Final DPS



I ended up changing the design of my DPS because you wernt able to read the body text as it was on a dark background and I wanted the text to be dark. Therefore I went with this look, it isnt what I planned for it to look like however I still think it looks ok for the final DPS.

I kept the colour scheme of blue, black and white running through the double page spread like I wanted to make it look better. I also put an effect on the image of the talent that added a flash of blue onto it so it was in keeping with the rest of the page.

Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As I have previously mentioned in a different post, my music magazine is aimed at both male and female, however predominantly females, aged between mid teens to mid twenties that are into mainstream music.

Through my magazine I decided to represent this group of people to want to know the latest news on bands, songs, solo artists, festivals etc. I have represented this by putting sell lines like 'The 10 best new acts'; 'Summer tunes for 2013'; 'This years top festivals'. I have decided to represent them like this as mainstream is all bout the latest new, popular acts therefore i thought that the audience that would read mainstream magazines would want to know everything and be very interested in finding out as much information as possible. For example, in my contents page I included 'features' and 'regulars' to try and give as much new information as possible for the readers. 
As you can see below I included regulars like, 'The faces of 2013' and 'Tours of the month'. All of this is to inform the target audience of the latest music news, tours acts etc.

Evaluation: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product?

Final Contents page

I'm really pleased with the outcome of the contents page as it turned out better than I expected. I wanted it to have the three colour colour scheme so it was in keeping with the rest of the magazine. I also wanted it to look creative, yet informative. 

I based the whole layout of the contents page on how I laid out my draft of the contents. I wanted my talent to pose like Lana Del Rey who was the talent in my contents draft because she had a hidden smile like Mona Lisa. This was in keeping with the article for my DPS i.e. Susie Lockwood's break from music.

Final magazine cover

This is the final front cover for my music magazine.

I chose the masthead 'Loud' because I wanted something that was associated with music and I thought this would be the best. I previously did some research to get some inspiration, however it was unsuccessful as I didn't like most of the potential names for my magazine.

I chose the colour scheme to be black, blue and white because I think they all work really nicely together and I was planning on doing black white and another bright colour to make it stand out.

Overall I tried to change the layout a bit from my draft because I thought the draft looked a bit boring and I thought I could use the space that I had better, for example putting writing on a slant and placing the issue number inside the masthead.

I wanted to use various fonts throughout the magazine cover to make it look more professional and to make it look more interesting. However I didn't want to use too many fonts because I didn't want it to look cluttered and a bit sloppy, overall I think I avoided this.

I prefer this cover to the draft as its more interesting and fun. I wanted my talent to pose like Lana Del Rey who was the model of my draft, because I really liked the position she was in and I was planning on using a close up for the cover photo. The main idea behind my talent was that she had a hidden smile like Mona lisa. I have made sure this idea is constant throughout the magazine, including the photos and also the DPS article. The reason behind using a smile like Mona lisa is because 'Susie Lockwood' is taking a break from music so you don't know if she is happy or sad about the decision she has made. 

I changed the edit on my background image because I didn't like the lightness of it. I prefer this edit because it is more natural and looks better as a front cover.
  

Research questionnaire

Questionnaire

1. What genre of music magazine do you read?

Mainstream: 4

Pop: 2

Rock:0

RnB: 3

Country:0

Indie: 1

Other:0

Analysis of answers

I asked 10 people the question above and the questions below so that I could get enough information to help me create my magazine.

4 out of 10 people said that they read mainstream magazine's so this was a bonus because then I was able to get a lot of information for my mainstream magazine. I asked this question so I could see what type of audience magazine's get, specifically mainstream, and also so i could find out how many people read specific magazine's.

2. What features attract you to read a music magazine?

• Popular band/solo artist
• Competitions
• A well known magazine in general 
• Interesting sell lines
• Colourful 
• Bold masthead
• Not too cluttered
• Interesting articles

Analysis of answers

Most people were in agreement with each of what catches their eye on a magazine cover, for example 6 people said that a bold masthead and for there to be a popular band/solo artist on the cover. I was  expecting the obvious things like, bold masthead and competitions because there are so many magazines that have this.

3. What colours would you prefare throughout the magazine?
A) White, black and blue:5
B) Blue, pink and black:2
C) Black, red and blue:1
D) White, black and red:2

Analysis of answers
Most people said white, black and blue. I asked the people that chose white, black and blue why they chose that colour, and most of them said because it was colours that would appeal to both genders and because they prefared those colours out of the others.

4. What is the main reason you buy a music magazine?

• To keep up to date with the latest new acts
• To get festivals up dates
• If theres a band/solo artist I like on the cover I will buy it
• To read articles on solo artists/bands
• If I am interested in a competion that was on the front cover
• If I have heard through friends that it is a good magazine to buy

Analysis of answers
Most people said that they buy music magazines so they can find out the lastest bands/solo artists, so they are up to date with whats good. I was surprised that not many people said about the competitions within the magazine, I asked people if the competions was a reason but a lot of people said that wasnt a main reason they would buy it, unless it was advertised on TV so they went out specially  to get the magazine.  

5. How much would you pay for the magazine?
A) £2.00: 7
B) £2.50:2
C) £3.00:1
D) £4.00:0

 Analysis of answers
I wasnt surprised at the feedback I got on this question because I knew that people would want to spend as less as possible on the magazine. A few people were willing to spend up to £2.50/£3.00, but everyone said that £4.00 was too much for a music magazine or a magazine in general.

Health and Safety

I took my photos for my DPS In my room because I wanted a plan background for the photos as you wernt going to see the background in most of the photos anyway, so it didnt matter where I took them. I used a plain white sheet for the background so I didnt have to change much when editing the photos, this was just for ease.

My room is quite big but has a lot of furniture that I had to take into consideration. For example, a TV; bed; table etc. Before we started we move the table out of the way with the TV and unplugged the wires from the wall so no one tripped over them. We pushed the bed against the wall so that was out of our way as much as possible so we didnt trip and so it wasnt in the way. The sheet for the background was pinned up against the wall by blue tack in several places. I would say this was a main risk because if it wasn't securely put up then there would be a risk of it falling on someone. Also if the bottom of the sheet wasn't  pushed back so it was out of the way, his could mean that someone could trip over it and cause a casualty.

Other than the furniture and sheet there wasnt any major risks, we were very safe in making sure that there were no major hazards around us so we were able to take the photos safely.

Target audience for my magazine

I am going to make a Mainstream magazine that aims at mainly 16-20 year olds, both males and females, although I think it would be more for females because I am designing it so I think I will unintentionally put more of a female look on it. I have been looking at magazines Q and Vibe as I want my music and look of the covers to look along the lines of them. However I want my magazine to be more like Q as it is more mainstream and I prefer the layout and design of the magazine. 

After researching on www.nrs.co.uk, I looked at the readership of Q magazine and on average there is 377,000 people that purchased the magazine monthly in January 2012 - December 2012. 257,000 of those are men and 120,000 are women.

I also found out that the most people that buy the magazine are from socio-economic groups A,B and C1. I think this is because Q is quite expensive therefore people in groups C2, D and E would rather spend their money on a different, cheaper magazine or something else altogether especially during the recession. For example bills, food, mortgage etc. The age group of the magazine is big as it is 15-35, 233,000 of the readers are from that age group. 144,000 of them are 35+.

I have taken into consideration the above information and used it to work with what I want and think my readers would be like. My magazine wont be as expensive as Q magazine, i plan for it to be around £2.00, therefore my readers will be in socio-economic groups A, B, C1 and C2. 

Second draft of DPS

This is the second draft of the DPS. I tried to use the same sort of image that was used for the first draft because I liked the layout of the body text around the talent as it looks professional, however I don't like where i have placed some of the text, such as underneath the talent.

I stuck to the colour scheme of black, white and blue like I used for the second draft of the front cover because I wanted each page to be tied in together so it consequently looks more professional. However, i planned on having the text in black but because the some of the image is dark the text was unreadable. This meant that I had to make the text blue and white.  Overall I think that the DPS has too much blue, it doesn't look like a DPS that should be in a magazine to me.

For my next draft/final DPS I am going to try and move the image over to the right, like my first draft as i have more room to place the body text because I think it looks quite cramped. I am also going to lighten the background and maybe the image altogether so I can then have the text in black like I planned. I would like my DPS to look more like my first draft because it was clean, bright and it didn't have too much of one colour. 

Second draft of the magazine cover

This is the second draft front cover for my music magazine.