Evaluation - Skills Development

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

(Front Cover) Before

After

(Contents) Before

After

In the front cover for my college magazine, you can see that it lacks quality and precision that is needed to create a magazine. The layout wasn't thought out beforehand so it looks very rushed. As the photograph was took quickly, it looks a little blurry and there are people int he background which distracts attention away from the center person who also isn't looking at the camera which makes her look distant to the reader rather than my music magazine where she is looking straight at the camera. The writing used is hard to read as the picture has not been lit and the blue against the dark photo makes it blend in with the book shelve which would not attract a readers attention. The masthead is meant to be one of the main elements that the reader would see so it needs to look professional and like it has been thought about, which the masthead for my college magazine was the first font that I could find and hasn't been thought about.

However for my music magazine, you can clearly see from a first glance that more thought and care has been took into consideration as it looks a lot more matched together and more like an actual magazine that you would see in the shops. The colours have been thought about which is why the magazine on the right looks a lot more stylish and the paper creates a unique effect and adds character to the magazine which acts as a house style that is lacking in the college magazine. The photos also look better by the use of a better camera which has a flash to add light, extra lighting in the studio and editing on Photoshop with filters. I also changed the contrast in brightness in this program to make the best possible photograph to attract the audience as well as adding a layer of white over the background to make it look brighter and to make the model stand out more. As the masthead was drawn and edited, its unique to the magazine and has been thought about as has the arrangement of the text. It is positioned to the edge of the page to make it easier to read as well as leaving enough white space on the page to give the impression that it has been reflected upon and whether it is right for the magazine.

For the contents page of the college magazine, you can again see that it has been rushed. The background is just a boring blue which has just been chosen at random to fill the space and the photo, again has been taken quickly with no lighting or editing which shows in the quality. The bench and the model have been quickly drawn around with the lasso tool which is why there is white pieces next to her hair and white space in the bench. The text used is all quite boring and repetitive as its the same colour and the same font which was used on the front page which does contribute to a house style, it doesn't look professional and like someone has considered their market and what they would like.

In the contents page for the music magazine, it has been thought out a lot more and is overall more organised and neat. The colours have been kept quite simple however they reflect the male audience by darker, dominated colours. The magazine has been arranged into columns, similar to a newspaper article which shows a higher level of journalism than the college magazine as well as more thought for its reputation to its readers as a quality magazine. Although all the typography is the same, it is more stylish and fits in wit the style of magazine that my magazine is and the house style it wants to use. The decorative font on the album cover is more unusual than the fonts found in Photoshop which shows a unique, creative side to the magazine but keeping to its minimalism. In the advert for the guitar competition, I included a lot of skills into 1 area by using the magnetic lasso tool to trace around the guitar, selecting it and then duplicating many times to create a pattern by using the warp tool to change the size and direction the guitar was facing. I then finished off the background by changing the opacity so the main guitar and banner with the lettering would stand out.

I think my music magazine is of a similar style and structure to the NME and Q, with elements of a uniqueness included to make it stand out from other magazines. It would fit in with other publications like itself while also covering a market of letting the reader chose its subjects and its features on new music which haven't really been covered accurately.

Evaluation - Technologies

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

  By using Photoshop I was able to construct my magazine easily and quickly while making it look stylish and professional by using a number of tools which could let me alter and edit my photos and designs to make a magazine which could be sold on the market. On my double page spread, I used the lasso tool regularly to create the effect of repetition of the photos. I traced around the photo with this tool and deleted the background so only Kyra was left and duplicated this copy and altered the opacity on 4 while I kept I kept the original photo as it was.




For my contents page, I mainly used the line and shape tool to make sure all the the sections were the correct measurements to fit on the page.  The tool I used most was the text tool for the writing as well as the titles for the sub-headings to separate all the categories. I also used the brightness and contrast tools to alter the pictures so they could look in the best condition and like they was taken by a professional photographer.





Throughout the magazine making process especially when creating the front cover, layering was an important tool to create the composition of the page.  I often merged layers to make them easier to move together but with the arrangement of the ripped paper on the front cover, it was important that the picture of the model and the writing was on top so the paper layer had to be at the bottom of the list with all the other pieces above to create the right cover.




 By using Blogger, I was able to arrange all my posts in the correct order and label them accordingly. By relying on these free internet websites, we are risking the examples of past work and work that is currently in process if the website was ever closed down or placed under maintenance. Working under the college network, there could be a chance that it would be blocked if it was unsafe or risked the safety of the college network so but relying on these types of websites, the students and teachers have to hope that the website stays secure and safe so they can continue using it as a base for the coursework.

I used Photoshop throughout the whole process of editing my photographs, making the layout of the magazine as well as adding them together and adding text to create the finished product. Although I already knew most of the things that I used on my magazine through previous experience of the program, it did help me develop my use of multi-layers by controlling over 30 different pieces at once an arranging them to create the composition that I wanted for my product. I also developed my skills with the lasso tool but tracing round Kyra's body perfectly without cutting too much of the photo off.

DaFont.com was very helpful when it came to creating my font as I gained a lot of inspiration for my masthead from a number of different typefaces on this website. I also downloaded the font tat was used on the front cover for the main headline as well as the font for the album cover. Through its variety of decorative and unique fonts, I was able to find the one that fitted with my magazine and the style that I wanted to keep in theme with.

I used the SlideShare website to make the powerpoints of my Location, Props and Costume and of the original photos that I took so they could could be presented correctly on my blog. This made it easier than uploading all the separate pictures onto one post which would have took up the whole page of my blog.

Evaluation - Addressing my Audience

How did you attract/address your audience?

Within my magazine, it uses a number of techniques to attract the audience and make them feel more involved with the magazine rather than just a reader. By using a minimal colour palette, it keeps the sophisticated and stylish look that I was aiming for and what my audience is going to want to look at. It looks professional and looks like it knows what it is talking about as well as keeping a relaxed image for its younger audience but being a magazine that you can trust to keep you up-to-date with all the current news. The stamped-effect lettering is really bold and gives character to the text in addition to keeping in with magazines image as I used a the same fonts throughout the magazine, contributing to the house style.

The direct address of the model grabs the attention of the reader as she maintains eye contact with the camera which the reader is more likely to see her as one of their peers rather than someone 'looking down' on them as I don't want to patronise my audience, being younger. I also use a festivals and bands on my front cover which are likely to be recognised from the readers and would alert their interest in the magazine if they hadn't heard of the brand before.

On my contents page, I have included a competition as well as well as a gig guide and the most popular tweets from the social networking site, Twitter to the magazines profile.  The language used in my magazine is quite informal as its for a younger audience who are more interested int eh content and want to see the magazine as a friend rather than a company who is telling them what to listen to. In my magazine I use the phrases "Check out.." which sounds like we are persuading them rather than asking them what to listen to. In my double page spread, I again use informal language such as "hey" and using "we're" instead of we are to focus on the important issues to the readers which is always the content of the article. I was careful though not to use any bad language or text speak as it would pull away from the professional finish that I expect from a magazine and could make the magazine seem lazy and rude as some readers can be put off and offended by this type of language.

The unique selling point of my magazine  is that is focuses on new music that many readers may not of heard of. This also features bands which haven't been signed to a label or have had any commercial play on medias such as radio or TV. This gives a stepping stone to these sorts of acts and readers would also be able to contribute by suggesting acts that could be featured, whether it is friends, people that they have come across through the Internet or themselves. I feel this gives by magazine a perspective that other magazines do not as they don't really allow the readers to chose to what they want to read about. throughout my production process, I asked for feedback from people who would suit the target audience as well as people who I could reach to be in my target audience in the future and asked for their comments and criticisms as well as what they would do with the magazine and what input they could bring. 

Evaluation - Target Audience

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For the typical audience member that would buy my magazine is it likely that they would either be in full-time education/university or employed and would spend most of their money on leisure activities, clothes and technology. As seen in my advertiser moodboard, they would buy clothes from places such as New Look, Topshop/Topman and River Island as well as more expensive brands such as Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch as they take pride in their appearance and are interested in looking good and taking care of themselves. They would also spend money on beauty and hair products for the same reason as well as perfume and cologne.

As an indie and alternative magazine, they would listen to these types of genres along with rock, some pop and also electronic music and would likely be a regular at gigs and festivals such as Reading & Leeds and T in the Park, as these festivals highly revolve around these genres of music. Being big music fans, they also have Spotify accounts and are interested in what thei friends are listening to. A lot of their money would also go on activities such as the cinema by seeing the latest action, horror and comedy films as these would be appealing to my male audience however, being young they would also subscribe to services such as Netflix which lets you watch films for a set monthly price as they wouldn’t have enough money to see all the films they wanted to see at the cinema. My target audience also watch a lot of TV and are especially turning onto channels such as Channel 4 and E4 as they host many youth-oriented shows and their target audience is very similar to the audience for my magazine.

Being quite young, they would eat out at fast food places a lot such as Subway or Nandos as well as drink alcohol such as beer and vodka, particularly the audience who are in university or are employed in a weekday job. Technology is also a big part of their lives as they are likely to use Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites as well as purchasing many products such as cameras, smartphones and laptops as well as game consoles for the male audience.

This audience would subscribe to my magazine as they are very passionate about music and care about finding new bands and musicians that they can share with their friends and finally watch in gigs and festivals as they love to socialise and music would be a big common interest within their friendship group. The advertisers used on my moodboard would be great for my magazine as they aim at a very similar market that I do with the magazine and the products advertised in similar magazines such as NME and Q are from the same or similar companies.

Evaluation - Institutions

Institutions

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

Although my magazine would work on most institutions, I think it would work best on a bigger company such as Bauer Media Group or IPC Media. The audience is aimed at 16 to 29 year olds and many other music magazines reporting on a similar genre style and aimed at a similar audience are with a bigger company rather than smaller, individual ones or self-publishing.  The magazine however might need to start with a smaller publisher to start with to see where it would sit within the current market of music magazines, as it would probably be closely compared to magazines such as NME and a younger Q magazine. The advantages of being published by bigger companies who own many magazines is that they have a lot of connections to other companies involved in the media industry that would be able to get involved in the magazine. They also have a lot more money to invest in the magazine and its content to appeal to a broader audience while still making the readers feel like they’re in a small group and that the magazine is personalized to them. As well as it being ideal for the audience, belonging to a bigger institution would make it a lot easier to advertise as more companies would be willing to pay more for their products to be advertised in the magazine as normally, bigger magazine companies produce magazines with a bigger audience although there are some exceptions like ‘Clash’ Magazine who are self-publishing but still have circulation of around 50,000 which is very successful considering the rising use of the internet.

Although smaller publishing companies are ideal for niche magazines covering a certain area of a topic, I don’t think it would be ideal for my magazine after a long period of time as my magazine doesn’t single out a large majority of people because it reports on acts and festivals which are quite well known so even a new reader not interested in that genre of music will still be able to understand and recognise some of the content. It is very hard for a magazine that is published by a small company to get recognised enough and wouldn’t be sold in high street stores or supermarkets, normally it would need to be ordered online or found in a shop that very clearly links with the topic or specialized in selling magazines published by these companies.

By self-publishing a magazine, it can be very risky, which would explain why only a very small number of magazines do this. Although it does have many advantages such as the owner of the magazine having all rights over the magazines name and content as well as having bigger revenue when sold and having total control over production costs, there are many disadvantages, especially if the magazine does not have the success the owner predicts. As the magazine is responsible for the expenses such as cost of creation and printing, it needs to be sure that it will get the money back as well as enough profit for the business to run successfully as well as also being responsible for marketing and promotion. If the magazine is being sold in a high street store or supermarket, they usually expect 10 to 15% of the recommended retail price as well as the retailer returning any unsold products which is going to cost the company more. With my magazine, I don’t think this either would be a responsible way of publishing until I had least known my distribution and circulation numbers as well as how much profit I would make with the expenses of producing the magazine being taken out.

Although I think distributing in supermarkets much as ASDA or Sainsbury might not be the best solution, being sold in shops like WHSmith’s would be ideal as they distribute a lot of magazines from a variety of genres with a range of different populaties. My magazine, being similar to NME and Q would be positioned in the store next to them which would make it more likely that one of their readers would buy it and it would have a better chance of having a bigger circulation than being sold online or in an independent store.

Evaluation - Representation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

By aiming my magazine at a young, more male-oriented audience they are likely to be interested in current affairs and the world around them. Magazines such as Clash report on news stories and politics as well as alternative music but with my magazine being aimed at a younger audience, I don’t want to alienate the readers who are younger or are not interested in sorts of topics. Within the magazine I made, I tried to keep to only reporting on music to keep the magazine light-hearted and a get-away from the serious issues however I could include topics like university or similar topics as 18 to 21 year olds would make up a big section of my audience. In the contents page, I have kept the themes relevant to music by including gig lists and social networking sites which young people can highly relate to and understand and being a mainly male target audience, I have left out fashion pages as these would be normally seen in a female magazine however I would let fashion outlets advertise in the magazine along with alcohol, technology and websites. I haven’t really challenged any stereotypes within my magazine except the lead singer of the band being female, which isn’t normally seen in indie bands as it is male dominated genre of music with primarily females only being solo artists.

In my magazine, the photo of Kyra is quite similar to photo of Lily Allen used in one of the issues of NME. The use of the subjective gaze manages to catch the audience’s attention while not looking too aggressive for the front cover to seem too serious and try hard to fit in with the culture. By leaning their head to one side, it gives of a more playful and fun image as well as being more expressive with themselves rather than standing up straight which would leave the front cover quite boring and the area around them is quite well lit as it contributes to the more fun image rather than a dark, mood picture which would suit a more heavy, metal magazine.  They have very similar dark, short hair which would appeal to a male magazine as it is seen as a more masculine cut and would be more acceptable to buy rather than a woman with long, lighter hair as it could be mistaken for a female fashion or lifestyle magazine, and the expression accentuates this image by staying quite serious however by model is a little more happier and is smiling to portray a more relaxed magazine. By using Kyra as my model, I wanted to represent the indie/hipster sub-culture by not conforming to stereotypes of what a woman should look like by having long hair or wearing feminine clothes as well as keeping to demographics of the working class or lower middle class, young men. The magazine doesn't really have a main locational demographic as I wanted to keep the audience quite wide for the UK, however many of my audience will probably be from the urban areas as it is seen as many young people live in London and other popular cities rather than the country.

Evaluation - Forms and Conventions

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

Front Cover

For the front cover of my magazine, I wanted a professional and authoritative look that would make the readers trust what they are reading and remind them that the magazine is focused on journalism and putting across the news and information that they want to know but, also appear quite fun and light hearted at the same time to appeal to its younger readership which I feel it does do by not ‘speaking down’ to its readers and referring to them almost like a friend. This is similar to the NME which was big inspiration when creating my magazine.

My masthead was drawn by hand at first but when I uploaded it onto Photoshop, I felt the look wasn’t as professional as I wanted it to be so by using the line tool and ‘warping’ it into shape made an almost Vogue-style title which I liked as it contrasted with the plan for the rest of page, being covered with ripped paper and made to look quite edgy and stylish. Although I could have kept with the original black lettering, I added a simple bevel to add height to the cover and make it stand out from the rest of lettering as well adding a small white gradient in the corner of the letters to act as a spotlight and to fit in with the music theme. The original idea for the word ‘Amps’ was to have 2 messages in the masthead as I wanted it to represent the alternative, guitar-based music that the magazine is promoting as well as showing the readers new acts by amplifying them out to the public so they would gain popularity and fans. This idea I think works well as I’ve stuck to the genre of music as well as including bands and artists which many people may not have heard of. 

For my dateline, I wanted to keep this quite simple and out of the way from the main image which I have tried to do by placing it very near to the barcode at the bottom left hand corner with the price also at the side. The font is in keep with the rest of the magazine so it fits in and the black contrasts with the white lined ripped paper behind it so the readers can easily see what issue it is.

The photo was taken as a medium close up so I could fit in the writing at the side as well as leaving enough white space to fit in with magazines design.  A close up would have been too harsh for the design as it wouldn’t have left enough space and there would not have been the contrast in colour which I wanted. The model is looking directly into the camera to capture the audiences’ attention and make it look like they are appealing directly at them to look at the magazine and the expression on the model isn’t too serious and the little smile makes her look approachable and friendly which is more likely to appeal to a broader audience rather than a negative, closed off expression.

Although on my front cover the costumes and props aren’t really highlighted, the Jack Daniels jumper still works well for the colours as the black and white both contrast easily, making it easier to pick a colour that would stand out for the banner. I kept to a black banner as it looks quite stylish and sophisticated and makes the magazine look more connected as a whole product. The grey top which is just showing to the right of her neck also works well with the colour scheme as it fits in with the black and white. Being an alternative magazine, the darker clothing is more suited and the audience are more likely to connect with the image.

Being the front cover, I didn’t want to bulk up the page with too much as writing as the contents page already included a lot of information so the cover line was kept quite simple to reflect this. Also, only using the band’s name as a cover line makes it easier for the reader to see it from distance. This is also helped by being a bold, black font which I downloaded from Dafont.com and looks very powerful and dominant on the page which further makes the magazine come across as a darker, alternative style as a pop magazine isn’t likely to have this style of writing. The other writing on the page is of a similar style to keep up with the magazines image but it is a little smaller so ‘The Brontides’ is seen as the cover line, connecting the image on the front to the content. The small description of the article is in red to bring colour to the page as it has quite a monochrome palette but the red lettering still fits in because it is used in the dominant font which is used throughout the magazine.

The layout for the front cover is quite traditional of a magazine and is a little similar to the NME style of covers although it is a lot more simplified and spaced out with not as much content bunched together. The use of the white space makes the magazine look more presentable and mature to a magazine that has loads of writing and pictures on the front which is likely to appeal to an older audience as well as the younger audience. It is also more likely to appeal to a more middle class market from the appearance alike Clash magazine which features a lot of white space and keeps writing to a minimum.

Contents Page

For the heading, I kept it very similar to the masthead to bring the contents and front cover pages together and produce a house style for my magazine which I feel works well for my genre of magazine as many of its ‘competitors’ on the market have a very distinctive house style which sets itself out from the magazines. The images used also fit in with the cover as they are all connected in theme. The picture of the model is connecting to both the front cover and the article and the picture of the stones is the album cover on the band’s latest album, which is mentioned in the interview. The picture on the guitar also links as it is a prize that can be won by the readers and is advertised as being signed by the band. By using a collection of images, I feel it makes the magazine look more realistic and authentic as well as looking more interesting that one image like the front cover and the bright photos fir in with the simple colour palette. For the background of the guitar, I repeated pictures of the guitar and reduced the opacity to make it look more visually pleasing.

The layout of the contents page is quite similar to magazines such as Q and NME but by using simplified colours and its house style, sets it apart from its rivals. The writing is in a font of Orator Std and is the same as the front cover and the main article so the reader can see that the font is an important part of the style of the magazine, being a modern looking typeface. The contents page itself is separated into sections to make it easier to read as there is a lot of writing together in a small space on the page to show the readers as much as I could what contents is featured in my magazine. This is an idea I got from NME as they separate the categories in a similar way. The white writing is still connected the page as I wanted to look like the red has almost been stamped on and give it a unique style instead of a boring title.

The subscription box is quite small as I wanted loads of attention to be focused on the writing but for this I used a different font to show that it isn’t a part of the content and to also bring some attention to away from the writing. I used a reflective effect on the ‘Subscribe’ title as the white stands out effectively against the blue and makes it look more unusual from a normal subscription box.

Article

For my main image, I used one of the photographs of my model and repeated it by cutting around it using the lasso tool and changing the opacity of each image to make it look like she is moving while the white background fits in with the rest of the white background and makes it look more professional and put together which is the look I was aiming for. The heading and subheading also following the layer-up effect by having a blue 2013 to highlight the new year and new year of music that the magazine will be reporting on as well as a starting point in the history of the band, being the first exclusive interview from them in my magazine. 

The simple black writing keeps the page quite stylish while the blue writing in the article helps the reader know who is talking and breaks up the black and white which can look a little boring if they are the only colours used. This look is similar to Dazed and Confused magazine which appeals to a young, middle class audience who are interested in music, fashion and politics who are likely to be interested in the same activities and hobbies as my audience although my magazine is aimed a more working-class market.

The pull quote uses the 2 most dominant tones, black and white and reverses them to creating a contrasting area which is made to grab the reader’s attention and is placed near to centre to persuade the reader to read around the quote and achieve some understanding of what’s going on. The sidebar at the bottom right hand side is a list of tour dates to further sell the bands image as young readers interested in this gene of music are normally attendees of gigs and festivals and by using the same typography and picture as used on the bands album cover ties in the information and promotes the bands image as a collection rather than separate pieces of data.