The Evaluation
An example magazine cover, contents page and double page spread.
The Front Cover
The masthead for ‘Vibe’ magazine is wide and the writing is bold and thick, using one solid colour, this text also goes behind the main image, as does Swaggers masthead. On my magazine ‘Swagger’ is written longer then wider and is spread across the whole page. The colour is also a solid colour like ‘Vibe’. The sell line on Vibe is ‘Usher the king is back, he’s no.1 and married with a vengeance’. This writing goes over the masthead slightly and is black outlined in orange. A bit of the writing also goes over the top of the main image showing that it is related. On my image the sell line is ‘bad boy Farhan confesses all’ unlike Vibe the only writing that is in capital letters is the word Farhan, this text is black also outlined in orange, similar to Vibes sell line. Unlike Vibe the text is placed in the middle of the page with the word Farhan blown up and going across the main image showing that it is related. I enlarged Farhans name to show that he is somebody to be noticed and that he is worthy of being on the front cover of a magazine as a main article.
The barcode on Vibe is placed on the bottom left hand corner of the page whereas on Swagger it is placed on the bottom right hand corner. On Vibe the price, date and issue are included on with the barcode. On Swagger they are also on the barcode but because it is the 100th issue I have also included that it is the 100th issue across the top of the cover, I then use the fact that it is the 100th issue as a selling point and relate the number a 100 to numerous articles to make the issue stand out and seem special from other issues of Swagger.
The main cover lines for the magazine Vibe are ‘The sexy issue’ and ’15 shocking celebrity sex scandals’ Because the magazine is aimed at young adults they are using sex as a selling point as what interests the younger generation is stereotypically known to be interested in sex related subjects. The writing is in black, yellow and white and for the other cover lines blue is used showing that they are not as important because they don’t stand out as much, as the text is smaller and a different colour. For my magazines main cover line the text read ‘exclusive interview with Hollie H’ this writing was in black with a yellow outline and the few other cover lines are in white, a different colour similar to how Vibe presented their cover lines.
Vibe magazine has a large sky line which is above the masthead and it says about boy bands talking about allegations. This sky line also includes teasing contents which will interest the audience as people care about celebrity’s lives and want to know the gossip. Other teasing contents include Keri Hilson stripping down and the ultimate sex scandal, again the magazine, although it is a music magazine includes a lot about sex as they know that is what attracts the audience and is a very large selling point. My magazine does not contain a skyline, although it does contain some text at the top of the page above the masthead so that it has to be read, informing the audience that it is the 100th issue. This relates to the teasing contents which are about ‘The 100 hundred hottest men’ and the ‘top 100 hundred songs of 2011’ Even though this is a music magazine, by it containing other information it keeps people interested and leaves a wider audience.
The Contents Page
The magazine Vibes content page only contains one image, although I think this is compensated for as the image is very bold and makes a big statement, again about sex. On my magazine Swagger, I tried using only one main image but I found that it wasn’t powerful enough on its own so I added a couple of images advertising some of the inside contents of the magazine.
On Vibes content page the Features covers most of the page. As the page fades from black to white the writing is black on top of the white making it stand out and so it is certain to grab reader’s attention. On neither my magazine nor Vibe is there a news section, an editor’s letter or a review section.
On Vibe the page numbers next to the contents are the same size as the text but in a bold font makes it stand out, this is so the audience can quickly find the article they are interested in reading. On my contents page the numbers next to the contents are slightly larger and also a different colour. Compared to Vibe this makes them stand out even more and also fits in with the colour scheme I have used throughout my magazine.
Double Page Spread
On the magazine Vibe there isn’t a head line whereas on my magazine there is a large head line ‘Hollie Hunter Reveals all’ I believe this draws the audience’s attention in and makes them want to know about what the singer is revealing. Whereas if there is no head line, like on Vibe then there is nothing to pull them in to the article to make the audience want to read on. The main image is large on Vibe is in bright vivid colours which contrasts to the similar pictures of the same actress going along the top of the page in black and white.
The introductory paragraph for Vibe is ‘Forget her sister, the out spoken Solange Knowles created one of the year’s best R&B album’ By showing the last name of the artist and talking about her sister the article makes it clear she is related to Beyoncé. Because of the R&B genre to the magazine it will attract allot of R&B fans as Beyoncé is a famous R&B singer and people will want to know about everything related to her including her family and their own talents. The introductory for my magazine, Swagger is ‘Hollie Hunter changed the music world she brought something different, something new and something fresh. She isn’t your typical female singer. Hollie Hunter has brought an edge to the music industry like never before.’ In this introductory paragraph by bloating Hollies’ newly found talent the audience will want to find out about a new upcoming artist who may be hitting the top of the charts. They can also make an important first decision on whether or not they like the artist and read on to see if she really does have the edge that is being described.
On both my magazine and Vibe there is no photo credit used, this could be the magazine saving money if they are on a budget and getting one of their own photographers to take the pictures. On my article the journalist is called Leanne and you can see this because her name is next to every question she asks as that is the form the interview was done in.
On Vibes magazine there is a pull quote all though it is hard to read and the writing is pulled close together in the side of the page in a dark colour which doesn’t make it stand out as well as it could, whereas on my magazine the text is large and in a bright colour that clearly stands out and reads; ‘Music is my passion, without I would be nothing’ this is a very powerful pull quote as it shows the dedication to the music and how that’s what this artists life revolves around which differs to a lot of other artists who like to go out and get drunk and splash their cash.
How my magazine represents particular social groups
My magazine represents the younger generation that care about music, appearance and sex. I used the age of my model to show that the magazine is aimed at the younger generation and I used the ethnicity of Farhan to represent the magazine being multicultural and not just aimed at one ethnicity. By my model wearing a hoody going over a designer baseball hat with ear phones around his neck this shows that he is the stereo typical gangster and the sort of youngster that older people may be afraid of and assume he is trouble. This aims the magazine at people that like to act out and do things they shouldn’t. The caption goes with this assumption and reads ‘Bad boy Farhan confesses all’. The class of my magazine is aimed at the middle class, it is fairly high in priced and contains a lot of gossip about celebrities which people generally aspire to be, especially the middle class.
Which media institution would distribute my magazine?
The media institution that I believe would distribute my magazine would be Bauer Media. This is partly because they published Q magazine which is similar to mine I think they would be glad I had taken my magazine to them instead of a competing business so that the magazines can keep a united front and work side by side instead of competing. Bauer Media is a very reparable business with millions of customers.
Who will be the audience for my magazine and how I attracted them
My magazine was aimed at people of middle class with some money; I put the price on the magazine higher than other similar magazines to make it more exclusive. My demographic group is 15-24 year olds. This is also how it started off. I haven’t changed the age range since I started my piece because I think 15-24 year olds of middle class’s parents will still be buying the magazine as they finish University which is generally around the age of 24. I think sex, scandal and future releases of new upcoming music will be important to this generation as they always want to be one step ahead and listening to the new releases. I included all of these factors in my magazine. The Demographical group I am aiming my magazine at is C1. It is likely to this group, who are trying to climb the ladder and work their work way up, that they would like something light and fun to read to give them a break but also something that interests them. My magazine was the 100th issue special to attract new readers I did lots of special ‘100’ related issues.
I asked a group of people I aimed my magazine at; six middle class young adults, three girls and three boys, if they would buy the magazine. Four people said no and two people said yes. Three of the four that said no were girls this makes me think my magazine is more appealing to boys than girls even though when I created it I kept both genders in mind. I asked the six people what genre they thought it was for and they all correctly answered R&B. They said they could tell by the colour scheme of black and yellow and the image of the traditional R&B/Hip Hop looking artist on the front.
I then asked them ‘do you think that at £2.46 the magazine is overpriced?’ Four of the people I asked said that the magazine is overpriced in their opinion and two people said it is correctly priced. The magazine is more expensive than others but I made it this way because it is aimed at middle class people rather than working class who I don’t think would find as much enjoyment reading it because of the contents and advertisements. I then asked if on the whole the magazine looked good, four people said yes and two said no. The two that said no were the girls who said they wouldn’t buy the magazine and it does not interest them or appeal to them. All six interviewees agreed you could tell all pages of my magazine are from the same magazine. I have done a bar chart to sum up what I found out:
What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product
To my work I used the quick selection tool a lot. I used this to take away backgrounds from the images of my models. I also used the blur tool, I used this around the edges of my images to make them, blur in with the background so that they look part of the page and not just stuck on. I used the transform scale tool to change the size of my images, while holding shift I could keep them the same scale while I changed the size. This tool was very useful. I used the character feature a lot on my text, especially on the main headings. I could make them stand out; apply outer and inner glows and shadows to make them jump out at the reader. Spot fix I could use to remove any blemishes off my models face. This was very useful for making the magazine look professional and my models looking famous, attractive and appealing. Red eye removal and Gaussian blur also came in handy. The Gaussian blur was able to give my models the finishing radiant look.
Looking back at my preliminary task, what I feel I have learnt in the progression from that to the final product
I have learnt a lot since I have started the process of my magazine. There is a clear difference between my college magazine and my music magazine. I spent a lot of time on the music magazine and I am proud of my work, I think I have come a long way since the college magazine and I have learnt to be much more detailed and use different techniques on Photoshop.
