This is my first draft for my music magazine front cover. I decided to have this photo for my front cover out of the final three sure to it being very simple and individual which connected with the music genre; indie rock. I felt that the white background worked very well in how I can easily have the text contrasting with the background with a variety of different bright and bold colours. In this case I have used a bright, blue colour for some significant text on the front cover, the bright, blue colour allowed it to stand out and therefore catch the readers eye and engage them. The text at the bottom which reads 'page 12 and 13' is overlapping the image slightly, I did this on purpose to gain to more attention to that specific section. This will then hopefully make them notice it and want to turn to these pages to find out more. One of the advertisements I used is a free competition to win tickets to see Lana Del Ray live, Lana Del Ray is a very popular artist nowadays and giving my target audiences the chance to see her live for free should fully engage them as they won't want to miss out on this once in a lifetime offer. The masthead is in a big, black font at the top, I feel that the black contrasts really well against the white background therefore drawing more attention to it. However, not everything about this music magazine front cover it beneficial. from my target audiences opinions, I have gathered information on where I can massively improve and focus on certain areas. Nathalie Wright said "The magazine is very good and a lot stands out which is the main key for magazines, however, on the other hand, it is very simple and boring. Perhaps you could use a bit more colour to liven it up and fill in some of the gaps." I took advise from my audience and thought to improve I will use more colour, however, I don't want to use too many different contrasting colours that may confuse the reader and make my music magazine look too busy. I also feel that using too many various bright colours will also take away the vintage look, I want to pursue this as it connects well with my music genre; indie rock. Another point Nathalie made was about the blank spaces, to fill these I will add more images and more text to produce a front cover that engages the reader and makes them feel involved with numerous sections to look at and take in.
I looked at a music magazine that covers a range of music genres such as indie rock. The Q music magazine is very similar to mine as it's almost all black and white like the image I have, now I will just look at what Q have done to make it come across more lively and how they made significant texts stand out.
The use of colour is very important as the masthead is the only thing that really stands out by the use of colour. On the other hand they have also used a blue colour to highlight certain words such as 'beast', this may be because the word beast relates to the image of the black jaguars. Q have also used the colour ed to highlight certain words, for instance 'wicked' and 'exclusive', these are important words and draw the readers attention to that specific section. Lastly, they have written Lilly Allen across her body from one side of the front cover stretching out to the other side. This automatically tells the reader who it is in the image if they didn't already know, this benefits the magazine as Lilly Allen is a very big artist.
Overall, I will take into consideration some of the tactics Q have used to engage the reader, I will incorporate some of these into my second draft to hopefully produce a the best possible music magazine front cover that will fulfil my target audiences needs.
Questionnaire:
I made a questionnaire of two simple questions to get feedback on my first draft for my front cover of my magazine. I asked three people all ages to a range of feedback to help me improve.
Nathalie:
1. What did you like about it? I like how the title really stands out and it is easy to tell what music genre it is.
2. What would you improve? Add more to it to fill the spaces, like more images, interesting snippets of information including things like tour dates and competitions.
Leanne:
1. What did you like about it? I liked how it is all set out, with the image and how everything goes well together. It looks really calm which suits your music genre.
2. What would you improve? I would try and add more to fill the spaces and also add a bit more colour, maybe red? as at the moment it look quite boring.
Mike:
1. What did you like about it? I like how the colour of the text contrasts with the background, for instance, the blue on white and black on white; it really helps it stand out.
2. What would you improve? I would again add more in to fill the blank spaces by putting more short snippets of information.
I have created a rick assessment to prevent any hazards happening that could affect either myself or the model. There are two risks that I have found a way of getting round and solving them. I will not pursue the photo shoot with any risks so by preventing them causing hazards, I can now carry on and take the photos to then go on to produce my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.
Risk 1...
Risk - Myself and the model
Hazard - The hazard is the weather due to the photo shoot being outside. The reason why the weather is a risk hazard is due to it being very wet and cold recently. I don't want to take photos of the model when we could easily slip and injure ourselves.
How I will solve this hazard - to solve this hazard I will make sure that I take my photos on a day where the weather is not too bad, so it is not raining, windy or too cold to be outside. By preventing this hazard I am also preventing any injuries that could have taken place.
Rick 2...
Rick - The model
Hazard - This risk is similar to the first risk as it involves just the model not me this time, and the weather. The hazard this time is the temperature. Due to the model wearing just shorts and a top, I will need to make sure the model does not get too cold and then falling ill.
How I will solve this hazard - Unlike me, the model will not be able to wrap up warm with lots of layers, she will just be in shorts in the middle of winter. To prevent the model getting cold and ill, I decided that we will keep having short breaks to go back inside to warm up and have a warm drink before carrying on. This should prevent the model becoming ill from the cold.
Overall, I feel that I have tackled every hazard that we might come across to obtain a photo shoot WITHOUT becoming ill because of the cold or falling and getting injured due to the wet weather. I will carefully Think about the weather and choose a day that will be best suited for this photo shoot.
These are the photos I have chosen out of that section of 15 in my previous blog post;
This is why i decided to have these photos...
I decided to take my photos indoors and outdoors. I researched on google where good places would be to take photos for a indie rock music magazine and I did not get much grief, so decided keep it simple and unique. Most photos of models or celebrities in magazines are taken in a studio with the same plain white wall. I decided to be different and try the outdoors to make it different which matched the independent music genre; indie rock, so therefore, felt that it my destination fitted very well with my genre.
The first place I decided to try was outside in front of a white brick wall. This white brick conveys a very calm atmosphere which is good for my target audience because I don't want the image to take away the interest in what else is written on the page. The white colour is also very good as it will benefit my magazine front cover by allowing me to have the text in a contrasting colour, for example red, pink, or any bright colour as this will catch the readers eye. The white brick wall was easy to take photos in front of as there was lots of room. I feel that this place/background could be used for my contents page.
This is my second place where I chose to take photos of the model. This is similar to the first place as it is a brown brick wall which I felt looked very indie rock and fitted in well. Unlike the first place, this brown wall added colour and a bit more life into the photo, therefore, drawing more attention to the image which will benefit my magazine a lot. On the other hand, with the text on top of the brick wall it might look too messy and unprofessional, however, I will experiment with this later on. On the down side, this photo was down a alley, preventing me to take photos straight on like in the previous photo against the white brick wall.
Overall, these are the two locations I decided that are conventional for my genre of music, for instance, it is very unique and unlike most white background photos. On the other hand it will will also help my magazine look very professional.
