I posted a poll on my blog to find out more about peoples thoughts in regards to music and magazines. The poll was answered by only 31 people, which is a relatively small amount. Fortunately, I managed to get mostly people within the age group I was aiming to target (16-25) to complete the poll. There was also a fairly equal spread between the genders - 14 male, 17 female. For this reason the results will influence my decisions when planning and producing the magazine.
My poll revealed that the people mostly purchase magazines 'now and again'. This lead me to decide that the magazine should be released on a monthly basis, instead of a weekly basis. Also, the results helped me to determine a price that would best suit the type of magazine I was looking to create. I found that my price should fall somewhere between £2 and £3.
What was also very interesting was the results that were gathered from my question, 'what initially attracts you to a magazine?'. I found that almost all of the people that answered my poll voted images as the main aspect of a magazine that initially attracts them. This clearly showed me that having strong images in my magazine was going to be vital.
I also found that what the majority of people disliked in a magazine was adverts. This wasn't really going to be an issue for my 3 magazine pages as I was not planning to include any adverts. Roughly half of the people also voted that they dislike competitions in magazines, which may pose an issue for me, as I was aiming to include one somewhere on 1 of my 3 pages, as I have seen competitions advertised on other music magazines.
As well as gaining some useful information as to what people look for in a magazine, I also managed to get some feedback on what title and colour scheme people thought would be most appropriate for my magazine. Quake seemed to be the most popular magazine title, taking 48% of the votes, and the most favourable colour scheme, taking 41% of the voted, was red, black, blue.
To begin with I re-sized my main image until I was happy with its size and position on the page. I then added 2 shapes, layered on top of one another, to create the strip running across the width of the page - this would mount the title. I added outer shadows to both the image and the shapes to give the page a kind of 3D appearance, adding depth. The title is again in red, like the title on the front cover and the contents, helping to link the pages together. I also used the same 'stencil' style of font as I had used on the cover.
When I was happy with my initial arrangement I added my first section of text. I wanted this caption of text to be blunt and dramatic, drawing the reader in, which is why I decided to use capital letters in a large, bold font. To make the caption stand out even further I added a line underneath to emphasise its importance and separate it from the text that would go below. I also wanted the artist's name 'May'em' to be clearly shown somewhere on the page and so decided to type her name down the left-hand side of the main image. I used the same colours - black and red - as i had used for the title. I wasn't sure if this was the best arrangement and so typed it across the bottom of the image as well, to compare. From doing this I came to the decision that using both actually looked more effective and kind of framed the image. Following this I added another, much smaller image in the bottom left-hand corner. I had seen this done in other music magazines and thought it helped to balance out the page.
Next it was time to add the main text. The content was going to be an interview between the magazine and a famous artist. There is a small paragraph to begin with that briefly summarises what will follow. This text is in a slightly larger, bolder font than the rest so that it stand out. For the actual interview the text alternates red to black, so that it fits nicely with the colour scheme of the page. The interview questions are in bold red font, followed by the artist's answers in regular black font. I often see this done for interviews in magazines and not only does it look effective but it also helps to make it clearer for the reader. There is another image that I added at the bottom of the page, so that the fold of the page would not run through the text. I then positioned the text around this image which was particularly difficult as the image is circular. It was also hard to measure out the columns to the right width, making sure they were all relatively equal to one another and that the gaps between columns were similar in size. When it came to doing this and deciding on font size I based my decisions on text of the music magazines that I had previously analysed.
Finally, I added the final touches to my double page spread. This included page numbers, spaced at equal distances from the edge of the page in both bottom corners. As well as this I added a small version of the magazine title - Quake - in the top left-hand and bottom right-hand corners. To create this small version of the title I simply selected, copied and pasted the title from the front cover and re-sized it. I think it finishes the page off well and helps the magazine to flow as this same title can be seen on both the front cover and contents. I also added some text in a white, italic font across the image. This is supposed to appear as though it has been quoted from the artist, and just helps to add a little something extra. The final feature added to my double page spread was the small CD cover, located in the bottom right-hand corner. I created this in a separate photoshop document before copying and pasting it on to the page. I think that it fits well and makes the whole page look a bit more like a real music magazine.
