DGD MUSIC MAGAZINE:

EVALUATION

Lydia Welsh

Conventions: DANCE Magazine Front Cover

Simple Modern Font

Main Image- Direct Address with Audience.-Medium/ close up shot.-Star/Celebrity

Unisex Funky Colour that works with colours of the main image.

Catchy Title/Header (which creates ‘brand image’)

BRIGHT - INTERESTING - EYE-CATCHING

Variety of fonts to make it visually interesting.

Date and Barcode

Straplines

Subheadings

The Leading Caption(The Anchor)

The front cover is the main advertisement for a magazine – it must be...

Conventions:My DANCE Magazine Front Cover

How my front cover uses the conventions

Main Image- Direct Address to Audience- Medium shot

StraplinesBarcode

The Leading Caption (main article)

Subheadings

Date and Issue

Title/Header (brand image)

Modern Funky Colours

Variety of fonts Price, based on my magazine being a weekly (not less than £1 like a daily and not £3.99 for a monthly).

Conventions of GenreThe genre of my magazine is mainly dance (also grime and dub step). This genre is most associated with teenagers and young adults and is usually heard in clubs.

To appeal to my target audience I had to combine the dance genre conventions with the conventions of the music magazine genre.

The conventions of a magazine and how I adapted them:-The image and header of the magazine must fit the content and the target audience and the colour scheme is very important.

- the colour scheme I choose is eye catching and modern.

- I have photographed a teenage girl in stylish clothes (so it’s inspirational) in front of a funky background.

- My title is abbreviated (to appeal to the nature of young adult in this day and age) and in modern funky colours.

Conventions: Contents Page

Contents pages should be bright and colourful to encourage the

reader to read on.

Images should be dominant to

the text and have page

numbers – this will allow ‘grazing’.

There is a list of contents usually in

sections to make it clear and concise.

My VersionMixmag

Conventions: Feature Article

My Version Mixmag

Headlines and subheading should be witty, pun based or advertising the stars to draw in readers.

Images should dominate the composition – one large image and other smaller ones that follow the article or relate to the others.

Frame the article with white space.

The article is clear and easy to follow directed straight at the reader, I have used slang to connect with my target audience.

Text Grabs (quotes from the article to break up the columns) are funny, controversial or rude to draw in readers.

Artists do not appear unless they’re selling something.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self-actualization

Esteem

Love/Belonging

Safety

Physiological

Morality, Creativity, Spontaneity, Problem solving, Lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts

Conventions: Feature Article (how to attract/ address the audience)

Self-esteem, achievement, respect of others, respect by others

friends, family, sexual intimacy

Security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property

Breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Deficit Needs

The diagram on the left illustrates Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. These needs apply to everyone, the first 4 needs are known as deficit needs if these aren’t for filled then a person cannot reach Self-actualization.

These things are what everybody has in common and it’s what a good article made of because it’s how we all relate and that (and what the artist is selling) is what people want to read (well at least the last 3).

I wish I had focused on this more in my article.

This is all linked to AIDA and The Uses and Gravitations Theory.

Looking at IPC I found they did rather up to date and mainstream music magazines such as NME, yet they do publish 'uncut‘. I believe this is a rock magazine which is a controversial genre like mine (so they may be an option to publish my magazine). I also looked at Future publishing which publish such magazines as rhythm magazine which is more of a 'how to' magazine- although it does specialise in many genres (mainly guitar). EMAP has done many rock/guitar magazines which is not to do with mine but they do specialise in one genre per magazine like my magazine does. so it would be between IPC and EMAP.

Distributors who may publish my magazine

Most of the magazines I found from my genre where on the internet. This shows there is space on the market.

http://www.getdarker.com/home/ -one of the online

magazines I researched.

http://www.getdarker.com/home/ -GetDarker online magazine (dubstep) : for disk jockey’s and listeners of the music.

http://www.kmag.co.uk/ -Knowledge online magazine (drum and base and dubstep) :for Listeners of the music.

http://pitchfork.com/features/grime-dubstep/6568-grime-dubstep/ -Pitchfork online magazine (dubstep and grime) : for disk jockey's and people who study it and it's history.

http://brrrap.com/blog/- Brrrap! online magazine (Dutch dubstep) : Dutch listeners of the music.

http://www.mixmag.net/- Mixmag I believe this is a published magazine and a online one. (The Worlds Biggest Selling Dance Magazine)

I researched into whether there is a gap in the market for my magazine

I have only found one published magazine in all of my searches only magazines online. This shows there is an opening in the market for my product.

These are the results from my original audience questionnaire. This shows there is an audience

for my product in the market .

I have researched the circulation figures of magazines to show that my market has an audience demand.

ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations UK) audited circulation of:

- 30,159 for Mixmag- 20,018 for DJ Magazine

this shows there is a big demand in the market for my product.

Who is my audience?Gender: female/maleRace: AllAge: 16-25Socio-economic Status: Group(s) C1+2, D and E

my questionnaire found that people who would be in interested in my magazine would be (in the terms of 1908's/90's:Niche consumer markets):

YUPPIES-Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals

CHAV-Council Housed And Violent

LOMBARDS-Loads Of Money But A Real Donut

KIPPERS-Kid's In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings

SNERT-Snot-Nosed Egoistical Rude Teenager

As you can see it varies alot but the main buy would most probably be KIPPERS. This is a good market for my magazine because they have disposable income. My secondary audiences are YUPPIES, LOMBARDS and CHAVs because they either have disposable income or are likely to buy the magazine because they are not busy at work.

Did I get positive feedback from my target audience?

I sent out questionnaires to 10 people who fitted different parts of my target audience. Over 90% came back with positive feedback and would purchase my magazine.

How I have attracted and addressed my audience.

My title was chosen by the audience – picked from 3

names.

I chose this pose for my main picture because it is cheeky, seductive and uses direct address

I used a strong light on my model because it hides blemishes and makes her hair look shiny and everything look fresh and crisp.

I like the flash mark because it reflects of the shiny parts of the background and adds depth- brightening up the whole page.

I chose the costume carefully. Lace is very on trend and purple connotes dark love/mystery, with soft pink make-up

Lure them in with the thought they can only get the information here and first – thinking they are one up on everybody else.

Front Cover

Contents Page

In my original questionnaire I asked what combination of things people would want to read about. I chose my selections of articles based on the results.

I’ve put many photos on it to allow ‘grazing’.

Feature Article

Rhetorical question – gets them thinking and hooks them in.

Photoshop cutting technique is neat.

Writing cut around images looks professional.

Text Grabs to catch readers, allow grazing and break it up.

The pages are mainly photos and there is negative space to frame the article.

In my article she relates to the audience by talking about her life before she was famous and her personal life.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Before this unit I had never used InDesign, it has opened my eyes to a simpler way of making almost everything! Not only has it been a quick and easy way of composing magazine pages but mind maps, posters and other graphics work. Although I did find it hard at first because I was used to Photoshop and working with layers. I did encounter a problem with warping the text around my pictures but after many hours of practice I feel i have mastered this well.

All of the other technologies I have used I had become competent with before this unit. What this project did open my eyes to was how hard it was to use those technologies when you include other people. When I was taking my photos I realised just how hard it was to direct my models. It was awful! Hours of photo shoots with no decent out come has helped me become more familiar with different settings I had to use on my camera and Photoshop and being more assertive and confident in myself when directing others.

Preliminary Task Vs. Final Product

Prelim is missing straplines

Better photograph quality, lighting and choice of mise en scene and costume than my preliminary task.

More variation in and colours images and fonts and text sizes

than prelim task.

Better thought out/interesting subheadings, images and

composition.

My prelim is missing a star and a headline.

...And Finally

I feel in this project I have excelled in my photographs and initial ideas.

I feel my front page has gone really well and is very close to a professional quality apart from you cannot read some of the text as easily as you should.

My Contents page did not go as well as planed but I think the composition was good and the feedback I received was positive.

I think my article looks professional in layout with the text warp and the images but my article overall could have been better relating more too Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.