My Final Evaluation

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

From the Preliminary task, I have learnt how to use professional technologies like Photoshop to create professional media products, with better understanding than before. I have also learnt that the audience is the main propeller when designing/creating a magazine- everything depends on the audience and the genre of the magazine. For the Preliminary task, I did not carry out as much research as I did for the main task. For instance, in my main task I analysed magazines such as Rocksound and Mixmag to scrutinise their use of conventions for their specified genre- which were rock and hip-hop. I also sketched layouts and titles for the front page, contents page and double page spread so that when I was ready to create them on Photoshop, I had a plan of how I wanted my finished product to look and the knowledge of how I would be able to achieve that – rather than just playing around with layouts until I made one I liked, like I had done with my preliminary task. My further research consisted of me evaluating other magazines, taking notice of their use of; fonts, house-styles, use of images, image sizes ect. The research was useful in that I was able to use other rock/alternative magaines for ideas on the subject choices, effective layouts, how my images would appear and also the colour scheme. Comparing the image manipulation of my Preliminary task to my music magazine, I noticed that I editted each image in a lot more detail and used a larger variety of tools, for instance – I had not really touched the drop shadows, the liquify tool, hue/saturation and contrast tools in my preliminary task where in my music magazine I used all those tools. Even though I feel like I have made a large improvement from my Preliminary task, I think that there are still many improvements I could have made on my music magazine. For example, I would have prefered to have used more unisex images and included male artists rather than strictly all female as even though I wanted the bias towards females, it ended up too strong and resulted in possibly turning male readers’ interests off. Despite this, I do think that I was succesful in relating to the genre I chose and the target audience as a whole.

My Final Evaluation

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

Editing was the main technology used in the creation my magazine. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create the layout, structure, editing my images and also inputting my text into the magazine.
I also used an interactive blog to register my progress and allow tracking of how far I was getting on with the creation of my magazine. I think that my skills with image manipulation improved greatly from the time of my Preliminary Task, as I did not know how to manipulate images very well and found the software difficult to use. After a lot of practice however, I used a wider variety of tools such as drop shadows and fill effects, that before, I had left untouched.
Apart from just editing however, I also learnt how to frame effectively when taking pictures in ways that I thought would draw in the reader's interest. I had to consider angles, shot lengths and also focus depth when photographing - such as my low angle mid shots that created a sense that the subject is powerful and confident.

My Final Evaluation

How did you attract/ address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience through use of a colour scheme that adheres to their fashion conventions, mainly through the use of lots of black with some brighter colours. Also, because my mastheads were of a messy looking nature, it immediately attracted the readers’ attention towards my magazine. I think that my magazine having it’s text spaced out with large, clear readable fonts also helped with addressing my audience with whatever information I had written. In addition, my images were bright and eye catching so when people picked up my magazine, they would be inclined to read it just from the interesting appearance of my images. Furthermore, the expression of the front cover’s artist looks very edgey and alluring, intriguing the audience which is then reinforced even further by the bland boring black&white urban background I used to support her. Because of the background and the similar age range of the model, I think that this helps to attract the audience even further as my targetted audience would spend the majority of their time in an urban environment and the similar age range means that they can identify and relate to my front cover, knowing that the magazine is for them.

My Final Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be teenagers mainly aged 16-19. Because of this, they are most likely to be working part-time jobs and studying within colleges or sixth forms while living at home with their parents. This means that my audience is fairly well educated and are able to read more textual content than a younger audience would have – meaning pictures are not as frequently needed to break up the text. Their main interests are listening to music, using social networking websites such as myspace, and attending live shows of their favourite bands – all of which I addressed within my magazine in an attempt to lure the audience in.
Apart from music as their main interest, they like hanging out in urban areas in large groups of their friends just generally chatting and letting time pass by, as well as shopping in clothes shopping together in stores such as Deadgood and Cult.

My Final Evaluation

What kind of media institution might you distribute your media product & why?

In my opinion, my media product could be published by a large publisher like Bauer, as my magazine has addressed a gap in the market. Through researching existing magazines, I found that Bauer’s publishing division have the music magazines ‘Pop’ which addresses a girly 10-13 year old audience and ‘Kerrang’ which addresses a largely male market between 14 – 19, where as my magazine is aimed towards both males and females, but with an emphasis on females between 16-19 (meaning it would have no competition). However, because I would be part of a well known institution, they would have control over aspects of my magazine and essentially change the whole theme if they chose. But, this would be worth the trade-off, because the institution would provide the funds for mass advertisement in music stores such as HMV, as well as usual magazine stores like Newsagents and WHSmiths.

My Final Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media magazine represents youth through text, as I used some slang, colloquialisms and speech fillers that are used frequently among younger people. I also referred to artists such as The Medic Droid, Metronomy and Hollywood Undead, who are all popular artists of the techno/power pop genre and well known within the scene kid subculture. Looking through my images, I found that I had also ended up connoting that youth is urban, through the use of my brick and building backgrounds as well as the idea that they are harsh, which I did through the body language of my models and their facial attitudes. I also ended up heavily representing females in an interesting way. My female models were typically shot with a head-on or slight high angle connoting they are slightly weak individuals, though I then contradicted the stereotype that girls are vulnerable and frail through the use of the eye contact with the camera as well as the aggressive attitudes and the distracting clothing of my models; which ends up connoting that these girls shouldn’t be messed with.
Also, my magazine does a fair job at representing race as my models were of a range of ethnicities – yet still keeps white, middle class people as the majority, representing scene kids appropriately as they are the main members of this subculture.

My Final Evaluation

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

In some ways, my media product is similar to already existing media products, in that I used a darker colour scheme to reflect that my magazine was based for a more alternative crowd in mind. However, because there are brighter elements within my magazine, it is furthering this reflection in that it was aimed at a particular social group that conforms to similar colour schemes within their fashion. The type of image I used for my front cover is a young, rock girl – making her into a role model. This convention challenges real media products, as it is not that common to see a female rock star as an audience’s role model, let alone a young one. However, I chose that image because I wanted the audience to be able to relate to the magazine to help attract their interest. Though I based the content of my magazine for both males and females, all of my used images have a female model. I did this because females largely populate the subculture that I chose to address, which was scene kids. All of my images are Medium close-ups, which is a common convention of alternative magazines such as Kerrang.
I named my magazine Kaleidoscope because it translates as: "a continually shifting pattern, scene, or the like" meaning it makes sense to describe my magazine as it is about music which is an environment that is constantly changing.

Front Cover: I would argue that successful features of my front cover would be a clean organised layout - as the front cover does not appear cluttered with information and all the fonts are easily readable and clear. I also think that the front cover is interesting and invites the audience to pick it up and read it due to it's cover lines and the model's stare, which makes the reader feel like they're personally being addressed when they see her looking at them. I also think the straps with their ripped effect look visually pleasing, adding a splash of colour as well as helping to convey extra information easily. I also think the ripped sticker effect works well as it connotes that my magazine is alternative, and not prim and proper like other mainstream pop magazines would be. I think my main image looks really good, with her eyes gazing at the reader – her outfit conforms to scene kid conventions well and she has an alluring expression on her face, drawing the reader’s in. It is also very clear that this is a music magazine due to her props. I established the house style of this page, with the title of the magazine being in sketchathon with all the other fonts being impact or arial depending on how much I felt that piece of text needed to stand out. The house style colours established here are a light turquioise, as well as obeying to the usual red & black combination that other alternative music magazines use such as Kerrang and Rocksound.
Contents: My contents page is also visually pleasing, with appropriate titles and text. I decided to go against the usual conventions of filling the contents page will plenty of images like they do in Kerrang, as I felt my audience would appreciate more textual content. I feel that the images I did use however, really stand out and help draw the page together, tieing in the house style colours together in their clothes – as well as being visually pleasing to look at in their own rights as well. I think that my layout is very effective, and far superior to my rejected contents page I had developed before, as this time the cover lines and titles are on the right hand side of the page, obeying forms and conventions set out by other magazines due to the typical reader’s tendancy to flick through pages and only see the right hand side of pages. Also, I included an advertisement at the bottom which stands out and is based off the typical kind of advert you would see a magazine use on their contents page to try and reinforce their fanbase loyaltes.
Double Page Spread: My Double Page Spread adheres to the standard codes and conventions of an interview, as the gutters are present and of an appropriate size, with 3 columns used to display my information below a large bolded kicker. I have two pull quotes, that use the house style colour palette and standard font of impact, and because of the bright colour they really do draw the reader in. I used the same style for my masthead as in my contents page, which I think really makes the magazine feel whole rather than just 3 separate pages that could be from anywhere. While this page is mostly plain, I feel that it’s simple and quite modest nature really does emphasize the small details like the guitar plectrum shaped end stop I used, as well as drawing the reader’s eyes to the model and maintaining them there.

Finished Front Cover

Finished Contents Page

Finished Double Page Spread

Alternative Double Page Spread

This was my original double page spread design.

I ended up discarding this version because the changes I had made to my final front cover, ended up changing my house style colours, making this page a misfit to my other products.

Original Double Page Spread Images

Double Page Spread Mock-Up

NME Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread
Originally uploaded by narage

Rejected Contents Page

Original Contents Images

Contents Page Mock-Ups

This was the draft for my rejected contents page layout.

This is the draft that I used for my finished contents page.

Drummer Magazine Contents

Drummer%20-%20Contents%20-%20Jan%2007
Originally uploaded by narage

Alternative Front Covers

First Draft Front Cover

Original Cover Images

Front Cover Mock-Up

Photograph Prop List

I am planning to have a girl styled in scene fashion between 16-20 (my target audience range) to be pose as an artist for my magazine. I think that this will result in a more personal relationship with the reader, as they will identify with the model due to their similar traits.

My main image will have;

• A girl with large, back combed hair.
• A bright wardrobe, such as oranges and greens ect.
  Make-up that emphasises the eyes, such as mascara, fake eyelashes and eye liner.
• The model to be facing straight towards the camera, establishing eye contact.
  A prop relating to music to be featured with the model.

Other images;

I would like them to be staged as if they are band group pictures. Almost advertising them or their new albums. I would like a mix of girls and boys with slightly different takes on rock for example; 'emos' and 'scene kids' though I also plan on having people dressed 'normally' in an attempt to lure them in as well and expand my target audience as not everyone's dress sense determines their fashion sense like my questionnaire revealed.

I will have;

• Crazy emo fashion such as tutu's.
• Some models in casual clothes.
• Heavy eye make-up.

My Own music magazine; initial ideas

Now that I have done some initial research into existing magazines I have decided on the target audience I wish to focus upon in relation to my music magazine.

Working title of magazine:
Kaleidoscope

Target audience - demographic:
My target audience consists of both males and females, mainly within the age range of 15-19 consisting of highschool and college students.

Target audience - psychographic:
My audience have a techno, pop rock and industrial music taste. The way they consume these medias has a heavy emphasis on live gigs and festivals. CD's are not bought very frequently because of the internet where music can be bought and downloaded online.
The target audience also have a strong allegience to social networking websites such as bebo, facebook and myspace.
These could be stereotyped as scene kids.

Price Point:
£1.99

Weekly or Monthly:
Monthly

Content:
The content in my music magazine will include; new bands, artists (singer songwriters) that are unsigned yet bring a new style of music to the exisiting products. Reviews for gigs and gig listings will also be included within my magazine, and will be present on the front cover in cover lines to attract audience interest.

Style:
The style of the colour scheme will be red and black with yellow. An anti-commercial feel will be adopted through torn effect stickers and straps as well as a scruffy font mast head.

USP or position in the market?
My unique selling point is the fact my magazine appeals to a wide range of alternative, power pop and techno fans and also those wanting new music styles or fresh sounds before anyone else. Also, because my music magazine is aimed at a specific sub culture of the 'scene kids' there is no existing market meaning there would be no competition for my magazine.
Another unique selling point I have is that my magazine gives bands that are currently unsigned or not widely known bands and artists to be advertised within my magazine, possibly helping them further their music careers or generating more popularity for them already.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire I took, was performed through opportunity sampling around my college with a sample size of 20. As a result, the age group of my sample was that of 16-19 year olds, consisting of both males and females.
My questionnaire has shown me that my target audience has a preference towards techno and pop rock music, meaning I will dedicate my music magazine to addressing these music genres.
I also learnt from my questionnaire that advertised articles are important in convincing my readers to pick up my magazine as well as an attractive front cover, so I will create interesting cover lines to deal with this. Seeing festivals and bands live is important to my target audience so I will use cover lines and straps to lure in readers about these aspects. The questionnaire also revealed that readers have a strong preference to interview articles, so I will advertise this on my front cover as well to pull their interest in.
My target audience were fairly indecisive whether or not their preferred music genres influence the way they dress, with ‘yes’ only getting two more votes than ‘no.’ However, I have decided that I will address the fashion sense of my typical target audience who prefer the music genres my magazine will be catered for by using my models dressed in a similar fashion.
Listening to music through their mp3 players and the internet is the preferred way in which my audience consumes media on a regular basis, reinforcing my initial thoughts in referencing social networking sites band pages to identify with my audience.
Through my questionnaire I have also decided that I will have pictures of instruments present on my main images, most likely an electric guitar, in an attempt at identifying with my target audience and luring their interest in. The appearance and the way in which I present the style of music will also be important on my main images.

Mixmag Magazine

mixmag
Originally uploaded by narage

DJ Magazine

dj
Originally uploaded by narage

Rocksound Magazine

rocksound
Originally uploaded by narage

Planning my College Magazine

Research I underwent in prder to plan for my own College Magazine cover included looking through existing real magazine covers such as The London Metropolitan's "M", "Soup" (where you can see my flickr analysis in another post), general magazine's such as "Men's Fitness" as well as a survey taken on real students.

The questionnaire that was carried out revealed; if people would prefer a paper copy of a magazine or an e-magazine, which showed that people actually prefer paper copies, as well as if people would actually pay money for a college magazine if there were one, where most people said yes. It also revealed the most money that people would pay for a college magazine (which proves to be around the £1 - £2 range which I then incorporated onto my cover and also the themes that should be covered in a college magazine - which as a result, helped me decide on what the cover lines should be.

When planning my contents page, I browsed through various real existing magazines of a variety of genres ranging from such as Heat!, Vogue and Men's Fitness. Ultimately, I ended up using Men's Fitness as my content page's inspiration incorporating the format in where the pictures went, and how large the text was. I chose Men's Fitness as a source because it was very organised, formal and simple, which are elements I thought would be most appropriated towards a college magazine.

When planning the cover of my magazine, I again looked at existing magazine's, but this time instead of looking at general magazines I specifically used and analysed college magazines, which included "Soup" and "M." An analysis of soup done on flickr is linked in my blog, and my informal cover lines are sourced from this magazine as it seemed very effective with it's jokey nature in attracting attention from readers and engaging them.

My finished Preliminary Task products

I would argue that succesful features of my product would be clean organised layout - as the front cover does not appear cluttered with infortmation and the contents page is organised and easy to read. I also think that the front cover is interesting and invites the audience to pick it up and read it due to it's cover lines and the model's stare, which makes the reader feel like they're personally being addressed when they see her looking at them.
What I think is unsuccesful about my product is that the front cover is not very genre neutral in regards to it's appeal to the student population. Because of the use of darker colours and titles, the magazine gives off an 'emo' attitude which would obviously not appeal to all college students like the design brief asked for.

New skills I developed while undertaking the preliminary task mostly include those involved with photoshop, but also include those in identifying target audiences as well.
As I am new to photoshop, the preliminary task provided an oppurtunity to experiment with a variety of it's tools that could should prove useful when working on the main task. Specific examples would be manipulating the text layers and their shadows and outlines to make fonts stand out better from the background, affecting the transparency of certain layers to create small areas to have different textures to how the usually would if I kept the layers opaque - such as in the front cover's blue strip with it's heading titles. I also got to improve my skills on giving people 'touch-ups' such as making their eyes stand out better by setting the burn tool onto shadows with a low exposure and using it on their eye liner and lashes to make them darker and stand out better. I also got to practice using the dodge tool to whiten certain areas, which I did on the eyes and teeth of the model on the front cover. Another feature I felt I improved on using was the hue, saturation and brightness of a picture. Using them made the background picture much richer in colour and stirking by changing the hue to a redder tone and tweaking the brightness and saturation accordingly to keep it looking natural.
I think that I also improved my audience relation skills during the preliminary task due to the research that was carried out on existing magazines where I identified their intended audiences and looked at HOW the targetted their audiences by use of head lines, well placed ads and general themes they used throughout.

Original Image

Existing College Magazine Analysis

soup magazine copy
Originally uploaded by jeff.carter