Hand In Magazine Feedback

This is the feedback I have received for my magazine from my target audience.

Final Article

I have redrafted my article and here is the finalized text:

Who: Gh0stWhat: Musician, entrepreneur, director and all round cool girl

Song That Changed Her Life: Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin

Favourite Movie: Vertigo

Netflix Binge Pick: Twin Peaks

Style Icon: Courtney Love

If you haven’t been living under an extremely soundproof rock for the past year then you’ve probably heard of Gh0st, but for those who do happen to habitate on a desert island with no forms of communication she’s the strong female artist rocking the alternative scene who’s known by close friends as Katie. She’s the hot new female artist who stunned the world in 2015 when she dropped her new album ‘Game Over’ which went straight to  number one with sales of over 7.5 million (even topping pop favourite Adele with her album ‘25’).
The Techno, Indie, Grime queen writes and produces all her own music as well as directing and acting in all her videos all the while running her own recording label “Oblivion Records”. Her life is viewed by millions via her famous instagram page but she wants you to know that it’s not all fun and games being a star.
When meeting Gh0st you’ll first notice her one-of-a-kind, stylish dress sense. It’s sort of a mix between a 1980’s cartoon character and an alien, combined with the iconic style similar to that of (dare I say) Elizabeth Taylor. Yes, she’s THAT cool! Everybody wants to be her, everybody wants to be with her but she says she’s “totally over that. This whole prestige that comes with fame, it’s just a concept, it’s not physical it’s just counterfeit, unreal.”
Her fame all started with her release of her 2014 single ‘Virtue’ which she said she “Didn’t expect to take off so fast” according to the idol herself, record  labels were turning her down because her music was “too artsy”. When asked by Cult! how she felt about this she replied “Well it’s just fucking degrading, you put all your shit out there, you know, in your music, in the lyrics, and then they turn around and tell you it’s too much! It makes you feel mad, it made me feel like a crazy. But sucks to be them because I guess people like that openness they find in my music, I suppose it like resonates with them. It must be like a therapy session, you know, sharing your problems?”.
Her most recent album ‘Genesis’ gives an even more intimate look into her life and reveals about her past as a teenager. “It was hard growing up” she says as she sips on her coffee. She laughs, “I was a really bad kid so I don’t know why I’m laughing. I mean, everyone hated me, the teachers, the girls at school, the guys at school. I liked being bad, I liked messing up, I must have just wanted attention”. This rebellious streak however, seems to have worked in her favour. She produces music that completely defies conventions, and as for her music videos… well you’ll just have to see for yourself. The only way one can describe such a visual treat is a manga blade meets the millennial with an undertone of 80’s and 90’s nostalgia. It’s a combination which should be experienced by everyone!
This intrusive style is a running theme both in her music and her online life. Her face lights up as she informs me of how important it is to “share your problems”, and while the cannot be named record labels that turned her down apparently told her that it was ‘too much’ she says listeners “love it because in a world full of lies people just want to know the truth. It sounds a bit vague but I don’t want to pretend that I’m perfect or that everything is swell because life just isn’t like that”. She heaves out an annoyed sigh, “Life isn’t about rolling out of bed with a perfect face and throwing on size 0 jeans to wander around L.A in. It’s about falling out of bed with last night’s makeup on, with about one million pimples, a red, puffy, hungover face and dog breath. We shouldn’t be telling little girls and boys that they need to be perfect because perfection just doesn’t exist, it’s one big fat lie and I don’t want to lie to people”. You’ll see this notion on her Instagram ‘Gh0stbustaa’, sweaty tour buses, acne, dirty hair. She’s just a real woman, and she wants everyone to know what a real woman looks like.
According to Gh0st, her “fans are at the heart of the music”. She lives, works and breathes for her fans. “I just want them to know that you can do what you love and you should do what makes you happy” she says with a stunning grin on her face. She provides her devoted fans with a very personal instagram feed with which she posts hourly to present followers with an insight into the life of a musician, entrepreneur and director. “I love to show people what life’s really like on tour. There’s this idea that life on the road as a musician is cool, you know, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, but there’s just no time. It’s more like cramped tour busses, smelly bathrooms and a lack of showers. It’s all worth it though, the shows bring me alive, it’s just magic on stage. It can’t even be put into words…”
And so with those very compelling final words; Katie (AKA Gh0st) takes a last sip of her coffee, grabs her nostalgic, 90’s backpack and flashes me a smile. A brash grin, the type a child would make after saying a swear word, rebellion with a streak of pride, a smile which perfectly summarises her attitude and work as a paradoxical mix of both the pretentious and an infectious, genuine down-to-earth attitude.

Target Audience Feedback: Cover

Again using this feedback I have decided to change the bubble font, the close-up image and add a bar code and price.

Teacher Feedback

From this feedback I have decided to add more stories to my front cover add add a ticker to the bottom of the front cover with band plugs.
I have decided to sharpen the image on the contents page and change the page number fonts on my contents page.
I have decided to change the layout of my double page spread, change the font used on my double page spread and change the layout of the text boxes.

Rough Cut Feedback: Student Feedback

Using this feedback I have decided to add a bar code, add more stories and add a price to my front cover.
I have decided to change the layout of my contents page and edit the pictures on my contents page.
I have decided to change the layout, the pictures and the fonts used on my double page spread.

Double Page Rough Cut

In my rough cut hand in I have added a drop capital to make the spread more conventional and changed the layout of the text so that it flows better.

Contents Page Rough Cut

I have completed the rough cut stage of the magazine project and have added more images to the magazine and page numbers/titles underneath these images in order to appear more conventional to the alternative music magazine genre.

Magazine Cover Rough Cut

I have finished the rough cut stage of the magazine project and  added more links to articles (using a printed style, bold, jagged font) to adhere to the general conventions of music magazines. I also added a FREE! Sticker in order to gage the reader’s attention and make the reader feel as if they are getting more for their money.

Double Page Spread Third Edit

I have added a quick fact section as I feel this will give a more of a personal feel to the article and the magazine itself as well as adding a bold title to the spread in order to make it more conventional.

Magazine cover Third Edit

Having completed my photo shoot and taken all the photographs I need for my first draft I have started to place them into my magazine. I also decided to add a link to the double page spread in a handwritten, messy style font.

Double Page Second Edit

Having completed my article I have added it to the spread and also added a house style font to create a clear sense of brand identity.

Magazine Cover Second Edit

Today I decided to change the fonts I previously placed on my magazine as I feel these better suit the rebellious theme and tone to the magazine I wish to create, the font seams to jump out of the page and scream at the readers. The font I used for the tagline has also been changed as I feel the jagged, printing press look better reflects the rebellious theme.

Photoshoot

Time for photographs!

Article

The Article

Today I made the first draft of my article for my music magazine, it is an in an interview style based on a current existing artist knows as 'Grimes'.

So, here it is...

Who: Gh0stWhat: Musician, entrepreneur, director and all round cool girl

Song That Changed Her Life: Stairway To Heaven, Led Zeppelin

Favourite Movie: Vertigo

Netflix Binge Pick: Twin Peaks

Style Icon: Courtney Love
If you haven’t been living under an extremely soundproof rock for the past year then you’ve probably heard of Gh0st, but for those who do happen to habitate on a desert island with no forms of communication she’s the strong female artist rocking the alternative scene who’s known by close friends as Katie.
The Techno, Indie, Grime queen writes and produces all her own music as well as directing and acting in all her videos all the while running her own recording label “Oblivion Records”. Her life is viewed by millions via her famous instagram page but she wants you to know that it’s not all fun and games being a star.
Her fame all started with her release of her 2014 single ‘Virtue’ which she said she “Didn’t expect to take off so fast” according to the idol herself labels had turned her because her music was “too artsy”. When asked by Cult! how she felt about this she replied “Well it’s just fucking degrading, you put all your shit out there, you know, in your music, in the lyrics, and then they turn around and tell you it’s too much! It makes you feel mad, it made me feel like a crazy. But sucks to be them because I guess people like that openness they find in my music, I suppose it like resonates with them. It must be like a therapy session, you know, sharing your problems?”.
Her most recent album ‘Genesis’ gives an even more intimate look into her life and reveals about her past as a teenager. “It was hard growing up” she says as she sips on her coffee. She laughs, “I was a really bad kid so I don’t know why I’m laughing. I mean, everyone hated me, the teachers, the girls at school, the guys at school. I liked being bad, I liked messing up, I must have just wanted attention”.
When meeting Gh0st you’ll first notice her one-of-a-kind, stylish dress sense. It’s sort of a mix between a 1980’s cartoon character and an alien, combined with the iconic style similar to that of (dare I say) Elizabeth Taylor. Yes, she’s THAT cool! Everybody wants to be her, everybody wants to be with her but she says she’s “totally over that. This whole prestige that comes with fame, it’s just a concept, it’s not physical it’s just counterfeit, unreal.”
According to Gh0st, her “fans are at the heart of the music”. She lives, works and breathes for her fans. “I just want them to know that you can do what you love and you should do what makes you happy” she says with a stunning grin on her face. She provides her devoted fans with a very personal Instagram feed with which she posts hourly to present followers with an insight into the life of a musician, entrepreneur and director. “I love to show people what life’s really like on tour. There’s this idea that life on the road as a musician is cool, you know, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, but there’s just no time. It’s more like cramped tour buses, smelly bathrooms and a lack of showers. It’s all worth it though, the shows bring me alive, it’s just magic on stage. It can’t even be put into words…”

I have gained feedback from my teacher in order to improve it before placing it in my final cut:

• One more paragraph - how does she leave the interview?
• What are her final thoughts?
• Some kind of ending required?

Contents Page First Edit

I have began the layout of my contents page using a clear house style with the front cover and an image of the artist who is featured on the cover.

Double Page Spread First Edit

I started creating my double page spread and having taken the images I have inserted it into an Indesign document I have also added a top and bottom bar both of which display the page number and magazine logo as I feel this creates a memorable house style.

Magazine Cover First Edit

Today I started work on the first draft for my music magazine. Having planned the title of my magazine, the genre and having looked at general conventions and stylistic choices of other alternative music magazines I decided to go with an edgy punk style. After looking at my audience research and existing music magazine styles (for example the pink colour scheme used in the double page spread of NME) I thought the ironic girly look and punk look (similar to many Dazed and Confused issues) suited the theme of rebellious music and culture (hence why I chose the title CULT!). The bubble font, I feel, also expresses this as it looks psychedelic.

Magazine Draft Drawing: Cover

I have drafted a drawing of how I would like my front cover to look. The image will have a personal gaze in order to engage a personal emotional connection with the reader and the rebellious messy font speaks in terms of the alternative genre of the magazine.

Audience Research Data

I sent out the survey to 30 people and asked them to respond how they saw fit and this is their responses.

This is the contextual information that will help me understand the audience which I am addressing in the survey.

This information also helps me to understand the context of my audience as I understand the majority of the respondents have bought a music magazine in the past and so understand the codes and conventions of a music magazine when responding to the survey. The price question highlights that the majority of those asked would spend £3.00-£3.50 on a music magazine therefore the price of my own magazine will be £3.00-£3.50.

This data has helped to inform me of the colour scheme I should use in my magazine, with answers such as it being 'rebellious' and it 'standing out' and being 'defiant' it seems the scheme completely fits with the theme and tone I am aiming for therefore I have decided to have it as the house style colour scheme for my own magazine.

This data has confirmed the title which I had brainstormed as it seems the target audience also agree with it, while there is one example of negative feedback as it seems 'unusual' I have decided to ignore this as this 'unusual' and 'defiant' brand identity is the theme I am hoping to manufacture.

Audience Research

I have created a survey which will help inform me on how best to create a magazine which will appeal to my target audience. This is the survey I have created:

http://goo.gl/forms/Dl9mhxZrzh