Evaluation

Evaluation of music magazine

For this section of the coursework the brief was to create a front page, contents page and double page spread for a made up music magazine. It had to include four original images that have been taken by me and text written by myself for the double page spread. I had to decide on which genre I wanted to base my music magazine on, after much consideration I narrowed it down to a musical genre I enjoy the most and what I thought would be interesting and enjoyable to research and incorporate into my design, this genre is Rnb.

Music is promoted in many ways; through music videos, posters, internet, the music press and magazines. Each artist involved in this genre has to appeal to their audience and this is exactly what I had to do in order to design an appropriate Rnb magazine.

The institution that would present my magazine would be IPC production because currently they do not have a production company in my genre, so that means they won’t be competing with themselves.
IPC media is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc, it’s a consumer magazine in one of the major digital publishers in the United Kingdom; selling over 350 million copies each year. 

I had to research the conventions of a traditional Rnb music magazine then research the different aspects of the conventions of this genre. 
I explored the conventions of a typical Rnb magazine, two Rnb magazines that I chose to research were XXL magazine and Vibe magazine; these magazines are typical popular Rnb magazines based in America. Rnb is very popular in America are originates from urban backgrounds in America which is one factor I had to take into consideration when designing my music magazine. I then chose to research one other music genre for me to become familiar with different genres, this was NME magazine; this magazine is an independent music magazine mainly based on indie music.
I studied how each music magazine I researched conveyed that particular genre they are based around and how then they advertise this. I then looked at how each music genre targeted their audience, through images, font, colour and information.

The typical conventions of an Rnb music magazine are presented through the model, use of images, font, colour, style and appearance on the magazine. Each element has to be taken into consideration as each element has reasoning. Rnb magazines are typically remembered for usually young rebellious males, stereotypically classed as gang members and young women baring lots of skin wearing very provocative clothing and acting in a stereotypically crude manner. I then incorporate these methods into the images I want showing on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. For example for my front cover I decided to mirror another popular rnb artist to get the exact meaning and appeal for my magazine, I researched many female rnb artists for who I wanted to base my cover star on for my magazine; the rnb artist I chose was the newly rnb star Nicki Minaj, she is a new and upcoming rnb star and I feel would be the appropriate star to portray.
In order for me to fully convey the typically conventions of an rnb magazine I decided to take an original image of the rnb artist and mirror the image with my cover star but adding my own touches to it to make the photograph more mine. For example the cover star on my front page is sat in the same pose as the original rnb artists but I have changed her clothes, background and look but kept the same preference of sex appeal which is another typical connotation of an rnb artist; these screen shots below are of the original rnb artist and my cover star image to show the similarities in the artists.

Stereotypically rnb artists are usually only known to be black so in this case I did overcome the conventions of a typical rnb magazine as I used a white female as my cover artist.

For my music magazine another decision I had to take into consideration was the images going to be included on the contents page, at the beginning of this project I did take many images of some of my friends to be used on my music magazines. Having so many images did make it difficult to decide on which images to use on each page, for my contents page I used several photographs and placed them simultaneously onto the page to show each different artist. Each image was taken to connote the rnb look, for example I made my model dress in the same way as rnb artists to get the exact look of an rnb star which is shown in the screen shot above.

Planning and designing my contents page I had to decide on what colour scheme to make it, I wanted to make the colour scheme neutral so that every piece of text and every image can go nicely on the page without colliding with anything. I also studied other rnb magazines and this is usually what they tended to do, which was to make the background natural.
Another convention of an rnb music magazine was that the cover star that features on the front cover would also feature on the contents page and as shown in the screen shot below this is exactly what I decided to do to meet the conventions of a traditional rnb magazine.

I feel through my double page I have exactly matched the rnb stereotypical through the model, location and dress code of the model. This image on the double page spread certainly reaches the conventions of a typical rnb magazine, I decided to make my model symbolise rnb stars, to do this I dressed her in a short jumpsuit and high heels similar to the one that the rnb artist Nicki Minaj is wearing below. I did this because overall in the music magazine I wanted the cover star to mirror Nicki Minaj and that it’s typical for rnb artists to wear fashionable designer clothing and designing expensive heels.

                                                               

I also decided to locate the model in front of a garage to make the whole image more realistic and typical to this genre, as it adds to the stereotypical “ghetto” theme of most rnb artists in images, album covers and posters.

I feel I have definitely improved my skills in my work throughout the whole of this course, in the preliminary task, in the college magazine and in the music magazine. At the beginning of this course we were presented with a preliminary task to advert a fragrance, I did struggle with a lot of elements during this task. One major feature I struggled with was the using and the navigation of the blog, I had never used a blog before and it did take some getting used to. However I do feel after each task and much practise that I am now fully aware of the blogger and do feel that my knowledge and skills with the blogger has largely improved and I will definitely use the blogger for future reference.

Another skill I feel iv gained throughout this course is the use of Adobe Photoshop, at the beginning of this course I didn’t use this programme to design my work as I had never used this before and felt wary of using it  so I decided to use another programme instead at home.
I do feel that now I have had more experience with Adobe that I have gained a lot more skills with suing different tools to change images and make my product more appealing. I have noticed that in other courses I do at college that I have used this programme Adobe Photoshop several times to produce work, which is a major improvement for me to achieve through this task.

After analysing my work I did need to change some elements of the whole magazine in order to achieve the best out of my work. The elements I wanted to change was the images on the double page spread and also the images on the contents page. To do this I spent more time on taking more photographs in different locations then organised them in a different layout on the contents page in order to make the magazine more reflective of the genre.