Evaluation of

Music MagazineBen Hollis

“The ways in which my product challenge the conventions of real

media products”.

I feel that I have challenged the forms and conventions of real media

products, in this case music magazines, very well considering the

limited software which was available. Throughout the production of my

magazine I looked at various professionally produced magazines

which I researched and incorporated some of the conventions such as

layouts and font styles into my magazine.

I used a popular magazine layout with cover lines on the left which

slightly overlap the central image, which I think makes it look realistic

and informative but not too cluttered. The reason for this layout was

because it follows the conventions of other magazines on the market

but doesn‟t look too compact and hard to read. I feel that I have

followed the “Route of the eye” Concept fairly well which entices my

target audience to look at all of the aspects of the front cover at first

look.

- Layout Evaluation

The “route of the eye”

concept is shown on my

own magazine and „Q‟

magazine. Both

Magazines show the

concept as the reader of

the magazine will firstly

recognise the company

who produced the

magazine in my case

„Reverb‟. The eyes of the

reader will then follow

down and across to the

central/main image that

the producer has used on

the front cover. The reader would then look in more

depth at the cover lines and articles which are

incorporated in the magazine on the left hand side of

the page. Finally, before turning the page they will

look at the bottom of the page for any further cover

lines, pull quotes or article titles.

I feel the layout and concept I have used complies

with professional; magazines as shown here.

-Font Styles

I tried to use a variety of font styles within my magazine as from my research I noticed that the cover lines on the front cover of magazines showed a wide range of font styles. I also used bold and casual font styles for my cover lines as this related to the Indie rock genre very well.

This is an example of one of my bold cover

line fonts which clearly stands out really well

and looks like a professional magazine font that would be used. I also used a variety of font colours so it made the magazine look more appealing to the eye.

I tried to develop the title font title to make it look how the music it is related to sounds. I made the title font look „rough‟ yet „bold‟ like the sound of indie rock music. I also made it look cracked as if the distorted music has cracked the title

Colours and Mode of Address

The colour scheme I used for the my magazine was clearly Red/White/Black.

The colour of Red was used as the dominant colour to contrast with the white

and make titles and cover lines stand out. I thought the colour scheme was

appropriate as it was favoured by my focus group and I also thought it was

relevant to the Indie-rock genre. I also took into consideration of what the

colours symbolised for example the Red symbolises aggro and Envy which

relates to the style of music the genre is related to.

I feel that the language I used didn‟t necessarily address my audience. To

improve I could have used some slang language to address the teenage

audience like some abbreviations that are often used.

Images

I used a selection of images that I took for myself using a high quality

camera. The images I used in the magazine showed a variety of shot types

which I think work quite well and are pretty effective.

This shot which I used for my

main image on my front cover is

taken at a slightly low angle, this

gives the effect of authority on

the artist and makes him look

like a musical icon. I took the

image on a white background

and changed the contrast to

erase the rest of the

background. This was effective

because the background was

irrelevant and considering the

background colour of the

magazine is white I knew it

would stand out well. I chose

the costume for this image

which consists of chino trousers

and a smart suit jacket which is

iconic to indie rock artists.

Noah and the whale

Shots Taken