Music Magazine Stand Analysis

The image above shows music magazines being displayed on a shelf in a newsagents store. The layout and composition of the magazines is quite peculiar as usually magazines are laid out on top of each other with just the masthead clearly showing and the best selling magazines, being placed on the front shelves with the whole magazine cover page showing. However in this case, the magazines are laid out on the side of each other, showing only half of the masthead as well as half of the rest of the cover page.
The magazines may be presented like this as by showing half of the magazine covers, when customers come to look at the magazines they'd like to buy, they may go for the ones that have bold font/colours as well as have cover lines on the side that sound interesting and that they may want to read.
By showing only half of the page also means that only some cover lines are shown and not others, therefore if a cover line is stopped midway due to another magazine covering the rest of it, the customer may be urged to pick up the magazine and read the whole cover line, thus making them buy the magazine too.
Also, since many music magazines are well known through their colour schemes and masthead logos, regular customers who buy music magazines regularly, may be able to spot and navigate their chosen music magazine easily even if only half of the masthead is showing.
On this specific image, the magazines laid out have words such as 'FREE' and 'WIN' written boldly near the masthead, which could potentially attract customers to pick up the magazines as they have the chance to win something or receive something inside the magazine; which will then result in them buying the magazine.
Sale or Return is a system used by magazine distributors with newsstands, which consists of any copies of magazines, which are not sold, being returned to the distributor; with no cost to the retailer. This is beneficial for the retailer, as there is no wastage or risks involved in buying magazines to sell as if the magazines don't sell, then the publisher/distributor would suffer from wastage and environmental damage instead.
Freemiums are direct distributions which is an increasingly popular method of distribution being used today. This is giving out free issues of magazines or producing freemium magazines. These are typically given out at transport stations or any other busy public locations. These types of magazines make all there revenue/profit through their advertising therefore, any freemium magazine around will have more adverts than a normal magazine being sold in a shop.
Regular readers of magazines tend to subscribe to a number of issues and have their chosen magazines regularly posted to them, usually at a heavy discounted price. This is much easier for the audience and it ensures a regular core readership for the magazine. Electronic distributions work in a similar way however, the only difference is that the customer's magazine will be delivered to the customer's inbox, Kindle Fire or iPad.

Planning

This is what we planned together in class to help plan our music magazine proposals to present to the class the next lesson .

Evaluation for College Mag

To create the front cover page, I have used PhotoShop. The photo was taken in the college and the image is a medium shot. I have used a psychology book as a prop as that is what she studies, and the pose and gesture that she is making, gives an idea that she enjoys the subject too. Under the cover lines, I have added captions that include a bit of further details on what the articles are about. The cover line's font and size is bigger and bolder than the caption as they are the main aspect of the entire college magazine. A barcode and price is also listed at the bottom corner of the magazine as well as, the issue number and date of the issue at the top of the magazine, under the masthead. The mast head is behind the image of the cover girl, which looks quite professional as this look is used in several magazines.  I have also included a pull quote from the cover girl, which relates to the article that she is featured in. Using PhotoShop was fairly simple as I was already familiar with the software and remembered certain features that it included to help me produce the magazine. However, an issue I faced was ensuring that the photo I used was not blurred when I enlarge it. This problem did arise, which resulted in having to constantly place the image back onto PhotoShop again, but it was solved after the third try as the image was not blurred anymore once I enlarged it. Overall, using PhotoShop was a better experience than using InDesign and in terms of text, there were no dilemmas, which made me complete my cover page quicker than I had expected.

To create the contents page of the college magazine, I have used InDesign as that was the best software to use in terms of inserting text and ensuring that the layout is similar to normal magazines being sold today. To make the college magazine look professional, I have divided up the articles by putting them into different sections, as it is shown in various magazines being sold today. The titles of these listings on the contents page are the following; features, study, extracurricular and plus. Under the article names, the page numbers, in which the article would be found, are also listed to ensure that readers find it easy to navigate the article that they want to read. In terms of the photos I have used, I have used another photo of the cover girl as there is an article regarding her, I have used a photo of people studying, as it goes along with the study related articles and I have finally used a photo of people in the college gym to show what extracurricular activities are available to join. Using InDesign was better than I had expected as when I first used the software, it took me a while to adjust to the format and settings of it. The only thing I did have difficulty with was resizing the images as the shape would suddenly change. However, this did not become an issue for me, as I decided to go for the slanted look of the images despite not planning to place the images like that in the first place. I decided to keep this look as I felt it would differ from other college magazines I had seen and it looks quite cool and edgy.

To improve my front cover, I think I could have added a skyline perhaps, as that is usually shown on many magazines and to improve my contents page, I think I could have added the page numbers on the bottom of the images I have inserted as this is also shown in real magazines being sold. My three key points for development when producing the main task (the music magazine) would be to use other features on PhotoShop such as the lasso tool and the gradient tool, in order for the cover to look less plain and boring by adding a different effect to it and focus my images properly when capturing them so I do not face any issues based on the resolution and quality of the images. Finally, another key point for development would be to use more features included in InDesign rather than just inserting text and images, in order to make my contents page look far more appealing and suitable for a music magazine.

Planning

This is what we done in class to plan the next task we have to do

College Mag Front Cover & Contents Pg

This is the front cover of the college magazine, which I have created using Photoshop. I have named it 'Leyton Weekly' as it has to relate to the college. The cover girl on the front page, has her Leyton lanyard around her neck, which shows that she is infact a Leyton student.

This is the contents page of the college magazine, which I have created using InDesign. I have tried to keep the house style consistent by using the same 3 colours, orange, black and white; in order to maintain my colour scheme and I have also used the same font style for both the cover page and contents page.

College Mag Plan

This is the plan for my college magazine, which I am going to create within the next couple of lessons.