Magazine Second Draft - Feedback Video

For this feedback I got my older brother to analyse and tell me what I could change to make my magazine look professional and actually suit the R&B music magazines conventions. I chose him as he reads many music magazines especially R&B.

Adding another page?
Also my brother re analysed the whole magazine again and did a thorough look and explained to me that there was a few spelling errors and also that he felt there was a page missing. He wanted a page which illustrated Antonia's "normal life" style before she got famous as these are the story's which fans want to know! He suggested a photo outside of a house or somewhere which symbolizes her neighbor hood/upbringing, this will attract those who want to know her story.

Magazine First Draft

I felt that as it's my first draft I should be the one reflecting on it and telling myself my opinion on it and how I could improve it! First off after looking at my magazine from a distance I can instantly tell I forgot to add a bar code! And also I could add the new scan called a QR code. Also I feel there should be a few more sell lines which introduce articles which are within the magazine. Also one major thing which I forgot was the website,price and issue number, these are vital information which are needed on a front cover, without them there would be a loss of information and readers will become confused when they look for it when there about to purchase it. Maybe if I play around with the layout of the sell lines and badge, it will give me more room to put sell lines on the wrong and overall make the front cover look more professional.

This is my special edition front cover which I created, however I wanted to go for the simple look, saying this now looking at the front cover I think it needs a bit more information such as the website, price and issue number/date as this is vital for any magazine. Also I feel there should be something which clearly states that this magazine is special edition, maybe some boxed text.

The first thing I think about when I look at my contents page is non professional and unrealistic. First of all I don't like what I did with the colour photo and gave it less opacity  secondly I don't like that I tried to include to main photos, makes the page confusing. I don't know which one to look at as a main image. Also the information part of the contents page doesn't really illustrate what sections of the magazine parts are from, I should use sub-heading for my next contents page. Also I should maybe try add some other pictures instead of two main ones maybe one big and three small? Also I should remove the pull quote as this is a contents page not a double page spread, I know I was trying to link the photo to the article but instead I should replace it with a number next to the image.

For the this double page I instantly can tell the the photo doesn't suit a introduction to an article double page spread, I need to use a photo with less attitude. Also I change the layout of the Antonia and the rest of the sub-headings maybe one under the other. Also for the new photo which I chose I should edit it a bit to make the photo look nice because sometimes there could be marks/scratches on the models skin which could be distracting.

For this double page I feel that I should put the text closer together, there is too much space in between the texts, also the photos layout isn't appealing, it just seems like I crammed lots of photo on a page and added text. However I really like the way I added gold on to parts of the text which are questions, there easily seen . Lastly there are no pull quotes, nothing which will pull the reader in and the photo seems too happy for a article double page spread as this is the page where it holds all the information. I should use a photo where she is posing.

 For my last double page spread I really should add at least some text with a square behind it to stand out, I don't want to change the colour of the font as that can be confusing and distracting for the readers. I really feel the the behind the scenes is a really good idea and the photo used for this page is brilliant and represents classic R&B.

Sketch of R&B Magazine Front,Contents and Double Pages

Front Cover Sketch

This is my first plan of my magazine, as I am going to for classic R&B magazine I wanted the front cover to be very simple but grab the readers attention and to do this I thought a competition would lead people into the magazine. I also wanted to have a name which will focus on the R&B genre so I felt "Harmony" was best suited. Also moving on I want to use a nice clean portrait shot of my model in black and white on the front cover. I also felt that by adding artists names, this would then attract readers who are fans of the following artists "Ne-Yo, Trey Songz, Rihanna, Beyonce or of course the main artist for this issue, the new upcoming "Antonia".

 Contents Page Sketch

Moving on I wanted my contents page to be clean and simple, I didn't want too many pictures  maximum two I did this as the main objective for the contents page is to inform and by having so many pictures and colours on the page the reader will get confused and instantly get distracted by all the colours and not the information itself. 

1st Double Page Spread

On the first double page I wanted this page to be an introduction page to the whole interview, saying this meant that there was only going to be a little part of the article to introduce the article and set the interview and then to engage the audience I would use an interesting pull quote to grab them into the article and make them read it! Also I felt a large photo of Antonia should be displayed on the double page to illustrate who the article is on. Of course I added the page number and website to each page in the magazine, as this is a convention of a music magazine.

2nd Double Page Spread

This double page spread is the where the main chunk of the interview/article will be at, this means that I have to have some sort of thing to grab the audiences attention while there reading the article to keep them interested. For example after a column of article I have included a column of photos which will be all studio shots of the artists, this is so that the readers are kept entertained whilst reading the article. I then add the rest of the article column which will then finish on the next double page spread. Then to finish off the double page spread I will present a photo of the artist on a whole page. Not forgetting the convention of the page number and website on each page.

3rd Double Page Spread

Lastly This page was simple, it was the last page of the article so I instantly knew I wanted the main photo to be a performance shot which will be placed in the background and on top I would have a quote displayed to keep the readers going and for them to finish the article. Then I would finish the article. Lastly I also added an image of a behind the scenes shot and will be adding a description or the readers to visit the website to view the behind the scene, this will then create more traffic for the magazines website.