Evaluation

EvaluationMegan May Prince

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

ImageI chose to have my image overlapping my masthead as I found out in my research that this was a very common convention for music magazines with mastheads that fill the top of the page. However, unlike billboard and rolling stone magazine I chose to place my image slightly below my masthead so that you could still fully see my magazines name. I believe rolling stone magazine and billboard magazine choose to cover up a section of their masthead with their image as their magazines are very well known and even with part of the masthead covered up everyone can still tell what the magazine is called as it is so well known. However due to my magazine being brand new and it being its first issue I chose to not fully cover up my masthead so that people can see my magazines name clearly and remember it.


Colour SchemeI chose the colour scheme pink, blue and white as these colours work very effectively together. I chose this colour scheme as it is a reflects the age of my target audience (16-24) as it is bright and colourful and after looking at my survey results many people in my target audience said they find bright colours attractive on a magazine. Also after my product research I discovered that many magazines that were based mainly on pop and had a pink, blue and white colour scheme which clearly attracts people to their genre of magazine so I believe that by me using that colour scheme in my magazine it will attract the same people to buy my magazine. However the pop magazines I researched tended to use bright pinks in their colour scheme, however I chose a paler pink as I felt this looked better and fitted in with my models personality and look, and the tone of my double page spread article.

BarcodeAfter doing my existing magazine research I discovered that the majority of magazines have their barcode on the bottom right hand corner of their front cover. Whilst doing my flat plan I deliberately placed my barcode in the bottom right corner, similar to NME magazine and then placed the menu box ‘featured artists’ box to the left of it. However some magazines like ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine mainly choose not to put a barcode on their front cover and place it on the back instead. I chose to challenge this as my task didn’t include making a back cover and I feel that placing the barcode on the front of my magazine made my page look finished and complete. (images to the left)


Masthead FontAfter completing my existing product research I found out that the majority of music magazines masthead’s are all one block colour or are two colours with one main colour and a second primary colour as an outline. I decided to challenge this format as I felt that having a unique duel tone and a softer masthead fitted in more with the light hearted tone of my magazine. (images to the left)

Cover LinesI chose to put my cover lines and subheadings in semi-transparent boxes to develop the conventional presentation of cover lines and to soften the effect of my front cover. To the left the rolling stone Rihanna magazine uses semi-transparent boxes so that none of the background is but out of the page, and due to my background being a graffiti wall I didn’t want to cover up the effect of it by using none transparent boxes.


Layout

I chose to base my magazine mostly on Q magazine as this American magazine focuses mainly on top 40 and chart music, which is the same genre of music as my magazine is based on. I have chosen to directly reflect the current media format and convention of a top 40 magazine that already exists as this already is proven to attract my audience. I chose to do this as it shows that this layout is clearly very effective for that genre of magazine and for the age range the magazine is aimed at, which is the same audience that my magazine has targeted. Behind the article there is a large vibrant ‘L’ that stands for Lady Gaga, the ‘L’ is very effective as it immediately draws the reader into the text half of the double page spread whereas without the L most people would focus at the image first before the text so I believe it balances out the page well. Also due to the image being in black and white I think the bright red ‘L’ brings colour and fun to the page. Also the colour red reflects the ‘Q’ magazine colour scheme which subliminally reminds the reader of the magazine brand. I think this looks very effective therefore I chose to reproduce this look in my magazine using a large ‘E’ for Ed Sheeran, however I changed the colour as the light blue fits in with my colour scheme and complements the blues in my image very well, also blue is a very fresh colour, which duplicates the fresh new artist Ed Sheeran is. In the top left corner the name of the artist the interview is about is written, in Q magazine it is written in a serif font which connotes femininity, therefore I chose a bold sans serif font which is a stronger masculine font to reflect my models gender. Although I directly reflected the layout of Q’s double page spread I chose to challenge the image they used. I chose to make my image a colour image, differing from the black and white image used in Q, I chose to do this as my colour scheme fits in with the image colours perfectly, as I had planned my models clothing to accommodate this and through choosing the location I did. And also my interview is very light hearted and fun, so I felt the image should be more playful and bright to reflect the tone of my interview.

How does your media product represent particular social group?

Colour SchemeThe colour scheme for my magazine is pink, blue and white. I chose this colour scheme as these vibrant colours reflect the care free, relaxed bright nature of teenagers. My magazine is aimed at both men and women, however primarily women, this is reflected in my colour scheme as baby pink and light blue are often associated with females.

ImageOn my front cover I chose to dress my model in a very casual outfit which alludes to lower/middle class social grade, which is the social grade that many 16-24 year olds fit into. Also his clothing is typically masculine as he is wearing a hoodie and jumper, which is a typical outfit that many 16-24 year olds wear, which makes my model seem relatable to the reader and could inspire readers to become successful like Ed Sheeran. I chose to dress my model in a plain hoodie as this gives Ed Sheeran a ‘boy next door’ feel and allows the reader to empathise and identify similarities between themselves and this famous singer. Also Ed Sheeran is from a middle class background, which is similar to the social class that my magazine is aimed at. The background of my image is a graffiti wall, graffiti is commonly associated via the media with teenagers and very young adults. I tried representing this social group by linking the graffiti wall and my casually dressed middle class looking model together.

Model PoseMy model isn't making eye contact with the camera as this leaves a bit of mystery to his character, which many teenagers can relate to as teenagers are very secretive and inquisitive. In the image my model is playing a guitar, this reflects a very middle class vibe as middle class people tend to have the disposable income and intelligence to want to learn a musical instrument. The guitar is an unbranded guitar, this could inspire the reader as it is a cheep and easy to afford guitar and it doesn’t differentiate Ed Sheeran from many young adults out there which therefore allows people to relate to and empathise with this easy going casual artist.LanguageThe language used in my front cover is very light hearted and uses a lot of slang and colloquialisms. I chose to use words like ‘naked’ and ‘crack’ as these are words that would attract inquisitive teenagers and slang words and phrases directly reflect the medias stereotyping of ‘uneducated teenagers’. Also I chose to use the buzz word ‘festival’ as my magazine is a music magazine and this festival reflects the genre of music my magazine features and festivals are a great way for people in my social group to socialise and aspire to attend. The contents page of my magazine has links to facebook, twitter, youtube and myspace, all of these are social networking sites and many 16-24 year olds use these to socialise and meet new people, which is the type of behaviour commonly associated with festivals.

How does your media product represent particular social group?

ImageOn my double page spread I chose to dress my model in a very casual outfit which alludes to lower/middle class social grade, which is the social grade that many 16-24 year olds fit into. Also his clothing is typically masculine as he is wearing a hoodie and jumper, which is a typical outfit that many 16-24 year olds wear, which makes my model seem relatable to the reader and could inspire readers to become successful like Ed Sheeran. I chose to dress my model in a plain hoodie as this gives Ed Sheeran a ‘boy next door’ feel and allows the reader to empathise and identify similarities between themselves and this famous singer. Also Ed Sheeran is from a middle class background, which is similar to the social class that my magazine is aimed at. The background of my image is in an urban setting outside in a graffiti tunnel as this represents his middle/lower class background and is attainable for his music audience to relate to.

Model PoseOn my double page spread my model is posing pushing against a metal tunnel as if he is trying to get out and escape. Many middle class people choose to read magazines as a form of escapism from their hectic lives and to immerse themselves in someone else's life, via reading articles about celebrities, therefore I tried to represent that social group in a pose.LanguageThe language used in my interview with Ed Sheeran is very light hearted and he uses a lot of slang and colloquialisms. I chose to use words like ‘dude’ and ‘Marilyn Monroe is just hot’ as these are phrases used commonly by lower/middle class teenagers. Also these slang words and phrases directly reflect the medias stereotyping of ‘uneducated teenagers’.

Colour SchemeThe colour scheme for my magazine is pink, blue and white. I chose this colour scheme as these vibrant colours reflect the care free, relaxed bright nature of teenagers. My magazine is aimed at both men and women, however primarily women, this is reflected in my colour scheme as baby pink and light blue are often associated with females.

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

Bauer Media GroupBauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week. I chose Bauer Media Group as they publish a large range of music magazines e.g. KERRANG! and Q magazine. Q magazine is a similar genre of music magazine to mine as it focuses mainly on top 40 chart music which would mean my magazine would fit in with Bauer Media Groups magazine specification and if they chose to take on board TOPOP it would create a sense of competition between the two pop magazines as TOPOP and Q have similar target audiences. Also Bauer Media Group doesn’t only produce magazines, it owns music channels too. KERRANG! isn’t only a music magazine but it also has its own music channel, and due to my magazine being a music magazine I felt Bauer Media Group would be a perfect publisher as it could develop my magazine into a music channel consisting of top 40 music and videos too.


IPC Media IPC Media works with more than 60 iconic media brands, IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events. As the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher we engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. Our award winning portfolio of websites reaches over 25 million users globally every month. IPC media only publishes 1 music magazine ‘NME’ which is an indie rock magazine meaning TOPOP, a top 40 magazine would fill a gap in the market and hopefully attract a new range of people to buy an IPC media product. Also the majority of magazines IPC media produce are women's magazines, and women are primarily TOPOP’s target audience it should fit in with some of the magazines IPC media already publishes.


ConclusionIn conclusion I have chosen Bauer Media Group as they publish a large range of music magazines e.g. KERRANG! and Q magazine which would mean they would have experience of music magazines and what works and what doesn’t. Also I feel it will fit in well with Q magazine as it is a similar genre of music magazine to mine as it focuses mainly on top 40 chart music and it would create a sense of competition between the two pop magazines. Also Bauer Media Group has the potential to develop my magazine into a music channel consisting of top 40 music and videos as they have already done this for KERRANG! and 4 music.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

CIRCULATION

65,000

READERSHIP

400,0000

ABC1 PROFILE

68%

MEAN AGE

20

MALE/FEMALE

35%/65%

BUY EVERY ISSUE

85%

THE MISSIONTOPOP is your fortnightly insight into the

lives of famous pop artists from around the world. Our readers will receive exclusive , up to date stories focusing on the biggest and best music of the year and interviewing the artists and getting the latest on their career

and life.

Who would be the audience for your media product? Reader Profile

How did you attract/address your audience?

Colour SchemeThe colour scheme for my magazine is pink, blue and white. I chose this colour scheme as it is a reflects the age of my target audience (16-24) as it is bright and colourful and after looking at my survey results many people in my target audience said they find bright colours attractive on a magazine. Also the blue and pink reflect each gender as blue stereotypically relates to men, and pink to women, however my magazine is primarily aimed at women.

Main ImageThe main image is a mid shot of ‘Ed Sheeran’ I chose to use this shot as it would make his face and body central and it includes the majority of the guitar, which Ed Sheeran is commonly associated with. I chose to dress my model quite simply without any sexual aspects as this seems to be a common convention of POP magazines. I have chosen to make my model not make eye contact with the camera as once again dismissing any sexualisation within the image. Also my models outfit is very casual which gives my model a ‘boy next door’ feel and reflects the type of clothing my target audience would wear and be attracted to. The background of my image is a graffiti brick wall, I chose this background as it gives the magazine an urban feel as Ed Sheeran is an urban pop artist. Also the colours on the graffiti wall are light pink and blue which are the two main colours in my colour scheme and these colours emphasise ‘Ed Sheeran’s’ trademark ginger hair. Also Ed Sheeran’s head overlays the Masthead covering up part of it, this could show that Ed Sheeran is very important to this issue even more so than the masthead itself.

MastheadThe masthead is written in a sans serif font. I chose this font as it is bold and stands out from the page, however I didn’t want it to look too harsh against my background so I chose the ‘disco diva’ font as it softens the harsh bold effect but the text is still clear. I chose this font as it is similar to the ‘top of the pops’ magazine masthead font, however mine looks more original and compliments the brick wall background perfectly.

Main Cover LineThe main cover line is written in a blue box to differentiate itself from the other cover lines. The name of the featured artist is written in capital letters in the font ‘walkway bold’ and a short quote from the article is written underneath in ‘minimal’ font. I chose to do this as it is easy to identify what artists are featured in the article and the tone of the interview/article so readers can quickly decide if they want to read that article or not.

Date and PriceHaving the date and price on the front cover is a common convention for magazines. The date and price are placed in the bottom right hand corner as whilst doing my existing magazine research I discovered that the majority of magazines have their barcode on the bottom right hand corner of their front cover. Whilst doing my flat plan I deliberately placed my barcode in the bottom right corner, similar to NME magazine. This magazine issue was released in January 2013 and is £2.99. I have chosen this price as it reflects my target market as many people that are in the 16-24 year old age category are in the NRS social grade abc1, therefor they will have some disposable income however not a lot as they will be either students or may only have a part time job however they tend to chose to spend their disposable income on luxury items like clothes, music and magazines (which I found on during my interviews) which will be reflected in my magazine.

Buzz world‘Festival line up revealed’ this buzz word/phrase is used to make the audience feel more involved with the magazine and story as the reader feels like they can only read that story in this issue of the magazine which is a unique selling point of the magazine. This also reveals the genre of the magazine as V festival mainly consists of pop/top 40 artists.

KickerThe kicker is used to list a few of the big artists that feature within the magazine, this is so the reader instantly knows what the magazine will feature without having to stop and look inside the contents page. Also it is written in a white box with a black outline which will catch the readers eye when its on a shop shelf as it stands out from the page due to the bold outline.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Masthead The mast head of my double page spread is just ‘ED SHEERAN’ it is written in sans serif font which is a strong bold masculine font to reflect my models gender. Also this is simple mast head intrigues the reader as the masthead gives nothing away about the article which could intrigue the reader and make them want to read the whole interview. Also there is no sub heading so for the reader to gain any of the information in the article they have to fully read it.

Feature Letter Behind the article there is a large vibrant ‘E’ that stands for Ed Sheeran, the ‘E’ is very effective as it immediately draws the reader into the text half of the spread whereas without the E most people would look at the image first and forget about the text so I think it balances out the page well. Also the colour blue reflects my magazines colour scheme which subliminally reminds the reader of which magazine they are reading.

TextThe text in the double page spread is all on the right hand side of the page and is written in 3 columns. I chose to use 3 columns rather that one whole block of text as I feel it looks more inviting to read in columns rather than a huge block of small text in the same font as it breaks up the page well and doesn’t make the page look crowded. The language used in my interview with Ed Sheeran is very light hearted and he uses a lot of slang and colloquialisms. I chose to use words like ‘dude’ and ‘Marilyn Monroe is just hot’ as these are phrases used commonly by my target audience.

Main ImageThe main image is a full length shot of Ed Sheeran. I chose this shot as I thought it would give the image depth and makes the image more dramatic. The background of this image is in an urban setting in a graffiti tunnel and woodland area to give depth and an urban feel to my magazine. My model is central to the image and is stood in the middle of the tunnel pushing up, I chose this is my model is still the main focus of the image and his face with direct eye contact immediately catches the readers eye. My model is dressed in a plain hoodie as this gives Ed Sheeran a ‘boy next door’ feel and allows the reader to empathise and identify similarities between themselves and this famous singer. my model is posing pushing against a metal tunnel as if he is trying to get out and escape, I chose to do this as many people in my target audience (teenagers) use reading magazines as a form of escapism from their hectic lives and to immerse themselves in someone else's life via reading articles about celebrities.

How did you attract/address your audience?MastheadThe masthead ‘contents’ labels the page so that the reader knows they are now on the contents page and that page will explain what the magazine will contain. I chose to write it in black in a serif font at the top left hand side of the page as we read from left to right so the masthead is the first text you read. The masthead is written in black as this colour stands out from blue and pink logo behind it and complies with the magazines colour scheme.

Magazine LogoThe TOPOP logo is written on the top left side of the page, behind the masthead. I chose to place the magazine logo behind the masthead as it would be a subliminal reminder to the reader which magazine they are reading without overpowering the masthead. Also the logo is placed on the contents page as the logo contains the main colours of the colour scheme of my magazine, I chose to do this as I believe it brings the page together and makes the colour scheme more apparent. I also chose to put the logo on my contents page so the reader remembers the magazine logo and can begin to recognise it, making the magazine more memorable and easier to pick out from a crowd.

Issue NumberThe issue number is written at the top right of the page. I chose to do this so that readers that will follow the magazine regularly know which issue it is and know if they have missed one and could potentially start to collect all of the TOPOP magazine issues.

Cover LinesEach of the cover lines have the celebrity/musicians name/title of the page that is being referred to at the top so that the reader can easily identify the artists that are included in the magazine and looks simple but effective. Also the page number is written in black next to it so it is very easy for the reader to find the article they are looking for. Underneath the artists name there is a small quote/summery of the article to give the reader a feel of what the issue will include. In-between each cover line there is a bright pink or blue line (colours chosen as they fit in with my magazines colour scheme) to separate each cover line to make the page very clear and easy to read. I chose to have two cover line boxes, the left hand side box is for latest stories and the right hand side box is for regular stories. I chose this layout as it makes it very easy for the reader to identify which articles they want to read and where it is, also I colour coordinated the lines separating the cover lines depending on if the cover line is a ‘latest story’ or a ‘regular story’ (pink lines for latest and blue lines for regular)I also really like this layout as it is clear and looks simple but it fits a lot of information in.

Images (Main Image)The main image is the largest image on the page placed in the middle of the text at the top of the page. I chose to use this image as it is a representation of a famous image of Ed Sheeran (who my model is imitating). My model has his tongue out with a small piece of paper on his tongue saying ‘HI!’ I chose this as not only does it replicate the iconic image of Ed Sheeran but it makes the image look playful and light, similar to the tone of Ed Sheeran’s music.

Album reviewOn my contents page I chose to have an album review (this would be a common feature of my contents page) I chose to do this as after doing my market research I found it was quite a common feature to have part of an album review on your contents page (that then continues within the magazine) therefore I chose to replicate this in my music magazine. I chose to review an album that is very current and Pop’y ‘RHIANNA LOUD’ as it fits in with the Top 40 genre my magazine focuses on and Rihanna is a huge name in the music industry. I decided to make a replica of Rhianna’s ‘LOUD’ album cover, as our brief specifies we have to take ALL of the images used in our magazine, therefor I couldn’t just copy and paste the original album cover so I had to make my own. I used a model who has Rhianna’s trade mark bright red hair as I was trying to directly replicate her album cover and I used the same camera shot ‘close up’ on my models face so the images were clearly similar and recognisable.

PlugsAt the bottom of my contents page there are a rang of images of famous social networking and music websites. I chose to do this as it shows that TOPOP associates themselves with these sites, therefore they have a Facebook and twitter account etc. and their YouTube account has all of the music videos in the POP music genre and from artists the magazine have interviewed/associate themselves with.

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

During the process of creating my media product, a music magazine, I have learnt a great deal about technologies. I regularly blogged throughout making my music magazine and each post is labelled and has a title of what I have included in that blog entry. To make my product I used a number of different technologies. I used a computer, Digital SLR Camera, Microphone and recorder, Adobe Photoshop, PDF, Internet Explorer (Blogger, Slide Share, Survey Monkey, Google images, dafont, YouTube, Facebook), Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint.

http://www.dafont.com/


BloggerPrevious to this project I had never used blogger before therefor I learnt a lot from using it, and due to the blog being the main part of the project where all of your work was published it was essential I knew how to use the site properly. I regularly blogged through out my project, uploading word documents, Microsoft PowerPoint's, videos, interviews and JPEG images.To create a blogger account you needed to create a Gmail email address which was fine, until I forgot my email for around 2 months, therefor I couldn’t upload any of my work for a large part of the course, but it was alright as I had completed all of the work I just needed to upload it, this explains why on my peer evaluation my blog wasn’t available. I finally found my email address and managed to upload everything onto blogger. I did the majority of my work using Microsoft PowerPoint's which couldn’t be uploaded directly to blogger which was inconvenient, so I had to go through another website called ‘SlideShare’ where I uploaded my PowerPoint. I then copied the link they provided, clicked HTML, pasted the link it, pressed compose and my PowerPoint was available in my blog (print screens below). I also had to upload a YouTube video of me interviewing a peer which was very complicated as you had to record the interview, change the format of it into a ‘moviemaker clip’ insert an image and then upload it to YouTube and then copy the link into my post on blogger which took a very long time.


Survey MonkeyPrevious to this project I had never used Survey Monkey before. I used survey monkey as a market research tool to find out what people wanted from a music magazine. I asked 10 questions and each question had different options for people to click, which would make my results easy to interpret and easier to make a clear conclusion what people would want from my music magazine. (print screen below of an example of some of the questions I asked in my survey). I posted the link of my survey on Facebook so that all of my Facebook friends could fill it out, I also posted the link on twitter and put the link on a post on my blog so people could interact with my on-going project. 21 people filled out my servey and I found out:• My magazine should be aimed at the 15 to 20 year old age group as that appears to be the

group that tends to mostly buy magazines, therefor will hopefully buy my magazine if I aim it at that target audience.

• My magazine will be a top 40 music magazine as that appears to be the most popular in my survey. Also this genre as it is a genre of music that is very popular and has a huge following, also due to my personal interest in this genre I know a lot about it. Also due to the music being top 40 it will be very popular with listeners and each artist will have a huge fan base who will hopefully follow my magazine when their favourite artist is included.

• The majority of the people that answered my survey were female which is good as I plan on aiming my magazine towards women mainly, however I feel men would enjoy it too.

• 47% of people said they would pay from £2-£2.99 there for I have chosen to charge £2.99 for my magazine. I have chosen this price as it reflects my target market as many people that are in the 16-24 year old age category will have some disposable income however not a lot as they will be either students or may only have a part time job however they tend to chose to spend their disposable income on luxury items like clothes, music and magazines.


Digital SLR Camera Previous to this project I had never used an SLR camera, I had only ever used a simple digital camera.A digital SLR camera uses mirrors to allow the photographer to view the image through the single lens that captures the image for a more accurate photo. Because SLR cameras allow you to see the photo as it will look when taken through the same lens, the photographer can make minute adjustments to the camera for the best possible photo.I borrowed a Digital SLR camera from college to take all of the images for my magazine. I felt this camera was great as it seemed to add light to all of my images and gave the images more depth and made them look more vibrant. However I chose to do my photo shoot on a sunny day so sometimes the camera added too much light so on photo shop I had to edit the shadows on the image to make them a little darker which added detail to the image. Also by using a digital camera I got to instantly see the images that I had taken, so I could quickly decide which images I did and didn’t want to use and I could quickly adjust my models position so I could determine which pose and angle looked best on the camera.


PhotoshopPrevious to this project I had never used Photoshop before so I was very unfamiliar with the programme so I learnt a lot. I learnt to download fonts onto the computer and then insert them onto my photo shop document so I could use them as my masthead, subheadings and text. However every time I logged off the college computer the front was deleted from the computer and the Photoshop document so I had to re-download it each time I logged onto the computer which was time consuming. On Photoshop I learnt how to use different layers (as I needed a layer per image/text box/sentence, which I struggled with grasping as I kept forgetting which layer I was on and moving and deleting things I wasn’t meant to, however I got used to it and by finishing my front cover I had completely grasped the idea of layers. I also learnt how to adjust colour saturations to make my image more vibrant and stand out more from the page (which I used on my front cover and double page spread main images). I learnt how to use the polygon lasso tool too, I used this tool to cut out the top of my model Levi’s head so that I could put his head in front of my masthead if I placed the layer with his cut out head above the masthead layer. I also learnt how to insert text boxes, fill them with colour and then change the opticity of them, which I had to do on my front cover as I didn’t want my boxed to be too bold, so I changed the opticity to 70% so the boxes weren't so bold they over powered my main image.



Overall technology has helped me with my task of creating a front cover, contents page and double-page spread in numerous ways. Without it my final product would be considerably less professional and of a lesser quality. It would of also taken considerably longer as instead of being able to Google existing magazine front covers, double page spreads and contents pages I would have had to gone out to the shops and looked through all of the magazines, and I would have been able to have access to any of the American magazines I researched that aren't available in the UK.


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

My preliminary task was to create a York college magazine front cover and contents page. I used 1 very basic image that I took against a wall in college with a very crudely cut out moustache that I found on Google and edited onto my models face. Also I only used two fonts on my front cover that I hadn't downloaded from the internet and were standard Photoshop fonts. However in my final magazine I used at least four different fonts that I had found and specifically downloaded for my music magazine. Another main feature which differs the two productions is the use of images, I took one basic image that I took against a wall in college for the first task, however when it came to the main task I found a specific location that fitted in with the tone of my magazine and looked more professional. In my preliminary task I missed out generic features of a magazines such as the price of my magazine which makes the magazine look very childish and unfinished, therefor on my final magazine front cover I was cautious to include most of the common features of magazines e.g. date and price, boxes, plugs, subheadings etc. Since the development of my preliminary task my technology/editing skills have progressed immensely. I found that I had a lot of plain white space on my preliminary task front cover, this makes the magazine look very plain and boring. Due to this I made a conscious effort to have very little blank space on my cover, this was easily attained due to the bright colourful graffiti brick wall background making my front cover more vibrant and stand out more.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qI5bWpvIlBY/UKy3XjYsduI/AAAAAAAAAAc/4DgU2Gxoou4/s1600/contents+pagejpg.jpg


I feel the biggest difference between my preliminary task and my final assignment is my contents page. I did my York College magazine contents page on word, due to me being very unfamiliar with Photoshop, this gives the magazine a very unprofessional look due to the simple layout, large amount of blank space and missing features of standard magazine contents pages e.g. a page number, magazine logo and the same font throughout. My final contents page however was produced on Photoshop and includes a variety of images, fonts, logos and links to social networks my target audience for my magazine would be interested in. As my confidence with Photoshop grew the easier I could use it and the more complicated tools I used. On Photoshop I learnt how to use different layers (as I needed a layer per image/text box/sentence, which I struggled with grasping as I kept forgetting which layer I was on and moving and deleting things I wasn’t meant to, however I got used to it and by finishing my front cover I had completely grasped the idea of layers. I also learnt how to adjust colour saturations to make my image more vibrant and stand out more from the page (which I used on my front cover and double page spread main images). I learnt how to use the polygon lasso tool too, I used this tool to cut out the top of my model Levi’s head so that I could put his head in front of my masthead if I placed the layer with his cut out head above the masthead layer. I also learnt how to insert text boxes, fill them with colour and then change the opticity of them, which I had to do on my front cover as I didn’t want my boxed to be too bold, so I changed the opticity to 70% so the boxes weren't so bold they over powered my main image. I learnt how to import images from the internet directly into my Photoshop document, which is how I managed to insert all of the images of social networking sights my magazine is apart of which run along the bottom of my contents page.



Finally I have learnt the common conventions of magazines, what works and what doesn’t and what aspects of a magazine my target audience enjoy and what they don't.I found out what my target audience particularly want from a magazine by doing some market research. I used survey monkey as a market research tool to find out what people wanted from a music magazine. I asked 10 questions and each question had different options for people to click, which would make my results easy to interpret and easier to make a clear conclusion what people would want from my music magazine. (print screen below of an example of some of the questions I asked in my survey). I posted the link of my survey on Facebook so that all of my Facebook friends could fill it out, I also posted the link on twitter and put the link on a post on my blog so people could interact with my on-going project. I found out the common conventions of magazines by produced an existing products PowerPoint where I looked a three different magazine front covered, double page spreads and contents pages. Via doing this I learnt that music magazines tend to use bring colours e.g. pink, blue, red, black and white and pop magazines tend to use bright stereotypical ‘girlie’ colour schemes. I learnt that the majority of magazines tend to have the barcode and date and price in the bottom right hand side of the page and that the main image on the front cover tends to overlap the masthead.In conclusion I feel I have learnt a lot more about technology (mainly Photoshop), music magazines (the common conventions and what works and what doesn’t) and how to stay calm when something goes wrong and don’t panic (I deleted my front cover on photo shop by accident a week before the deadline date by accident, but I stayed calm and the college managed to retrieve it from my deleted documents). I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and hope that my enthusiasm is reflected in my work.


Thank You For Reading

Megan May Prince

Documents

Evaluation