Draft Magazine Feedback

Having asked some of my classmates to comment on my first draft, the responses I received were very constructive and generally positive. The photos I had taken were given quite a lot of praise, as the poses, costume and choice of backgrounds 'reflected the genre' of my magazine, according to my peers. I am also pleased with my pictures and intend to take more incorporating the same style. However, my teacher commented on the cover image and said that it wasn't working due to props used, and I agree that this is a problem and will bear this in mind, although he also commented on my chosen model several times and said that she had a sense of 'charisma' which couldn't be wasted.
Praise was also given to my chosen masthead; both the name and the font. I agree that the title of my magazine works well, but my teacher felt that the font needed to be more conventional and 'blocky', and so I will think more about this and will begin looking into a range of different fonts. The colour scheme used on the front cover was commented on as being 'unclear', which I agree with, as I rushed this when creating my draft and instead based it around the colours my model was wearing, as opposed to choosing what would work well together. I am unhappy with my cover as a whole and will change most aspects of it, including layout, colour scheme and font choices.
My contents page layout was well received by students and was even noted as looking 'professional', although I think it is slightly sloppy in places. My teacher also liked the layout, and so I don't think I will make many changes to it, except from the choice of colour scheme and fonts etc. which I feel are currently letting it down.
My double page spread was also well received, and praise included the way I had picked out certain colours from the background and used them to highlight pieces of text, as well as how said text was positioned. My teacher suggested a few changes such as; crediting the writer and the photographer, making the bold text on the right hand side smaller, ensuring that the collumns were the same length and width, and adding pull out quotes to break up the text. I wanted to add pull out quotes when creating my draft, but I ran out of time, and so will definitely make sure that this is something I do next time. I also agree with the other comments made and will take them on board. I once again do not like the colour scheme I have chosen, and I particularly dislike the background colour behind the main article, which was also used on the front cover and looks very dull and boring.
I also posted a link to the post showing my draft magazine on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, and received a comment from a friend, who suggested a few alterations on each page. He generally liked my contents page and double page spread, as most others seemed to, but proposed slight changes including; adding more pictures to the contents page, and changing the background effect on the right hand side of the double page spread. With regards to the cover, he stated that the image looks stretched, the barcode/text should be tidied up (as my teacher had also said), and that more text was required around the model to fill the empty space and create the busy style I was going for. I agree with all of this and will consider these points when creating my final piece.

Pitch Feedback

When pitching my magazine idea to the class, I wasn't given much praise nor many criticisms, I think mainly because the class had very different ideas to me and were not as interested in my chosen idea as much as the others, as they didn't tend to listen to the genre of music I was going for and so didn't know what to expect. They mainly asked questions which I couldn't answer yet, although a few of my friends said that my idea was unique and caught their attention. My teacher thought that a punk rock magazine was a 'fresh' idea and I could pull it off well if I put enough effort into it, which is what I am aiming to do. I hadn't come up with a name at this stage, but I have now decided to call my magazine 'Jaded', as it means 'dulled or satiated/worn out or wearied', which is expressive of how my target audience may generally be feeling, and my magazine will aim to give them something new, as well as being the title of one of Green Day's songs from the punk rock album American Idiot, which is the kind of music I will be putting out in this magazine. I hadn't given much thought to how many pages I would include in my magazine, or at what price I would sell my magazine and how often it would be sold, but considering the fact that Kerrang! magazine has an average of 60-70 pages per issue and sells each for £2.20 and is printed on rough paper, I think a price of £2.99 for a 100 page magazine of the same quality would be reasonable. However, although Kerrang! is sold weekly, I think I would sell mine fortnightly instead, as the amount of detail would be hard to achieve weekly. Q magazine is sold monthly and is printed on glossier paper, which reflects its price of £3.99 per issue of about 166 pages, and so I think that this confirms that my decisions have been made justly. There was some confusion as to what kind of music would be featuring in my magazine, as my pitch stated 'punk, alternative rock', but I think that my previous posts have cleared this up a significant amount and the vagueness of the genre is what will interest my readers, as my magazine will feature a range of music influenced by bands such as The All-American Rejects:

and blink-182:

as well as bands such as Nirvana:

and Ramones:

I informed my teacher that I had a friend in mind to pose for the front cover of my magazine, as she fits the look I am going for without much alteration, and that I would take photographs of her and another two band members for the contents page and double page spread. Due to cancellations I have not been able to take any photographs at present, but this is something which will be done very shortly. I want to have only one person on the cover of my magazine so that it doesn't appear cluttered, but the abstract font choices and a bold background colour will be sure to make it eye-catching and stand out, despite the minimalistic style that I hope to achieve. I will take photographs of my cover star on a bare background, so that editing later on will be much easier, and I will hopefully take photographs of the band as a whole outside if the weather will permit it, against a graffitied wall or an old building, or possibly even in a wooded area, so as to make the band seem rebellious and interesting, although if this cannot be done I will take similar photographs for the contents and the double page spread as I will have done for the cover.