Official Final Drafts Music Magazine - Rhythmag

These pages below are the finalized versions of the front, contents and double page spread of my music magazine. Each of them consisted of various drafts and took a slow development process so that I used an designed the pages appropriately in relation to the genre of electronic music (theme of the magazine) and the styles that a younger audience, whom of which is my target market will find attractive and eye catching. In order to reach this point in their development I used various technologies and software including a Canon DSLR camera, Serif Photo Plus and Serif Page Plus so I could create the pages and manipulate the photos I had taken accordingly. Each of these pages development included various drafts in order to achieve the outcome that I felt was best appropriate and effective.

Front Cover: 
You may notice from comparing this to my previous draft of the front cover that I have changed the image that goes on the front cover. The feedback given to me on my drafts suggested that there was not enough mixture of shot types on all of my pages of the magazine. Therefore, I went back to the file that had all of my photos from the photo shoot I carried out and selected a this close up shot of my 'artist'. The use of the character looking straight into the camera has more effect than the artist looking off to the side (trying to show a stylish appearance). In relation to the genre of electronic music, many other magazines use a shot type like this for the front cover with an artist looking directly at the reader. I saw this as a more appealing technique for the front cover and therefore proceeded with the idea reach this outcome.  Similarly, this final draft included some additional changes including the positioning of the text addressing content inside has now been placed at the top above the title rather than in the bottom middle, where it looked out of place. Similarly, I have shrunken the size of the secondary lead sub-heading (Diplo) because from reviewing feedback and logical sense this may have been mislead as the main lead due to the size of the text font.

 Contents Page:
Using my given feedback from peers and my ideas to further develop this page I noticed that the green text in previous pages was almost impossible to see due to the stark contrast of the lime green against the background. In order to solve this problem, but still maintain my colour scheme I placed an aqua blue shape behind these sub-headings listing the content, it now looks more stylish and much clearer to read. Furthermore, the text at the bottom listing content on "remixes and musician lifestyles" appeared to be in a very small text font, therefore in order to fill the space better and maintain consistency with my designs I stretched the text across the page and re-aligned the text in order to keep the aesthetic. Comparing this design to my previous drafts I believe that the layout and colour schemes are less harsh but still keeping within the themes that electronic music follows.

 Double Page Spread:
Similar to the ideas I have stated above, feedback from peers suggested that there was too many colours on this page and it was not following the colour schemes properly that I had used on the front cover. Firstly, in this final draft I have reverted back to the colour used on the title of 'J.A Snake' to the same used on the front cover so a reader recognizes the link clearly. It also maintains consistency within my choice of colours and design and therefore shows it displays a more professional aesthetic. You may notice that I have inserted social media links icons at the bottom. Like many mainstream magazines, connecting to an audience through social media is one of the most effective modern ways to advertise an artists/magazine. Therefore I have used these icons to suggest to a reader to follow my magazine on social media sites in order to keep up to date and "fashionable", this of which may be an important factor to a young audience.

Draft - Music Magazine Evaluation

Music Magazine – Evaluation

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

Over the course of developing my music magazine, I took into account, considered and elaborated on various codes and conventions used in the media industry in terms of official and established magazine companies.

Firstly, I followed and maintained certain codes and conventions in my music magazine where I felt that these must be maintained in order to be appropriate, relevant and fitting with the themes surrounding the genre of my magazine, this of which is electronic music which we associate the mixing of music and ‘DJs’. The first code I followed was by using a short, memorable title of the magazine. The title of my magazine was “Rhythmag”, a short, unique name and therefore is memorable because it cannot be confused or mislead by other brands. It is important that this convention was followed when I was developing my magazine because it I believe that providing a name customers and the market can recognize your magazine by instantly is a key aspect of the media product. Similarly, another convention that was important that I kept was choosing a colour scheme and themes that are reflective and represent the genre of my magazine suitably. As my magazine’s genre was electronic music we often associate strong contrasting, vibrant, acidic colours. Electronic/DJ artists such as Martin Garrix, Diplo and Amici all use a range of bright and contrasting colours on their album covers, adverts and merchandise, this of which reinforces the themes that we relate to within this genre of music, therefore I have reflected these in my music magazine. In order to comply with the colourful themes associated with electronic music I used colours ranging from lime green, white, aqua blue and orange. This colour scheme can be seen on each page of my magazine shown below. It was important I kept and maintained this convention throughout my magazine because one of the key aspects of any magazine is to promote a certain lifestyle, ideology or theme about a topic, therefore it is key that the colour scheme and themes surrounding electronic music were followed correctly.

In contrast of this, there were some codes and conventions that tried to develop on in order to make my music magazine have a sense of originality and creative. One convention I developed on was using a one full screen image to act as the background on all of the pages I made for my music magazine. A large portion of official magazine companies tend to use 2-4 images on the front cover to visually display some of the main articles inside, however I wanted my front cover to focus and promote one artist individually as they take up the background space for the front cover, contents page and double page spread. The other articles are still shown and clearly displayed on the pages as you can see below, however the composition of the photo I took for this image gives me the space to develop on this simple convention.

Furthermore, another convention that I have developed on in my music magazine was the use of various fonts used on each page. Most official magazines do use a variety of text fonts on the front cover and contents pages in order to appeal to a reader and promote certain articles, however the text fonts these magazines tend to use are from the same or similar font families and therefore they follow the same style. However, in order to fit in with the vivid and highly vibrant themes that we associate with the genre of electronic music, I used noticeably different text fonts mainly on the front page, contents and double page spread in order to fit in with the idea of strongly contrasting elements.

I think in general electronic music and ‘DJ-ing’ attempts to challenge common concepts and themes we see in the media due to the acidic and strongly opposing usage of colour and music sounds we see and hear. There are many common codes and conventions that my music magazine contains, as would all official magazines that are available to read such as the short, memorable title or using a different text sizes for main and sub articles. Despite this, I do not think my magazine on its own challenges these conventions, it is rather the genre overall.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

During the course of researching, planning and developing my music magazine I learnt and recognized techniques in how I could represent and portray the social groups surrounding the genre of electronic music. The social group and general lifestyle that I try to portray in my magazine is mainly down to focusing on the stance, clothing and colour schemes that I have decided to use for my artist that is featured on the pages shown below in order to present the life of a DJ and people working in this group of society.

From the clothing that the artist is wearing we can see that they are following youthful trends involving skinny jeans, trainers, denim jackets and overall slim fitting clothes. This suggests to my readers that the social groups of electronic and DJ music are very much popular and in-fashion, therefore this may definitely help make this product appeal to a younger audience, especially male and female teenagers between 13-21 years old. Similarly, the use of the strongly contrasting, vibrant colours that are generally associated with electronic music may also represent this social group to be for a younger age group and one that is interested in mixing music. Bright colour schemes are used in various teenagers and children’s day to day products that they may use such as clothes, phones, bags and shoes. Due to these reasons my music magazine helps represent the most common ideas we associate with the stereotypical teenager social group interest including electronic and/or pop music, mainstream clothing fashion and in-formal language.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A media institution is an organisation, typically a conglomerate company that has owns and has access to various media enterprises including publishers, television, magazines and films.

Media institutions that might distribute my music magazine would be a company that has connections to not only the music industry but all segments of the media industry as a whole to provide stronger coverage for a magazine. An institution such as Bauer Media would be the most likely organisation to distribute my music magazine because they are one of the largest media groups in Europe that provide publishing services. Due to their multi-national scale and owning roughly three hundred magazine titles this gives them and my media product a platform for it to be created and distributed on. It is important an institution like Bauer Media should distribute my music magazine because they already have an established platform of connections and sources to go too in order to assist the distribution of any media product effectively within their target group.

Despite this, choosing to use the major three institutions including Warner, Sony and Universal also does have its benefits for my magazine over a more independent organisation. These three highly dominating companies dominate large portions of the market, therefore it they were to distribute my music magazine (Rhythmag) the chance of its success and recognition would be much more significant. The most concerning competition for my magazine would most likely be MixMag, these are the most recognized magazine within the UK and US that focuses on electronic music, this of which could make it hard to my magazine to gain readership. Despite this, my colour scheme is much different to the rather simple, black colour scheme MixMag use and therefore it may appeal better to some readers who are interested in electronic music.

Who would be the audience for your product?

From analysing the results of my questionnaire and looking back at the research I did into the music industry surrounding electronic and DJ music/lifestyles I have concluded a definitive audience for my magazine.

The typical audience for my magazine would be teenagers and young adults ranging between 13-21 years old who are interested in electronic music, it is most likely that they also find house and DJ music appealing due to the shared characteristics they have with the electronic music such as digital drops and beats. The audience for this who most likely be dominated my males, however there are many recognized female electronic artists therefore the overall gender audience for my product is mixed.

Electronic music is perceived to be a fairly fashionable genre of music to follow and listen to within youths, therefore the typical dress attire of my audience for males would be trainers, skinny jeans and a hoodie, these of which are all purchased from mainstream brands such as Top Man and River Island. Regularly attending social events and being members of many social media applications would be a common sight within this audience group for my music magazine.

My audience would most likely be interested in the electronic music that is produced by popular artists from this genre including Kygo, Martin Garrix, Diplo and Avicci, whom of which have international recognition. Therefore the contents of my electronic music magazine would be focused around these type of artists in order to attract this type of audience stated.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To develop my product, Rhythmag, I used a variety of technologies and software in order to assist the creation of all aspects of the development process.

Firstly, I used a DSLR camera during the early stages before I had created the music magazine in order to take photos of my artist whom of which is seen in the screenshots below. Using my existing camera knowledge I experimented with different shot types and compositions in order to display my artist appropriately in relation to electronic music and so that I could add text and icons around them when it came to producing the pages of the magazine. I used a DSLR camera because of its high quality capabilities and the options to change the lens in use in order to fit the shot type needed.

Furthermore, when it came to constructing the pages of my music magazine, I used a combination of Serif Photo Plus and Serif Page Plus X9. These are pieces of software which allow me to manipulate and edit photos as well as develop pages like you can within Microsoft Publisher. I edited my photos in Serif Photo Plus so that they have the appropriate aesthetic to fit in with electronic music, therefore I used vibrant and acidic filters over the images in order to represent this. Equally, I used Serif Page Plus X9 to create the pages from the beginning all the way through to the end result. This software gave me the tools to apply text and a large selection of fonts to choose from, shape creation tools, masking tools to reshape existing elements, paint brushes and the ability to insert all my photos taken in their edited format from Serif Photo Plus. These circled tools on Serif Page Plus are the five primary aspects of the software that I used and manipulated in order to create the pages from my magazine.

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

When I began on my preliminary task I felt much more unprepared and lacking in knowledge into what elements, themes and contents should be put onto each magazine page and why they should or should not be there. Looking at my preliminary task of the magazine pages I made for my school I can see I have used more basic and simple designs in terms of shapes and text fonts such as Arial, equally I have also used a generic structure to the position of elements on the front cover of my preliminary task which is not appealing to a reader.

Since finishing this starter task, I under took a large amount of research into the genre of electronic music and as well as house and pop to gain inspiration for designs and structure, magazine including MixMag, BillBoard and NME were the three main magazine I researched and took ideas from. Furthermore, I also had the time scale to carry out my own research about music magazines as well as analyse the front covers of various magazines in order to get a better understanding of their purpose and effect they have on a reader, I used this knowledge I had gained and reflected it back on my own music magazines, Rhythmag.

Similarly, I feel as though my capability and skill set in using Serif Photo Plus and Serif Page Plus have significantly developed whilst creating my own magazine pages. Being able to create multiple drafts on each page means that I can demonstrate my development of the pages (shown on my blog) as well as give me the ability to look back at the previous draft and discuss which elements could do with adjusting, removing or being added to the pages. I have progressed my understanding of how to manipulate photos in order to change their visual aesthetic meaning they fit in with the electronic genre of my magazine more appropriately. Equally, I feel my usage and technical skill set in these pieces of software developed as well because I created custom shapes of pieces of text and icons through the use of the mask/morph tool which allows me to edit the curve sizes of any element on the pages, this of which is evident on my blog posts which display the front cover, contents and double page spread of my music magazine.

In conclusion, during the course of time I had to plan, develop and finalize my music magazine, Rhythmag, I feel as though my understanding of electronic music and the audiences surrounding the genre has been much more developed and enabled me to gain a deeper in-sight into the typical reader and views this kind of person may have. Furthermore, through my in-depth research and analytical skills I feel my understanding of how and why certain elements, text fonts, shapes and images are placed onto each page of a music magazine and what their key focus and effect is on a reader. I attempted to implement these ideas used my official magazine companies onto my own magazine in order to make it appear professional, appealing and fitting the genre of music chosen, electronic/DJ.

These images placed below show the final versions of my front cover, contents and double page spread for my magazine, Rhythmag.