EVALUATION.

Magazine Evaluation

As I used the magazines ‘Q’ and ‘KERRANG’ as a guideline to make my front cover, contents page and double page spread, as it helped me understand how to lay it all out and what to write in it. I had to look at the details of the magazine such as the kinds of pictures used, whether to use close up shots or medium shots, the fonts and whether to make them all in capitals or lower case or both, the colour schemes and contents of it to be able to put it all together and make it work. The content would be the most important as this is what would keep people interested in the magazine and make them want to buy it therefore it would have to appeal to a wide range of peoples requirements.
I used the magazine which I made, to appeal to a lot of different social groups and audiences as the content of it was easy to read and was easy to understand therefore it appealed to a wider range of ages, but the age limit being around 24-25 years old. Despite the fact that it is aimed at a lot of different groups it was aimed at, these groups wouldn’t include people into heavy metal music or classical music as the magazine doesn’t contain these things. There wasn’t really a particular style to the magazine (e.g. rock or rap) as I wanted it to appeal to people who had a lot of different tastes in music so I used different types of music in my magazine. Names of artists featured in the magazine such as Rihanna and Coldplay which are two different genres of music; therefore this shows the style of the magazine straight away. The model used for the main story in my magazine, Dimitris, is dressed in a shirt and skinny jeans and a vest top and skinny jeans. The outfit used was important because the clothing used can stereotype the magazine but in this case it can appeal to a wider audience as this is something that a lot of people would wear and could relate to and would then want to take a look inside the magazine. His posture and poses are not threatening towards the audience in any way, with his smile and his shabby hair-do. The pictures on a whole are welcoming and would get people to want to buy the magazine.
The media institution which distributes ‘Q’ magazine is called ‘Bauer, a very successful company which sells magazines such as ‘heat, FHM and GRAZIA’. These magazines are all famous and best selling for gossip and male interests. This is a good reason why I would want Bauer to distribute my magazine, because it would help my magazine become successful. They also have a website where you can find out about your magazine and can advertise it; therefore it would be an easier way of my magazine being seen by the public. I would need to persuade them to distribute my magazine, and I would do this by comparing my magazine to ‘Q’ as this is successful and a lot of my ideas and inspiration came from this magazine.
I used a lot of the ideas from the ‘KERRANG’ magazine to help me write my article on ‘Dimitris’, such as the questions asked and the responses given. I had to look at the language used whether it was Standard English or colloquial to be able to fit in with the style of the magazine. If it was more in colloquial terms, then it may appear to some people that the magazine is aimed more at a male audience than both genders, therefore that’s where the idea of all capital letters came from. Ideas came from ‘Q’ magazine about the layout and the schemes used. I looked at them and changed them to fit into the magazine to appeal to both male and female audiences. The colour scheme I used, black, red and white which again appeals to a lot of ages and both genders, but also the limited amount of colours gives the magazine a more professional look. The pictures which I took were pictures which wouldn’t threaten the audience in any way and again try and get them to buy it. They were all medium shots to give the audience an idea of what style he is into and what style this issue of the magazine is going to be about. Some of the images were in black and white and some in colour so that neither of them threatened the audience and would make them want to take a look inside. As the capitals were used throughout the magazine pages which again do give an edgier style to the magazine, despite the fact capitals are seen as more masculine by some readers.
The pictures which were taken had to be edited on Photoshop as they were not as high quality as they should be. I had to sharpen them, edit the colours and lighting and crop them to fit the pages. Some of the pictures were also in colour which i changed to black and white to show different sides to the magazine. All of this helped me improve my skills on Photoshop so I could use these skills for future use of the programme.
From the preliminary task to the full product I have learned a lot about the difference between a professional magazine look and one that looks like it has been done by someone with less experience with making them. I learned what a “good” picture is to be able to go into the magazine to help it gain the professional look. Also the layout such as where I put things on the page and how much text should go on each side of the page to make the pages not look to cramped, colour schemes to make sure the magazine still had the professional look about it and content are all a lot different as they now help my magazine look a lot more realistic and professional.

my edited version of my double page spread interview.

influence

this is the front cover of 'Q' Magazine which i based alot fo the style of my magazine on.

contents page