Evaluation

MOCK UP - my music magazine

front cover and contents        
                                                               

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD  

A mock up plan is very  significant. It enabled me to see and concetrate an rough idea of the layout of my magazine. I also asked my target audeince through my mock up plan if they would by my magazine just focuing on the  layout, 10 out of 7 said yes, therefore, i felt very confident to make my magazine.

Research

Research can be considered one of the major keys for a sucessfull magazine. Before I created a double page, content and front cover, I firstly did some reseach on how pop magazines, represent them selves. This enabled me to extend my knowledge on how pop magazine potrays themselves through layout. Also, my understanding in language and the amount of images that is approipete and best suitable had increased. Furthermore, a benefit that i got from doing research was that over 20 images overall just for the fornt cover, contents and double-page spread is not apprioate for pop magazines.  Whilst doing my reseach on pop magaizine, one of the problems that occured was finiding a pop magazine that followed the same objective as me.  This lead me to anaylse other music magazines such as "Q magazine" and "NME" which are well kown in the market today. This enabled me to view the way magazines structure themeselves. Moreover, having anaysed these magazines of differant genres, I realised that most music magazines that consist of inteviews asked open questions rather than closed.

Language is considered to be one of the criteria's that makes a sucessful magazine. Without having the appropiate language for your target audience, magazines such as "Q magazine" wouldn't be as sucessful as they are today. Therefore, it is significant to show your target audience you understand them and build that connection, and one way that can be done is  through language. I decided to go to the shops and by a few pop magazines as well online research, of a pop artist interview, to see how Pop magazines use language. This would benefit me to understand and gain a clear idea how Pop magazine apply and use language. An example would be, through the use of the internet i found a interview with Pixie lott. Having read the interview, there were words that were repeted numerous times such as; "kool", "totally" and "amazing". This represented the diolgues teenagers would use in thier daily life, therefore made it easier for the target audience to relate to. Nevertheless, the questions that were asked were extremly simple English. The reason behind was because the target audience were young, and it was easy for them to understand. Also, the questions where straight to the point, one reason for this was because the young generation  knowdays love reading magazines that have gossip and less complex words.

Style: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Magazine

"The most distinctive part of Pop Magazine has been its design style. Although keeping most pages sparse and clean, preferring large photos and white space to the often cluttered look used by most editors in the action sports genre. The typography and layout has more in common with business magazines like The Economist and Time Magazine than it does with other board sports titles."

This enabled me to see the way in which Pop magazine represent themeselves, for example keeping the pages "sparse and clean".

Development on masthead

Once I came to a conclusion of what my masthead would be called, it was now time for me to experiment with different colours. Colours are one of the key factors to a masthead. It is extremely important to use the right colours that fit the masthead becuase it is what consumers are instantly attracted too. There were a range of colours that i had in mind for example, Red, yellow, orange, green, and purple. Therefore, to get an accurate response on what colour would be best suitable, I created a tally chart and did some  primary research by asking my target audience what colour they thought was most effective.  These were the following results:

2 - Red

3 - Yellow

2 - Orange

5- purple

1- Green

10 - Strong Pink

My research enabled me to examine what  colour scheme would suite my masthead the most. I was extremely pleased with the feedback i received becuase i was looking for something  that appeals to girls and tomboys straight away and "strong pink" seemed to do the trick. Also, it is stereotyped that pink is the main key colour for girls just as blue is for boys  therefore, this added up as an advantage for me. After having decided the name and colour of my masthead i decided to choose my house style. The house style that I chose was hot pink, white, black, purple and light pink. The reason I chose a colour scheme is because it makes the front cover look presentable and professional rather than messy for example, if the front cover didn’t consist of a colour scheme, it would look like the producer didn't spend enough time on the magazine which would then lead to the target audience not buying the magazine. The colors I have chosen are used for a purpose that also symbolizes feeling for example:

Hot pink - , glamorous, 

Light Pink - pleasant, cute, and happy

Black - excitement, crazy

White - peaceful, simple, 

Purple - royalty in many different cultures

Masthead

Mastheads are extremely important. It creates awareness towards the audience. An example of mastheads would be "NME" and "Kerrang". These are very catchy mastheads that represent who their audience is.  To come up with a masthead for my magazine, I experimented with a range of names, for example "Band ladies", "Juicy" and "Sizzlie". For my magazine, I wanted to create a masthead that would appeal my target audiences; girls and tomboys, specifically teenagers and younger. Moreover, one of my objectives that I was extremely determined to achieve was to create a title that stands out and is simple.  Finally, after a range of experiments through different methods i successfully reached my conclusion. My masthead was to be called "MANIA". This title stood out to me for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was simple and easy to remember.  Secondly it created a vibe that was completely crazy and "whack".  Last but not least, considering that my magazine is a pop magazine, the name brings out a new strong feeling for my target audience. "MANIA" created a very smooth and crazy vibe, the same way pop consists of smooth and crazy representation. Moreover, one experiment that i did to reassure myself whether "MANIA” would be beneficial for me was i did some primary sampling. I asked a range of my target audience if they would approve this masthead if written of a magazine and if yes, why? Twenty four out of thirty teenagers responded with a "yes", due to the fact that it was unusual and bringing something new to the "world of pop" Some teenager also added; "it sounds mature". This was a very positive outcome because alot of teenagers and kids now days are influenced to dress and act older than their actual age. I think " MANIA" is a very convincing and builds up a bucket full of excitement as a masthead.

Finding my target audience

Having examined a range of music magazine I came to a conclusion,  i will be focussing on a niche target audience that have an interest on a specific genre. This will be  beneficial for me because my magazine will not consist of wide audience, which means it will be easier to produce. 

Although I knew Pop was the genre that i will focus on for my magazine,  it was important for me to understand what pop music was and made up of. Therefore, i decided to find a clear defination on the internet:

Wikedpedia:

"Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. Pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, but as a genre is particularly associated with the rock and roll and later rock style".

 Pop artist are ages between fourteen to twenty one. Therefore, they are mostly considered as teenagers  and most likely influenced to target teenagers. They come across as  young musicians that can usually be seen on Disney Channel, for example, Miley Cyrus from "Hannah Montanah" and Selena Golmez from "Wizardly of waverly place".  Having carried out reseach It came to my attention that Pop magazines are most likely to be aimed at young teenage girls. Therefore, i will be focussing on young teenage girls, from ten to sixteen.

One reason for my magazine to be successful would be because, there is a gap in the market for young teenage girls. Therefore, since my magazine is entitled to access this gap, i would have an advantage.  I had come to the conclusion that my magazine would only focuss on young teenage girls and the genre that i will be concentrating on would be Pop. To conclude I will interview a new Pop artist.

Developing skills on Indesin

Indesin is special software that we used in class. In order to understand how the program works, we were given a double page spread, whereby I had to copy the layout, and everything within the double-page spread.  Since it was my first time using this software,  i found it very difficult, however, as time went on, I realized my skills, knowledge and  understanding  had developed which enabled me to create the double page spread. Therefore, I found this exercise extremely significant and beneficial. Nevertheless, this software will be useful when i have to create my own magazine, because i am familiar with it.