Music Magazine Pitch

Paper Aeroplane Pitch from avahjvck

- Ayat

Adobe Colour Wheel

Today, I played around with a feature called a colour wheel. This is an online service provided by adobe. I got to play around with the colour wheel to create different colours using tones. Also, something which I thought that was extremely helpful was, that this service provides a HEX code. What you can do with this code is, you paste it into Photoshop or InDesign and it provides the colour you made on the colour wheel on the software. I found this feature very beneficial as it helped me achieve the colour I wanted for my Mast-Head.

This is how the colour wheel looks.

This is where the HEX codes are provided. You can copy and paste these into your chosen software.

Magazine News Stand Task

This task consists of looking at the way magazines (music magazines specifically) are displayed in stores. This is to understand how distribution works.

This news stand was rather messy, however I still picked up the fact that the Mast-Heads are given priority over the other text on the front cover, the main explanation for this is so consumers can see the title of the magazine clearly so they can either pick the one they are looking for easily or just to show the different titles of the magazines. Another noticeable aspect about the Mast-Heads is how they are all very unique to their magazine, none of them look similar and all are bold and eye-catching. This tells me that having a strong and bold Mast-Head itself is a very important thing. One more point is how, on some magazines the Mast-Heads are overlapped by the cover star. This could be for many reasons, for example, the magazine wants the cover star to be the main focus, or if the celebrity on the cover star is really big they want consumers to be attracted by this, or the more simple explanation could be that the image of the cover star just looked better this way. I also noticed how the more well-known magazines were put to the front, this could be because these are the best sellers and the other ones are kind of shoved to the big but you can still clearly see them.  On this certain stand, I noticed that the magazines, regardless of the mess, were sectioned into their specific genre, for example, Celeb Gossip and Real Life, or Mens Interview etc. You can straight away see that some magazines are covered in plastic wrapping and some aren't. This is done usually when the magazine has freebies to over, so just for security these were covered.

This magazine stand didn't really have many music magazines however for the purpose of how they are advertised, it worked. 

- Ayat

Adobe Illustrator

Using Adobe Illustrator was an interesting experience. I found it rather difficult to use at the start as it is quite confusing. I'm still not too confident using it however I got to learn the basis of it. 

Below is some of the ideas I came up with:
As my magazine will be named paper aeroplane, I want to use fonts and colours that remind me of an airline logo. That's why I have chosen to go with simple fonts, as you can see below. The colours I am using are pastel, as when I design my actual magazine cover, these colours will complement it. I am aware that it is difficult to see the second design I have come up with, however, with the right image it could work really well.

- Ayat

Publisher

I would like Bauer Media to be my choice of publisher. Bauer Media is a media company in Hamburg, Germany. This publishing company has been very successful since 1875, since then they have established themselves, with having a portfolio of 600 magazines, around 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations all around the world. Also, they publish magazines such as Kerrang and Q-Magazine which matches to genre of my magazine, which is rock/indie rock/indie pop. Therefore this publishing company would be the most suitable for my magazine. Mainly because it is already successful meaning it will help new coming magazines also become successful as they know what they are doing. 

- Ayat

Content Ideas

I want my magazine to have fun and creative content. Something that will catch the attentions reader without them losing interest. I would like for there to be interviews with the hottest indie rock/pop artists or bands. This is because by having content related to what people are talking about, your magazine is likely to be more successful as you are giving your audience what they want. Including information on upcoming artists who the readers seem to enjoy listening to is beneficial towards the artist and the magazine itself. One helpful thing I would like to include in my magazine is, reveiws, which could be on the newest released albums and songs. Along with providing the readers information on the hottest artists along with their merchandise. There would be information on live event and gigs which are being planned to take place in the new future. Lastly, seeing as my magazine is afterall a, music magazine, I would like to add a chart listing of the best indie rock and pop music.

Seeing as I want my magazine to be aimed at both male and female, I will need to provide my content in such a manner that everyone is able to relate to it. For example, fashion is one of the biggest worries of almost everyone. Even though the main focus of my magazine is music, I would like for there to be articles on maybe indie fashion, in such a manner which the concept of the music magazine will not be distracted, therefore in a subtle way. In which there could be articles on ''How to Dress More Indie'' or just simple tips. This could be a way to make the magazine fun, have a main focus but also to broaden its range of content which would make it more applicable to a wider audience.

I want the content to be presented in  fun, eye-catching and creative way. As I think these factors could link to what makes a successful magazine. I want it to have a pop of different colours but also have that dark, mysterious way, giving it a sense of uniqueness.

- Ayat

Magazine Proposal

The name I have chosen to give my magazine is, ''Paper Aeroplane''.  Originally I wanted to go with the name Notion as I think that word itself has so much depth and meaning, however I realised that it is already a magazine. Therefore I have chosen to go with Paper Aeroplane. Mainly because, the idea of a paper aeroplane is so child-like and innocent, but also it is creative and fun. Which is the kind of vibe I want my magazine to have. But also, in terms of slang it also means a joint, or a blunt. Which is the total opposite to the innocent and child-like belief. The name I have chosen to go with is about perspective. It is, rebellious and could bring a sense of excitement to some but on the other hand it could symbolise imagination and innovation. Therefore I think Paper Aeroplane is a name fit for the Indie Rock/Pop music magazine I plan on designing.

The target audience I would prefer to go with is from ages 20 onwards. Even though there is not a age restriction on my magazine, it is likely people from within the age 20+ will be likely to have extra cash to spend on a magazine. According to the social grading system, I would like to aim my magazine at the groups A, B and C1. As these social groups would be known to have a stable enough lifestyle to spend extra cash on a music magazine of their favourite music genre. The gender I would like my make my magazine the target is, both male and female. I want to create a magazine that a male or female could relate to, where the content both enjoy reading. As for psychographics, I would focus on the explorer and mainstreamer. Mainly as, the explorer likes to explore new things, and as my magazine would be new an explorer would help it become more known. Leading for me to make social media websites, as this is a great way to advertise the music magazine, leading the mainstreamer to become aware of my magazine.  For a mainstreamer they follow trends that are big on social media websites also, my magazine must contain issues on popular artists and bands, which are really big and known at the moment. Mainstream people tend to follow the trend that everyone does, therefore it my magazine contains articles or interviews based on a artist or band who is exceptionally successful, they are likely to buy it. Another reason why I have chosen to go with an age group of 20 and over is because, the style of language I will be using in my magazines will be informal and can have swear words in it, therefore I think i that 20+ is the most appropriate age for my magazine. 

- Ayat

College Magazine Evaluation

My college magazine turned out pretty well. I wanted to go for a simple and sophisticated vibe which I think I accomplished. My front cover was an image of my friend who posed in the main entrance which was empty so it looked professional. I added a bold Mast-Head in the colour white and a simple font which I thought looked really good. Alongside this to give the magazine a more realistic feel, I added a bar code and prices. Some cover lines were added, however not many, this made my magazine cover look slightly plain.

I attempted to follow the plan I made for my magazine as much as possible, which I think I did pretty well so I'm happy about that. The only thing I didn't follow, which I feel would have benefited the look of my cover was a few cover lines. I left this out which as a result made my cover look very plain and lifeless as it didn't give an insight of what could be in the magazine.

The feedback I received on my cover, mentioned points mainly on having more cover lines and adding more colour to my cover as it isn't really eye-catching and I very much agree which that. If I added more cover lines and more colour to my cover I feel as the magazine would of looked very real, and sophisticated, I will keep this advice in  mind for when I design another magazine cover.

Due my magazine cover being very plain, I decided to make my contents page more lively and colourful. I attempted this by, adding loads of images with different colours in the back and I added some font in red to make it contrast with the black and white coloured text, so it stood out more. The way my contents page looked was pretty good and I am happy with it. To make it suit more to the theme of school, I took a picture of a notice board in college and made that the background image of the contents page, this I feel as gave it the school vibe and looked good too.

I stuck to my sketch of the contents page and made it exactly alike. I feel as it looked really good when I finished it.

For the feedback on my contents page, I was still told to to make it more colourful, which I suppose I could have done through the colour of the fonts I used. Other than that I was told it looked good.

The feedback I received was fairly positive and I still am, very happy with the outcome of my college magazine. Especially as this was my first try at making one, I was bound to make mistakes however when attempting another magazine cover, etc... I will try my hardest not to repeat the same mistakes.

Preliminary Task - Creating a Magazine Cover and Contents Page.

Today in lesson, I completed my magazine cover and contents page. My final piece is displayed below. This is my magazine cover and contents page. It ended up having some differences in comparison to my plan, however I am happy with the outcome of it. 

- Ayat