January 26th-30th

This week we began the evaluation of our music magazine. To begin I created an “evaluation” section in my PowerPoint. To show that I had followed the codes and conventions of a music magazine I annotated my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

December 19th-23rd

This week I began creating a questionnaire for my audience research. Once I had compiled the questionnaire I began handing them out and retrieving feedback on my magazine. the 8 questions on my questionnaire included:

1. From looking at my front cover, does the magazine appeal to you?
If yes, what would you change?

2. Do you think it looks interesting?

3. Would you buy the magazine?

4. Would you read any of the articles on the cover?
If yes, which ones?

5. Is there anything you would change?
If yes, what?

6. Would you change the colour scheme?
If yes, what would you change it to?

7. Do you think that the magazine looks realistic?

8. Would you want to read my main article?

January 12th-19th

This week i created my double page spread using Quark, i edited my photos using PhotoShop. I started by adding my title and then my standfirst, then added my article. Still following my sketches i then added my photo and positioned to make it look professional.

January 5th-9th

After finishing the font cover of my magazine, i then started to create my contents page. I followed my sketches so i knew how to lay out the contents page, i then added my feature and regular articles.

December 15th-19th

This week i began to create the front cover of my magazine, i used PhotoShop to import my image and edited my images. I then continued to add my title 'IMS' and made it a unique font by outlining it in black to make it stand out. i added my coverlines, i also added my positioning statement, 'all the latest from the indie music scene'. i also added the issue date and barcode.

December 8th-12th

This week i made a final decision on my photos for my front cover images along with my content page images and my double page spread image. The images below are my original pictures which i intended to use as my front cover image:The first image shown is the image i used on my front cover, i chose this image as the lighting used is interesting and has connotations of my genre which is Jazz.

December 1st-3rd

We started on our research on similar articles for my magazine. Some of the research I have found is;

An article from the wirral globe about Hippys on the Hill -

WIRRAL band Hippys On The Hill return to the live circuit after a brief break with a gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club this Friday, June 27.
Refreshed and rejuvenated, the band (pictured) promise to set dancefloors alight when they appear in an eagerly awaited clutch of five new gigs.
The group - Brad Done, Craig Henderson, Sean McMinn-Davies and Mike Priest are all pupils of Mosslands School, Wallasey and currently working on new material. The Cavern gig is one of five planned for the next month.
The remaining dates are as follows: July 12 as part of The Wirral Show in New Brighton at 4.30pm, July 19 as part of a concert in aid of Wirral Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted in Vale Park, New Brighton; July 20 at the Barfly in Liverpool and July 26 at the Zanzibar in Liverpool (1pm).


Another article from Wirral News -

MEET the Hippys on the Hill!
The foursome from Wallasey are making a name for themselves as one of Wirral’s best young bands, with a string of competition successes and praise from the critics in the last year.
The Hippys, who describe their music on their website as rock/alternative/progressive, are Brad Done (vocals/guitar), Craig Henderson (guitar/backing vocals), Sean McMinn-Davies (bass/backing vocals) and Mike Priest (drums/backing vocals).
All four are aged 15 and 16 and are juggling their music career with studies at Weatherhead High School and Mosslands. From small school gigs in Wallasey, the Hippys are now playing across the North West and have gigs in Birkenhead, Liverpool and Southport lined up before the end of the year.
The band have recorded three CDs of their songs but say their proudest achievement is their latest, Sparrows and Stories To Be Told, which is available at gigs.

November 27th-28th

Continued with my magazine ideas. I completed it and I have decided the article that I am going to write in my magazine is going to be an interview with a band called Hippys on the Hill, and the headline for my article will be Climbing Every Mountain. I have also started producing rough sketches of my contents page and front cover.

November 26th

We started on our magazine ideas which are planning the front cover images, the cover lines for my magazine and the text for my contents page. The image I am going to do on my front cover is a young female singer who is hoping to become the new Debbie Harry. Pictures which i will use in my contents page will include a guitar, the cover artist, an upcoming band and the band which my double page spread article is based on.

November 25th

We started on our publication plan which included the title, taglines, articles that are going to be included and the house and style of my magazine. The title I am going to use for my magazine is IMS, I chose this because it stands for 'Indie Music Scene'. The tagline is 'All the latest from the indie music scene' and some articles I am going to do are; The NEW Debbie Harry?, Backstage pass at The Killers latest video and Exclusive Hippys on the Hill. This is my completed publication plan;

Publication Plan

Title – IMS
Positioning statement – All the latest from the indie music scene
Frequency of publication – monthly
Price - £3.20
Distributaries – Newsagents, CD shops, Supermarkets, gigs.
Rationale – An indie music magazine containing the usual content, but aimed at an audience who are in the 'indie music scene' therefore will be more interested in the magazine.
Style – Informal to relate to target audience, there will be simple syntax and simple vocabulary as the target audience is only ranged from 16-20.
Regular Content –
· Editors Letter
· Interview with an upcoming band
· Gig reviews
· Album reviews
· A story on an upcoming band
· Competitions e.g. win tickets to an Oasis gig
· Noel Fielding interviews a band e.g. Arctic Monkeys
· Quizzes e.h. how much do you really know about indie music?
· The month in pictures
· Recommended albums
· Interview with cover star

Feature articles –
· Interview with a music producer
· A look back at the indie music scene e.g. 1980's
· 70's rock legends - Joy Divison
· Leeds Festival
· Best bands of 2008
· Best albums of 2008
· Backstage pass - The Killers video shoot
· On tour with The Wombats
· Biography of Oasis


House style –

Cover lines – Impact
Headline -
Stand first – 14pt
Captions on photos – 8pt Times New Roman
Features first paragraph: Drop Capital (bold)
Body text: Times New Roman
Colour Scheme: Green, Red, Black & White

November 17th-21st

I tallied up my results of my questionnaire and put them into pie and bar charts which shows my results. I then added this to my PowerPoint file and explained each question and how it would help me with my magazine. I completed my PowerPoint by adding a summary of it.

November 10th-16th

We went over the codes and conventions of a double page spread and added them to our PowerPoints, along with the codes and conventions of a front cover and contents page of a magazine. In my PowerPoint I included the prices of magazomes. frequency of publication, issue size, regular and feature contents that are in an indie magazine. I then made a questionnaire to help me decide what prices and items I will include in my magazine. I handed them out to 20 people aged 16-20 which is my target audience, and asked them to fill it in.

November 3rd-7th

We started our main coursework task. First of all, we decided which genre we are going to do and who are target audience would be. I have chosen to do an 'indie' magazine for 16-20 year olds. We then started to research our chosen genre and began a PowerPoint containing all of our research such as prices of the magazines and how frequently the are published.