blog 9 evaluation

My magazine has been created using a basic knowledge of the layout of music magazines. By being aware of what most music magazines look like I can use the basic structures that are in place and modify it to suit my demographic. Although I have used the ideas of the media I have tried to ensure my magazine is different throughout to help it become recognised and differentiate itself from other magazines. For example the front cover of my magazine follows basic layout and content ideas but differs in the style of these things. It is the same in the use of a large masthead at the top of the front cover with the magazine name, a small insight into what is in the magazine and a picture on the front also showing you who is in the magazine. The title of the magazine is obviously going to be different to that of other magazines not only in the name but in the font aswell. The font I used differs as it is not quite as basic as the either Atm or mixmag but it has it's similarities as all three have a block style font which make it clear and easy to read. All three have a basic font with some sort of effect with the font but all of the effects are different to each other this is what makes the fonts really stand out from each other. I previewed some of the stories in the magazine on the cover. This is common so this was the same as both Atm and mixmag but the ways in which it was done by each magazine was different. I wanted to keep my magazine front cover fairly plain to avoid it looking tacky so I only used two stories one on each side for my front cover. Mixmag went for the other technique of using loads of stories on the front cover. Atm was entiely different to both as it told what artists would be featured in the magazine. We all used full page photos for the front covers this is so they have more impact and are generally more interesting to look at. It is important to use the right photos for the front cover as they are the thing most likely to draw the customers attention. I used a photo of someone Djing for the front cover of my magazine this is different to both Atm and mixmag as they have stationary, set up photos for the front cover. I challenge the convention of music magazines by using a performing artist on the cover. I think this style of photo is more likely to appeal to my demographic because it shows the magazine is all about the music. As the photo is of someone performing rather than posing it gives the front cover a more down to earth sort of look so the target audience will be able to relate with it easier. I think the fact that the artist is performing makes the photo more eye catching and therefore gives it more impact. I think this is also supported by his facial expression as both other magazines have pictures of people with quite mellow and ordinary expressions. All these things challenge the conventions of the media and so therefore make it stand out compared to the others.

The contents page of magazines tend to have a little more variation as there is more items to be arranged on these pages. This is obviously going to leave more possible variation and as all the articles used are going to be different this will affect the way the page is structured and the images accompanying the stories etc. Each magazine will be trying to attract a slightly different audience so the contents page like the rest of the magazine has to be designed to suit the chosen demographic. The mixmag magazine has used a large picture which takes up most of the page and at the top of the page it has "tunes" written in large letters. The articles are divided by genre down the left hand side. My contents page also has the stories arranged into genres but as my magazine is more specialised it only has three sections. Two of these will remain the same each week while the other will change each week this is so there is variation in the magazine. This is different to mixmag as mixmag has nine different genres and these will remain the same indefinetly. By using less genres it shows it is a specific magazine and will have more stories on the same genre making it more detailed. At the top of my contents page is overt contents with overt written in the same font to reinforce the brand and so it is more memorable. My contents page shows it is a magazine designed for a niche audience which helps establish it as a higher end magazine. This is different to mixmag as this is more of an overview of dance music and not detailed for specific genres. The lack of pictures in my magazine is very different to mixmag. Mixmag has a picture which looks irrelevant to the magazine I wanted to try to avoid doing this as I think it lowers the quality of it making it unsuitable for a higher end more specific audience.

The double page spread not only has to suit the audience but has to be adapted to suit the type and style of the article. Obviously it's not going to be the same layout when there is an interview to when there is a review. Both the double page spread from mixmag and my own have used an interview for the article. In these pages I liked the style and layout that mixmag has used for the double page spread so there will be more similarities between the two double page spreads. The first page of the double page spreads both use large photos for impact and to show who it is being interviewed. This is where the similarities end however as mixmag used the photo which took up the whole page and added a quote from her interview and this was the entire page. It is a simple and minimal but striking page. Mine is different in that I added a title which read Dj Static this is used with the image below to show exactly who the interviewee is and to attract the readers attention. By combining these two things it emphasises the importance of the interview. I think that although using an image to take up the whole page is eye catching it is not as eye catching as the image with the title. This page again rejects the techniques used by mixmag and alters them to be more effective and more suitable to the target audience. I have chosen to put some of the text on this page so that the other page can also be very image orientated. This is completely different to how mixmag have done it as they have used small pictures on the second page which accompany the text rather than the other way round as I have chosen to do. I think although it is obviously very important for the content to be appreciated I think it equally important for the reader to see the interviewee properly so they can associate with them. I think this needs to be done with a range of pictures aswell so different things can be shown. Both of us have used three photos so there is a similarity with the way we have structured the double page spread. I have used three aswell because I think it is important to show the interviewee with a range of shots but it is important not to use too many so they don't completely take over the pages and so the photos are a good enough size to be seen and appreciated clearly. I decided not to cover the first page with a photo for the same reason because it is too overpowering so devalues the content in the article. I think I have rejected convention as double page spreads tend to be biased one way or the other while I think mine has a much better balance between the importance of the photographs and text. I have again moved away from the style of this magazine with the photos. My photos I think are less set up so give a more concentrated view on the person in the photograph it also gives the down to earth appeal which is suitable to my demographic. This also makes the photos look more natural and therefore more real to the reader. Another way I centred the photos more towards the interviewee is by ensuring he took up a large proportion of the shot. This is again different to mixmag as in one of the photos she takes up a small proportion of the image. I think one of the main aims of my spread was to keep things looking and feeling natural and I don't think this was important to mixmag so this is just another one of the things that made them look different. One of the reasons I wanted to keep things natural is because I think the target audience I was trying to attract dislike the manufactured and generic design of most magazines so by going for this I have again purposefully declined these themes.

The genres most prominent in my music magazine are dubstep and drum and bass. These are not usually associated with typical pop music and are not really affected by pop culture and for this reason it is harder to pinpoint the trends and fashions etc of the fans of these types of music. As the fan bases are smaller and smaller still for those that appreciate both genres enough to buy the magazine for them it allows the demographic to be specified. I think it is easier for the magazines representations to be measured through the readers opinions and attitudes etc rather than material things like clothes. That is how I chose the name for my magazine "overt" although it sounds cutting edge and cool which are important aspects of the name it has a deeper meaning than just what it sounds like. The word overt means unhidden (not secret) and it also means open to new things. These meanings represent my magazine perfectly and are two things I think are important to my target audience. The title of the magazine helps promote the honesty and down to earth attitudes that the magazine hold. It also links and promotes the continual pursuit of new music with an open mind. I think these are things that also represent the attitudes of the readers of the magazine. The title itself not only represents the magazine but I think it represents the people that read it because it was designed with these things in mind and those that will be attracted by this are those with the same ideals. Like the title itself the readers I think are also more complicated than they first appear the readers like the title are about more than just looking and sounding cool. The two stories on the front cover both relate to these themes and attitudes. The one on the left is about Mistabishi's recorded mix which he played in a club instead of actually performing. This is all about honesty and satisfying the audience. He cheated the audience and this is against what the magazine stands for. The magazine is putting him on the spot by asking him about this and is representing the audience by showing their opinion through the interview. Drum and bass fans everywhere were outraged when they heard about this and overt reacted by putting the audiences opinion to him through interview. The controversy of the story will undoubtedly attract the audiences attention and this is even more effective as the article is exclusive. The other story also represents the audience as it is all about a new genre. This is common ground for overt and its readers the quest to find new music is important to both. The article is about a new type of drum and bass called drumstep. In fact new music is so important it has an entire section dedicated to it. Although this is not representing the readers opinion in the same way it is mirroring their attitudes by putting such importance on new music. The picture on the front page also represents the target audience because although he is performing many of the people that read the magazine will perform or may own decks themselves. Many of the people reading the magazine will be involved with music which makes them easier to represent and for them to relate with features in the magazine. The contents page represents the audience through the stories used in the magazine. I have already talked about how a couple of the stories represent the audience and as all of them are aimed at the audience they play a part in representing them. You can workout hrought the stories in the contents page that the audience is interested in new music and new artists, enjoy live music much more than other people and want to know about the artists they listen to. This can all be derived from looking at the articles used in the magazine. The articles themselves are key to representing the reader. The article in the double page spread was an interview so the main way the reader was represented was throught the interviewer. This is because they are responsible for asking questions that the reader will want to know the answer to and the language they use and person they interview is aimed to be attractive to the reader so therefore must be similar to the choices the reader themselves would make; so in this respect it is representative of the reader. The interview is conducted with the focus spread between personal and career issues. It is slightly biased toward his career as the reader will want to know about his future music. The interviewer asks advice as many of the people reading the interview would be interested in making their own music so they would want to know any advice he can give. The questions based on this subject represent these types of readers. The questions asked about his music and career are representative of anyone who likes his music and wants to find out more about it. The personal questions are representative of those who want to find out his personality so maybe those who like him for more than just his music and are interested in more than just when his album is coming out. These will be the three main reasons people will read his interview and they are all represented by the interviewer. Although the magazine will be reaching a wide range of demographics the majority of readers will be 15 to 19 years old. A large majority of readers will be from the UK as this is where these genres are most popular and where the magazine is based. The readers will generally be male as it is more male orientated and most fans of these genres are male. It is more male orientated for this reason. Although social status usually isn't considered but I think there will be very few readers from upper class reading this magazine as it is not aimed in any way at this group and they are'nt typical fans of these genres. Although these are general trends of the magazine it is more designed for people with certain attitudes and tastes than any of these things used to categorise people. All the things above are selected through the language and presentation used.







The characteristics detailed above will inevitably alter where the magazine will be sold and advertised etc. As the genres featured in the magazine are relatively obscure compared to most genres featured in music magazines it can be said that it is aimed at a niche audience. This means you would automatically think it should only be sold in specialist music shops. Small music shops might want to sell these magazines because the magazine tells readers about all the new music coming out and they may sell records due to recommendations in the magazine. Also if people always buy the magazine from that shop it gets people into the shop. I think that although a large number of the readers of my magazine will visit these types of shops it should still be stocked elsewhere as these shops are often harder to find. Also if someone is visiting one of these shops it is likely they will be looking for music only and will generally know what they are looking for before they go to these shops (impulse buying is much less likely in these shops). For these reasons I think Overt should be sold in other shops with a large magazine collection such as WHSmith and Tescos. These are just a couple of examples however but these sorts of shops tend to be more accessible and there will be more impulse buying in these stores. Although it is a specialised magazine these shops sell specialist magazines so it would not be irregular for this sort of magazine to be in these shops. It is a niche market basically meaning it is a smaller market but because there is less competition in this area it means the market is shared between less magazines so Overt should hold a larger proportion of the market. This is the reason why these types of shops may choose to stock this magazine. There are a small number of Dnb magazines and an even smaller number of Dubstep magazines. There is virtually no magazines featuring both genres and there are no magazines structured in the same way as Overt with a different genre featured every issue aswell as the other two genres. This makes it unique so it should hold a large proportion of the market. Online sales will play a big part for the selling of the magazine as they may spend a large amount of time on the internet and may wish to make the purchasing more convenient for themselves due to a busy lifestyle. The internet sales will be through the the Overt website to increase brand awareness and so it is easy to find. Although the company I have chosen to use is not a publishing company it is something they could move into. It is a record label but as it is involved in the music industry it will have experience with media production. It is called creative source and is owned by fabio who is a recognised Dj and producer. His company has been very successful recently as they have had people on their label that have been popular. He also has his own radio show so will be well known and can reach a large audience. It is a well recognised company and is run by a popular and well known person so this will encourage people to buy the magazine as it is a trusted brand with the target audience. Fabio himself is in a perfect position to promote the magazine and the magazine can promote the artists on his label.

http://sdcmediaaschristycullen.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-2-target-audience.html

This is a link to the blog about the target audience. The data described in blog 2 is the general trend of most readers but their will be a wide variation of readers. It will have a more diverse range of readers than most music magazines. This is because the magazine was devised with the psychographic information being the most important. It is easier to aim the magazine at people with certain attitudes than people in a certain age range for example. This is because people in this age range will vary hugely while people with the same attitudes will still be different but you can aim things in the magazine at the attitudes people have. For this reason I think it is a more effective way of categorising your target audience. The target audience will have a keen interest in finding new music and may have an interest in making their own music and/or performing music. They buy the magazine to find out about music and not gossip. They are not exclusively interested in one type of music eg listens to a wide range of different types of music. Like to look good but can look beyond appearance. This links in with their attitudes on others opinion of them so their lives don't revolve around being popular. They like to know alot about the music they listen to and many of the technicalities of it. This could be because of the desire to make their own music. They like things out of the ordinary and things which stand out to them because they are different. Although they look for good value for money they don't mind paying more for something they want. If they want advice on a purchase bayond themselves they will ask friends. Tend to have good brand loyalty when they find something they like. Are likely to have a hobby which they are likely to do with friends. Although popularity is not hugely important they spend a large amount of time with their friends.

The title is the first thing which will attract the target audience as this is one of the first things that catches the eye and attracts someone to the magazine. This makes the look of the title very important but the way the title sounds is also very important because if people talk about it or are explaining it to someone it has to sound good or people will be put off immediately. Both the presentaion and sound of the title have to be perfectly suited to the target audience or they will instantly put off to the magazine and wont even consider looking at it. I think the combination of the way mine looks and the way it sounds are perfect for my target audience. Although the name of the magazine is more effective if you understand the meanings and reasons for the name overt it is still an effective name. The reasons for the name will be explained within the magazine and on the website but the title still attracts the reader without them understanding the connotations behind it. Pople who nderstand what the word means may be attractesd on a subconcious level anyway. The name is attractive to the audience for a number of reasons the first being that the word has impact so it draws your attention. The impact is increased by the fact that it is a one word title and the word is short making it more punchy. The word also sounds serious so it shows the magazine is for serious music fans. The title will stand out because it is different to the names of any other music magazines so this will help draw peoples attention. It is not only the sound of the word that was designed to attract the target audience as the presentation is important in supporting the messages that the word represents. The font used for the title helps to draw the readers attention as it looks different to the titles of other magazines. It also does this by adding impact to the title. The font is bold and has an effect which makes it look grimey so gives it even more impact. Another key feature in attracting the audience is the use of photos. The photo which is most important for originally attracting the readers attention is the one on the front cover. This does this in a variety of ways but it is again important for it to remain consistent with the other areas of the magazine. The picture on the front cover like most of the other things in the magazine is slightly unconventional. Unlike nearly all other music magazines I have chosen to have a photo of someone performing on the front cover. This draws the audiences attention as it is different to what most magazines look like. The picture also has impact as it is a low angle shot. This makes him look more imposing but it is subtle so it does not become obvious and over the top. The photo demonstrates the magazines concentration on the music and not other issues. This is reinforced as it does not tell you who it is because it assumes people that read this magazine will know who he is. So this shows it is a magazine for people who are seriously into their music. For those that don't recognise him, they may want to find out. The pictures in the double page spread attract the audience for some of the same and for some different reasons. Again the photos I used were not typical of photos generally used for dubstep, or drum and bass artists. The photos taken typically feature the person looking very serious and this is in total contrast with the ones I used. This makes them stand out. All three have a relaxed or comic theme which makes them more inviting to the reader and makes it easier for readers to relate with him. It is also more suitable because he is not a serious person so it would give a false impression. I chose to avoid this as the audience want to find out about the person; this is partly why I chose to have relaxed photos so it seems more real and more natural to the audience. The language used throughout is informal and relaxed. This is so it is more enjoyable and easier to read. It is also more suitable for the target audience it makes it easier for them to understand and relate with again. Reading the magazine shouldn't feel like a lecture it should be more like a casual conversation. Although I wabt it to feel similar to a conversation I have avoided the use of direct address as I think it can be patronising. It also makes the magazine seem less professional in my opinion. The contents page is attractive to the audience because it is simple and direct.

I struggled with the use of adobe indesign particuarly at the start of the project. I did not use photoshop as the only photo editing I did was very basic and minor adjustments. This ensured the editing process was not especially time consuming howevere this was very different when it came to using in design. It did become gradually easier to use the software as I used it more but it was always a very time consuming process. The software allowed me to carry out nearly all the ideas I wanted to but it often took me a long time to do it and it may not have been the way I wanted to do it but finished with the same effect. By the end I have been able to insert items such as pictures,text, etc, I can modify the colours used, I can modify the layout in any way I have wanted, can use some effects on the text and images. The main problem I found with the software and the thing that made it time consuming to use was that if you made a mistake or wanted to modify something it was difficult and you would usually have to do it again. I found this to be a particular problem with importing the images as if you tried to change the size it would become pixelated. I managed to overcome this by pasting the image in it's actual size which was way too big and then by making it smaller.

I have learnt everythiong I know since starting the preliminary task as I had never used the software before I started the preliminary task. The preliminary task was useful in that it helped me learn most of the very basic skills I needed for the music magazine. The reason I only learnt the basic skills during the preliminary task is because the work I produced was simple. The more complex and detailed stuff I learnt fairly late on in the main task because I had to to make the magazine look the way I wanted it to. I think my design was improved vastly from the preliminary task because the music magazine was for a more specific audience. The preliminary task had to be appropriate for students at college and within this is a huge variation of people which makes it hard to make something attractive and appropriate for all of them. It was also easier for the music magazine because I know the target audience. I think the elements of my design that have improved is the understanding of how things fit together better. I now have more understanding of which things work well together and what doesn't. I think that I now understand combinations which work in different areas of the design like colour scheme, pictures, stories and how all of these things fit together. I think the only way in which my language improved since the preliminary task is the language I used in the music magazine was more suited to my target audience. I also had to write an article for my double page spread so I learnt how to write an effective interview. The language I used was informal everyday language so it was attractive to my target audience and this is how my language use was improved from the preliminary task as it was more suitable for my target demographic. The planning was one of the things that I struggled with. It took me a long time to make decisions about my magazine. I am indecisive so I was concious that my plans would be likely to change. Which is why I tried to keep my plans loose so it would allow for variation. I knew that things would look different when it was on the computer and I actually started making it. What I have learnt is that you don't have to start making it when you have an exact plan, you can have a rough idea and start playing about with the software until you find something you like. I think this is a more efficient way of working because it prevents it from becoming rigid and this way you get exactly what you want.