Magazine Cover Evaluation By Emre

AS Media Studies
Magazine Evaluation

Our music magazine forms the codes and conventions of a real music magazine as it has it has its big title on the top left of the cover. It has the headline written in a large font in the middle, with some detail underneath it. The magazine also concentrates on other events such as D.T.O’s U.K. tour at the bottom of the cover. The effect of the title being behind the persons head is commonly known in front covers. The free gift is also presented on the top right. I had decided to put more words on the top right such as “free demo C.D of D.T.O’s new album”, but then I thought that it would be better off having only “free C.D” as the audience doesn’t have to bother reading a lot, and that it would look more attractive. Lastly, the price and barcode was essential in making the front cover look realistic.

Our cover would represent young adults as it has 2 people, who are young adults themselves. The laser-light background would represent city night life as it looks like to have come from a club or a huge event. The clothes they wear look casual, so it would look as if they haven’t taken the role of a responsible adult yet. The mixture of colours makes the magazine look more appealing e.g. the title, the clothes, the background have different types of colours. This can appeal to the wide range of 16-25 year olds out there.

A rock or hip hop music magazine industry may distribute our music magazine, as we target the younger generation, which is the best age group to target magazines at, because younger adults generally have the highest interest in music. Another reason for a magazine industry to distribute our magazine is because it provides another option for young people to buy magazines related to rock or hip-hop.

Our music magazine cover would have an audience of young adults (16-25 year olds), who are mainly students, who live in the city. It would represent people with serious music interests, that consider music to play a huge part in their lives e.g. people that often go to concerts. It would appeal to people who like to find out about music events, or new albums. It would also appeal to people who are interested in interviews with artists.

We attracted our audience by placing a large image of 16-17 year olds at the front, presenting themselves as a rock/hip-hop group. We used clothes which would look quite casual for the age group as we didn’t want the magazine to look serious. We added a catchy name for our magazine. We finally decided on Paradox as it comes across as a hard-hitting. We decided on a font which would represent urban lifestyle for the name of the magazine, so we picked a font called cracked, as the typography looked quite disorientated and suited to the city, quite like graffiti. We addressed the main headline to the audience by putting the sub-heading in the middle with large, clear, fonts. We tried to make the background look like a music event so we used laser-lights, to appeal to people who may go to concerts, or clubs etc.

For the process of making the magazine front covers, we used IMacs which specialises in making graphical manipulations. The things I have learnt about technologies from the process of making the front magazine front cover is that you can find all sorts of backgrounds to put yourself in. The process of cutting yourself out from the original background may take some time, but it can look very appealing to many people once you put the right background for the photo. I have also learnt that the feathering affect can also look attractive to some people, and that it was possible for me to add that effect to my magazine cover. Being able to put words behind photos was also astounding, as I found out during the process. I therefore decided to put part of the title behind the photo. I had also looked at examples of being able to shadow a photo, which was also quite impressive, so we decided that one person of the group should add that to their magazine cover.

If I were to make another front cover, I would keep the target age the same, as it would be too difficult for me to analyse a magazine related to older people. I would change the genre from rock/hip-hop to R&B because I am quite familiar of that type of genre. Also, I would change the scenery of the cover from nightlife and laser-lights to a background of the inside of a luxurious house. I would include competitions. If there was an R&B group, I would use the photo of the whole group, instead of just adding some of the people like I did with my magazine cover. I would use photos of people dressed slightly smarter than what I originally have. I would also change the name of the magazine and use a more sensible font type.

Emre