Magazine Newsstand

Magazine Newsstand Task

 

The music magazines are in the 'men's lifestyle' section and are surrounded by magazines about various sports and technologies. We can see how the publishers have taken this into account by making the front covers with bolder text. The mastheads are big and loud, therefore suggesting that these magazines are geared more toward men.

In this newsstand, the magazines are placed on top of each other. This means that you can see the top quarter of the magazines but not necessarily the left third, as it is with other newsstand set-ups. In this picture, we can see how most publishers have anticipated this newsstand set-up by putting the masthead in the top quarter so you can see which magazine is which.

Here, we can see how the publishers have used the top quarter of the magazine to grab the reader's attention. We can already tell that the mastheads are seemingly always in the top quarter, but there are also skylines in the top quarter - on Kerrang! There is the skyline about posters; on NME there is the offer for an exclusive CD; on Total Guitar there is the splash; and on Q there is the skyline for three articles, two of which have pictures.

We can also see in this picture how the publishers have also used the left third to compensate for other newsstand set-ups. On Kerrang! there is the splash advertising the competition to win tickets to a tour; on NME the masthead is in the left third, and as you can see in the picture below, the free gift mentioned in the top quarter appears in the left third; on Total Guitar the splash is also in the left third; and on Q the masthead is also in the left third.

Magazine Proposal

Proposal of magazine:

I will be creating a music magazine which is going to be called Turn up and is targeted towards younger generation.  The magazine would be a Hip hop/ RnB / Rap Genre. I have chosen this name because it symbolises the fact that everything in the magazine is going to be wild and interested, it’s not going to be ordinary but it’s going to be turned up.

Kind Of Artist: The artist I have chosen, I have chosen him because the music that he produces fits in well with the magazine genre that I’m doing, also as the artist is an upcoming artist, it will be a good to promote his material and show support, and also to gain him some acknowledgement. I have also chosen this artist because, as my magazine is Hip Hop, RnB and Rap, as an African American artist who is making different types of music, he fits in to the category well.

 The things I’m going to include in my magazine: Regular quizzes to keep the readers engaged not only about the music stuff but also regular activities. Exclusive artist interviews with upcoming artists or people with music industry. Also the opportunity for people to win prizes which could consist of the latest gadgets or tickets to shows.

How my magazine would be different: My magazine would be different from most magazines because instead of my magazine being about artists who have already made it, my magazine would be about upcoming artists who are on the process of making it but haven’t made it just as yet. This is a unique factor about my magazine, because it’s something that hasn’t been created yet but it’s something that I will be creating.

Design Features: The colour scheme of my magazine would be based upon the cover picture and the colour clothing that my artist would be wearing, this will also be the colour scheme that my masthead will fall in to. The masthead would be bold and simple and clear. I would be getting my design from www.dafont.com  ; if not from there I would be getting it from www.gorefonts.co.uk. I want my masthead to be clear and simple so that it becomes easily recognisable and also it goes with the genre of the magazine, if I was doing a rock magazine then I would want something which is extreme. As the magazine would be called ‘Turn up’ that does all the talking.

Who might publish my magazine?  I believe that if my magazine was to be published by someone, it will be published by the producers of Young Voices. Young voices are similar magazine type, they specialise in the same genres but not quite the same as my magazine because they do all types of artists, and however my magazine is about upcoming talents. Young voices would be the best producer for it, because it’s about the young voices, and my magazine specialises in young voices particularly.

Target Audience:  My target audience is mainly for young people aged 14-21. It’s suitable for both genders. I’ve selected this age range because as the magazine is up coming artists, adults wont really pay attention to the people they are not aware of, whereas people between the age range would be more familiar to the type of music that the young artists are producing and may even know them. The magazine would mainly also be targeted towards Afro-Caribbean people. This is because of the genre of the magazine, however it’s a multi-cultural magazine and open/available to everyone.

 

Masthead designs

Audience feedback & evaluation

 

Audience feedback and Evaluation

 

 

Audience Feedback

Positive: ‘’ I like the image it shows how she is actually in a college the long shot shows her surroundings and it’s also quite clear which attracts readers and makes it easier for them to rad and the colours are a nice combination and its not to bright or too dark, the masthead is very clear and bold, which makes you recognise it easily.’’

‘’I like the magazine the picture catches my eye instantly!’’

‘’ I like the way the magazine is structured’

‘’It’s not overcrowded, it’s a straight forward picture which is not too busy and it shows an individual rather than a group picture to show that everyone is an individual and nobody is the same.’’

‘’ The magazine is good, I love the colours that are used.’’

‘’ I love the name of the student magazine’’

‘’The title is bold, clear and you can immediately tell that the magazine is from a college. It is easy to recognise and catch the target audience’s attention. The image clearly displays a student working and it is not interrupted with cover lines, so you can tell that the magazine is going to be for students.”

Above, shows some of the feedback that I received from my friends. According to the feedback, my masthead was done well and the picture was clear and a straight forward indicator that my magazine had a relation with a college. I’m also aware that the magazine is attractive and grabs thereader’s attention instantly, as one of the feedback states, it emphasis the relevance of each pupil by one pupil representing the college by being the main picture and being the soul of the magazine.

·        What went well?

Photography- Taking pictures was the simplest part of the whole task ad all I had to do was take relevant pictures of the things that I was going to include in my magazine. As I was taking pictures, I decided to take a variety of pictures then at the end, look at the range of pictures that I had and choose which one that I found suitable for a front cover and also one the met the requirements.  Taking the pictures was not very time consuming as it only took me about 30 minutes or even less. The process of uploading the pictures to my account was also quick. Overall, I found the photography section was fairly easy.

Image manipulation on Photoshop- Changing the picture around in Photoshop was an easy process as the picture did not require any major adjustments only resizing the picture was needed and I found that quite a complex task.

Page Layout-The layout of the magazine was easy to design, as all you had to do was to create a margin so that all the writing and images were within a certain amount of space. Creating the margins was not a long or tricky process, all I had to do was drag the corners and place it on each angle of the layout of the magazine.

Text- Including the text my magazine was not hard as on the side of the software, there was an icon which had ‘T’ on which meant you clicked that if you wanted to insert a text. The masthead was also less time consuming as I already knew what I was going to call my magazine and all I had to do was create it in text in really large fonts at put it where I thought it looked best, which is the top middle of the page. Creating cover lines was one part that I found a bit tricky, not because didn’t know how to use the text or how to move it around, but because I wasn’t sure of what cover lines that I should use, and one that would go with the whole theme of the magazine, but once I decided on what I was going to write, everything came along pretty easy, things such as the font and colour.

 

 

What do I need to improve on?

What I think I need to improve on is making sure that I use the correct image type, for example, if I was meant to use a medium shot, I use it instead of using a long shot then having to crop it down or resize it. I also need to work on some minor designs of the magazine such as the cover lines and where the barcode goes and the sizes of it.

 

Three Key points for development for main task:

·        Plan carefully: Make sure I know what I’m going write and where everything is going to go. Make sure I know the price of the magazine and all the little details.

·        Take the correct sized images- For example, long shot, medium shot etc...

·        Use my time wisely-  don’t fall off track, keep ahead of my tasks

 

 

This was the masthead which was voted as the best from my class and the masthead which I decided I was going to use on my magazine. I thought this masthead had a unique type of effect to it which made it stand out; it’s also eye-catching and can be used to grab the reader’s attention.

 

 I liked this masthead but chose not to use it because I feel that it wouldn’t go with the sort of magazine that I was producing, this type of design has a more childish effect to it, and wouldn’t grab the my targeted audience’s attention. If I was to use it, it would have clashed with my magazine.

This masthead was too calm. It looked like the sort of masthead you will find in a gospel magazine, it wasn’t the sort of masthead which would be used in a magazine for afro-Caribbean up-coming artists. 

  With this masthead, it looks like the type you will find for a rock type of magazine. It didn’t look right; I wasn’t going to fit in with my magazine.

 

This masthead was too thin; it’s not really a conventional masthead which would attract people’s attention, especially the attention of the audience I would want it to attract.

 

 This masthead was too child-like, it looks like the sort of masthead you will find in a children’s magazine, I didn’t think that it was age appropriate.  

 

 This was my second favourite masthead. I think it was nice and bold and also a conventional masthead, this looked like the sort of masthead you will see in a hip-hop/RnB magazine. However, I didn’t use it because I thought it was too formal. I wanted something which was a little less formal.