To The Examiner

Hello! I am Jack and I'd just like to welcome you to my blog and I hope you enjoy the work you see. I think I have drastically improved in terms of knowledge and skills throught this project, and I hope you will see this too. All of my posts are labelled so you can find my planning and research easily, I put in a lot of effort into this research so I could aqquire the ability to produce a good magazine. I hope you can see this through my Front  Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread. Finally, I hope you enjoy my blog :)

Final Evaluation Question 7

7) Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full?

 The changes and improvements in my cover were very drastic. The overall quality of my product has vastly improved and this makes the magazine look a lot better. The main improvements were the photography and the typography. As you can see in my preliminary school cover the font size is very large and the fonts do not match each other, their is too much contrast and all the fonts are out of proportion and out of line with each other. This gives it a less proffesional feel. I had to improve this with my final piece as I wanted to reach my full potentially and creating something that looks proffesional and feels realistic. I belived I have achieved this as my font choices are much better and the smaller size makes it look aesthetically pleasing. The long rugged fonts also fit my rock and roll genre as they are quite messy and casual.

The main improvement with my contents page was the layout choice. I decided to choose only one main picture for the page and have a strip displaying the actual features and contents of my magazine. This is much more appealing than my preliminary contents as the text isnt all scattered, it is organised and layed out correctly so the reader can easily follow down the side to find a specific piece of content they want to read. This makes my content as much more efficient page, but it also makes it much more aesthetically pleasing.


My camera shots in the front covers have changed drastically. First of all, in my preliminary task my model wasnt even looking at the camera, her face was not revealed, this reduced the impact the shot could of had, which overall made it seem less proffesional. Compared to my final front cover shot, my model is looking at the camera and the lighting is a lot better and the shot has an overall better quality. Making the page feel cleaner. I have stuck with a mid-shot for my magazine as I feel it is the best way to represent a model on the front cover, without making them too big or small. The cutting out on my shots in my final product was much better also, as you can see there is a massive difference in my preliminary task and my final magazine. There are no jagged lines that make the magazine look amatuer. The pictures remain clean and therefore give my magazine a much more proffesional feel.

The layout of the magazine as a whole has also improved lots, for example the spacing and size of my coverlines changed from my preliminary magazine to my final. This made them smaller and spaced together much more making the cover seem more bunched and full, this stops any vast amounts of space being used. The cover lines have also increased in quantity as from looking at my school magazine I felt that it was way too bland and boring, nothing exciting was there to catch a readers' eye. This is why I used the more ambitious and outrageous fonts to represent bands in my cover lines for my final front cover.

The most significant learning curve I found was my ability to expand into a more, confident, and varied style. Taking specific examples from my preliminary and my final task. I managed to develop my skills on photoshop (and within photography itself) to allow a much better finished product. Even smaller details like the date and issue numbers on the cover. As you can see the font is very small on my final, yet very large and unneccesary on my preliminary task, little details like this have hopefully gave my final product as much better finished look. I also went for a much more generic colour scheme on my final product, this allowed me to get a guarenteed proffesional look, I did this because I learnt from my preliminary task that those colours I chose were making my magazine look childish/amatuer.

I believe I have also imnproved significantly with my magazine terms. Learning these by looking at severl other similar magazines allowed me to learn what is needed to make a successful house style. This is shown through my font sizes from the preliminary school magazine task to my final magazine. As the fonts are very large with non-standard spacing between them, this made the pages look empty and spacious. This would put off a reader as they would not think the magazine contains that much information as it is so empty. Whereas my final font choices and spacing fit the genre really well and make the overall page look filled with information.

Here are the examples of the different cover line fonts and spacing, this shows how much of an improvement I have made from my preliminary task to my final product.

I am very happy with how my coverlines turned out, I feel that have a raw and intense feel that fits with my genre and style. I especially like the specific fonts for different bands. This makes them stand out and fans of the band will be instantly drawn in as they would recognise the band font/logo.

Final Evaluation Question 6

I have used many media's and products to create my magazine, here I give examples and explain why I used them and how the helped me achieve my finished product.

The Internet has helped me carry out all the reasearch that I needed to do before I begun designing my product. This allowed me to understand existing products and figure out how to construct a magazine that looks proffesional and realistic. I used search engines like google to find the examples of magazines that I could work from. I also used sites like http://www.dafont.com/ to look for appropiate fonts and typeface, I then used these fonts I have chosen in my final product.

Photoshop has been used by me thoughroughly during this project. I am not that familiar with the program, this is apparent in my preliminary magazine. But during the project I have developed and learnt skills on Photoshop and that I belive has allowed me to produce a proffesional magazine. It allowed me to construct the magazine, for example importing images and cutting them out, using the magic wand tool, text colour and spacing, plus it allowed me to build up the layout of my magazine in a way that made it seem proffesional.

Microsoft Word has helped me write my double page spread article. This is a much more appropiate program to write a long worded article on, compared to Microsoft Publisher or doing the text on the actual Photoshop file. It helped me spell check my work and also checks for gramatical mistakes.

This is the digital camera I used to take the photos





 on my FINAL magazine. It is a Panasonic Lumix

TZ10. This magazine is a 12.1 megapixel with intelligent resolution technology 16x Intelligent zoom. This allowed me to compose to high quality shots that allowed my magazine to look more appealing and proffesional. If a comparison is made between my preliminary piece and my draft, to my final piece, the quality difference is very clear, especially evident due to the better lighting I used for my final piece, but also due to the higher quality camera.

  

This is the logo for the web program Scribd. It allowed me to upload all of my research and planning tasks, from looking and evaluating multiple magazines to research on different font types. It is a very easy and fast program, after making an account I can use this whenever I want to upload word documents or publisher files onto my blog.

I used the website Animoto, this allows you to create videos that you can upload images and text to, with the added feature of adding your own music in the background. I used this for my pitch as I found it an engaging and effective method, compared to a Power Point for example. It allows the presentation to flow without the user having to click or press any other buttons. I also used this to answer my previous Evaluation Question 3. I found this useful in that task as it was an effective method to choose, as the use of images allowed me to cut down on text which makes it boring for a reader and less interesting.

                                                                                   

I also used another website that allowed me to make a presentation that moves in very intersting way that engage the reader. Prezi works in a way similar to Microsoft PowerPoint but it is far more intersting and engaging. Instead of moving through slides it moves along the page through a path the user can create, whilst allowing you to add text, images and even videos. You can find me using this in Evaluation Question 1.

Final Evaluation Question 5

Final Evaluation Question 4

Here is a picture of someone of the same style and age as my general target audience. This typical reader would be very into quite heavy, fast music, this is a main attraction to my magazine, he would be happy there is a new magazine in the market as the conventional rock magazines KERRANG and Rock Sound are perhaps getting boring due to their repetitiveness. So it is nice for him to get a fresh new magazine.

This reader typicall buys a lot of t-shirts from the internet of his favourite bands, these allow him to express hisself and show his taste. He is always listening to music, whenver he gets the chance. For example on the bus home from college, also at home when doing things like homework. The reason he reads my magazine is because of his interests in the specific artists that feature in my issue, he likes to find out about new music so the main coverline 'Introducing IN BLOOM' will instantly grab his attention as he wants to be introduced to new music.

Final Evaluation Question 3

Final Evaluation Question 2

The artist I have compared and related my model to is Hayley Williams, she is the lead singer from the rock band Paramore. Her bright red and orange hair is a main feautre of her band and is usually played on in their magazine shoots and photoshoots. For example they will focus on the brightness of her hair and make the props red or the writing red etc. This brings out her hair. The hair she has is a unique aspect of the band because not many bands have women singers for one, let alone with brightly coloured hair. I think she is similar to my model in this way and I tried to replicate this method used by many other magazines on the market by replicating the hair colour and adding it as the main feature in my colour scheme.





I also believe they are different in some ways, as Hayley Williams seems a bit more confident with herself and is comforatable at doing the more outrageous poses in her magazine shoots. Whereas my model clearly is not as confident, just a bit shy in what she is doing, eventhough her poses still make her look good and like a confident singer. This is why I didnt want a pose that was too intense and out there, just more of a suttle one, because the personality I tried to create was that of a shy vocalist.

Final Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1 on Prezi

Evaluation Question 5

5) Firstly I wanted to get straight in the audiences face with my masthead; this is why I made it big, bold and black. So it stands out against the lighter background, the font is meant to also attract my audience, with its unique 'messiness' it will stand out from the rest of the boring fonts that are on the market today. The pose of my model also attracts my specific audience, as they see the image on the double page and will find it appealing as he is leaning at the camera shouting at the camera, so the rock and roll aspect of it will come through and therefore attract those certain fans. I also chose to involve the reader when I can, for example in the contents page I said 'Your 101 albums of 2011'. Using ‘your’ allows them to feel involved and feel that they had a part in the creation of this section of my magazine which will encourage them to read it. The ‘Competition’ section of my contents page also appeals to my readers. As they can win a free visit to the ‘Garage Sessions’, this is where they will see live performances of artists they like (similar to Radio 1’s Live Lounge.) When creating my magazine I based the audiences taste on my own music taste, this is why I used bands that I listen to today. This is an assumption I made when creating my product. I also assumed that they like the specific rock genre, as there would be no point in putting all that style contents in to my magazine when my audience don’t like it. I have also assumed that my audience will be willing to take the magazine's quiz to win a competition. This was a risky move as I do not know if my readers will have the time for this activity or that they simple aren’t bothered about the prize. I have also assumed that they will take a liking to the new, young, fresh bands I am trying to cover in my magazine. I believe this assumption is necessary because my audience are teen/adults so they will be interested in the younger up and coming bands rather than older bands.

Evaluation Question 4

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be 16-25 year old males, who specifically like rock music. People of this description would buy my magazine because it is unique and specific to their needs, the types of reviews and content that my magazine provide will interest alternative people who like to stray away from the 'norms' of music such as pop and r&b. People who are interested in hearing the latest news within my genre, first. Coming from people who are also fans of the genre and the overall aesthetic look of my magazine will interest many people as the 'beauty' of it is a good selling point. I have reflected on these choices by comparing them with other magazines on the market, the main ones like NME and Kerrang! Don’t specify on their genres that much, this leaves the audience unaware of what could come up each week, it is that varied. This is why I believe it is important to be specific as you can focus solely on one genre and age group, meaning whatever comes up they will more than likely enjoy what is being published. I am of course excluding  some audiences, those who don’t like the specific genres I am focusing on, this will be primarily because of their age, either they are too young or too old. Here is my typical audience profile; this person would be the average reader of my magazine:

MY typical reader profile is Liam. Liam is a 17 year old boy who loves a wide range of music, but more specifically he makes rock and garage rock his priority. He lives in Leicester, England and loves to gain information on the newest and craziest bands around; this is why he buys magazines like Rock Sound and Kerrang! He prefers musicians that don’t care about their image or the way they are viewed, they just want to focus on their music and make it to the best of their ability. Liam also takes a stand against mainstream artists who don’t write their own music, who use computers to get their voice more desirable. This is why my magazine is a typical style for Liam as it will focus on 'guitar bands'. That is out of the 'mainstream'. He takes influence in his style through the casual and messy look his favourite artists produce, with such bands as Turbowolf, Young Guns and Arctic Monkeys. He is a regular reader of magazines and if one particularly interests him he will subscribe to the magazine.

Evaluation Question 3

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

The media institution that would distribute my magazine would be IPC Media. This is because it is a tight-knit institution that focuses on its magazines in the UK. It distributes NME magazine which would be a big help to the rise of my product as they have experience in bringing a genre-specific magazine into the masses. They are a subsidiary company of Time Inc. so will have a lot of income that can be put into my product to ensure it is the top quality and gets all the promotion it deserves. They also distribute many other genres of magazines, such a sport, lifestyle and fashion; this means they are vastly experienced in all areas. I think IPC are a good choice for my product because the like to invest in magazines that are unique and niche, such as NME magazine, this is where my magazine fits in. Also they don’t have any current magazines that come near to my genre of music, so it would be a good investment for them because my magazine will help them compete with the already popular rock magazines like Kerrang! And Rock Sound. I think the future of magazines is not good at the moment because of the internet, as we see many music websites that allows us to access the news quicker and for free! This means that there is not really any need to go out and buy magazines. Only the real strong magazine buyers will carry on. I know that IPC have tried to move forward with this development by using the internet to give insights into the issues of NME each week. By either releasing the covers every week, or by sometimes providing a digital version of the magazine that you can buy off their website. This is a good way to combat the rise of the internet, but to still produce a magazine and make money from it.

Evaluation Question 2

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product is aimed towards music fans that appreciate rock/alternative genres, usually associated with a garage scene. The model for my front cover is a teenage boy around the age of 17-19. I chose this age group as it matches the target audience for my magazine, as usually at around this age people take music very seriously and it becomes a big part in their lives, especially those who are fans of rock. The model is wearing very plain and simple clothes, nothing specific; this is too helping the readers keep an open mind about the magazine at first. He is wearing red and blue, these colours were carried on throughout the magazine, this helps it all match and help give my product organisation. In my final product I will try to get my model to wear clothes that really show off the genre, this could be through ripped jeans and baggy hoodies and t-shirts. The expression of the cover is very unusual. This is because only strong fans will understand the facial expression of my model, as at first he seems to be pulling a very serious face, but everything around him, e.g. the writing, the bands and features, all show that the magazine is all about alternative/rock so it isn’t taken quite seriously, so if anything the pose is more of a joke. Then when you compare it to the double page spread we see the true identity of my character revealed. This is because he is pulling quite an angry, crazy face with his arms raised at the camera. I constructed my artist profile to be a young, innovative band the like to do what they do and produce to the best of their ability to make their fans happy. This is represented in the double page spread article really well, as it says about them loving what they do and really appreciating their fans. Also the crazy side of the band is revealed not only with the image but with the stories they tell within the article. I also represent the artist profile through the content on the front cover, with the types of bands I mention and the cover lines I chose. These all generate the style I am going for, and with fans noticing other types of bands that fit the genre it will be reinforced. My contents page is specific to people that love the genre I am aiming for, this is through the bands that have been mentioned and the actual contents. For example the reviews of the top albums of 2011. Generally, fans of pop or manufactured music won’t necessarily care about the quality of music, as a lot of the time it is all about the image of the artist. The use of a female character also appeals to the female gender, as I decided to keep this mostly for men but of course there is no point not having anything for women, as it generates more readers and therefore a bigger profit. I kept it appealing to men by using the strong words on my coverlines, plus the attraction of a female model would pull in men on the basis that they would be attracted to her. This works the same way with the famous rock band Paramore, as their singer is a yuoung attractive woman so they use this to gain a lot of notice and fame.

Draft Evaluation Question 1

1) In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

After looking at many real, mainstream magazines such as NME, Kerrang!, Q Magazine and Rock Sound. I found that they all stick to the typical conventions of music magazines, using the standard red, white and black colour palette, especially noticeable in 'Q'. This is what i wanted to stray from, so using a lot of blues in my colour palette allowed me to change direction from the average music magazine. I decided to reject this convention as it will allow my product to become unique and stand out from the crowd. With my magazine, I picked up a convention from NME magazine that I tried to imitate, this is with their use of putting a band name or solo artists' name at the top of the bottom third of the cover. This balances the cover out with the masthead. I like this method as it provides a much better insight into who is involved in the main article rather than using another cover line. So I used the band name 'Beneath The Waves' to show the readers exactly who was featured in this issue, instantly allowing them to make a decision on whether to purchase it or not, for example if they are big fans of a certain band, and they see the band name in a shop window, they will be instantly attracted to it and will most likely buy it. This is why I made the text so bold and big, to stand out. The genre of the real magazines was important in the creation of my magazine because I could easily base my product on a similar product with the same style and genre. (But of course breaking the conventions and adding my unique style). Looking at similar genres like Kerrang! For example, allowed me to see what kind of methods and visual aids are used to create the sense of a rock/garage genre. I decided that to acquire this style firstly the font was most important, using a messy font for my masthead allowed me to give off a 'not-so-serious' appeal to my magazine. Also the poses for my models in the photographs were important; like in my double page spread the model is doing quite a crazy pose with his hands in the air. This shows a rock and roll style and allows readers to match this up with the genre they want to read about.

Final Magazine

Lesson Summary

Lesson Summary

This lesson I decided to experiment and start to use a various amounts of fonts. I found the font 'Chines Rocks' and 'Vinyl Stickons' that go together really well. i then started to put together the main features of my front cover and contents page. This is how they turned out:

Final Images