Evaluation of double page spread

Media Evaluation

My magazine was highly focused on a rock magazine with a focus that would attract more guitar players, but also rock lovers alike. For the cover I decided it needed a picture that was eye catching and strong. I believe this was achieved using 2 guitars crossing each other signifying a focus on the double page spread of the 2 bands competing, as each guitar would have been from each band member. However the contents page was more mellowed out and relaxed as the front cover has done its job in attracting the reader. The Double page spread is the main focus of this project as it was imperative that I had to find something very creative. I used 2 pictures of the band members and highly edited their faces so it would be black and white to give it a dark effect with slight sense of war with the facial expressions. In the middle of the double page spread was an guitar amp with 2 guitar heads crossing to form an X, this signifies each member as if he is holding is guitar and aiming it at the other band member but also signifies friendship which can be seen in the interview.

The biggest problem I faced was with the technology within the project. I used a mix of XARA and PHOTOSHOP to edit and put my photos together. Also I used programs such as PAINT.NET to edit photos to which it looks now for example the 2 faces in the double page spread. With XARA it was difficult to put pictures together and layered to give the magazine effect cause it would just disappear. After a while I found ways to counter this problem and get on effectively with my work.

My ideas had changed over the course of the project. The only idea that did not change was the contents page, what is seen in the contents page was what exactly I conjured up in my head while designing ideas in my head. The front page had a few slight changes to what I had planned. My original idea was to have the 2 band members standing with some conflict with their guitars, but I had felt that this would take away the effectiveness of the double page spread. As it was a very powerful image the double page.

I was away on a school trip when I had to take some pictures for the project. Also a classmate who was doing the same project but his own had to use me for pictures as I had to use him for pictures likewise. So due to this fact we were a little behind schedule but the pictures turned out to be perfect. When I showed my ideas to my friends they liked how I had planned it out and couldn't think how it would turn out.

After I finished the project I showed them my final product and the feedback I got was in the general good direction some did not like it because it wasn't their style of music but thats what I tried to do, to appeal it only to people who love rock which is what I seemed to achieve due to the fact that the people that approved had a rock knowledge or a love of rock like me.

I believe that through these images and wordings I have used on the magazine pages I have conveyed the strong message of Rock music to the masses if this was published. I think the cover page is strong enough to attract readers of all sorts not to for only reading but to interest them in what rock has to offer.

The reason I chose Rock music as a base for this magazine is because simply my love for music all started with Rock music, it is the foundation for my musical knowledge I have today and that allowed me to branch into other types of genres I enjoy such as blues, house, electro,hip-hop, jazz and many more which shows a diversity.

I was stretched multiple times on this project due to XARA, on numerous occasions it would not let me do what I wanted which became very frustrating and hazardous to the project as if I could not get what I wanted, the satisfaction of getting it done to my style would not be there and I would have felt it be incomplete.

The name of the magazine 'Rock-aholic'. Although it has a controversial side, it has a strong meaning behind it. The 'aholic' part of the name refers to alcoholic who has a drinking addiction. So I thought this would be for all the Rock addicts out there, which I believe had a very strong meaning and should catch the reader.

The other stories on the magazine cover and contents page were had to think of had it was a rock magazine so it had to have other band names on it to sound legitimate. This was a hard task and frustrating as well, it turned out to be more frustrating then when XARA did not work, but now reviewing the band names and stories I feel I achieved a great job and sense of satisfaction in reading the band names such as 'Stencil Rage' and 'Berlin Impact' which are very catchy and sound very rock like.

The demographics for this magazine would be teenagers from 14+ up to any age who love rock. The reason I chose 14 and up was because it was around 14 years old when i started to really focus on music and rock music in general, and started looking at rock instruments to start learning such as the electric guitar. It is not only limited to those ages, anyone who wants to read this magazine can, I only targeted that demographics as a baseline standard, but had in mind that anyone and everyone can read this magazine.

Josh Pereira