Evaluation.

To relate to my selected theme “British Indie Rock”, I had to choose carefully for what would be on the front cover of my magazine, it would’ve had to have been ‘obvious’ that the genre of music that my magazine was representing was clear. I chose the colour scheme of the model’s clothes and edited background in order to match the ’British’ part of my genre. I chose a British flag to be the background so that it not only be clearly an iconic British symbol, I also, as you can see, carefully placed the ‘centre’ of the flag right where my model is standing, so that she would also stand out too. Just as I’d seen from most magazine front covers, where the main attraction would have to be the model on the front. I used a simple, white font for the main title of my magazine front cover as I thought that it would go nicely with the background. Being a British flag when the title is called “the BRITZ” I did this because I believed the background and title would’ve made it a bit too repetitive if the word ‘British’ came to the readers head when they first saw the magazine.

My idea of making it semi-transparent and adding a crumbled effect to it was influenced by the KERRANG magazine title. I say this because KERRANG’s title was thought through, as it is the sound that an electric guitar makes apparently, which would make it obvious that the magazine is about rock / metal music. Simply just by the title! And so I chose this name to relate to an infamous British event that occurred in London, called “The Blitz”. I thought, because simply any rock magazine would make a sort of ‘impact’ effect, such as the name ‘KERRANG’ as it sounds barring and ear screeching, causing a sort of ‘havoc’. I thought this title would be appropriate and original for the title of a magazine that promotes and is based on loud, rebelling, rock music. I also edited the text of the title to make it look crumbled and battered, as you can see from the ‘decayed’ effect. You could also see the title as being ruined, even, because if I didn’t make the title look this way, it would’ve looked clean and far too ‘elegant’ for this type of genre, and so I did that.

Going back to my model, I put her in a blue, white, gold and red, army and war influenced outfit. From my research and ideas, I believe this is a rather good costume to have used as it also matches the colour scheme, that I chose to use on the magazine. I made her hold a rather emotionless expression, this was influenced by a band called Regina’s promotional pictures (Found in my research). My model’s face is clearly holding the same expression that the main singer of Regina is holding too! As you can see from the image here ->

I thought that the expression my model (And the singer in Regina) holds, show a rather proud, emotionless expression. To me, by the clothes they are both similarly wearing reflects their clothing too, I believe they both look to be rebels, uncaring of what anybody else thinks about what they are wearing, and also what they stand for. My model being made to look like the main singer from a band that I made up for my magazine, and this main guy, standing in front of his band, Regina. I believe this also reflects onto the music genre ‘Rock’ of which they both stand for as well. It is known to be a rather outrageous genre that not everyone likes or appreciates, but the ones who do, are passionate people to stand up for what they like, just as my idea was to put across a clear message spread across my models face (Including the singer in Regina’s face, that I made my model replicate) “I don’t care” would be the message, it’s a rather rebellious genre of music and I obviously used this to my advantage and made my magazine’s main attraction, being the model, obvious for what my magazine stands for.

Moving on, I decided that the main headlines around and below the model should stand out, but not too much, from the background. I used mainly black, red, white, yellow and green to attract the reader to all kinds of different options that they can chose from, from free gifts to gig and festival information to interviews and top rated bands. Most of the text was influenced by the magazine ‘KERRANG’ and it’s blaring front cover, mostly consisting of bright, block colours and bold, thick headlines and even text! Like the bottom of my magazine front cover for example, I chose it to look like a sort of + sign to introduce a type of message of ‘Even more’ or ‘More’ which would be directed inside. KERRANG magazine also uses a big, thick plus sign that somewhat stands out on the already busy front cover. Being a rock magazine itself, KERRANG influenced me to use block coloured texts with a capital letter appearance, as if shouting at the reader to look at it, possibly increasing the success factor from such outrageous headlines such as mine and KERRANG magazine’s. I believe this would also relate to ‘Shouting’ at an audience, ‘rock’ being a rather loud genre in itself, would successfully relate to the capital-sized format used in both magazine front covers. (mine and KERRANG’s)

One again, I related to my model’s clothed, colour scheme which appeared to have had more of a purple scheme to it, I decided that the dark, gloomy colours of my picture successfully would’ve looked to be influenced by the magazine KERRANG again. As KERRANG uses block colours such as yellow and purple, I also have noticed that the colour scheme I chose co-operate with each other, this means that the two colours match and are in fact opposites on the colour wheel. The reader could see this as being ’outrageous’ again, which a sense of being opposite to the norm! Similarly to what I said above, I positioned my model so that she looked to be ’uncaring’ again, I made it so that her face looked to be of a slight “upper authority” to others, or so what I made her look like she would be thinking. I have seen in most rock magazines such as KERRANG and NME that their photographers positioned their chosen models so that they looked like this as well! I was influenced by their stoic facial expressions and body posture, this being rather ’slouched’ but in a strong manner. My model, again looks ’rebellious’ even, like she’s not listening to what opposing people would think of the way she dresses, or her music, or anything at all! Just like the band members in NME, most of them look like they’re glaring at the reader, they’re made to appear to be ’hateful’ and again, ’rebellious’ just as I made my model out to be, to have her own, unique style and supposedly music taste!

In KERRANG, I noticed that some of the pages’ pictures are edited in a sort of ‘crumbled’ look too and so I used this and successfully made the page look like it was falling apart, just like how I did with my front page’s title and how ‘eroded’ I made it appear, like it had been beaten and half destroyed. As you can see, I used this effect again on my photos and headlines. For example, you can see a sort of ‘sliced on’ sort of effect with the yellow strip going across the page, from behind one of my headlines. KERRANG and NME used this sort of idea to look as though it had been torn or ripped and stuck down onto the page. I was, again, influenced by the magazine’s look of being ‘torn’ and ‘battered’, just like my front page’s main title. This would, again, relate to the genre of rock as it is clearly reflecting off the idea of being loud, screeching, outrageous, nothing to be perfect, everything to be unique and original I thought. I was also influenced to use KERRANG’s idea for the date on the contents page, this inspired me from the block colours, it stood out to me and so it should stand out to readers too, being a bold, light coloured text against a black, square block. It would surely furfill it’s ‘out there’ look. Just as the rest of my front cover and contents page has done. I have both made and explained them so that they’re more obvious to the inspired message that I believe has successfully been put across!

Mock up - Front page

This is my mock-up piece of the front cover of my magazine, I chose the genre; British Indie Rock music as my main topic for this magazine.

edit- My final piece does not look exactly like this but I had the same idea for which model I would be using, the expression I would make her do. The British flag in the background as well, which, in the editing of my final front cover, I successfully positioned the centre of the British flag, so that it made the model look more 'in the middle' and standing out, on the front cover!

I altered the title in my final front cover to match what I was trying to put across, although being the same title name, I chose a slightly different font and layed out of the text differently. The banner that I used in my front cover was practically the same as the idea I had here on my mock up piece.

Front cover

My contents page

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Ø On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like music?
Please circle a number.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ø What genre of music do you prefer?
Please tick one.
O Rock
O Indie
O RnB
O Classical
O Pop

Ø What do you prefer to see in a magazine?
Please tick one.
O Pictures
O Text
O Interviews
O Promotions ( CD’s coming out )
O Upcoming gigs

O Other? ___________________________

Ø How many times a year do you think you go to a gig / concert / Festival?

Please tick one.
O 1-2
O 3-6
O 7-10

Ø Who’s your favourite band or artist?
___________________________________

Ø Would you go to their gig if they went on tour?
Please tick one.
O Yes
O No

Ø How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine?
O £1-2
O £3-5

Ø What attracts you most on the front cover of a music magazine?
Please tick one.
O The main image?
O The headline?
O The little pictures?
O Free stuff? (Posters, gifts etc)

J Thank you for taking this questionnaire! J

Model // clothes ideas for front cover

-In some cases of Indie rock, bands such as this one (above) wear jackets, mostly influenced by a war jacket, with a distinctive style for the cuffs, buttons, shoulder bits etc. I believe it would be relevant to my theme ‘British Indie Rock’...noticing the blue, red and white, It can somewhat symbolise the British flag. In which the British TA (Target Audience) that I have chosen would recognise and notice- It would then make it more obvious that the magazine is about this kind of style- i.e. British music. Mostly Indie rock. The style of clothing that looks to be a war influenced style, It would make the boys on my magazine front cover look to be rather masculine, brave, courageous and quite risky of how they dress, which adds to the fact that they wouldn’t care what other people think.

Magazine cover evaluation 2

In this evaluation, I'll be starting off with the 'Masthead' ^This is usually found in the same place each week, it sometimes is the same colour each week to, just like KERRANG!’s mast head is yellow or white each week. This means that it maintains brand identity i.e. it is easy to find at a newsagent each week (The TA knows what they have to look for). The font is all in uppercase, which I think is relevant to the word “SHOCK”, it stands out and seems to look like you shout it out when you say it. This links to the magazines genre of music too, it is obviously ‘Rock’ as, for example a pop magazine wouldn’t have a ‘loud’ kind of masthead. This would also reflect on the TA’s personality and interest to this type of music, they must enjoy their music on a loud volume and they like to stand out from other people, just like this magazine would- to other types of music magazines.

The main sell line is promoting the band on the front page, called –ayabie-. I notice that the colours in the text allow the band to stand out, it is using a kind of effect where it is a brighter colour, on top of the band members, in the spaces where it isn’t, and it’s a darker colour. I believe this is pointing out whom –ayabie- is. This would tempt the TA to buy the magazine too, they would automatically be attracted to the band on the front cover (being fans of them) and then seeing their name below them, including another minor sell line beneath the main sell line saying “Special font 20pages Edition!!”. The TA would automatically believe that the magazine is giving it a ‘special gift’ as it were, just for the fans (TA) of the band on the front cover. The magazine is trying to tempt the reader to pick it up and even buy the magazine with this sell line, I’ve also noticed the way it says “Special” at the start and a couple of exclamation marks at the end of it, the sell line is trying to put across a type of message to the TA, saying for them to buy it while it’s here, limited edition and obviously special edition, which the magazine has put there, just for the TA.

I believe the TA is female and most likely between the ages 15 to 20. I believe this because of the colours, text and layout of the front cover on the magazine which is supposedly meant to attract a certain type of audience, in this case, a female teenager. The colours of the text in the Sell lines are different shades of pink, with a white ‘outer shadow’ which is meant to make the sell line seem more bold and appealing for the TA to notice and read. The front cover also gives off, to me, a type of ‘young’ look to it, the colours clash everywhere, everything is bold and highlighted and also, the background allows the images of the main band to stand out, as they are wearing dark colours whereas the background is a sort of pattern in neon yellow, white and neon green. These colours would force the main image to stand out from the rest of the text in the magazine, supposedly allowing the image to attract to the TA first, right after they noticed the title of their preferred magazine.

I have also noticed that all the Sell lines on the front cover show how many pages the article gives to the audience, this urges the TA to turn over to the contents page inside, to see what page they would have to go on to read more about it because of the ‘teasing’ sell line “the GazettE 14 pages”. It doesn’t say what page number it starts on; it just shows how many the magazine is giving to the TA to read about this certain band. This excites the audience as if the magazine was giving them a sort of surprise gift inside. Unless they buy the magazine, read the contents page (Which would show the page number, where this article starts) and then they can read about it.

On the front cover, the Sell lines are all the same colour apart from a few obscured sell lines that just attract the audience to look inside and ‘find out inside!’ it is obvious that a person wouldn’t read a magazine in the actual newsagent, as that is not allowed, so the TA would be severely tempted to buy the magazine; they would be interested and provoked enough to buy it from certain sell lines. The type of ‘gift’ sell lines that I noticed are very continuous, none of them give off what page number the article is on.

Double page spread evaluation

Double page spread evaluatin- KERRANG! magazine below)
On this double page spread of what I believe is an article in a KERRANG! Magazine, the TA (Target audience) / reader would be attracted to the bright colours i.e. the use of the colour yellow on the page stands out from the background colour, which is grey. The repeated colour of yellow also would allow the main images, which are located in the middle of the page, to stand out too because there isn’t much yellow in them, they are bright with colours, black, white, red and purple. These images are brighter compared to the backdrop given to them, as they are outlined with black against the grey and yellow on the pages.

The colour scheme which consists of black, yellow, grey and white give me a type of ‘warning’ sign look, I would see these colours on a hazard sign and believe it must be dangerous, the word dangerous is also mentioned in the main headline where it says “Front tour destroys Southampton” which is an obvious clue to the design of the double page spread and the choice of imagery. So the magazine has tried to make the band look like young, rebelling teens, who don’t care about decency, for example in one of the images, one of the band members appears to be rather naked, with his shirt pulled up and his hands hiding his indecency; also with the other band members in the background around and next to him, who are girls, their costumes make them look like rebelling school girls, with the knee high socks, short skirts, slightly opened top and messy, bright coloured hair. The band members in the images make them all look to be ‘party animals’ with the look of alcohol in their faces, including lust, rebellion and not to mention looking like their having fun as youths. These images and the band in them also link to their name ‘Mate in a state’ rather well as that is how they all look i.e. under-dressed, messy and intoxicated, letting off a sexual appeal. (The male and females are under-dressed in some images.)

To prove that this magazine may be a ‘Teen’ music magazine, the columns of information and text are rather separate with the large gutter (the gap between them to make it look like there is less text) and the fact that there are only two columns of info for the TA. But this is not a downfall to the double page spread, there are plenty of images for the reader to look at, images being more interesting for a teenager of the ages around 16-18, thus the magazine would be sold to them easier. For evidence that teenagers prefer to see images in a magazine, my questionnaire results reveal that teens around the age of 16-18 have voted for ‘images’ on the question ‘What would you prefer to see in a music magazine?’, thus following the conclusion for this double page spread that images are more appealing to middle aged teenagers.

The text under the images which are called ‘annotations’ surround the images in gaps and underneath the image that they are explaining more for the reader, who wants to know more about a certain image with their favourite band member doing something etc. The annotations are again in yellow and white, these allow them to be noticed around the images for when the reader has an urge to know more information from the magazine. The colours of these again make it look dangerous and a warning to the TA / reader of this magazine double page spread. I noticed that the main columns of information on the first page of the double page spread aren’t covered with a background of yellow or white, they are on the only piece of background on the two pages which is grey. It is also the last pieces of text that the reader would really want to read, as they are more interested in the images on the page than the text columns. But this is not a downside for the columns of information, even though it is in a black format with a dark grey background, which would presumably make it almost invisible to the reader, but least we forget that it is the most uninteresting part of the double page spread.

This allows an advantage for the magazine too, as the reader’s eye would attract straight to the images of their favourite band and or musician in the large bundle of images in the middle of the double page spread, I noticed that the double page spread looks like it is joined together because of the show of images almost directly in the middle of it. The images look like they belong on a wall, bound to it with a nail, because the images are all bundled together and some of them are tilted to create this effect of a messy, freelance and rebelling look. In other magazines, the images would probably be neatly lined up and generally lovely looking to a different type of audience, not to mention a different type of music genre than Indie.

Kerrang magazine evaluation

KERRANG! magazine evaluation.
Casestudy
The magazine KERRANG! was first published on the 6^th of June 1981. The magazine making company Bauer Consumer Media published KERRANG! in the United Kingdom, so it particularly aimed at British teenage boys and girls aged between 15-18. Bauer Consumer Media is a large German publishing company, so the magazine could also apply to German teenagers around the same age and or older.
The magazine’s name “KERRANG!” is onomatopoeic. Onomatopoeic means that it’s a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes, therefore KERRANG! refers to the sound made by playing a power cord on an electric guitar. The magazine may attract readers to its title as they may recognize the word in that way, also by its colour, the way the letters look like they have been smashed and therefore its originality, which should please the target audience.

KERRANG! was first edited by Geoff Barton, a British journalist who found Kerrang! heavy metal magazine and was an editor of Sounds music magazine/newspaper devoted to the current New Wave of British Heavy Metal (or 'NWOBHM' for short nowadays as its more ‘in’)
AC/DC was the first band to appear on the front cover of KERRANG! I believe this promoted the band to become even more popular worldwide, i.e. becoming popular with Britain as they are an American rock band. This also appeals to the TA of the first magazine as they might want to know who this band is and so they have found a magazine that tells them about new bands and current bands, which slowly become popular and mainstream. Instantly making the TA buying the magazine as everyone else would be, they would also gain a new sense of style from KERRANG! from the different bands, as the bands in the magazine are most likely the readers idol and so they would want to be like them, therefore dress like them. This is why KERRANG! promotes and advertises clothing ranges such as Hot Topic, SoHo and other styled clothing companies which band members would buy their clothes from.

KERRANG!’s genre of music is obviously rock, Goth, Indie and Emo, It is obvious because of a lot of features that I noticed from the magazine, such as the choice of band members, advertisements of certain types of festivals and concerts that the target audience would appreciate and use. I believe that the target audience are catered for their style and interests, such as the music they like, KERRANG! provides this. As a fact, I know that a person, who for example likes certain music such as RNB, would not read KERRANG! as it is not their type of music, it does not appeal to them and so they would not buy and read it (Also from just looking at the front cover, they would know its not their type of music magazine that they would want.) And so, people such as older teenagers around the age of 16-20, who like mainly music genres such as rock and metal to be precise, would notice KERRANG! and buy it straight away, especially from its noticeable logo design and vibrant text, that stands out from the background. The text is usually white or yellow with a black background; this automatically makes an effective sell line that will catch the reader’s eye.

The text in the magazine is also in bold. I can tell that the magazine is for young adults (16-20 years estimate) from the style of the font too. It is a simple ------. I know that this font is informal yet formal, meaning it isn’t for an upper class reader- rather a young teen who would not (in my opinion) really care about how the font is, so the magazine editors obviously think this through and use it successfully. Linking to the style of font that they have used, the ‘gutter’ is rather wide. A ‘gutter’ is the distance between two columns of text, if the gutter is small then the reader will believe that there is a lot of text in the magazine, because they would rather read than look at loads of images. In KERRANG! magazine, the reader would want to see more image than text, therefore the ‘gutter’ makes this look like there is less text, so then there is (what it looks like) large pictures on the page of the magazine. This is also because the majority of readers who buy this magazine are male, namely because of the male attire that it shows on the front cover, most women would be put off by (for example) a shirtless man with long, sweaty hair, smashing a guitar. But men in other words would buy this magazine, the front cover’s model would appeal to them, they would want to be like the rock star on the front cover as he appears to be masculine, rich, famous and probably ‘have all the women’. To back this up I looked in a KERRANG! magazine and found a couple of phrases that would back up my theory of believing (mainly) men would read this magazine.