7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?
I found that I have definitely progressed a lot from my preliminary task. I have developed my research skills and analysis. I have learnt how to use InDesign correctly by learning each of the task symbols and how too measure and design a front cover, contents page and double-page spread of a magazine. I also learnt how to use slideshare to upload my powerpoints so that I could include them on my blog. I made my blog on blogger.com and learnt the process of uploading all of my work to make my blog, once I got the hang of it I found it very easy to use the blog. I made my preliminary task on publisher but progressed to make my final product on InDesign as it gave a more professional standard. I learnt how to use my audience research correctly to produce a product for them. After analysising many magazine pages I understand conventions and meanings a lot more to magazines now. I can apprieciate audience feedback and criticism. I have learnt what kind of images work for a magazine and how to set up successful photoshoots. I have learnt what an audience really want to read in a magazine and a good proportion of image to text.
Friday 1 April 2011
Evaluation - Question 6
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of designing this product?
Throughout the designing of this product, I have used many different software to ensure I got the best quality product I could.
Digital Camera - I used my digital SONY camera to do my photo shoot for my magazine,which I also use for photography. I know that it will give high quality images. I also know how to use this camera very well so I knew it would be appropriate for my shoots.
Internet - I used the internet for the following; Research images, findyourtribe and Dafont.
- My research was mainly from google which lead me to information and on websites to help me find out about magazine institutions, and I also used google images to find all of my magazine cover, contents pages and double-page spreads to analyse for my magazine research.
- I used www.findyourtribe.com to find out my social group and the variation of social groups as part of my research for my audience of the magazine. This was a different/new software to use but I found it very easy and fast to use.
- I used Dafont website to create my mastheads and headings. I felt this was a good website and had so many different fonts to chose from and had so many different meanings and genres to them.
InDesign - I used indesign to make my front cover, contents page and double-page spread. This was such a different programme to Publisher which I had used for my preliminary task. At first I found it very hard to use but as I knew how to use photoshop, it slowly became easier to use and I finally got the hang of it. I am pleased with the results of my magazine from Indesign and photoshop and can see how much of an improvement it made from using publisher.
Photoshop - I used photoshop to edit and cut out/crop my images. I edited them by altering the brightness /contrast and removing any unnecessary parts of the image. I made sure the image was clear and of a high quality by sharpening my image. I found photoshop fine to use for this project.
Paint - I used paint to do print screens and cropping of my fonts from www.dafont.com to create them for my magazine.
Word - I used word to type up notes and documents leading up to and for research and any planning for my magazine. I also produced my origonal audience questionnaire on Word.
Powerpoint - I used powerpoint to produce all of my powerpoints, which were research and planning for my magazine and my audience research. Powerpoints were a very clear and easy way to produce lots of planning onto and to also produce our flat plans.
Publisher - I used publisher to produce my preliminary task because I did not know how to use Indesign at the beginning of my project. I'm a lot happier with my results from Indesign though.
Slideshare - I used slideshare to upload and embed my powerpoints to upload to my blog. I found slideshare seem to take a long time to upload my powerpoints but it was a good way of uploading them onto my blog.
Blogger - I used www.blogger.com to upload and share all of my project. After getting used to blogger I found it a very easy and simpe way to share all of my work onto my blog, and I liked how you could adapt and make it look how you wanted.
Throughout the designing of this product, I have used many different software to ensure I got the best quality product I could.
Digital Camera - I used my digital SONY camera to do my photo shoot for my magazine,which I also use for photography. I know that it will give high quality images. I also know how to use this camera very well so I knew it would be appropriate for my shoots.
Internet - I used the internet for the following; Research images, findyourtribe and Dafont.
- My research was mainly from google which lead me to information and on websites to help me find out about magazine institutions, and I also used google images to find all of my magazine cover, contents pages and double-page spreads to analyse for my magazine research.
- I used www.findyourtribe.com to find out my social group and the variation of social groups as part of my research for my audience of the magazine. This was a different/new software to use but I found it very easy and fast to use.
InDesign - I used indesign to make my front cover, contents page and double-page spread. This was such a different programme to Publisher which I had used for my preliminary task. At first I found it very hard to use but as I knew how to use photoshop, it slowly became easier to use and I finally got the hang of it. I am pleased with the results of my magazine from Indesign and photoshop and can see how much of an improvement it made from using publisher.
Photoshop - I used photoshop to edit and cut out/crop my images. I edited them by altering the brightness /contrast and removing any unnecessary parts of the image. I made sure the image was clear and of a high quality by sharpening my image. I found photoshop fine to use for this project.
Paint - I used paint to do print screens and cropping of my fonts from www.dafont.com to create them for my magazine.
Word - I used word to type up notes and documents leading up to and for research and any planning for my magazine. I also produced my origonal audience questionnaire on Word.
Powerpoint - I used powerpoint to produce all of my powerpoints, which were research and planning for my magazine and my audience research. Powerpoints were a very clear and easy way to produce lots of planning onto and to also produce our flat plans.
Publisher - I used publisher to produce my preliminary task because I did not know how to use Indesign at the beginning of my project. I'm a lot happier with my results from Indesign though.
Slideshare - I used slideshare to upload and embed my powerpoints to upload to my blog. I found slideshare seem to take a long time to upload my powerpoints but it was a good way of uploading them onto my blog.
Blogger - I used www.blogger.com to upload and share all of my project. After getting used to blogger I found it a very easy and simpe way to share all of my work onto my blog, and I liked how you could adapt and make it look how you wanted.
Evaluation - Question 5
5. How did you attract and address your audience?
After researching what my audience want from a music magazine, I tried to include as much I could. I made my magazine conventional by using a bold masthead and a sophisticated house style throughout. I enticed them by using a pull on the front of an interview with a brand new band on the front. They were my main image. I said that there is information on the Brit awards and a free CD. I also included on the front cover '100 songs you must download' this is a pull for the readers because they will want to know the latest songs to download. On my contents page I used a model called Zara who was featuring in my magazine as a model for music posters and CD's, the audience will be interested in this also. I tried to make my layout of my magazine to look realistic and professional but I know that it doesn't look too much like a real magazine. I tried to make the double-page spread interesting and attractive so that the audience would want to read it and be interested. I am probably going to have a 70:30 ratio of female:male audience because I think because I am female I naturally produced a more feminine magazine.
After researching what my audience want from a music magazine, I tried to include as much I could. I made my magazine conventional by using a bold masthead and a sophisticated house style throughout. I enticed them by using a pull on the front of an interview with a brand new band on the front. They were my main image. I said that there is information on the Brit awards and a free CD. I also included on the front cover '100 songs you must download' this is a pull for the readers because they will want to know the latest songs to download. On my contents page I used a model called Zara who was featuring in my magazine as a model for music posters and CD's, the audience will be interested in this also. I tried to make my layout of my magazine to look realistic and professional but I know that it doesn't look too much like a real magazine. I tried to make the double-page spread interesting and attractive so that the audience would want to read it and be interested. I am probably going to have a 70:30 ratio of female:male audience because I think because I am female I naturally produced a more feminine magazine.
Thursday 31 March 2011
Evaluation - Question 4
4. Who would be the audience of your magazine?
The core buyer of my magazine is aimed to be males and females aged 16 +. I think the percentage of females to males will be 70% to 30% because if i base purely on this magazine I feel it is more female related because the band are female and theres poster of models for music etc. I think because my magazine is also about Indie music that is more popular genre within females.
These are my mood board that I made after I got my audience questionnaire results. It shows what they use on the internet and their preferences.
This shows that my audience like to listen to music stations like, heart, Kiss and Kerrang and Radio 1. They use Itunes, Youtube and free downloading to listen to their music. They watch music channels like; MTV Base and Scuzz and NME. They would also be attracted to buy a magazine if it had a free poster or a free CD.
I also made pie-charts to show my results...
These results show the kind of people that would read and buy my magazine, and because I based my magazine from this research I know that they are my target audience.
I went onto the website www.findyourtribe.com as part of my research to see which category I fit into. This was my results..
This is my results from www.findyourtribe.com. A blinger is my result and they are described as someone who likes the finer things in life. Money is spent on clothes, jewellery, cars and houses. This represents my audience because they are interested in looking good and keeping up with the latest trends and music/bands.
Socio-economic grouping
E - People subsisting on state benefits, the unemployed, pensioners etc.
My audience fall into this category because they are mainly students and young adults that may be unemployed.
Psychographic profiling
I think that these relate to my audience;
Aspirer - a materialistic seeker of status
Explorer - someone desiring discovery, challenge and new experiences.
The core buyer of my magazine is aimed to be males and females aged 16 +. I think the percentage of females to males will be 70% to 30% because if i base purely on this magazine I feel it is more female related because the band are female and theres poster of models for music etc. I think because my magazine is also about Indie music that is more popular genre within females.
These are my mood board that I made after I got my audience questionnaire results. It shows what they use on the internet and their preferences.
I also made pie-charts to show my results...
I went onto the website www.findyourtribe.com as part of my research to see which category I fit into. This was my results..
Socio-economic grouping
E - People subsisting on state benefits, the unemployed, pensioners etc.
My audience fall into this category because they are mainly students and young adults that may be unemployed.
Psychographic profiling
I think that these relate to my audience;
Aspirer - a materialistic seeker of status
Explorer - someone desiring discovery, challenge and new experiences.
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Evaluation - Question 3
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?
Here are some media industries, they have different publishing divisons and different target audiences and different magazines.
IPC Media
IPC media are an international company in which produce over 85 iconic media brands. There print brands alone reach almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men –almost 27 million UK adults.
The company produces many magazines, national and international that can appeal to mass audiences of men and women. They say that they focus on three main audiences; men, mass market women and upmarket women.
They cater for mass audiences and they are under five current publishing divisions such as; connect (womens weeklies such as LOOK and NOW), inspire (leisure and specialist), ignite (mens lifestyle and entertainment) SouthBank (women's lifestyle and home interest), and TX (portfolio of television titles.)
Some other Magazines that they do...
-Country Life
-Horse&Hound
-Rugby World
-Nuts
-Mousebreaker
-NME
-LOOK
-NOW
-CHAT
-WOMAN
-Marie Claire
-In style
-Women and Home
-Essentials
Future PLC
Future PLC is the 6th largest media company in the UK and publishes over 150 magazines under the genre of; video games, technology, films, automotive, cycling and photography.Future is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufactorers.
They are an international company and they cater for a niche audience. They produce magazines from gaming to cycling, each of them will have niche audiences compared to the mass target audience of IPC media.
Some magazines that they do...
-Classic Rock
-PC Plus
-PC answers
-Metal Hammer
-Offical Nintendo magazine
-Superplay
-Total!
-Total guitar
-Games master
-The Mac
-Pc gamer
EMAP
EMAP are a British media company that specialise in business to business magazines and organizations.They own 40 UK and Ireland local Radio stations and 20 magazines in its business portfolio.
Here are some magazines that EMAP have published...
-Computer and video games
-Eye magazine
-Internet magazine
-Mean machines
-Nintendo Official magazine
-PC Leisure
-pc reveiw
-Smash Hits
-SPORT
I think that my magazines would fit into IPC media Institiution the best because they are the institution that publish the most music magazines and they're target audience is very similar to mine. They're target audience are a mass audience of mainly women. They own a good variety of different magazines and genres including NME which is a inspiration of mine.
The contents of my magazine is mainly music hence being a music magazine and includes a heavy focus on a new band. This helps promote the new band easily because my target audience always want to get to know brand new music first.
By researching first into other institutions it helped me see what was important to include and what the audience want. Magazines need to be bright, colourful, eye catching but not too distracting and busy. For its certain genre, it needs to look sophosticated or fun and you need to get the front cover image right or it will make or break the magazine. A masthead says a lot about a magazine too, it does need to be eye catching but sometimes less is more, and a smaller elegant masathead could have the same effect as a very large and bold one.
I definatley think that my magazine fits into the IPC media institution best because they have more of a variety and mass audience.
Monday 28 March 2011
Evaluation - Question 2
Evaluation
2. How does music represent particular social groups?
There are so many different music genres these days and these can represent different social groups or make personalities. For example; Indie is now quite a popular genre of music, it follows with its only style, dress sense, hair styles, make-up personalities and voices. A few years ago Indie wasn't known like it is today it was more or less categoriesed as folk music. Rock music used to be associated just with men but now there are a lot more females into this kind of music and image. So many people get influcenced by the clothes they wear, there friendship groups and even their personalities.
Here is another social group of results I got from www.findyourtribe.com ...
The type of language I used for my magazine has been impacted by my social group. Typical language is causal and informal language but not so much slang and no swearing. I used language that I hope my audience can relate well to and understand. My magazine represents the Indie social group, therefore they will have the same things in common. They will share the same interests, language being one main thing therefore I used language to represent the social group.
2. How does music represent particular social groups?
There are so many different music genres these days and these can represent different social groups or make personalities. For example; Indie is now quite a popular genre of music, it follows with its only style, dress sense, hair styles, make-up personalities and voices. A few years ago Indie wasn't known like it is today it was more or less categoriesed as folk music. Rock music used to be associated just with men but now there are a lot more females into this kind of music and image. So many people get influcenced by the clothes they wear, there friendship groups and even their personalities.
Here is another social group of results I got from www.findyourtribe.com ...
Monday 21 March 2011
Evaluation - Question 1
Evaluation
1. In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?
Titles and Masthead
For my front cover i decided to follow conventions of real music magazines. I created a masthead in which i was inspired by Q magazine. I have used a red box and i have initalised the name of my front cover. I initalised it and put it in a red box because I was following coventions of Q magazine. I used http://www.dafont.com/ to chose my font. The font I chose links in with the genre of music my magazine is based on. My genre is indie and I chose a quite random and kwirky font to represent this which is white because this is also a Q magazine feature. I also placed my masthead in the top left hand corner of my magazine, just underneath my skyline, like Q magazine. This is my masthead. I followed the conventions by using a red box and by using a white font.
And this is the Q music magazine masthead....
The mise-en-scene of my images also follows conventions because i took them on a white background so that they would fit in better on my front cover. Magazine front cover images tend to have white backgrounds so that the main focus is the person. I used a white wall in my house to produce my images, and got my models to wear the appropriate clothes for the genre of my magazine. I used two females and they were the pull of my magazine, they were the 'new band' that would make people want to read my magazine. They were also on my double-page spread. I edited it slightly on photoshop to improve the colour and i changed the lighting and brightened it to make the background really white.I also sharpened my image to improve the quality. The lighting is quite bright and the image is a long shot because I wanted full body shots with the guitar.I made sure that the models were looking straight ahead at the camera because that is a typical convention for many magazines. I positioned one member of the band at the back stood up and the other crouching down holding a guitar, this composition was not conventional or inspired by a magazine i just felt it worked.
Costumes and Props
The props i used were;costumes, make-up and a guitar to make them seem like a more realistic band. By following conventions it was easy to make it look more like a real magazine.
This is a magazine that follows the conventions of a white background...
How is my genre represented in my magazine?
Genre is shown in my magazine through use of images and text. I have chosen special fonts to show the Indie style. The way my models are dressed and the photoshoot also represents an Indie style. From the results of findyourtribe.com being materialistic is a major aspect, and therefore my social group can relate. Readers of my magazine can appriciate this because they will have the same interests and matters.
My original contents page is very different from my final one because I then decided that this was not a good layout for my contents page and it was not following conventions. I changed it completely for example I changed the image, I shot another photoshoot and used just one image that was my background for my contents page. I felt that this worked better because it looked more proffesional and sophisticated and I like it with just the text over the top. Layering images and text is a typical convention also for contents pages in magazines. I decided that instead of featuring my band again, on the contents page I decided I would use my model to be an actual model for music CD covers and posters. Then give an interveiw with her for more in depth information.
I am a lot happier with it and it follows conventions now.
Double-Page Spread
I decided to follow conventions but to also challenge them slightly to give it my own twist. I used two images from my photoshoot that and I put one on each page in the corner, this is typical convention to have images on a double page spread, but I challenged it by including more text than images, i did this because I thought it was important to show the interveiw, but looking back at my reaseach, my audience are far more likely to want to see images. This is why I slightly changed it to get my final double-page spread. I had chosen a specific magazine double-page spread to inspire me and I tried to follow that more.
As you can see I have been inspired by sime aspects of this double-page spread. I have adapted it to fit in with my magazine by having two images, one large image on the left page and one smaller image on the right. I have used the big lettering that my research has used, i also followed the theme of using part of the word/sententce in a very large font and the rest smaller. I also made use of text and images over-lapping. I also made it similar by just having three columns of text on the right hand page.
Conclusion
Overall I feel I have followed conventions for my front cover, contents page and my double-page spread. I have done this because I want my magazine to look realistic and appeal to a mass audience. I related my genre to what my audience said they preferred back in my reseach audience questionnaire so they should be able to relate well to the genre. I used images and text according to other magazines that inspired me, ie. Q magazine masthead inspired my masthead. I am pleased with my magazine and I put a lot of effort into it and making it look realistic and make it appropiate for a mass audience so I hope that is the effect it would have.
1. In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?
Titles and Masthead
For my front cover i decided to follow conventions of real music magazines. I created a masthead in which i was inspired by Q magazine. I have used a red box and i have initalised the name of my front cover. I initalised it and put it in a red box because I was following coventions of Q magazine. I used http://www.dafont.com/ to chose my font. The font I chose links in with the genre of music my magazine is based on. My genre is indie and I chose a quite random and kwirky font to represent this which is white because this is also a Q magazine feature. I also placed my masthead in the top left hand corner of my magazine, just underneath my skyline, like Q magazine. This is my masthead. I followed the conventions by using a red box and by using a white font.
And this is the Q music magazine masthead....
Mise en scene of my images The mise-en-scene of my images also follows conventions because i took them on a white background so that they would fit in better on my front cover. Magazine front cover images tend to have white backgrounds so that the main focus is the person. I used a white wall in my house to produce my images, and got my models to wear the appropriate clothes for the genre of my magazine. I used two females and they were the pull of my magazine, they were the 'new band' that would make people want to read my magazine. They were also on my double-page spread. I edited it slightly on photoshop to improve the colour and i changed the lighting and brightened it to make the background really white.I also sharpened my image to improve the quality. The lighting is quite bright and the image is a long shot because I wanted full body shots with the guitar.I made sure that the models were looking straight ahead at the camera because that is a typical convention for many magazines. I positioned one member of the band at the back stood up and the other crouching down holding a guitar, this composition was not conventional or inspired by a magazine i just felt it worked.
Costumes and Props
The props i used were;costumes, make-up and a guitar to make them seem like a more realistic band. By following conventions it was easy to make it look more like a real magazine.
This is a magazine that follows the conventions of a white background...
People
I chose to use these models because I thought that they fitted in well with my genre of my magazine. They are conventional for Indie because they are quite young girls, with a kwirky dress style and they are up for anything crazy.
Style and Fonts
I also followed the convention of over-lapping text and images which many (nearly all) magazines do. I used different font types and different sizes and colours which made it look more realistic. I used some of my fonts from the website http://www.dafont.com/ which had loads of different styles to represent different genres, feelings and personalities. I wanted a range of different fonts on my front cover because this is a typical convention for magazines and it looks more interesting and is more interesting for my audience to look at. Other fonts I used were just on adobe INdesign font chooser. I mainly stuck to black, white and red font throughout as that is my theme colour for magazine.
Copy/written content
The text that i used was in informal language and friendly language but I didn't use any slang because that could offend some of my audience. I think that a good representation of this is my main masthead/name of my magazine. I called it 'inD' because this is initalised for Indie, its more of a play on words and it represents my genre well. My magazine is aimed at younger people and they will appriciate this.
How is my genre represented in my magazine?
Genre is shown in my magazine through use of images and text. I have chosen special fonts to show the Indie style. The way my models are dressed and the photoshoot also represents an Indie style. From the results of findyourtribe.com being materialistic is a major aspect, and therefore my social group can relate. Readers of my magazine can appriciate this because they will have the same interests and matters.
Layout of Front Cover, Contents page and Double page spread
Front Cover
I changed my front cover from my first draft slightly because it was too 'busy' and I didn't need the smaller image on the front. I kept the layout pretty similar and deleted some text. I chose to follow conventions because it would then look more realistic. My image has a white background so that it fits in with the whole background of my magazine. I wanted my magazine to look and represent a real music magazine, and one that the audience can relate to. I included things that were happening at the time, Brit awards, and bands that were popular ie. Biffy Clyro CD. I also kept a theme of black, white and red which keeps it more sophisticated and simple.
Contents Page
I am a lot happier with it and it follows conventions now.
Double-Page Spread
I decided to follow conventions but to also challenge them slightly to give it my own twist. I used two images from my photoshoot that and I put one on each page in the corner, this is typical convention to have images on a double page spread, but I challenged it by including more text than images, i did this because I thought it was important to show the interveiw, but looking back at my reaseach, my audience are far more likely to want to see images. This is why I slightly changed it to get my final double-page spread. I had chosen a specific magazine double-page spread to inspire me and I tried to follow that more.
As you can see I have been inspired by sime aspects of this double-page spread. I have adapted it to fit in with my magazine by having two images, one large image on the left page and one smaller image on the right. I have used the big lettering that my research has used, i also followed the theme of using part of the word/sententce in a very large font and the rest smaller. I also made use of text and images over-lapping. I also made it similar by just having three columns of text on the right hand page.
Conclusion
Overall I feel I have followed conventions for my front cover, contents page and my double-page spread. I have done this because I want my magazine to look realistic and appeal to a mass audience. I related my genre to what my audience said they preferred back in my reseach audience questionnaire so they should be able to relate well to the genre. I used images and text according to other magazines that inspired me, ie. Q magazine masthead inspired my masthead. I am pleased with my magazine and I put a lot of effort into it and making it look realistic and make it appropiate for a mass audience so I hope that is the effect it would have.
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