How does my magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real magazine products.

In my music magazine the codes and conventions that i used were the layout of the magazine. As all of my pages were layed out in a similar way to the real magazines that are on sale in the UK today. My colour scheme also flowed with the codes and conventions for example. The text and the background and images all worked well together so that they were easy on the eye and the contrast worked well between the text and colours. The images that i also took follow similar rules as they are taken using techniques applied by proffesionall photographers. Eg. correct shot sizes, effects and lighting.
In my magazine i have challenged the codes an conventions of the double page spread because i changed the colour scheme from previous pages to fit with the genre of music. This may also be seen as a devolopment as the colour scheme is based around the genre of music on the double page spread.

What Publishers would be interested in my magazine?

The publishers that i believe could be interested in my music magazine would be IPC media.

IPC media is a leading magazine publishers that deal with magazines meant for the masses. They do not just publish music magazines but they also do women's magazines, men's magazines and many more. They reach a wide variety off people and they claim they effectively reach around 66% of women and around 44% of men. I believe that they would be suitable publisher as they reach the mass market and would be ideal for my music magazine as that is also what my music is aimed at as my magazine features main stream music pushed towards a young audience of both genders.

Another publisher that may be interested in my music magazine is Bauer Media. Bauer media is Europe's largest privately owned publishing group who specialise in music magazines, Radio and men's lifestyle magazines. They would be suitable for my magazine as they generally go for the mainstream ideas eg. Grazia and MCN. They also attract a wide range of audiences which is what my magazine is aimed at achieving.

What audience would be interested in my magazine.

The target audience that my music magazine is aimed at is between the age range of around 16 to 25 years old. This is because the magazine features a lot of younger artists and would therefore be more suited to the younger generation of music magazine buyers were as the older generations would not be interested in a magazine that attempts to promote newer artists.
The magazine is aimed at the genre of  Dance and R&B music for example. DJ Goody and the title of an interview with Rihanna on the front page of the music magazine. These artists are both related to the R&B and Dance genres of music and i would therefore advertise my music magazine as a R&B and Dance magazine. The magazine would be aimed at both genders as the type of music portrayed in the magazine is not just favoured by one sex. I believe that this magazine due to these statements would attract a large audience of mixed sexes and off a wide variety of ages and would appeal most to those who are interested in the discovery of new R&B and Dance musicians and talents.


Audience Feedback.

Victoria Evans: This magazine is well laid out and i like the way that the colours on the page work well together. The masthead on the front cover of sonus magazine is clear and was the first thing that interested me on the page. Overall this magazine appeals to me as it involves the sort of music i like and enjoy. I would definitely be interested in buying this magazine. The magzine is well priced for a montly magazine.

Joe Gill: My opinion on Sonus magazine is that on the whole the magazine is laid out well and the colour scheme works well. The mastheads on the pages are appealing to the audience and they are clear. I however would not be interserested in buying this magazine as it does not promotre the type of music i like which is alternative rock.

Matthew Goodwin: I like the look of the magazine as the colour scheme works well with the text as the pages are well set out and cleary laid out. The title is good and attracts attention. I would by this magazine as i like the articles in it and the sort of music in it. The price isn't to bad for a music magazine that is only available monthly.

What have i learnt while creating a magazine.

Below is a list of the things i feel i have learnt during the time creating my music magazine front page, contents page and double page spread.

• How the contrast of colour on a magazine can greatly effect the magazine layout as it makes it much harder to read if the colour scheme is not right.
• The layout of the modern music magazine for example the location of mastheads, the location of text within the magazine and on the front page, the image locations types of shot used in these magazines, the type of effects used by the music magazine industry to create the perfect music magazine for a select audience and also the differences between the different genre of music magazine for example the differences between Kerrang and Q magazine. And also how to maximise the space on the pages of music magazines so that they are full yet not overcrowded with to much text images or small details such as effects used.
• How to use font effectively in a music magazine so that it looks good, attracts attention and is easy to read for the audience and the contrast techniques that can be used to make the text stand out on the page. And also adding effects to the font such as shadows to make the mastheads stand out more.
• How to take professional looking images using knowledge of different shot types eg. close ups and medium close up shots.
• The correct terminology when describing and evaluating music magazines and images.
• How to effectively use the software Serif Photplus X3 to create a music magazine.
• How to add detail to music magazines to make them look more attractive to the reader.

Skills learnt

During the process of making a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread i have learnt and devloped the skills that i have mentioned below.

• During the process my skills in using the software Serif photoplus X3 have improved. For example when creating my preliminary task front page for a school magazine i decided to have many things crowding the page such as the insertion of many differnt shapes from the software. Now however i have learnt that if these things are added to the pag e in a rash manner the page soon becomes overcrowded much like the preliminary school magazine front page. Also while creating my preliminary front page i failed to relise the full potential of the effects available to me. This led to a very bland front page with many attempts at making it look more attractive to an audience such as the random insertion of lines across the page. Also in most magazine they use effects to iron out any imperfections with teh page for example in my preliminary task on the front cover there is a small white background in some places around the image of the person. This looks unproffesional. For example in the front page of my music magazine i decided to edit the image on the front page as i felt that the image of the person was not right. So i edited the hair on him so that there would be less hair sticking out in strange directions. I also used much more of the effects on my music magazine than on the prliminary task.
• When taking images in my preliminary magzine i failed to realise that in most magazines the person being photographed is often standing in a certain positoion with many different things that can come into play when taking a picture. For example im my preliminary magazine i decided that i would use the image of a medium shot of a person on the front page while they look to out of the page. However the image shows the boy with his hands in his pocket and is a very dull reprsentation of that person and therefore creates the impression of a very dull magazine However in my music magazine and double page spread i realised this altered how i approache the taking of a picture. In my music magazine contents page the image is a medium close up again howver in this image the artists hair was being blown by two fans and she is posing for the camera.

Music magazine double page spread and evaluation. unfinished version

For my magazine double page spread i decided to have a different colour scheme from the previous pages as i felt that it would improve the style of the page as the colours are much brighter than the other pages. I did this because i felt that generally the music genre that a DJ relates to is genrally followed by bright colours. For example in the magazine Kerrang the magzine genrally has a darker colour scheme as the type of music is rock music. However in the magazine Q the colour scheme is much brighter as the magazine promotes the genre of music of pop, R&B and Dance music and that is why i felt i needed to change the colour scheme.

On the left hand page the image is medium longshot of the artist in the centre of the page and behind him is a green background. The green background was used in this shot with less light at the bottom and top halfs of the page. I did this to create contrast in the background to make the page look more attractive to the audience.

To the left of the image there is text going uo the page and across the top right hand side of the left page. This was done to maximize the space on the page and keep the majority of the space on the page reserved for the image also it was done to stop the text overlapping the image. I decided that i would use the font of Youngsook BTN. I decided to use this font because i had already used it in other parts of my contents page and thus gave it good contiunity with the rest of the magazine. The text on the left hand side of the page is orange because it gives a good contrast against the green background of the image. The text at the top of the page is in the font of Zolano Sans BTN. This a new font within my magazine. I decided to change the font at this section because the type of music being propmoted is a modern music and the font goes along with this as it is a modern style of font. The font is red because it gives a good cotrast with the green background while at the same time increasing the amount of colours on the page making it more attractive to the audience. It is in a position to the top right of the page as i have decided to continue the title of the page onto teh opposite page on the other side. This was done because i wished to assciate the image with the article to the right of the image on the right hand page. As the text moves across the page i made it larger. I did this to build up to the title of the artist which would be the largest on the page so to attract the attention of the reader. In the masthead the words DJ are a different colour than the rest of the page. I did this to create more colour on the page and also to attract the readers attention. The font also changes at this point to become Tw Cen MT which is a much clearer font than the previous page. Again done to attract the readers attention. The title is also underlined as it is of importance to the page as that is what the article below is about. The subtitles in the article are done in scarlet. This is to enable the reader to easily ditinguish the questions from the answers which are in a black font colour. The questions are in the font of Youngsook BTN in continuation with the font title on th eimage page wheras the answers are in the font off Prisoner SF which means that the two can easily be distinguished.

The text is split up into two blocks on the page which helps the viewing of the page as it makes it look like there is not as much text. Whereas if the whole page fiolled with lines and lines of text it would not be clear and difficult to read compared to a text block format. The colour of the text contrasts with the yellow background well allowing for an easy to read article with no clashing colours.

I also decided to add small detail to the page to make the page look more intersesting. I decided that i would use the same effect of the paint stamp of the row of people at the bottom of the people as i had done in other sections of my magazine. Also i decided that i would use the paint stamp effect of shapes to create white squares in the background. They do not clash with the text and so are a good insertion into the page.

Music magazine contents page and evaluation.

In my music magazine contents page i decided i would continue to use the colour scheme from the front page of the magazine. The Background i decided to start of white as i had planned to use a good contrast between the text and the colours so that the text could be easily read. The scarlet colour at the bottom right hand of the page was added on top of the white background to make the page a bit more colour full than it would have been if i had just left it white. Also the colour at the top of the page was also inserted to try and make the page more colourful and more appealing to the audience.
The next stage of the contents page creation progress was to add a masthead to the page so the reader can easily distinguish what page they are looking at. This is seen in most magazines including Q magazine and the rolling stones magazines.The masthead was in the font Zolano Serif BTN and also was stood out from the page as i had added to different background colours and there is also a shadow visible on the top half of the masthead. The shadow is done in white and is therefore uneffected visibly on the section with the white background. However on the Scarlet background the shadow is clearly visible and gives the masthead extra contrast and therfore makes it easier to distinguish.
 Next i added the image to the right hand side of the page. The image was taken using the same camera from the front page and was taken again from the medium close up position. In this shot i decided to use the green background as the actual background on the picture because i felt that the green colour of the background went well with the image and also contrasted well with the rest of the page. The picture was taken by having the person in the image standing. This was accompanied by two fans either side of her facing towards her head. This gave the effect of the hair appearing to by swaying in the image. This was done to make the picture look more dramatic as in other magazines the images of the artists are often dramatic. The artist is also staring out of the page which is consistent with images of people in most magazine the exception being Movie magazines such as Empire.
The next part was to add text to the left hand gap on the page. These were to become the contents. I decided to place them on the left hand side because that is were most other music magazines have the contents in there magazines. This means that my music magazine was following the codes and conventions set by other music magazines. Also the image can also be applied to this because the image is on the right hand side of the page, fills up most of the space and also has the artist looking out of the page. The contents were written using the font of Zolano Serif BTN which is the same as the masthead. This was done as this font is easy to read. The font was made relatively small with a line between each of the different contents. Again this made the contents much easier to read. The contents were headlined by titles of front page and featured which were done using the font of Youngsook BTN. I decided to have a different font for the title of the content sections because i felt that the a differnce in font size, colour and font would create a differnce between the contents and there titles. I named the titles of the contents front page and featured because the on the front page of my music magazine i had included some text that said what was in the magazine. This is similar to other magazines that advertise what is in the magazine on the front cover. Also, this can ease the effort needed by the audience when reading the magazine when a member of the selected audience or audiences, as it is in my case, reads the magazine. Often when they look at the front cover they may be interested by a story advertised on the front of the magazine. So when a contents page is created it may be a wise decision to add this beacause the reader can easliy search and find the story that they are looking for on the contents page. The features section of my music magazine contents is labelled as features because the music magazine will have certain areas of the magazine that will be featured in that magazine alone.
I used the colours red and yellow for the title of the contents because i wanted to add contrast to the page. This can also be used as an example why the numbers are a different colour than the black text to there left. On the words off stars of the future i have indented slighlty into the image because i felt that the image would go unrecognised and be pointless if i did not do this. The indentation also contains the number of the page were this is located this is done to find the page with ease as it is related to the image.
At the bottom of the page directly underneath the image i have inserted a small section of an article inside included inside the magazine. I have done this to accompany the image and also to give the image a much better purpose than to just sit be there without any background information on what it is about.
The details featured on the page of the eye and the people standing in the crowd are taken from the software Photoplus X3. The images were taken from the paint tool people from the stamp section of the software. I added these as i felt it made the page more intersesting. The image of the eye is the same one from the front page of my music magazine and so can also be seen as continuing in a similar way as if the page is looking at the reader. This attracts attention.
Overall i feel that the contents page is layed out clearly with two different sections of text and the image. This makes the page easy to read look at and does not overcomplicate the page in any way. The page also goes well with the colour scheme used on the front page of the music magazine that i have created.