Completed Magazine Front cover/Contents page/Feature page

Qusetionnaire to target audience

Questionnaire  TargetAudience 16-24

Out of ten people

Male or Female?

• Male -5
• Female -5

Favourite Genre of music?

• Pop-2
• Hip-hop/Rap-4
• Alternative-1
• Rock-2
• Country-0
• Indie-0
• Dance -1
• Electronic-0

How often do you buy a magazine?

• Never-1
• Daily-0
• Weekly-3
• Monthly-6
• Yearly-0

What makes you buy magazines?

• The Picture-4
• The Features-2
• Competitons-1
• Posters-2
• Colour-1
  
  
  
  The results from my questionnaire shows that hip-hop/rapis the most popular genre of music and this supports my choice of genre when i chose my type of genre for my magazine. The next two most popular genres of music were pop and rock these results along with the hip-hop being the most popular choice shows the age of  poeple that filled in this questionnaire as Country music is steryotypically thought to be a genre for the older genreation and this is show in these results as noone said that it was their favourite genre of music. This is good support for the idea of my magazine as my magazine is inthe genre of hip-hop/rap so this means that i chose the right genre of music to make my magazine about and i also feel that this genre will only grow stronger as the results show that the younger generation are still listening to it and it is the most popular form of music.
  From these results you alone it give you the idea that my particular targetaudience would rather have the magazine be published every month as this may make them feel like it is is more of a trat as you are not getting to see the issue a lot. However at the same time thye also thought that publishing the magazine weekly would also interest them. But only one person said that they never buy magazines.
  From the last question in my results i have found out that my target audience would rather buy a magazine that has good pictures on the front than the content that is in it. This is something i agree with as i spent a lot of time getting my pictures for my magazine. The features and the posters are the next two popular things that would influence the target audience from purchasing a magazine so these would seem to be the most important things to concentrate on when making my magazine.

Feature Page Update

This my new feature page on this i have changed the layout of  it so now it looks more like a double page feature page instead of just to separate pages.
I have added the picture in of J-Rhymes and his manager to get a more realistic insight into the character as there is more depth to the character and you start to get a better picture of what he would be like and look like in person this is another attempt to connect to the readers as it shows another side to J-Rhymes as this picture is more of a shot from the paparazzi's point of view of him, and you get this feel from the effect that has been put on the picture to make it look like there are flashes around him and that he is at an event or something similar.
I have also highlighted some of the more interesting/controversiasl things that are siad in the J-Rhymes interview a lot of magazines are shown to do this as it highlights some of the best bits of the interview if you do not want to read it all; magazines can also use this to distract your attention from the rest of the interview to make you reasd the highlighted section first and can manipulate the audience thoughts and feelings on the him by guiding you to read what they have highlighted in the interview. Another thing i have added is the two featrues, the article about Zane Lowe favourite this was put into add some balance to the feature page and hopefully make my magazine seem more realistic as a lot of music magazines have these. Also I have put in a feature telling you about J-Rhymes this helps develop J-Rhyme's character.  





This feature  page is good i feel because the colours work well together and also i believe that it has the right proportion of words and pictures on the page.
It is also similar to my feature page as it has a feature that talk about their featured band "THE TEENAGERS" and a need to know section i have done this about my featured artist J-Rhymes. This offers an interesting article that offers the reader an insight into the lives of the artists, it also helps to fill out the page and make it look better.
This magazine also has articles about bands which gives quotes from people from the music indusrty, i have done somethiung similar to this to add another feature to my page to make it look more interseting. NME have also highligted some of the interview of what has been said by the featured artists they have made this the main attraction of the interview as it has been made larger and is in the middle of the interview andchange the colour and highlight on the quote as the will make it stand out even more; i have highlighted some of the quotes in the interview, however i have not made one the main attraction of the interview as i have three highlighted quotes and they are not in the middle of the page, but the idea is still the same to make the quote stand out and make the interview look more interesting to get more people to read as you may need to read the rest of the interview to understand what the quote is about. The large picture on the first page works well with the theme of the magazine becuase its more of an indie looking picture, it also helps to divide the page up as one side is mainly visual and the other is the interview and articles about bands, you get the information from the second page and it also works very well with the image of the magazine.













                                           

Front Cover Update

 

This is my updated front cover, i have added and changed some of the features on there from the last version of it, i have looked at some of the features that hip-hop magazine have on them and added bits to it. Also i have tried to fill up my magazine so that it does not look blank in any areas. I've used ideas from magazines such as "VIBE" "XXL" and "Rolling Stone" Magazine along with others, these magazines have given me good ideas on what to put into my magazine.
One of the last features that i added what the " World Tour News" I done this to fill in the space bellow that highlighted artists names. I like this feature as it is large enough for the reader to notice, also i had to changed the colour of the first letter on each word as it makes the words stand out against the picture and the background this makes the words look better as well. Also i have added the three descriptive words of J-Rhymes to make him seem like he is an up and coming artist.





This magazine is a good example of what i had pictured my magazine to be like as it has the same colour theme as mine, however the layout of it is different to mine but has some similar features. This magazine has used the idea of making its words bolder and then highlighting them to make them stand out. Also this magazine has tried to fill up most of the front cover with inviting titles and features of the magazine. My magazine has also used a large central image with similar characteristics of XXL's as they are both shown to be wearing chains and rings to represent  where they are from. This magazine has a white background to it which i could i of tried out for my magazine as it has worked well for this magazine and we have a similar colour theme and picture. However i might of had to change the style of my title and strap-line if i done this to account for the white background to make this still fit in with the theme of the magazine.

This magazine gave me my originals ideas for my first attempt at my music magazine as it gave me the idea for the strap-line and also the title and a feature of my magazine to advertise on my front cover. I think that this magazine's layout is very good because his picture works very well with the colour and title of his magazine, this is another example of the colour theme of red, white and black being very popular colours to use in hip-hop magazines.
I thin that his how his picture blends in with his background is good because you have the black tie that stands out and makes the picture and whole magazine look more realistic and classy. However i do think that some of the features on this magazine could be moved about to help it all fit together as some of these are quite tight and as there is space at the top it might of been an option to level off the space on the magazine, and also think the price of should be moved and made clearer to see, as that space should be left for the title of the magazine to attract the attention as it is a good font for the magazine and works really well with the magazine. This magazine is also another magazine that works well with a white background and has the same colour theme.



This magazine also has the same colour theme as my magazines and many other hip-hop magazines. However this magazine has a black background like mine but this has been filled up with faint writing for effect which makes it seem like there is more features on the front cover than there actually is. This magazine has also got some other artists highlighted at the bottom of the magazine this is some of the people that are featureing in the magazine. I like this magazine becuase of the simplicity of it as it hasn't been edited massivly and alsodoes not have a lot of features on the front page. Also this looks more like my magazine as the main colours are black and red but also has white in it on the words to make them stand out. I think the simplicity of the magazine is what makes it good but also the words in thebackground adds to the theme and idea of the magazine.

Updated Contents Page

This is an updated version of my contents page as i feel that it fits my magazine a lot better than the last draft, also its looks more realistic and provides a good insight to what my magazine is like with the colour themes and style of picture and layout.
There are a few changes on this compared to my last attempt as the title "Contents" is shown to be bolder and also now has the month of which the magazine would be released and a website for the magazine next to it; these may usually been seen on the front cover of magazines, however after looking at other magazines a have found good examples of this and they have fitted it in well and work well with the layout of the magazine.
Also on my features, reviews and live sections i have written i small piece explaining what you could expect from these articles, hopefully enticing readers into looking at these features in the magazine. I have made these different articles stand out more by highlighting the first letter of their titles and separated them as well as emphasizing the page numbers by making them bigger and putting them at the start of the articles details.

This is Q magazines contents page they have separated their features as well and looks good as you can tell that they are different features. They have also used the bolder page numbers, however they have used the bigger page numbers on they pictures to highlight them as they are the main feature on the page. This contents page does not have the title of "contents" to let you know that this is straight away instead they have replaced it with the issue number of their magazine instead but this still allows you to know this is a contents page as the layout represents this. Something i could of added from this magazine is have a few different pictures instead of one large on like i have however that is the main attraction of my contents page. They also have a small review at the bottom of their page this may be something to look into but could not fit onto my contents page.



This contents page has a similar style of articles to what i have used and the set up is the same as the headlines are highlighted and the page numbers are made to stand out. This magazine has also used more smaller pictures and laid then out along the page with the page numbers on them these pictures are relevant to the features that are on the contents page. This magazines layout is similar to Q magazines as they have laid the pictures out in a similar way. Another good feature of this contents page is that the titles of these articles are in a colour that make them stand out from the rest of the page, this makes them draw the attention of the reader to the articles and makes it look more interesting and exciting.

This contents page is more similar to mine as it is one of the magazines where i have the date and website been put on the contents page and it suits the page well as it brings structure to the page as it helps break the page down. This is another magazine that has put the page numbers on the pictures however this magazine has used less pictures on the contents page and made them large enough to fit most of the page while the features and articles take up the rest the space under the title.
These features and articles have been split up in a similar way to mine as they have a thin line over the top and bottom of them to divide the respective stories and also have the larger page numbers by the side of them.
The pictures work very well on this page as the colours on the bottom picture go will the theme of the features and other articles and the top picture is a well taken shot suited to the overall theme of the magazine and contents page.

Magazine evaluation

Amplified magazine Evaluation

I think my magazine went okay, I thought the pictures connected well to my magazines theme as I was pictured in clothes that represent the hip- hop theme but also with a bit of class .

My target audience was aimed at hip-hop fans between the ages of 16 and 24 I think I have achieved the target audience that I set for my magazine as it has articles about up and coming artists and a classier side for the older type of readers.The target audience was aimed at one genre, but has targeted two different departments of the industry. The interview was made to represent a genre of people who like artists that have had a tough background and overcome this to become famous for their talents.

It is called Amplified to link up with the idea of it being a music magazine. I have made the font big so that you can see it and also it is in white to make it stand out even more in front of the black background. It’s set at size 99 so when readers look at it they will instantly see the title and remember the name of the magazine.
I have used a picture of myself pictured as an urban hip –hop artist portraying the character of J-Rhymes an up and coming rap artist, he is wearing a white vest to further his imitation of a rap artist.
My slogan for my magazine is ‘Turn it up’ as this also connects to the name Amplified. I have also put on the front cover that there is a free poster to interest the reader so that it may make them want to buy this edition a bit more.

My contents page features a picture of me portraying a more stylish artist and covers half of the page. The title Content is split into three to make it a bit more interesting to look at. It then has the features in the magazine down the side, with the featured headlines highlighted in red. I used the picture of me portrayed as a more stylish up market artist to capture that side of the industry for example Justin Timberlake he is in this genre of music and brings something else to it as he has performed as a pop artist and also in the hip-hop industry and has featured in a lot of big hip-hop stars songs.

My next page is a feature that is about the interview with J-Rhymes, this includes questions that ask him about past, present and future events that have happened in his live or that might happen such as future link ups with other artists. It has a title at the top of the page reading Question time this is shown in a big font and is highlighted in red; it is similar to the symbol of Q magazine.
Gossip page this also has a big picture of me in a classy outfit and going down the picture is some gossip that is in the magazine these are included in this section of my magazine to interest the reader so they would like to buy and read it.
My magazine is priced at £2.99 this is not at the high end of magazine prices and is affordable for most people to buy weekly.

The colour theme of the magazine Is red ,black and white because these colours stand out well from each other, and the black and white was meant to give the magazine a bit more of a classier look and then the red bringing a bit of colour so the magazine doesn’t look bland.

·        In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

I researched existing hip-hop magazines and found out that black, white, blue and red were the most prominent colours on popular rap magazines. I have gone with the red, black and white as i thought this suited my magazines style better. I have used some of the ideas from Q magazine as they use this colour theme in all of their magazines and i have used this colour theme in some of my features on my magazine to help it stand out from other features on the magazine to show importance.

Seeing as my target audience is the same as most other hip-hop magazines it is between 16 and 24 and males, I used the same colours on my magazine red, white and black that are very bold colours that will attract readers as they make each other stand out and they also suit each colour very well. The pictures also linkwith this colour theme as they suited the colours well with the black and white of the suit and the vest on the front cover. I also like these colours and thought they worked very well together as I like the class of black and white with a suit and that was the idea for my contents page picture, I also got the idea from magazines like Vibe and Q magazines as some of their front covers have artists with suits on ; I like the thought that a person can come up from a bad background and become a great person and this idea is brought through by having rappers in suits as they have come up through tough backgrounds, worked hard and have seen the benefits from it and this is shown from the pictures of them in suits and that also gave me the idea for the picture of me in the suit.

·        How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 In my magazine I am trying to represent the social groups of new hip-hop artists and people who are heavily interested in hip-hop.
I used representations of rappers when I was taking my pictures for my magazine as I have represented myself as a hip-hop icon. I had created two different styles to the images as one i to represent the more urban side of hip-hop as he is stereotypically  shown to be dressed with chains and rings on and also a gesture to where he is from, this is to connect with that style of hip-hop. Then there is the other style of image i have used this is a more classy look as he is picture in a suit, and this is to capture the different style of the hip-hop industry this helps to show the different genres in hip-hop and there are many different variations in this market. I wanted to create a character who could relate to the target audience because from the stories that I’ve heard about some rappers is that rapping helps them escape from the problems in their life and create a place where they can be themselves ,it also helps them to be more confident. My magazine represents particular social groups in the feature page where the interview of J-Rhymes is as he is portrayed to be froma rough background which is representing a social group and then in the present day he is obviously a rapper who now has enough money to live comfortably and well so my character represents two social groups. My magazine represent the hip-hop industry and insome parts the british grime indusrty onthe front cover as how he is dresses is how someone fromthat particular section of hip-hop would dress. I think thatthe coulours also help to represent social groups as they alot of people from the hip-hop indusrt wear mainly black and white colours and also red is a big feature in this.

·        What have you learn't about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have bettered my knowledge about using a canon 1100 d and the effects that come with this. I have also found out how to crop pictures on Photoshop and how to edit pictures on this program Ms Juan showed me how to edit these photos as she is a specialist in this department. I can now do all of these movements to create an improved image. I have seen the quality of the cannon compared to mobile phones and other cheaper cameras ,they are all good but the cannon produced the best picture quality and the right style for my pictures. A phones camera would of been good as it is more mobile and you can edit it on the phone instantly ,whereas you have to use an application on the computer like Photoshop to be able to edit the picture well enough to make it suit the magazine. I am now more confident when using word and photoshop when creating something as i have now developed many pieces of work and feel that i know the way around these sites and would be able to perform most of the commands on these applications. Ihave have alsolearned how to used Blogger as ihad not used this site before uploading my media work onto this, i have enjoyed learning all the ways to develop my work and making my page look as good as i can make it. I have also had to upload a lot of files onto my computer and blogger from my phone as i have taken some photos that way this has also made me more confident as ihad not uploaded a lot of work to my computer off of my phone before and this has helped me learn alot and i can now do this witha lot more accuracy and speed.

·        What kind of media institution would distribute your media product?

Time Inc. would be the institution that would distribute my magazine as my magazine would have the same target audience as some of their other magazines for example Vibe magazine as these are both hip hop magazines and are both aimed at the same target audience. Time Inc. has published many big magazines before and a lot like mine so I think they would be the sort of company that would be interested in publishing my product. I also think that these institutions would publishmy magazine as they have a similar sort of theme/colour theme sothis would make it easy for them to publish it as it is similar to whattheyare used to. I also have set my magazine at a cheaper price thana lot of the magazine thatthese publish, this maybe an advantage or a disadvantage as they might want a cheaper but similar magazine to widen their range and hit another type of audience. however they might not likethis idea as they may want to keep to what they know and stick to their prices because theymight feel they will be able to dobetter that way.

·        How did you attract/address your audience?

I used my font and colours to attract my audience by using three main colours Red, black and white as these stood out well from each other ,I liked these colours and thought these worked well together. I used the colour red on my magazine to portray the danger and passion of J-Rhymes and hopefully this would help attract/ address the audience as they may feel the passion of J-Rhymes in the interview as some of the quotes are highlighted in red.

I also used my picture to attract my audience because my picture looks like Justin Timberlake and that appeals to people and will make them want to buy my magazine as it was done to look like him and attract a different type of  viewers. My picture for my front page is also used to address the audience as this picture is styled to look like a rapper who is called J-Rhymes this picture is used to connect with what my target audience would like. I also used my font attract readers by making it bolder and enticing them with the colour red.
I have also used the range and variations of different styles of pictures to help the character link to the audience as it will help the viewers connect to the character as they are able to see the him in more than one photo, so this will help to build the relationship with the audience of my magazine and make it more appealing as you are seeing him in more than just one photoshoped picture that takes away the reality that is J-Rhymes.

·        Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn't in progression from it to be the full project?

From my preliminary task I have learn't that I needed to edit my picture to make it fit in with my background , this makes my magazine look more realistic as it gives it a more professional look. The pictures on my magazine have also changed sizes form my preliminary task as i have made most of them bigger to give the pictures a larger role in my magazines attraction of readers. 
I have also added a gossip page to this to fill in the other side of the page to make the two feature pages look like a realistic double spread of a magazine.
I have also had to change my font a lot as my magazine has progressed to keep it up to date with the changing backgrounds and themes of the magazine; the colours of the font was also something i had to think over carefully when improving my magazine as i needed it to link with the magazine and the ideas of it in order for it to attract the right target audience and also it need to be the right colour to be able to stand out from the rest of the magazine.  I have changed my feature page a lot form my last attempt as it now looks more like a double page spread and has more features on it which also makes it look more realistic, as most magazines that i had researched had more article on them which i have added.

I had also changed the size of the text on my updated version of my magazine so it will become clearer for people to see, I have also changed the font on the magazine to make it look more appealing to people and so it would stand out more when people are looking at the magazine, I made the font bold and put the colour in red to go with the running colour theme of black, white and red. I have changed the font on my contents page as it suited it better as it changed the layout of the contents page.

I have also learnt a lot from my first magazine that I had made as the colours are more attractive and the pictures also fit in better with the theme of my magazine; the colour theme also fits in well with the pictures that I have taken and the way I edited it made the picture look more appealing for my target audience.

Overall I think that my magazine compliments the hip-hop/ rap industry as it has highlighted some of the strengths of this genre and also exposed the truth behind the music. I also think that if it were to be published it would work well with the target audience as it is similar to other magazine that has been published by Time Inc. I have also done a questionnaire and given itbto my target audience to get their views on magazines and what they think about what should be on there. From their results i have found that the most popular genre of music is Hip-Hop/Rap and this is good for my magazine as i have chosen this genre so this is very good as it's the right genre for my target audience. I also learned that most of them would like the magazine to be published monthly, however weekly was also a popular option as it gives them enough time to read the magazine a pay for the new one, they did not like the idea of having it daily as this may be to much for them and it would be hard on the publishers and they also did not loke the idea of yearly as that would be too long a wait for the next issue, if it was yearly the price would have to be driven up. 

My picture choice

I based some of my photos on these styles of photos and these artists style as i thought it look classy and suited the way i wanted my magazines layout to be planned. The pictures are what i wanted to style my magazine on as it is a hip-hop magazine but i wanted to add some class to the genre and the way they are dressed; i tried to represent this in my photos.

These two artists are in a lot of magazines and their styles are similar most of the time as they are in the music industries and both have a keen taste in fashion, this also backed up the idea of having the model in a suit in my picture as it has been proven with these two artists.
These two have exactly the right characteristics of what i wanted my magazine to be like with the coolness and swagger of Kanye West as he is now a symbol of hip-hop and that is type of magazine my is and the sophisticated style of Justin Timberlake with the picture as it is styled on him.


I chose to use this picture in my contents page as it isn't the main attraction of the magazine, however it is still a very strong picture and i thought that having a picture that could of been used on the front cover would give my magazine another dimension as you have a good quality picture on the contents page making this an important page. Even though the style of the picture is different to the picture on the front cover it still symbolizes the genre of the magazine and gives the contents page it's own identity as it has a main feature to attract interest to the page.
The picture is edited in a way to make it look like a light is shining on him, this represents that he is in the limelight and everyone be focusing on him as a part of this magazine is about up and coming stars in the music industry.
Also there is not a tie with his suit giving him a bit more of a casual look compared to the other picture that i have modeled him on, however the expressions on his face are quite serious like the two pictures i have based this photo on this is to give the impression that this artist would be serious because of his attire but also he doesn't have to be as professional as others, this also helps to give my magazine a bit more of a different look even if they are in very similar styles of positions.