Developed Final Designs

On my DPS I have made the font smaller and added a drop shadow on the images. This makes the page come together more as due to the smaller font, it does not take the attention away from the rest of the elements of the page.

Developed final designs

Since reviewing my audience feedback, I have altered my final designs.
I have only altered the front cover and my DPS, as I did not get any feedback to alter my contents page in any way.
This is my updated contents page and DPS.

I have made the word 'JAMIE' larger to make the featured artist stand out more, as I searched front covers and the majority of them did have the name of the featured artist in the largest front on the page.

Feedback of my final design

This is the feedback I received from my peers.

Common feedback was that the font on DPS should be smaller and the photoshop skills and photography was very good. It was also mentioned that the word 'JAMIE' on the front cover should be made larger and I should add drop shadows to the images on my DPS.
I will not take all of these comments on board and will relook at my final designs in order to improve it all.

Final Designs-Double page spread

Final Designs-Contents page

Front cover development

On the front cover I realised I have challenged the codes and conventions of magazines as the text is on the featured artists face and hair. Although it follows the codes and conventions of being the largest tag line on the page, I realise I need to change the size and placing of the word "JAMIE'.

I also added an arrow at the bottom of the page which points from the special edition footer to the red circle to show that they link and to attract more attention to the extra feature in the magazine, to give it a unique selling point.

Also, I decided to keep my background a simple block colour based on inspiration from my previous research of 'RnB magazine'. This is because their magazines have a more artistic and contemporary style, which I think fits the genre more appropriately.

Final Designs-Front cover

Beat Magazine

Click here to have a look at Beat Magazine.
This magazine follows slightly different codes and conventions to other magazines. They adopt a more artistic and minimal approach in their magazines.

Examiners report review

We went over the examiners feedback, and after reading it I have learnt and gained ideas on how to make my magazine more successful.
I know to include things such as:
-price, date, page numbers, website
I also know to keep certain parts of the magazine consistent, such as:
-the house style, font, colour palette, layout consistent

Front cover development

I have began to start to add tag lines and a masthead to my front cover.

I choose to use the masthead font which was the most popular from my questionnaire as it suits my genre the best as well as proving to be the most appealing to may target demographic.

I have also chosen to use the colour red for things which I want to stand out, such as the word "exclusive", due to it standing out and being a feature colour on the jacket.

For now I have also made the background grey, however I will experiment with this to see what looks best and continue this development.

Front cover inspiration-Q magazine

I saw this magazine cover from Q magazine which stood out to me. It has a limited colour palette as it just uses white, red and black for everything around the image. It also has a sophisticated and professional look as it states all of the main features within the magazine on the cover, as well as not making it look too busy and therefore messy. The typography is also continuous on the whole of the cover, except for the name of the artist to make it stand out, which gives the magazine a sense of continuity and a house style.
Q magazine are also making it clear that it is an 'awards special edition' by saying it near the mast head and making it stand out on the cover. This gives the audience another reason to want to buy the magazine as it is for an occasion, and since the magazine industry has gone down the past few years due to technology, this helps to give the magazine a selling point. From my focus group it was evident that if a CD or magazine is about a particular favourite artist or event, people are more likely to buy it to keep for sentimental value, like a souvenir. So by making my magazine a special edition it gives the audience more reason to buy it and therefore make the magazine more successful.

Coloured background tutorial

I used another Photoshop tutorial to learn how to add a coloured background to a portrait. The model of the example tutorial wears a bold red dress, so the background colour is all red.

The model on my front cover wears a bold green jacket, which is the centre of the photo as it is so eye-catching. So I tried using green as the coloured background so it links with the jacket. I followed the tutorial and this was my result.

As this was my first attempt I was fairly happy as it tuned out how I wanted it to.
Click here to see the tutorial I used.

R&B research for DPS information-Chance The Rapper

Click here to read the Billboard article about Chance The Rapper.
I found this article very helpful when planning what to write for my article on my double page spread as it enabled me to gain a better understanding about R&B culture and background, as well as to give me inspiration on the background of my featured artist to make it more accurate and appealing to my target audience.

Magazine sales research

Due to magazine sales evidently decreasing over the past years (as shown in the graph below), I decided to conduct some research in order to see if there is a way to ensure my magazine would be successful.

I found a book called 'Marketing Research' , published in 2007, which included sales of the media and magazine industry.
 
It was very helpful in secondary research to see if my idea of creating a special edition magazine would be more successful in terms of sales, due to it having a unique selling point. I found that the research proved that for a particular magazine, owned by Time Inc., managed to sell more copies of the special edition magazine in comparison to their regular issues.

Due to this finding, I have decided to make my magazine a special edition issue to be more successful and interesting to my target audience.