My Music magazine project

By Megan Williams

I have included a puff for the front cover of my magazine. I have placed it along the top of my magazine, this is similar to most magazine’s as the Puff is usually along the top and next to the masthead.

My feature article photo is of a girl group. I hadThe models wear similar outfits of black trousersAnd blazers so they look like close and as if they Have a similar style, much like a famous band.I have also made them pose close together so suggest they are comfortable around each other as a band should be. They are all using eye contact with the camera to convey to the audience that theywill get close to the band by reading the article as it seems personal. All of these factors are conventions ofwhich

The masthead is situated in a position where the most mastheads are on other magazines I have reviewed, therefore this is conventional way of showing it. I have edited it so that it looks professional and attracts the target audience as it is smart and serious. Similarly to other magazines I have placed the band members head over it so it covers them slightly. This conventional design shows that the magazine does not want to out shine the music once again conveying that music is the most important factor in this magazine which will attract my audience who enjoy music news.

My cover line is large and takes up the majority of the middle of the page. This is because the we want the band to be seen as the main part of what’s inside, We also believe that the band could be a reason why a person would buy the magazineso we have made it noticeable. I have also edited the cover line because so it looks glamorous and shows the house style and theme of the feature article.

Plugs are found on every magazine cover, however I have used edited elementsof it developing the means of convention.The plugs do not cover the photo as they arethe main feature of the cover.

I have used a barcode in the corner so that it does not take focus from the cover itself. I have included the issue number and date on it so it available for the reader.

I decided to call my magazine ‘Unplugged’ due to answers from my market research. I believe that with my masthead I have developed convention as it is placed on top of the cover where most magazine place theirs. I chose to make my headline for every issue gold. Firstly this is because after market research people said that they were attracted by a black, white and gold theme. Gold is also a rich colour which could suggest the rich material and news within the paper, and that it is of reward standard. The gold however challenges convention as most magazine masthead are classic colours such as red, white or black, as you will see on Q and NME, I however wanted to do somethingdifferent to show that I am my own brand. I have edited my masthead with shadows and shine which I believe makes it look professional this is different to my competitors like Q and NME as they have not used editing on their magazine to make it look classic and simple.I have however developed convention when designing my magazine by placing a member of the feature article photo’s head over the masthead. Other magazine do this as the brand is sowell known part of the masthead can be covered. It is also a way of showing that the music is the most important thing within the magazine as the artist is over the masthead. I have used convention here as I would like my target audience to be seriously interested in music.

On the left is my edited feature article photo. I have decided to feature a band on the cover as from market research people said that they preferred bands. I decided to dress them all in similar outfits of black trousers and blazers, I have done this so that they look like a band with the same fashion as most bands do. This is similar to Vibe when the band is wearing all white and Q magazine because the band are wearing jean items. Therefore I have developed conventions. The outfits themselves show they are smart which links with the main article that I have written. I have made them pose close to each other to show that they are close friends in this band, this is also shown in the magazines on the right. My model are staring at the camera and making eye contact suggesting that the article will be down to earth and very personal. I have cropped so that the background is a plain colour similar to professional magazine. I believe this is because it shows that the only focus is on the artist themselves. However I have challenged convention in one large way. I have made my feature photo black and white, this because I it continues I wanted to have my magazine have its own uniqueness and own brand awareness. It also look similar to a newspaper, this makes it seem like important news about music which is what I wanted to convey as I would like my target audience to be interested in music.

My cover line (shown above) is placed on the cover in the middle of it and taking up the most room. I have done this so that it is seen first and I would like my band to be seen easily as cover line on the right and other magazines, similar to the rights I have used the bands name in a different colour and the smaller writing in another. This conveys that the band is the most important thing in the headline. However instead of just having the band name simple with no editing I have used a slight glow and shadow making the band name seem more glamorous and important. Although I liked the cover line of the rights layout I thought it could seem quite boring. This is why I put effects on the words to make it look eye catching and less

boring.

The plugs on the cover of my magazine show the audience what's inside to persuade them to buy it. I include just some of the stories I think people will like to hear. Because I am creating a mixed genre magazine I have used as many different types or artists to attract more people, similar to what Q has done (top left.) By looking at other plugs on different magazine I have noticed that it is conventional to place them within a box or banner which goes along the magazine’s width. I however have challenged these conventions by putting them flush left and right down the sides of my cover. I have done this because I think it gives a neater layout and I want my magazine to be smart as my target audience is for people really interested in music so I don’t think they would want the cover to be a mess.

The title of the content is placed within a black banner where the date and name/logo of the magazine is included. This Gives it the effect and design of a newspaper conveying it is formal and full of information. The photos on my content show three of the

music artists that I have written a piece on in the magazine . This makes it easier for thereader to see what page the story is on and they can quickly flick to it if interested.

I have decided to include headings on my content page, this makes it easy for readers to understand what type of article it is and gives the content page a nice set up which looks professional.

My content page is set up into columns, thismakes it both look smarter and is easier for the reader to read as it is not cramped in to a tiny space.

I have given every article a small headline of what the artist or festival is and the number in bold next to it. This is easily read by the reader and the name jumps out at them. This makes it easy to navigate around the magazine as they know what artist are on what page straight away, the information is just extra for people who want to know more about the article.

I have included a content title on my content page so that people will know what the page is used for. As you cans see on the right my content title is of a black band and included both The magazine name and the date. This is very similar to the Q content page as seen on the bottom left. This too includes the magazine name to give the page their trademark and let people know that they are reading Q magazine. It also shows the date so that people are aware with what issue and month they are reading. Q gives their title for content a feel of classiness and seriousness giving the content page a similar look to a newspaper informing that the reader is reading a magazine full of music. I have decided to do this to my magazine and have done so by making it look similar, I have also used the font of content and the date classic and smart, similar to a newspaper. The reason for doing this was because my target audience are people who enjoy music and want to learn a lot about artists. By making it look like this it emphasises that is packed with musical information as it is of a formal layout.

Mine is very different to the one on the bottom right. This is because Kerrang’s target audience is people of younger ages who have an indie/rock taste in music. Because of this their content is messy and has the effect of scratched and damaged writing. This is because that particular audience what to seem rebellious and because my target audience is not like that I have not designed my magazine to be similar.

I included three images on my content page. I believe the images on this page are important as it makes the magazine more visual and may even attract readers if they do not enjoy that artists music. All three of these images are of good quality because I used a good camera and a tripod prevent any blurs in the image. I chose poses and costumes very carefully. All the models are wearing items of clothing that represent them and their genre of music, all of which are different. With every image I have included the number of the page their article is on in green to keep the colour scheme going throughout. This makes it easy for the reader to know what page they are looking for, as all they have to do is look at the images and look at the number with it. Q magazine do this as well for the same easy to read reasons, so do most other magazine. I have challenged conventions in this way because I believe that my contents page and magazine would look better with more information than images. With the image of Beth I have cropped her and put her on the page amongst the text and columns. This helps break up the text, it is rare that other magazine do this. But it does happen some times as you will see in the Q image, therefore this means that I am not challenging conventions but I am using a layout and technique that not most magazines use.

On one of my images in the content page I have included a cover story button. I have made it one of the rare pieces of green on the page so that it is stands out for the reader. This lets the reader know exactly where the cover story is as the photo contains the page number. Not many other magazines use this so I believe I have challenged conventions and used something myself to make it easier for my reader.

I have laid out my content information in three columns as well as the other pages of my magazine. I think three columns makes it look smarter and gives it a more of a spacious layout with the information still in it. This is the look I have gone for as I believe my target audience will want a formal layout, the columns are similar to Q and Kerrang content page but not NME newspaper like content. I believe the columns are very conventional. For every article I have written the artist name in bold gold with a large black number which stands out for the reader so they will know If they want to read it or not dependent on the person. A small section of information is written underneath each number and name to give a bit more information about the article. This is written in a fun way to attract the audience but does not give all information away so people will be interested in reading it. All of the magazines that I analysed include a bit of information, therefore the small section I have written for each is conventional to a popular music magazine.

The magazine Kerrang(top left) list their pages in the content under headings and in small sections named like ‘news’ and ‘albums.’ When analysing this magazine I liked this idea and put my content page under Headings, I did this because I think it gives the layout more of a structuredlayout and allows people to read up on a section they particularly like

straight away.

I have included a headline that forms across my double page spread. I’ve made it big and bold so that it stands out when a reader first opens it.

The image I have chosen is of the band members showing off their new dresses as people can read about in the article. They are all making eye contact and smiling to look friendly to invite readers. The image spreads across both pages.

I included a small running head to let the readers know that the article is an interview. I also included the magazines name and logo making the pages its own.

I have written the article as an interview with the band. It is structured in columns and its question and writing are different colours to stand out and make it easy to read.

I included a pull quote in the middle of the text to break up the text and get the reader interested in the article without reading it.

The magazine that I analysed all had a very different way of setting out their headlines. Kerrang(top left) Places their headline slightly over two pages. Q magazine has a whole two pages dedicated to their headline but NME just places their headline at the top of a one page with the article underneath. I have decided to place my headline over both of the pages above the article. This once again is different to all the other magazines so challenges the conventions or lack of convention. I anted to spread it over two pages and make it large because I believe that it stands out to a reader when they first open the page. I have made the bands name to biggest and boldest because if someone is interested in the band then it makes it obvious that is who the article is about. The colour I have chosen is gold and white for the headline, I have done this because it goes with the whole colour scheme of the magazine and continues the house style. I have challenged conventions by placing the feature article photo over the headline, this is not done by other magazines. I have done this so that the photograph stands out and is the main feature of the pages.

My photo on the double page spread challenges conventions in several ways. Most article in magazine use more than one image, one large one and several smaller ones. I however have just used one large image of the girls posing in their dresses. Magazines usually have the big photo of the double page spread over one page, or a collage on one page as seen in Q (left.) I however have challenged this as my one image spreads across two pages , this makes them the main focus of the pages which is what the article is trying to express. I have cropped out the image so that the article can be read around it both of which are not normal conventions for double page spreads. I have challenged these as I believe it make the article more attractive to look at and shows my skills for cropping making it look professional. The image is of the band posing in dresses to show the glamorousness of the article and them as a band. They are all smiling and looking at the camera. The image is of good quality because I used a good quality camera.

Double page spreads usually include pull quotes from the artists that give a bit of insight into the artist and their personality. Similar to the examples of these magazine I have placed the pull quote within the article text. This helps break up my article and does not look like too much text for the readers to read. The pull quote will be one of the first thing the readers sees and so will give a taster of what the article is all about, and it may persuade the consumer to read the article. Use of a pull quote are conventional and all magazines include them in double page spreads.

I have set out my article in three columns. I did this so that it looks structured and easy for the reader to understand. Columns are conventional for articles and so I have followed theses conventions. I have also followed convention by including a drop cap at the beginning of my article. All other magazines use this as it helps the reader start from the beginning of the article. Because I have written an interview I have edited the question so that it is a different colour to the answers. When other magazine construct an interview they also do this, conveying convention. However I have challenged convention by making the text form around the image I have used.

‘Unplugged’ magazine is a mixed genre magazine. It can feature many artists and bands from rock to pop. I decided to make a mixed genre because of one of the statistics I got back from my primary research. After asking what sort of music people are into the answer was mixed and it showed that everyone has different preferences. To be a magazine that everyone would find interesting I have made sure that the issue contain a large variety of music. I will feature both the newest artists and more experience artists every issue so I can appeal to a large age range of 18-30. I chose this age range as I the ages are more likely to read a magazine that they are truly interested in and will enjoy the organized and information packed articles and house style. I believe the people who would enjoy reading my magazine the most would be people who are interested and serious about new music information and stories. They want it to be an easy read with all the information they wanted to know within it.

My magazine has been designed for both make and female. This is because I have included artists that are feminine and artists that are favoured by men. This is because I have a mixed genre include all types or bands and music artists. By doing this I cater for everyone meaning both gander would be happy reading my magazine. My colour scheme is unisex and not a colour that is favoured or seen as a particular sexes colour; this shows that my magazine can attract all genders. The target audience age is 18-30. This is because my magazine is very formal about information and made for a consumer that is interested in music and serious about the news of it. The most people who are like this will come under this age range as they are mature and want to spend their money wisely on a magazine. I include new artist for the younger customers in the range and older music artists to the older end of the target audience range.

The ethnicity of my target audience is a wide range as my magazine is mixed genre and all ethnicities will like one type of genre, my magazine will include music artists of all ethnicities. My target audience will want to be up to date with music culture and will be aware of different ethnicity and urban types of music as I will feature all in my magazine.

To understand the sort of class that will read my magazine I visited the BBC website where I looked at previous findings of a social class group. The two most classes I believe that would buy my magazine would be Emergent service workers and New affluent workers. Emergent service workers is a new class has low economic capital but has high levels of 'emerging' cultural capital and high social capital. This group are young and often found in urban areas. My target audience for the magazine is young and want to be topical of new cultures therefore this class is the perfect target for my magazine. The New affluent workers has medium levels of economic capital and higher levels of cultural and social capital. They are a young and active group. Once again this suggest they are interested in new and upcoming cultures including music which is what my magazine specialises, therefore they would be interested to read my magazine.

My house style has kept the same throughout the magazine’s cover, content and double page spread. My house style is of a neat and clean form with all columns, pictures, plugs etc. spacious and well-ordered so that it is an easy read for the audience. The colours can be easily read and are classic colours symbolising style and class, this is done because my target audience are people who are interested about music and just want straight ordered article to read, my magazine is similar to Q because our target audience is the same type of people. It is not too colourful and all over the place because that would be the right layout for someone of younger age. The house style does not give off a certain feel of genre of music, this Is because ‘Unplugged’ is mixed genre and I would not want to favour a specific type of music. Overall it gives a serious about music vibe.

It is important that the literacy of my article and magazine is well written , easy and comfortable for the consumer to read. I made sure that all writing was spelt correctly and written in a correct literal way. I have not used slang in the content or cover of my magazine. I use it only in part of the article where I have tried to make the audience understand what sort of person the artist is, this lets the reader feel closer to the celebrity which is one of the main reasons people will read it. I have written my article and content in a formal way so that it is easy to read and packed with information, however I have written it in a light hearted manner which gives it a happy twist so that the target audience will enjoy reading it. When writing the content sections I allowed it to act similar to a cliff hanger and get the audience interested in reading the article.

When I began to design my magazine I constructed some primary research and gave out a questionnaire to people from my target audience to answer. This allowed me to understand what they like in a magazine and how I could construct mine so that they would consider reading it. I asked questions that gave me both ideas and knowledge so that I could design the perfect cover, content and double page spread for them. This would then create more of a chance that my target audience would read the magazine.

The colour scheme is very important to my magazines design and attracting the target audience. I wanted to have a colour scheme that attracts all audiences, ages, sexes and genres. I came up with some combinations and asked what people would prefer during the primary research. As you can see from below people preferred the colour scheme of black and gold. This is good as both male and females would be attracted to it as I am not using a bias masculine or feminine colour which may put the other gender off. These colours are not specific to a certain type of genre which is good for my audience because I have a mixed genre magazine. For example a ‘Rock’ music lover would not read a magazine which is pink because it is not seen very ‘Rock and Roll.’ Black and gold however can be used for a alternative type of music by the use of black or a pop style by using the edgy up to date gold.

I enjoyed using the Gold colour because I believe it gave my magazine the style of glamorous. As gold is a rich colour it gives the impression to my audience that the magazine holds rich information that they will want to read. It also suggests award winning, this will give me edge on any competition. Not only does it do all of this but gives a classic feel to the magazine as when an audience member see’s the cover they may think of classic music and golden records. This will encourage the older reader to chose my magazine as I want people who are older but enjoy new music as well as old to decided to read my magazine. I have specifically made main features of my pages in gold, for example of my cover the Headline and cover line and in gold to suggest importance that will stand out. Throughout my magazine I have also used small components of green, I have used this to give it a edgy look and break up the black and gold on the page. I enjoyed making my cover photo black and white because it makes my magazine unique as not many other magazines design their similarly. It gives a classic and formal spin of the music artists within the frame that may attract my specific target audience.

I decided to ask my target audience what they prefer to read in a magazine. Both interviews and news were the top scoring answers. I took this on board and then decided what sort of articles I was going to include within it. I made my double page spread an interview because I knew that it would be favoured and want to be read by the people who would buy my magazine.

I have tried to include a range of different musical artist who represent different genres. I have done this because ‘Unplugged’ is a mixed genre magazine. I have represented the genres by the facial expressions and clothes that they are wearing in the images. For example the girl group are smiling and wearing light coloured clothes, they represent and indie genre. Beth the single artist on her own is not smiling and has a blunt expression on her face, she is a rock artist and shows this by wearing black leather outfit which is a typical clothing option for this type of singer. Each of the photos were taken with a professional camera so that the models were not blurred and it made the photos look professionally taken. All the models are giving eye contact to the camera, I directed them to do this so that the readers of the magazine felt as if they were close to the artist and that they were on their level. This is how I want the reader to feel when reader magazine, as if they are close to the artists and by reading their articles they

find out more about their personal life. The use of outfit, genre and close personal feeling has been used because target audience will be reading about their idols and will want to learn as much as they can about them. They may also want to see what they look like so that they can potentially obtain their style and be

similar to them.

A piece of media can represent a particular group, although many may be stereotyped. Although the models I use are all young and white, however I have created a mixed genres mag and in other issues would use a range a artists from different ethnicities, ages, class and genders. I will use my magazine to represent different genres of music and the people who make that music. In my content I was able to explain what sort of musicians I would include in my magazine and who I would write articles about, the images of this page were some examples of this, they are all of different ages, genders, from different countries, ethnicities and different genres of music. I also included different festivals which attract different social groups of people. For every music artist that I will include I will have a different style for each, representing them personally. For example I have represented a typical girl pop band by using my cover, content and double page spread.

The main article I decided to write about represented a girl group who’s genre is pop. I showed that this particular group have not been a particularly feminine group but have now changed as they are growing up as a band. This is what the main article is about and I have tried to show that throughout the magazine. I began with the front cover. The girls are wearing similar outfits of blazers and trousers, they are also posing close together, I did this so that the girls would look close and in sync like a band. The outfits are smart and are typical for a pop band to wear. This emphasises in the beginning that they are a pop band. They are of Caucasian origin and quite young. This can all be seen by the image on the cover. I wrote a small section on the band on the content page. This allowed people may not know the band well understand who they are and what the article is about. It tells of how ‘sweet lies’ are not a particular group of girly women but how they change with a new album and new style.

My double page spread allowed me to show the audience the pop band they have now become and the contrast from the cover to inside the magazine. To give the feel of a particular feminine girl pop group I decided to make the background of the double page spread purple. This colour is feminine and shows that they are now a typical girly pop band that women may like and boys will have an appeal to them. However the choice of colour could also show through a small piece of what there music is like. The font I have chosen is fancy and feminine next to the bands name which is bigger and more masculine and shows what sort of taste and music they originally have. They are dressed in evening dresses and posing with a smile the article explains how the band members are dressed up for their photo shoot but they have had lots of fun wearing the dresses. This conveys they are still child like but attempting to slowly change and grow more mature. By using this band and the elements I have explained I have tried to represent young girls and challenged stereotype by showing how they mature into adults. By the change in outfit it shows how smart and sophisticated young girls can be, this shown by the blazers and trousers, and how girly and fun they can be by putting on evening dresses and mucking about for a photo shoot. This is how young people want to be seen, they want the stereotype of young teenagers damaging property and vandalising to be challenged, by representing such a young girl group in this way it persuades people to read and for some young women to start seeing the band members as role models for being successful and mature by still having fun. Due to this an audience will be created for the article. The article itself also represented teenage girls growing up into adulthood, I show this by using their new album as a part of their growing up life and even called the album ‘Change’ this is because the women in my target audience will be at that age so once again the group can be seen as role models, as they grow older they become more mature and grown up but are still able to have fun with each other.

I sketched three designs for my front cover that I would work with and place the actual components in to see what would make the best formed front cover. I based the ideas on similar magazine cover that I had already seen. All include the ‘Unplugged’ masthead, plugs and puff. I design each sketch for three models because I knew I was going to use a girl group. The first deign did not include as many plugs and the models would have a separate image taken of all of them and edited together. The second design would have ben lop sided with the image being the main focus on the right and all the plugs being situated flush left. This was a more unusual design but I sketched it up to give it a try. The last sketch showed the model photo graphed together and the cover line and plugs over

the top of the image.

I decided to use the last sketch design for my front cover as it looked more professional and gave a better and more sophisticated set out that I believe my audience would prefer and enjoy. I also liked the image that I took for the design as it gives the feeling of the group being close friends within the band. However I did slightly change the design. I moved the high plugs on the flush left to the flush right and much more lower down. I did this because I found the plugs covered the feature article photo and models heads. I do not want to do this because the readers want to see the artists as they will be who attracts them to read the magazine.

Below are the designs for my content page. They are all similar in that they contain images, headings and columns. I used images as most people in primary research said that they like a lot of pictures on magazine pages. I decided to use headings on every design as 100% people said they wanted heading on the content page. The first design and second design are very similar however they just have a different layout of images and headings. The last design was different as it had a list down the side of albums and artists that are included in the issue. It also had a large section for the main feature of the magazine including a large section of descriptive writing.

This shows the transaction of the first design to the finished product. I wanted to use this design because it allows me to be more creative with images and the cropping of them. It had everything that the target audience had asked for such as headings and images and gave me a chance to make the columns and information smart and easy read with information which is the house style of my magazine. I only changed the content banner as I made it across the whole of the page to stand out more.

I also designed three double page spreads, so I have some idea of layout and pose that I wanted to take during the photo shoot. The first consisted of two images of the models in different poses, one whole page and one taking up the bottom of the other. I liked this design as primary research suggested that people would prefer two images on the article. However after trying this out on photo shop I felt it was too cramped and there was not enough space for the article itself which is very important for my wanting to be well informed audience. My second design was fairly straight forward by only having one image over one page, but I felt this was not very creative and did not show the music artists style of music and design.

This is the sketch I decided to use and my final product. I decided finally on this design for several reasons. Firstly It gave me a change to show the creative side of the music artists by giving them a layout which is unusual but smart, this design allowed me to have space for the full article I had written and a large headline to be noticeable to the audience and make a statement. I also loved the image of the girls I took as they all look happy and smiling in the outfits that they are modelling. This pose allowed me to crop them and have the image over two pages. I only made one small change from my design and that is I changed the position of my pull quote, I did this as I have made my headline slightly larger and there was not much room for the pull quote so I decided to bring it down on the page and centre it making it important and eye catching.

My audience want a professional looking magazine packed with information to make it look professional I have used a range of editing techniques and used the software's technology of Photoshop to make the magazine presentable and up to my target audience standards. Techniques such as cropping my images and designing the words and items that composed my overall design. It also Allowed me to design my own brand image and house style by using the same colours, text and layout. I used Blogger and social blog site where people can see my profile and the items that I upload. I used this because it was easy and quick to use. It gives my viewer a better way of viewing my work as I can design my page and make it in theme with my magazine itself. I was allowed to use my colour scheme and the layout is in a smooth order for the reader to understand. It is also accessible on mobile and other electronic devises so anyone can view my work.

I began to make my cover my making the image black and white and giving it effect so that the picture looks professional. I wanted to make it black and white to make my magazine original and have its own style so that people would enjoy the look of it. It also makes it look classic and information packed. I did this by using the editing techniques already available to me . I began by clicking on the image and using edit full effects to make it black and white as seen in the image on the bottom left. I then changed the shadow and highlighting this was because after the black and white edit I noticed that some shadows were on the models face. The shadows may have disgusted the audience to who they were and the importance of the magazine is getting the music artist stories and personality's across. To do this I lightened the shadows by 25% on the image and this gave me my final cover photo.

I explained in earlier slides that the colour scheme was important to my magazine as it gave the classic yet glamorous feel to ‘Unplugged’ and it was favoured by my target audience in the primary research.To get the gold colour that I used frequently through my magazine I found the colour I specifically wanted to use on the internet and used the eyedropper tool. This allowed me to pick up the same colour and use it to make or edit a piece of my magazine. When creating my plugs I could not decide which colour looked best for them, to help me I made the magazine with all possible options and see what looked the most eye catching and professional. This allowed me to picture what my magazine would look like overall and allows me to understand what would look better. I decided on the plugs being gold and white with green as the ‘&’ sign. This was because I preferred the overall cover having only small areas of green to stand out, and I found the green writing may have been too hard for the reader to see.

When creating my cover line for the front cover I decided that I wanted to put an effect on it to make to glow. I did this as it is the bands name and wanted it to stand out for the audience to read and see. I chose a glow edit so that the bands name looked glamorous and important. This keeps in theme with the whole article about the girls having a new look and becoming more feminine. The soft glow could represent fame and could be seen as angelic, too things of which this specific band has. It is also has a matching with the bands name as it

has the word ‘sweet’ in it. To do this I edited the layer style of the text. I gave it a glow with a large opacity of 75%, size of 48 and chose the colour to match the gold text which made it seem as if the text was glowing and shiny. I also gave it a slight bevel to give the cover line depth which gave it an important feel. I also used the editing of the layer for other parts of text on my cover, this is seen on the plugs and extra cover line where I used a stroke. The stroke allowed it to stand out from the background and be easier for the audience to read.

I cropped several images in the making of my magazine for the front cover, content and double page spread. This is important in the creating and designing of a magazine as an image can be placed on any background and make it look professional to the audience. I have cropped my front cover image, my double page spread photo and one of my content images. I then placed them in a more proficient background or with no background, this is because otherwise my image will have to original background of a room with is not how specialized magazines take their images. I tried to get my magazine to look as good and skilled as the other magazines currently on the shelves to buy. My magazine is designed for my target audience who want a professional and well designed and made magazine.

When first beginning to crop I used the quick selection tool. This selects an area of the image that is all the same colour/pattern. It then flashes so that I can see what is selected. I then deleted that section and continued doing so all around the picture so that the specific image I wanted was left of a white background. This was very useful to me as I got to get rid of excess bit which were not needed quickly. In the picture below it allowed me to crop around the picture section by section and no part of the model herself was cropped out.

After cropping the majority of the background I slowly and with a steady hand went around the model image to get rid of any excess background. It also allowed me to photo shoot the model so that they had straighter hair and a more curved image. This then gave me the outcome of my image with I could then place anywhere and make it look much more like a professional magazine.

The font I used for every piece of text was chosen carefully for the house style of the magazine. I also made sure that every word could be easily read by audience. If it is unreadable people will not buy my magazine as it has defeated purpose of the product. I used the headline text throughout my magazine as I used it as a logo and as house style, for example I made my headline on my article the same font as the ‘Unplugged’ masthead. This way if a piece of text is in the same font and in gold it will automatically be identified as a part of the ‘Unplugged’ magazine. I used a more feminine and flirty font to write the remainder of the headline. I wrote this is white to contrast with the Big gold and chunkier section of the headline. I changed the section of this specific text because I wanted it contrasted with the bands name. This is in keeping with the article about the girls becoming more feminine as the writing become more feminine. My actual article text is written in white and gold so that it is obvious for readers what are questions and the answers are. The font and size are smart and big enough so they can be easily read. This is because my target audience are people who just want an easy read of the information they want.

These are just some of the stages that I took to create my final piece of work. In the occasions of the front cover I changed the feature article photo to another because I wanted an image which represented them as a group, so I changed the outfits and position of the pose so that they looked more comparable to a band. I also ended up changing the layout of my double page spread from having two image to one. I swapped form using one of my sketch designs for another. These are the images of the progress I made through out creating ‘Unplugged.’

To get used to photo shop and designing a magazine we first had to make a school magazine for William De Ferrers school. I made a front cover and a content page. Once the completion of my music magazine was done I then was able to compare what I had learnt about using media and technology to create a conventional and professional looking magazine. My school magazine was named ‘Break time.’ It included just a masthead, a feature article photo, plugs, an issue button, and a cover line. I made the colour scheme red, green and yellow as they were the school colours. All text was the same child- like font. I chose this because I believe it was fitting for the use of the magazine. All plugs were flush left and some of the words disappeared underneath my feature article photo so could not be read easily by the audience. The cover line could also not be read easily, this is because it was

placed over the image with no effect. I used no effect of any of the components on my cover. This does not make anything stand out and makes the cover look boring and not interesting to read. The image I used was of a school pupil, this was fitting as my target audience would be members of the school. The image itself was cropped and placed onto a green background. I used a different technique of using the magnetic lasso to crop the image, however this was not as effective as what I used to crop the images in my music magazine and this picture still had the outline of the background attached to it. This made the magazine look un professional and not well edited. On my cover I did not include a puff, a barcode or effects on any of the components. Overall my school magazine looked bland, unusable to read and unprofessional with very little editing.

My school magazine content page, similar to the cover looked boring and bland. I continued the colour scheme and the font and colour of the text. My title of the content is similar to the masthead, there is no extra information such as the date or issue and is a fairly simple design. The page numbers are on both flush left and right and could easily be mixed up. The titles of every page themselves have no information about them and does not sell the article. There is also only 8 pages of articles within the magazine itself, this is not like a professional magazine that could have up to or over 100 pages. It is conventional for content pages to have pictures, mine however does not. This makes it boring and will put people off reading the rest of the magazine.

I learnt many new things from photo shoot and editing making my music magazine. When creating my school magazine I did not have the knowledge to create a good magazine that people would be happy to read. Once I had some practise and a better design and knowledge of magazine layouts I was able to create a product that people would happily buy and enjoy reading. I managed to learn new techniques of how to crop and my cropping became more defined and skilled. I also managed to include all the elements of a magazine cover and content which

makes it professional.

Bauer media group is a multinational media company. It operates in 16 countries worldwide and was founded in 1875. Bauer media group publishes Q magazine and Kerrang magazines. Q magazine is a mixed genre magazine and was first published in 1986. Its reader audience is males who are 25-35 and serious about music. It has a gridded and smart layout and uses classic colours. The mode of address is light hearted, cultured and full of knowledge. The artists they write about are well known and from all different ages, genders, and write a range of genres of music. Kerrang is a magazine specialising in rock music and only began publishing in 2004. There readers are young and the magazines layout is disordered and chaotic. This is to attract readers who are rebellious and who enjoy loud music. I believe that Bauer could possibly be interested in publishing my magazine. This is because they may want something different to Kerrang. As they have a mixed genre magazine which is very successful they may find that it pays off to have another, my magazine is similar to Q but is for a younger audience. This way they would be able to have a mixed magazine which is for younger people, something that they do not yet publish but no that it is e likely to be successful.

I am extremely happy with my overall design and creation of my magazine ‘Unplugged.’ I was able to produce a target audience from the primary research I conducted which helped me design and come up with a mixed magazine for 18-30 year olds. My magazine is smartly laid out in a grid fashion and I tried to give the magazine a classic look with a twist on the scheme. The primary research also allowed me to plan ideas for the magazine such as the name ‘Unplugged’ and the colour scheme which were the most popular suggestions. The magazine represents different social groups due to the range of ages, genders and genres. It both challenges and conveys conventions in ways but overall gives the appearance of a professional magazine for people who want to read articles full of knowledge of the music they enjoy. I believe that I have learnt a lot from the experience of creating a musical based magazine since I first started using photo shop to make a simple school magazine. I learnt from the technology I used, and the design of other magazines including the layout and house style. I think that a publisher company like Bauer media group would be interested in my magazine because they publish a similar magazine for an older generation. In conclusion I believe I have learnt greatly during the process of making ‘Unplugged’ and believe that it is a good media creation.