FINAL Front Cover Draft

This is my final front cover draft for my music magazine. In January, I received feedback from my peers as well as my teacher for my five front cover drafts which I created back in December. I finally applied the feedback and advice I was given on improving my cover, and I feel these changes have definitely made my front cover much more conventional and true to life. The first amendment I made was one suggested by my teacher, which was to move the masthead up to the top of the page and make the first letter capital, so it would "create room for more features" The next improvement I made was the reduction of the banner and the addition of the QR code. My teacher initially suggested that I made the barcode much smaller, and I decided to add a QR code while doing this and it makes my magazine much more up to date and conventional. The next improvement was something that had been commented a lot on by my peers, which was the editing of my artist, they felt the shadow effect made my artist look out of place with the background, one of my peers also suggested that I increase the brightness of my artist to make it fit in with the background. I did this by improving the lighting as well as the contrast, and I feel that this has paid off. The last improvement was the alignment and addition of more features, my teacher commented that there was a lot of empty space in the cover that could be used to add more features to make it conventional. I related back to the draft of my contents page and used the same features from there to make my magazine consistent and maintain house style. The last thing I did was align all of my new and current features into a way that a real magazine would. I am very pleased with how my final front cover draft turned out, and the peer feedback has definitely helped me improve it.

How I would promote my magazine

The primary way to promote my music magazine would be via the internet, especially due to web 2.0, social media is very popular in this period and especially due to my target audience. I looked at magazine websites like Q and NME and took inspiration from them to create this webpage, I noticed that they both embossed a gallery, news page, and info page and the contact page, so I added these into my webpage. Also, the use of a big feature of the cover star of the latest magazine cover was also inspired by Q's website specifically. I created this webpage on Wix.com, which is easy to use yet very successful in what it produces. I decided to further reflect the genre of my music magazine due to the design of my webpage. I did this by adding pictures of well known country artists like Ella Mae Bowen, Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and Eden's Edge. I elaborated on this by adding a picture of a field as the website background, this reflects the genre as these landscapes are very distinctive to it. Furthermore, this links to my final product as my front cover, contents page and double page spread all use a background similar to this which reflects the genre in the same way as I did here.

Third Double Page Spread Draft

This is my third draft. The main differences I made for this draft were placing the credits in a different spot as I felt they were taking the focus off the image. The other main difference was the creation of my artist's album cover. I created this using Photoshop with various effects that give it a sun glare effect that I was very keen on using in my photographs from an early stage in the pre-production process (see lighting mood board). I also added the text using Photoshop. I followed the continuity from my article where I stated the name of my artist's new album ('Freedom'). I really enjoyed creating this album cover and I hope it will make my double page spread a lot more conventional. Alongside the album cover, I added some text stating the album's release date. For my final draft, I will take some advice from my teacher and my peers to improve it even more for when I submit.

Second Double Page Spread Draft

This is my second draft. I have managed to make some of the improvements that my first draft lacked, these include the page numbers, the sizing and the credits. To follow the house style of my magazine, I decided to make the page numbers light blue, as this is a common style throughout my magazine. This is important as my double page spread tends to go in a different direction in terms of colour, so by changing the page number colours, I have maintained the house style. Another improvement I made was the sizing of the 'Summer' title. I felt as if more space should have been used around it and this was the only solution, I also feel it looks more conventional now due to the fact that the artist's name needs to be bold and eye-catching. The last improvement I made was adding the writer and photographer credits. Although I plan to move them for my third draft. Improvements I need to make include using up some more space in the left page by the image. I am thinking of using that space up by creating my artist's upcoming album cover and placing it there with some text stating the date this particular album will be released.

First Double Page Spread Draft

This is my first draft. Overall, I am very happy with it as it conveys the same elements as my digital mock-up (see right). The picture I used in my digital mock-up ultimately inspired the image I used in my drafts of my double page spread. I did this because I liked the way that the image took the place of the background and ran across both pages. This is good because it incorporates the setting to my advantage, because it reflects the genre of my music magazine, which is country. As for improvements, I feel I could make the 'Summer' title/headline a lot bigger to use up the empty space and possibly make it cross the line over to the other page. Also, for my double page spread to be conventional and correct, I need to add in page numbers and add the names of the writer and photographer, as this is ethical.

Article

This is my completed article for the double page spread of my music magazine. It contains a mixture of first person viewpoint and question and answer.

Country superstar, Summer Lynn, really has accomplished a lot in the last year. After her self-titled debut album reached #1 on the UK Music Charts and selling 1.4 million copies in the UK alone. The album also spawned the hit singles "One Works Better" and "Undermine" which both topped the charts in 42 countries including the UK, Australia and the United States. With her second album's release dawning quickly, she has her eye set on the United States, especially after winning the prestigious Grammy Award for Best Newcomer, which has increased a chances of success there.

Summer arrives at the Acoustic headquarters for the interview looking radiant, still casual, wearing a Superdry plaid shirt, a Jack Wills' cardigan, some Levi jeans and lastly, some simple red converse. Even though it was 7am and dreary day, Summer's up-bringing and optimistic attitude made us all feel as if it was a  summer afternoon. After the short interview, we took Summer up to the hills for the outdoor photoshoot. Being typical England weather, I was expecting her to go all diva on us like Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift had previously. But I was wrong, she didn't complain once, she got on with the photoshoot with a smile on her face exclaiming: "You don't get this in Nashville"...

Your new album is entitled 'Freedom', how did you come up with the name?

"I was inspired as I felt that feeling when I left school and my childhood and moved to adulthood. This album is a lot more focused on my journey after I left home and living the dream without anything to stop me. I saw this as 'Freedom'"

Were there any issues in your childhood that made you happy to leave it?

"Well I didn't have a good time at school, I had friends but none of them really shared my passion  and interest for music, which in a way made it hard for them to understand me. I also encountered some problems in my last year of school when I had just got signed to Big Machine. But in a way, this pushed me even further by writing songs that expressed my feelings. So maybe I should thank those people. People haven't always been there for me but my music always has"

People like us worry that once you hit it big in the States you will cross-over to Pop music similar to the likes of Taylor Swift, is this true?

"Not at all, not even if its a last resort. The whole reason I write and perform music is because it keeps me going. Music is my fuel. I will always stay with country music, even if it kills me, I grew up with it and it'll always be a big part of my life"

How was it attending the Grammy's and the Academy of Country Music awards with all the big artists?

"It was crazy! It was such an honour to win the Grammy for Best Newcomer and to be nominated for all those ACM's. I met Florence Welch, Adele, Mumford and Sons, Carrie Underwood, and Kelly Clarkson. I was star-struck when Taylor Swift came over and told me that she enjoyed my album! I was in such shock!"

What does the future hold for you?

"After I wrap up the tour, I would really like to get into more film composing. Writing and recording 'Fade into You' for Silver Linings Playbook was a blast and being nominated for the Best Original Song Academy Award was such an honour"

Feedback Response: Contents page drafts

In response to the feedback I have received  I have decided to apply the following improvements to my music magazine contents page:

• Differentiate fonts (titles and non-titles)
• Change colour of page numbers to make them stand out more
• Make subtitles subtle compared to titles
• Place black line in the middle of the columns to separate the text
• Make the black stroke thinner and the alignment correct in the editor's note
• Remove second use of editor's name
• Change subscription price to make it more correct
• Caption at the bottom of images to establish the artists
• Credits for who took the pictures
• Make black text stroke less prominent

Feedback from teacher

Peer Feedback: Cristiana Chiumenti

Strengths: I really like the background and the color scheme. The sections are very organized and it's very clear for the reader to find what they're looking for.

Areas of improvements:  maybe make the page numbers of a different color so that they are more visible and it's even easier for the reader to see them

Other comments:
Overall I really like your contents page!

Peer Feedback: Isabel Worrell

Strengths
You've really captured the genre of the magazine and i love the background!
You've also got some great images. Love the the light blue and white colour scheme.

Areas for improvement
You could change the colour of the page numbers to make them stand out or maybe just the line colour.

Other comments
Like it a lot it's really good. Well set out!:)))

Peer Feedback: Daniel Swift

Strengths: Looks professional, decent colour scheme, good range of photos, decent features.
Improvements: In order to improve your contents page, perhaps make text less prominent, bold look. Maybe keep the bold fonts for titles and subtitles and go for a more subtle approach in terms of text.
Any other comments: Perhaps add more unnecessary features to your blog itself in order to help you create inspiration for future work.