Evaluation Question 7

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

Comparing my final front cover to my original prelim task that I completed months ago, I can see a clear improvement and progression in my work. The task set included: 'Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and a masthead.'

For this, I chose to focus on a school food magazine and immediately set out to take a picture of a student in the process of cooking. The final picture used does show a medium close up shot, however, the lack of eye contact and engagement with the camera does not allow for a connection with the reader as shown in my music magazine front cover. 

Furthermore, the font itself in my prelim cover is not extremely readable or interesting in comparison to my 'Fusion' magazine and I can gladly see a change in my choice of text. The coverlines however are well laid out in both examples in the sense that your eye can follow them in a 'Z read', allowing for informative and attractive coverlines to be read.

Another aspect of the readers and target audience research is something I had not even considered for my prelim task. However, I carefully took my time to investigate and focus on my audience when it came to constructing my media products as they are an important part of creating a magazine. My house style, colours, genre, and layout all relied on the feedback of people within my target audience and I'm glad I made sure to include this when it came to finalising my media products.

To conclude, I can see that there are many changes I have made to improve my media products from my original prelim task and I am happy that I completed it beforehand in order to learn from my first piece of work. 

Evaluation Question 6

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

Throughout the process of creating my media products I have used many technologies to help me edit, present and research different aspects. Below is a powerpoint showing all of     these different technologies:

Overall, I have learnt a great deal about the different technologies that are available throughout this project. Before this, I had never used websites such as blogger, slideshare or prezi, but now feel confident in using all 3 if I ever need to in the future.

Evaluation Question 4 + 5

Who would be the audience for your media products? How did you attract/address your audience?

Before I began the task of creating my own magazine cover, contents and double page spread, I made sure to investigate an audience that I could appeal to in order to maintain a house style or theme throughout my products. To begin, I created a questionnaire and particularly focused on the gender and age feedback so I could have an idea of the type of person who may read my magazine. In my case, for my chosen genre of Pop-Rock, the majority of readers I've found will be female, specifically older teens. I could then base my future decisions about my music magazine on the fact that a large percentage of my readers will be female, but also keeping into consideration my male audience. 

Investigating gender

Investigating age

I also created an audience profile so that I had something to base my decisions from when it came to appealing to my readers:

How did you attract/address your audience?

In terms of my media products, particularly my front cover, I made sure to choose a strong main image with eye contact to engage and attract my audience that I have seen work with success in previous examples of professional magazines. The bright colours of white and dark purple would be eye catching to my consumers whilst appealing to both genders. For the image used in my contents, you can see a young musician holding a guitar with a focused expression that may be a source of inspiration for some readers and becomes an attractive asset to my magazine. As for my double page spread, a more fun choice of images with my model showing a happy and cheerful expression would become believable to my target audience whilst also making my artist/model a relateable figure for these younger adults. 

My overall professional and clean looking layouts throughout all of my media products would create a very readable and enjoyable magazine that would appeal to my people within my audience and I am confident that it could be successful. 

Evaluation Question 3

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

Distribution: The spread of printed material, especially copies of newspapers or magazines, among readers. 

Media institutions: Organisations that are responsible for the production, marketing, distribution or regulation of media texts; they are business structures that produce media texts and regulate and structure all media activities.

After establishing these definitions I realised the importance of choosing the most suitable institution, as their power to distribute my magazine would ultimately decide on the success it has, so I therefore went on to researching the many media institutions available. 

• Hearst Magazines UK is responsible for publishing magazines such as Elle, Digital Spy, Red, and SugarScape; as it has promoted many respected magazines it gave me confidence that it would provide a professional service. However, the fact that Hearst has not published a music magazine specifically before suggests it would not have as much knowledge on how to promote one like mine so successfully. 

• Immediate Media Co. - Formerly BBC Magazines, has published some of the UK's most famous magazines including Radio Times, Good Food and Top Gear. Although it has promoted music magazines such as Top of the Pops and BBC Music, the fact that the BBC mainly focuses on companies within its own organisation and programmes suggests it would not have been a particularly good choice.

• Development Hell Ltd. an independent media company that was based in Islington, London already has previous successes with leading international dance music magazine ‘Mixmag’. Because of this reason, I decided to work with and pitch to this company.

My magazine pitch to Development Hell Ltd.

Evaluation Question 2

How do your media products represent particular social groups?

Representation: how groups, individuals, institutions, or social changes are portrayed through the media. 

Looking at my media products of a front cover, contents, and double page spread, a positive representation of the younger generation can be seen through the one featured artist. This is particularly apparent in my double page spread where she is laughing/smiling with a happy expression.  

Starting with my front cover image (above) that shows my model with a strong, engaging expression, you can see the artist has been presented to be confident and possibly well established, possibly challenging stereotypes of young adults to not be so successful in terms of a musical career at this age. As for my contents page (right), my model wearing simple and dark clothing of boots, a jumper and leather jacket have presented this female in a classy and therefore positive light. 

Finally, looking at my double page spread you can see that I have chosen to represent my model/artist in a more fun and exciting way. Her cheerful and happy expression in both photographs reflect her playful side that will appeal to my target audience, whilst her maintained clothing style of the leather jacket throughout my media products keeps a house style and highlights her rock-chick side. For the secondary image to the right, a more casual image has been used next to her signature style font in order to portray or represent her fun side that will become relateable to my readers.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Conventions: the expected format of a media text or the widely recognised way of doing things in a particular genre.

From this definition I could initially see that my magazine’s appearance would ultimately reflect the genre and would need to be planned carefully. For the codes and conventions themselves, I found that these are all things that ultimately influence the consumer’s desire to pick up your magazine and where therefore extremely important.

In terms of my own genre, after researching real examples of media products (magazine front covers), I decided to focus on Pop-Rock because it was a genre I knew the most about and could relate to as a result. Furthermore, I made sure to feature an artist that I could write about in my double page spread as it is nearly always used as a convention, so I used my sister ‘Emma Lauran’ and wrote about her new single ‘Caught Up’.  
 

Front Cover:

Looking now to my own media products in comparison with real examples, I can see that there have been cases where I have used, developed and even challenged conventions.

To begin, for my front cover's main image I made sure to use a bold, striking photograph that maintained eye contact, as seen in 'Q' magazine, in order to attract the audience. As I have seen this kind of image used in many professional magazines, I did not want to challenge this by using a main image without eye contact particularly on the front cover, as this has already shown to be successful with real media products as it immediately engages your readers. 

In terms of my header, it is apparent that I have not included some sort of logo in the style of 'Q' for my own cover, however, I made sure to create an attractive title that could be used throughout the magazine and would become a recognised logo in itself, therefore developing a previous convention. Furthermore, as a recurring theme with 'Q', there have been many examples where this logo has been placed behind parts of the main image due to the fact that it's already extremely recognisable. I have arguably challenged this convention by placing the masthead/logo on top of my main image as my magazine is not established enough to have this recognisable status. 

Coverlines and the main artist feature have been placed in similar positions compared to a real cover, down the left side and in the bottom centre of the page, showing I have used a typical convention that would be easy for readers to follow due to the simplicity of the layout. Other than the barcode, tagline, and 'puff' on my front cover, which I have slightly challenged by placing them in dissimilar areas of the page compared to the real product, I feel it was necessary to position them as shown due to the appropriateness of my layout. 

 Contents Page:

Moving on to my contents page, I can see the many similarities in conventions also. Starting with the text boxes themselves, I have used the typical convention of placing an enlarged page number next to the article in a simple and easy to read, black text. The highlights of purple colour on my contents page reflect the red used on the real media product, which advertise particular articles and maintain the interest throughout. 

In terms of the main image, I wanted to create an image that would fill the whole page so that I could place layers of text over the top. Looking at the professional example, I can see that this may challenge typical conventions as only a smaller image has been used on the right hand side of the page. However, as for the models themselves, they have been shown to use the same facial expression that looks into the distance, portraying the similar artists with a background in music just in different ways. 

In my media product I made sure to include a message/letter from the editor in order to create a personal feel that would appeal to my target audience. Although this convention has not been used on the real media product, showing it is not always used and therefore suggesting I have challenged this convention by its inclusion, I had seen previous examples whilst researching other magazines which gave me confidence in writing my own. 

Although it is less visible in the professional contents page, contact information and smaller details have been placed at the bottom of the page in a similar layout to mine at the top of the page. 

Double Page Spread:

Lastly, for my double page spread, you can see that I have taken a lot of inspiration from this real media product in particular. For the main image, I made sure to place a medium close up shot image so that it would take up a whole page and therefore promotes the artist themselves, making the consumer want to read on. Despite their different expressions as well as the colouring effects, I feel the idea behind using such a large image shows I have definitely developed this convention rather than challenge it. 

Furthermore, the title of the page has been similarly placed (on opposite pages) above the main article in a bold and easy to read font. Perhaps my favourite aspect of my double page spread is the short introduction underneath the title that gives a brief explanatory sentence about the artist that will interest readers and also create a nice mise-en-scene that is easy to look at. The text itself I placed into three columns instead of writing it all out in one paragraph, therefore possibly challenging this example of a magazine convention. However, I felt this worked well with the question and answer style interview in the sense that readers could easily navigate through the article rather than read a whole block of overwhelming text.

Smaller details of my swirl decorations are also apparent in this real media product with the 'WOMEN WHO ROCK 2012' tab, highlighting a specific convention that completes the page and adds a sense of wholeness to the overall double page spread.

To conclude, due to the fact that my magazine is un-established, I decided not to challenge the basic conventions of media products, as I had to ensure I could appeal to a wide audience within my genre. Therefore, I stuck to the well known ideas of a magazine cover when it came to making my own and included coverlines with bright colours to stand out against other magazines and a bold main image with eye contact.

Deconstructing My Media Products

After the completion of all three of my media products, the front cover, contents page, and the double page spread, I have decided to deconstruct each one individually as to evaluate the successes of my codes and conventions. This will then allow me to easily complete my evaluation questions that answer these successes in appealing to my target audience of older teenagers. 

Front Cover:

To begin, my front cover (above) was something I carefully constructed after investigating professional magazine covers so that it would apply and not challenge conventions of real media products to an extent. Starting with my main image, I selected this particular photograph with my model looking directly at the camera as to create an engaging level of eye contact, drawing in the consumers to want to look at my magazine. Her hair positioned to the left hand side of the page allowed me to place text layers over the top, whilst allowing me to keep her strong expression uncovered on the right side. Looking back at my flat plans I can now see that I have kept the actual main image in relative similarity to the original planned photograph. 

As for my title itself, I chose 'Fusion' after presenting three original names to my target audience through the form of a questionnaire/survey and receiving 60% of people with this magazine name preference. I couldn't help but agree with this feedback as I feel it definitely captured my idea of Pop/Rock as a genre and would appeal to many people within my target audience as it was not gender specific. 

Next, the masthead was something I came up with after experimenting with different fonts until I eventually found 'HolyScriptacular'. I felt this would make a good masthead for my magazine as the rounded text worked particularly well my title of 'Fusion' as the elongated 'f' added a wholeness to my cover and was not as harsh as some capitalised fonts I had previously discovered; this fun and playful title will not only appeal to my target audience of mainly females of the older teenage bracket, but also fits in with my genre of Pop/Rock as it carries the appearance of Pop with a name connoting Rock. Against the darkness of my model's hair, and contrasting with my uses of bright colour, I left the masthead plain white as I felt this would create a clean, simple, and readable title that would appear professional on the front cover. 

My tagline I designed to fit above the cover itself in a black banner style rectangle. The simple and readable text of 'THE UK'S GREATEST MUSIC MAGAZINE 2013' would help to sell the magazine by advertising its success, and I believe worked well in it's particular position.

The coverlines were particularly important for me as I realised their impact on the audience that decided its ability to sell from initial research into front covers. Professional magazines offered brightly coloured coverlines with catchy articles and artists featured within the specific issue. Therefore, when it came to creating my own, I went for a bright but dark purple colour as I felt this would remain interesting to both genders whilst also being eye catching. Using a simple, capitalised font (Myriad Pro) that could be readable and informative, I included the featured artists within my magazine in a white text that contrasted the purple background.

Similarly, for my secondary image and 'puff' - a device that helps to draw attention to and promote certain elements in the magazine - I included bright colours of purple and a white glow. In this case I created a competition to interest the readers by presenting the prospect of winning tickets to a famous concert, within a black circle with capitalised, white, attention grabbing text. 

As for my main featured artist, Emma Lauran, I chose to include an italic, lowercase, and interesting font of 'DearJoe5' because whilst contrasting the harder coverline text, it complemented the rounded masthead. This time using a deeper purple/berry colour, I edited the back shadow effects and increased the depth from the background image itself, creating an almost 3D effect. The tagline for the featured artist itself in the same font but italicised, left white made a roundness to the magazine as aspects of white were now equally positioned all over the page.  

The barcode I placed in the bottom right hand corner of the cover, a popular position in most music magazines I have previously investigated as it does not cover any necessary aspects of the page and left a professional finish with the date, price, and contact information. Lastly, the inclusion of a small, black doodle swirl in the top left hand corner added a touch of fun and personalisation that would appeal to my target audience and possibly challenges conventions of real media products within this genre as this level of professionalism would not be challenged by doodles.  

Contents Page:

For my contents page, I made sure to research professional examples already on the market (here and here) so that I could understand these arguably more complex codes and conventions. Starting with the main image, this time I included a black and white photograph of my model in an outside setting. Not only would this create interest for the readers who may be used to the simple indoor, white background, photoshoot style image, but it leaves a professional looking finish. The model is here looking over the right whilst holding a guitar, highlighting the musical aspect of her career, and wears simple, classy clothing that presents young adults in a positive and professional light. 

The masthead in this case was something I wanted to present in a separate section of the page, as I found most real media products sectioned off their contents pages as well. Using a black rectangular shape, I included the 'logo' of 'Fusion' to maintain a house style, contact information, and finally the 'CONTENTS' title. I made sure to colour this with the same purple/berry shade that would tie in with my front cover, whilst using a white outer glow and bevelled effect to allow the text to stand out. 

As for the three white text boxes, I used a simple layout with easy to read text as planned in my flat plans. This follows the main conventions I have found in real contents pages as readers can effortlessly navigate through the magazine. Furthermore, the message from the editor that I previously wrote adds a personal touch that will connect with the consumers.

Finally, the 'Emma Lauran' coverlines in the bottom left hand corner will further advertise the article whilst rounding off the page by filling in the last available space. 

Double Page Spread:

Looking lastly to my double page spread, I have used a medium close up shot of my model for the main image with a cheerful expression to engage the audience. From my initial deconstructions of real media products, particularly double page spreads, a main image has been used to fill up a whole page, establishing the artist and making the consumers want to read on. My masthead further enhances this with the bold purple colour that maintains a house style in relation to the purples used on my front cover and contents page. 

The short description above the article provides a simple introduction with a professional layout, leading on to the 3 columns of text. A question and answer format was something I made sure to include as it is a convention nearly always used in magazine articles and I feel works well with this type of artist. My secondary image in the bottom right hand corner with a handwritten style font signature adds a personalised touch that will appeal to my target audience of young adults that may appreciate the change from professionalism. 

To continue, the masking tape design feature in the left corner attracts the eye and sells the article further by highlighting an interesting quote from the interview. Finally, the same doodle from the front cover has been featured in opposite corners of the double page spread to maintain the house style and complete the page by adding small decoration and creativity.

Double Page Spread Improvements + Final DPS

From my Initial  Double Page Spread Audience Feedback, where I asked people who would fit into my target audience of older teenagers, I decided to make a few changes to improve my double page spread. 

My initial double page spread

 

My main improvement after feedback was to adjust the swirl feature in the corners of the page so that it became less noticeable from the black colour. To do this I changed the effect on the layer itself and made it more transparent so that it blended in well with the background. I am happy with this improvement as it seems to complete the double page spread and allows me to keep the swirl drawing fitting in with the house style as it is on the front cover also.

My final double page spread after improvements

Double Page Spread Photoshoot

In order to decide which photograph to use for my main image on my magazine's double page spread, I made sure to take multiple pictures that I could choose from. Below are a few examples that I went through, as well as my chosen photograph.

Looking at the four images above, they show the different flash effects and poses I put my model in, all including her laughing. The first and last photos were ones I took without a flash, hence the darker lighting conditions, however I disregarded these when it came to choosing my final photo as the effects of the flash I have found created a more professional looking magazine image.

This last image shows my chosen photograph to use for my double page spread. My reason for this particular photo choice is because the model is looking up, allowing the readers to see her cheerful expression, whilst also engaging with the audience. Despite there being no eye contact, I have seen this being used in a professional magazine to much success in an edition of Q, featured the Sing Out Sisters, therefore I was confident that it was not always necessary. Below it is the final image I used after editing, which you can see is a lot cleaner, brighter and professional looking with the white background.

Initial Double Page Spread Audience Feedback

After initially completing my magazine's double page spread, I decided to ask for feedback in order to progress and find ways to develop my media products. Using survey monkey, I also requested constructive comments that I could work from to improve my work.

From these responses I have decided to return to my initial double page spread and experiment with the aspect of the swirl, as it has shown to be a problem before on my front cover where people mistook it for a tattoo. In this case I will try different effects to brighten or lessen the darkness of the black as suggested. I am happy that the feedback I received was all positive and generally people believed it would work well as a music magazine. Furthermore, I received few ideas of change, suggesting there is little I need to do to complete this contents page and I am confident it would appeal to my chosen audiences within the genre of pop/rock.

Stages of making my double page spread

Above are the specific stages of creating my double page spread which I have shown through a presentation I made on Prezi. 

Contents Page Improvements + Final Contents

From my Initial Contents Page Audience Feedback, where I asked people who would fit into my target audience of older teenagers, I decided to make a few changes to improve my contents page.

My initial contents page

My first suggested improvement was to change the title, or masthead, so that the text stood out more and was noticeable to the reader as a result. In order to do this I added an outer glow effect and changed the text from regular to bold, so that it increased in size and the white border fitted in with the theme colours.








The next suggestion was to increase the text size of the information in the bottom left hand corner of the page. This was because it would help to advertise the featured artist and the related article, as well as filling the available space in that specific area.

Final Contents Page after improvements

Contents Page Photoshoot

In order to decide which photograph to use for my main image on my magazine's contents page, I made sure to take multiple pictures that I could choose from. Below are a few examples that I went through, as well as my chosen photograph. 

My first photograph was one I used to experiment with the composition and lighting of the surroundings. The model I asked to look straight to the side so you could see the profile of her face, however I felt she looked lost against the background and decided to try other positions with the guitar. 

In this next picture I made the model look slightly closer to the camera, but I still wasn't happy with the positioning. 

Above is my final picture which I selected as the one to use for my contents page. The reason for this is because it is my favourite in terms of the model's pose and the lighting that highlights her face. 

Initial Contents Page Audience Feedback

After initially completing my magazine's contents page, I decided to ask for feedback in order to progress and find ways to develop my media products. Using survey monkey, I also requested constructive comments that I could work from to improve my work.

From all of these responses I have decided to return to my initial contents page and experiment with aspects such as the title/masthead, as someone suggested I made it brighter in order to make it more apparent on the page, as well as changing text sizes. I am happy that the feedback I received was mostly positive and generally people believed it would work well as a music magazine. Furthermore, I received few ideas of change, suggesting there is little I need to do to complete this contents page and I am confident it would appeal to my chosen audiences within the genre of pop/rock.

Stages of making my contents page

Above are the specific stages of creating my contents page which I have shown through a presentation I made on Prezi. 

Q Magazine (2013 Issue) - Deconstruction

Front Cover:

• Comparing this particular issue of Q Magazine to previous covers, I can see that the idea of being able to cover the masthead has also been used. This shows that the company are not afraid to hide parts of their magazine that may help to sell it because they are confident it will remain recognisable to the audience. As analysed in other Q deconstructions, the red and white colour of the masthead enables it to stand out from other competitors and draws the readers in. The tagline here 'Music Magazine of the Year', as well as 'The World's Greatest Music Magazine', set high expectations for the brand itself and create desirability to the consumers that would see this being advertised.

• Other than the main uses of white and red, it is difficult to necessarily differentiate a recurring theme colour on this front page. At the top of the cover white has been used to create a simple but effective background to feature important information and advertise key aspects of the magazine. Perhaps the gold border has been used to emphasise the special edition and could connote the importance and class of this magazine.  

• In the centre, a white square has been included to highlight the greatest feature of this particular issue - 'Perfect Playlists' involving well known figures such as Robbie Williams and Noel Gallagher. Not only does this highlighting technique clearly emphasise the magazine's best features, but the colouring allows the album artwork around the edges to stand out and surround the cover in an almost frame like style. Furthermore, it could be considered that the white colour shows connotations of this 'perfection' that is being advertised, so that ties in well. 

• Appropriate fonts have been used in certain areas of the front page and all remain readable and have a sense of simplicity. The coverline/hook in the bottom left uses a quote paired with a famous celebrity to draw in the readers, whilst the ripped paper border helps to seamlessly blend into the cover, making it visually appealing to the eye.

Contents Pages 

It is particularly important to analyse the contents pages as not only have I completed my front cover already, but I am currently in the stages of working on my own contents page. Therefore, I should pay close attention to the codes and conventions used as to inspire my own work, although in this case the contents page is spread across three pages rather than one. 

• From a glance, this contents page appears to be fairly busy and slightly confusing, however when you inspect the different aspects you can see that they have been cleverly laid out to draw in the readers. For example, the use of images of artists layered over the top of some texts and other images creates an almost 3D effect that makes the page more interesting for the consumers to look at. The large amount of dark, black colours have been balanced out with the highlights of red and white spaces, creating a clean and modern effect. I can see a letter from the editor welcoming the readers to the magazine has been included, which has made me decide that I will definitely include one of my own in my magazine's contents page. 

• A variety of articles and features of this magazine have been advertised through page number referencing and brief information over photographs, which I will definitely make sure to use for my own contents page. Furthermore, as this contents spreads over a total of 3 pages, I can see extra details and contact information have been placed on the third page; despite me being reduced to only 1 page, I shall definitely include brief contact details so that my magazine has a professional feel. Overall, I feel that although this example is fairly busy and almost confusing to look at, it holds many appropriate conventions of a magazine that I should take note to incorporate into my work as they are found to be extremely successful with audiences. 

   Double Page Spread 

Moving on to the next magazine feature, it is also particularly important to analyse the codes and conventions as well as those used for the contents page as I am in the process of creating my own double page spread too. 

• The artist of the 'Sing Out Sisters' has been featured, with a full page sized image on the left, and a page of text on the right. The capitalised, bolded, large text at the bottom takes up nearly one third of the double page spread, clearly explaining the artists within the article and selling this section of the magazine. This would not only be easy to read, but would also create interest for the readers of these artists who may not be well known to the audience. 

• The main image itself presents three young women with happy expressions, engaging with each other. The fact that they are positioned together without having eye contact with the camera shows that it is not necessarily a key feature to have in order to maintain interest with the readers, as this image is still fun and well designed. Text placed over the borders of the photograph includes extra information about the sisters that is not particularly needed in the article itself - a feature I may choose to include in my own products.

• Looking at the article, a simple black text on a white background with a basic font has been used, separated into 3 columns. 

• A strip of 3 images showing the artists in action, with further text placed over the image is placed in the centre of the right page, emphasising the recurring theme of 3 in this article for the 'Sing Out Sisters'.