Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When looking previously at the first piece of work completed, the styling and mode of address was different for both the music magazine and the preliminary task, as both magazines had different target groups, and different subjects which need a change of mode of address.>




When creating the preliminary magazine, I enjoyed it very much as it was a new start and I gained many different ideas. The finished piece still looks quite good, however, compared to music magazine it looks quite amateur. However, I liked the way I created a good house theme and made sure the colours, fonts and images all belonged with each other and linked together. Furthermore, I liked the way I laid out the fonts and contexts on the page, I feel as though it all fitted quite well.

However, compared to the music magazine I believe I did not put enough information onto the preliminary task and left to much space on the page and the places that had no space the font sizing was quite big to be on a front cover. In addition, I did not do as much research for this specific magazine as there were not many school based magazines you could find easily. Therefore, the image was not as direct and the music magazine image. The model is looking down and does not seem to connect to the readers. Also, the clothing was not thought through enough and did not fit in with school straight away in my opinion. Furthermore, I learnt a lot more by using photoshop, as in the new image I managed to edit the image better by not adjusting the lighting and brightness to much.




Another key learning change from the preliminary task was the difference between the contents pages, when desiging the second magazine I put a lot more effort into it and had much more experience, furthermore, I put much more research into making the magazine. The conventions of the contents page from the music magazine were a lot more like a real magazine, as it involved a subscription, features, reviews and the news.

Overall, my planning for the second project was much more thought through and so was my time management, when looking at the blogging at the start it has definately improved altogether, and the blogs have been being published a lot more regulary. Furthermore, when planning both the contents page, front cover and the double page spread I made many more drafts and plans to make sure I chose the perfect looking layout which would create in all one good house theme.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

How enabling this technology allowed you to extent your creative ideas and control of the project....

Throughout the creative development and construction of designing the music magazine, over the time of the project I have learnt many new things and a variety of different techniques, new useful skills and learnt about new software which I had never seen before. This year, I have enjoyed learning all the new skills and expanding my creative mind int designing two different magazines which are totally different themed.

Photoshop
One key element which helped me manipulate and edit the layouts, fonts and images of the magazine. This software was photoshop and was first introduced to me in this project.

Tools used while using this software and which helped me create and design my music magazine:

Spot Healing Brush

This effect became very useful to me throughout, as I could use this tool for every picture to "touch up" and make sure all images were clean and tidy to be published.

Cropping tool

This was a simple but effective tool for me, to blog everything I've been doing I have had to crop most pictures to show why I used specific things in the images.

Adjusting contrast/brightness

This tool used allowed me to use a current house theme to the magazine, as for most pictures I increased both the contrasts and brightness, this enhances all images making them look more interesting and stood out more.

Indesign

Furthermore, using this project I was introduced to another new software called "Indesign", it was a crucial part to project as I had to create my double page spread with this software, it wasn't easy to use at first, but become neutral to me as I worked through. The whole of my double page spread has been created with this software. I used margins and alignments to guide and ensure that my pages are planned and designed perfectly. I have become much more confident and found it a lot easier to create a layout involving a huge amount of small context. Therefore, I prefer using indesign for these kind of parts of the project. I have learnt many different things, such as, text wrapping around images to make it look more out of shape but at the same time it looks efficient and professional. Also, I used an illuminated letter, to make the content in the article stand out.

Blogger

This website I am currently using now has been a necessity for y coursework to be shown and explained, it has been the easiest work I've had to plan out and input into this software. At first, when the website was shown to me it was quite scary as I had never had to input all my work on the internet. I had always placed it on paper. However, I enjoyed using this the most as it has been more interesting to play around with and use the different varieties of techniques I can use to make my work look more interesting.

Screen Grabbing

This software was available to me on the apple macs in the school, it allowed me to crop pictures just like the cropping in photoshop, however it was much simpler to use.

Dafont

This website became very useful for me as it allowed me to find the right fonts which would create a good look to my music magazine. The fonts chosen were perfect and made the right effect I wanted for my magazine.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?
Attracting the audience to my music magazine was quite difficult as first as it was aimed at such a particular audience and it took crucial planning for my magazine. I used a range of techniques using IT and creative skills to creative an enticing magazine for my target audience. The front cover would be the first thing that my audience would see when choosing to purchase the music magazine, therefore, it would be my main page to entice the audience. Therefore, we used a constant "house theme" to intrigue the audience by using the images, clothing, language, and colours and font styles. The "house style" is used throughout, to keep a constant link with the magazine and to make the magazine more noticeable for the readers in the future.

In the house theme used I wanted to use a contrast of colours from a light creamy colour to a dark burnt red, to stand out. I did not want to use pink or blue, as they become linked to gender and my target audience is targeted for both male and female, therefore, I wanted to have a mixed gender colour. The colours used also looked quite fresh, natural and linked with the young target of the magazine.

Most of the influences to attract my audience came from the littlest detail used in my magazine as these need to be enticed as the magazine industry is becoming extremely competitive and there function is to appeal to different social economic groups. Therefore, the smallest detail can have a great affect on the reader. Such as, the language used in the front cover, contents and involved in the article to link with the young generations colloquial language. Attracting an audience was through the language of the front cover as it is the first thing they see. My magazine uses a variation of language techniques to entice them. The use of imperatives is used to engage the audience by throwing enticing words at them, such as, "exclusive", "plus". It makes the reader want to read more about the context the magazine is stating. Furthermore, due to the strong competition with music magazines, the word "exclusive" creates more to be superior towards any other magazine. These words begin to become more appealing towards the target market. In my double page spread, I created an article/interview with a current popular artist, to entice the audience. The language used was very colloquial, casual and an easy read. The interview was a very relaxed mode of address as it appeals to the target in a friendly way which draws in the readers. Swearing is also used in some places, to link to the rebellious new generation of the English culture. The readers feel was relaxed when reading the magazine, and feel linked to the magazine itself. It is very direct to the target market.

The front cover image must have the necessities to attract a targeted market. From previous research I found that mostly all front cover images have the model having their eyes looking directly into the camera. The model must have something unique about them, it can be in their pose, clothing. I have used both for my front cover, the clothing links with the colours used throughout the magazine, and the pose stands her face out by using her hand gestures.













The interview uses the same model as the front cover as she is the main feature, the character created is very like able therefore it creates no conflict with readers. The character is very quirky and crazy, also she wears clothes which could link to the target audience of the indie cult.



All of these different ideas to attract my audience came from different magazine influences, different artists and their clothing and poses they use when involved in magazines. Also, friends have influenced me into what clothing would suit the model best and which framing to use and the effects used from lighting to camera angles. The music magazine was made sure to link with the genre conventions and the use of music.

The double page spread can attract the audience as it is linked to the main feature on the front cover and contents page. Therefore, it is one of the main reasons why the reader purchases the magazine. The double page spread was created to allow the reader to have an easy read, it was meant to feel comfortable, friendly and warming to read. By doing this, the article was designed to warm the reader and interest them in what they want to hear, most of the text is very easy to read and colloquial so they can closely link it to their attitudes and likes.

Language used to attract the young indie scenesters:
"Couldn't see sod all!"
"Ahhhh Ohwell"

Evaluation Question 4

What would be the audience of your media product?

The photo below shows my main audience and what groups they are called, these people link with my chosen target for my music magazine as they enjoy this specific type of genre of music.

Indie Scenesters (check website, for info)

Social economic categories have been used traditionally by using a certain technique of labeling certain social groups. These are known as A, B, C1 , C2, D and E, however this labeling is very restricting and and neglects the sub groups in current society. These are known as, successors, aspirers, carers, achievers radicals, traditionalists and underachievers.

My magazine is aimed at aspirers of the ages 16-20. This group does not also include their interests, attitudes and tastes (this links with the group of Indie Scenesters). A aspirer is someone who has an ambitious aspiration who hopes and dreams towards a profession or a future plan. These kind of people love to better and improve themselves, they love to enrich their lives in different ways to make their lives more interesting and different. They often are fairly cultured and enjoy traveling and exploring new ways of living. People would buy my magazine as it's quite different and challenging, also some of the stories are quite rebellious and surprising.

This is a person I believe would read my magazine.

Name: Georgie

Age: 17

Hobbies: Dancing, Going to gigs, listening to music.

Favourtie Film: Shrooms, Titanic.

Favourtie Artists: Klaxons, Vampire Weekend, The Smiths, Arctic Monkeys.

Fashion/Favourite shops: Topshop, Urban Outfitters, Little boutiques in London.

All of the things that Georgie likes above, are linked to the exact target audience I was looking for the magazine and the age is the right amount to link and connect to the magazine and its language.

Evaluation question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

There is a broad range of media institutions that take on magazines to publish, such as the well known ones as followed:




Bauer Media is very common publisher and publishes over eighty well known brands in the UK, and since then has established itself as one of the most influential magazine creators. They publish many magazines such as, "Heat", "FHM", "Closer" and "Grazia".


However, the publisher I would choose to use for my media is IPC media, reasons for this is that they are one of the leading media intuitions in the UK. The magazine "NME", is published by this business, which links to the same target audience as my hypothesis. In addition, IPC is a very well known media institution and produces over 60 iconic brands. Also, they have researched that over 26 million adults read a magazine published by IPC Media. The magazine industry has become increasingly competitive to appeal different social economic groups. Therefore, I think choosing this industry has matched my target audience the most.

Click this link for more information about the company.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The two images above show my chosen image I used for my front cover, and a picture taken from a real music magazine. From the start of my research, I needed to look how to link my model with the target audience of indie/alliterative rock my using clothes, expressions and poses. When viewing this image of a real artist, I liked the way she uses her hands to express her face gesture and it enhances her face language.

Both images show exceeding similarities and differences at the same time. Similarities that are shown are the pose, the hands which are shaped around the face I think attract readers as it enhances their face expression and has a clever body language which surprises their reader. I made sure the eyes were the darkest past of the image as most front cover images have a strong gaze right into the camera. Therefore, I wanted the dark eyes to contrast to the light clothing and background. This is why I made the model's clothing very light, to contrast to the other stronger colours on the front cover. Also, both images, like most front covers show a medium close up shot to show the face clearly and allows the editor to work around the face. In the real music image I enjoyed the way her hair was laid down beside her shoulders. Therefore, I curled my models hair and let it flow down. The angle was straight for the face as I wanted everything concentrated on her, just like most images show. The clothing and heavy amount of jewelery link to the fashion of the music genre, as most the jewelery always is quite heavy to contrast against the light clothing. Furthermore, every aspect of the image was thoroughly researched through the internet, by looking at the clothing and attitudes of the chosen target audience. "Indie Scenesters", therefore they could become more attracted and drawn in to the magazine.

What's next for the Indie Scenesters?

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The red lines above on the front covers compares the similarities between my front cover and an exemplar of a music magazine called "Rock Sound". Starting from the top, the similarities involve the title being bold and clear, the size of the text when designing music magazines seems to be the bigger the size font, shows the importance of the content. On the real music magazine they show what a little information below the title. When creating the magazine for my coursework, I wondered whether you would be able to create the same look for the magazine on "Microsoft Publisher", and I personally think that you would not be able to create something like this to look exactly like a real magazine. Therefore, using photoshop was the most appropriate option when creating a magazine for this brief. Therefore, I have included the date and the number of the issue they are reading. Other similarities show the barcode being placed in the bottom right hand corner, which is an easy access able place to scan when purchasing. Furthermore, I have included a "Plus" section on the bottom, which has been shown regularly on many other music magazines. The plus allocates to the reader that there is much more important and interesting facts to read, which intrigues the reader to buy the magazine and read on. In addition, I created the "plus" label to look much bolder and bigger than he information below.

Title of magazine
Most music magazines have a clear title that links with the genre of music that the magazine focuses on, when researching real media products I discovered that music magazines focusing on heavy metal/rock were called "Kerrang", to link to the noise of a guitar or even clearly and simply "Rock Sound". Therefore, when deciding that the music genre of my magazine would be alternative rock/indie, I researched this type of music on the Internet. When searching 'alternative rock' I looked through wikipedia finding key words which would link to my magazine genre and found "Shoegazing".

"Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a sub genre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980's" (information found on wikipedia)

The title name "Shoegazing" not only linked with the chosen genre, but the style of it linked with the Independence and the strangeness of the random fashion and attitudes of people into the emerged alternative rock.

Title font and size
The font used for both titles on the pages "contents page" and the "front cover". The font used was called "fabianestem", and was used on both pages to create a house style. I used this font as it the style created a random image just like the creation of the font. Furthermore, it stands out and attracts readers.

Mise en scene of images
When trying to create a magazine front cover, I had to think about what type of pose the model would use, how he/she would look and what would they wear. Therefore, I did some research on other front cover photos. I loved the pose used in the photo as it enhanced all of her facial details and her eyes were more attentions on.

When using the camera to create the perfect front cover image, it involved designing a white background with some sheets stuck to the wall and laid out on the floor. Furthermore, lamps were used to shape the lighting around her face. Also, when taking the pictures I had to remember to leave space on the wall above, which was where the title was going to be placed. I had the camera on a medium close-up aiming straight towards her face and just below her shoulders.

The main focus of using this image was to use the same method on all of the real music magazine pictures used. I noticed that every artist/model used had an eye gaze right into the camera lens. Therefore, I needed to make sure her gaze was looking straight in front and her eyes were dark to enhance the gaze to attract readers.

Costumes and props
The picture I have used above for my front cover shows the model that I chose to match the genre and the young target audience I'm trying to aim for. The model looks in close range of the age range I had chosen 16-19 year old. The image shows a strong woman, which shows a god role model to look up to already, she looks very confident in her body and looks simple but stands out. Her clothing I dressed her in is very flowing with the white dress to blend in with the background with light colours. The jewelery adds to the clothing and the fashion of the music. The light colours in the image also contrasts to the dark eyes and enhances her bright red lips.

The fashion in society has proven to becoming increasingly linked to music and the attitude. Examples of this are shown from previous research I made on UKtribes. My magazine is linking closely to rock and indie, which linked to social groups such as "The Indie Scenesters".

Written content

Research shows that the 21st century of youths have become known as the "the rebellions". which explains why I have used this specific type of language for my magazine. The language used is very colloquial and seems very natural and real. To emphasise this I inputted swear words, which statistics show that many young people become more attracted to reading when the language links to what they are like in real life.

Music genre

My music magazine was created to match the music genre Indie/alternative rock and link to the audience of the "Indie Scenesters". To create the vibe needed I researched the specific group I need to attract to want t read the magazine created. I used the website shown previously UKtribes, which helped me by telling me what my target audience liked to listen to, hobbies, fashion and what shops they enjoy visiting. This majorly helped me by giving me this information I could then attempt to create the perfect front cover with the model dressed and styled as it would suit.

Layout
I have used conventions when designing my double page spread to make the magazine seem more real and natural. In doing this I have included a number of conventions, such as,

*Drop caps - this is used regularly in articles from magazines, it looks clear and efficient for the reader, it also matches my font style for the title of "Edwardian Script" as it looks very old fashioned as it was traditional.




*Exciting opening - the opening has to be intriguing to want the reader to read on and see what else is being written. Therefore, my opening title involved the words "Welcome" as I thought it was very direct and targeted at the audience. Furthermore, the language of the interview had a comfortable ambiance to the scene by describing some of the things in the place they met e.g "pub, drinks", it described a casual meeting and relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee.

Furthermore, the page numbers which are added to every page, make a connection with all pages, and the page numbers have been created boldly to make it easy to follow for the readers.

Contents pages
The pictures below shows the similarities and differences from my designed contents page a section taken from a real magazine called "NME". The actual context on the page was inspired by a number of contents pages when researching many magazines. However, most of the magazines seemed to have the same sections just like the picture below. Such as, reviews and features. I wanted the contents page to have the same conventions as a real music magazine, therefore, I inputted a section with information showing how to subscribe to the magazine monthly and how much it would cost the reader. The contents page was very informative and efficient.

At first, the image chosen was going to be of another band and a different person. However, I decided to use the same model as it adds on to the main feature from the front cover. Most magazines decide to carry on the main feature onto the contents page, as most readers whom purchase the magazine, buy it to read the interview from the main front cover model.

In addition, the monthly subscription is used through all magazines, it allows the reader to keep purchasing them in one go, therefore, they will always be reading them and the circulation will stay the same as it is contracted. Also, the reviews is used only in music magazines, as it allows the reader to see what bands and performances are worth looking at.

Final Double Page Spread

This is my final piece of the double page spread we had to design and create. It is very different to the original plan, however, I find this second layout more fitting to my magazine and believe it has a better house style. Also, the page numbers shown link to the contents page, of what page the main feature would be on, "page 46". I enjoyed using the techniques in photoshop to design the framing for all four images and I also enjoyed using a different software to edit the double page. Furthermore, the article itself involves all sides of the artist and I think is quite comical but interesting in the same, it's very warming and is such an easy read.

Progress towards double page spread

Layout 1
I decided to plan two different layouts as i was not sure on what would connect most to my front cover and contents page as a whole "house style".

Using inspiration from previous articles I have shown, I decided what picture I was going to use for my double page spread, the picture below shows what I have chosen for my main image. Most articles when researched had one main image which would stand out.

I chose this picture for my main image as it clearly shows her and her figure/outlook of the artist, which is what the reader likes to see. In addition, the photo links to the music side of the article by clearly showing that she can play the keyboard and it is involved in her music. The lighting was changed and the contrast, I made sure it was the same change from the front cover images which were edited. Therefore, they look similar and add to the house style I am looking for.


Also, the exemplar articles had more than one photo on the double page, they included little photos, which interest the reader in more of what the artist looks like and their style. I decided to use an effect I had seen once when researching poses for the model. Clearly, it shows a strip made of a black border with the photos included inside the boxes, like a storyline. I enjoyed designing this on photoshop, having to the line tool to design the right sizing and placing the images inside. Furthermore, to enhance the pictures inside, I edited their brightness as the black clothing dimmed the picture altogether, when changing the brightness I had to make the
contrasting the same to even the effect of the image.

When designed the strip, these were the pictures I decided to use at first, however, I did not like the fact that she was wearing the same clothes and wanted something different to attract the reader more.




This was the chosen layout I had hoped for, however, when I had nearly finished I decided that I did not like the way it had outcome. The pictures I had edited, I did like them and wanted to use them still, especially the storyline strip of photos.



Therefore, I decided to change the whole layout and go back to square 1.

Finally, layout 2.

Firstly, I planned out my new layout, I wanted the pictures the most to stand out, as music magazine are an easy read and I wanted to reader to feel eased and to have to read a hard reading difficult to understand article. Therefore, pictures that are interesting would stand out the most.



Therefore, I wanted one whole side of the article to be pictures, I planned to use the pictures in the strip as I really liked the idea and the effect of the framing. However, to make the layout work I would have to re-organise the storyboard.




This was the chosen layout of the images. In a rectangular square frame, to match the layout of the double page spread.

I liked...
The way the black top contrasted with the white background and how the hair is put up, which contrasts to the front cover image of the long brown hair all flowing down below her shoulders. The red lip stick which is used constantly enhances the image more and links to the red colours used throughout the whole project .





When choosing fonts, it becomes very difficult. For the content "Florence Taylor", I wanted it to curvy and italic just like way in which it was used on the front page. Therefore, I attempted to used the same font as the front cover "Mono type Corsavia". However, it was not curvy enough, therefore, I searched through the list and came across the font "Edwardian Script".

Once the article had been overlooked and corrected, to finish the double page, all was left to enter was the content and choose a outstanding quote. Therefore, the content was inputted and I decided to make the question which the interviewer asked in bold, to make clear who was speaking whether it was the question or the answer. Also, the font used "Times New Roman" for the text was inputted as it was the clearest text and was small enough to read still. It was very basic and clear.

The quote used, I enjoyed changing the style of the font used, and making the outline of the text bolder to enhance the quote. The quote used involes comedy and irony. I used the artist known as "Miley Cyrus" as it is commonly known that the people who enjoy the genre music of "alternative rock", dislike or hate Miley Cyrus or her other pop side "Hannah Montana". She is well known and would grab peoples attention as it talks about her being caught changing.
This content had to be text wrapped between all of the articles context to enhance the quote more.
Lastly, the final part was inputting page numbers on to the bottom of the page, which matches most research shown on the real music magazines. I decided to only put one page number on the first part of the page (the same page number as shown on the contents page). I only used one page number as the second page of the article was full form the images used and the page number would look out of place. The font style used was very clear and easy to see/read.

Research on articles

When analysing the previous articles...
I looked at their house style and how they made the style link to the genre and whole colour scheme etc.

Even though, I had already planned my layout, I wanted to attain a second approch to make sure my current plan and layout was matching the current layouts used in the real music magazine industry.

The magazines articles I found were from "Rock Sound", I noticed many of the articles designed all have one large main image, which captures your attention the most and then it may have a few smaller images to enhance on the connection of the reader and the artist itself.

The main colours used for all articles were the bright, common colurs blue, red and yellow.

Colloquial Language Used...
to enhance the connection with the reader, making it more easy reading, and quicker. Also, it builds a better relationship with the artist and the reader to what they are saying in the interview/article.

Such as,

"he tried to 'GET OFF' with his mum"

"I have had a lot of men flashers at me"

"this is the real shit"

Language that is colloquial definately matches the genres and the music magazine, due to it being more social and an easy read, something that interests you should always be an easy read and not difficult to understand. Therefore, the language should link with the readers.

Layout of doublepage spread

The layout states where everything has to be in order for my plan to work, I want the pictures to all be boarded around the edges and the main photo to be placed in the centre, with the text wrapping around the outline. I enjoyed this layout the most as it has a lot more opportunities allowing me to play around with the software and learn more techniques.

Inspirations of double page spread ideas.

These layouts were found from a magazine called "Rocksound, I noticed they all have the same shade of colours. However, their layouts are different in every spread, I will use this as a guide to planning my double page spread. I found it interesting, learning the different ways in which pictures could e used in many different ways to make the article look more effective.