An AS Media Studies Project Evaluation

Lewis Bancroft - Achurch presents

lewis-bancroft.tumblr.com

College Magazine: ResearchAfter we were even given the task of creating our own magazine, I started research by looking at magazine covers online.

I analysed their components using what I’d learnt in class, and reviewed them on my blog.

I looked at magazines that targeted specific audiences, such as men’s lifestyle magazine GQ, and took inspiration from their style and layout.

I didn’t do much research for my contents page until after I’d started designing it, which in my opinion is why it doesn’t look as good as it could have. If I could do the project again I’d definitely do some further research into contents pages earlier on than I did.

I also think that I could’ve done more research elsewhere, such as in newsagents, rather than just online.

Music Magazine: ResearchFor the music magazine I learnt from my mistakes with the college magazine and thoroughly researched each type of page.

I also did some research outside of the internet at my local newsagents.

I gained influence from several rock orientated magazines such as NME, Mojo and Rolling Stone.

Out of everything I looked at, I really liked this contents page in a Rolling Stone mag. I think you can see how much it influenced my piece. (See bottom-right pictures)

College Magazine: Planning

Before I started making each piece I would draw up a generic template of where everything on the page would go.

For my college magazine I created a rough draft using publisher, and then made a mock up using an image from the internet

Similarly to the research stage, I feel like I could have put more effort into this. I think the contents page could have been a lot better, had I planned a table of contents.

Music Magazine: PlanningAfter making my college magazine, I pretty much new where and how to start my music piece, so didn’t find it that necessary to draw out a template for each page.

However, I did draw up several rough drafts using pen and paper, just to get some ideas down before I started taking photographs.

After I took the pictures, it was quite a fast process, and I made my cover, contents and double page spread in less time than it took to make two college magazine pieces. I think this is because I was more wise the second time round, and knew how to avoid problems that I ran into the first time.

College Magazine: Cover

Conventions of Real CoversThe “CO” masthead I used follows a convention of the magazine “GQ”. I took direct inspiration from their masthead while researching covers.

The photo I took also follows the conventions of many magazines – a medium shot of a person, stood against a plain background.

The main sell line follows the popular convention of taking a direct quote from the main interview/article and using it as a teaser to entice the reader into buying the magazine and reading more.

Conventions of Real Covers ChallengedNormally, most magazines try to cram their covers with as many sell lines, plugs and teasers as possible.

With my magazine however, I went with a more minimalist approach, with two main sell lines and three plugs. I did this because the idea of a college magazine in my head was that their aren’t as many pages, because their isn’t that much interesting news going on in college. I also wanted to keep the layout sleek, and make the photo the main thing that stood out.

College Magazine: Cover (continued)

NME frequently fill there front pages with as much copy as possible

Music Magazine CoverConventions of Real Covers

This cover features several conventions of real music magazines. Like the college magazine, one of these is the medium-shot of a person against a plain background. Additionally this cover uses the popular convention of the masthead going behind the subject of the photos head.

The strapline going across the skyline of the page is a convention popular used on most covers, and so is the banner going across the corner of the page. These were inspired by several covers I looked at.

Conventions of Real Covers ChallengedMy magazine has all of it’s copy on one side of the page, which is uncommon in most real magazines. However, I had good reason to put it all on the left side, as that’s where most of the empty white space is on the photograph.

The colour scheme of my copy also challenges the conventions of most real magazines, as it features red, black, pink and green copy, whereas most music magazines tend to stick to just two or three simple and primary colours, such as white, black and red.

Music Magazine Cover (continued)

Rolling Stone - Only three different colours used for the copy

Conventions of Real ContentsMy contents page challenged more conventions than it followed, but one of the main ones it did use was a medium-large photo associated to the main article.

It also features page numbers located in the corners of the photographs, something commonly used in most magazines (see left picture below).

Another feature of my contents page seen in real publications is a section written by the owner or the editor of the magazine (see picture on right above). In mine it is the principle of the College of West Anglia. However, real magazines usually have a photograph and signature of the person, which unfortunately I could not get.

College Magazine: Contents

College Magazine: Contents (continued)

Conventions of Real Contents ChallengedMost professional magazine contents pages have a table of contents, which mine did not. This partly due to poor planning and research on my behalf, and trying to make up for the lack of copy on the cover page. This lead to it featuring a lot more text than the average contents page.

My magazine also lacked decent photographs, as unfortunately when I went around college to take them, there weren’t many interesting things to use as a subject. Real magazines mainly have photographs of people, but I was un-able to find anybody willing to take part and let me take a picture of them. Despite these problems, I am still happy with the layout and general look of the page.

Table of contents seen in Q

Music Magazine ContentsConventions of Real Contents

One of the main features of every contents page is a table of contents, which lists the pages and what they have on them. Unlike my college contents page which didn’t have one, I made sure to include one this time, as it makes the overall page look tidier and less cramped.

It also follows the convention of featuring a large image relating to the main article as well as a circle shape promoting the piece as an exclusive.

In the bottom left corner there is a section for the magazines contact details. This is a feature of every magazine, though it is not always on the contents page and will sometimes be at the back of the magazine.

The ‘badge’ effect

Conventions of Real Contents ChallengedThis page doesn’t go against many popular contents page conventions in particular as it was heavily inspired by a real contents page.

However, the box in the bottom right promoting a video on the magazine website is something I haven’t seen in any real publications.

It also contains more copy explaining what is on each page under the headings than most real magazines, as they normally withhold the information until the actual page. Because I wasn’t going to be making a full magazine, I thought I might as well add in a bit more.

Music Magazine Contents (continued)

Music Magazine Double Page Spread

Conventions of Real Double Page SpreadsThis page contains many conventions of professional double page features.

The first is how the photograph is landscape, and spans across both pages with the copy going over the part without the main subject of the photo.

Another is the drop caps used to open the article. Nearly all professional articles start with a large capital letter, as it makes it clear where the piece starts, and also grabs the readers eye.

The focus blur effect used on my photograph is also a popular technique amongst real magazines, as it makes the contrast between the copy and the photograph higher, and therefore easier to read.

An example of drop caps

Conventions of Real Double Page Spreads

This page doesn’t challenge many conventions of real magazines double page articles.

One thing that goes slightly against the normal procedure, is that the subject in the photo is looking directly at the camera. Most photographs, especially when they are of bands, have the subjects looking in different directions. However this is not always the case and sometimes they do look at the camera, so it doesn’t go against it entirely.

Music Magazine Double Page Spread

Sometimes one subject will look at the camera while the other(s) look away

College Magazine: Representation of Social Groups

I don’t think my college magazine represents any particular social circle or generalised group of people. Instead, I think it represents students aged 16-20 as a whole. I believe this because I made it without trying to cater to any specific type of person. With the featured articles however, some do represent young people as quite idiotic. For example, a boy dressed as Spiderman falling from the tower building.

Audience: How They Were Attracted and Addressed

As mentioned above, my target audience was people aged 16-20, but also anybody who attends the College of West Anglia, including tutors and visitors. I addressed and attracted this audience by providing articles that teenagers could relate to, and also articles about teenagers, such as the main cover story. I addressed the audience of College of West Anglia attendees as a whole through other stories, such as the car park being full. I attracted teenage audiences by featuring a teenager on the cover and by offering a prize of a laptop.

Music Magazine:Representation of Social Groups

Social groups are often formed around musical tastes, so it is important to represent these groups in magazines accurately, and to not generalize. My music piece was themed with the genre of rock and roll, whether it be modern or older stuff. I tried to avoid the stereotype of people that listen to rock music being long-haired teenagers who wear torn jeans. Instead I tried to represent it as a diverse group, with many types of people with different tastes, as there are hundreds of sub-genres that fall under rock and roll. I did this by featuring news and articles about many different bands, such as contemporary garage blues bands The Black Keys and The White Stripes, as well as older bands like Pink Floyd.

Audience: How They Were Attracted and Addressed

The demographic I aimed to make my magazine for was a mature audience, varying from people in there late teens to people in their late twenties. As mentioned above, I attracted this through featuring a range of artists that appeal to a varied audience of rock fans.

I addressed the readers as a collective, and referred to them as ‘Magic Potion readers’, as that way I didn’t exclude any of the audience, as their tastes in music may be different to one another.

What I’ve Learnt About the ProcessI have learnt a lot about magazines since I started at the basic levels of research,

through to creating my own pieces.

The first thing I learnt is that when creating a professional cover, the designers put a lot more thought into the layout, colours and theme than I had expected.

With the sell lines, I had imagined it was quite a simple process of simply inserting text boxes and changing the colour of fonts until it looked right, but I soon learnt that many things have to be taken into consideration, such as spacing, visibility, consistency, and above all - making it eye-catching.

I also learnt more about how to use different types of software. This gain of knowledge was mainly in Photoshop, such as how to change the eye colour of somebody and how to balance the white of a photograph. I already knew Publisher inside-out. However, I still feel I have come away with more experience and awareness of creating magazine pages than I had at the start.

The only thing I feel that I haven’t learnt much about is the process after the final piece is finished, such as how it is printed and distributed.