EVALUATION

For the front cover i used a bright blue background to get the readers to look at the magazine straight away. However i kept it a mid-blue to compliment the style of music this magazine was based on (indie music). At the top i placed a white bar to contrast the blue with the writting about a free poster inside the magazine. I did this so that it would intrigue the readers and give them insentive to buy it. My main photo is of "The keys" (a made up band) , i put their photo on the front big because i was doing my main flash story about them. I did different sections on my front cover as it gives a selection of parts to read for the different (but indie interested) readers. I used a big circle to put the words in "your chance to win free gig tickets.." as this is another insentive for the reader to buy the magazine as they might win free tickets to a gig. This is like one of NME's magazines (feb 8th issue). At the bottom left i have put in a big number of 22 to attract readers and this number relates to how many new bands there are so that also involves the readers as they want to know the coolest new bands around. On the right hand side i have placed a collum about a new band called "sharpe eyes". My first sentence is a question ("do you like sharpe eyes?" and this makes it feel like we are directly talking to the reader themselves therefore making it more personal to them. I have, of course, added a barcode, price and issue date for the magazine but also included my magazines website so that readers know that even if they dont have money to buy the magazine they can always go onto the website at home and get connected with the magazine that way. This is good as the readers feel like the magazine is quite popular and big as it also has a website. I decided to call my magazine "Beat It!" has it short and snappy and easy to remeber. The word beat is also connected to music sounds which makes the link that this magazine is about music. You can also tell easily that is a indie genred magazine because of the bands pictures on the front and their apperance/style.

My contents page as an incling of the same colour used on the front cover to connect the two pages. I have included a short letter from the editor of the magazine. I have made it very unformal as it will be teenagers who read this magazine. I have also included a picture of the editor to tell the readers who is writting this letter. My contents page has sections, for example, regular features (things that are always in the magazine like top tunes), main features (which includes band interviews), New to beat it (new pages that have been added in this issue like posters etc) and then at the bottom i have added Plus (which is where there is compitions etc). I did this is sections as it is easier to read and also it gives the reader freedom to go to a section quickly and see whats in it. I have uploaded photos of some of the bands/artists so that readers can relate to them and see if they reconise them. After each contents page section i have added in the page number that it is on, i did this because readers can easily jump to that page to see whats on it.

My double page spread was based around on eof NME's double page spreads as i loved the style and layout. i have used the same blue colour for the background as i did for the front cover to give the sense that its linked with the main flash i noted on the cover. I have placed a photo of the band "relentless obsession" on the left hand page and over lapped the words "new, fresh and with a funky new sounds, even if they do have a few dirty secrets!" I have written this for two reasons, the words "new, fresh and funky" all go together, they are all catchy and short and sound good when you say them. Also, the fact that their new song is called "dirty secrets" links in with them having dirty secrets of their own. I have used a black circle to highlight a quote given by one of the band members. The cirlcle is big and bold so that reader insantly draw their eyes to it and it says "yes, i must admit our lead singer has had a very embarsing experience on stage!" by saying this, it leaves it on a cliff hanger and people want to find out what experience it was so read the interview on the double page spread. My interview is unformal for the reason that teenagers will read this magazine and it more relaxed if its informal. I have used white for the questions asked and then black for the band members answers. In the answers i have put the first initial of the badn members name to tell the readers who answered what. At the end of the interview i have put a box with more information about the band and when their new album etc is out. This gives the readers a little more information so if they like what they saw on the double page spread they will go out and buy their album. Instead of just putting the band "relentless obsession" on this double page spread i decided to add another new artist called Matt Nash to the right hand side. I did this becuase the readers then can read about another new and fresh artist on the scene, other than "relentless obsession".

The type of audience i attend to read this is teenagers from the ages 14-18 that like the genre indie music. They will be people who wear very indivual style clothes and will probably be from the middle-class.

All in all i found the Indesgin programme alright to use but the blogger.com website was quite annoying and i didnt really see the point in using it. I am pleased with my magazine cover, contents and double page spread, however if i had more time i would have liked to make it alot neater and tidy.

evaluating a magazine article

The first magazine article i am going to analyis is from "Rock Sound". This is a music magazine that focus's on the genre of rock. The article is all about a band called "kids in glass houses". Its a double page spread and on the left hand page there is a quote from one from one of the band members. On the left hand page there is a big photo of the band covering the whole background. On the right hand page, the page has been split into two halves horizontaly. The top half is a picture of the band again (again, with a quote from one of the band members on the photo). It is interesting that they have used a photo of the band and a quote over the photo as this links in the two pages with imagery. The bottom half of the right hand page is an interview format with the band. It is written in simple black writting and white background to stand out and compliment the colours used in the photos. Bold black writing is used as the question and thin writting is used for the band members answers. To make a clear difference in the questions and answers, not only have they used a different thickness but also a different font. This shows diversity as well. The first question has used a big bold black letter to start the question which tells the readers where to start reading. Before each answer, the name of the person speaking from the band is written e.g, Aled Phillips (vocals). This is good as its clear which band member is saying the answer. The questions are a mixture of things about the band itself and some are more personal about the band members. It gives the readers more knowlegde about the band and extra information about certin band members. The type of interview is quite unformal with it being more like a friendly conversation. This shows in the interview by how it is written, the questions and answers are litrelly exactly what the interviewer and band members say. However, the most interesting thing about the interview is that the interviewer is actually reading out the publics questions that they want to know about, for example, "have you guys ever done something you regret?"-kristin jona, Iceland. This makes the readers more involved as they are having an input into the interview. All the questions have been asked by people all across the world like, essex, newcastle, iceland, london, suffolk and sweden. This shows the bands varity in listeners and also that they have been heard about in not only England, this makes readers want to know more about them as they believe that everyone has heard about the band and they should too.

Photos for music magazine

These are some of the photos i am going to use in my magazine. Some of the photos, I took of my friends band when they were practising for a gig as this gives it more effect and realistic as they had there intruments and mircophones with them. I made them dress in a sort of "indie" way that refelected what the target audience would wear in everyday life. In the other photos, they are more posed as it was an actual photoshoot. The band is called "Relentless Obsession". I made them stand against a back drop of graffti for effect as it looks good. They wore skinny jeans and hoodys which was good as this reflects the audiences style, also their music style.

This photo will be my main photo on my front cover.

Some of these will be little images on my front cover.

Flat plans

These are my flat plans for my front cover and contents page.

Fonts

So i need to decide what font i am going to use for my title of my magazine. I went onto the website "dafont".com which has a selection of lots of different types of fonts. These are a few ones that i found that i could use:





This font is cool because it looks handwritten and this represents the un-tidy approach i want to get across as the readers are the sorts of people who are "messy" and dont care about things looking neat.





I like this font as it it written in a weird sort of way that shows the uniquness of the readers.





This is really bold so it would stand out well on the front cover. Again, it has a unique style of writting which compliments the readers and draws them in.





This font is bold so it wil stand out and also, like the first font i showed you, it has a "messy" feel. This is a strong possablity for my title font.



I like this font as well though! Its a font that really represents the readers style, its unique and "messy". I think i am going to use this font for my magazine.

8/12/09

I have actually found a normal font on Indesgin that i am goin to use now. It called "An unfortunite event".

BEAT IT
My font needs to be funky, fresh and young as these are the types of things that compliment the magazine i will create. The readers will also have to be attracted to the magazine by not only the main pictures and storys but also by the first thing they look at...the title of the magazine ("beat it").

Annaysis of double page spreads

This is a double page spread in the magazine NME. They have used a bright blue colour to make the page eye catching. They have used this on the "quotes" that are involved in the article and the title of it. The title "the teenagers", is band name but also has the personal effect to the readers because most of them themselves are teenagers. The main picture of this double page connects to the subject of the article. The photo is of the band and the article is all about them. This photo dominates the left hand page but they have incorprited text boxes ontop of the photo so that its not just a boring photo but also people, when looking at the photo, also notice the text aswell. The colours in the photo are dull compared to the bright blue, however this is a good contrast because it makes things not linked together and become unclear to read. There are also three other smaller photos on the opposite side of the double page of the main photo. This is a good thing because it shows that the other photos are completly different and nothing to do with the band "The teengers". Next to each smaller photo is a text box about the band with is featured in the picture. One of the photos and band text is linked into a famous singer "alex turner" of the artic monkeys and the last shadow puppets (bands). The readers will be interesting to read this as they aspire to be like that famous person. It says that "the rascals" are Turner's favourite band at that moment in time, therefore the readers want to listen to this band to be like there "role model". The main article has one of the bright blue boxed writting stating a quote from one member of "the teenagers" which says "of course we are a sexual band, we are the teengers and thats all they think about". This can be personal to the readers as again, some are between the ages of 15-18 and can link into the band and being a teenager. The very first letter of the article "T" is in bold to show that it is the start of the article and starts the whole thing off very powerfully. On the left hand side of the double page in big bold letters it says "Everybodys talking about...". Now this grabs the readers eye because they obviously want to know whats being talked about and want to look "cool".

Annaysis of double page spreads

This is a contents page of the magazine "Kerrang". This is made clear by the title of "contents". The actual contents is placed on the right hand side down a collum.Each title of each page is bold in black and yellow which ties into the title of "Contents". However, underneath all these little subtitles that are in the contents, they give only the name of the band and nothing else about what information you will read about that band. This is a good selling technique as the reader has to read it to know what the actual story is about instead of just glimpsing at the phrase about the page. There are loads of small images of famous singers/bands in a grid formation at the left hand side to the middle of the page. Each of these images have a number on to show what page that photo is shown on. This makes it clear to the reader which page he/she can turn to to fin out about their favourite band or so on. However, one is slightly bigger (22). At the very top of the page there is a paragraph by the main writer/editor of the magazine. It's just a little note about what you can expect to find in the magazine and its made personal as it written personally by him and to the reader. Its mostly about the main sell Biffy Clyro. It fits into the cover of this magazine by using the same red colour, black and white. however they have added in the colour yellow to make some of the subtitles etc stand out, for example, "Album reviews" which is on the collum of pages shown in this magazine. At the bottom right hand side underneath the main contents page list, there is a text/picture about getting a weekly Kerrang magazine for a special offer of £6 a month. This reminds the readers that this magazine is released every week and they can get it for a good price if they subscribe to it.