Evaluation: Question 7

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



At the beginning of this year I began the project of creating the front cover and contents page of a student magazine. This was the first time I has used a mac and the InDesign program before and I was looking to experimenting with both of these formats. Since then I have progressed to being able to confidently use these programs and have completed the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine which I have designed and created.  There has been a significant improvement in my work from the music magazine compared to the preliminary task.

Firstly, I feel that my skills in taking my own photographs have improved: at first I struggled with the composition and considering the text around the image and having the subject look into the camera to interact with the audience. Here is an example of photos I had taken for the student magazine task.

I can clearly see how my work has improved when comparing this to the photos which I took for the music magazine below. The subjects are looking at the camera and they are projecting a positive image. Because these images are taken in studio conditions I had to be able to understand the different types of studio lights and why they are used, I had worked in the studio previously to this completing work for my Photography AS level work and I feel this has definitely helped me improve my photo skills.

From the preliminary task, to the full product I have progressed to having a better understanding of the magazine industry by researching publishers such as Bauer Media and Conde Nast. Since the student magazine I had begun to research music magazine by generally observing them in shops and paying particular attention to Q magazine which was a helpful guide for creating V magazine. My research skills have become more detailed as for the student magazine I had not referred to any kind of magazine before creating the pages, I feel that if I had done this then the final outcome for 'IMPACT' magazine would have been more appealing and professional however for a first attempt I feel it is a good effort.

An example of Q magazine

My front cover of V magazine

Technology has influenced my work in ways such as the production: for the student magazine task I struggled with using InDesign as I had not used it before and it took some time to get used to this. I feel due to this factor not all the choices I made were beneficial to the student magazine front cover, if I was not happy about a certain factor such as the colour scheme I would not change it as it would take too long. However after asking for help when I reached the music magazine project I was able to correct things I was not happy with. This is how I had progressed from going back and editing certain points I wanted to improve for the front cover and double page spread.

The first draft of my front cover

My final draft of the front cover

My first draft of my double page spread

My final draft of my double page spread

Other technologies I have experimented with are photoshop, for the student magazine I had not used this program however it was neccecary to use it for the music magazine to improve the quality of my photos. At the point my attitude had changed and I was much more willing to attempt to use Photoshop and I feel because of this positive attitude I was successful in using this program for the tasks I wanted to complete.

The program Indesign was the fundamental tool for creating my music magazine and without the work I completed for the student magazine I would not have been able to produce the work for my music magazine which I spent a lot of time and effort on. I am glad I was able to experiment and practise my Indesign skills while completing the student magazine as it has helped me improve the skills I initially developed and use them to create the pages for my music magazine with these skills I progressed them further; helping me create new things such as the pug for my front cover.

In conclusion, due to the preliminary task my work has made a notable progression to a higher standard and the creation of my music magazine - V- has conveyed a realistic and professional music magazine. There have been many different parts of my work which I have progressed on resulting in creating a strong product for the final task: such as my research skills, and general development of creative work on the programs InDesign.

Evaluation: Question 6

Final media evaluation q6

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Evaluation: Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I have incorporated various design elements to appeal to my audience such as those which are highlighted in the annotated images.

Below is an outline of the main aspects in my front cover to attract/address the audience.




























Here are the main features of the contents page which have been incorporated to appeal to an audience.

Finally for the double page spread the highlighted points are intended to attract and address my target audience.

I also took this opportunity to gather feedback from members of the target audience. I asked three people who would typically read this magazine whether it appealed to them, and would they buy it. The feedback is as follows:

1: 'I like the simplicity, it appears to be aimed at modern people who know a lot about music. It has appealed to me it looks like it would be an interesting read and I would buy this.


2: 'I was attracted by the 'live music special' as I go to gigs and concerts often. I'd buy the magazine just to read that particular article. I also like the image in the double page spread, I do photography at A level and I feel that it is a successful image.'


3: 'I like the layout - it looks very professional, like a real magazine. I would buy this product as it looks a lot of fun and it appears to know all about music.'

Mode of Address
The way my product speaks to it's audience is by grabbing their attention by features such as pugs; the pug I have used on the front cover says '10 Exclusive Interviews', this is to ensure that the audience find this appealing and will want to buy the magazine to read the interviews inside.
I have also used a line of text which is in a bright red colour standing out from the rest of the text, it reads 'LIVE MUSIC SPECIAL' it is in the left third at the bottom: due to this aspect standing out it is implied that this issue of the magazine is different from the rest and will be more interesting.

Evaluation: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation: Question 3

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


When considering a relevant publisher for my music magazine I instantly though Bauer Media as they publish are large amount of magazines and are a successful media business and from my research I know a considerable amount of information on them. However due to the vast amount of music magazine they are already publishing I thought it would be a better idea to re-think this and research other magazine publishing companies. 


I have decided the kind of media institution that might distribute my media product would be Conde` Nast. 

Condé Nast  is a worldwide magazine publishing company. Its main offices are located in New York,Chicago, Miami, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo, London and Paris. Condé Nast is run by S.I. Newhouse Jr, and is a division of Advance Publications, who have owned the company since 1959. Some of their publications include: GQ, Vogue, Glamour, Allure and Gold World. 

The genres of magazines which they publish are: 

• 1 Fashion and lifestyle
• 2 Home
• 3 Bridal
• 4 Golf
• 5 Food
• 6 Travel
• 7 Technology
• 8 Culture
• 
  The company publishes one of the most recognizable magazine portfolios in the industry.
• 
  
• It is clear that Conde` Nast are a successful company who have established a high profile and publish a selected number of magazines which would be classed as successful and stylish. 
• 
  
• I feel it would be appropriate for my magazine to be published by Conde` Nast because they do not publish any magazines with a genre of music, my product would offer them a way to attract a different audience group, therefore earning them more money. There is definitely a gap in their portfolio. I feel that 'V' magazine is suitable to be published by Conde` Nast as it is a stylish and sophisticated magazine which fits in with the other styles of the other magazines. The magazines published by Conde` nast are all targeted at an educated audience, their magazines are not cheap, they are produced on good quality paper and cost a lot more then other magazines such as 'love it!'. The target audience would be expected to be earning more money then the readers of a magazine such as 'love it!' 
• 
  
• 
  

Evaluation: Question 2

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine has been designed and created to appeal to a particular target audience, the product needs to represented in a certain way to attract this audience: I have achieved this by knowing and understanding the social group which my product is aimed at and carefully representing specific issues in relation to production.

An important aspect in representation of social groups is whom I have included in images of in my work. Firstly I have used a mixture of girls and boys but mainly focussed on boys, as there are more male music bands and artists.  I have decided to use a female on the front cover as I feel that this would be more appealing for both genders; the girl in my front cover is making eye contact with the audience which is am important aspect as she is portrayed as confident. Her hair is down and natural and she is not wearing strong tones of make-up because I did not want anything drastic. She is wearing a patterned t-shirt, a swallow necklace and a cross ring. I feel her body language is strong, confident and poised in a positive way. The age of the people in my images is young, mainly because it is easier to photograph people I know, as they are mainly the same age as me. I wanted to have a variety of styles in the form of the photos, I have some live music setting shots, which are vital considering the genre of this magazine and some in a studio setting to portray a professional style which is seen in many music magazines especially on the front cover.

My product represents it’s target audience in many ways, firstly the language, which is colloquial and informal keeping a young vibe, which the age-range of my target audience. Secondly it contains name of bands and artists who are successful and famous in the music industry with an alterative style of music, all from various sectors of the music industry such as Adele, to Beady Eye. Thirdly the overall look of my magazine, especially the colour scheme and fonts that I have used that are simplistic yet sophisticated which convey a sense of style and maturity. 

 

The mise-en-scene used communicated about the social group represented in mainly in the double page spread as the image was taken at a live gig: the target audience would frequently attend gigs therefore I feel this represents them, there is a clear connection between the two. In the contents page there are a number of images, all of young people representing a positive image that is something that communicates an encouraging and confident message to the target audience.

This is the image which I have used for the whole double page spread and incorporated text and graphics to complete the double page spread. 

Other magazines of this genre have similar representations such as Q magazine which I have based my research and overall product on. I do not feel that I have done anything different from within magazines of this genre such as Q.

The representations I have presented support dominant ideas about my social group as the language, layout and images are all positive and music related making them successful. The social group I am targeting is young people who appreciate and are interested in music: yet do not take it too seriously. I have attempted to portray a representation of this in my magazine by including an interview which uses colloquial and relaxed questions and answers yet is still based around music.

In conclusion my music magazine represents my intended social group in a variety of ways which all contribute to produce an overall representation of the target audience of my magazine: such as the images - who is in them and how they are portrayed by dress/body language, the mise-en-scene and layout including colours and composition and finally the language I have used to target an audience of young music lovers who are interested in a range of music and not afraid to listen to something new/different. 

Evaulation: Question 1

Evaluation; Question 1

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STUDENT MAGAZINE

Here is the work towards a student magazine which was completed before beginning the music magazine project. I have created a front cover and a contents page.

Changes to my double page spread

Once completing all of the pages, I reflected upon my double page spread and discovered it was lacking certain stylistic features of a double page spread: such as page numbers and image captions. I have now added these in and below is the final version.

Changes to my front cover

After completing the four pages of my magazine, I reflected upon my front cover and I felt that changes could be made for the better: Firstly I added detail to the pug, making it stand out more I then moved the location of the bar code the the bottom corner to make room for the pug further up as I felt this was a better location for it. I wanted another cover story therefore I changed the font and size of the text in the left third and added an extra quote, I also added a white stroke to make the text more appealing and professional and I played around with the font size.

I think that the edits I have made improved the overall look of my front cover, making it look much more professional. 

Double Page Spread

Over the past two weeks I have been progressing on my double page spread, below are the stages in which I have formulated my ideas.

At first I was unsure which image would be the most suitable.

I like this first image although the lighting does not look good or professional in any way and the hands of the crowd are in the shot making it appear too amateur.
I prefer the second image below as the lighting is much more real looking and dim, the spotlight is directly on the main subject of the photograph and it is clear that the other two subjects are not the main focus.

I liked the idea of one images across two pages to join them together and have a landscape photo in good quality. This is a good photo as the composition is suitable for a double page spread, there is plenty of room for text and further images.
To expand on this idea I added more text in the form of an interview, here is the final draft of my double page spread.

I think this is realistic as a double page spread for a music magazine, the image is relevant and credible and the interview is stylistic of a music magazine. I have kept a colour scheme of red and white throughout the text which link to the colour scheme of the logo on the front cover and contents page. The layout is successful and equally spread across the two pages, it contains pull quotes and information which is useful to the reader making the text interactive.

Double Page Spread - Flat Plan

The flat plan for my double page spread is helpful in ways which will help me put together ideas on how my double page spread will finally look when I have created it. I have gone for a layout like this because it fits in with the front cover and contents page, the re-occuring theme keeps the magazine stylistic and credible. The mood which I have chosen to portray is stylish and minimalistic yet still clear this is a music magazine.

The Contents Page - final draft

After creating the first draft of my contents page I have decided to edit it and change some part around to make it look more professional.
Here is my final contents page, things I have changed include the composition and arrangement of the text and images as well as the font.

Final Front Cover

After deciding to edit and adapt the first cover, I spent a total of two hours improving and changing aspects and I below is the final outcome.  

Feedback

I have shown a total of ten people, including my lecturer and I have come to the conclusion that the first of my two front covers is the strongest and more successful as a cover for a music magazine.
comments included: 'The second looks unprofessional, and the first is a lot more stylish'
'The first can be improved and look a lot more like a music magazine cover as the second one wouldn't look like the cover even if it was improved.'
'The first is much more stronger then the second, it can be adapted and improved to result in a very successful cover.'

Second Front cover

Here is the second of the two front covers which I have created, this one has a lot more text and has tow images as opposed to one.

I now intend to show both of the front covers which I have designed and gather some feedback and decided which one people, of my age group - part of the target audience - prefer the most, and with the cover which is most popular I will expand on and improve.

The Contents Page - first draft

While creating my contents page on the InDesign program, and actually playing the images and words onto the page I discovered due to the sizing and layout it was difficult for me to reconstruct the flat-plan which I made therefore I had to re-arrange some text and add a third photo to complete the contents page.

The Contents - Flatplan

Here I have created a flat plan for my contents page which I will create on InDesign.

The Front Cover

I had decided to create two front covers, but with different styles and layouts, I have created the first of my two front covers and below is the less 'busy' one with only few headlines and feature articles. This is a first draft of what could be my front cover.

Deciding the name of my magazine.

After reviewing the variety of names which I came up with on the mind map I created and considering my magazine is based/influenced on Q magazine, I have decided that the name for my magazine will be 'V'.
This is for a number of reasons, firstly like the magazine which I'm using for ideas and inspiration called Q, it is short and catchy, just one letter with one syllable, it is easy to remember and it stands for something which is related to music. This brings me onto my second point, my magazine has a wide genre of a range of popular music, some of which will be well known and some bands/artists may not be heard of. The V as the title for my magazine stands of variety: my magazine will include a wide variety of different genres, bands and artists which are all different but all equally unique and enjoyable.
I think naming my magazine V is a good decision for the reasons above, to summaries it is simple and catchy and it relates to the style and genre of my magazine.

Studio Photographs

Today we are hiring out the photography studio for two hours in the hope of taking more photos for my magazine. I intend to use a range of studio lighting to enable more professional photos, such as the filter light and the reflector light. I would like to take photos of a range of different angles and shot types such as close-ups, mid-shots and full body shots.
The outcome of this photo shoot will be uploaded onto my photo blog with additional comments.

Editing my photos

Here are the beginnings of my photo editing on photoshop: I decided to convert this photo into black and white to create a more ambient mood and to disguise the bad lighting, I think this is a successful photograph and I could possibly use it for my front cover.

Photographs from a recent gig I attended are now uploaded onto my blog; the image below is one from a number of photos I took, visit the photography blog to view them all.

My Photographs

I have created a blog via Tumblr, which there is a link to here, on this all of the photographs which I take will be able to be viewed.

photoshop

The photos which I take will need to be edited via photoshop to present a final image which looks professional and appealing. As 

i am not familiar with the photoshop program I decided to play around with the photo below..

After experimenting with the effects on photoshop, I cropped the photo and changed the colours to black and white. I then increased the brightness and dropped the shadows. This has helped me to know what I need to do to achieve successful photographs suitable for a music magazine.

Development

I have been thinking further into the name of my music magazine, I realise this is an important aspect of the overall magazine therefore I have developed my ideas and created this mind map in order to help me see the progression of my ideas.

photos for the front cover

I decided to take a number of test shots to experiment with composition on my front cover: I wanted to use these photos for practice front covers, one of them being the simple version and the other being the more busy front cover with a lot more graphics and text. Although these photos are not the brightest, for the photos I use on my final front cover will be brighter and this will give me an opportunity to experiment with photoshop and edit my photos.

In this first photo i intended to leave space at the top for a mast head; I also wanted to leave white space at the bottom, underneath the subject to place a graphic of the only text being shown on the front cover. Unfortunately I was unable to do this as we did not have the facilities of a studio to achieve this outcome although I intend to use the studio for my final shoot. Below is an example of a photo I took which left space at the bottom to leave space for the text i'd like put in, you can tell that it is not successful.

In this third photo I really like how the subject is looking directly into the camera, interacting with the audience. This has helped me decide that I want the subject(s) to look into the camera as it results in a more effective outcome and I feel it connects more directly to the audience. I now know that all my photos for the front cover will have to be portrait. 

flat plan for the front cover

When thinking about the formation of my front cover I realised I could go two ways, which ios either the 'less is more' approch, as this is a common idea for Q magazine's front covers. Or fill the front cover with lots of text and a very appealing and different image, basically a busy front cover with lots going on.
       As I am torn between the two, and I can't decide which would be more effective and appealing I have decided to create two seperate drafts of a front cover and gather some consumer feedback.
      So far I have created two flat plans for both front covers I intend to create. They can be seen below.

1. This is the flat plan for a simple yet effective front cover with the minimal amount of text, and a main photograph.

2. This is the second flat plan. which is for the front cover with a lot more going on, such as cover stories, pugs and photographs.

Who is it aimed at?

I think Q is aimed at a variety of readers, with a variety of ages, interests etc but they all share a common ground; the love and appreciation of music.
The analysis of the photos below support this:

1.

The image above is a double page spread, consisting mainly of an image - a photograph of the bad Friendly Fires. a quarter of the double page spread is filled with text. Considering the main aspects of this page is a photograph which has been taken in a comedic and interesting way, this connotes to an audience of those who firstly like the band Friendly Fires, and secondly an audience who is not interested in reading too much text; yet simply enjoys the artistic qualities inside the magazine.

2.

This double page spread is different compared to the first one, graphics and the text appear to be an important part, along with the mid- close up shot of the singer it relates to, Lily Allen. There is almost double to writing on this page as opposed to the first which has notably less. It is more structured, and has a notable composition. All three parts of this double page spread are equally important. I would say this is aimed at those who like to read about bands and artists, hear from their point of view: this is made apparent to the reader with the large writing in a quirky yet cool graphics edit, which contains speak marks, so we know that Lily Allen has been quoted. It is aimed at an audience of many ages, particularly young people as that is who her music reaches out too, and those who like to know about the artists as well as thier music.

3.

This final double page spread from Q magazine is largely different from the previous two, much of the pages are covered in text, it is clear that this is a detailed article which is all about the indie-rock band Razorlight: appealing to an audience who are into rock music. The article contains Razorlight talking about their third album, which would be aimed at maybe adult readers who are dedicated fans of this band, and follow thier music on a regular basis, also people who may want to find something new to listen to. It draws the audience in to buy the magazine, but it is also a form of advertising for this band.