Evaluation 1st draft

Music magazine evaluation

Question1

In order to produce a successful magazine, I realised that the generic magazine conventions would have to be included. I started By researching similar magazines in the market to not only what conventions they had, but also how they were used to appeal to their target audience. The NME masthead for example is an abbreviation. From this, I decided to produce my own but I wanted it to connote something about the indie rock genre. I produced the masthead ‘Ind.E’ which means independent express, however the abbreviation is meant to seem like the word ‘indie’. Other conventions were included and took inspiration from NME. I decided to develop them in order to create an original house style. For example, on the front cover, instead of using black and white imagery, I used simplistic yet contrasting colours in the red font on the blue clothes of the module.

Question2

From my research into the audience I wanted to market towards, I made sure that my price was cheap. Other features of the magazine were made to fit the demographic. This included my images, which represented the young audience look. The red font and colours, along with the black and white integration further enforces the rebellious contemporary tone that my target audience is drawn to. The language I Used also reflected the target audience. It was made to be low register to create a friendly social tone towards the demographic and even the language used, such as words such as “insane” or “”tour” connoted images of these indie rock bands.

Question3

The institution that would distribute my magazine would be IPC media. This publisher is well experienced with other magazines similar to mine e.g????. IPC media would publish my magazine for its unique aspects eg?????? that have the potential to be successful are different to those of magazines already existing. The magazine, although still wide in its age bracket, is more appealing to the student group of people. It also focuses more new young unsigned artists, which is found to relatable for my young adult audience who want to find something new3 and fresh.

Question4

From my research examples, I found that their house styles and pitch mainly orientated towards young males, either students or low paid jobs. The age range for the indie rock genre however to reach from about 16-25, so there was availability to appeal to multiple ages. The majority of the audience, I found, were fairly sociable and preferred less mainstream music. Therefore I made sure that my magazine connoted casualness and the type of music they listened to.

Question 5

I attracted my audience by referencing popular bands of the genre and creating a house style that connoted a lot about the genre. For example, I used similar Magazines to create a unique brand identity in the contrasting colours and fonts. The red, black and white colour scheme and the types of images taken best attracted the audience because the connoted themes of the loud indie rock genre.

Question 6

During my design process, I found that programme InDesign was useful in the actual design of the magazine pages itself and Photoshop proved to help me well with editing my images I took. The digital camera that was used to take pictures gave me the images appropriate but, at times was difficult to extract the images off of due to occasional technical errors.

Question 7

Since the preliminary task, I have picked up skills that have aided me to produce a more successful music magazine. My analytical skills have been improved by analysing various examples of successful and unsuccessful magazines. My understanding of the technologies available such as Photoshop is improved as well, which will help me in future tasks involving these technologies.