Music Magazine Analysis

Music Magazine Analysis

The Observer – Music Monthly

Front Cover

Audience: The front cover of the newspaper companies (The Observer) Music Monthly magazine immediately highlights its audience of people who enjoy listening to popular alternative/indie artists but also new upcoming artists like Taylor Swift before she became big, which is shown on page 36.

Font/Image: Instantly I notice the bold font in the centre of the page stating “THE KILLERS”. Using bold capped font for the band highlights the power and popularity of the music group. As seen in the image, they are all wearing black in front of the red, white and blue flag. This makes all four band members stand out clearly as they contrast against the background. Below “THE KILLERS” it states about the band being “Americas most wanted” which relates back to the patriotic theme of the band.

Masthead: The masthead is not like other magazines as it isn’t big and stretched across the top of the page, it is placed in a white circle behind one of the band members. Although it seems like it isn’t important on the magazine, you can clearly see the name of the magazine due to the black font which is completely opposite to the white background.

The contents page is found on page 3 of the magazine. The content page includes all information needed for the reader to find a section that they wish to read and included is the page number written beside that to make it easy for the reader to find the topic that they want. In this case Music Monthly have made their popular stories larger than other stories which also included some images. For example, the story about Taylor Swift includes an image of her so the reader immediately understands the article is about her. This magazine is not the only magazine that includes images in their contents page. When creating my music magazine, I will need to take these ideas into account to make it looks effective and real. This double page spread is on page 36 and has a slightly different and unique orientation. As you can see in the picture, the article is portrait over two A4 pages, including a huge picture of Taylor Swift covering the majority of the space and then a small but detailed article at the bottom.

Overall, the front cover of this magazine is very successful as it has a consistent theme and shows a cool, trendy style. After deciding on my music genre, I will need to consider what colour scheme suits best and how to make my image/font stand out from the rest of the page.

School Magazine - Front Cover

Success within the front cover

I have finished creating my front cover on Adobe Indesign CC. I am pleased with the final outcome of the front cover however there are still improvements I would like to take note of when it comes to creating my final music magazine front cover.

When creating a front cover for my school magazine I started off with finding a relevant font that fits the theme of the magazine. I used a helpful website called DaFont where you can browse through thousands of different fonts and select the one you want. Once I selected my best font I screen shotted it and then pasted it into powerpoint to crop the image and then saved it as a JPEG. This was a success for the magazine as the font suits the overall theme of a smart, sophisticated school. Another success was the light blue background contrasting with the image of the 2 models which makes them stand out from the rest of the front cover. The use of using Photoshop was a massive success when developing my front cover. For example, the main/central image I photoshopped involved changing the brightness, contrast, tone but also using the quick selection tool to crop both models out of the background and then saving them as a separate image to then import into InDesign. When creating the front cover of my school magazine I had to use my skeleton I had created to guide me on what I needed to include. This was a success when developing the front cover as I always knew what I was going to include. 

Improvements

I believe my front cover is very dull. This is highlighted by the light blue plain background behind the two models which makes the page look boring. To make the cover look interesting and attractive for the potential customer/reader it must stand out by being bold, colourful and exciting. This is something I must improve on by testing different colour schemes and backgrounds against my theme and pictures. Another improvement I have selected is the image I chose for the main background. Although the quality and brightness of the image is good, both models look very serious and bored. To improve I think an image of both models looking occupied by school work would look better to portray the general theme of a good school. A new improved image would also replace the plain background to discard the dull look of the magazine to a new interesting and colourful front cover. Overall, I believe the front cover is good but only average due to the lack of creativity within the picture and theme. 

My Peer's opinions

I messaged a few friends to give feedback on my front cover which is shown below. 

Editing Photoshoot Images

Using my smart phone I edited the front cover photo with an application called Enlight. This app lets you edit images you have taken on your phone (shown below).

Before & After editing

Firstly, I cropped the image due to so much irrelevant space above their heads. I then brightened up the image, lowered the contrast, and increased the exposure. 

The process of editing

Using Photoshop

After editing (Option 1)

(Option 2)

Photoshoot

Key: Orange = Bad, Green = Good

I do not like the first individual front facing shots due to to the awkward lighting making different parts of their faces patchy. The 2 shots of them studying I like as the quality of both images are very clear and shows an insight into the success of the school. The 2 shots of both models behind the white background are not good due to the distance the shots were taken at and the models also appear to be acting awkward whilst I was taking the 2 shots. The last 2 images display the models enjoying their school life including both of them sat reading from a book outside in the sunshine and the other image of both students smiling. I am considering the last image to be my School Magazine's central image because of the natural, modern and happy look of the image.

Magazine Skeletons & Fonts

       

 Skeleton 1

Skeleton 2

Skeleton 3

Skeleton 4

These four skeletons are my initial ideas for my school magazine I will be creating. All four skeletons are similar in different ways but overall I prefer number 3 due to the Masthead covering the whole width of the top of the page to attract the public to notice the big, bold name of the magazine. Although I have chosen Skeleton 3, I have discovered through research that the left hand side of the front cover of a magazine is normally covered by the buyers hand when reading. To ensure the central image is seen at all times, I will make the secondary images box thinner. 

Skeleton - Contents Page

Skeleton - Double Page spread

Potential Magazine fonts

Photoshoot Preparation - School Magazine

Photography Shoot

Schedule:

• At the Misbourne School on the 11^th of September.
• Shoot starts at 11am for half an hour.
• Meeting in the photography room and then after 10 minutes we will move to the English classroom in 309 to use the setting.

Models: 

• Ryan Collier
• Poppy Evans

 Outfits:

• Ryan Collier – Smart attire (Formal suit and smart shoes.)
• Poppy Evans – Classy attire (Glasses, Smart blazer, White blouse, Pastel a line skirt and smart shoes.)

Types of shots:

• Front shot of both models (Smiling) to show they are enjoying their school years.
• Individual Front Shots of both models sat down in a classroom looking focused on their lesson.
• Side shots of both models looking down and reading.
• Side shots of both models chatting to each other looking happy.

I am going to take these detailed images to ensure my school magazine looks interesting and high quality. The use of both genders in my shoot shows that the magazine is aimed at both sex’s and makes the magazine look more friendly. Both models looking smart will also ensure my school magazine and school is viewed upon as a smart/formal place to learn and study. 

Evidence showing myself communicating to other students about my photoshoot.

Analysing School Magazines

October 2014 PTA Newsletter:              

The use of using green for the announcement section (instead of blue) makes the reader aware of something different and upcoming in the future, making them intrigued of the future events. At the bottom they again advertise another upcoming event of the Christmas Craft Fair, using festive colours and fancy font to set a new exciting mood on the reader.

December 2014 PTA Newsletter:                 

The use of the colours red and green together as a backdrop behind the white font enhances the festive theme of Christmas. The snowflakes also support the theme and the “Christmas Craft fair” that is explained clearly throughout the newsletter. The article includes several images to describe to the reader about its successful event to raise money to improve the school and its community. Including the smiling sixth formers in one of the images again displays the fun and enjoyment at the festive event which makes the reader understand the positive mood they portray.

January 2015 PTA Newsletter:                    

This newsletter shows that the PTA is very important and beneficial towards the Misbourne’s students. Including the big image of the young girl wearing the Misbourne uniform informs the reader that she is a young pupil at the school who is smiling at the gift she has been given. This is further explained in the article about the PTA gifting new year 7’s with interesting books to make their new world of literature more exciting. The use of the different shades of blue supports the unique theme of the school due to the schools logo consisting of 3 blue birds.