Audience research

After creating my finalised version of my music magazine, I got feedback from my peers on specific aspects of my magazine.

Starting with my Front Cover, overall people commented on its professionalism and there were mainly strengths:




However there were also criticisms that I have acknowledged:




Overall, I've evaluated that one thing I could've worked on with the front cover was the sizing of the text as it didn't stand out as much as it should from feedback. I also faced a similar issue that occurred with my college magazine in which the text on the cover-lines didn't stand out due to the background clashing somewhat with the colouring of the text. However, I do not think this was as big of a issue as it was for the college magazine as the text here is visible. Also, people commented on how it looked professional and was good, and one person I asked got the reasoning behind the colouring which was to attract both genders so I think the feedback on my front cover was quite positive.

Moving on to my Contents Page, here are the strengths:


Again there were criticisms towards the contents page, some of which I had acknowledged before hand:




Overall, I've seen that the arrangement of the contents page may have been to busy, which is something I thought whilst I was creating it. As opposed to my college magazine contents, which was single page and fit together nicely, in some areas my music magazine may have seemed too squashed together. I acknowledged the comment regarding the lack of negative space on the page not making the headings stand out. Following this I believe that one thing I could've worked on whilst constructing  my contents page was the spacing and layout.

Lastly moving on to my double page spread, here are the strengths mentioned:

I have no weaknesses mentioned for the double page spread from my audience feedback, therefore overall I think both pages of my double page spread were successful and done to a professional standard.

Final Music Magazine Double Page Spreads

Final Music Magazine Contents Page

Final Music Magazine Front Cover

Best Location Pictures

Out of all of my location pictures these are the ones I was considering using within the magazine:

Location Pictures

Today I took the last of my location pictures for my contents page in school. These are the results:

Location Pictures Call Sheet

Official Double Page Spreads

Official Contents Page

Official Front Cover

Today's Lesson Update

In this lesson, I made various changes to all four parts of my coursework magazine.

With my Front Cover, I just added onto my cover-lines to fill in some of the negative space:

With the Contents, I fixed the top and bottom layouts and made some adjustments to the pictures and text:

I also changed the image for the contents page as I used a picture similar to the previous one on my DPS and wanted to give off a different vibe in the contents:



I then added a signature ,created on Adobe Illustrator, to my Editor's Letter as it was a common convention of editor's letter's in other magazines therefore I felt like it added professionalism and made it seem as if it was a real magazine:

The last thing I did was just move the page numbers to the outsides as that is how it is on most magazines:



Moving onto the Double Page Spread's I changed the numbering on both the double page spreads like I did with the contents page:


Then I focused on working on the 2nd page of my double page spread and starting with the journalism. I changed the image on my double page spread and the typography of the pull - out quote:


I then played around with the colouring and font of the pull - out quote and changed the colour of the word "respected" to gold to make it stand out and add dramatic effect:


Lastly, I focused on writing and re-structuring my article. I tried out the question and answer format however I did not like it as I felt like it did not fit the theme I was going for in my magazine, and also the style of a biographical profile was used in 2 of my case studies, Brick and Fader, and these are the ones my magazine is mostly based on therefore I thought it would be appropriate to adopt this style. This was my first attempt at restructuring my article and trying a biographical profile format:



I expanded on this throughout the lesson and this is what I had by the end:



However, as these are my first attempts at it, I will probably change it to make it better as this is only a first draft.

First Draft Feedback Evaluation

In yesterday's lesson we were asked to give and receive feedback from our classmates. During the lesson I received feedback and used this to better my work.
For example, my classmate Sammi gave me this feedback for my front cover:

From this I saw that she was correct about the colouring of the text and Angel therefore, using this feedback, I added a drop shadow to the text to make it stand out therefore easier to see on the grey background and got rid of the double effect on the main headline to avoid the blending in:


Also, she gave me feedback on my double page spread:


From this I did move the text box away from the centre by a small margin to avoid it getting cut off. I also tried different pictures for the first page of my DPS but I could not find one that went as well so I kept that.

First Draft - Front Cover

Front Cover (1):


Front Cover (2):


(Currently I am deciding between which one)

First Draft - Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread Introductory Page:


Double Page Spread:

First Draft - Contents Page

Contents Page:

Contents Page OverPrint:

Photography

Out of my pictures from my studio photoshoot, these were there best ones. This is because they seemed the most professional as my model was posing according to how I wanted it and what suited the different parts of the magazine - when it was for the front cover she was serious and her eyes directly looked at the camera, when it was for the contents and double page spread she varied her poses and they were in the right angles and showed the background off but not too much. The other ones I took, they either were not framed properly, did not seem to be that professional or would not fit onto my magazine and the theme. With some, they were good but there would be no space for them.

Biographical Profile Examples

These are a few interviews that I am looking to emulate when creating my double page spread article in terms of layout, language and structure. Using Thinglink, I have directly highlight what it is about these articles I want to create/ why I want to recreate it. The first one comes from Fader and the rest from Brick. Both of these magazines are two of my case study magazines:

Today's Lesson Update

In today's lesson I focused on improving my front cover. As I gotten feedback from both teachers on the spacing and size of my cover-lines I worked on improving those.

As you can see from this I made the spacing on the sides of the front cover slightly wider , as well as made the font bigger. I moved the "Issue 5 NOV/DEC" that was originally under the masthead and put the "around the globe" cover-line there as it was a recommendation from ms and I felt like it looked better as well. I shortened the cover -lines as they covered the main picture too much, especially when the text was enlarged. I also added a black background behind each other the main cover-lines as I felt like keeping it plain white was too bland and the black background added something that was missing:


However, I still felt like there was too much negative space even after making the text bigger so I added another cover line to the front cover to fill in some space:


By the end of the lesson, this was my finished Front Cover:


I also did some work on my double page spread towards the end of the lesson, by adding more questions to the interview. I will most likely change this a lot on my final version though: