Evaluation Of My Magazine

What ways does product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After looking at the music magazine ‘KERRANG!’ I have clearly acknowledged several ‘Product uses’ when designing and making the front cover for my own music magazine that is of a similar them to ‘Kerrang!’ as they are both based on rock music. The first element of the front cover that has been used on my front cover is the Masthead positioning. I have used the idea of it being behind the models head so that it can still be read while allowing the image to stand out. The font of the masthead is not the same but they have similarities as the both have a cracked effect. ‘Kerrang’s’ masthead looks like it is supposed to represent cracked glass while mine looks as though some of the lettering has been worn off.

A second aspect that I have taken into account and adapted into my own idea is the use of thumbnail images with headers. The headers on the ‘Kerrang!’ front cover have boxes around them and use two text colours for each one, so from thisI have used the idea of two colours for each but have only used the box surrounding the headers twice. I have used a square box and a circular box.

Another aspect that of my magazine that has a similarity to that of ‘Kerrang!’ is the use of several models on the front cover as well as the Idea of having the models behind one another. For my magazine I have only used three models rather than five but I have them in a position that allows them all to be seen as well as being behind one another. I have done this using different levels by having each model in a position that fits with the theme, so my front model is knelt on one knee while slightly leaning to the side with a serious facial expression looking directly at the camera (this is the same face for each model). The second model is slightly lent forward leaning on one of her knees while tilting her head. The third model is stood up straight with a slight lean back to give attitude. Each model is positioned to the side of one another while being slightly behind at the same time. Using these positions the models could still be seen even if they were directly behind one another.

What ways does product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After looking at several contents pages some of my ideas for my contents page have come from ‘Q’ magazine . The first component of their contents page that I have adapted into my own work is the use of thumbnail images to relate to the stories. Thumbnails are a good way to attract readers to the stories in any magazine as the audience see the picture which gives them a slight insight to what the article is about which then leads onto them wanting to know the story behind the image they first see. An image is important because it is basically the ‘front cover’ for each story as well as allowing my audience to make direct links with the image and the headings.

Another element that I have adapted from ‘Q’ magazines contents page is the use of a box surrounding the header. This is affective as it allows the reader to see the categories that are covered with in my magazine. The use of a box makes it stand out from the rest of the text making it appear more significant. For my contents page, my headers involve ‘on the cover’, ‘Reviews’,’ Gig Guide’, ‘Merchandise’, and

‘competitions’, the sub-headers underneath have a direct link to the headers thus making it easy to link across. The boxes that I have used are coloured red and put behind black text. The red against a black background allows it to stand out as well as allowing the text inside of it to stand out from it. Next to each sub-header is the page numbers for each story so that my readers can quickly find their desired story, all magazines that I researched through out the process used these page numbers therefore I could see their importance to the final product.

A third part of the magazines contents page that I have used is the use of a large header inside a box to tell the audience clearly what the page is. The idea of having the text large makes is stand out especially when it is against a separate background the that of the rest of the page. Although I have used this idea, which most magazine use as well, I have made it my own by putting it at an angle so that it creates more of an attitude which suits the them of my magazine as it is based on Rock which is a style of music which uses attitude for effect in the creation of their music.

The final aspect of ‘Q’s’ magazine that I have used is the use of layering/overlapping images over one another. This has allowed me to fit more images on aswell as creating an interesting appearance to my contents page. Each image the overlaps one another slightly do not have an link to one another but I have placed them near the headings for the articles in which they refer to so the reader can make another direct link across. I have angled my photos like ‘Q’ have also done but I have done it with the intention for it to compliment the crossing of the red and white tape that I have drawn across the top of the page, by having two images tilted in different direction the vision of the two pieces of tape, that are also at different angles.

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

When looking at a double page spread from another magazine I have used the idea of the text alignment being to the right of the model on the page but going round her so that the text can be read. Although this is the same I have adapted it so that I have used four columns rather than three. The difference between the text between these two double page spreads is that there is the use of drop cap quite often in the other double page spread where as in my music magazine it is only used once at the very start of the article. I have done this because I have not used many paragraphs, therefore it was not needed.

The second thing that I have adapted from the example double page spread is the use ofsmaller images in the corner of the page. I have adapted it by using thumbnail images of albums that have been created by the artist in the article. I have used three images with information underneath about what the album is called and where buyers can purchase it from. I have also used a small thumbnail image at the start of the article that is a head and shoulder shot (close up) of the person being spoken about so that the audience can see who the article is about. The reason I have used extra images was so that I could add extra information to the page in a way that attracts my readers to look at. The reason for putting the albums on this specific page was because they relate to the subject, so by putting it on this page it allows me to save pages in my magazine that can be used for other stories instead.

Another aspect that I have used form the example double page spread was the use of page numbers next to the name of the magazine. The name and number are in small fonts in the bottom left or bottom right of the page. By having them on the outside of the page it allows the readers to flick through the magazine and find the desired page number with greater ease.

After reviewing results from the survey I carried out I can see that the majority of people who read music magazines and answered my questionnaire were with in the age category of 15-16+. Therefore the age group that i will aim my magazine at will be this age group although the contents will still be appropriate for all age groups as my magazine may appeal to younger and older audiences. An example of contents that I will have to ensure is suitable would be the language used in articles, especially those that have written speech from an interview or any other such source, such as swearing would be either re worded or I would remove the word and replace it with a bracket filled with a phrase such as '{spears}' or {uses strong language}' so that I am not encouraging bad language through my media product. Other aspects that i will have to ensure are appropriate for all ages also includes elements such as images and article stories. Images need to be appropriate and the articles need to have clean information/text content.

My main audience for my magazine will be fans of rock music as this is the theme of my magazine, therefore it will interest them into buying it. My product is an entry point to the rock world with large amounts of information therefore those who want to be in with the information will have an interest in my product as it will fore fill their want/needs. My magazine contains bad information for festivals, such as leeds festival, therefore more people would be interested in this magazine for this information even if they are not necessarily a fan of rock music.

Who would buy your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

From my audience research I have discovered that the largest percentage of people who answered a survey I created said that they buy music magazines for both entertainment and information purposes. The next largest percentage was for just entertainment, therefore, after gathering this information I have decided that my magazine will use both of these elements but it will have more aspects of entertainment than that of information so i am catering for both halves of my audience. I have involved entertainment such as completions free music and downloads etc. but for information I have involved articles, double page spreads and gig lists. Although the articles are seen as information they are also entertainment as they involve images as well as some articles involving links to websites people can go access to complete surveys and see videos based on the story.

My audience were happy with how often the could buy music magazines that already exist, so after looking at this information I looked into how often a large amount of music magazines already come out, a wide range of these magazine come out one=ce a month using high quality products, such as the paper, meaning that the product was of better quality for the audience meaning that the companies can charge more. After receiving this information my decision was to publish my magazine onece a month at the cost of £5. Although this is a price people did not want to pay it covers

Costs so that my magazine can be of great quality which will benefit pages like the posters as they last longer, and although they will nor be indispensable as such, they will still last longer.

What have you learnt about technologies?

Through out the process of designing and putting together my magazine I have discovered different ways in which technology could help me to make the process easier and more affective. An example would be the use of survey monkey. This is an online questionnaire designer which allows you to put together a series of questions that could be tick or text boxes then the questionnaire is published on your account for people to answer. Another bonus to this is that anyone with access to the site, both with or with out an account, can access your survey and answer is anonymously. The link to your survey can be copied and pasted onto social media for people to click on which will take them directly to your survey for them to answer. After people have answered the questions survey monkey creates graphs so that your results can be analysed,

Another technical aspect that I have learnt is that, if you make a mistake with something like a photograph for example it is blurry or the lighting is wrong, then there is no way it can be corrected even with advanced editing programmes such as 'photo shop'. Therefore I have learnt that you have to get it right the first time in order to advance the images with the editing programmes.

As well as this I have learnt that digital technologies allow convergence which means that everything that is done can easily be transferred across to another form of digital technology therefore allowing me to maintain similarities in my work with ease rather than having to do constant re editing of work. This was useful for me as it meant I could easily transfer work I did for my front cover and my contents page into adobe so that I could work on my double page spread using elements from what I have already done to maintain themes that I have done.

What have you learnt from the progression of the full product (from preliminary)

The preliminary process for the magazine design allowed me to experiment with different fonts and styles that were already on the programmes I used to make the products, from these I could see how different styles/fonts of text affected the positioning and sizing. For example the sizing of the font 'Ariel' may be 12pt and be quite large but then a font such as 'Lemon Yellow Sun' (this is one I used) could be also be put at 12pt but it would be smaller.

Something more major that I learnt during the progression towards making my magazine was the use of programmes such as 'photo shop' and Adobe. These two programmes both link to one another which helps to transfer what I did in one to the other. Because these programmes are very similar through the sense that they both use similar editing tools it made it easy to learn how to use them. I already knew how to use a wide range of tools on photo shop but through the progression towards my full product I learnt new ways of editing to create a more affective final product.

During the photography process I learnt how different camera angles/shots gave different meanings to my images. For example images that are taken from a low angle, such as worms eye view, allow models to look more superior than those where the angles are higher making the model look smaller. Another thing I learnt that also had an affect on how my images looked was the way in which I used editing tools such as filters and selection tools to focus on specific parts of my image in order to edit them affectively and create and better, clearer image. This allowed me to make my images and text to fit around one another, i.e it allows the colour of the text to contrast against the background rather than blend in so that the become clear.

The last thing I have learnt is how to use colour effectively to attract an audience. In the preliminary stage I used bright colours which stood out but from this I learnt that it made my magazine look basic, therefore I experimented with new colours and shades against new styles of texts to create a more affective piece that stood out more than my original.