Magazine Evaluation

The magazine cover I have created is a magazine called "Tempo". I chose the name for the fact that different songs have different tempos and my magazine focuses on a range of urban music genres.

The target audience for "Tempo" would be between the ages of 13-20, but mostly for anyone interested in R'n'b, Hip Hop, Funky House, Bassline, Grime, or Garage. The magazine also focuses on portraying UK music in a way in which they are equal to that of the US music scene; both are highlighted on the front cover in order to show that there will be a range of articles on artists from both places. However as it is a UK based magazine the main focus will be on UK artists as I feel that UK artists are not given enough credit for what they do and are constantly compared to US artists. To show that the magazine will cover different types of urban genres I mentioned different artists or articles featured on the front cover which had something to do with the genres mentioned above.

"Tempo" represents urban teenage social groups; this is shown in the choice of colour scheme for this issue, the choice of images and the font. I used a grey and fuchsia colour scheme as grey is considered as a masculine colour whereas fuchsia is more suited for females. This contrast attracts to both male and females, and at the same time makes the front cover eye catching. The colours featured on the model in the main image’s hat inspired the choice of the colour scheme. I used different shades of fuchsia- the more I wanted the text to stand out the brighter I made the shade. To begin with, I wanted the background of the main image to be black but quite many urban style magazines use plain colours for the background so I decided to duplicate the natural background of the actual image, which was a tree. The model I used wore a pair of headphones, a rope chain, a New Era hat and an Adidas t-shirt, which I feel, represents different elements of the urban music scene. At the bottom of the front cover also features other models two of which are females and the main model. I decided to use two female models as opposed to another male as I feel that the main image could have given the impression that the magazine was focused only at males- I wanted to portray the diversity of the magazine. The other models featured are also dressed differently to show that the magazine isn't aimed at people who dress a certain way. On the left hand side of the front cover I mentioned three main things featured inside which each covered a different sector of the urban music scene- I done this to attract people who are interested in the different types of music covered. I also chose to use models between the ages of the target audience in order to appeal more to the age range.

The main programme I used for creating this magazine front cover was Adobe PhotoShop Elements. During the induction we were instructed on how to import files into Photoshop, how to clone certain parts of the image, how to crop the image, how to use the gradient tool etc. I also learnt how to use Firefox and Safari.

"Tempo" uses and challenges forms and conventions of real music magazines. My magazine template was inspired by the magazine Black Beat, which is based in America. This magazine provides in-depth interviews, great details on urban music and of course appeals to teenagers and young adults- which is what I wanted my magazine front cover to achieve. However unlike front covers like Black Beat, the colour scheme of my front cover is consistent opposed to having a mixture of colours which I feel makes the cover look neater and more professional. My front cover also isn't cluttered with images and text- so it only highlights the main features of the magazine.

I think a company similar to Magazine City would distribute my music magazine cover for a number of reasons. Firstly the magazines sold on the website are of different forms, some of which are very similar to my music magazine. The company also offers a substantial amount of advertising of the featured magazines which I think would result in a higher chance of the magazine being a success.

If I were to make another magazine front cover there would be a number of things I would do differently. To begin with I would use more time to plan my magazine cover as opposed to making it based on planning it within one lesson- this was unavoidable however due to the fact that I joined Media AS later than the rest of the group. However, I think more planning would result in a more polished magazine front cover. I would also be sure to photograph models of different ethnicities if given the opportunity to do another magazine front cover- I think this would make the magazine appeal to a wider audience, which of course would result in more sales if it were a real magazine. I would also try to make the word "Tempo" stand out more from the images instead of blocking part of the image. In addition I would revise the choice of the colour scheme and maybe use a darker colour than grey to make it easier for the text to be read. For the next magazine I would do more research to decide what type of articles will feature on the front cover to portray the diversity of the magazine.