trying out illustrator

Today we learnt how to use adobe illustrator and some main functions in order to make our music magazine in future. We learnt how to change the shape of text, changing a text colour to a photo. Here i will talk step by step on how i achieved my end result.

we started off by opening a new file and changing its size to A4. We then added a text, it could say anything as it is just practise. we played around with different font types and sizes.

Starting my proposal

This is what i have done so far:

Magazine proposal

Title of magazine:

Your chosen music genre: Electronic/dance

Type of content included:

·         Feature artists such as Calvin Harris and David Guetta who specialise in electronic music

·         Reviewing songs/albums that are popular in the genre

·         Gossip and news

·         Help in starting a music career

·         QnA’s

·         My unique selling point would be including freebies in the magazine and also selling merchandise online.

Publishers like Bauer might publish my magazine as they publish many other music brands but only have a few magazine brands. They also do not publish anything to do with the genre I am doing, which is electronic/dance. Because my genre is different to what they normally publish, it is likely my magazine will be chosen as companies are looking for unique ideas. If there are two of the same magazines, they would probably be alike. 

Distribution

Evaluation and Distribution

You can purchase Mixmag magazines in many places. You can buy them in stores or even purchase subscriptions and get the magazine sent to your house every time they publish a new magazine. They get people to purchase monthly subscriptions by adding in free coupons or deals. On the mixmag website it says if you buy a 10 month subscription for £30, you can get all the previous issues from 2012 and a 30% off voucher for Beatport. This is synergy as they are both working together, promoting each other. You can also get issues sent to your house instead of purchasing mixmag on your phone/tablet. They include freebies to interest potential customers. A customer may not be interested in buying a subscription, perhaps because they are new and just want to check out the magazine. Mixmag also offers purchasing the single latest magazine; sent to your house or on their app which can be downloaded on your phone/tablet.

There are some features that are included on the website but not in the magazine. On the website you can purchase tickets to gigs. There are many artists to choose from. This feature isn’t included in the magazine as you can’t buy tickets from a magazine. They also have videos included. Of videos and songs which obviously isn’t featured in the magazine. Most features are included in both website and magazine such as news and reviews etc.

Mixmag uses popular mainstream social media to promote the company such as Twitter, soundcloud, YouTube and Facebook. This is because they know loads of people use these social media and so more people will see the promotions. Social media such as Twitter and facebook will allow other users to share their tweets or posts.

College Magazine Evaluation

College Magazine Evaluation

What went well:

I had a clear 3 colour scheme that is easy to spot. This makes my magazine look put together and professional looking. I added many magazine conventions such as star cover lines, sky line, puff/pugg. I put a lot of effort in to the cover which payed off as it enhanced my magazine. My main photo was conventional as it is a mid-shot, and they are used often in magazines. The main image is giving direct address which gives a friendly impression, engaging with the audience. In my contents page, when i wrote about the featured pages, the language i used was engaging and interesting as I used rhetorical questions and made it fun which would be suitable for my target audience.

What I need to improve on:

I need to improve on my contents page as it looked too bland. I could've added more colours to the contents page and filled in the missing white blanks with pictures or more text. 

3 Key points for main task:

- Don't leave any blank spaces. Keep the page busy but still look intriguing.

- Always use colours that compliment the main image.

- Think about the audience and what would appeal to them.

college mag front cover

College mag contents

Flat plan for college magazine

Magazine photoshop task

In lesson, we learnt how to use photoshop. We learnt the basic tools and used the knowledge on making a quick music magazine for our chosen genre. I haven't finished my magazine but the image shows what I have done so far.

Task 2 - EDM magazine

Edm MagazineJ by Aatiqa on Scribd

Task 2 - Mixmag magazine

Mixmag magazine.. by Aatiqa on Scribd