Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Coursework Evaluation: skills development
I feel that I have improved upon my audience research in comparison with my preliminary task whereby I just put what I wanted to see in the magazine rather than the target audience.
Coursework Evaluation: technologies
Overall, I feel that I have improved upon how to successfully add incorporate images into my final products without having a harsh outline. My magazine required images with a soft edge to them; in order to do this I erased a fine edge using a soft eraser. This went well with the magazine’s dark background because it gave a look like the image was blending in with it.
Coursework Evaluation: addressing my audience
I had to choose very carefully about the way in which I was going to communicate to the Goths. Stereotypically, Goths don’t tend to be the type of group that tell jokes and have a laugh. After I conducted my audience research on Goths, it turned out that the stereotyping was correct. So I used fairly simple language, nothing very dark and complicated. But, I was also careful not to make any opinions too biased, so that I am not influencing an audience opinion.
Coursework Evaluation: Target Audience
As obvious as it is, my target audience is directed at Goths. Goths tend to be male or female, between the ages of 15 and 30, mostly students from school or college/university where they also hang out as well as on the streets. Goths are individualists who do not aspire to be a part of the mainstream society. They wear mostly black and/or dark themed clothing and listen to death and heavy metal music. Other than the different taste in music and clothing, they are not all that different from the general public. They tend to spend their money on the numerous gothic bands such as “Pain” and “Electric Head”, so the producing companies for these bands may want to advertise their merchandise.
Coursework Evaluation: Institutions
There are advantages and disadvantages for getting the magazine distributed with a large and a small time publisher.
The big-time publishers can get the magazine published and distributed within a large area, which is good considering you will have a wider audience and plenty of income. However, it also has the downside, a big-time publisher, such as Bauer, will ask for a lot of money to publish it to such a wide area, but with a larger income it may be much more possible to maintain the income and outcome of money. Not to mention the possibility for selling advertising space. If I were to publish my magazine with a company like Bauer, I would have more business with advertisers because their products would be advertised in a wider area, so more money would come in to pay for the distribution.
On the other hand, a small time publisher (like with a fanzine) would be cheaper. I would have to pay less money to get my magazine published and distributed but to a small area. To get my magazine published to a smaller area, means that I would have a smaller audience and thus less money coming in from both the audience and possible advertisers. People looking to advertise don’t want to go to a magazine that isn’t well known to advertise because people would be less likely to read it and therefore not likely to look at the adverts.
So in comparison, it would be much more profitable and beneficial to go with a big-time publisher where my magazine can be distributed to a larger area/audience and a greater income from companies, willing to may more to advertise their products in a well-known magazine.
The big-time publishers can get the magazine published and distributed within a large area, which is good considering you will have a wider audience and plenty of income. However, it also has the downside, a big-time publisher, such as Bauer, will ask for a lot of money to publish it to such a wide area, but with a larger income it may be much more possible to maintain the income and outcome of money. Not to mention the possibility for selling advertising space. If I were to publish my magazine with a company like Bauer, I would have more business with advertisers because their products would be advertised in a wider area, so more money would come in to pay for the distribution.
On the other hand, a small time publisher (like with a fanzine) would be cheaper. I would have to pay less money to get my magazine published and distributed but to a small area. To get my magazine published to a smaller area, means that I would have a smaller audience and thus less money coming in from both the audience and possible advertisers. People looking to advertise don’t want to go to a magazine that isn’t well known to advertise because people would be less likely to read it and therefore not likely to look at the adverts.
So in comparison, it would be much more profitable and beneficial to go with a big-time publisher where my magazine can be distributed to a larger area/audience and a greater income from companies, willing to may more to advertise their products in a well-known magazine.
Coursework Evaluation: Representation
) I chose to address Goths in a manner in which they speak; casually but not to a humorous extent as I found that Goths generally aren’t the kind of people who make jokes a lot. As I explained earlier, I used two different fonts to represent the two types of Goth; however, I have not used two different ways of communicating with them. In order to get the youth culture to take in the info and news that are inside the magazine, I needed to make fonts and language clear and easy to understand. It was easy to make the text clear, seeing as I used a completely black background; I needed to merely use WoB text to make it stand out among other things. Language, however, was a challenge. I had to think like a Goth to talk like a Goth, not the easiest thing in the world. After completing my audience research, I found that all I needed to do was talk casually, which was rather unusual considering the stereotype Goth.
In my photographs, as I said earlier, the people are not smiling; they are either giving a glare or sneering. This could connote the sinister attitude and the deviation from social norms, but they are actually looking at the camera. Goths also seem to think of themselves as superior to some others, I attempted to represent this by using a few low angled shots to make them look taller and larger than life and have used an education setting to represent the social class and age.
Finding a Goth is easy because of what they wear. They often wear black trench coats, black t-shirts with an artistic, yet dark themed image, “punk pants” and metal plated boots. No matter what people may think, there are also female Goths, I have also represented this in my images as well by involving them in two images; one in the double page spread and the other in the contents page. What is highly unusual about my front cover image is how the youth, though male, is wearing black nail varnish. This is definitely deviating from social norms because men don’t normally walk around with nail varnish on, no matter what colour.
I think I more reinforced the stereotypical Goth than undermined it. Using images which connote and denote all of these things to do with clothing, attitude and music, but there were a few abnormalities with along the way. Such as the nail varnish and how much like an everyday man/woman they can be.
In my photographs, as I said earlier, the people are not smiling; they are either giving a glare or sneering. This could connote the sinister attitude and the deviation from social norms, but they are actually looking at the camera. Goths also seem to think of themselves as superior to some others, I attempted to represent this by using a few low angled shots to make them look taller and larger than life and have used an education setting to represent the social class and age.
Finding a Goth is easy because of what they wear. They often wear black trench coats, black t-shirts with an artistic, yet dark themed image, “punk pants” and metal plated boots. No matter what people may think, there are also female Goths, I have also represented this in my images as well by involving them in two images; one in the double page spread and the other in the contents page. What is highly unusual about my front cover image is how the youth, though male, is wearing black nail varnish. This is definitely deviating from social norms because men don’t normally walk around with nail varnish on, no matter what colour.
I think I more reinforced the stereotypical Goth than undermined it. Using images which connote and denote all of these things to do with clothing, attitude and music, but there were a few abnormalities with along the way. Such as the nail varnish and how much like an everyday man/woman they can be.
Coursework Evaluation: Forms and Conventions
My music magazine is genre specific toward Goths and their death/heavy metal music. They layout of the magazine, itself, isn’t representative of the youth culture, but the colour scheme is. Black is one of the key colours in the youth culture. Secondary colours include blues and reds. The secondary colours are used in my magazine to highlight these variations. The red is linked in with my Masthead; “Blood Rage” by adding red to the “blood” section of the masthead it is connoting the obsession with death metal music and the overall obsession with death. I used some white text to highlight the key words in my cover lines and to make the text in my double-page spread and contents page stand out so that it may be read clearly and to a good standard. Rage is used to connote the tempo of the music; fast and furious drum beats are used throughout the songs and are often described as rage music. I tried to focus my text around two completely different fonts. One being a serif font and the other not, I used two types to connote the 2 sub-styles of Goths. One type tends to be very fancy and almost erotic in their lifestyle whereas the other tends to be very hardcore and closely linked to the magazine.
My photographs were a challenge to take because I had to think closely about the nature of some Goths and the composition of lighting and backgrounds. My front cover image was not as much of a challenge as the others. The person in the image is giving the “v-finger” and a very distinct sneer which could be used to connote their attitude and disrespect for authority. I didn’t use images of Goths smiling because that doesn’t appear to happen very often in their lifestyle. Instead I tried to get them being very casual, not smiling and in areas where they tend to “hang-out”. So I chose to take some of my photos in the corridors of the college to connote their age and their social class. The use of the exterior glowing of the cover lines on the front cover was used to effectively make them stand out and be more attractive to the youths by clearly showing observers the target audience and the specific colour preferences of the culture.
I tried to make the double page spread a fairly simple but fairly traditional layout. For a gothic music magazine, it had to have some hardcore elements like for example the gothic magazine “Metalhammer” which is extremely hardcore and almost frightening. I added no frightening elements to the magazine because I tried to represent their personality rather than their appearance but the hardcore elements were required to represent the music.
The layout of the double page spread was nothing really special except for the extremely narrow gutters and the larger-than-normal quantity of the pull quotes. However, the position of the pull quotes is fairly unusual. Many pull quotes from other magazines are placed in between to columns and the text is wrapped around them. I haven’t done that, I have merely allowed a large space for the pull quotes to be larger than the rest of the text but remain in the column rather than in-between two of them. I had good reason for doing this; I used it to connote the truth about Goths. That they are in line with us and are just like us, but they dress differently and listen to different music. The world would be boring if everyone dressed the same and listened to the same music.
The use of the large white text across the legs of the people in the image is used to denote the bands name but the image itself is used to represent the age and attitude of the group. It is easy to tell from the image the attitude of the youth culture. My end sign for the double page spread was difficult to decide upon despite its simplicity. I thought about something that everyone would know, even the Goths and finally decided upon this, “: P”. Purely because it has a slight humour to it and everyone knows what it is used for.
The contents page has a similar layout to NME music magazine. I used this layout to add more of a hardcore feel to it. I used the magazine slogan; “The RAGE of death and heavy metal” to carry on the house style. The house style, itself, is hardcore, black/red/blue/white, non-serif/serif font and lots of blood effects. So I have made use of real magazines and altered their colour scheme and layout to make my own music magazine.
My photographs were a challenge to take because I had to think closely about the nature of some Goths and the composition of lighting and backgrounds. My front cover image was not as much of a challenge as the others. The person in the image is giving the “v-finger” and a very distinct sneer which could be used to connote their attitude and disrespect for authority. I didn’t use images of Goths smiling because that doesn’t appear to happen very often in their lifestyle. Instead I tried to get them being very casual, not smiling and in areas where they tend to “hang-out”. So I chose to take some of my photos in the corridors of the college to connote their age and their social class. The use of the exterior glowing of the cover lines on the front cover was used to effectively make them stand out and be more attractive to the youths by clearly showing observers the target audience and the specific colour preferences of the culture.
I tried to make the double page spread a fairly simple but fairly traditional layout. For a gothic music magazine, it had to have some hardcore elements like for example the gothic magazine “Metalhammer” which is extremely hardcore and almost frightening. I added no frightening elements to the magazine because I tried to represent their personality rather than their appearance but the hardcore elements were required to represent the music.
The layout of the double page spread was nothing really special except for the extremely narrow gutters and the larger-than-normal quantity of the pull quotes. However, the position of the pull quotes is fairly unusual. Many pull quotes from other magazines are placed in between to columns and the text is wrapped around them. I haven’t done that, I have merely allowed a large space for the pull quotes to be larger than the rest of the text but remain in the column rather than in-between two of them. I had good reason for doing this; I used it to connote the truth about Goths. That they are in line with us and are just like us, but they dress differently and listen to different music. The world would be boring if everyone dressed the same and listened to the same music.
The use of the large white text across the legs of the people in the image is used to denote the bands name but the image itself is used to represent the age and attitude of the group. It is easy to tell from the image the attitude of the youth culture. My end sign for the double page spread was difficult to decide upon despite its simplicity. I thought about something that everyone would know, even the Goths and finally decided upon this, “: P”. Purely because it has a slight humour to it and everyone knows what it is used for.
The contents page has a similar layout to NME music magazine. I used this layout to add more of a hardcore feel to it. I used the magazine slogan; “The RAGE of death and heavy metal” to carry on the house style. The house style, itself, is hardcore, black/red/blue/white, non-serif/serif font and lots of blood effects. So I have made use of real magazines and altered their colour scheme and layout to make my own music magazine.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Monday, 2 March 2009
Contents Page of Music Magazine Analysis
This is my analysis of a contents page of a music magazine. CLICK the image to see my analysis.
Double Page Spread of a Music Magazine
This is my Analysis of a DPS. CLICK the image to see my notes and views!
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Music Magazine Audience Research
1) Have you ever read a music magazine? YES NO
2) If not, would you ever read one? YES NO MAYBE
3) How much would you pay for a music magazine? £1 £2 £3
4) What is your favourite genre of music? DEATH METAL JAZZ
HEAVY METAL TECHNO
ROCK INDIE
SOUL ALTERNATIVE
POP OTHER ( )
5) What colour scheme would you expect to see in a gothic music magazine?
RED/BLACK
BLUE/BLACK
WHITE/BLACK
PINK/BLACK
6) How often would you like this magazine to come out? EVERY MONTH EVERY WEEK
7) Which particular band/artist would you like to see in the magazine?
ANSWER IN THE SPACE PROVIDED: ( )
8) How would you like the magazine to communicate? PLEASE CIRCLE:
FORMALLY/SERIOUSLY
CASUAL/NON-STANDARD
FUNNY/JOKEY
9) What products out of the list below are you more likely to spend your money on? PLEASE CIRCLE FROM LIST BELOW:
HAIR GEL BLACK CLOTHING MUSIC GOTHIC FACE-PAINT
MP3 PLAYERS OTHERS ( )
10) If nothing above interests you, please state below what you spend your money on (this is for advertising only): ANSWER IN SPACE PROVIDED( )
2) If not, would you ever read one? YES NO MAYBE
3) How much would you pay for a music magazine? £1 £2 £3
4) What is your favourite genre of music? DEATH METAL JAZZ
HEAVY METAL TECHNO
ROCK INDIE
SOUL ALTERNATIVE
POP OTHER ( )
5) What colour scheme would you expect to see in a gothic music magazine?
RED/BLACK
BLUE/BLACK
WHITE/BLACK
PINK/BLACK
6) How often would you like this magazine to come out? EVERY MONTH EVERY WEEK
7) Which particular band/artist would you like to see in the magazine?
ANSWER IN THE SPACE PROVIDED: ( )
8) How would you like the magazine to communicate? PLEASE CIRCLE:
FORMALLY/SERIOUSLY
CASUAL/NON-STANDARD
FUNNY/JOKEY
9) What products out of the list below are you more likely to spend your money on? PLEASE CIRCLE FROM LIST BELOW:
HAIR GEL BLACK CLOTHING MUSIC GOTHIC FACE-PAINT
MP3 PLAYERS OTHERS ( )
10) If nothing above interests you, please state below what you spend your money on (this is for advertising only): ANSWER IN SPACE PROVIDED( )
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
gothic music mag cover
I realise that I have not yet completed an analysis of a gothic music magazine front cover. so here it is. i know it is in a different language but bear with me. CLICK the image to see my analysis.
Friday, 16 January 2009
My Own Music Magazine; initial ideas
The current working title of my music magazine is "Blood Rage". This title is to attract my target audience, which happens to be Goths. Goths are mostly male but you do tend to come across female Goths from time to time. Their age boundary ranges from 15 to 25, sometimes you find older Goths but nothing beyond the age of 30. There are people who have the personality traits of a goth but who don't actually wear black. They are the white Goths, essentially known as Woths. Goths have main interests in black clothing. They often wear full length black coats, large, metal plated, black boots, dark blue/black jeans and frequently wear artistic black t-shirts. This is also the height of what they spend their money on, other items include heavy/death metal band cds (like Carcass, Death and Morbid Angel), hair gel (for the weird hairstyles) and black face paint (for the odd decoration). They hang out in dark areas like alleys, however, as intimidating as they sound, they are not mean. Well, not some of them at least.
I plan to use some band features as part of my double page spread. I have considered three bands to use; Death, Carcass and Morbid Angel. These are all death metal bands and so I would hope would be relevant to goths. The colour scheme was a little difficult to choose but as a thought I have decided to begin with a red and black colour scheme to link in with the masthead. Hopefully this should emphasis the hardcore style of the magazine. I hope that this replicates a similar style to the music magazine, Kerrang.
I feel that my design for the magazine will sit fairly high up in the USP because I haven't seen any music magazines directed at goths so i would assume mine as rather unique. I have proposed a modest price of £2.99 each month for the magazine.
I plan to use some band features as part of my double page spread. I have considered three bands to use; Death, Carcass and Morbid Angel. These are all death metal bands and so I would hope would be relevant to goths. The colour scheme was a little difficult to choose but as a thought I have decided to begin with a red and black colour scheme to link in with the masthead. Hopefully this should emphasis the hardcore style of the magazine. I hope that this replicates a similar style to the music magazine, Kerrang.
I feel that my design for the magazine will sit fairly high up in the USP because I haven't seen any music magazines directed at goths so i would assume mine as rather unique. I have proposed a modest price of £2.99 each month for the magazine.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Blender Magazine Cover Analysis
Blender Music Magazine Cover. CLICK for analysis and hover over image to see notes.
Classic Rock magazine Cover Analysis
Classic Rock Music Magazine. CLICK the image for analysis and hover mouse over the image to see the notes.
Mixmag Cover Analysis
This is a Front Cover of a music magazine. CLICK the image to see notes and hover mouse over notes to read.
Friday, 24 October 2008
The contents page
This is an evaluation of this image:I have used very slang words to connote that this magazine is directed towards younger people (16-18) for example, wassup. I have decided to do the word "student" in a very formal and simple style to connote the formality assumed by students, but the scruffily done "shout" is to connote the truth about a majority students that we really are quite scruffy but we get the job done. I have backed the images to denote photographs, to make them look like photographs that have been layered on top of each other and in no particular order.
I feel that the use of backing the images have been most successful due to its denotation. They genuinely look like photographs. However, the most unsuccessful part I feel is the fact that there are no images to show them clearly for what I intended to. However, I feel that as long as the observers see that they are supposed to be photographs, I am comfortable with what I have.
I feel that through this task, I have developed a clearer understanding of what I can do to conote or denote a particular aspect of an image. I believe that you need to think like a person lacking of intelligence to make the denotation/connotation as clear as possible.
The front cover
This is an evaluation of this image:As with the contents page, I have used the formal style of the word "student" to connote the formality of the title. and the scruffily done style of the word "shout". This connotes the clash between the schema and the truth. The use of the image of the student with the thumbs up is to connote that the student is encouraging the reader to read this magazine and that it is worth reading. I placed the competition at the base of the cover because everyone likes a little competition now and then so something to show this had to be put in the cover. A majority of magazines give the reader a taste of what they are about to read inside this magazine, in a sense, to let the people know what they are buying. I decided to put the taster at the base in different colours because during production, the idea of making the taster the same colour seemed to clash with every other colour in the image and making it very difficult to see them. Overall, the various bright colours connote that this is a very entertaining magazine, which is why people buy them. However, this magazine is obviously not just for anyone. I have used the image of the student and the bright colours to show that the target audience for this magazine is for students (youth's aged 16-18).
I think that the use of the student image is the most successful part of the image because it connotes the message I explained earlier. It was rather difficult to get the head to fit around the image because I didn't know how to do it. However, I eventually managed to do it by copying and pasting a section of the head and place it partially in front of the logo/title.
Overall, I feel that I have developed more techniques to use in the future use of Photoshop. For example, before I began the topic, I had no idea how to do half the things that I placed in the image, but through exploration of Photoshop, I have managed to create an eye-catching magazine cover.
Monday, 13 October 2008
The initial design
This will be my inital idea of a front cover of a magazine cover. Click on the image to see my notes on why I made it like this.
Friday, 10 October 2008
The initial contents design
This is the mock up off the glamour (yes, the woman's magazine) but I have so expertly and with all my skills turned it into the contents for a college magazine. Isn't it awesome!? Most people would say that I suck....i do. This is the third time on photoshop and its just so cool i can't contain myself!!! Just click on the image, i've added some specialist notes.
Rough Glamour Magazine contents
This is my rough layout of the contents page of Glamour magazine. Just take a minute to laugh it up....yeah, you just sit there and laugh....
Anyway, it is rather chunky despite how simple it looks and there are some strange comments, including one about aura's....don't ask why. This wil include the target audience of the magazine and some very sarcastic comments about the intelligence of blonde people....just take another minute to laugh.....yup, glamour magazine....keep laughing......now.....just take a look at my notes. Click on the image to view them.
Anyway, it is rather chunky despite how simple it looks and there are some strange comments, including one about aura's....don't ask why. This wil include the target audience of the magazine and some very sarcastic comments about the intelligence of blonde people....just take another minute to laugh.....yup, glamour magazine....keep laughing......now.....just take a look at my notes. Click on the image to view them.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Front Cover Magazine Analysis
Look at this. An awesome magazine cover for an awesome amount of description. I warn you, it is pretty choc-a-bloc.
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