LO4: Evaluation

I have been asked to create a Sheffield bases magazine for my brief. For my front cover the font style is sans serif font because it will stand out the most. The masthead is called “Plectrum” but the ‘u’ will be the shape of a plectrum this is aimed at the target audience as they like indie rock bands which connotes the use of the plectrum because within every band they use a guitar/ bass. The actual plectrum will be black so it contrasts with the rest of the masthead which is red and cover lines, this will appeal to my target audience of teenagers with an interest of indie rock bands. I edited my masthead through photoshop and got the font from daft.com. I then changed the colour of my font using the lasso tool to highlight the font and changing the colour using the paint bucket tool. 

The rest of the font style is smaller than the masthead which will be red but will also be sans serif because it will be easier to read for the audience. The main cover lines is in a medium sized text bigger than the normal writing so it easier to read and will be the name of the band “sushi” in bold red letters half way down the page anchored on to the photograph which connotes quite loud music but also soft ‘Romantic’ music at the same time because their songs are all different and cover a range of meanings. The cover line colour changed to a bold white when I did the magazine as it stood out more. This will appeal to my audience because indie music is usually about that more than one subject and red is a popular colour in Indie magazines which relates to the genre. There is also smaller cover lines of text taken from the actual interview and at the bottom of the page names of other bands featured in the article “Plus! Street Cardinals, Courtyards, BAND of COVERS, The Unscene, Oddity Road and many more”  This is in white connoting innocence and purity of their music it balances out the contrasts of the other colours and works well with red and black, this relates to my brief as I am using common places in Sheffield where bands play to relate to the local Sheffield based magazine. The house style for plectrum is red, white and black because these are gender neutral colours but also mainstream at the same time for this genre of music magazine. I also added yellow to when making my magazine as the magazine had too much of the same colour and it needed something t make it stand out.  The cover lines is in all medium sized text  in white and the writing will be in yellow as that’s the easiest colour to read and they all work well together this is why most magazines use them.  

The main cover image of plectrum is a photograph of sushi who I am interviewing stood in front of their set wearing typical indie rock clothes like some wearing black ripped skinny jeans, a basic t-shirt and a leather jacket the other girl in the band with a tight black skirt, fishnets and a long sleeved top and the last girl wearing shorts and a top tucked in to her shorts this connotes indie rock because these are a few of the stereotyped clothes what indie rock girl bands wear. On the front cover I used another image I took where they were stood infant of a brick wall which looks quite rustic this emphasised that they weren't just a typical band and have something about them, I also changed their clothing and wore hoodies and ripped jeans as I wanted their faces to stand out the most it also connotes the lifestyle of an Indie rock band. These clothes would relate to the audience because it is a typical fashion statement of what their audience would wear, this relates to Denis McQuails theory of 1972 as it is building an identify for themselves. This also made them look like an ideal self or ideal partner. I was going to shoot them at a low angle so they look superior/ powerful and that their music should be listened to however, the shot ended up being taken from a straight angle so they were looking straight into the camera. There isn't many cover images on the front page because I wanted the audience to focus on just the main article photograph of Sushi

Articles what were featured on the contents page are about new upcoming bands of the same genre music, new albums, this week’s best gigs locally and new top releases it doesn't have many different pages of contents of the content page as it will only contain the main pages.

Images what where going to be on the contents page were  a photograph of the 2nd band called ‘Girls Only’ and other smaller upcoming bands also a photo from one of the bands live gigs. The contents page actually ended up having Sushi on it instead of a second band as the band was unavailable to do the photoshoot, it has Sushi stood on a small wall in a park looking off into the distance with their skateboards as props to show who they are as a band. It contains gig guides, features and albums on the side to get the audience hyped up for what they are going to read in the first issue of Plectrum.  There is also a photograph of me at the bottom and an intro to the first issue of the magazine and what to expect for further issues, this relates to my brief as I am making it a local magazine by having a photograph of the author and also telling audiences where the best gigs are in Sheffield only relating to the locality of Plectrum.

The feature of the first double page spread is an interview with the band Sushi on their new album and personal questions about themselves what fans have been wanting to know. Sushi will be posing against a wall one in a black dress and tights, the other in some black shorts and a patterned shirt and the other in skinny jeans and a basic t-shirt. This connotes that their music is fairly loud and that they aren’t a typical girl band as the clothing will mostly be black or indie, little mix for example wear more typical Topshop clothing, however when shooting this I had sushi wearing hoodies, ripped jeans, vintage leggings and mens t-shirts as this suited the style of them more, they also were posed in front of their set with the guitars and amps setting the scene. The models I used are my friends who are all in a band as they show a difference of genre of music because there aren’t many girl bands what are main articles in magazines. The colour scheme for the double page spread is the same house style as the front cover to keep consistency throughout the magazine with the headline title in black and yellow, the subheadings like the pull quote in red and the main text in black, although the scheme is different to the front page it still uses the same colours therefore creating a recognisable band. The pull quote was taken from the interview about their new album which is something to make the reader want to read the article because it catches their eye. The headline title will is the name of sushi’s song which is called 'Ma Sushi' but would relate to the sushi interview/article. The body copy is peer to peer as the target audience is of a young age 14- 25 so all talk to each other informally therefore plectrum is peer to peer. I used tools on InDesign such as strokes to make the pull quote stand out even more which relates to my brief of making a local Sheffield based magazine and the genre of it as it is Indie and typical Indie music fans go out to gigs a lot and won't remember a lot of the night.