Front Cover start

The original picture was taken against a very flowery wallpaper but i have edited it out in order to get the colour of the background of the magazine.

Another potential front cover picture

Music Magazine Contents page research

This contents page for kerrang, in my opinion is quite effective. It is obviously packed with information, complete with photographs of the bands being mentioned. Also, there is an evident colour scheme of yellow which runs throughout the contents page. The is also an evident if slightly off centre example of having the contents page in thirds. I really like this layout.











This magazine for Q is quite like that of kerrang, but it is no where near as busy. I think the other contents is more effective as it tells us more about what is happening in the magazine. Like the other one, there is an obvious continuing colour, but this magazine uses red, not yellow. I do not believe this contents is striking enough compared to the other one. It does not make me excited to read it, which is what a contents page should do.

This contents page is on of the best in my opinion. Any paramore fan would know that 'riot' is the name of their second album. Already, this appeals to Paramore's fans. If I am right in thinking, this edition of this magazine is entirely dedicated to paramore. The layout is not too messy, it is clear to read and there is an obvious connection of red again. The labels claiming what else is to come in the magazine gives the reader more of an idea of what is to come and also making them want to read on. I'd like to use something catchy like the 'its a riot' on this contents page for my own contents page.

 This contents page follows the same sort of allignment as the other two like this. I like the big, bold 'THIS WEEK' at the top of the page and plan to use this kind of thing in my contents page. I also really like the side menu on the right of the page. It's clear and informative but also catches your eye. These two examples below are examples of different side menus.

Music Magazine Font Research

These are just a few fonts that I have selected from the possible ones that I like. The last one is probably my favourite because it is bold and eye catching. Unfortunately, I have acquired these fonts from the website www.dafont.com , which means that it is difficult for me to use them without them becoming pixalated like they are at the moment. The last font is quite stencil like, and I have found these fonts below which are quite similar to it:

This font above is rather similar to the one I liked before. It is possible that I will use this for the title of my magazine. However it is annoying that this font has seriffs. I liked the other font because it didnt have any seriffs. I could try to edit out the seriffs but this may make it more pixalated.

Preliminary Evaluations

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our preliminary task was to create a magazine in which represented a school. Being interested in performing arts and dance, I wanted to create a magazine of a performing arts school. I started looking into school magazines at first, just to get a general layout for my magazine. I could not find any dance magazines in my research and so I researched photographs instead for the dance theme. Many magazines I researched showed group dancers/performers but I wanted to go for a slightly different approach. I used my friend, Tilly, as a model for she is a very good dancer and she was very good at all the poses. The font I used was quite basic because I wanted the magazine cover to look quite simple. The colours are all quite similar too. I dimmed the colour on the picture because I wanted it to look more black and white than full colour. From dimming the colour, I found that the best colours that went with the picture was blue, grey and purple. i stuck with these colours in the contents page too.


2) how does your media product represent particular social groups?


Obviously, seeing as my magazine is a dance magazine, it would be for people interested in performing arts. The magazine represents young people interested in performing arts through the photographs used, etc. The magazine would be available to students at 'The Morganville Academy' and also their parents and to anyone interested in coming to that school. I think the magazine addresses these social groups by the language used on the front of it. The photograph is also of a young dancer, appealing to young students at the academy because they would aspire to be like that.




3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


There are two major media publishing institutions that I have researched. One of them is Bauer, which mostly involves quite a few of the major music industries including Q magazine and Kerrang magazine. Bauer is a very widely known institution which publishes quite widely known magazines and radio stations so therefore I don't think it would be the suitable distributor for my 'The Morganville Academy' magazine. The other distributor that I found in my research is IPC publishers, who publish magazines that are based more around lifestyle and hobbies. Because my magazine is about performing arts and that is a hobby, I think it more likely that IPC will publish my magazine. They are widely known and well-respected and will give 'The Morganville Prophet' a good reputation.


4) Who would be the audience of your media product?

The audience of my media product would be the students and parents of The Morganville Academy. The age range would probably be from about 16 to 20 in the school, but also for parents. I think that the magazine would attract girls more than boys but having said that I think a dance college would have equal amount of boys and girls. Obviously, the magazine would attract an audience of people interested in performing arts.

5) How did it attract/address your audience?


The photograph on the front of a student from the school is clearly used to address my target audience because she is a girl who belongs to that school. The text on the page is quite colourful, addressing the young audience that it's aimed at. I've also put text on the front page displaying what is new in the school and what can be found in the contents of the magazine. I think that this will make my audience intrigued to read the magazine, attracting their attention, especially as it is information on what is going on in their own school.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


I have used programmes such as photoshop and indesign in making this product. I have learnt how to use tools in photoshop to amend my photos to get rid of any blemishes and change the colouring of the photo. I have also learnt how to use blogger in which I have been updating all of my developments of my products. In making my front page and contents I have also used my dad's canon eos 30D camera to take the photographs on my front page. I have learnt how to use it efficiently but hopefully in the main task I will be able to use it a lot better in order to take the best photographs for my music magazine.

Music magazine research

My focus for my music magazine will be a kind of rock style. This is because I have a lot of influence by the band Paramore, who are a rock band. I love the way rock magazines are layed out and would love to have that kind of layour for my own magazine. A focus that I would like to pursue is the magazine's being of bands, not solo artists. Here are a few examples:

This magazine cover of Duffy is exactly the kind of thing I would like for my magazine. I like the central picture with the information around the sides, all the colours are consecutive and it works very well. The target audience for this type of cover is middle aged women, I think. The magazine cover next to Duffy's one is quite different. The same magazine has edited its style slightly to suit the model on the front. Hayley Williams is a bolder, more original female singer, and I think that is shown through the picture and also the big 'PARAMORE' across the page. I especially like the colours on this page.

Slightly different to the two above, the front cover of this one is quite sexual. I dont think the colours are very good in this one for they are not entirely consecutive. The picture is not focused enough with the rest of the cover.

This one is a personal favourite of mine. I like the way Hayley Williams is the central picture and also how it is quite direct to fans, because it is quite personal. Any fans of paramore would see this and want to read it.

Having said that I'd like to do a photo shoot of a band, this is going to be quite hard to do. What I have decided to now focus my research on is female rockstars. The three women that I will focus on are Hayley Williams, Avril Lavigne and P!nk.

Although this picture is actually of the band, I love how direct and focused this picture is. It is as though she is reaching out to the reader.





This photo of Pink is quite aggressive but I think it works really well. It shows a lot of expression and also the idea of rock and roll. It would be very fun to replicate a photograph like this because of the flawless hair and aggressive looking make up.  

Again, this photo shows a lot of expression. What I like most about this is that her eyes looks very big, which is relevent to the model who I will use, for she has very big eyes.

Avril Lavigne has a different kind of look to the other two. I would call this photo kind of sexual because of the intense glare from the eyes. Although the model I will use does not have long hair, so I will probably use the shorter hair styles shown in the above pictures.

This picture here is one of my favourites of Pink. The green leggins contrast to the black leather jacket and white hair. The microphone also shows us that singing and performing is her proffession. The snarling smile on her face also shows what kind of music she sings.

Just focusing on Hayley Williams in this picture, I think that this is a very good picture. It is directed totally to the camera and her facial expression is quite different. I like the contrast between her pale face and her vivid hair.

Drafts of front covers and contents pages

This is my first design for the front cover of my magazine. The subheadings are eye catching and it is colourful, but I believe that this will not be my final draft for my front cover. This designs colours do not correspond very well with each other and I will probably try and get the colours to compliment each other. The colours in the picture defnitely do not correspond at all and i will try to do that.

I have changed the colour of the headline to black because I think it looks more striking and corresponds with the colours in the picture. I have not changed much apart from that. I have started my first draft of the contents page, shown next to the cover draft. I plan to put pictures down the left side of the page to fill up the page but this is subject to change.

i have once again changed some aspects of the front cover. This is as far as I have got in developing the front cover and the contents page. the colours on the front cover are much more corresepondent with the colours in the picture and in the title of the magazine. on my contents page, the third rule is apparent. I plan to put little pictures in the middle third that can be seen as quite empty at the moment. the colours on the contents are correspondent and coherent with the colours on the front cover. Evidently, this is my favourite design yet, although there are still some things to be developed on both pages. I am unsure whether to put a box around the 'Ivy Danvers' part on the front page.

Example magazine contents pages

This picture is quite relevent to the kind of layout I would like to use because the picture is the same kind of layout that I'd like to use with one of my pictures. This contents page is eyecatching, easy to read and not too jumbled. It is simple yet effective. The black writing matches her dress and I like the fact that the picture is in black and white, contrasting to the red and gold.

I like the way this contents page is layed out. The colours correspond with each other and there is an ongoing theme of pink and grey. This contents page has an interesting look about it but I think the font makes it look a little too complicated. This is not a dance magazine contents page and I have found it very hard to come across a dance magazine contents page so I am working with the best I could find.

Personally I think this status is a bit boring. The writing is very small and I do not think the layout is overly good either. I do like how the headline of this page however. This page has a theme colour of grey.