Evaluation!

We decided to call our music magazine "Infinity Rockz", which would be aimed at young adults/teenagers that have a strong interest in Indie music. The target audience that we decided on, was for all genders, because we thought that this makes it more sellable because it will attract a wider range of people. We chose this title because it has connotations that Indie music will be around for infinity, that it never ends, and... It "rockz"! This gives the target audience a sense of commitment to the music, as they want to keep it around for infinity, which generally means buying the magazine every time it’s out.

Our cover consists of the usual conventions of a typical music magazine, and we wanted to include some of the very popular conventions of magazines like NME, etc, although this type of magazine is more concerned with the genre of Rock, we thought we would follow in the footsteps of a successful magazine like this. The main image on my front cover is of me and the people in my group as the Indie group that are the main focus of my magazine. Although bands are usually looking straight into the camera to connect with the audience, we decided that we would make this a little different in order to attract the target audience in a different way. The background of our front cover is of a park, with rocks and trees in order to put the theme across that it is the Autumn Edition of “Infinity Rockz”. The band name is “The Blackout” which follows the usual idea of names of groups. As the title of the magazine is always justified to the right, we made this the case in ours too. Also, the other group that were doing the Winter Edition of our magazine also used the exactly the same font in order to make our magazine recognisable to the target audience, as it would always be the same. We also have slogan that is directly underneath the masthead, which says “Indie for Infinity” this was chosen because it also agrees with the connotations of the name of the magazine, and makes it very clear to the audience what the genre is. We have included cover lines, which in this case out the chance to win free tickets to Glastonbury, which is used as a way to get people to involve themselves in the magazine, and it is generally a way of selling. We decided that when thinking about our mode of address, we would use some slang language that most probably only makes sense to our target audience, and we used lots of exclamation marks which has the connotations that Indie music can be quite loud and direct. We have boxed text that includes the names of all the bands that will appear in the magazine, so gives the audience a taste of what to expect from it. This also makes the magazine seem a lot more appealing because they will recognise most of the bands. Things like this are what we thought would attract and address our audience, as we thought it would pull them in and make it attractive to them. Moreover, there is also a banner at the bottom of the page, which can also be seen as a sell line, because it is all about winning a table at the infinity awards, which makes the magazine again, seem more exciting and might make the audience want to be in with this chance. In order to make our magazine cover look realistic, we added a barcode, date and price. Also, we made it clear what edition of the magazine this front cover was from. Furthermore, we was quite happy with how our front cover came out, because it is very bold, busy but clear and we thought it was very straight to the point. We thought that the outcome looked very realistic and believable. Our magazine cover represents young people in a positive way because it shows that this type of person has something to focus on, and that they have interests and passion in things too. Also, this could suggest that young adults/particularly teenagers could have a talent in this field. So this is a positive thing that our front cover does.
From the process of constructing this magazine front cover, I have learnt how to plan successfully in our groups, also how to use a digital camera to shoot our photos which I was not really too sure about how to do before. The main thing that I learnt was how to use Photoshop, and this includes how to make the front cover actually look like a real and professional one. In learning how the use Photoshop, it meant that I could crop pictures, change backgrounds, and texts of all different styles, and insert shapes and images that I edited. All this and more was what helped my magazine to come out looking as believable as possible, because I began to find it very easy to use this technology once I got the hang of it, so this meant that I was playing around with it until it became exactly how I wanted my front cover.

If i were to make another front cover, I think that I would do a few things differently the next time. I think that I would look deeper into the genre, and specifically makes up that genre so I would know how to address the audience easier. Also, this would give it a more significant meaning than I think it already has. Concerning the photo shoot, I think I would plan the costumes of our group members better, because although the main cover image looks good, we could have been dressed to depict the Indie genre that we chose. Apart from this, I wouldn’t change anything in the construction of my magazine front cover as I am very happy with it.