Francis Evdokimov

Evaluating your first coursework task : Preliminary Task Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

Colourful fonts : developed Picture confidence : challenges Scenery : challenges Text features : developed

These bullet points are ones in my magazine which I have wrote, either if I have developed/followed a convention or challenged it. I believe my font of text matches ones which would apply to primary school students. The font is colourful where I have used bright colours representing a fun atmosphere, and the font its self looks stylish and artful which gives the impression that school will be fun. Using a boring simple font and colour schemes would have made the magazine boring and not appealing to the eye. My picture would usually challenge a primary school student moving into secondary school. These students are anxious and low in confidence when moving up. My model shows confidence, smartness and pointing his finger upwards, to show he has made progress moving into secondary school. This NVC gives the reader a boost as if reading this magazine, the characteristics of the model can be applied into their life. The scenery I have chosen would challenge one of a school magazine. Usually the image would have a school building in the back ground, but I have decided to use a white wall and a door to show there’s many more doors the students can unlock when entering into secondary school life. In my magazine front page, I have used the magazine features in the same position as you would find them on any other magazine. These features include “questions and answers” “secondary school life advice”, which you would expect from a magazine offering help to students moving up into secondary school.

Q3. How did you attract/address your audience?

For my magazine cover, I decided to make the text and font appealing to my target audience. My main target audience was, primary school children moving up into secondary school. I purposely used a bright blue colour in the text to present calm, sophistication and harmless atmosphere. For my Magazine headline I used the colours blue for ‘Stepping’ and purple for ‘Up’. The blue colour in ‘stepping’ is associated with depth, expertise, and stability to give the primary school children the anxious feeling of moving up a year out of their mind. The blue gives the reader the sense that the magazine can answer their questions. The purple for ‘up’ is significant as it portrays ambition complimenting the word ‘up’. The font I decided to use is not one of which looks intellectual but more fun and childish again appealing to the target audience. Boring simple font wouldn’t appeal to the audience which portrays work and not something primary school children want. The image is of a boy standing up pointing his finger to the direction up. This portrays that the magazine will help the audience in their problems as the boy in the magazine looks confident and as if he has made progress only up! I used a school tie for the model in my magazine and a suit to show smartness and individual confidence, which can be obtained if reading the magazine.

Francis Evdokimov

Q4. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When using Photoshop, it allowed me to express my ambitions of a magazine into real life. In order for a magazine to work, I needed to find the right text size/font/colour all to appeal to my target audience. I used “inner and outer glow” in my magazine so that my bright text would be seen as I made the outer layer darker so it would stand out. Photoshop also allowed me to change the size and font of my text. This worked successfully as I could make my head mast stand out from the rest of the text on my page. The font I used wasn’t boring or dull again appealing to the target audience. I used the ‘magic wand’ tool so that I could get the schools emblem on the magazine front page. This gave the magazine some identity and a professional look. The ‘rectangle’ tool also helped when creating sky line which supports the convention of a typical magazine cover. I also used the ‘paint bucket’ which let me colour in my rectangle box for the skyline as well as my text. I didn’t use many colour schemes or tools in Photoshop as I didn’t want it to lose a professional look but still maintaining a fun, confident looking magazine appealing to the audience.

Q5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your final product?

In my magazine I think I have many strengths. A strength in my magazine is how appealing it is to my target audience. I think I have used very complimenting colours in my magazine cover. The colours blue, light blue and purple associate with masculinity as the magazine is for boys moving into secondary school. The colours all represent a form of individuality, ambition, confidence, power and expertise, something all young students want to acquire moving on into secondary school. I also believe my magazine image is also appealing to my target audience. My model shows confidence and smartness again which primary school students want for the years ahead. The lighting in my magazine cover is bright, which portrays a safe environment for school life. My scenery in the image is just of a door in a white building. The white building represents perfection, just as the model looks. The door is faded so you can’t see what’s inside giving the audience a feeling there is more to unveil and discover in secondary school life.

On the other hand my magazine does have a few weaknesses. My model may look a bit too old to be a year seven student. The text font may be a bit too bright which doesn’t really give that professional look or advice students are hoping to get. If I could re do the magazine cover I would tone down the text font, I would also use a new model, someone younger looking. Apart from these weaknesses I think that my magazine as a whole appeals to the audience. The scenery, text font/colour, and features looks professional and helpful for students moving up.