evaluation part 1.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

how does the cover do it?

By using a typical boy who I would class as part of my target market I have tried to appeal to both males and females. This is because Indie music is largely about the music rather than the apperance. So even though males may be able to relate to him and girls may draw a particular sexual appeal from him - which is found to be something that sells in the media - it shouldn't really matter because they would probably be paying more attention to the guitar.

I used bands that are well known in the Indie scene which those that maybe aren't that in to Indie music would probably recognise too. This presents the readers as current and up-to-date which is a part of Indie music because its only quite recently began to surface virally.

The fact that everything on the cover is to do with music also reinforces the fact that Indie is very much about the music. I say this because you see some music magazines that will advertise things about clothes on the cover, this isn't something that would represent my target market very well.

how does the contents do it?

The large image on the contents again features a guitar and so as I said before my readers would probably be more interested in that than who is actually in the photo. I used no other photos in my contents and laid the writing out clearly. This can represent the idea that my readers would be people that prefer things to be straight to the point. They'd rather be dancing at a festival that searching through a contents page to find the story/band they want.

how does the double page spread do it?

The main idea of my double page spread is to be a guide to festivals. This is something thats very big with Indie music as it suits it quite well. The tone of the article is very informal and jokey so to represent my readers as people that enjoy humour rather than hard hitting stories.

Th article also says a lot about alcohol because my target audience is primarily university age students who would be legal to drink. The amount wrote about alcohol would seem to represent them as quite rabid drinkers but for a festival, this is the norm.

The images I used in the montage on the left page are all one that seems quite fun and full of life - or as full of life a still image can be. This would be typically photos maybe found on my ta's facebook page or just on their home computer, memories from one of their many adventures.

why represent them in these ways?

I didn't really deciede how to represent this social group I just tried to follow the conventions of how they'd been betrayed to me before in the media. Throughout my magazine I wanted it to be familiar to then as though it had been shaped around them and their lifestyle. This was majorly done - as said in the video above - by representing them positively. Again because if I presented them in a negative way why would they want to buy my magazine?

the final products.

- There are around 5 different fonts I used on my cover. This is because some fonts I used - such as the ROB PARKER - I used to give the artists their own font. With the other sell lines I used identical or at least very similar fonts but put them in different colours to create distinctions on the page

- I tried to stick to a 3 colour, colour scheme and did with all of the text using only White, Navy and Yellow. My cover image I put in black and white to reach the vintage and timeless look that is very apparent in a look of Indie texts. I let the guitar colour appear through as I wanted to make it stand out and draw the readers attention to it to reinforce that its a music magazine

- The cover model isn't looking at the camera to appear less intimidating as Indie is quite a 'soft' genre.

- There's a burst in the top right corner saying 'new'. This isn't hugely noticeable but would just let people know its new so hopefully they would want to try it out.

- The only words on the page in yellow are 'Rob Parker', this is because he is the main artist article and so this needs to be largely promoted as it's what draws a lot of people to the magazine

- I used '50 best selling tracks of the month' as one of my most noticeable sell lines as its a curiosity statement and would make people wonder what the 50 tracks are.

- The main image on this page is the only one and is consistent with the cover image, this fits with the idea of formula which is part of the four f's. This just means that the articles and contents should be similar throughout and weekly/monthly.

- The orangey colour of the numbers are nearly matched to the coloured guitar in the picture. This presents the colour scheme of the page which is quite simple like the front cover is.

- I didn't put many items on my contents as I just wanted a few main things so people would go to look at these and find other things in the magazine.

- There's only 3 different fonts on this page for the title, numbers and written words. This helps to make the page look neat so it's easy to navigate.

- The main title is what you see first on the page and immediately tells you what the article is about. It's written in quite a messy young font. I also used little picture symbols in the top right corner to fill the white gap and also because it fitted well with the feel of the article.

- The writing is in three columns as this looked most conventional. I put a quote at the bottom of the middle column to split the text up.

- Under the heading there's a tagline reading 'how to survive the music, mud and mayhem'. This is the wording used on the cover again contributing to the formula of the magazine keeping with a consistent style.

- The photos are all tinted blue to make them seem more unified. It also dulls down some of the colour to give it a more mellow festival look. 

- Within the article there are sub-headings which separate the writing and allow people to read what they want to on the page. At the beginning of the article there's a section saying 'ingredients' with bullet points to introduce people to the article.

- There's a 'drinkaware' warning at the end of the article which was put in to contrast the amount of talk of alcohol in the article. I put this in because as a 'gatekeeper' I would control what people read in my magazine and although alcohol is fun they should know there can be dangers.

COVER DRAFTS

i created this draft of my cover but there was something that wasn't quite right so then i created all of these..

double page spread. 2nd draft.

front cover. 2nd draft.

my design philosophy.

My personal opinion of what looks good in  magazine is going to contribute significantly to what my coursework will look like. I also have to take inspiration from my music genre and obviously follow conventions of typical music magazines. I've decided to blog bout what kind of things i personally look for in a magazine along with those that you'd find in an indie magazine.
Retro vs Modern. As paradox as it sounds, I like both and I think the indie genre does too. The mix between retro looks along with modern music are what i perceive indie as. The look many indie artists have isn't the latest fashion trends but more vintage, timeless and preppy looks.
Use of Colour. I think black and white is good. Colour sometimes can make things look tacky in my eyes but then in some cases it can be really effective. When using colour I'd use very similar colours and try to avoid clashing ones. Indie magazines would also support this i think as they use quite neutral colours on the cover and throughout.
Minimal vs Cluttered design. I love minimal design. I think this may predominately be because when I've tried to experiment with  more cluttered design its never worked but still, I prefer minimal. I think it also things to be seen clearly and allows you to make important things more accessible for the eye.
Timeless vs Now. This is a big thing with indie. It is timeless. I believe that in however many years you could look back at an indie band and they would still look slightly conventional to the era. I really like this idea, just that whenever, wherever it would still be cool. That is if you think indie is cool in the first place.
Conventional vs Original. I prefer a mix of both. I think it's possible to be conventional with some original aspects, though you have to be able to get away with it. It has to be something subtle that's original but something that's still noticeable. The indie genre itself is original. It's whole purpose is to be independent and different. Saying this though, they do have some conventional idea's as there is no way to be completely original, its near impossible.

david carson.

David Carson was an American graphic designer who brought many innovative ideas to the making of magazine covers. He mainly focused in the use of different typography when designing his covers for his magazine 'Ray Gun'. 

His designs went completely against what anyone else had seen before. Even though you can barely read the sell lines and probably will have no idea who's in it excluding the main image i really like some of them! This one in particular i really like with the photo/white stripe divide. I probably won't design my magazine around his ideas as they go completely against conventions and thats not something i want to do.

cover font.

I decided now I'm looking at doing another draft of my front cover I would do some research into the font for my title. I set up 7 of my favourite fonts on a page and then printed this off to ask people what their preference would be. The page looked like this;

of the 15 people I asked 5 chose option 5 and 3 people chose 3 and 4. The others only had single choices.

So now I'm going to try the cover with font 5 and see what i can make!

 

contents page. 2nd draft.

This was the one i liked the least out of my first drafts so I despreately needed to sort that. I've looked at a lot more indie magazines since making my first draft and also have asked people their opinion on my first drafts. A general concenus was that it was too black and white so I put some colour in this one - crazy i know.

I like this one a lot more and think it looks way more conventional than my first attempt.



'The Fly' contents deconstruction.

This is the contents from an issue of 'The Fly'. It takes up one page as the one on the right is an advertisment.

The majority of the page is taken up of an image, this is of an artist featured in the magazine and in the right bottom corner is the page its featured on.

The top of the page is the date of the issue and in a smaller font 'CONTENTS'.

The bottom of the page is taken by the other features in the magazine, these aren't categorised but instead ordered by the page number.

They've used a simply layout so it's easy to see the pages and whats on them.

'The Fly' double page spread deconstruction.

This is a double page from 'The Fly'. This is from their newest issue and taken from their website view of it.

The main image fills one whole side of the double page. This is something found in a lot of magazines though sometimes the images will be smaller. 

The colour scheme for the page is simple. The black and white scheme with the bland colours from the image make the page and writing quite bold. It also fits with the connotations of the band name as 'sacrifice' is quite dark and sinister.

The picture is conventional of the indie genre as they normally go against the conventions of a typical magazine - skinny smiling faces. The people in the image are under dressed and only some are looking at the camera.

The buttons at the bottom of the image aren't actually part of the magazine but were there to navigate around the online version.

The bigger 'W' at the start of the article is almost a must for any article. I don't know why, you just see it everywhere, but credit to it, it looks good.

'The Fly' cover deconstruction.

To see the kind of style i want for my cover I've decided to deconstruct an existing Indie music magazine.

the bands name is one of the most prominent texts on the page. Its central to the cover and is what primarily catches your eye.

the title of the magazine appears at the top of the magazine and is in a sans serif font. This is the least formal font and would be the font most familiar to the target readers.

the only burst on the page is in the shape of a pricing ticket and labels the magazine as free. This is in yellow and is the only easily identifiable colour on the page.

this is a banner at the top of the page and is simply band names split by a slash. This would maybe highlight some bands that are featured in this issue.

although you can't really see it very well this is the dateline which is underneath the title. Its states the issue date of the magazine as well as the internet site, letting people access the magazine on more than one medium.

the main image on the cover is of the band 'The Horrors'. They are standing so that all of their faces can be seen but some obstruct others bodies. The backgroud is a dark cloudy sky which seems to fit with the bands overall look. They seem quite scruffy which follows typical conventions of indie bands.

  

Blumler and Brown - 1972

Many people have come up with theories as to 'what people do with media'. Bulmer and Brown came up with four primary factors for why people may use media:

• Diversion - Something to do, escape from reality/problems.
• Personal Relationships - Using media to discuss with friends afterwards. Media as a substitute for 'real contact' (this idea heighten with the age of facebook?).
• Personal Identity or Individual Psychology - Defining yourself by your media texts, building you sense of self.
• Surveillance - Finding out about the world, finding out info.

These all seem rather relevant as to why a person would buy/read a music magazine and I think this theory can be the least criticized.

I think all of these i will try to apply to my magazine. I especially want to concentrate on the Individual Psychology. I want my magazine to almost be able to define the 'indie' genre. I want people to be able to read it or even just look at it and be able to relate to it. I also want them to be able to gather ideas from it about their lives, places they want to go, bands they want to see.