My group consisted of four people, which was me (Ola), Teddy, James and David. As a group the first thing we tried to tackle was deciding a suitable name for our magazine, a name that would reflect what we wanted our magazine to be about. We came up with loads of different names for the magazine such as ‘A*’ and ‘EGG’, but we all agreed to go with ‘Big Bang’ as this reflected what our magazine was all about (new artists/talent breaking into the mainstream). Our magazine focuses on new up and coming artists/talent, both here in the United Kingdom and in the United States. After this we had to decide what type of genre our magazine would focus on, our initial idea was to do a Rock, Hip-Hop, R n’ B, and Funky-House magazine, but we later on decided that we were trying to target a huge market and would therefore not be able to cater to them all. So we scaled down the genres of music that the magazine would set focus upon, and limited it from Rock, Hip-Hop, R n’ B and Funky-House to just Hip-Hop and R n’ B (these two music genres are closely linked with each other).
Whilst doing my magazine front cover I decided to use colours that would stand out on the shop shelves, stand out from other magazines, be very eye catching, be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, to appeal to both males and females, and to emphasise certain points. The ways in which I fulfilled these specifications are as follows:
The colour of my background had to be bright so I picked a bright light-blue, this colour was perfect as it could appeal to both males and females. The ways in which I used colours emphasise certain points was by; using contrasting colours to the rest of the text for example the price was written in red and the names of the main artists were written in yellow or pink with a bigger font size or different font all together.
The magazine logo was half white and half black, it was written in the font ‘cracked’, and was obviously of the largest font. I decided to have the logo behind the image of the main star “O.Dot” as I think the stars on the front cover sell magazines and not necessarily title.
The ways in which my magazine matches the forms and conventions of real magazines are that it has cover lines, a main cover line, banner, mode of address, masthead, main cover image, bar code, price and issue date.
The ways in which my magazine represents social groups is the fact that everybody on the front cover is quite young, and of ethnic minority; this was done for realism as most Hip-Hop and R n’ B artists are of ethnic minority, though their fan-base may be more diverse.
The type of media institutions that could potentially distribute my music magazine cover are big chain stores such as ‘Borders’, ‘WHSmith’, it could also be advertised through businesses such as Choice FM and MTV Base as they are often associated as helping up and coming artists/talents make it into the mainstream, finally it could also be distributed through small businesses such as corner shops. I would also like to add that these shops would only be the branches in urban areas/major cities such as: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. The reason for this is that our target market is young people aged from sixteen to early twenties, and the fact that most of the teenagers living in rural areas are less likely to listen to this type of music strongly due to the lack of diversity in that part of the population, and the simple fact that their lifestyles are different; they would be more likely to go horse riding instead of staying at home surfing the Internet and or maybe that their general taste of music is different e.g. they may be more interested in classical music than what we have to offer in our magazine (Hip-Hop and R n’ B).
The ways in which I attracted consumers was by enticing them with incentives such as competitions giving consumers a chance to win concert tickets to see the main headliner “O.Dot”, a large main cover image to make sure that any potential consumers see the headlining artist, bright colours to help emphasise information such as the price.
Through the process of developing and creating my magazine front cover I learnt how to use software that was new to me such as Adobe Photoshop. Whilst using Adobe Photoshop I learnt how to cut images out from backgrounds and how to place different layers that contained images and text. Also whilst making my magazine front cover I learnt how to use hardware such as the Apple Mac and it’s software. I learnt how to use the mouse which is very different to what I am accustom to; I had to adjust to using a mouse with one click rather than two. After this I learnt how to use the Apple Mac’s internet ’Safari’ which I found difficult at first because I was only familiar with Microsoft’s ‘Internet Explorer’. The final thing that I learnt whilst constructing my magazine front cover was how to take professional photographs using a digital camera, I leant that the camera must be portrait not landscape and that the background must be contrasting to what the person in the photograph is wearing as this could make cutting them out in Photoshop a very difficult task.
If I was to make another front cover what I would do differently are as follows: I would have a main cover image with the person in the image looking directly at the camera to create a false sense of connection between the artist and the consumer, I would use boxed text to help information stand out more, I would use graphics to highlight special offers; such as the price, and a strapline to help promote a website.
Whilst doing my magazine front cover I decided to use colours that would stand out on the shop shelves, stand out from other magazines, be very eye catching, be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, to appeal to both males and females, and to emphasise certain points. The ways in which I fulfilled these specifications are as follows:
The colour of my background had to be bright so I picked a bright light-blue, this colour was perfect as it could appeal to both males and females. The ways in which I used colours emphasise certain points was by; using contrasting colours to the rest of the text for example the price was written in red and the names of the main artists were written in yellow or pink with a bigger font size or different font all together.
The magazine logo was half white and half black, it was written in the font ‘cracked’, and was obviously of the largest font. I decided to have the logo behind the image of the main star “O.Dot” as I think the stars on the front cover sell magazines and not necessarily title.
The ways in which my magazine matches the forms and conventions of real magazines are that it has cover lines, a main cover line, banner, mode of address, masthead, main cover image, bar code, price and issue date.
The ways in which my magazine represents social groups is the fact that everybody on the front cover is quite young, and of ethnic minority; this was done for realism as most Hip-Hop and R n’ B artists are of ethnic minority, though their fan-base may be more diverse.
The type of media institutions that could potentially distribute my music magazine cover are big chain stores such as ‘Borders’, ‘WHSmith’, it could also be advertised through businesses such as Choice FM and MTV Base as they are often associated as helping up and coming artists/talents make it into the mainstream, finally it could also be distributed through small businesses such as corner shops. I would also like to add that these shops would only be the branches in urban areas/major cities such as: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. The reason for this is that our target market is young people aged from sixteen to early twenties, and the fact that most of the teenagers living in rural areas are less likely to listen to this type of music strongly due to the lack of diversity in that part of the population, and the simple fact that their lifestyles are different; they would be more likely to go horse riding instead of staying at home surfing the Internet and or maybe that their general taste of music is different e.g. they may be more interested in classical music than what we have to offer in our magazine (Hip-Hop and R n’ B).
The ways in which I attracted consumers was by enticing them with incentives such as competitions giving consumers a chance to win concert tickets to see the main headliner “O.Dot”, a large main cover image to make sure that any potential consumers see the headlining artist, bright colours to help emphasise information such as the price.
Through the process of developing and creating my magazine front cover I learnt how to use software that was new to me such as Adobe Photoshop. Whilst using Adobe Photoshop I learnt how to cut images out from backgrounds and how to place different layers that contained images and text. Also whilst making my magazine front cover I learnt how to use hardware such as the Apple Mac and it’s software. I learnt how to use the mouse which is very different to what I am accustom to; I had to adjust to using a mouse with one click rather than two. After this I learnt how to use the Apple Mac’s internet ’Safari’ which I found difficult at first because I was only familiar with Microsoft’s ‘Internet Explorer’. The final thing that I learnt whilst constructing my magazine front cover was how to take professional photographs using a digital camera, I leant that the camera must be portrait not landscape and that the background must be contrasting to what the person in the photograph is wearing as this could make cutting them out in Photoshop a very difficult task.
If I was to make another front cover what I would do differently are as follows: I would have a main cover image with the person in the image looking directly at the camera to create a false sense of connection between the artist and the consumer, I would use boxed text to help information stand out more, I would use graphics to highlight special offers; such as the price, and a strapline to help promote a website.
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