Music Magazine Evaluation Questions

Contents page Evaluation

In keeping with the traditions of conventional magazines, (unlike my front cover), the contents page contains a plain masthead, and 3 images accompanied by story titles and summaries listing the pages of the notable stories of the publication.

Some contents pages serve as a full compendium of articles within the magazine, whilst others, such as mine, are minimal for artistic purposes, (though in hindsight, I think I would do the former a second time).

All images were taken by me. The first, in the woods; the flames originally being leaves then photoshopped into a bright orange hue. The second is unedited, simply the setting sun behind my house. The original plan for the second image was of the sky but with better weather, but alas, I live in England. The third and final image was taken on a misty weekend, with a UFO from Google Images and a J.J. Abrams-esque lens flare edited in the sky in Photoshop, to keep with the science-fiction theme of the magazine. The image was originally intended to be the night sky but I seized the rare opportunity to take a photo in fog.

...besides, I had never seen a UFO before.

Double Page Spread Evaluation

The masthead of the double-page spread "Coyote Kisses: Step Into The Light" spans both pages. "Coyote Kisses" references the feature topic, the band, whilst "Step Into The Light" refers to the article content, which conveys the bands music as the future of electronic, and the featured image of a character stepping into the light, whilst maintaining the cinematic theme of the magazine established on the front cover.

The concept for the double-page spread was simple. I wanted a lot of white space available for text, yet an artistic enough image to match the style of the front cover. I decided that the text should cover the sky portion of the image, whilst the lower half of the double-page spread be a nice artistic photo. The model in the photograph is intentionally off-centre so as the image was not ruined or distorted by the divide between the pages. Instead, the model is on the right, not the left, so as not to distract readers who would of course read from left-to-right.

The article text follows the regular conventions of magazine publications; it is written in columns, paragraphed frequently, and implements humour and both colloquial and professional lexis to keep the material fresh for the readers.

Beside the main image is an annotation box; "Coyote Kisses Top 5 Tracks", listing the editor's (my) favourite songs by the band for the benefit of the readers.

The image has been edited mildly. Originally, the model was walking up a rainy hill. The lighting was altered and a sunbeam effect added in Photoshop to create this image:

The hue/saturation was then altered to slightly create a more outlandish and fantastical image:

With the addition of a masthead and the magazine text (and a few edits) the double-page spread was finished:

Front Cover Evaluation

The masthead of the magazine is the publications title "Andromeda", named after the galaxy. The choice of the title "Andromeda" was influenced by the magazines music genre; electronic. The colour of the masthead is white, as it contrasts and yet compliments the dark blue sky background. Beneath the masthead is the magazines slogan "The Universe of Sound". "The Universe of Sound" slogan was chosen because it parallels science fiction as I wanted to do with this magazine, and because it portrays electronic music as something adventurous and worth exploring, sharing connotations with pioneering. I personally see electronic music as pioneering at the frontier of the 21st century, so the sub-title is very apt for both literary and artistic purposes.

Above the masthead is a bar containing information on the Issue Number, the month of release, and the price of the magazine, which is £3.49. Usually these bars go all the way across the top of the magazine, but in keeping with the science fiction theme mine is styled at a slant, and covering only 5/6 of the width.

The main image is the magazine is somewhat controversial. It doesn't follow the normal conventions of a magazine front cover, in which a model being the focus would face the camera, but rather the outlandish scenery and visuals are the focus of the image. This was intentional; This issue is the magazines first, so I wanted to make a dinstrict limited edition front cover to establish the magazine. As I stated before, the magazine is artistically inspired by science fiction and the idea of exploring "The Universe of Sound". The image is successful in portraying the electronic music universe as beautiful and wothy of exploration, which the model character of the image, (me), achieves by gazing into the distance in wonder and awe.

The original image for the front cover was me stood in a field looking up at the sky. Similar to the image except it was raining originally and there were no planets in the sky. 

(Unfortunately I removed the sky in Photoshop before I could save the image. Oops.)

I successfully cropped myself from this image and placed myself in a landscape image I found trawling through Google Images.

I placed myself over the image and erased my legs in the pattern of grass, creating the illusion of me standing in the grass. This created the front cover image.

Stories are arranged on the left, Featured Artists on the right, arranged around the the planet, accenting the image without completely defying convention. The implementation of Stories and Featured Artists helps remove excess space in the image, whilst fulfilling magazine criteria in informing potential readers on the magazine content.

The final addition to the front cover was the barcode and Facebook/Twitter tags in the bottom-right. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but necessary for a commercial publication.

Music Magazine Texts

Before I began producing my music magazine I drafted the bulk of its concepted text in a word document so as to keep track of the text content I was writing, and to plan ahead as writers should do to avoid continuity errors or writers block.

I am now satisfied with the content I have planned for my magazine and will now produce it using this document as a guide.



Title Font Selection

The title of my magazine is intended to be highly stylized, inspired by science fiction; hence it is named after the galaxy Andromeda. Such a title respectively requires a matching font. Below are some I have selected from the website Dafont under their "Sci-Fi" section which I think would suit my magazine and its science fiction theme.

I am impartial to the fonts I have selected as I like them all, so I shall draft the magazine with each of them to see which is the best fitting. However, I will most likely choose a solid looking font solely for the psychological effect of confidence on the viewer.

Music Magazine Plan - Front Cover, Contents and Double-Page Spread

The front cover of my magazine is simplistic in design but I hope for it to look elegant and intricate once I have finsihed it. After a lot of consideration, I plan to name my magazine Andromeda (or Andromedia) after the galaxy, as electronic and dubstep music is often associated with science-fiction and space. Also I believe Andromeda (Andromedia) sounds kinda cool.

The background will comprise of a photoshopped image of someone looking up at the sky, and in the sky is a large and dazzling view of space; planets, stars, lights, the usual. However I dont want the image to be overwhelming so it will be mellowed down and placed for the most part in the background. The primary and secondary stories will focus on artists and albums I have yet to decide, but I have concluded not to implement additional images.

"Andromeda" will the masthead, written in a sci-fi-esque font reminiscent of Star Wars or Star Trek.

The contents page is designed simple, and I plan for it to stay simple. The masthead will say "Contents" in the same font as "Andromeda" on the front cover. Beneath it will be the latticed story-feature squares, however I doubt there will be 12 as pictured below. I think I might settle for 6, at most 9. The only image on the page will be another image of a somewhat normal scene with additional space-stuff.

The double page-spread will feature a landscape image in the background, with the focus of the image where the text is not. The masthead is not in the centre but on the left so as the title is not split by the fold. There will likely be 2 or 3 columns of text on each side, bordeing the main image, complimented by secondary images and annotation boxes.

The second page will essentially be a reflection of the first page but feature more little secondary text boxes and images to balance out the lack of a masthead. At the bottom of the second page will be a masthead sized text box I will use to summarize the article.