My front cover!

When I had finally took all of my images for my music magazine right from the start I knew which image I wanted to use! So I then decided to develop it further to see which effects made it look the best to its ability.

Original photo!

What I thought looked best - so went with this!

I thought removing the background to this image and making it my front cover made it look the best it can! I thought it made it look professional and had a better effect on the reader rather than before with the background. I am really pleased that I went with this idea as I think it makes my magazine stand out and look really attractive , I also think it does look like that type of fashion magazine that you would pick up in store. From looking at this image you are unable to see the music side to it, although when I add my text you are then able to see by the headings given exactly what type of magazine it is!


My final front cover!

This is gonna take me a while to write!

I am really proud of my front cover, and after everything I am really happy with how it turnt out - I did not think it would turn out very well, and I thought I would not be that pleased with it.
I am really glad that I decided to remove the background to this image as I think it was the best decision to make, as now you only focus on the beauty of this model rather than what is behind her, which is clearly not relevant nor important.
Im really happy how I carefully removed the background to this image and added the 'feather' effect to it, so you are not able to tell that there was a background there in the first place.
I am also really happy with how my work has been seperated out, The date of the magazine realise is towards the bottom of the photo and like it says 'march 2011' as a reminder is a monthly magazine!
I have also put the barcode to my image in the top left towards the left hand side of my heading as I did not want it overlapping my photo as I thought it would then contredict my 'professional' look.
I then located the price of the magazine right under the heading, which I admit could of been moved to a different location to look better, but I do not think it looks too bad where it is!

My heading/title of my magazine - It took me a while to come up with the name and at the start of my coursework I started coming up with really boring names that would not of looked professional at all, and sounded rather stupid such as, lyrical words. It would not of sounded like a music magazine title at all! So im glad after making all my mind maps I finally started thinking about really unique and decent titles. I first started looking up words that had a similar meaning to 'unique' as this had a huge similarity to my magazine genre! I found in the theasurus the word 'insignificant' and I thought it had a real catch to it! and I really did like it, I also found 'conspicuous' which I also liked. I then thought it would be a really good idea if I looked up the spelling of these words in a different language, as that would definetly be unique and interesting.
I did not want to use languages such as chinese or korean etc which would produce me with results such as '显着' which I dont think would be effective at all.

So I thought I needed to find language's similar to English, which people in the UK & America would understand. So I first started with french, german, irish which I didnt like the sound of how they were pronounced that way. I finally settled with the spanish versions which I really did like!
I knew right away that 'Insignificante' was what I wanted to call my indie music magazine. That 'e' on the end made all the difference and I thought the title of my magazine sounded really good! :)

As you can see on my front cover, I havent included a lot of advertisements for my magazine, As I did not want to overload it, and I dont really think there is much room as if I added too much text it would ruin the image and the look I was aiming for completly, but as I have said before, I dont find that a successful magazine needs to include a lot of headings to grab the readers attention to buy or read, I think the image should be that strong to already do that!
I also did not want my magazine to include adverts like that, I wanted it to look professional and the 'expensive' type.

As you are also able to see, I did include inducements that I said I would 'guitar pick inside' Although as I did not want to include many colours to my front cover, apart from dull colours I did not go with the 'magazine theme colour' idea.

If I was to do this again, truthfully there would not be a lot I would change! I am really pleased with what I have produced and after all the changes I have made I would not make many changes to it now.
The downful to my front cover is my audience was young adults, both male & female who had a great interest in this type of music. As you can see on my front cover, there is not much on there that I could offer to a male! Or a male looking at it that has never heard of it before may have no idea what type of magazine it is so would not pick it up to have a look as they may assume only women should have a read!
Unless I only included indie singers/bands which were known by the population as that type of genre then they would automatically know!

My contents page!

I think to make all of my coursework successful and to make sure I made it the best to my ability I needed to do a lot of research! Especially on music magazines, which I myself did not have a huge interest in!
After doing a lot of research and analysising many contents pages/front covers I knew exactly what I thought made a successful magazine.
I thought the best contents pages I looked at, to make them so successful, included a lot of space!
They were spread out, and each heading or image etc had a lot of space rather than being 'cramped' up.
I decided myself I wanted to include this type of technique to my own magazine, as I wanted my contents page to look professional rather than be overloaded with too much text or images.
I also knew that I wanted to include images on my contents page like you get in a photobooth;

As I wanted to give my reader's that 'unique magazine' feeling! I wanted my readers to be amazed with my front cover, open up my magazine to my contents page and think 'wow, what a unique contents page' and then not know what page to go too as they are so pleased with it! :D

It took me a rather long time to complete my contents page! I kept making changes to it, moving it all around and then not liking any of it! at one point I just got so annoyed I left it a while, and then I came back to it and made a lot of changes, such as I changed my font, colour theme, and added a lot of layer style effects to my heading to make it really stand out.

So far so good! Once I was pleased with the fonts I was using, the image I had put together after editing and moving around and the textual context - all my page names! I then felt it still looked a bit basic! So I wanted to add a line to seperate the image space and the text space!
Once I had placed things where I wanted them to be I was really pleased with how it finally turnt out, even though it had caused me so much stress!

My final contents page!

Overall I am really proud of what I have produced for my contents page. I think the way I have spaced everything out looks really unique. Although I would not say it looks like a normal music magazine contents page, but that is EXACTLY the effect I wanted to have. I wanted to go with a completly new look!
Which as you can see, is why I also included unique headings to my contents page! I want my indie/fashion magazine to be completly different to any other magazine they have seen.
I am also happy with the images I used, and I am glad they are in one long strip which gives them that 'photobooth' feeling.

My double page spread!

When we first started to do our coursework I had a lot of idea's of what I could do to my double page spread and to my magazine in general! I made a lot of mind maps which I have added to my blog! So that I would know that the idea I finally came up with would be the perfect one of my choice. When I first started to start my coursework I first done my double page first! I thought this would be the hardest project to do as I would need to not only think about the design, font, what images to use but I also needed to think about the words I would actually include! I first started thinking about what questions I may ask if I was to actually interview a singer/band in person, and I thought this really helped to make my double spread effective and realistic!
I will be honest and say I didnt really plan what I was going to do on paper, I was going too but I knew for a fact I wouldnt go along with it, so rather than doing nothing I done a basic plan! [what type of layout I was going for, where I would like to place images etc] I had a rough idea of what I wanted - I knew I wanted to include images on a palariod type base as I thought this would go lovely with my genre - Unique indie fashion type!
I also knew what type of photos I wanted to take - What camera angles I was planning to do - Lots of close ups, as I find most professional magazine's include this angle, Long shots - I could then include the unique style of the fashion the model is wearing, Medium shots - Able to see part of the outfit and there face [I wanted to include big hair and big bright makeup to the model to look unique]. I wanted the model in unique clothing - which I can happily say is exactly what I have achieved!
I am also really pleased with how the hair and makeup turnt out, I love the blue eyeshadow around the model's eyes which make her look part superhero in a unique style of clothing, along with the big red hair.

 This image shows how I decided to name my model 'may' as I found this name had a unique vibe towards it, and I then had to come up with a unique last name which made it sound unique - Silverstone!
As you can see I added a purple full stop at the end, I then thought this colour did not mesh well with the images I was choosing to use and I found the purple made it look very unprofessional. I then decided to change the colour completly and made all of my double page spread a peach/baby pink colour to find this did not look professional either and I found it looked rather 'tacky'. Towards the end of finishing my double spread I changed it all completly to dull colours that do not shout 'look at me' such as bright red etc, I finally went with a browny beige along with black, which I think works perfectly with the 'wood type' photos my model has.

The above images show how I made my two images featured on my double page spread palaroid! I knew right from the started I wanted to include this feature to my image to make it look unique and interesting and I am really pleased with how the effect turnt out!

My final double page spread! 

Overall I am really really pleased with my double page spread as I think it turnt out really well!
It took me a long time to get just right and I also found it really fiddily to get 'perfect' but I am really happy with what I have achieved and I also think all of it was worth it, as I am proud to say I produced this!
I am really pleased with the interview I included in my double spread - I think it does sound like an actual interview and I am glad that I had the chance to look at other magazine double spreads to give me a good idea of what makes a good one.
I really love the effect the palaroid photo's have to my double page spread - as I think it makes you get that 'indie singer' feeling! As many other singers such as beyonce would never agree for them to be put in a palaroid shot.
If I was to do this again , there would not be a lot that I would change! I would maybe make the 'may' heading have more chance of standing out, although the reason I did not change the heading is because I think if it had too many effects such as an 'inner shadow' I think it would not look like a magazine heading at all!
I also may change the layout to make it have that extra professional feel to it! But overall, like I stated, I am very pleased with my double page spread :)!

My favourite images!

Once I had looked at many different music magazines, front covers and contents page and double spreads that are featured in a mixture of magazine types, mainly music I got a rough idea of what type of images I wanted out of this magazine! I wanted unique and professional looking images that would instantly catch my readers eye!
These are some of my favourite images that I am planning to use!

My front cover image!

After taking 100 photo's to choose from to include in my music magazine I finally decided what image to use as my front cover! I thought this image would be a good one to use as I think it looks really professional due to the model looking right into the camera with there eyes!
I also like the model's look as I think it has a great impact to the genre of my magazine - Fashion and the indie look by wearing a black unique dress with a gold chain.
I also think the model's eyes and skin colour is unique and grabs the readers attention straight away! I think when looking at this image all you want to do is look at the eyes - and I think this makes my magazine very powerful!
Although I fell in love with this image I was not sure whether I wanted to include the background or not! The reason I did want to include it, was because I thought it would make my magazine look unique and the 'indie' type of magazine, as It would be set in a forest where you can imagine singers or bands playing in a quiet setting in the contry in the woods. The other side of me did not want to include the background as, as I have stated before I do not think a sucessful front cover on a magazine would include a background - as I think this just makes the magazine look weak!

After I had tried to put together my music front cover to my magazine I realised having a background to this image did not look so successful as I had feared! So I decided to go with a blank background which I think strengthened my image and made it a lot much effective! So I am very pleased with my results so far!

One of my ideas!

My final image for my front cover!

Analysis of front cover

I then also thought it would be a good idea to analyse a music magazine front cover! As I would also benefit from this as I could then know what makes a music magazine front cover look good to the readers and what I think makes a magazine cover look bad!
I think this music magazine front cover looks really professional! and when I first saw this image I thought the company had done very successful. There are many reasons why I thought this about the magazine.
The first thing that attracted me to this magazine was the fonts used! I also thought they had used there space well, none of the text is pushed next to eachother so you are unable to see which heading is which! I also think the theme colour they have used also makes the magazine look professional and catchy!
I also think the reason this magazine front cover looks professional is down to the image they have used! I really like it when magazine's only include one image on there front cover - usually the background! As I think the image is the first thing that catches the readers eye! So I think magazine's look there best when the image they have used does not have a background! This automatically grabs the readers attention, just to look at the person on the magazine and there feautres.
I do not like about this magazine front cover that they have put there text at an angle! I think this makes the magazine look unprofessional and it does not really catch my eye as I have to turn my head to be able to read it properly! I also think they thought this technique would work as a unique and new idea, but I dont think it works well with the magazine itself! I also think it does not work well with the image used on this magazine as the image itself has been put at a slight angle!
Overall I think this magazine front cover looks really effective and I am basing my own magazine on this type of magazine - Similar genre, and I want to carry out the same effects on my own magazine to catch people's eyes!

Analysis of contents page

To give me good idea's on a successful music magazine content page I thought it would be an excellent idea to analyse NME content page from a past magazine. The thing I liked most about this contents page was it kept the same layout that this magazine company usually do. I thought this was a really good idea as customers and readers of this magazine can then get used to the magazine layout and it looks much more professional if things are kept the same, and I also think it would be a lot easier for the company!
Its a shame we are only making one copy ourselves, as if we was doing another I would definetly keep the same layout on my own contents page!
I also like that NME keep the same font throughout this content page, their heading and subheadings are pretty much in the same font and colour which I think attracts the reader as they are drawn to the font they recognise daily. I also like that they have used a colour to add to the background of their subheadings - which makes the subheadings that are white stand out and look clear against the white background and images!
I do not like the images this magazine has included on their contents page as I do not think it looks very professional and I also think it makes the contents page look rather dull and does not look like a lot of thought has gone into it, simply because the image themselves are not very good quality, and they have not added effects to the images to make them look professional!

I also think this content page is successful as they have spaced out all of there headings which I think is what makes a good contents page - not adding too much text so you are unable to read the headings clearly!

Music magazines!

Rolling stones
To make my music magazine successful I thought it would be a good idea to do some research on actual music magazines in the world. The first magazine I looked at was rolling stones, I thought it would be a good idea to look at rolling stones as it does have some similarities to my own music magazine and it also is a well known popular magazine in the world.
Rolling stones is popular magazine which is based in the U.S which is different to my magazine as mine will be based in the UK. The frequency of this magazine is fornightly which is quite similar to my magazine as mine is weekly.
On the other hand this magazine genre is music in general, television and pop which is the total opposite to my own genre; which is a particular genre of music - indie and unique fashion sense.
This magazine audience is also aimed at the younger generation of society which has a relation to mine as mine is also aimed for the younger generation although mine is also aimed at younger adults rather than young people of today.
What I like about this magazine is that all the headings included on the front covers are in the same font so even though in some of them you are actually unable to see the 'rolling stones' heading you can still see by the font used what it is trying to say. So people who regularly use this magazine can recognise it.
I also like that they do not have a background to their images - Usually a plain white background which I think makes a magazine really stand out and grab peoples attention. This technique is what I myself am going to use on my own music magazine.
Another technique that this music magazine company often use on their front covers is they do not include too much text on the front cover - Another technique I will use myself as I think a successful magazine does not need to use lots of catchy adverts to grab the audience attention, the picture should already do that.

Clash
I thought I would also look at the music magazine clash as this is the music magazine which includes most of the similar things to my own music magazine. I think clash is a unique magazine and I have not seen one like it. This is the own effect I want my magazine to have, that you cannot find a magazine like it and it includes only the best!
This magazine includes information on the 'popular music' type which is a main difference to my own magazine, as I am doing an indie/rock music theme. This music magazine also has a major fashion section which I myself am going to include in my magazine.
Although the actual genre of this magazine is music & fashion which is the same genre of my own magazine.
This magazine gave me the idea to include a fashion section - As I think it evens out the audience's likes and dislikes, meaning if one person does not like the music section this month they may love the fashion section.
Compared to this magazine I am going to only include a unique fashion section - Meaning rather than what all the latest celebrities are wearing i.e an item from warehouse, I want to show the readers what the stars are wearing from an old fashion boutique in london or the unique stand out clothes which many people will not wear because they may get judged.

The clash has a mixture of the different type of stars they include in their magazine and who they give interviews too - I think this is a good idea as they then have a wider audience as they have done interviews with modern bands like oasis, but they have also done interviews with R&B artists like Jay Z.
This is what I want to avoid myself; I want the readers who are reading my magazine to know that when they turn over the next page they will not be looking at an interview with beyonce - Who is a successful star but does not come into the unique indie category.

Images!

To start to get used to using photoshop properly I decided it would be a good idea to try and edit some photos, to not only get me used to the effects I could add to my music magazine but I could then also see what type of photos I want to include on my magazine front cover, or in my magazine spread.
I wanted to go for that 'model' type feel for my magazine, I thought this would look unique and professional, and different to the rest of the music magazines that are sold.

I have used several different effects to these images to make them more stand out and to catch your eye!

My music magazine plan!

The picture above shows my music magazine plans. We done this the other week in class to plan and show what our main ideas for our music magazine were, and so we could then start to take photos to build up to our magazine.
I have decided I want to go for a rock music/indie music/fashion magazine.
As you can see, I have also placed an image showing what type of image 'look' I am going for on my magazine! The reason I am going to go for this type of 'look' is because it represents the fashion into the magazine, which is unique and 'different' to other types of artists, it also represents that the girl could be a member of a certain band which is known by the population or an artist.
I have also included on this magazine plan the inducements I want to use for my magazine; I have gone for hmv or topshop latest offers - Relating to both the music and fashion side of this magazine. Guitar picks - This can be relating to the colour of the front cover, and could come in handy for the readers. I also think these were good inducements to use as I have never seen inducements like this before, and I think many people would find it a good idea, and find it different to the rest of the inducements they have been offered.
The frequency of this magazine will be monthly; Not many music magazines you find have a frequency of weekly as you would then not be offered as much information until the end of the month e.g. Concert reviews - do not happen weekly.

The audience of my music magazine I want to be is young adults, both female and male who are generally interested in the contents of what this magazine has to offer ; this particular type of music compared to pop music.
The reason I want my music magazine audience to be for young adults rather than teenagers or children is because I want to be able to include context that the younger would not understand - Festival reviews, interviews with bands that may include bad language or images that are unapropriate.

I think my magazine will be aimed for the C1 group as the working class will be mostly interested to take time out of there busy life style to attend a music festival, or read about the latest fashion ideas! Although I am not just saying only the C1 group will be interested. I am going to sell my magazine for around £2.50 - £2.99 as I think this is a reasonable price compared to what this magazine has to offer. I also do not want my magazine to be too expensive as then people become less interested and think the price is ridiculously high.

The type of things this magazine will include, or the type of things the audience would be interested in;

Likes - Rock music, Indie music, instruments e.g. Guitars, Bands, Retro, Vintage, Fashion - Unique fashion, not the latest in dorothy perkins.
Dislikes - Clubbing music (R&B), pop music aimed for teens, the fashion everyone is in too e.g. ugg boots.

Name ideas for my music magazine!

The above image shows the other possibilitys that I have looked into for my music magazine. I have looked at Pop, Indie, Classic, Rock and I have also looked at the must have's and the have nots - No dizzie rascal!
I have also looked at the different colours I could use for my magazine.

Classic - For classic I thought it would be wise to do some research, So if I was to follow the classic route I would do a magazine including artists relating to Taylor Swift, or Miley cyrus etc. I would make it to be a weekly magazine as I could then include reviews of such concerts relating to the genre and I could also release CDs relating to the genre which could be both new and old music.

Pop - For me to do a  pop magazine I would do it in a similar style to 'smash hits'. I would include simple fonts such as - Arial, impact, times new roman as pop is a basic genre and generally is simple and goes along with the usual rather than making anything different to the rest. I would also include interviews with stars - e.g. The saturdays, Take that. I would also include reviews on the latest hits such as Katy perry. I could then include the latest fashion idea's that the pop idols are all wearing - Cheryl cole's wardrobe along with girls aloud favourite clothes.