Unit 14: Digital magazine production

WEDNESDAY 5TH DECEMBER

For my assignment, i had to create a magazine, with genres and the content all to my choice. For my taste, i wanted it to be music themed, especially with many music magazines being discontinued such as the NME, something i remember fondly from my childhood, finding all about the new indie artists and what bands are touring. The purpose of my magazine was to inform and entertain my crowd of mixed genders and from teenagers to mid-life adulthood who are fans of rock, indie, punk, metal & other alternative, edgy genres, something that i don't think gets treated too kindly through media and existing music magazines.

I wanted the magazine to have a early 2000 retro feel to the audience, hence the magazine will be in print exclusively and will be sold across supermarkets and other retailers across the UK and Ireland. I believe print magazines are a lot more satisfying to the reader as they have a physical copy to own instead of one that is behind the screen of a phone or computer, to actually go out to the shops, buy the magazine and take it home, there is no better feeling to those that experienced this in the 90's and 00's therefore to bring back the nostalgia of fans that has went through these stages, i believe print will be the best format. Therefore i will not have to use such software as InDesign and create a digital magazine, all i will need is Adobe Photoshop and Powerpoint in order to create simple designs to inspire the final product as you will see further below.

Also, the problems that occur with digital magazines is that they require certain websites, online payments and internet to purchase , this can be very stressful to someone that may not have access to any of these things, making it so much easier to go into a shop and buy a physical copy of a magazine , also deleting risks such as glitches with the digital magazine itself or the computer being accessed on, which can extremely frustrating to readers wanting to read the magazine they have paid for and ae unable to access. Many digital publishers focus on the ideas of the magazine being read on a certain computer such as a tablet, making a computer user potentially unable to focus on the magazines due to the technical considerations not being took into many customers accounts. Also, many digital magazines force the option of memberships down the readers necks, ruining the experience of reading the magazine, putting the reader under a lot of stress and not enjoying the magazine, also the idea of zooming and scrolling to see a magazine is a lot harder than to hold it in your hands and move it to your selected position, frustrating the reader even more, to the point where the magazines on computers are never returned and rots away in the memory card for all eternity.

Although digital magazines can be very problematic, print magazines can also have some limitations, for example, the printers can break, causing bleed lines and cutting crucial images off the magazine, causing the dilemma to potentially buy another or refund the product. Also, with print being sold in retail, there is always the possibility that the magazine has sold out, forcing the customer to spend money on travel to go elsewhere, making the case that digital may be easier to purchase as digital will never run out of copies to distribute across the chosen areas.

This was my original plan for the magazine, this was a part of a previous assignment set for plans on the print magazine that i was about to create. I created it on powerpoint and it took around 1 hour to think of the name of the magazine, what it will be about and what layout it will follow. I wanted the magazine to have a white theme as it will stand out from the rest of the magazines on the shelf and it is in celebration of the white albums 50th anniversary and many music lovers would love the Beatles, therefore this has a good chance to be a very big success. The pictures of the Beatles and Ringo Starr may intrigue the audience to potentially hear never heard before facts or stories regarding the fab four , the most influential band of all time, these images are extremely appropriate to have on the front of a magazine as it fits in well with the rock genre and the purpose to entertain and inform the teenage and adult audience who know of these very well.


                                               Wednesday 12th December

This was the day i started to create the magazine, i used dafont on the computer as it shows me many different, cool and interesting fonts that photoshop hasn't already got installed. I used chord as the name as it is catchy, memorable and has a very recognizable logo with the lines through the letters like guitar strings. I didn't do much this day however it was a huge step in the front cover of the magazine


Thursday 13th December

The next day i focused on the skyline as i didn't have enough time to do anything else due to work issues. I wanted something that would make print magazine buyers excited to buy and see what they could get out of the magazine which is possible with sticker and poster which most magazines do include as it advertises a lot of things that revolve around the genre. There was a fault with the computer and the screenshot turned the photo grey and white when it was originally orange and white.



Wednesday 16th January
This day i set out to finish my front cover, i used many fonts from dafont and images from google images, i wanted the audience to feel excited so i used the correct codes and convections using inspiration of many NME magazines using a dominant image in the beatles and ringo starr and a sizable part releasing the bands that will perform at leeds and reading festival, one of the uk's biggest music festivals where thousands of people attend, therefore this will attract more people into seeing who will play there and therefore purchase the magazine. I completed the logo using a font from dafont and the rectangle from the shape tool to underline the rest of the word, I believe this looks very professional and very eye-catching, another way to draw in the audience. The barcode and price is included to let the buyer know how much it will cost and how to check it out else where. This took me around 2 hours to complete nonstop and I am highly satisfied

Thursday 24th January
This day I completed my double page spread, I used an image of me and two friends and acted like we were in a very successful young band and done a mock interview of me and another band member, again I followed inspirations from many editions of the nme in the format of how they do double page spreads. I included a quote in the picture and a drop cap to indicate where to read, and make it obvious and noticeable. I added page numbers and images to the pages to make it look more busy and professional. I used another shape tool to create the white block on the bottom. The point i was trying to get across was the hype of a up and coming rock band, which was just a made up staged photo of my and my friends that are also doing the same course as me, the point was to imitate the way a band would look in a shoot, very serious and staged with the members facing the camera, making straight eye contact with the audience, telling them to focus on us and focus on what we have to say for ourselves. Again, appealing to a young and adult audience with the images of music being produced by such a young and talented group of common lads, entertaining the audience with the interview. The double page spread was completely done on photoshop, using fonts from dafont, a software used to find personalized fonts, i used the arrow tools to move everything into place, and text boxes to write my interview at the bottom of the page 

Overall, i believe my creations are to high satisfactory and meet the target criteria, i believe both appeal to the chosen age groups of all genders from ages teen to adults with the genres of rock, indie, punk and much more as i have used influence of magazines such as the NME. The choice of print is also crucial to the idea of the magazine as it appeals to the audience with the nostalgia feel, making, in my opinion, this product a success. 



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