evaluation TEDDY HAYWARD

My magazine is called big bang! In my group there is me, David, Ola and James. We decided to go with the idea of having a magazine that focuses on upcoming new talent in both the UK and the US. We think that there are not any magazines that focus on that sole purpose. However when doing this we had to use only one or two genres, this is because the magazine would be too big if we tried to cover all the new bands and artists.

I decided to not go over the top with my lay out. Looking at other magazines I did not want to over crowd the front cover with other pictures, instead I used one other picture, and that is of another group in my class. I put my strap lines all on the same side, this is so that the cover does not look messy and not thought about. Like most magazines I put the title of the magazine in the top left, and the barcode and price in the bottom right.

I decided to use a mysterious picture as my main background picture, this is for 2 reasons, the first is that it might entice the public to want to find out more about them. And the second is that the artists are supposed to be unknown and this is there big break to the public. It also is due to the genre of the magazine witch is hip-hop.

My cover is aimed at the older teen about 16, young twenty’s, as I do not think a younger teen of say 14 would read this certain magazine. It also is aimed at people that live in the Cities, living in urban areas such as central London. There is one problem with selling the magazine in the city and that is that there is also a lot of other magazines on offer to purchase. However I can’t not sell this magazine in the city because it would not appeal to people who lived in more rural areas, because the genre of hip-hop is mainly based in urban areas, it also helps to have the magazine in the cities because It would be near impossible to advertise hip-hop events that are happening in rural locations.

Looking at the main picture of the cover we see 3 people standing on stairs, with there hoods up and you are unable to see the top half of there face. This may not attract people that live in the rural areas as they are not used to seeing such sights. The main picture is aimed at the more urban people that know about hip-hop and what surrounds it.

I think that my magazine would sell best in the average corner shop around the cities, this is because it is aimed at average people, and would not sell well in somewhere such as borders or waterstones because the audience that the magazine is aimed at are more likely to be going into local independent shops than big chain branches.

I have aimed the magazine at the older teen 16/17 up to middle 20’s. it would most likely attract more male customers than female, this is mainly because it has nothing of value to the female audience than other magazines can offer, meaning it offers nothing but pure music and what is happening in the music world. Compared to some music magazines that also offer fashion tips and celebrity gossip. However It is not ruling out the female audience completely, as there are a lot of female hip-hop artists that the female audience would be interested in.

My magazine attracts its readers in with a bold heading that can be seen from behind other magazines because it is at the top left, so it is unlikely to be covered up when stacked on a shelf. There is also the main image of 3 hooded figures, this would attract the audience of the magazine. It also has bold strap lines and subheadings that include artists name so the buyer can see what the magazine has to offer at first glance without having to open the magazine and flick through to see what is inside.

When I started this project I knew less than the basics at photo shop, and had hardly ever used a Mac, however I now can use multiple tools on photo shop, such as cropping images, cutting certain parts out using the wand tool. And may more tools that help you manipulate and control the image to make it do what you want it to do. I also know how to use Macs more, as the whole thing was done on an I Mac.

If I ever had to make a magazine cover again, I think it would be a lot easier as now I know the basics I know what I am doing, instead of trial and error. If I could change things, I would have used more, smaller images on the cover, advertising more for the magazine. This would mean it would cover more of what is inside the magazine. If I had to change the idea completely and start from scratch and use a different genre, it would be harder because the genre of hip-hop is a big one, so it is easier to create, however if I was to do say rock or indie, I would have to find a new location and different people for the pictures, at the end of the day I am happy with my front cover, and what I have chosen, the genre, the pictures and the text.