Front Image/Experimenting with the software...

This is the image I have used for the front cover of my 'Glimmer' music magazine, I have removed the background and enhanced what's left of the image to give the overall appearance of the magazine a much more professional theme and essence, due to the professional style of editing which has been inputted into the cropped image. 

I edited this photo by using 'photoshop', I frequently used the crop tool to firstly centre the image around just the person alone rather than her surroundings. From there I then removed what was left of the background by using the "rubber" and "magic eraser" tool which successfully cut away the shower/bathroom scene. Just to make the image look slightly more professional I then used the "sharpen" tool to sharpen areas featured on the girl such as her eyes, her hair, and her necklace which really amplified the glamourous star effect I was looking to produce from this image... Which, in a sense, makes the music magazine more realistic and gives the person in general a more "famous", believable vibe.

Improvements & Feedback to FrontCover

These are some of the post it notes I recieved during getting my feedback and improvement comments. I think all these post it notes have genuinely helped me pick out and alter the bad points of my first draft. I found getting peer assesed as a very helpful task in order to strive to get a better grade and excute my magazine to a higher standard.

First Draft: Front Cover

This is the first draft of my front cover. It's very colourful and features everything I said it would on the flat plan, which means I have successfully in some ways executed it from the initial idea to the first try out. I think if I could pick out one particular improvement for the first draft of my "Glimmer" magazine, it would definitely be that there's far too much white space and could appear as a fashion magazine, rather than a musically aimed magazine.

Concert Images

I gathered these images as possibly they could feature in a specific "tour" part of my magazine, if need be. This would definitely give the article a more realistic approach, in terms of making the magazine more believable. All the images are taken from a crowd view point which again, adds to the realistic vibe. It's also quite interesting to view a celebrity/artist from this dynamic from the readers point of view, at least. All these images may be used in future to illustrate a particular part of the magazine to the audience in a definite, more effective way.

Gathering more images...ALBUM COVERS.

These 5 images are all images of album covers which I purchased in the past. I think these images may come in useful for my Media Music Magazine work; obviously because they're related to music in the first place but, they also relate to the genre of music I'm actually focusing on for my magazine.

The five image are also really quite colourful and will allow the magazine to be more attracitve due to the album covers' appearances. I took the images against a white background, which in later times, when I have to use photoshop to import them it will be more efficent and easier to cut the background away and make it transparent. The use of particular photoshop tools in general, will make the magazine look much more professional.

Audience Study Questionnaire

1.       What age are you?

2.       Are you female or male?

3.       How much would you be prepared to pay for a fresh, up to date Pop/Dance magazine? (please circle)

a)£1.00         b)£1.50        c)£2.00

4.       Which genre of music would you prefer to read about/listen to? (please circle)

a)      R&B       b) Pop/Dance      c)Indie     d)Punk/Rock

5.       What music shows are you interested in? (please state if other)

a)      X Factor   b) Pop star to Opera star   c)American idol   d)other

6.       What Radio station do you prefer? (please circle)

a)      Capital FM   b) Radio 1   c) Kiss FM   d)Kerrang

7.       Where are you more often? (please circle)

a)      Arena gigs  b) Stadium Gigs   c) Festivals   d) Open mic nights

8.       Who are your favourite Music bands/Artists?

Magazine Analysis 2:

Q MAGAZINE:
I think that the readers of 'Q' magazine have something quite convenient but healthy-ish for their breakfast. I.e a cereal or some sort or slices of toast, to satisfy but not consume too much time!

In terms of transport, I think the reader of Q magazine will have either a car or use public transport to get around. It all depends on how much money they earn to be honest, and how much they spend on Q magazine a month...

The magazine like NME music magazine has a definite young age target audience. So the audience will definitely, no matter where they live have a very modern apartment/house etc.

Energy drinks, cans/bottles of pop would be the general drink consumed by the readers of this magazine (very similar to NME). Although, I dont think their would be a designated type of "drink" related to or relevant to reading a certain type of magazine. Also, the audience of this magazine might like an alcoholic beverage on occasion whilst visiting certain bars, or on a weekend where they have time to unwind from their busy schedules/routines.

Music channels such as MTV, Kerrang, and obviously "Q" the music channel will all be aimed towards readers of this magazine, and actually prefered by the readers of this magazine over other channels, for example, "smash hits" or "4music".

Q magazine is based around an Indie genre so people buying the magazine would generally be more interested in indie types of bands/music related to indie etc...
Indie music fans dont tend to be into playing sport, but that's just the stereotypical image of this music genre and the people it's actually associated with. If the readers did play a sport I would class football/cricket/rugby as all likely options, as they're quite nationally popular so it would be expected for them to like that type of sport, judging on the nation we live in and what's popular and what isn't.

As with the NME magazine analysis mentioned before the audience is quite young and youthful so it may not be that loads of the typical audience members are married, (they may be...) Yet, more of a possibility for them to be "in a relationship" or "young, foolish and single" as many people are in their 20's...

Money may be an issue for younger people so they may not be able to afford holidays, I think money would be more beneficially spent for these people on places like music festivals like; Reading/Leeds festival, V festival and more, these tend to be a more common choice over trips abroad.

Due to their age, I don't think a lot of people who read this magazine will vote. Therefore, I am unsure of what party they would vote for if they actually do vote.

Edgy bars, packed pubs and high energy clubs are very likely places for the readers of this magazine to be spotted.

Magazine Analysis:

NME MAGAZINE:
I think that the readers of 'NME' magazine would probably have something quite quick and sufficient for breakfast as the magazine has in general a quite "rocky/indie" feel to it, therefore the readers might live a quite fast pace life. So something like a breakfast cereal bar could be something likely to take the place of breakfast for this particular audience.

In terms of transport, again the theme of the magazine could tie in/effect how they travel; a motorbike or edgy car could be a possibility of transport for the readers. I think that would be quite a suitable match.

As the magazine is aimed towards a younger band of people, (teenagers, 20's, 30's) they might not have yet earned enough money to live in a house, therefore it's highly possible for the readers to live in a flat/apartment or still live at home with their parents. This is purely due/based on the target age range of this music magazine.

Energy drinks, cans/bottles of pop would be the general drink consumed by the readers of this magazine, I think, in my opinion. Although, I dont think their would be a designated type of "drink" related to or relevant to reading a certain type of magazine. Also, the audience of this magazine might like an alcoholic beverage on occasion

Again, I don't think there would be a specific type of television programme the readers would prefer. However, music channels like MTV, 4music, etc are all likely to be watched by the NME frequent audience.

The NME magazine is more aimed towards "punk rock" music, I would say. Although it could also be quite different and varied with other genres featuring such as; indie, rock, pop and so on...

Punk rock fans dont tend to be into playing sport, but that's just the stereotypical image of punk rock associated people. If the readers did play a sport I would class football/cricket/rugby as all likely options, as they're quite nationally popular so it would be expected for them to like that type of sport, judging on the nation we live in and what's popular and what isn't.

As mentioned before the audience is quite young and youthful so it may not be that loads of the typical audience members are married, they may be... It's more of a possibility for them to be "in a relationship" or "young, foolish and single" as many people are in their 20's...

Money may be an issue for younger people so they may not be able to afford holidays, I think money would be more beneficially spent for these people on places like music festivals like; Reading/Leeds festival, V festival and more, these tend to be a more common choice over trips abroad.

Due to their age, I don't think a lot of people who read this magazine will vote. Therefore, I am unsure of what party they would vote for if they actually do vote.

Edgy bars, packed pubs and high energy clubs are very likely places for the readers of this magazine to be spotted.

Mood Board/Ideas for My Magazine:

As part of our homework, we were asked to create a mood board to help inspire and influence our main magazines! I found this task really useful as although, you think you know what a magazine looks like. However, it's hard once faced with the task to pull everything together and make it look as professional and realistic as the real ones do.

Researching ideas helped with new inspiration, such as; how to create the style of fonts I would like to incorporate, how to arrange text, how to arrange images around the inserted text etc.
I tried to gather similar colours as it made the page look more consistent, but also as I would like to have a pink theme featured on my magazine!

Overall, this task was very useful and I have used this mood board to help determine what I would like the final appearance of my magazine to look like.

Preliminary Task:

This is the college magazine I designed and then created for the preliminary task. This task required a front cover page and a contents page, I am satisfied with the final outcome of my magazine, it's bold and has a consistent colour scheme on both pages. If given more time, then obviously the college issue could of been executed to a higher degree in terms of appearance and presentation. Although, this version states the required and gives useful, attractive information throughout.

"Take and collect 3 original images"

 

Above are three images which I took with a digital camera, which in some way all relate to the topic of music and my specific topic of Pop/Dance music. Also, all three of these images could potentially feature somewhere in my finished magazine.

- The first image is a group of pop/dance CD's stacked upon each other, with Britney Spears' 'femme fatale' album on the top of the stack. 

- The second image is of the Cheryl Cole book and 2011 Calender, symbolizing the Cheryl Cole franchise and again keeping with the set topic/nature of this current project.

- The third image is of the Pixie Lott 2010 tour booklet, which I purchased in December...again keeping with the set topic/nature of this current project.

Brief Cover Study

This is an image of the American 'Ebony' magazine; the front cover features female solo artist Beyonce Knowles.

The target audience for this magazine, I feel, would be mostly females but not entirely gender specific, as it also appeals to men because of the sexual image of this particular celebrity on the cover. Another audience, would be dedicated Beyonce fans who may just want the magazine for the novelty factor.

The text spelling for this cover is based mostly on the whole "Beyonce Franchise", along with bold news and updates for the African American/American people who purchase this type of magazine. These updates and news flashes are positioned around the main image.

The main featured image on this magazine cover connotes power and authority. This could be interpreted as power of black people in the current society of today, or, it may well be highlighting the power of the female gender; displaying Beyonce as not only a strong,but inspirational, influential woman. The denotation of this image is that the viewer can visibly see that Beyonce is stood facing directly towards the camera, in a medium close up with her fist aimed strongly/powerfully towards the camera itself.