magazine cover evaluation

In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms of real music magazines?

My magazine front cover challenges forms of real music magazines because it uses very similar features to a real magazine. For example my magazine uses very big bold masthead which is in capitals “HOOKED” to catch the attention of the reader. I also enhanced this by adding a sort of mild blue colour to attract the attention of the readers, and especially that this magazine cover is targeted at ages from 11 to 16 so there is need for colour in order to attract the readers. It also has a main cover line called “Mr Wing becoming the top of pop” this tells you or gives you an idea on what the magazine is going to be based about. The layout of the writing is in red I chose this colour because you can actually read it from a distance because the colour is so sharp and radiant and stands out really well in a slightly dark background. It has a banner on the bottom of the page which says “free CD in this week’s edition” for me this was the crucial part because in order to persuade costumers you have to offer them something in return. In this case it will be a free CD. To make the banner stand out I used a white layer to make the banner than I added blue onyx text on top of this to make it noticeable and to draw the attention of the reader. The magazine will be sold at £1.20 so I used a special graphic tool to make the price seem like a special offer. My main cover image is a picture of a “pop star” who is wearing three different types of colours which are black, blue and white this sort of texture really fits in with the background. The image of Wing shows an expression on his face which seems very calm and casual the reason why I say this is because his hands are behind his back which shows sort of relaxed pose but also exciting at the same time. But I noticed his eyes are not actually making eye contact with the audience, the reason why I wanted this is because by him not looking directly to the audience it will make the audience want to know what he is actually looking at, and that motivates our reader to actually find out why. At the bottom of the magazine I have an image of the pussy cat dolls and a bit of text about them these are what will be coming up on the next addition and ultimately will update our readers on the next issue. At the bottom right hand side of the image I have a barcode which makes the magazine look professionally done. Looking through the writing I can clearly say that my magazine really looks great because of the colour, text, heading, masthead, background and almost looks professional, and it is very similar to a real music magazine if not then better.


How does your music magazine cover represent certain social groups?

The Magazine represents certain social groups by the way they dress it is probably similar to what the pop star is wearing in the magazine. The magazine is only targeting people who have an interest in pop music and it is mainly 11-16 year olds who have a genuine interests. The magazines also
targets people who want to look and dress good.

What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine cover and why?

Worldwide magazine distribution (WWMD ) is a leading company in
Distributing magazines they currently own 30 percent of the magazine distribution industry. They have worked with virgin, HMV and all major brands. They are able to distribute my magazine because pop is a very popular and successful magazine and they sell fairly quickly in shops and superstores.

Who would be the audience for your music magazine cover?

The suited audience for this magazine will be from ages 11 to 16, we believe that it is more likely that teenagers would read the magazine rather than children. Although this magazine is targeted at mainly teens it is still targeted to those who are not actually teenagers yet for example an 11 or 12 year old. So their for the magazine is not biased towards the younger age.

How did you attract /address your audience?

To attract my audience I used plenty of dark and bright colours, I also used very big text. The main cover image (central figure) takes up almost the whole area of the front which is very eye-catching. To address the audience I have written a short phrase which is located in the main cover line which gives an idea of what this magazine is going to be about.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this magazine front cover?

The type of computers that were used in constructing this magazine was the really high quality Apple Mac. The program that was used in actually making the magazine was Photoshop; this is specialist software which almost all magazines company use. At first I could not actually crop or cut out the images properly or even put the layers in the correct order. I have never used it before and found it fairly difficult. After a few lessons I really new the beauty of Photoshop because it lets you put these immense radiant colours, graphics text style and it even had a spot remover which removes unwanted spots. My overall opinion is that I really enjoyed those particular bits of constructing the magazine.

If you were to make another front cover, what do you think you would do differently next time?

What I will do next time is to use more bright colours and less of the dark colours for example use orange , blue , green instead of dark colours like black and dark blue which might make the magazine look dull. I will also try and use an image which is actually looking directly at the audience meaning changing the angle of the camera shot. But overall I think the out come of my magazine came out how I wanted it to.