as 'NME', 'Q' and 'The Fly'. I used a colour scheme that is popular with my audience which is red, white and black. I know that this is a popular colour scheme as it is used in many magazines based at the same audience. A unique part of my magazine that will attract my target audience is the fact that I used pictures of people that are the same age group as my audience, this means that the readers will be able to better relate to the artists mentioned in the magazine as they will be the same age. Another unique part of my magazine is that it focuses heavily on U.K artists which makes it better for the reader as they will also be from the U.K and will be able to relate to the artist better.

Who would be the audience for your media product? (Final)

The audience for my music magazine would be people aged around 16 to late 20's. This is because of the informal language and references used in my magazine and for the reason that many people aged past their twenties do not often listen to Indie Rock music. The audience for my magazine would be either male or female as this genre of music interests both genders though their may be a slightly higher amount of males who are interested in this genre more.

Audience Profile:

Jerome is a 17 year old who is living with his parents in the centre of Leicester. He is interested in Skateboarding and Indie Music. He has a part time job at the local skateboard shop so has a disposable income that he can spend on indie music magazines. Jerome wants to find out about various new and up-coming indie bands but struggles to do this with the shortage of indie magazines. He doesn't want to spend anymore than three pounds a month as he wants to spend his money his hobby. He likes a fairly minimalistic style of magazine that is not extremely busy and jammed with text on one page he also wants a magazine that focuses on British band and artists instead of artists from over seas as he can relate to the British artists more.

I think that i have appealed to this audience well as I have used layouts and colours that are popular amongst these types of people. I have also used photo's of people that are the same age as the audience i am targeting my magazine at. I also used language that would appeal to this age group instead of using formal language.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Final)

Throughout the planning and creation of my magazine I used covers, contents pages and Double page spreads from 'NME', 'Q' and 'The Fly' as inspiration, this is noticeable in my work as it is heavily based around a combination of thosethree magazine's styles. I used different elements from each of those magazines and implemented them into my own magazine. For my colour scheme I used red, black and white which is a very popular colour scheme choice in this type of music genre and is used on all three of the magazines I used for inspiration. I like this colour scheme because it they all compliment each other and it makes the text extremely easy to read. I did also use a very light grey which was used to add a little more of an impact than a standard plain white background.

For my cover I used a combination of elements from a 'Q' magazine cover and a 'The Fly' magazine cover and implemented them in a way that i felt was effective along with the style that I wanted for the cover. For my cover photo I was originally going to do a full band photo however after seeing an 'NME' cover that featured just the front man of the band I decided I would also do this. My magazine logo is inspired by the 'Q' logo as I have made into a box type shape that fits to the top left of the cover like on 'Q' magazine covers.

My Contents page is a combination of elements from 'Q' magazine and 'NME' Magazine. I used the same colour scheme and a layout that is very similar to that of 'Q' and 'NME's. Something that I have tried to differently is a large heading bar at the top with the title and issue number on, most magazine contents pages have a small heading bar or no heading bar at all so this is something I have tried to do differently to normal magazines.

My double page spread is based heavily on the style of 'Q' magazine. I did this because I think that 'Q's layout and design is very effective and eye catching. It is mostly based on a 'Q' double page spread of 'Arcade Fire' which can be seen below my double page spread. One change i have made from the 'Q' double page spread is I have decided to use a darker shade of red on the letter a the start of the article to make the overlapping text much easier to read and be a better experience for the reader. I also made the red bar at the top brighter to give a little more impact.I also tried to add some element of my own however I added the bands contact information to the end of the article and the bottom right of the article. I think this is effective as many readers will be using social network sites and will want to find out more about the band.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (Final)

For my my music magazine i think that the best suited distributor would be 'IPC Media'. 'IPC Media' are the current distributors of 'NME' Magazine, a magazine that originally focused on mainly Indie-Rock music but now however has tried to attract a larger audience and has started to include a more wider variety of music. Because of this I think that 'IPC Media' would be very interested in distributing my magazine as they will then have a magazine that focuses solely on Indie music. I think they will also be interested in my magazine as they have experience in working with the same style of magazine and know what the readers want and how to advertise the magazine.

The magazine would be distributed in different ways such as to shops and newsagents to be put on sale, posted to subscribers and could also be posted online at a monthly cost slightly cheaper than a normal subscription. I think 'IPC Media' would be successful in distributing the magazine in these ways as they currently do the same with 'NME'. 'NME also has a very good website which means that they could do the same for my magazine giving it a strong online presence.

With the magazine being distributed by 'IPC Media' people who where fans of 'NME' might also be interested in my magazine as they know what to expect as it will be the same distributor. My magazine is also heavily based around British artists and bands so this will also interest 'IPC Media' as they're a British company.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? (Final)

iMac/Computer: For the majority of my work I used my iMac and used software on it like Adobe Photoshop CS5, Apple Preview and Microsoft word. I also used the school computers for a lot of my work where I used a different version of Photoshop called Photoshop Element 5.0 however this version is very similar to CS5.

Adobe Photoshop CS5: For a lot of my work I used this version on Photoshop. It is very similar to the school version Photoshop elements and I have used it before so it was not anything new. This version of Photoshop is very easy to use and easy to work with.

Camera: For my photo’s I originally used an iPod camera however I soon found these pictures where not the best quality so I re-took these photo’s using a camera from the school library. Blogger: I used blogger to upload my work and used it when writing my article. I tried to keep my blog updated with work fairly often.

Internet: (Safari, Google) I used the Internet for pretty much all of my planning and research using websites like cover junkie, Wikipedia and magazine websites.

Blogger: I used blogger to upload all of my work onto and keep track of all my work. I used Blogger throughout the course of making my magazine.


Scribd: Scribd is an online storage site where you can upload and view work done on Microsoft Word. I used this to upload some of my research and other work onto my blog.

Magazine Final

Magazine (Old)

Test Shots

Draft Magazine Article

During the year 2011 a group of lads from leicester got together and decided to start making music, playing at various clubs and bars around the Leicestershire area unaware of the big things that where soon to come their way. After 10 long months of playing the same venues to small crowds they where contacted by Kitsune Records and started to make a real name for themselves, their usual small crowd of fans turned into the hundreds and where eventually brining a sell out crowd to their gigs. With the high demand of a debut album from their current fans Shuffle together and started work on their debut album which would contain the fans favourite songs that they have got to know and love along with many new tracks and sounds. after the release of this album more and more people started listening to them and the album went straight to the top of the iTunes album charts. Following the success of their debut album the lads have been tipped as 2012's best new indie band.

So to find out about all the hype surrounding the Shuffle lads we got together with them and interviewed them on their reaction to the success and we what can expect from them in the coming year.

Q: So then lads I imagine this has happened very quickly for you? one minute your were playing to a small crowd, now you lot have sell out crowds!

James: Well to be honest we where not expecting all this at all. We where starting to think that the small crowds where the best we where going to get but all of a sudden we got the record deal that we desperately needed and then it all kicked off!

Q: Hows it feel to have just reached the top of the iTunes album charts?

Dean: Unbelievable! Topping the album charts was something that we never thought to achieve ever in our careers but doing it with our debut album just seems too unreal especially when you look at some of the other albums that are in the charts at the minute such as all the regular album chart toppers.

Q: Who has been your biggest influences as you where progressing to where you are now?

Dean: Our biggest influences where Two Door Cinema Club, Delphic and Everything Everything which you can probably tell as they all have a fairly similar music style to us. when we got on Kitsune Records we were very excited to be on the same record company as one our biggest influences who we now regularly to support in their gigs and who knows maybe they will be supporting us one day haha.

Q: You must be very pleased to have been tipped as 2012's best new indie band!

James: Obviously we where absolutely ecstatic but this also brings a lot of big expectations for our next album however we hope to exceed everyones expectation and hopefully make the fans happy.

Q: It sounds as though your fans are very important to you lot, Is this true?

Jim: Our fans are our main priority when making new music. We want to make sure we keep and please our current fans rather than sell out and focus on the money and getting loads and loads of fans.

Q: So what can we expect from your next album?

James: Well we are looking to keep with the style of last album with classing indie sounds with an electronic twist however we are trying to implement new types of sound such as a more up-beat Indie Alternative style on some tracks which we plan to release in an EP early this year to see what are fans think to this style, if this style does't work out then we will obviously revert back to our old ways however we will always be looking to create brand new sounds to keep the fans listening.

Q: What do you think of the current state of indie music? are you scared that the current people that have started listening to indie music to follow the crowd will soon move onto other music genres and stop listening to your music?

Jim: Well to be honest if people are just listening to our music to fit in or follow the trend then they are not true fans at all, if they're going to move onto other bands along with the crowd then although we might lose a few album sales we would be left with our true fans that have loved us from the start and who we hope will continue to listen to us.

Q: How have your record company Kitsune responded to your huge success?

James: Well with bands like Two Door Cinema Club and Phoenix also on the record company they never thought they would get another indie-electro band to do just as well as them if not better and where obviously pleasantly surprised when we started to take off.

Q: Finally, with work on your future album beginning is their any release date in mind?

Dean: Not yet, but watch this space!

Magazine Mock-Up

Draft contents

Draft contents

Draft double page spread

Audience Questionaire

Do you prefer a weekly or monthly magazine?
Person 1: I usually prefer a monthly magazine as the magazine is bigger and contains more information.
Person 2: I prefer a weekly magazine as the price is usually less than a monthly magazine per issue.
Person 3: I prefer a monthly magazines as the magazine is usually alot thicker and contains more features than a weekly magazine.

How much are you willing to pay for a monthly magazine?
Person 1: I usually pay around £3-£4 and wouldn't want to spend anymore than that.
Person 2: I would pay no more than £4 for a monthly magazine.
Person 3: I would pay par around £2.50 to £3 a month.

What are the magazines you currently buy priced at?
Person 1: I usually pay around £3-£4.
Person 2: I pay £2.50 to £3.
Person 3: I always pay £3.

Do you prefer a minimalistic or busy cover?
Person 1:I prefer a minimalistic style as long as it informative.
Person 2:I prefer a minimal style as I think a busy cover takes your attention away from the main image.
Person 3: I prefer a busy cover with alot of information as i can see everything that is going to be in the issue.

What features would you want from a magazine?
Person 1: My favourite feature in a magazines are reviews of albums and artists.
Person 2: I always look for magazine that have interviews with my favourite artists.
Person 3: I like reviews and interviews with new artists.

What style colour scheme do you prefer in a magazine?
Person 1: I prefer simple colours such as red, white and black.
Person 2: I prefer colours such as red and white as they are used in other magazines i read like NME.
Person 3: I prefer a range of different colours that aren't normally used such as purple.

Do you usually buy the same magazine or different ones?
Person 1: I usually buy the same magazine as i know what to expect from it.
Person 2: I always buy different magazines to see different opinions on artists and albums.
Person 3: I always buy the same magazine as i enjoy the magazines features.

New Revised Magazine Logo/Font

This is my new revised magazine logo. this logo feeatures all the colours of my colour palette. In the design of this logo i took influence from 'Q' magazines logo style with the red box and text. I Prefer this to my old logo as the old logo didn't fit on the cover as well as i would have liked.

Band Profile

Band Name: Shuffle

Shuffle are a new three piece indie/electro band who are tipped to be 2012's best new indie band.

Shuffle where originally just a group of friends playing their music at local clubs and bars in and around the leicestershire area. after a few months the band was spotted by a representative from Kitsune Records and their rose to fame began. The band are currently working on their first album which will contain music with a typical indie rock style but mixed with an electro synth-pop vibe. Their debut album is set for release spring 2012. Their musical style can be compared to bands such as: Two Door Cinema Club, Delphic, One Night Only and Crystal Fighters.

Magazine Cover Photo Style

For the photo on the cover i will have a band rather than one single artist. i will have 3 band members standing behind eachother slightly to the left or right much like the picture above.

Double Page Spread Style and Inspiration

For my double page spread i want to maintain the red, white and black colours and keep the minimalistic style with the right amount of text. It will have one large picture of the band on the left side much like the double page spread above which i have taken inspiration from however i will use less text than that.

Colour Scheme Inspiration

Pitch Evaluation

I feel that my magazine pitch went quite well as everyone could understand my ideas and the magazine style that i was going for. The feedback i got was also quite good as they said that i had good layout ideas, good magazine style and good name. overall i think it went very well and i have taken into account some the feedback for example i changed my colour scheme due to feedback saying that there were one too many colours.

Example Magazines and Inspiration

All of these covers are very minimal and give you just the amount of information you want on the cover without making it look cluttered. This is the type of cover style i am aiming for however i don't want the cover to look too bare like the 'Vice' cover. I will need to experiment with different font sizes and text location to make it look minimal yet informative.