FEEDBACK

In an attempt to gain feedback on my magazine from my target audience, I set up a facebook group. Here, people could give their opions and suggestions on the three pages.

FRONT COVER
For the front cover image, a couple of people commented that there was a good colour scheme, which works well with some conventions associated with the style of magazine. Other comments said that certain parts of the text were unclear, in particular the captions on the bottom pictures which i agree with.

CONTENTS PAGE
Alot of people said that they would prefer the lists on the contents page to be lined up straight, which with hindsight I completely agree with as it looks too scruffy. People also said that they like the 'mini story' at the bottom of the page (although this couls just be because they know who it's about and think it's funny). over all i got the impression that people thought this was the weakest of my magazine pages.

ARTICLE (DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD)
I got slightly less feedback for my couble page spread, I suspect because being on facebook as a picture it made the article difficult to read. However I did get some positive comments around the pictures, in particular the one at the top left; and I was also told that the page was 'professional looking'.

Overall, I found I recieved mostly possitive feedback with a little constructive critiscism, but it does concern me that this could just be down to people trying to be nice.

EVALUATION OF THE FINISHED MAGAZINE

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5WUAYNvqSRQZWJjMmQ5MTktOTYzNy00MjI3LTg0MGUtNmZjZWQ5MWFjMzY5&hl=en
I feel that this front cover folows some conventions set by other music magazines (such as 'Q' or 'NME') which use the colour red in the title against darker colours in the image. Also, the overall layout is very similar to that of other, well established magazines. I think the main image shows poses and positions of people that are commonly seen in promotional images from indie/rock bands, I think it portrays two elements of this social group, showing both serious and fun sides through the two facial expressions.

I'd imagine that most general newsagents would stock my magazine similar to how Kerrang or NME is supplied. I think this is because it's a magazine that has a wide target audience that woulod commonly be in shops like this.
The bold colours and big cover image would be sucessful enough to atract attention, but I think that to encourage the purchase of the magazine the articles on the front are perhaps not as enticing as they could be, however I do think that some of the wording in the contents page might be enough to get the reader to take a proper look inside.
I thought that using indesign and Photoshop was a good experience and it helped me to understand some of the technical aspects of producing a magazine. I did feel that sometimes the slowness of the computers made it difficult as well as the complexity of the programs making seemingly easy tasks become difficult. For example, making a shape that could be used for my "ONLY £2" bit took a lot more time than I imagined it would. I also found it hard using the web for the fonts because I couldnt download what I wanted and keep it on the computer, meaning the font had to be the last thing i did.
I think this task went alot better than the preliminary task as I was in a much better midset for completing the work, and perfecting the design. I did still have trouble with my time management and planning but I think in general my design skills improved and developed.

PLANNING AND EVALUATION OF THE ARTICLE

To start off my planning of the article I opened up word to write the questions and answers to look like an interview with two people. I decided to do my article as the main story mentioned on the front page so I used pictures from the same shoot as the front cover. I also found some older pictures of them to add in. Because I was using the same story as the front cover it meant I had to change it from my original flat plan so I drew up another one quite quickly to give me something to work with on the layout:

I also looked at similar articles in existing magazines so that I could see the way they used language and the style of articles so that I could incorporate it into my own design. To find these i looked at NME and Q to find appropriate articles that would be related to my own. i founf that in 'Q' the interviewer describes the surroundings and mood of the interviewee. Although there are questions they are mixed into larger blocks of text giving some back story. I will use this as a base for my article but there will be less descriptions as it seems to get a bit boring. the entire article does start with a bit of backstory which i would like to put into mine.

One thing i saw in the articles i read was that they tend to mention the band or artists latest album, single or gig at the end with a release date so, at the end of mine, I added "Fresh’s debut album is available for download on February 1st and on general release from February 3rd." I then also made a quick picture to look like the album cover but it is very small so hasnt got much detail in. I saw the way that some articles like to put quotes in bigger than the main text to stand out so after I had written the article I picked out a couple of sections to quote.

For my style of article i decided on a simple question - answer format so it looks like just a transcript of a conversation. I did this because I think it helps the readers to maintain an interest rather than having a huge block of text to read through. I think this is what suits the genre of Indie magazines more.

PHOTO EDITING

This is the edited version of the front cover picture. i removed the backgrounds from both pictures and put them together. Then i turned the whole picture black and white.
I cropped some of the pictures blocking out parts.

I put a background in for this picture on the contents page using photoshop.

I used the archway picture and removed the background replacing it with something more plain. I also transformed one of the pictures flipping it over so that she was facing the opposite way. I edited some pictures together to make a quick prototype of the album cover to use in the article.

I edited the main picture by making the background clearer and black and white, while also decreasing the saturation of the whole picture.

For some of the pictures all i did was crop them to fit into the magazine.

PHOTOS

I am using these two pictures on my front cover. I will edit them and put them together to make the cover picture.

These three pictures will be used as insets on the front page.
I'll be using these three pictures in my contents page. The first two will be part of a mini story while the other is just to illustrate one story mentioned in the contents.

I am going to edit these pictures so that they are both standing either side of the arch and put the picture into my double page spread.



These pictures will be used in the double page. The top one will be the main picture for the article while the other 3 are extras.

I am using this picture as a small one at the bottom of the cover. I took it at a party with lots of people so can use it as a picture of a gig.

FONTS

To find the right fonts I looked through the fonts on the computer, and found one, 'Castellar' which was similar to the font I wanted to use for some of the main sells and in the contents page.


I then went to dafont.com to look at different fonts that I might be able to use, I was looking for fonts that were similar to the ones I had used in my flat plan. For the title I looked for ones that were blocky but almost sketchy and found three, 'sketch block', 'pointy' and 'walk around the block'. Next I found two fonts that could be used for the main sells and contents page. These were; 'Cafe Pop' and 'Simon Script'.



For the Title I will use 'Sketch Block' and for the Main Flash and Contents page I will use 'Simon Script' this is because I think they will work well with the design I did on the flat plans. I think the title font appeals as it matches conventions similar to the ones set by 'NME' magazine. It is quite big so easily noticed. I think the other font appeals as it is a little bit different to those seen on magazines reguarly so can reinforce the 'indy' style.

FLAT PANS

This is my first cover design. The Font of the title is blocky and dark to make it stand out, while the font for the main sells and flash is slightly thinner. The number '20' is a lot bigger than the rest of the text which is similar to how 'Q' uses the number '25'. It conforms to the convention of using the rule of thirds to draw attention to certain points on the cover. The cover uses a banner along the bottom edge to list more things found inside the magazine. The cover title will be using red and black which conforms to some of the conventions set by the other magazines I looked at. This design would appeal to the target audience as the main picture would be of people in the demographic age group.


My second cover design uses a slightly different way of writing the title but using similar font to parts of the first cover design. There is again a banner at the bottom listing other articles inside the magazine. The colours would be mainly black and white with some red. The picture is slightly different from the main conventions as it has an extreme close up of one person with the other in the background. By using intials as the title rather than writing an entire word it makes it seen slightly more modern and follows with the was Q and NME do it.




The contents page follows themes set by both cover designs. The main colours will be black, white and red while the fonts will be similar to some of the main sells on the cover. This will relate to the target audience

For my Double page spread I will lay it out as a countdown story about the top ten bands of something. I've used a quote from a song as the title so that it can be linked to the music. There will be a couple of pictures here to link with the story.