EVALUATION

CONVENTIONS• In my magazine, I have both

followed conventions and challenged them in a variation of ways.  For example, on my cover, I followed the typical convention of having the title at the top, with the main image below it. I have also given some clues as to what else lies within the magazine, and I have included the price. Most of these conventions, I have followed because they are only common sense; the reader is less likely to buy the magazine if they do not know how much it costs, or what is within it. Without these basic conventions, the magazine is far less easy to understand, thus the reader is probably not going to want to buy it.

CONVENTIONSHowever, I feel that I have also challenged set conventions in my cover, as the cover seems a lot more simplistic than most magazines of this kind, with minimal text around the image. I have also challenged conventions by, instead of having the artist featured in my image posing and dressing professionally, formally, maturely, or sexually, he is dressed casually, in a t-shirt and jeans, and although he is posing as though he is a superstar, his appearance does not really make him seem very out of the ordinary. I did this as I felt that it is a far more encouraging thing to the readership to have the people I present as major stars also presented as normal, average people. I also challenged the convention of having a plain, fairly neutral background, as my background is a sort of mottled, black and red pattern. I felt that this helped to draw the eye a lot more, and also helped to communicate a sort of mysterious, whimsical effect, as the background almost resembles smoke and flames, thus making my model look somewhat look like a storybook wizard. The stars over the title also help to convey a sense of mystery and magic, as well as being a clever play on words regarding “stars” in the celebrity sense.

CONVENTIONSI have to a certain extent followed conventions within my double page spread, by attempting to use the “Z” formation, as the reader’s eye is drawn along the block at the top to the darker coloured background where the subtitle is, and then in a sloping “Z” shape down the slope of the writing to the salmon coloured background on the left hand side, and then back to the picture on the right hand side. This “Z” formation is effective, as it draws the reader’s attention in a way that makes sense to the reader’s mind. I followed this convention, as I felt that some conventions exist for a reason, and this just generally makes the spread more pleasing and simplistic to the eye, therefore making the reader more likely to read on.ye

I kept the background simplistic, as I felt that not only does it echo the fact that the music is not presented in a complicated manner, and also the far more straight forward and simple common sense reason that it just makes the words easier to read.

FEEDBACKMost people felt that my title did an accurate job of conveying the meaning of my magazine, particularly this person here, who picked up on the “Rising stars” theme, i.e. the celebrities of the future.

FEEDBACKSimilarly, most felt that they would like to read more about the star on my cover, simply because the front cover creates curiosity and mystery, thus proving that I was correct in my assumptions as stated on the third slide.

FEEDBACKThis person here managed to read some of the themes I was trying communicate, i.e. the thoughts and emotions that go into music, as opposed to just the clinical, material, system of producing it.

This person also picked up on the other main theme I attempted to communicate, that todays young generation has a brand new breed of rising talent.

AUDIENCEI felt that my magazine represented a certain social group, the social group of teenagers who prefer a sort of non-mainstream, indie rock and rock and roll sort of music. I attempted to show this in the visual features of the magazine in a variety of ways. For example, I openly avoided the types of colours commonly found in music magazines aimed at teenagers and centred around modern genres of music such as modern pop or hip hop, which, from my research, seemed to be lighter colours, whites, blues, and purples. I have gone for the other end of the spectrum, using a key colour scheme of black and red. I felt that this would be effective, as it would also attract a teenage audience, these being very bold, obtrusive colours, as opposed the stilted, neutral, formal colours found in magazines directed at adults and older citizens. My focus group that filled in my survey in general seemed to think this worked, one saying it was reminiscent of both modern and “old-school”, music trends, thus hopefully meaning that the indie-rock, “hipster” crowd would be drawn to it for it being both relevant, but also “retro” and non-mainstream.

INSTITUTION I feel that the magazine publisher most likely to publish my magazine would be EMAP, as they already publish “Q”, “Kerrang!”, and “Mojo”, similar music magazines with similar audiences, and so my magazine would easily fit in with their existing scope and line up, and not at all alter their already existing ‘image’, so to speak.

TECHNOLOGIES/skills learned and used

Over the course of producing this magazine, I have learnt a lot more about the workings of Photoshop. I have gained more and more skills and confidence in Photoshop, and, at the end of it, I was able to produce something that I would hope looks fairly professional. I also learned to use Survey Monkey in order to accurately gather the thoughts and opinions of my audience, as well as a few people who are not part of my target audience, simply that I can gather a wide range of opinions and viewpoints. In this way, I was able to directly connect with my audience, and know exactly what they want and what they think, almost immediately, whereas without this technology, one would have to either do a little a little research into already existing popular magazines and simply hope that my own magazine matched up to them, or I would have had to physically meet with a selection of my audience in the same place long enough to get them to do a physical survey, and would them have had sort through the results of the surveys myself, and this would take up far too much of my time, and would basically be long, cumbersome, confusing, and complex.Another important thing I have learned to use is WordPress. I have used this throughout the making of my magazine to document my progress. This was extremely useful, as it meant that anyone could see my magazine, and could give feedback, as thus, in the same way as Survey monkey, it helped me to directly connect with my audience, receive feedback, and just generally gather opinions on the standard of my work. It also helped to document my work and my progress in an organised way that makes sense to look at, as this generally just makes it easier for myself and others to see my progress and developmental progress.I have also (obviously) learned to use PowerPoint to the best of its ability, such as in the making of this very evaluation. PowerPoint, and other Microsoft applications such as Word, although simple, are very useful in the basic and easy to understand presentation of words and images, and it is hard to do any sort of written work without programmes and word processors such as these.I also feel that I have learned a lot more about the magazine industry, the music industry, the media world, and the social conventions of media products.