Evaluation Question 7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

I have now since this project increased my organisation skills, being able to organise different shoots with different artists in a short space of time.

I now know more about different locations and what’s suitable and what’s not. I made the mistake on the shoots of taking pictures in a dark room with bad lighting. This was at the time the only suitable place but after looking at the photos it became apparent that a reshoot was needed. I then learnt the rule of the two ‘golden hours’ of the day. This is either early in the morning when the sun is low or late at night where the sun is low. It turns out that where I used this rule in my shoots I ended up using one of those pictures as my cover image. Choosing the location is also a key. Although Q, NME and other music magazines do their cover shoots in a studio I prefer outdoor shots, they are more fresh and appealing, as they are brighter and the light is more natural. So I went on a hunt around Bristol for a cool location. I ended up by the docks where there are loads of unused trains, however also took shots with more of an urban background; graffiti. I felt these pictures turned out very good and professional because of taking into consideration the time of day and location.

My magazine involved a lot of editorial decisions. The composition of my double page spread was particularly hard. I had to play around with my image, where is will positioned and the size. I ended up stretching the picture so there was more room for text as before it was a bit bare. I also had to decide where my title was going be, I wanted it too look like a stamp, and therefore spend some time on Photo Shop trying to achieve this effect. In result of all of these effects and editing I had to do my Photo Shop skills and knowing what to do and when have improved dramatically.

Evaluation Question 6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the production of my magazine I became even more familiar with Photo Shop. I was able to make effects from scratch to add to my pages such as the torn edges on the double page spread and the eroded background my contents page using different brushes and effects. It also became apparent that the use of grouping of layers and keeping organized is a must when producing something with a lot of text and different pictures that need to be constantly altered individually, so I got into a habit of doing that. This made it easy for me to edit specific elements. I also did some editing on photo shop for my final logo by playing around with different brushes and effects this enabled me to change a font from dafont.com into something unique and recognisable.

Throughout the process I used a canon 350d and have taken a wide selection of different bands in different environments. In result of this I have now got a better understanding on the settings on my camera and the different settings to use in the different environments. I have also used dafont.com a lot throughout the process of my magazine. This enabled me to produce a product that didn’t look like it was made on publisher, and made it look more professional. I also used tutorials to enable me to make my blog itself more attractive. Its is a black and grey scratch effect, this makes it more appropriate as it goes well with my magazine style, quite neutral, but edgy looking.

Evaluation Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Wherever possible, try to make the distinction between what you planned to do and what you actually achieved. Were you effective in fulfilling your original plan? Did you have to make changes? This is perfectly OK, as long as you can explain why you took decisions and can show you have reflected on whether they were successful or not. I have made my magazine bright, attractive and quite busy using eroded fonts, cool colour schemes and bright pictures, and used a variety of different styles of music. I have made sure that I took into account the responses I got back from my questionnaire and one of the main recommendations was to use lots of interesting pictures, which is what I have done. Another way I have attracted my audience is I have used free offers; prizes etc all over my front cover and also offered free tabs etc in the contents page. This will make my magazine seem better value for its money and make my reader feel like they are getting something out of buying the magazine.

To make sure that my magazine would attract my target audience I asked my target audience itself. For the main decisions that I made such as, name, logo, and general genre I made sure that most my decisions were based around the feedback that I received back. This has enabled me to gain a proper understanding as to what they are and aren’t interested in. Because of this I did have to make some changes. The name of my magazine was originally the ‘Big Band Theory’ however the responses I got back were that Live Feed was preferred. This meant a late development on my logo. I still kept big band theory however I used it has my main cover story instead as it was still liked just not as a name. Another change I had to make was the main cover image. Originally it was going to be a girlier picture as more of their clothes were being focused on. My target audience consists of both genders. The male feedback I got back wasn’t good so I changed the image to something more neutral, showing more of the train, the guitar and their faces. To also guarantee a good feedback from my male audience I made sure my colour scheme wasn’t too girly as well, so I used colours like red and yellow rather than pink and purple.

Overall I think that my magazine in terms of relation to my target audience was successful. The feedback I got from both male and female presented with a nearly finished product was mainly positive which is a good sign.

Evaluation Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have chosen to present my product to both male and females around the age of 16-30, I chose this because after conducting a questionnaire to that age group this was the age range that seemed to be most interested in music magazines. I asked what styles of music people of that age range preferred to listen too and I got quite a variety of responses. It then became apparent that people nowadays don’t listen to just one style of music they like anything that is new and fresh. However most music magazines focus on certain genres and popular well-known bands. My magazine needs to set apart from these so I have used a variety of styles. Because of this it has resulted in me being able to represent my target audience, which is everyone of that age group.

My magazine is £3.50, which is quite normal, compared to other monthly music magazines such as Q, which is £3.90, metal Hammer is £3.99 and NME, which is a weekly magazine, is £2.20. The responses that I got back from my questionnaire of those that don’t read magazines were mainly because they are too expensive. I have taken this into consideration. My target audience are most likely going to be students or new and low down in the work force. Because of this I made my music magazine to a monthly subscription, and have made sure that I link a good easy to use website that is updated regularly for my target audience to use as well as buying my magazine. That way they can keep up to date on new music and gigs etc as well as be able to afford my magazine.

Evaluation Question 3

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magazine is very similar to ‘NME’ and ‘Q’. Therefore it’s the their publishers that are likely to want to publish my magazine; ‘IPC’ and ‘Bauer’. Future Publishing however maybe would be less interested because the main magazines they specialise in are rock magazines, such as ‘Metal Hammer’ and ‘Classic Rock’ unless they were looking to develop this market.

The target audience of my magazine will link to who might distribute it. To uphold a regular readership I will need to make sure that it is distributed in well-known places. I will make sure that it is sold in newsagents such as McColl’s and Dillon’s so that it will be easy to get hold of. Also, big supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s will be good suppliers to have for my magazine. This was also a suggestion in my questionnaire, one of the replies I had back was that she would buy the magazine if it was sold in well known places along side other leading music magazine names such as NME, Kerrang and Q which also seem to be available pretty much everywhere where possible. Another way that this magazine could be used is for students who are taking the same course as me and need some inspiration on how to make their magazine.

Evaluation Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Because my magazine covers a range of music genres I have covered the main social groups in my target audience age group e.g. indie, pop, rock and club. From the questionnaire I conducted my target audience don’t just like one style of music so I have therefore included bands that cross over to a majority of styles. I have the main indie band on my double page spreads, which are an indie rock style for example all the boys are dressed in skinny jeans. The girl is also good looking which also attracts my male audience. My target audience would want to read about this band as they suit the style of a popular genre of music that my target audience are interested in. (which I established in my evaluation) they are interviewed in a jokey way where they are presented as laid back, talented and mature young adults, however with the swearing abbreviation at the end it still represents people of that social group as quite cheeky sometimes. I also involved my audience in this article, to make sure the content of the interview was also interesting to them, so they asked the questions. On the contents page I put Lewis on his decks as my main image. This shows a whole different style of music, the dance/club style. I dressed him in a Wesc hoodie, a vans t-shirt and a 59fifty flat peak this style is a popular style within my target audience and therefore would be able to relate to this artist. He is also presented within a club scene, which is also a main interest within my target audience. This also represented the social group as talented. He’s a mixer that can produce some amazing mixes on request. This will be shown on my magazines website. On the other three images I have done the same thing. For the Girl band on the top left I dressed them in accessorize accessories and bright clothes, this is also popular within my target audience and therefore can also relate to the artists, and want to read about them. I also used this band as my main image on the front cover. The main singer is dressed in a long floral dress with wellies, This signifies the festival, summer type look which is popular within the girls of my target audience. By dressing them with this look it has enabled me to connect with the target audience as they can connect with the artist. The other two images are similar as well. The solo girl singer is holding a ukulele which is an instrument that is looked upon as quite cool to play in my target audience. So overall regardless of the social group of that age I have represented them in a positive way.

Evaluation Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After deciding that that my media product would be a music magazine, my first objective was to make a product that looked professional. After conducting some research I concluded that one of the main features of other music magazines is their cover image, therefore this was something I initially focused on. For example, Kerrang uses studio pictures which have been digitally manipulated to make them more exciting; for example when Prodigy was on the cover shoot, the floor had been edited to appear to be cracking beneath them ********** In order for my magazine to look as professional my cover image therefore needed to be as eye catching as possible. I did a variety of photo shoots with different styled artists and eventually chose the most colourful and interesting photo; I was particularly pleased with the depth of field expressed in the photo due to the foreground featuring the lead vocalist, and the guitarist more in the background.

In contrast to most cover shots which feature a studio posed portrait my shot was taken on location on a train, giving the impression that the band were on the way to a gig. I felt that an interesting environment would help in the overall interest of the shot. However, from my research from other covers I also concluded there should be an amount of dead space for text and other pictures around the focal point so when setting up my shot I made allowance for this.

Another important aspect of a good magazine is the logo; this is what makes it memorable and upholds the reputation. After some research on music magazine logos, it was evident that they were bold and not that overcomplicated. ‘Q’s logo is a prime example of this; it is just the letter Q in a white font bound within a red box. Rolling Stone and Clash are also good examples as they have chosen a font that is very memorable. When developing my logo I made sure that I followed those guidelines to create a memorable and interesting looking logo, which linked to the name of my magazine and was not overly complicated.

My next objective was to come up with a appropriate name, I noticed that most music magazine names weren’t that obvious, yet seemed to give the right impression to the reader. After conducting some market research with my target audience the top 3 names out of a potential 5 were ‘Live Feed’, ‘The Big Band Theory’ and ‘Unheard’. I then concluded that ‘The Big Band Theory’ was too long for a name so I used it as my main cover line in the end. It was then between ‘Unheard’ and ‘Live Feed’; I thought ‘Live Feed’ was a preferable name as it related more readily to new music, which was the subject of my magazine. I concluded that LIVE FEED would be a suitable title.

The second main feature of a magazine is the layout. In order for a magazine to be taken seriously it had to look professional in terms of the layout. I made a variety of draft layouts before making my magazine to make sure that the text and pictures were evenly spaced out and selected the right photographs to use in order to do this. My cover was mainly influenced by NME and KERRANG in terms of layout, because they have a similar target audience. However it differed significantly with the colour scheme and style.

The contents pages I researched such as MOJO, NME, Kerrang and Q all used a majority of pictures. I therefore used this general layout for my magazine’s contents page - but in order to make it flow I have continued the background of the main picture blended to the rest the page and layered other pictures on top. This has made it look more unique compared to other contents pages; without loosing the main element of lots of pictures.

The magazine’s content was the next to be considered, and was arguably the most important aspect to consider; If the masthead and cover lines aren’t interesting enough and appealing to my target audience then it wouldn’t sell. After some research on cover lines and teasers most successful magazines seem to not really tell the story properly but just give an interesting quote or hint. NME, for example, used the headline ‘ “No more rock opera” My Chemical Romance on their punk comeback album’. So they used a quote from the article, and a little information, but making the reader want to know about their new album. The use of capital letters gives the immediate impression of being more shocking to the reader, and more interesting. Clash used a good technique to give the reader a brief understanding of the types of bands in the magazine; on the issue I researched they listed 2 band names on the front cover that are included in the magazine ‘Biffy Clyro and Greg Wilson’. This, combined with the image Kurt Cobain for the main cover image, immediately conveys to the reader the rock style before even looking inside the magazine. I made sure that I achieved this as well by listing a variety of bands, with different genres that are included inside my magazine.

All music magazine double page spreads all seem to be mainly pictures and the text fit around this. An NME double page spread that I posted on my blog was a prime example of a catchy, interesting and easily readable double page spread. The text was small, the headlines were big and the picture takes up most of the page. The success of using a lot of images on the double page spread also became apparent in the questionnaire that I conducted. My target audience wanted lots of pictures in the magazine because this adds to the interest. Taking this into account I decided to make the ‘Crime Suspects’ image take up the whole page and fit the text around it. This made the text a bit easier to read rather than quite daunting. Another way, in which music magazines present their text is having sections of the writing in a larger font and in quotes, I was able to do this in my magazine and also make my questions in bold. This makes it a bit more interesting and also more professional. I do however think I could have thought about the layout of my text a bit better as some is covering the image and some isn’t. Maybe by editing the image so that I had more room at the bottom of the page to add text like I did on the side. Overall I feel that I did achieve my main goal, to make it look professional, as I did a lot of research from different music magazines such as Q, there layout looks effortlessly good with their simple and mature layout. My target audience is younger than Q’s so I made it a little more busy and bright.

Audience Feedback

I posted my magazine on Facebook and asked people to post a short comment on it.

Here are the valid comments I got.

FRONT COVER-

This magazine looks great. I wouldn’t have even been able to tell that a student made it if I didn’t know the people on the cover. ;)

Not really many adjustments that you can make to be honest this is great.

Love it

I would defiantly read this

Here is my final Front Cover

I have taken in the feedback that I received. I made slight changes such as move the header up slightly and i also added drop shadows on the cover lines on the top right, and also the MGMT poster offer.

CONTENTS PAGE-

I do like the colour scheme i must say

You dont have a page number on your contents page, surely that is needed.

Here is my final contents page.

I made the minor adjustments needed.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD-

Immediately it looks a bit plain to me. I think you could make the background a tad more interesting.

You havent mentioned anywhere the name of the magazine that your interviewing I think that that is a must.

The picture is really cool. It makes you want to read the article.

You have spelt podcast wrong.

Here is my Final Double page spread.

I have taken into account all of the feedback that i received from my target audience.

My first immediate change was the spelling errors that were pointed out. Following on from the comment of it being a bit boring I decided to make some adjustments around the edges. This just gives the whole page a little more interest and it makes it look like the interviewers have just place the tatty pages inside the magazine. I also made sure that I included the name of the band clearly. I did this in a discrete way by adding it onto an identify board which I made on photoshop. This now just blends in with the picture.

Audience Feedback

double page spread development-drafts

My first thoughts when constructing my magazine were to put all my text on the right hand side of the page, and the header on the left.

The interview however has taken up all the space on the right hand side. So i had to re-think the layout.

I wanted my header to look like a stamp had been stamped over the page, like when the police stamp guilty on file. I produced this effect on photo shop with a number of different brushes, and a suitable font

I then decided that the bottom left would be to good to add my three columns in. This however is not very clear to read.

To compensate for this i have added some text boxes behind them but lowered the opacity of them so they aren't to overpowering.

double page spread development-content

When writing my article and interview i made sure that the tone was chatty and humorous. My target audience will then be interesting in this as it is in their style of language.

Tired of hearing the same playlists on the radio? Or watching the same videos on MTV? Quite frankly, so are we. Something had to be done, so we thought we’d take the law into our own hands and conduct an investigation to see what’s out there with a truly new sound; sorting out the capable newbies from the unoriginal wannabies! We know you’re looking for fresh new sounds before they go mainstream so we’re pleased to reveal to our readers the full report of our investigation with your help.

Ok, so performing a citizens arrest on a few newly signed artists who we thought were prime suspects in our investigation wasn’t the most orthodox method of capturing new talent…certainly if anyone was on the wrong side of the law it was probably us! But after a few mug shots and our rather unprofessional interview process, using your questions sent in and collecting some evidence we felt we were in a position to find out what’s out there.

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. We didn’t have any pudding but we did offer our bands some teas, coffees and biscuits – but only after they coughed up no less than three of their songs for us to take down as evidence. It was these songs that would enable us to determine which of our bands really had what it takes to cut it in our LIVE FEED investigation – and those that would be punished to a life sentence in their basements. It might be tough, but we’ve just had enough of the same old music!!

INTERVIEW

"Anything you say or sing will be taken doen as evidence against you."

Start of the interview, start of the day, what did you have for breakfast?

Nick: I would like to say that we all sat down together and ate a lovely nutritious breakfast, but we stopped off at McDonalds on the way to here. (BiBi butts in) Hey an egg McMuffin is healthy, I was watching a programme the other day and a chocolate muffin and a coffee has more calories.

Nick: Keep telling yourself that my dear. (Gives her a pat on the back)

What’s your favourite body part?

James: Well Dave will have to say his hair. He likes to think that he’s wolverine.

BiBi: not as good looking though.

Charlie: I will leave mine to your imagination

(Everyone laughs)

Whos gets all the girls/ boys?

James: Dave always seems to attract the men, he secretly loves it.

Dave: You’re just jealous of my good looks.

James: Clearly

Who’s your favourite disney character?

Dave: Because we’re on tour at the moment, on the journeys we have got through quite a lot of DVDs and I’m proud to say that The Little Mermaid was one of them, and we all loved it! We all had a sing along, well James did.

Charlie: I’m more of a Cinderella fan, she was my first love

(Band looks at him in disgust)

Biggest musical influence?

Tara: We have supported Example recently, which we were honoured to do. They are crazy live.

Charlie: What got me into singing mind you was the Disney films, such good tunes!

Adidas, Carbrini or converse?

Nick: Can’t beat the old converses.

BiBi: I’m sorry but I cant help relating Carbrini to a bunch of chavs... maybe because it rhymes with Lambrini.

Leading on to the next question what would be your celebratery drink be if you win?

Nick: Well I know what not to buy BiBi.

(BiBi giggles quietly)

Dave: you can’t beat a nice pint of Guinness

BiBi: I’ll have some champagne if your offering.

Craziest thing you guys have ever done?

James: Before I say this we were young, immature and drunk. We hired a taxi and went around London egging people on Halloween-it was fun, until we got the bill.

Dave: Hey you guys still owe me for that!

If you got the most votes how would you thank your beloved fans?

Charlie: We will do a free gig somewhere.

Taylor: Dave will run the London marathon naked.

Dave: WTF.

Taylor: For all your male fans.

Your heard what these guys had to say now. We now call Tulip to the stand...

results of this weeks suspects in next months issue.

double page spread development

I have decided to do a crime suspect theme page. My target audience can relate to this, it's quite rebellious however fun and innocent at the same time. here is the original picture that i took.I had to edit this to make it smooth as this was going to be my main image.

Here is some research on mug shots etc. like this.

I am mainly focusing on a good example of the lines in the background and this image is a great example.

I edited my image to make it similar to the one above. this made sure that

my line up looked realistic. The only problem however is the dead space within the picture, there isn't a lot.

So to fix this problem I just stretched the side to make room for text.

Now I have my basic layout I need to start adding text and headers to the

piece, and start creating some first drafts.

Contents page development

I dont want to use photographs from the shoot on the front cover. So I will use a photo from a different artist as my main contents page cover. To make sure that I show the diverse style of music in my magazine I have chosen lewis on the decks as my main image. He has a completely different style.

The contents page needs to flow from the front cover. In order for me to make this happen with completely different styled artist I will use the same style of my logo in the title of the contents page and maybe the same text.

A contents page can be quite boring so i will make sure that my contents page includes a lot of pictures.

from my research i have learned that my stories need to be easy to read and have a little description next to it as thats what makes it more interesting to look at rather than a huge list.

content of my magazine

in order for me to decide what my magazine will include and what to put where i will base this around my questionnaire and the mind map that i made from all the research i did from other music magazines. i have taken the most popular recomme

ndations from my audience and made those my main stories near the front of the magazine. For the most interesting ones i will add a picture with the story.

These will be my main stories for the page;

not just a mixer- live feed fan shows us what he's got

big band theory-get the update of our band of the month

crime suspects-the newly arrested talent brought to you

band practise- access all areas with WE ARE LAUGHING

the gig guide- all you need to know

the contents page is also split up into sup headings so i will do this too. this is another technique to make it easy to read.

headlines-

features

reviews

regulars

news

all my stories will fit into either of these categories.

features-

live feed advise column- replies to your posts

jamin- angus and julia stone + mr hudson

regulars-

live it highlights- we follow Ellie Goulding for a week

itunes-your requests get you free downloads

track of the month- don't miss out on our chosen track

tab me up- the tabs and sheet music you requested

your snaps sent in- stage embarrassments

reviews-

gigs- al you need to know

new album releases- marina and the diamonds

swish- check out the new gear of the artists

news-

line ups- glastonbury line up released here first

ticket sale- the best source

letters from you- we want to know what you think.

PLANNING

I like this layout. its not too complicated and it breaks up all the text with the pictures. depending on whether my main image is a portrait or landscape will help me decide how i will construct my layout.

This layout although interesting and still includes lots of pictures i feel that there will be too much text on the top and all the pictures at the bottom, it will look unbalanced.

FIRST DRAFT

I think this layer works. because the main picture has a black background i edited it so that it would blend in with the whole page. This breaks down all the images so there isn't lots square boxes. I also where appropriate will work on blending the other pictures into the black background. I have kept a similar colour scheme to the front cover to make if flow. however have introduced green into the text to break it up a little and make it easier to read. i feel however the black background is a bit plain and dull. I will play around with the background and see how it goes.

I have added some effects in the background just to make it that little bit interesting. I then presented my contents page to my target audience and here is the feedback that i got.

Here is my final.

I changed the background. Before the grey was a bit random behind the text but now i edited it to make it grey throughout the whole page. I feel now it looks more professional.

I then showed this to my target audience and this is the feedback that i got back;

Front Cover Development

First drafts

Here is my first draft. I think the main cover story is almost situated in the right place, I want to to be one of the first things you see and therefore it needs to be bold, so i will make it big and use a bold font. It could maybe go more centred in the page rather than to the left. I like the way that the cover stories are listed on the top

third, It breaks down the photograph a bit more making the white bar fit in with the overall composition. However I was thinking of maybe listing some bands but it wouldn't really fit. So i will play around with the composition to see what works best.

I made the gig information a cover story on its own below and made the photos at the bottom smaller. This splits the text up more rather than just having a list on the the top right. I move

the main cover story to the centre and think that it works well here. The only

criticism i do have is the date and issue number could go with the barcode as it looks in the way underneath the logo, and maybe a header and footer could be introduced at the top and bottom to add more interest, i feel that this at the moment looks like it targeted more at females which is not true.

Fonts.

Main cover story.

The main cover story needs to be the boldest. So a bold font is a necessitate. Here are the fonts that I downloaded. The font I choose here, will have to collaborate with every other font I choose. A

lthough the eroded text in the logo works I don't think it will work here. So I will need either the first one or the 3rd. When making my

magazine I will decide on which of the two I will use.

Final drafts.

I thought i would try out my cover without other pictures as i was concerned it will look too busy. i feel now however that its too empty on the bottom right and therefore am going to choose one or two pictures to add in from other shoots i did from other artists. My free poster still needs to be added in. Once i have sorted out the images on the bottom left i will then work out where i will put this. From my cover research a lot of covers have headers and footers on their covers so i will see what that looks like too. I think my main cover font is a good choice. Its bold and having the band in a bigger font makes it more interesting and catches your eye straight away. its also youthful, the text is in all capital locks which makes my cover more exciting. To make it stand out even more i added a darker banner behind it so it is even more contrasting towards the cover image.

Carrying on with this theme i have used the same text throughout the page but edited slightly e.g. its eroded under the big band theory and different colour on my other cover stories. This makes sure that it doesn't seem too repetitive.

I think the header and footer looks good and makes it more interesting to look at. i think the two pictures at the bottom need a bigger bord

er around them as they are getting a bit lost in the main cover image. i also think that the just above the two pictures it would be suitable to add my free poster advertisement above there as there is some wasted space there.

i made the border around the two smaller images quite neutral, however still keeping to the colour scheme. my pictures now stand out and are separated from the main cover image.

I added in the free poster advertisement. This needs to be bright and noticeable so i chose red (yellow wouldn't stand out as much), which still sticks to the colour scheme but stands out with the bright text inside it almost giving a glowing effect.

I then showed my cover to my target audience. Here is the feedback i got;

choosing my cover image.

I have decided that its the shoot with 'kristie and me' that is the most suitable for a main cover image. I photographed them in a cool environment and they also challenge the conventions of other music magazines where their main images are mostly taken in studios. All that i have to do now is limit these photographs down to one.

Having my shoot set outside was defiantly a good idea. the sky gives the who picture energy and makes it more exciting than if it was in s studio.

The sky fills up most of the left third and creates a lot of dead space in the photograph that can be used for text and other photographs. This is a good feature to have however I feel that maybe there's too much empty space and the figures in the picture don't really stand out as much as they should and especially wont when

its surrounded by other cover stories. A main feature of every music magazine is the eye catching cover image, I don't think this image meets this standard.

I like the whole composition of the photograph. There is enough dead space and room for a logo however not too much. The figure is holding a guitar, having this as my cover image would imply straight away that its a music magazine, which is an important feature. The graffiti is the focal point of this photograph although attractive and 'youthful' the figure in the photograph is being drowned out by it, its too over powering. I think I will struggle to make my cover stories and logo etc stand out from it. So therefore don't think it would be a good idea to use this image as my main image.

I really like this photo and think that it is very suitable for my cover image. Theres enough space for cover lines and the logo. It has a good composition, by having the main part of the photo in the middle of the page, which is where the focal point of a magazine cover is. It's almost like an action shot, like she's riding on the side of the train to her next gig, this image would give the magazine a cool stlye which is what i am trying to achieve. The only criticisms would be that the wellies maybe are a little overpowering however text over them could resolve this. Also this girl isn't a solo artist, so having just her on the cover i don't think is a very good idea.

The depth created in this photo through the guitar is effective and leads your eye from the neck of the guitar to the bands faces, which introduced a bit of interest in the photo. The vibrant colours of the clothing is brought out in the picture and the graffiti wall is more in the background but still present, which is where it should be. The bands hippyish style would give the magazine overall a unique cool style which is what I am trying to achieve. I made sure that their rock rather than acoustic style was shown with the electrical guitar rather than an acoustic, which shows that the magazine introduces new different music, not just new artists mimicking current ones. Theres enough room for the logo however finding space to put all my cover lines maybe a problem, as possible space for text is limited.

The vibrant colour and their unique style is being brought out in this photograph just like the photograph above however theres more space for text etc which wont overpower the main picture. The way they are on the train holding on almost like they are on the move like photo number 3 is cool and gives excitement into the picture rather than just a still shot of them stood together. I have decided that this is the image that i will use for my cover. It gives off most good elements from the photos above just without the bad points as well. My only criticism of this photo would be the pole on the top right however i think this can be resolved.