Soul Beats Magazine evaluation

We were asked to design a magazine cover as part of a task in groups. We came up with the name ‘Soul Beats’ and over the past few weeks we have been working together to create a music magazine.
We first chose a genre, and at the end, we agreed on a mixture of soul and Hip-hop. This was successful as we all got the chance to put our ideas together. We decided to name the magazine Soul Beats. This was because we think that it is a cross between soul and hip-hop, and that it would appeal to the audience in which we are targeting. One of the main reasons that we chose the title ‘Soul Beats’, is because we wanted a title which reach out to both Men and Ladies, and that would not only appeal to women. We did our research and noticed that many magazines sometimes use features, such as feminine topics, for example, ‘top tips about men’ and these features minimize their audience.

There are many details that we used in order to challenge the forms and conventions of a real music magazine. We included topics that are music related, for example, one of our topics is about a hip-hop artist Jay-Z, and the topic is "is he really back?” The reason that we came up with this idea is because we reviewed many music magazines and compared them and realized that most music magazines include interesting topics about music artists that would attract people to the magazine. Including the most talked about artists at that moment. We also include this in order to catch the attention of the audience. Big words and bright colours were used to make it stand out.
We also included a bar code, issue date and a price in order to relate to a real magazine, as it is one of the essential properties of a magazine.
The masthead is big and bold in order to bring attention towards it and to stand out. We selected a very clear font to ensure that our title was easy to read. We also included a banner as many music magazines include catchy phrases in order to make the magazine more conventional. Our Banner reads ‘its hot, it’s fresh, it’s soul beats’, we chose this phrase as it is catchy and would appeal to our young and urban readers.

When choosing our Genre and title, we also thought about the target audience that we were reaching out to, we realised that our magazine would most appeal to a broad base of multi-cultural consumers. Most of which enjoy urban music, fashion and culture. This is because of the content that is included in the magazine. This magazine wouldn't really appeal to an older audience because they may not necessarily be familiar with the content and artists included in the magazine.
We used different techniques in order to attract our audience. For example, we had a picture of Angie stone, with a caption saying "exclusive interview”. This is a popular artist amongst the urban audience. We also used direct approach with the main image and main story being about young aspiring artists. Again relating to our audience, we decided to use this topic, because there are many young aspiring U.K. artists who may feel inspirited by this topic and more confident about their dreams.We thought that this would be a good way of attracting our target audience.

We believe that Vibe media group would most likely distribute our magazine. Vibe media group is a media group, which distributes Vibe magazine. Vibe magazine is a magazine, which provides a voice and community for the growing popularity of urban music. We believe that they would distribute our magazine because, ‘Soul beats’ aims to recognise urban culture and promote U.K. music to a wider variety. Our magazine has the same aim as Vibe magazine and for this reason; we believe that this institution would distribute our magazine.

When producing this magazine, I think every member of our group individually learned something new. However, personally not only did I learn how to use Photoshop and edit images in the same way as magazines do. I also got a better insight of how to analyse a magazine cover and look at every aspect. Before producing the magazine cover I had a very narrow view of the reasons magazines use particular images and the connotations that were being put across. Nevertheless, after completing the magazine cover I have a better insight and can take the new thing I have learned onto a better level the next time I complete a task.

If I were to create another magazine cover, I would take out more time to plan the photo shoot and decide the props. I would also decide the theme and topics of the magazine before hand to avoid wasting too much time on production.

cover terminology: Planning

These are some of the details of my magazine.

Masthead: Soul Beats -it is big, bold and the font is very visible.

Banner: it's fresh...it's hot,.....it's soul beats : fun and catchy

Main cover image: This is a picture of  a "new UK group" That we made up. their is a connection with the audience as the picture is looking straight.

Bar code, Price and issue number: these are all included to make the magazine look real and saleable

Main cover line : "new UK aspiring artist: Presha J. - this is used to connect with the main image on the cover. 

Magazine Evaluation

For the past couple of weeks we have been creating music magazine covers. Our group created a music magazine cover called Soul Beats which is aimed at the Soul and Hip-Hop fans between the ages of 16 to early and late 20's. In my opinion i think our music magazine cover successfully replicats a convention of a real magazine cover. I say this because firstly we have our masthead in big bold writing as "SOUL BEATS" with the issue number above the masthead and the date below. We have a main cover image which one the artists are looking straight at the camera to attract connection with the audience. Our main cover line reflects our main cover image. Secondly we have two famous celebrities from both background of soul and hip-hop Jay-Z and Angie Stone with cover lines below the images. Thirdly we decided to have a banner attracting our audience to want to read and buy our magazine and also connotations connecting to our magazine e.g. It;s fresh,hot etc. Lastly we included the usual essentional e.g. barcode, issue number, price and cover lines. Our magazine cover represents

Soul Beats Magazine

We were given a task on Wednesday (24/09/08) to design a magazine cover and  an inside starting page. We drafted ideas in Wednesday class and decided which equipments we needed to be equipped with. Monday ( 29/09/08) we took photoshoot in different locations near the college.