Target Audience evaluations/opinions of my Music Magazine Double page spread

Created with Padlet

Target Audience evaluations/opinions on my music magazine Contents page

Created with Padlet

Target Audience evaluations and opinions of my magazine front cover

To get further opinions on my music magazine, I thought that it would be helpful for me to gether the thoughts of who I was aiming my magazine at, my target audience. To display this in a creative and clear way I used "Padlet" to create a wall for teenage girls to comment on my cover, contents page and double page spreas. This post will just focus on my front cover evaluations. I asked my target audience to make notes and record what was appealing to them about "Eclectic" magazine and any things that I could improve on to make it appeal to them more.

Created with Padlet

I found the "Padlet" programme easy to use and very quick and it allowed me to visually display whether I succeeded in meeting my brief in appealing to my tareget audience of young girls/women of 16-23.

Evaluation of my Media Music Magazine

My Music Magazine Double page spread using InDesign FINAL

After planning my double page spread flat plan and a first draft, I  got my peers to assess what they thought of my initial draft, and they noticed that I didn't have a bi line which is a common feature in music magazines and so I added one over the top of my main feature image. Also they thought that it would look more appealing with a more creative font for my main title on the page and I agreed, as I wanted to capture the creativeness within the indie genre in my magazine and so I chose a different font that I think turned out well. I also used InDesign to produce my double page spread.

My Music Magazine contents page FINAL

Music Magazine Double page spread (DRAFT)

My Music magazine Contents page (DRAFT)

My Music magazine Front Cover

Double Page spread Flat Plan for my music magazine

This is my initial flat plan for my double page spread of my music magazine using Microsoft Publisher. I have used NME as a huge inspiration for the majority of my magazine and my double page spread holds a lot of components that may be seen in magazines such as NME. I have decided that I will use one main image as my feature photograph of my main article, my fictional artist 'Elle Nilson'. I came up with this name as the name of my model used in my photographs was name Ellie and so I just slightly adjusted her name to fit a more singer/songwriter image within the indie genre. Filling one whole page of a double page spread it a typical feature that occurs a lot throughout indie magazines and I really like the look of this as it allows one, high quality that represents the artist as a whole. Another convention that I found appealing, which isn't too common, is to have the main title to the article take up around 1/3 of the page with a stand out font. I also included 3 columns of text as I thought that this was an appropriate ratio of image to text on the page, as too much text at the beginning of an article may deter some readers from continuing on, and this structured the page a lot more. To make my double page spread look as professional as possible, I will included a bi line, telling the reader who the photographs were taken by and also a journalist bi line. 

I will included the date and page number in the bottom right hand page and bottom left hand page. Another convention that will set up/lead up to the main article of an interview that I will use will be a kicker. Here, the journalist bi line will be mentioned and will tell the audience what they are about to read in a nutshell before going in to further detail to the interview. I plan to only stick to a few stand out colours with the rest of the text on the page remaining black in a serif font to add professionalism to the page. One component that I found really appealing through doing my research was the use of a 'twitter talk' box displaying tweets from the public/audience. I decided to include one of these not only to give the magazine an aspect of realism but it also adds a point of entry to my magazine.

Contents page Flat Plan

Above is my indie magazine contents page flat plan. I love the clear, precise and artistic layout of the NME contents pages, with each different cover line separated by a single line and a really good balance of images and text and so this is where I found my inspiration for my own (although it may look really confusing from the image above)! I will only use black for the text on the contents page and not highlight certain components with a colour, as this takes away from the simplistic and professional look that is really attractive. The convention that I really took inspiration from, and the only colour for text on the page, is the obvious, in your face page numbers located on each image referring to a certain feature. I like this because it is really easy to navigate your way around the page and you can quickly see what feature is located where by the huge font size. This is also a component that I will use on my own contents page.

Magazine Front cover flat plan

This is my flat plan for my music magazine front cover. I looked at various issues of the layout for inspiration from NME and combined different components to come up with this layout, however, I got most of my layout inspiration from the Foals issue, which I have previously analysed. I have noticed from my research a few components such as a banner along the top of the page (above the masthead) and a slightly transparent boost/plug with either a cover line or promotion of some kind that NME use quite frequently. I really like the look of this and so I decided to include these components on my own magazine, with the banner displaying one of the main cover lines of a feature within the magazine. The banner will also be displayed using the "rough cut effect" in Photo shop to connotate the artistic feel of the indie genre. The main anchorage cover line on the right of the page will hold the biggest space on the page, with the masthead, to denote and connote its importance. I have included a lot text on the page as I found that when I analysed the likes of NME and Q magazine, although the image was the stand out, eye catching feature and what the audience would be drawn to, they typically included quite a lot of text, highlighted further by a chosen colour (depending on the issue). Leading from this I haven't yet decided on what the whole colour scheme of my music magazine will be, however, I will use the typical red, black, white and stand out colour that complements and contrast my main cover image, as I think that this type of colour scheme is classic and professional looking.

Release form and risk assessment form for Music Magazine

This is the release form that I asked my model (Ellie Bray) to fill out to give her informed consent tot take part in my photo shoot for my music magazine main feature and main cover image.

Below is the Risk Assessment sheets that I filled out to asses hoe safe or dangerous I believed the shoot would be, any possible hazards and how I tried to overcome these through appropriate clothing/footwear etc.

My final Image choice for my Double Page spread - Interview

My Final edited Images for my Contents Page

Masthead font choices

After quite a lot of research I have decided that my final magazine masthead will be "Eclectic". Although this title is a lot longer than many indie magazine titles such as NME and Q that are snappy, recognisable names, I have considered that if the magazine were to become more established then it could even be shortened down to just simply "E", like New Musical Express (NME) originally was published as. After I had decided on my title I now just have to choose a font that my masthead will be displayed in. The font of the masthead is really important as it can connote the theme, style and formal/informal manner which may target a different audience than you initially intended, as it is this, combined with the main cover image that attract the demographics.

These are a range of various styles I looked at. They mainly consist of different styles, all within the Sans Serif font range. I did this because after researching a lot about already established Indie magazines, mainly NME and Q, this is the font that they use for their masthead and it looks very professional from its simplicity. This draws attention more towards the main cover image which will be the main and most important feature within the magazine. I then considered that if I were to do the same and make my masthead very simplistic but professional looking, then it would allow me to change the colour, making it look more bold and an eye catcher for the reader. After taking into account these points I have decided to have the second to last one as my masthead font for all of these reasons.

Edited final photo for my music magazine: Main cover image

After my photo shoot and inspiration from many Indie magazines, I decided to edit my photographs so that they were more relatable and suitable for the style/theme of my magazine. For my main cover image I tried to use the techniques that I have previously learnt and used in the creation of my preliminary task, to give it a vintage, polaroid tint/look which ties in with the style and interests of a large majority of the indie music fan base. From my research and knowledge of  magazines such as NME, they mainly tend to use a mid shot of the artist/band that is the main feature within the magazine, and a lot of the time a prop is involved in some way. For my main cover image I tried to reflect this by showing a couple of statement jewellery pieces and cat eye style sunglasses, to portray the style of a grungy/indie artist paired with a leather jacket and baseball tee to bring the image together.

The first image above is the original image that I took in the Scotch Piper pub in Lydiate. The pub itself does not have a lot of light and it tends to be overshadowed a lot of the time and so I tried to capture an image that had a decent amount of light for the photograph. However the seats where in front of the window and so cause a lot backlit which meant that Ellie's face was shadowed and not too clear. This was a component that I tried to overcome when editing my photo. I think a lot of the components in this image work together to portray and capture Ellie's femininity which is why I chose this image as my main target demographic is young women/girls and this should hopefully make the image stand out and be most attractive to this audience. 

When editing this photo on photo shop, I firstly increased the brightness and contrast of the image to my desired lighting for it to still look bright enough to see Ellie's facial features, but also keep the vintage depth of shadows and highlights. I then used the curves tool to cross process both of the images above by adding more red/blue undertones to the second image and more yellow/green undertones to the last image above to see which one I preferred. The cross processing gave the images the vintage polaroid effect that I wanted. I then used the spot healing brush tool to remove any imperfections from her skin such as blemishes on her forehead and decreased the saturation and brightness to her lips for a more grungy, dark shade. Finally, I used the clone stamp tool to remove a beauty mark on her neck and little finger in the foreground. From the two images above I will use the last photograph for my main cover image.

Photo shoot for my Music Magazine

Similar to when producing my school magazine for my prelim task, after creating shot lists of possible images I wanted to take featured on my cover, contents page and double page spread, I actually finally carried out my photo shoot which took place in various locations that I believed reflected the style and naturalistic setting that would appeal to fans of indie genre magazines (explained in blog post about planning for the shoot). I planned the shoot for during 2 week break from school so that I could have unlimited time to take the photographs and also get a variety from more realistic and interesting places than the school grounds! When taking the photo's I used my own DSLR camera to get the highest quality photographs possible with what was available to me to get a professional looking outcome. I tried to think a lot about lighting (back lit, front lit etc) to divert away from over/underexposure in the photo's, even though as you can see below a few of them did not turn out the best quality.

Overall I took 198 photo's on the day which allowed me to have a large range of photographs so that when I came to choose my final images, I had a lot to choose from and made sure that they were the highest quality. I really enjoyed the photo shoot and I am really pleased with how the images turned out and the location and prop choices which brought the photographs together. I found the shoot enjoyable and because I use my camera a lot as I love the quality of the photo's that are taken when I use it, I found it quite easy to get decent images. Despite this, I had a few limitations/problems during the shoot such as the day the photo shoot was carried out was a really sunny, spring day and so I found it difficult at times to find spots outside that provided the right amount of light for a decent photo. Finally, the day I chose probably wasn't the smartest as it was Grand National day, and as the majority of the photographs were shot outside and in a pub (the Scotch Piper), it was difficult to find areas where there wasn't a lot of people becoming objects in the background of the photo's, however if one of my final images includes people in the background that aren't wanted, I can use photoshop while in the editing process to correct this.

Photo shoot planning for my Music Magazine

I have planned to carry out my photo shoot for my music magazine on the 10th April and organised the day so that I can travel to many locations for a variety of photographs to use for my main cover image, contents page and double page spread. The model I am using is Ellie Bray, who I had previously got to sign a release form for the shoot (see release form post for more details), and I planned for the shoot to start out at Crosby Beach, then travel to the Scotch Piper Pub in Lydiate and finish the shoot at Lydiate Abbey (an old church ruin) and a woodland area next to the pub. I chose these locations because they were fairly natural landscapes and I wanted to portray the realistic outings and natural everyday behaviour/life of my fictional artist. I want to capture the model's girly and grungy sides, but youthful and fun character and to help aid this I will use quite a few props such as a polaroid camera, a lolly ice, a vintage bottle of pink lemonade and possibly a couple of props that I might find in the locations such as seasonal flowers etc. My inspiration for my photo shoot is from the images featured throughout NME and Q of artists on tour and natural shots that show off their individuality.

Shot list for music magazine photo shoot

Analysis of Indie magazine Contents Page: NME (Jake Bugg issue)

Click the link below for my analysis of this NME contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature/component.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430599@N04/8701238299/

Analysis of Indie magazine Double Page Spread:NME (Jake Bugg issue)

Click the link below for my analysis of this NME double page spread on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature/component.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430599@N04/8702382320/

Analysis of Indie magazine cover: NME (Jake Bugg issue)

 Click the link below for my analysis of this NME cover on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature/component.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430599@N04/8701213557/

Analysis of Indie magazine Double page spread:NME (Foals edition)

Click the link below for my analysis of this double page spread on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature/component.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430599@N04/8701199095/

Analysis Indie genre Contents pages:NME (Foals edition)

Click the link below for my analysis of this NME contents page on Flickr.Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature/component.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430599@N04/8701181405/

Analysis of Indie magazine cover:NME (Foals edition)

Click the link below for to view my analysis on this NME cover on Flikr. Hover over the image to view my analysis of each feature/component.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430599@N04/8702258994/

Initial ideas for cover, contents page and double page spread for my Music Magazine

This is a mind map that I have created with all of my visions on what my music magazine will feature. i have thought about my cover image and images for the contents page and double page spread, along with the colour schemes and possible article features. As my music magazine is for an indie genre, I want to capture the grungy side of the genre through my imagery ad use of fonts and colour scheme, still aiming more towards  a female dominant audience. For my images to represent this, I thought carefully about how my fictional artist  on my cover image would be dressed and the locations I wanted to shoot at, ad most importantly who would be my model for the images and main feature on my double page spread. I came to the decision of asking my friends' cousin for my photo shoot as her style is very much perfect for the style I originally sought for at the beginning of my research. I arranged a date and chose clothes, props, and possible make up and jewellery that would capture and allow the female audience to relate to the indie/grungy style of the photography.

Target Audience Considerations

Qualities of target audience you want to reflect -
For my target audience, there are a few qualities that they could exude. One of the main stand out qualities could be that they have a quirky, artistic and almost grunge-like style. Translations of this would be seen in my cover image from the way that my fictional band/artist would be dressed and also actual components of my magazine such as font choices and small illustrations for example that would create an artistic vibe/outlook. Also they could be that they have a very classic indie rock taste when it comes to music and that they have a broad knowledge of the bands/artists that made the genre so popular and what it is today.

Aspirations of your target audience - My target audience would maybe aspire to take a literature route, interested in the language and communication of words for example (as my magazine is called "Eclectic") or follow their quirkiness in a career in a creative industry and this components of this artistic nature would be displayed in design of my own magazine.


Feature Ideas - "Ben Howard: Album to fandom", "Palma Violets New Album.. Outlook!"Review, Interview with the Arctic Monkeys, "The Smith's 30 year Anniversary", "Photographs of the decade"-(Polaroid style photo's of a band/artist-fictional).


Regular Ideas - "Gig Guide", "Artist of the year:Their story", "Crossword", "Events of the month"


List of Advertisers to approach - I would approach an advertiser such as IPC as this is the distributor for NME which is one of the main influences for the conventions and features of my own magazine. This would also mean that my magazine would be distributed to my niche indie market with specialist distributors such IPC to allow me to appeal to my target audience of young women/girls of the indie genre easily.


Magazine Name - I was considering the masthead to be "Eclectic" as this would reflect the interest in meaning behind words that I have and I think that it targets a niche market of the indie genre (see masthead evaluations post for more detail).

My School Magazine

This my final school magazine cover and contents page. Through research into other school' newsletter's I decided that I wanted my prelim task to look more like a school 'magazine' than a 'newsletter' as there were some features on their newsletters that made them look unprofessional and not cater to the intended target audience. I tried to over come these elements when I produced my own.

The photographs that you can see above included on both my cover and contents page were all edited using Photoshop. 

Indie Genre Mood board

This is a mood board that I have created as inspiration for my 'indie' genre magazine. I have included the artistic sense of the genre such as album covers, posters and typography that is very popular with the audience, bands/artists and lyrics from their songs. I have also included a lot of the lifestyle side to the 'indie' audience like the style of the clothing an artist/musician may wear to coincide with the magazine that I am creating. The style that I will most probably reflect and am inspired by the most for the band/artist on my cover page is the indie girl bad Haim (the black and white image in the centre of the page) and Jenn Im a Youtuber with a fashion channel, as they both have a quirky yet grunge-like style which is what I want for the girl band/artist that will be features as a mid shot for my central/main image. This is because my indie magazine is going to be aimed at girls/young women and having this style presented on the cover will appeal and attract the most to this age range.

Title Evaluations

After a lot of thought into what my music magazine should be called and from a lot of research through song/album titles, I have narrowed it down to 2 possible titles; Eclectic and charged.

Eclectic - The definition of eclectic is "composed of a variety of components drawn from a variety of sources and styles". I was already very familiar with what the word eclectic meant and I use it a lot when describing things, however I never originally thought about it being useful for this project. I thought that "eclectic" was very appropriate as indie magazines tend to study/feature a variety of sub-indie genres within them, for example ranging from classic indie rock featuring bands such as The Smiths and The Clash etc to more recent, newer indie artists such as Jake Bugg and Two Door Cinema Club which both have two different styles. Reflecting this in my own magazine should appeal to a wider audience of many styles within the indie genre fan base.

Charged -  I thought that charged had many connotations with the main one relating to music being an electric charge which may then be suggestive of an electric guitar, which is a main component of an indie bands/artists' instruments that drives the music. Using this as a title would create an image of this to the audience which would be effective as the masthead of an indie magazine.

From these two title decisions I have finally decided to call my music magazine eclectic. After weighing up the signifier's and effectiveness of both I concluded that eclectic had more of an appropriate appeal to a wider audience range within the indie genre and had a more effective meaning behind it. The word is also often used as terminology referring to artistic subjects and so this would further appeal to a lot of my target audience as the style of many indie artists/fans of such music tend to be quite quirky, artistic and contemporary.

Mindmap of Ideas for My Music magazine title

This is a mind map of all of the possible ideas that associate or have connotations of the indie genre of music for the title of my magazine. I thought of words that first come to my mind when I think of indie music and music in general such as sounds etc. I then thought of bands/artists that I listen to and some that I know would appeal to the "indie" audience and some lyrics or song titles that may influence the name for my masthead. I also looked at the lifestyle that this type of demographic might lead and tried to gather some inspiration from here that would help the audience to relate to the title all the more.

My Music magazine target audience

My target audience for my music magazine will be between the ages of 16-23 and may appeal to both male and females, however it will be directed more towards females as the artistic feel and colour schemes, bands/artists may be more female orientated. I wanted to do this because I want to create a magazine that I would want to buy myself and that I would be attracted to from these components. My audience will be aimed at alternative individuals with a quirky style that are interested in Indie rock. The audience will be a typical 17 year old girl that has an artistic/contemporary style, spends a lot of her money buying vintage vinyl's/albums and goes to intimate gigs in architecturally beautiful buildings. She is always listening to music whenever she has an opportunity and is linked to quite a few social networking sites to keep up to date with her favourite artists and their tour dates. Her favourite bands would include classic, older bands like The Smiths, The Clash, The Arctic Monkeys and more newer indie pop bands like The Kooks, Jake Bugg, Two Door Cinema Club and Imagine Dragons. She is interested in the photography in magazines and music is one of the most important components of her life. She will buy quite a bit of her clothes from thrift/charity shops and has an individual style and she is always seeking to learn new things and discover new artists/fashion inspiration.

Inspiration for my main cover image

The image above is of a YouTuber named Jenn Im who is a fashion inspiration to many teenage girls subscribed to her channel. I loved this photograph of her as it encaptured the feel that I wanted to portray in my main cover image for my music magazine. Her grungy style, combined with the mid shot, displaying her clothes, down to her expression and editing is perfect for the indie genre and what I wanted to try and replicate. From my research in to the layout, shot type ect used on most NME and Q magazines, I saw that the main cover images are mainly mid shots of the main featured band/artist and so this inspired me to do the same to allow a more realistic and professional, relatable cover.

Above is a really early issue of NME that I managed to buy from Ebay. I chose this edition to buy as I loved the editing of the main cover image and the style of clothing that looks to be like 80's grunge. This issue also gave me ideas for the props in my photo shoot such as the sunglasses, which I thought really added mystery and individual style to the photograph. The tones and colours in the photo seem to be yellow and slightly cross processed, which is what I will try to replicate on my own cover image.

Theorists behind Feminist views in the Media

Laura Mulvey's - "Male Gaze Theory"

Today, many feminists would see most media output as a product of a male dominated order. In 1975 Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist, created the 'Male Gaze theory'. She stated that cinema audiences look at films in 2 ways; voyeuristically and fetishistically. In turn, this leads to 2 side effects; the 'objectification of females' and the 'narcissistic identification' of the ideal image on the screen. Her theory confirmed that the media was created for the satisfaction of males, with women merely being 'objects of desire for their visual pleasure'.
Below is a prime example of the Male gaze theory:

Cohen's Moral Panic Theory

In this theory, Cohen says that within the media, certain groups of people are portrayed as a threat to society by people in power (such as the government), and this is played on, causing a moral panic among the public. The panic among the public turn them against the certain groups of people, turning them into 'folk devils'. Major examples of this is seen today within the media, where newspapers have turned many British people against immigrants, and turned many Westerners against Muslim countries and all people who live in them.

Richard Dyer's Star Theory

Richard Dyer noted that a star is just an image created for audiences, not a real person - they are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. The 'star image' is based on 2 paradoxes; they must be both ordinary and extraordinary, and they must be simultaneously present and absent. 

Final Images for School Magazine Edits using Photoshop

From choosing my final better images from my photo shoot, I have edited the four photographs below and have included the original photo's above the edited versions so that the difference and changes I have made can be seen clearly.

You can see from the two images above (the top being the original) that I have mad subtle changes that just give the photograph more vibrancy and colour saturation. I  pumped up the brightness and contrast to make the photo clearer. You will also be able to see in the original image that in the bottom left hand corner there is a bonnet of a car sticking out and red traffic cones just off the centre of the photo. I thought that it would look much better with this removed so the focus was more on the school and so I used the clone stamp tool to take them right out of the photograph to give the appearance that they weren't there to begin with. This is the photograph I will use for the front cover of my school magazine as I feel that it captures the traditional aspect/values which was part of my aim for the target audience of parents.

This image also had very minimal editing as all I did was increase the brightness and contrast and added a tiny but of Gaussian blur to the background to make sure that the main focus was on the hand and paper in the foreground. The shallow focus on this photograph is the component that I am most please about and why I chose I have chosen to use it as one of the photo's on my contents page.

With this photograph I first boosted up the contrast and brightness to clear up the image slightly as it was quite shadowed in the original photograph. I then used the clone stamp tool to remove the dark stains on the mat underneath the Bunsen burner to clean it up a little and then I noticed that there was a random bag in the backdrop, on the table. The bag was a bit trickier to remove than the dark patches on the mat but I managed it in the end. The final edit I made was cropping the image to put the focus on the female student, as the male student in the background was pulling a strange expression and he was shadowed and so I though it would be much better without this part in the photo.

This was the final photograph I edited and again, not much was changed here. Although the editing is subtle, the adjustments make the image look a lot better. Like a lot of my photo's, I enhanced the brightness and contrast and then finally removed the strange 'happy birthday' banner and clock from the background using the clone stamp tool.