Critical Evaluation

Critical Evaluation The task was to create a music magazine of our choice that you if you were in the business. This would appeal to an audience of your choice and the magazine was designed around who the target audience is. The genre of the music and how the magazine reads is all included so that you get the best for your target audience. The most important people to do with the magazine are the people who are going to buy it as without them the magazine is useless. Getting the target audience is down to what you wish the magazine to contain, the genre of music is key to this as you are not going to sell the magazine if the leading artist is a hip hop singing and he is on the front of a heavy metal rock magazine. All this needs to be thought about when designing the magazine. The pre­production is a very important part of designing the magazine as you can get the information from your target audience which you need to design and gain knowledge for the contents of your magazine. I think in order to have made this a success you would have to go to the public and gain this information with questionnaires and surveys as to their lifestyle and the types of music you think would be best to have featured in the magazine in order to get the best feedback which can contribute to success.

I decided with my pre­production that I would create a questionnaire and then ask those who I believed would enjoy looking at my magazine. I made it around artists who write and perform there own music, and thought it would be a magazine centred on people like this. In order to get the right contents and make the magazine appealing to those I wish it too appeal to. I thought that doing this would give me a large range of ideas as to what I could do with the magazine, however I found that people like more range and different music styles coming together, so instead of having the whole magazine around one type of music I decided that I could include other genres and mix them up so that it gives the reader more choice as to what they want to read about. I think that I could have found out more information from going out and seeing what people’s views were rather than just having small amounts of information and trying to use that to get what was needed. For this I think that I could have been more patient with getting the knowledge for the contents of the magazine.

For my front cover I decided to keep things simple and just have small amounts on the front page so that it does not look clogged up or too over crowded with small and unnecessary things. I chose to represent the artist as a chilled out guitar playing singer song writer. The photograph which I used was a front facing medium close up of the artist to give him presence on the cover. I think sticking to only a few colours as well, using mostly black and whites was good so that it didn’t make the cover look too hard to look at and represents the artist in a good way. Although I think now using black and white is a little dull which perhaps does not give the best impression on the artist I think they can still be good colours to use as they don’t strike someone wishes to buy in the way they would not like to open the magazine and see what is inside. I like my masthead on the front cover as it gives it a sense of style and beauty on the page. I think it shows elegance to the extent that this is a magazine for those who appreciate the singer song writer and would therefore like to comment on the artistic style of the masthead which I believe is eye catching in itself. Along with the mast head I think the lead article which you show has to be simple but at the same time, meaningful so

that is somebody was to pick this up on a shop shelf they would think it could be an interesting story to read about, so I thought that using a play on words with a song title was a good idea and that a reader would say that they have heard the song and want to find out more about the artist.

The contents page layout was to try and perhaps portray something a little different about the magazine as well as showing some similarities to what I wanted the magazine to be all about. I thought I would have a different artist as the main picture on the contents page to show the difference and the way the magazine allows access to different genres of music. I have chosen a picture of a band and they are the main audits on the contents page. I also have what else you can find in the magazine so that the reader can just flick through the magazine finding what he or she is most interested in, rather than just reading through it page by page. Again I like to keep it simple and not have too much over powering each other so that there is too much to take it at one time, and the reader can feel comfortable with being able to get as much out of the magazine and as much information as possible.

The D.P.S. (double page spread) gives the article on the featured artist on the front cover. I chose to do it this way as so there is not too much difference between all three of my pages. I thought that the article gives a good representation of what the artist is all about and what sort of background the artist is from and where his interest in music came from. I also included what he might be doing in the coming future to give readers and those who are interested in what kind of music the artist is creating, giving him an image which is needed to be successful in the music industry. Without your image you are know body. Giving the artist a background I thought would help in creating a better image and creating a ‘character’ as such which a reader would care about rather than just some one hit wonder that has 15 minutes of fame.

I think that the Q magazine is one of the main magazines which have inspired what I have done, the way they build up around an artist image and the ways they use that to create reviews of what they have done and sometimes have exclusive interviews with a band or artist. I think that I would try to publish my magazine online before taking it to the high street, as in this day and age more and more people are using the internet for pretty much everything and it is the easiest way to get information about anything and everything. Therefore being able to get it published online I think that it would be more effective in getting sales for a new magazine rather than just putting onto a shelf and hoping that it would sell.

I think that getting the write audience is only how you make and create the magazine in the right way. If you have a good idea as to who you are hoping to buy this magazine then you know then what you are going to include with the conventions of the magazine. As long you have the knowledge of what the target audience wants from a magazine is yours, all you then need is the ideas which fit around that knowledge of what the people want.

I think that using Photoshop is not as easy as when you first come to look at it. I that with the project I have tried to use as much as I can whilst only being a first time user

to the software. I still think I have a lot to learn when using Photoshop and that as practise makes perfect. Time and effort concurs all.

Joe Bridge.