2. INITIAL RESEARCH
To get to grips with what people prefer in terms of
music magazines and music as a whole, I created a
questionnaire of 6 questions consisting of if they read
magazines, if so what magazines do they prefer, the
price they’d be willing to pay, their favourite part of a
magazine (reviews, interviews) and then whether they
go to gigs. By doing this questionnaire I knew what to
put in my magazine for example on the contents page,
by getting a small audiences opinion I knew what people
would like.
To get results, I asked ten
people to answer my
questionnaire. Below are the
results. If I was to do this
again I’d ask some more
questions to get more of an
idea.
3. PRODUCT RESEARCH
To get an idea of what I wanted to be
like, I researched Q and NME magazine
as these are both music magazines and
ones I like. I had a look at the layouts
and how they vary from one another. I
think in the end I took Qs approach in
terms of layout as it’s a lot simpler than
NMEs and looks more together, in my
opinion. You can see in the next few
slides that my magazine layout
throughout looks more like Q. I have
used the circle shape on that is used on
the Q front cover on my front cover and
contents page. I thought this was a good
idea because when I was researching, by
the text being in the circle, it caught my
attention as it made it stand out from
the other text so I wanted that for mine.
As well as getting ideas for my magazine, I also
had to look at the layout and include what had to
go in. For example, the barcode and logo was
necessary. By researching these magazines I feel
I’ve gained more knowledge of magazines and
what techniques they use to get an audience.
4. LOGO DESIGN
This is my logo design. I chose to do a
logo like this as I wanted it to look sharp
and smart. I like how the letters are cut out
and how on my magazine front cover, the
black and white go well together. I feel even
though it has a peculiar pattern to it, it’s still
easy to read.
5. IMAGE EDITING
I edited a total of six images. As you
can see I edited them quite subtly and
just upped the contrast and brightness
and adjusted the colour balance a
little bit. I think by taking the images
against a white background, it goes
with the magazine overall and makes
the model stand out even more.
7. CONTENTS PAGE
I wanted to keep the contents page simple and
sophisticated. I kept everything in the same
text apart from when talking about the artist
as that’s the main story in the magazine. If I
was to do this again I would add more to the
contents as the bottom of the page looks a
little bare however I didn’t want it to look too
cluttered. Overall I am happy with the
outcome and feel all of the pages go together
really well. I think using the same colours
helped a lot. I based my contents page on Qs
as I liked the layout as it was simple yet looked
both interesting to read and look at.
8. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
I really like my double page spread, I think the
font fits well on the page and you can read it
clearly. As you can see I used to different but
similar colours for the background as I’ve seen
this done a few times and always think the
finished piece is has a nice effect due to it. As you
can see I included three smaller pictures down the
side of the second page as I wanted to make it
look like the pictures were from parts of the
interview, hence her mid conversation in one of
them. I then put a black frame around them to
make it look more proper and professional. Over
all I’m happy with this.
9. PEER GROUP FEEDBACK
“Simple and bright layout. Nice”
“Personally would probably use some
more colours to brighten it up a bit”
“Pictures look sophisticated therefore appeal to
me”
10. STRENGTHS OF THE
PROJECT
As we had to take our own images, we had a lot of freedom with this. I chose to take my images
against a white background as I wanted my magazine to be quite sophisticated and clean, I didn’t
want it looking too cluttered. To suit the personality of my model, on the pictures she’s quite
reserved and from looking at the pictures you can’t really tell her personality. The image I’ve used for
the front cover is the image that everybody is going to see first so I wanted it to be quite stand out ish
so I chose an image of her staring the camera down to try and describe the vibe she gives off. Quite
blunt and confident. I experimented with all different angles so I had a variety of images to choose
from. All together I took around 40 images. I edited and used six of these images in total.
11. WEAKNESSES OF THE PROJECT
I found this project relatively easy to do but if I was to do it again, there are some things I
would change. The first thing I would change is the font on the front cover. I like it but if I
had the chance to change it then I’d pick a clearer one to use. The other thing I’d change is my
images, I think they would have looked good against a background for example a forest type
photo-shoot where it’s still quite simple yet there would be a bit more going on and it would
fit in with the theme.
