Retake: Evaluation

Final Evaluation: Question 1
I believe that my magazine follows some conventions of a real magazine. This includes the coverline strap above my masthead which is quite common on magazine front covers. I decided to use this because it makes the cover look slick and professional and also it is a quite common and well recognisable feature, on well known music magazines.

My masthead is different from most magazines because it is not one big striking word. I could have abbreviated It like rnf like what nme did but instead I kept it as three words but abbreviated the and to ‘n’ to give the masthead a type of rhythm. The thing that is conventional about my masterhead is that it is at the top like all the magazines.
Another convention that my magazine has followed is that my main cover line is about the artist on the front cover which is often differentiated from other cover lines. This is shown throughout he excessive size of the font compared to the other coverlines, that are presented on the page. The reason why I decided to do this was because I wanted my magazine to look as real as possible. I also wanted the writing to jump out and be the main focus of my magazine to catch my target audience attention. I wanted the effect of them to stop and actually take a look at my magazine, and decide whether or not to buy my magazine.

Like most magazines my magazine has a colour scheme to it which I think is quite important because the colours used can make or break a magazine. I decided to use different shades of brown and golds which I think makes my magazine look classy, which was the look I was going for. For my double page spread and contents page I used more classical colours black and white with also brown and gold’s to keep it consistant. I think these colours are not really common with magazines. The colours normally used are reds and whites.

My magazine also developed new conventions like not allowing my front page be jam packed with cover lines all over the artist. The reason why I could not do this was because of the nature of the main image used on my front cover it is a group image instead of a single image, so my coverlines are towards the bottom of the page which makes my magazine front cover look different from other magazines.

The artists on my magazine is a girl group which is not really common on music magazine front covers they normally have single artists as there main image. The position of my artists is unique because they are sitting down close together other positions of bands on a front cover is them standing up. When researching on trying to get ideas on how to do my front cover with a girl group hardly any images came up which made me think twice on maybe using a girl band. But I decided to do it anyway which I think will my cover look different.

Doing my textual analysis helped me tremendously on understanding conventions and how they are represented. By me analysing a professional magazine it gave me an insight on what is expected for a magazine front cover, contents and double page spread and the type of standard I am meant to meet and also quality that has to be produced.

In regards to my content page i was inspired by q magazine layout. It looked fairly easy to do as I did not want to look for a complicated example which I know will be difficult to fulfil. It may had also lowered the quality of my magazine products and not help me achieve the goal of making my three products look as professional as possible.

I followed the convention of writing the magazines website at the top right corner of the page just like q magazine

I also followed the convention of putting my writing in colomns to make my contents page look neat and tidy.

Final Evaluation: Question 2

My magazine focuses on the genre is rnb which appeals to males and females but predominantly females that are huge fans of rnb. My magazine is for females aged 15-30 that are interested in whats going on in the rnb world and are into gossip to do with there favourite artists.

The models on my front cover are being represented as sophisticated and classy with also a little bit of sex appeal which is quite typical for rnb stars. They all have the same dress code which is black. The girl in the middle is wearing black with a hint of peach which makes her stand out and people can automatically clock on that she is the main singer of the girl band. This is quite common with female groups so I followed the stereotypical way of how girl groups dress.Most females groups dress provocatively to look sexy and appealing i wanted my girl group to look sexy but i didnt want them to dress to provocatively. I wanted them to look sexy but classy. Which will help differenciate them from differnt girl groups out there. My models look attractive and a little seductive with there facial expressions. I just wanted to prove that females don’t have to be half naked to look desirable and attractive. Due to the fact that my magazine can be acessed by females as young as 15 i wanted my models to be role models and for them not to feel pressured to look or even dress a certain way. I also made my models look this way because i am targeting an audience that values style. The models hair are quite straight forward and trendy and accessible to the female audience as they are popular hairstyles for this social group. The models used are quite young which can relate target audience.

I made this weeks tour stand out from the page because my social group are always looking for concerts and are always interested to when their favourite band is coming to a town near them.

My texual analysis helped me understand what conventions were used in magazines and why they are so effective. It helped me make my magazine as professional as possible. This also helped me with making my double page spread as I do not know an awful lot about double page spreads. My questionnaire which was part of my research helped me know what my target audience wanted. It was not possible to include everything that they wanted but a lot of was said was included.

Final Evaluation: Question 3

I have decided to use conde nast publications to distribute my magazine because I have seen that they do not have any music magazines that they publish and I think it would be a good opportunity for them to get into the music business starting with my magazine. This will help them create a new target audience which will enhance and add to there list of magazines that they publish. This will help them get credit for publishing outside there comfort zone and give them recognition. i think that they will also be very beneficial for me because they are highly respectable and they have majority of females that read the magazines that they publish like lifestyle magazines, this includes vogue and glamour which are highly read magazines which can also wided my target audience so I think that they are the best publicist for me because they are well established. By them publishing my magazine they will benefit financially because there are a lot of people that listen to rnb magazine so there is not a doubt that my magazine will be flying of the shelves. If they publish my magazine this will open doors for them and they might consider publishing other genres as well as mine.

I think that my magazine will benefit from being sold at news agents because every area has one ,and I think news agents is a spot that magazines are sold the most and there is usually a big space where they are put and it will be along side with other music magazines well known like vibe and young voices. Conde nast have websites that customers can get through and also spot my magazine which will be another way for my target audience to get access to the latest issue of my magazine.
Final Evaluation: Question 4
My target audience are females that live and breathe rnb music because I feel that they will benefit from my magazine the most. it is also for the females that are more or less into any type of music and have an open mind.

The audience will be age 15-25; the reason why I have decided to target this age group is because this age group is at a time in their lives, when they will read a lot of magazines because they have a lot of free time to spare. I think my magazine is for all cultures but mainly African and Caribbean because they embrace the RNB genre really well. Also, there is a girl in the girl-group on my magazine who is not from African and Caribbean background, she is from an Asian background so this might attract the Asian culture to read my magazine as well.My magazine would also target people who are very interested in American music because that is mainly what is in the content of my magazine.

It will also target people who love specific stars or public figures such as Beyonce and Neyo because there are a lot of interviews with them which an ultimate fan will be exited about. The reason why I decided to start the targeted age group as low as 15 years was because they do not see themselves as children anymore and are more fascinated and enthusiastic about new products and my magazine being one of them. people who enjoy reading will also benefit from my magazine.

Final Evaluation: Question 5
I attracted my target audience by putting as much of the things they said in the research that I did so that I can know for sure what they are interested in. The mistake that I did was not ask questions on what images they would like to see on my magazine’s front cover . So I had to be creative and use my initiative, as such, I decided to be different and use a female vocal group because it would be different from what my audience have seen. Using females on my front cover would attract the female audience because they will feel happy and proud that young females look respectable and beautiful. I also think that my magazine will attract a lot of males because they would stop and look twice and think “who are this new group”? The females look attractive and they might want to read more about them even though this was not my intention because my magazine is aimed at females.

My models are all dressed in black so that they can look formal and sophisticated they all have matching accessories to help them look the part. The models used are roughly the same age as the target audience which will be easy for them to relate to.

For my double page spread they are all holding microphones which are a clever prop because it actually makes them look like serious vocalist not just eye candy.

My cover lines are very interesting because it features on how a girl got famous through youtube which would be fascinating for younger audience.

I think that by mentioning american artists like neyo who are major american artists and adored by the public.

During my audience research, I discovered that my audience really wanted information on tour dates and album releases, so what I did was make the cover line about tour dates big and bright to attract my audience. I used the colour yellow and made a different font to the rest of the cover lines which will make t stand out. I gave it an effect to make it look like it is stamped on the front cover.

My main article is about a new girl group from London. I think this will please my audience because even though my magazine still features things they are used to like interviews with their favourite stars and gossip, they also get to be the first to know about new talents that have just hit the music industry.

I also think that my audience will be happy with the price £2.00 because it is not so expensive. This is a price range is between what my audience normally pay for their favourite magazines.




I used the colour scheme to make my magazine’s front cover look neat and professional when doing my textual analysis, I discovered that colours are really important and they represent a lot of things so I had to choose my colours very carefully and make sure that they went together.


I used a golden yellow for my master head and outer glow to make it look almost heavenly. I decided to use this colour because it was bright and different from the usual red and black. I did this to make it stand out with also making the masthead large so that it can catch my audience’s eyes. As the golden yellow contrasts with the other colours that I used like brown for instance.

The name of the girl group is big and bold and in a different colour and font from the rest of the coverlines so that the audience will want to know more about the artists. I think by me using such a different colour scheme it will definatly attract my target audience.

I also think that that the name of my magazine is very current and catchy which i think will appeal to the audience rhythm n flow is different to many mastheads that you see n is short for and which i think that the audiebce will relate to as it is in text form.

The colour of my writing is normal white to keep it simple but I made the page numbers the same colour as the masthead to keep my pages looking consistent. The background is black so it contrasts with the white writing.

For my double page spread I have one big picture of the girl group holding microphones which takes up almost the whole page so I kept it plain and simple with white writing going along side it on the left hand which is white the background is also black. To capture the audience I made there quotation really big and noticeable ‘you haven’t succeeded if you haven’t failed’ which is catchy and might keep them interested and allow them to read on.

Final Evaluation: Question 6
Having already doing my preliminary task photoshop was not new to me, which made me aware of the tools I was going to use for my music magazine, but on the way of making my music magazine I picked up new tricks along the way as well.Firstly what I did was take my photographs using a canon Eo5 400d at my college studio.



what I did was put a white spread sheet for the background and I had a reflector to make the photo shoot seem brighter. At first I was a bit shaken with the camera so they came out a bit blurry so I had to keep taking them until I got the focus right. I used a lot of shots because I was unsure what photographs I was going to use for my front cover, content page and double page spread.


So I took variety of this included close shot, medium close up, canon shot, birds eye view and medium shots. I then later asked my models to use some props like microphones to make the shoot seem more professional. Before I could start making my magazine, I had to upload my images with a memory card reader and decide which one I was going to use for my front cover. This was hard for me because I wanted the right photo for the right page. When I chose my photo for my front cover, I uploaded it on my photo shop and decided to keep the background because I felt that was the perfect background to use.



I wanted a gold colour but I was restricted because I could not find one so I had to settle with a golden type of yellow. I decided to put a brown stroke around the master head to complement the golden yellow colour. I also used an outer glow to make it seem brighter and striking to the human eye I also used a drop shadow on the title.

The next stage for me was to think of the coverlines that I was going to use then I decided to make some of the cover lines brown. I wrote my coverlines using the text box tool which was straight forward.



The main coverline which was about the girl band was a different colour and different font from the rest of the coverlines I used the same font as my masterhead to make it stand out and to show that these words are very important.

The second main cover line which I wrote on top of a circle shape using the shape button was in a more brighter yellow than the master head and it was also in big writing “this weeks tours” was put on a circle shape was to make it look like it was stamped on the magazine. The font that I used was gill sans ultra bold. I used strokes around all my coverlines.

For my double page spread with my main image of the girl band I changed the background colour from white to half pink and gold I did this to brighten up the image I did this by just selecting the colours from the palette.

For the individual images of the girls I desaturated the images to make them black and white and then I put a stroke around each one the same colours that I used for the background of the other image on my double page spread. Then at the bottom of each individual picture I put there names so the reader can identify who is who. This will be helpful when reading the interview.

For my quotes I downloaded my font from da font.com I decided to resort to this because I wanted my quotes to be different from all the other fonts. The font I downloaded is called earwig factory regular.

Using the colour picker I used the same colour from one of my models dress on the writing of my questions in my interview and for half of the background on my main image also for the stroke around my individual images as well.

I also had to use blogger to upload all my work on to which was new to me as all I normally do is print my work off to teachers this has helped with technology.

Final Evaluation: Question 7

Since doing my preliminary task I have learnt a whole range of skills starting from orginisation to the actual effects I can create on image. Choosing the fonts was not easy but I still managed to do the best I could. I was privelleged with taking a lot of photos that I could choose from. This was difficult because I had to have the mind set of this being real so I can achieve the best and I could put my all into it. it was difficult making my double page spread because i had to use a A3 canvas which is difficult to handle compared to the normal A4 canvas , but making my double page spread was really interesting and new to me this was the most i have ever written on photoshop and i had to make every word interesting and captivating for the reader to read.

Also for my double page spread i used different tools like the colour picker which was a skill that i was not presented with when making my college magazine. With my contents page i really limited when doing my college magazine as i just wrote my coverlines in a column, but now i have used the shape tool to make rectangles to place my writing on.I think making this magazine has made me grow into a more skillful and creative person this experience will never leave me. with the preliminary task there wasn't alot of effort going into the work as i didn't know much about anything .