Friday, 18 March 2011
Monday, 7 March 2011
Evaluation Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
When I place my preliminary task beside my main task I can see how far I have come in the way I go about my work. The idea of the preliminary task was to get used to how Photoshop and other functions work, so I did not make it the best I could have as I didn't know how to do some things then that I can do now. You can see that before hand I used a lot of colour in the way I designed my preliminary task however after researching other magazines, I noticed that the majority had white backgrounds. This may be due to printing costs or simply because white is the colour that looks the best so that a picture can stand out more. As well as this, I noticed that using white allows you to use a lot more colours than on a coloured back ground. One of the main things I noticed when creating my music magazine was the length of time it took me to do different things. When creating the school magazine, it did not take very long as I simply took pictures of other class mates whilst at school and then quickly uploaded them when we got back to the class room. It was a lot different for my music magazine. I had to find a model that would suit my music genre and article I wrote for it, and from previous posts you can see how indecisive I was as in total I used four different models. I also realised how hard it was to get the right shot. After taking a set of photographs and showing them to my teacher and other friends, I realised that they were not as good as I thought. My original plan was to do one photo shoot, however the reality is, you need either one shoot with hundreds of photos, or a variety of different shoots with different people and different mise en scene.
Another difference in the creation of my magazine compared to the school magazine was the software that I used. For the preliminary task, I purely used Photoshop as it was simple and easy
to use and edit pictures. As well as this, InDesing was not something I was aware of until after I had finished the magazine. Using Photoshop for the first task proved helpful to me when creating the music magazine as I was able to do more things and experiment with different things such as lighting effects and the changing of colours.
There are some similarities with the magazines that I have produced. Both have an appropriate amount of cover lines on that would encourage the target audience to pick up and read. As well as this, the mode of address is similar to my music magazine. Both are informal as they are aimed at the younger generation. My music magazine is aimed at the younger generation as well as the older generation so the use of colloquialism and slang was used in my double page spread. If i had to have created a double page article for my school magazine, I would have used the same sort of language I did with my music magazine so as to relate to the reader and make them feel that they were part of the magazine.
Overall, I feel that I have learnt a lot since creating my school magazine. I have managed to develop my computer skills by using different a different computer than I have at home and also develop my skills and gain new knowledge of software that I have never used before. I have also learnt how to connect with the reader more by carrying out extensive research. The research allowed me to have an insight to what my target audience is like and how they are categorised within society.
When I place my preliminary task beside my main task I can see how far I have come in the way I go about my work. The idea of the preliminary task was to get used to how Photoshop and other functions work, so I did not make it the best I could have as I didn't know how to do some things then that I can do now. You can see that before hand I used a lot of colour in the way I designed my preliminary task however after researching other magazines, I noticed that the majority had white backgrounds. This may be due to printing costs or simply because white is the colour that looks the best so that a picture can stand out more. As well as this, I noticed that using white allows you to use a lot more colours than on a coloured back ground. One of the main things I noticed when creating my music magazine was the length of time it took me to do different things. When creating the school magazine, it did not take very long as I simply took pictures of other class mates whilst at school and then quickly uploaded them when we got back to the class room. It was a lot different for my music magazine. I had to find a model that would suit my music genre and article I wrote for it, and from previous posts you can see how indecisive I was as in total I used four different models. I also realised how hard it was to get the right shot. After taking a set of photographs and showing them to my teacher and other friends, I realised that they were not as good as I thought. My original plan was to do one photo shoot, however the reality is, you need either one shoot with hundreds of photos, or a variety of different shoots with different people and different mise en scene.
Another difference in the creation of my magazine compared to the school magazine was the software that I used. For the preliminary task, I purely used Photoshop as it was simple and easy
to use and edit pictures. As well as this, InDesing was not something I was aware of until after I had finished the magazine. Using Photoshop for the first task proved helpful to me when creating the music magazine as I was able to do more things and experiment with different things such as lighting effects and the changing of colours.There are some similarities with the magazines that I have produced. Both have an appropriate amount of cover lines on that would encourage the target audience to pick up and read. As well as this, the mode of address is similar to my music magazine. Both are informal as they are aimed at the younger generation. My music magazine is aimed at the younger generation as well as the older generation so the use of colloquialism and slang was used in my double page spread. If i had to have created a double page article for my school magazine, I would have used the same sort of language I did with my music magazine so as to relate to the reader and make them feel that they were part of the magazine.
Overall, I feel that I have learnt a lot since creating my school magazine. I have managed to develop my computer skills by using different a different computer than I have at home and also develop my skills and gain new knowledge of software that I have never used before. I have also learnt how to connect with the reader more by carrying out extensive research. The research allowed me to have an insight to what my target audience is like and how they are categorised within society.
Evaluation Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the creation of all of my magazine pieces, I have used a wide rang of technology in both hardware and software format. Without the use of technology I never would have been able to create what I have, and neither would other magazine industries for that matter! The first piece of technology that I
had to use for the project was a camera. Getting the right picture was imperative before creating the magazine. A picture can say a thousand words, so the idea is to insert the picture and then the rest would come together as and when. The cameras on the left are two that I used. The bottom one is my own digital camera with a 14.1 megapixel camera. The top one was my friends camera -way too expensive for me- with only a 10 megapixel camera. The first lot of photos that I produced shown here. I was happy with the quality of photos that were produced but after I decided that I wanted to change the magazine that I had originally produced, I had to get more photos. When taking pictures of my model Nick -cover model- I used his Nikon camera which is a 10 megapixel camera. I was again more than happy with the photographs that were produced and it was evident to me that regardless of the megapixel of the camera over 10 megapixel you still produce the same quality of photographs. Both cameras were simple to use and required a simple click of a button to take and then to simply remove the SD card and place it straight into the computer to retrieve the pictures.
The other piece of hardware that I used was computers. Although I use computers every day and you would think that I did not learn much, I did. I used Apple Mac computers
because they are the best computers to run the software that I used on. A similar machine that I am writing on now is pictured on the right hand side. The computers, were at first, difficult to use as I always use my Dell Inspiron laptop at home. I could not use a Mac all the time as they are at school. Both machines allow similar things, however at home the only thing I could do without complications was upload pictures that I had converted on the Mac, and also blog on the Internet. I prefer using the Apple Mac computers as they have all the software on them ready to use and are quick and efficient in what they do.
On terms of software I have used, there is a small picture on the left with the differe
nt icons that represent each programme. From top left to bottom right we have: Blogger, InDesign, Photoshop, Firefox Internet and Grab.
Blogger: this is a website on the Internet which allows anybody to keep a diary entry like website. I have used the blog website so as to keep all of my work in one place. It is easier to do that print a magazine and write everything out as you cannot lose any work unless you delete it yourself. With hand written things, work can get damaged and lost. Please find links on the headings to a Wikipedia page about them in more detail.
InDesign: This is the programme I used to create my double page spread. It is harder to use than Photoshop however easier to use to construct the spread. It allowed me to separate the page in to six columns so that I could follow the conventions of a magazine. As well as this I could move things around on the page appropriately without having to worry about selecting different layers. InDesign did prove hard to use at the start as I had been used to using Photoshop, but after playing around with it and help from other friends, I managed to produce what I have.
Photoshop: This programme was essential in the making of my magazine. Without it I would never have been able to produce the final product. It allowed my to do everything from edit photos by removing spots on people's skin, to changing the colour of the top somebody wears. Obviously there is a lot more you can do with Photoshop and I merely brushed the edges of the programme, but again, I am pleased with the results.
FireFox Internet: This is just the type of Internet browser. I could have used Safari, or even Internet Explorer which is what I had to use at home on my personal computer.
Grab Tool: This tool was extremely helpful in the production of my magazine. It meant that I could show small screen shots of pieces of work I have produced without uploading a whole picture and then highlighting the point. It is similar to a normal computers 'print screen' but with screens the size you choose to have.
This technology is different on a Dell laptop. Because the Adobe Series is so expensive -£400-£100o depending on what you get- I do not have it on my personal computer. This meant that I could not edit any photos at home. So, if I wanted to upload anything at home, I had
to make sure I saved the things I wanted in JPEG format on to a memory stick and then upload them at a later time. Some things that I needed when blogging at home meant that I had to take some 'screen grabs' using the laptop. To do this I had to lower my technology standards and use the simple key 'Print Screen' and then paste this in to the awful programme that is Paint. Although I did not like using Paint at home, I was able to produce some screen grabs.
I also used a website called dafont.com. It allowed me to browse through different fonts that I could potentially use for my project and download them. Using the simple fonts that are already uploaded on to the computer would have been alright to use, but in order to gain that extra bit of authenticity to my magazine, I wanted to jazz it up a bit by using a font that not many people would have seen before.
Throughout the creation of all of my magazine pieces, I have used a wide rang of technology in both hardware and software format. Without the use of technology I never would have been able to create what I have, and neither would other magazine industries for that matter! The first piece of technology that I
had to use for the project was a camera. Getting the right picture was imperative before creating the magazine. A picture can say a thousand words, so the idea is to insert the picture and then the rest would come together as and when. The cameras on the left are two that I used. The bottom one is my own digital camera with a 14.1 megapixel camera. The top one was my friends camera -way too expensive for me- with only a 10 megapixel camera. The first lot of photos that I produced shown here. I was happy with the quality of photos that were produced but after I decided that I wanted to change the magazine that I had originally produced, I had to get more photos. When taking pictures of my model Nick -cover model- I used his Nikon camera which is a 10 megapixel camera. I was again more than happy with the photographs that were produced and it was evident to me that regardless of the megapixel of the camera over 10 megapixel you still produce the same quality of photographs. Both cameras were simple to use and required a simple click of a button to take and then to simply remove the SD card and place it straight into the computer to retrieve the pictures.The other piece of hardware that I used was computers. Although I use computers every day and you would think that I did not learn much, I did. I used Apple Mac computers
because they are the best computers to run the software that I used on. A similar machine that I am writing on now is pictured on the right hand side. The computers, were at first, difficult to use as I always use my Dell Inspiron laptop at home. I could not use a Mac all the time as they are at school. Both machines allow similar things, however at home the only thing I could do without complications was upload pictures that I had converted on the Mac, and also blog on the Internet. I prefer using the Apple Mac computers as they have all the software on them ready to use and are quick and efficient in what they do.On terms of software I have used, there is a small picture on the left with the differe
nt icons that represent each programme. From top left to bottom right we have: Blogger, InDesign, Photoshop, Firefox Internet and Grab.Blogger: this is a website on the Internet which allows anybody to keep a diary entry like website. I have used the blog website so as to keep all of my work in one place. It is easier to do that print a magazine and write everything out as you cannot lose any work unless you delete it yourself. With hand written things, work can get damaged and lost. Please find links on the headings to a Wikipedia page about them in more detail.
InDesign: This is the programme I used to create my double page spread. It is harder to use than Photoshop however easier to use to construct the spread. It allowed me to separate the page in to six columns so that I could follow the conventions of a magazine. As well as this I could move things around on the page appropriately without having to worry about selecting different layers. InDesign did prove hard to use at the start as I had been used to using Photoshop, but after playing around with it and help from other friends, I managed to produce what I have.
Photoshop: This programme was essential in the making of my magazine. Without it I would never have been able to produce the final product. It allowed my to do everything from edit photos by removing spots on people's skin, to changing the colour of the top somebody wears. Obviously there is a lot more you can do with Photoshop and I merely brushed the edges of the programme, but again, I am pleased with the results.
FireFox Internet: This is just the type of Internet browser. I could have used Safari, or even Internet Explorer which is what I had to use at home on my personal computer.
Grab Tool: This tool was extremely helpful in the production of my magazine. It meant that I could show small screen shots of pieces of work I have produced without uploading a whole picture and then highlighting the point. It is similar to a normal computers 'print screen' but with screens the size you choose to have.
This technology is different on a Dell laptop. Because the Adobe Series is so expensive -£400-£100o depending on what you get- I do not have it on my personal computer. This meant that I could not edit any photos at home. So, if I wanted to upload anything at home, I had
to make sure I saved the things I wanted in JPEG format on to a memory stick and then upload them at a later time. Some things that I needed when blogging at home meant that I had to take some 'screen grabs' using the laptop. To do this I had to lower my technology standards and use the simple key 'Print Screen' and then paste this in to the awful programme that is Paint. Although I did not like using Paint at home, I was able to produce some screen grabs.I also used a website called dafont.com. It allowed me to browse through different fonts that I could potentially use for my project and download them. Using the simple fonts that are already uploaded on to the computer would have been alright to use, but in order to gain that extra bit of authenticity to my magazine, I wanted to jazz it up a bit by using a font that not many people would have seen before.
Evaluation Question 5
How did you attract/address your reader?
The first thing that someone would notice when looking at this magazine in the shop, would be the large cover image of my model Nick. For this instance you we will have to assume that Nick is a huge artist in the industry and that he has a huge fan base. If this was the case, then people seeing his picture on a popular magazine would make them want to have a look. On picking up the magazine, I would hope that my reader would read the pull quote on the front - 'All my life I dreamed of performing on the big stage, and here I am!' - and wonder what it was about thus making them buy it. Other cover lines on the front cover heightens the readers interest as I have included lots of different artists that relate to my genre and my target audience.
The use of the black box at the top of my magazine is another section of my magazine that would appeal to my reader. As you can see (above) I have placed mine with other magazines and they all look fairly similar. The notes at the top of the page are to add that extra bit of information to the magazine. The fact that this idea is used in most magazines proves that it works when making the reader buy the magazine. Because so many of them do this with their products, I followed this convention and hope that it will too attract my target audience. The lines 'Tears Tantrums and Tiaras' is a line I hope will attract my reader further as I do not actually say what it is about. You have to open the magazine further to find out the information that links with that cover line. When opening the magazine the reader would see more pictures and more stories thus making them buy the magazine.
Another way I have attracted my audience, as stated above, is the other use of cover lines. Adding popular artists names to the front of the magazine means that the audience would be more incline to purchase the magazine so that they can read about not just one person, but a variety of people. Some readers may not like my cover model, but may like Michael Buble or Rhianna. Without the cover lines, it makes my magazine focus primarily on Nick Woods entirely meaning the circulation would drop as not everyone in my target audience may like him.
Defining the audience was a tricky process when constructing all of the magazine as I have a mass target audience from teenagers to adults. Taking this into consideration, I feel that I have addressed my audience and attracted them well enough to encourage them to purchase my magazine.
The first thing that someone would notice when looking at this magazine in the shop, would be the large cover image of my model Nick. For this instance you we will have to assume that Nick is a huge artist in the industry and that he has a huge fan base. If this was the case, then people seeing his picture on a popular magazine would make them want to have a look. On picking up the magazine, I would hope that my reader would read the pull quote on the front - 'All my life I dreamed of performing on the big stage, and here I am!' - and wonder what it was about thus making them buy it. Other cover lines on the front cover heightens the readers interest as I have included lots of different artists that relate to my genre and my target audience.The use of the black box at the top of my magazine is another section of my magazine that would appeal to my reader. As you can see (above) I have placed mine with other magazines and they all look fairly similar. The notes at the top of the page are to add that extra bit of information to the magazine. The fact that this idea is used in most magazines proves that it works when making the reader buy the magazine. Because so many of them do this with their products, I followed this convention and hope that it will too attract my target audience. The lines 'Tears Tantrums and Tiaras' is a line I hope will attract my reader further as I do not actually say what it is about. You have to open the magazine further to find out the information that links with that cover line. When opening the magazine the reader would see more pictures and more stories thus making them buy the magazine.
Another way I have attracted my audience, as stated above, is the other use of cover lines. Adding popular artists names to the front of the magazine means that the audience would be more incline to purchase the magazine so that they can read about not just one person, but a variety of people. Some readers may not like my cover model, but may like Michael Buble or Rhianna. Without the cover lines, it makes my magazine focus primarily on Nick Woods entirely meaning the circulation would drop as not everyone in my target audience may like him.
As well as attracting my audience with the front cover of the magazine, I have also used the double page spread to attract more readers. As started before in the construction of the page, I separated the magazine out into six different columns. This is a convention of a normal music magazine hence why I followed it. If a reader buys a magazine with the same layout that I have used, then surely they would also buy mine. It is not the layout however that is what would encourage my reader to buy the magazine. The mode of address within the article is what should attract them. The use of colloquiums and informal writing would relate to the reader. I have chosen to write using this language as it would be similar to the words that my target audience would say. As well as this, I didn't want to be speaking AT the audience, but wanted them to be included in it. The article has a very casual, relaxed approach 'with an afternoon of laughter, food, music and more food' shows this casual approach to the reader. As well as this, in the interview, I included audience interaction. By adding the 'questions from fans' bit adds that extra piece of authenticity as the reader may be one of them people that wanted to know that question.
Defining the audience was a tricky process when constructing all of the magazine as I have a mass target audience from teenagers to adults. Taking this into consideration, I feel that I have addressed my audience and attracted them well enough to encourage them to purchase my magazine.
Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Understanding who you target audience is , is an important aspect for anyone withing the media industry. Creators of magazines need to know exactly who their target audience is in order to draw their attention and make them purchase the product. It would be wrong for Kerrang! to include a story about Eminem for example as he is a rapper and does not associate himself with Kerrang!'s genre of rock. Knowing your target audience is also needed for advertisement purposes. Other companies that wish to advertise their product would need to know who the audience is of the magazine so as to show their product to an audience that are more likely to buy it. For example, it would be silly to advertise a men's health product in a woman's magazine.
Vibe Magazine Audience:
Men - 50.5%
Women - 49.5%
Age:
18-24 38.6%
18-34 71.2%
21+ 82.2%
35+ 28.8%
Medium HHI £44,000
A/B target audience
I have included a few figures for VIBE's target audience as this is the only magazine that is most similar to mine, meaning the target audiences would be near enough the same.
My Magazine: Sound
I do not intend to primarily focus on one sex reading my magazine. VIBE is a magazine that is widely read by both males and females. Opening my target audience to both genders allows the maximum possible sales and allows a wider range of articles to be included within the magazine.
Age:
16+ -As you can see from VIBE's figures, their highest readership is from 21 year olds and higher at 82.2%. The second highest age group is 18-34 year olds at 71.2%. Because of this, I want to aim my magazine at a similar age group, however starting at the lower age of sixteen. This is because most of the music is becoming are more important attribute within peoples lives today with songs continuously being played on the radio and also the compatibility of
mp3 players and iPods. I feel that it is around the age of sixteen where you start to want to know about the music in more detail and read about the artist who produced your favourite song. By opening my target audience, it would mean it would be harder to complete a magazine with pictures, articles and adverts, however in the long run, it would see a high revenue as more and more people would aim to buy the product. On the right is just an example picture of what my target audience would look like. In this case, it is 18-24 year old males.
Socio-Economic Groups:
I have carried out a short bit of research in order to understand and decide what sort of people I wan to aim my music magazine at. I have priced my magazine at The list on the left summarises the different socio-economic groups there are within society. VIBE magazine focuses on the A/B people, however I wish to aim my magazine at A/B/C1&2.
I want to aim my magazine at a larger target audience so as to gain the most revenues from sales. If I was to only aim my magazine at socio-economic group A, then I would not gain as much money as I would should I aim it at more people. This may be the case, however there is no indication to say who what sort of social group would by my magazine as a wide variety of people from all different classes have different views on music. As well as this, it would be important to note that I am aiming my magazine at people as low as 16 years old, meaning it does not matter what socio-economic group they would be categorised into as they would more than likely still be in education.
Music Tastes
On the left are some album covers of the type of music that may target audience would listen to. Only one -one with yellow bars- is similar to my genre of music, however they have the common factor that they are all popular artists within the industry today and they can be commonly heard on most radio stations every day. This type of music is so popular as the music is fairly 'easy going' and songs are easy to remember with catchy memorable, tunes. Below is a music video of the artist which is most similar to mine. (excuse the pop ups on the video)
Understanding who you target audience is , is an important aspect for anyone withing the media industry. Creators of magazines need to know exactly who their target audience is in order to draw their attention and make them purchase the product. It would be wrong for Kerrang! to include a story about Eminem for example as he is a rapper and does not associate himself with Kerrang!'s genre of rock. Knowing your target audience is also needed for advertisement purposes. Other companies that wish to advertise their product would need to know who the audience is of the magazine so as to show their product to an audience that are more likely to buy it. For example, it would be silly to advertise a men's health product in a woman's magazine.
Vibe Magazine Audience:
Men - 50.5%
Women - 49.5%
Age:
18-24 38.6%
18-34 71.2%
21+ 82.2%
35+ 28.8%
Medium HHI £44,000
A/B target audience
I have included a few figures for VIBE's target audience as this is the only magazine that is most similar to mine, meaning the target audiences would be near enough the same.
My Magazine: Sound
I do not intend to primarily focus on one sex reading my magazine. VIBE is a magazine that is widely read by both males and females. Opening my target audience to both genders allows the maximum possible sales and allows a wider range of articles to be included within the magazine.
Age:
16+ -As you can see from VIBE's figures, their highest readership is from 21 year olds and higher at 82.2%. The second highest age group is 18-34 year olds at 71.2%. Because of this, I want to aim my magazine at a similar age group, however starting at the lower age of sixteen. This is because most of the music is becoming are more important attribute within peoples lives today with songs continuously being played on the radio and also the compatibility of
mp3 players and iPods. I feel that it is around the age of sixteen where you start to want to know about the music in more detail and read about the artist who produced your favourite song. By opening my target audience, it would mean it would be harder to complete a magazine with pictures, articles and adverts, however in the long run, it would see a high revenue as more and more people would aim to buy the product. On the right is just an example picture of what my target audience would look like. In this case, it is 18-24 year old males.Socio-Economic Groups:
I have carried out a short bit of research in order to understand and decide what sort of people I wan to aim my music magazine at. I have priced my magazine at The list on the left summarises the different socio-economic groups there are within society. VIBE magazine focuses on the A/B people, however I wish to aim my magazine at A/B/C1&2. I want to aim my magazine at a larger target audience so as to gain the most revenues from sales. If I was to only aim my magazine at socio-economic group A, then I would not gain as much money as I would should I aim it at more people. This may be the case, however there is no indication to say who what sort of social group would by my magazine as a wide variety of people from all different classes have different views on music. As well as this, it would be important to note that I am aiming my magazine at people as low as 16 years old, meaning it does not matter what socio-economic group they would be categorised into as they would more than likely still be in education.
Music Tastes
On the left are some album covers of the type of music that may target audience would listen to. Only one -one with yellow bars- is similar to my genre of music, however they have the common factor that they are all popular artists within the industry today and they can be commonly heard on most radio stations every day. This type of music is so popular as the music is fairly 'easy going' and songs are easy to remember with catchy memorable, tunes. Below is a music video of the artist which is most similar to mine. (excuse the pop ups on the video)Monday, 7 February 2011
Evaluation Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Throughout the project and creation of the music magazine, I have been observing other magazines within the music industry for reference to accompany me with my own design. The main magazine that I have looked at are;
-Click picture for link to site-This is he publisher for Vibe magazine. It is the only music magazine that it produces. It is however the magazine in the industry today that is most like the one I have produced. Although this is the case, it is the only music magazine that InterMedia publish, and is also only one of a few magazines in total that they own. I would not feel comfortable selling my magazine to these publishers as I would want a company with more experience in the publishing world with a high track record of high circulation and sales figures.
-Click picture for link to site- This company publishes Kerrang!, Mojo, and Q magazine. It would seem appropriate to use Bauer as my main publisher as it prints over 50 magazines, from lads mag FHM, to Women's magazine Closer. This means that it has a very good knowledge of the industry and if I was to ask them to publish my magazine, it would not jeopardise their other products because they already make thousands of pounds a month with what they have out already. Kerrang! have a circulation of 44,013 and the combined circulation of Mojo and Q magazine is just under 200,000. This shows to me that Bauer is able to keep up its circulation figures with both their weekly magazines and monthly editions.
-Click picture for link to site- NME magazine is the only music magazine to be published by this company. It is a weekly magazine that has a circulation figure of 56,284. Although this a higher rate of sales than Kerrang!'s weekly edition, IPC are not use to publishing a monthly music magazine. I would also feel that maybe IPC would not concentrate on my magazine that well as it would try and make the most money from NME as that is such a long running title that everyone knows.
So, from this, I feel that my magazine would be most suited to Bauer Media. I have chosen this because it already has a successful history in publishing two of the leading monthly music magazines today whilst maintaining a high revenue meaning they would make my magazine a success too. Although InterMedia publishes a magazine that is of similar genre to my magazine, I feel that it does not have as much knowledge and experience than Bauer Media.
Throughout the project and creation of the music magazine, I have been observing other magazines within the music industry for reference to accompany me with my own design. The main magazine that I have looked at are;
- Vibe
- Kerrang!
- Mojo
- Q
- NME
-Click picture for link to site-This is he publisher for Vibe magazine. It is the only music magazine that it produces. It is however the magazine in the industry today that is most like the one I have produced. Although this is the case, it is the only music magazine that InterMedia publish, and is also only one of a few magazines in total that they own. I would not feel comfortable selling my magazine to these publishers as I would want a company with more experience in the publishing world with a high track record of high circulation and sales figures.-Click picture for link to site- This company publishes Kerrang!, Mojo, and Q magazine. It would seem appropriate to use Bauer as my main publisher as it prints over 50 magazines, from lads mag FHM, to Women's magazine Closer. This means that it has a very good knowledge of the industry and if I was to ask them to publish my magazine, it would not jeopardise their other products because they already make thousands of pounds a month with what they have out already. Kerrang! have a circulation of 44,013 and the combined circulation of Mojo and Q magazine is just under 200,000. This shows to me that Bauer is able to keep up its circulation figures with both their weekly magazines and monthly editions.-Click picture for link to site- NME magazine is the only music magazine to be published by this company. It is a weekly magazine that has a circulation figure of 56,284. Although this a higher rate of sales than Kerrang!'s weekly edition, IPC are not use to publishing a monthly music magazine. I would also feel that maybe IPC would not concentrate on my magazine that well as it would try and make the most money from NME as that is such a long running title that everyone knows. So, from this, I feel that my magazine would be most suited to Bauer Media. I have chosen this because it already has a successful history in publishing two of the leading monthly music magazines today whilst maintaining a high revenue meaning they would make my magazine a success too. Although InterMedia publishes a magazine that is of similar genre to my magazine, I feel that it does not have as much knowledge and experience than Bauer Media.
Evaluation Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The aim of my media magazine was to represent the casual music industry. By this I mean that it is not directed at any single type of person. Magazines such as KERRANG! are directed at one target audience only, the heavy metal listeners, however I want my magazine to reach out to anyone that has listened or listens to the POP/R&B music style. I wanted my magazine to be similar to that of VIBE or Q magazine. Both of these have had a wide variety of artists on them from, Eminem, Cheryl Cole, Jay-Z, U2 and Take That. This is a different array of music that anybody can listen to also known as popular music. As well as this, the artists used on the covers of theses magazines are identifiable by the general public as their music is so widely known. If there were to only be pictures of heavy metal band, then more people wouldn't know who they were than do as heavy metal is a genre of music that is not listened to or spoken about as much as POP/R&B music. Kerrang! is a magazine that uses bands such as Slip Knot, a band which in my eyes is not seen as a casual, popular, well known band due to the genre of music that they cover. However my picture is more calm and collective than that of Kerrang! This means that the social group that my magazine is trying to reach out to and represent is that of the popular music fans that covers genres such as R&B and POP.
To put in perspective how my magazine reaches out to to my target audience and social group, I will compare my magazine front cover to that of a VIBE front cover as this is the closest magazine that focus on my social group. The first notable thing about the two is that both of the models are male. Not only this, but the pictures are of a casual, friendly nature. As well as this, both of the pictures are medium close ups. This is a recurring theme with magazines and seeing a full body, or long shot' on a cover is not often seen. The gaze at the camera from the model on the left suggests he is used to the fame as he is smiling. The smile also connects with the reader as they would feel a positive persona coming from the man. The pose on my model is very straight on and looking straight down the lens of the camera. This is to show how the model/artist is new to the music industry and is nervous about what is going to come to him in the future. The innocent looks in the artists eyes also suggest a calm collective atmosphere associated with the genre of music. The clutching of the guitar also suggests how he writes his own songs. This would reach out to my social group as there would be people that are interested in songwriting and would maybe want to take some hints in how to do this from the artist in the picture on the right. As well as this, the clothing of the two models is fairly casual. The model in my design is simply wearing a long coat and white top. I did this to show that he is not someone that has unlimited sums of money, but to show that he is the same as everybody else and that the reader can relate to him by following in his footsteps.
The aim of my media magazine was to represent the casual music industry. By this I mean that it is not directed at any single type of person. Magazines such as KERRANG! are directed at one target audience only, the heavy metal listeners, however I want my magazine to reach out to anyone that has listened or listens to the POP/R&B music style. I wanted my magazine to be similar to that of VIBE or Q magazine. Both of these have had a wide variety of artists on them from, Eminem, Cheryl Cole, Jay-Z, U2 and Take That. This is a different array of music that anybody can listen to also known as popular music. As well as this, the artists used on the covers of theses magazines are identifiable by the general public as their music is so widely known. If there were to only be pictures of heavy metal band, then more people wouldn't know who they were than do as heavy metal is a genre of music that is not listened to or spoken about as much as POP/R&B music. Kerrang! is a magazine that uses bands such as Slip Knot, a band which in my eyes is not seen as a casual, popular, well known band due to the genre of music that they cover. However my picture is more calm and collective than that of Kerrang! This means that the social group that my magazine is trying to reach out to and represent is that of the popular music fans that covers genres such as R&B and POP.
To put in perspective how my magazine reaches out to to my target audience and social group, I will compare my magazine front cover to that of a VIBE front cover as this is the closest magazine that focus on my social group. The first notable thing about the two is that both of the models are male. Not only this, but the pictures are of a casual, friendly nature. As well as this, both of the pictures are medium close ups. This is a recurring theme with magazines and seeing a full body, or long shot' on a cover is not often seen. The gaze at the camera from the model on the left suggests he is used to the fame as he is smiling. The smile also connects with the reader as they would feel a positive persona coming from the man. The pose on my model is very straight on and looking straight down the lens of the camera. This is to show how the model/artist is new to the music industry and is nervous about what is going to come to him in the future. The innocent looks in the artists eyes also suggest a calm collective atmosphere associated with the genre of music. The clutching of the guitar also suggests how he writes his own songs. This would reach out to my social group as there would be people that are interested in songwriting and would maybe want to take some hints in how to do this from the artist in the picture on the right. As well as this, the clothing of the two models is fairly casual. The model in my design is simply wearing a long coat and white top. I did this to show that he is not someone that has unlimited sums of money, but to show that he is the same as everybody else and that the reader can relate to him by following in his footsteps.
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product is mainly focused on VIBE and Q magazine front covers. The magazine that I have created follows the conventions of a magazine that has already been published in many ways. For most of the part of my magazine, I have stuck to the conventions of a typical magazine rater than challenge them in order to achieve the best possible results of my magazine fitting in to the music industry. The main cover image is a close up of a males face. I chose to take a close up picture for my front cover as many other magazines share similar shots to the one I have taken such as this, this, this, & this. I will now analyse how specific parts of my music magazine relate to appropriate conventions of other products in the market today. Below is my magazine cover next to one of VIBE magazine. I have put them together in order to show and explain how I have used similar conventions to produce my front cover.
1. This shows how I have made use of the top of the page by putting extra information. The VIBE magazine cover shows artists names however I wanted to include extra information to as what else may be within the magazine. I did not however completely ignore the idea of just adding a list of names on my cover - which is what most magazines seem to do - and have instead added the names at the bottom of the page. The reason I have done this was to mirror the top half of my magazine with the black bar and white text over. This is something that many magazines do when designing their covers. Examples of the mirroring of text and coloured 'bars' are shown here.
2. This was an idea which I wanted to use from VIBE magazine. By adding a barcode and a
phone scanner adds extra authenticity to the magazine as every single magazine that is sold MUST have a barcode somewhere so that it can be scanned and purchased. As well as the barcode, I included the price, issue number and date of the edition of the magazine. This is something you would see on most magazines, not just the music ones, and shows how I am again, sticking to the conventions of a magazine. The 'sound.com' part of the section was an idea that I used from VIBE's magazine. I wanted to do this to show that the style was unique to my magazine.
3. Here you can see that I have highlighted the cover lines of both magazines. These are essential on any magazine so as the reader is able to see what is inside. The cover lines are the words that will sell the magazine to the customer as these are the things that are seen when on the shelf. If the cover lines do not look appealing then the target audience would not want to pick up the magazine, let alone buy it! I also included a '+' sign. This is a convention that many magazines use as a substitute for 'and' or '&'. Here are some examples of magazines that have used the '+' sign. VIBE magazine and Q
4. The use of the word EXCLUSIVE is another convention that I have followed creating my magazine. Nearly EVERY magazine in the media industry today has the word exclusive on the front cover of the magazine. It is done to try and tell the reader that they are getting somet
hing that only you can see if you were to buy that magazine. As well as this, the 
word exclusive may make the customer feel 'special' as they feel that they would be the first to read about their idols' life before anyone else.
Title
The title of my magazine was one of the hardest things to decide on. As I have stated in a previous blog, I initially thought of FIVE different names that could take the main name of my magazine. These were, Sound, Static, Defused, Deluge and Inside. As you can see, all of these names are single words. I chose to use a single and short word for my title as all other major music magazines have simple names e.g. VIBE, Q, MOJO, KERRANG!, UNCUT & even NME which has been shortened from 'New Musical Express'. The final title, SOUND, which was voted the best title by classmates, is an appropriate title in many ways for my music magazine. The word sound can be interpreted in two different ways. The obvious connotation is that it means; 'to make a sound and that music makes sound' or if looked in to deeply enough, it could mean; 'that is a sound magazine' as in 'cool'. The title of my magazine is also monosyllabic and I felt that this would be appropriate as it would be easier to see, remember and stand out more if it were to be placed on a shelf for purchase. I also feel that this is a sophisticated title of a quality magazine - similar to that of VIBE magazine - instead of an excitable KERRANG! which is even written in a smashed like font.
Font and Style
The font of my magazine title is called Futura. I wanted a font that was simple and easy to read and not too comic - like KERRANG!'s smashed font - so as to convey to the reader that the magazine I have produced is of great quality. As you can see, the vast majority of the fonts used on magazine covers today are easy to read and if seen any where else, you would be able to identify that font with the magazine it came from. As well as this, most music magazines use a SANS SERIF font. This is another convention is chose to follow as I felt a font with a serif appeared more like a fashion magazine and did not fit the picture or the type of magazine I was producing. The simple dark red colour of the font us a colour I chose as it was one of the only colours that looked appropriate against a black and white image. In a previous blog I showed that I did look at other colours to use for the title. Some colours were too bright and could not be read properly against the white background, another convention of most magazines. As well as this, the fonts and colours I originally researched were for my first magazine creation with the red. After I decided to change this, I simply took the picked the colour out of the guitar that my model was holding and coloured the text in that colour.
My media product is mainly focused on VIBE and Q magazine front covers. The magazine that I have created follows the conventions of a magazine that has already been published in many ways. For most of the part of my magazine, I have stuck to the conventions of a typical magazine rater than challenge them in order to achieve the best possible results of my magazine fitting in to the music industry. The main cover image is a close up of a males face. I chose to take a close up picture for my front cover as many other magazines share similar shots to the one I have taken such as this, this, this, & this. I will now analyse how specific parts of my music magazine relate to appropriate conventions of other products in the market today. Below is my magazine cover next to one of VIBE magazine. I have put them together in order to show and explain how I have used similar conventions to produce my front cover.
1. This shows how I have made use of the top of the page by putting extra information. The VIBE magazine cover shows artists names however I wanted to include extra information to as what else may be within the magazine. I did not however completely ignore the idea of just adding a list of names on my cover - which is what most magazines seem to do - and have instead added the names at the bottom of the page. The reason I have done this was to mirror the top half of my magazine with the black bar and white text over. This is something that many magazines do when designing their covers. Examples of the mirroring of text and coloured 'bars' are shown here.
2. This was an idea which I wanted to use from VIBE magazine. By adding a barcode and a
phone scanner adds extra authenticity to the magazine as every single magazine that is sold MUST have a barcode somewhere so that it can be scanned and purchased. As well as the barcode, I included the price, issue number and date of the edition of the magazine. This is something you would see on most magazines, not just the music ones, and shows how I am again, sticking to the conventions of a magazine. The 'sound.com' part of the section was an idea that I used from VIBE's magazine. I wanted to do this to show that the style was unique to my magazine.3. Here you can see that I have highlighted the cover lines of both magazines. These are essential on any magazine so as the reader is able to see what is inside. The cover lines are the words that will sell the magazine to the customer as these are the things that are seen when on the shelf. If the cover lines do not look appealing then the target audience would not want to pick up the magazine, let alone buy it! I also included a '+' sign. This is a convention that many magazines use as a substitute for 'and' or '&'. Here are some examples of magazines that have used the '+' sign. VIBE magazine and Q
4. The use of the word EXCLUSIVE is another convention that I have followed creating my magazine. Nearly EVERY magazine in the media industry today has the word exclusive on the front cover of the magazine. It is done to try and tell the reader that they are getting somet
hing that only you can see if you were to buy that magazine. As well as this, the 
word exclusive may make the customer feel 'special' as they feel that they would be the first to read about their idols' life before anyone else.Title
The title of my magazine was one of the hardest things to decide on. As I have stated in a previous blog, I initially thought of FIVE different names that could take the main name of my magazine. These were, Sound, Static, Defused, Deluge and Inside. As you can see, all of these names are single words. I chose to use a single and short word for my title as all other major music magazines have simple names e.g. VIBE, Q, MOJO, KERRANG!, UNCUT & even NME which has been shortened from 'New Musical Express'. The final title, SOUND, which was voted the best title by classmates, is an appropriate title in many ways for my music magazine. The word sound can be interpreted in two different ways. The obvious connotation is that it means; 'to make a sound and that music makes sound' or if looked in to deeply enough, it could mean; 'that is a sound magazine' as in 'cool'. The title of my magazine is also monosyllabic and I felt that this would be appropriate as it would be easier to see, remember and stand out more if it were to be placed on a shelf for purchase. I also feel that this is a sophisticated title of a quality magazine - similar to that of VIBE magazine - instead of an excitable KERRANG! which is even written in a smashed like font.
Font and Style
The font of my magazine title is called Futura. I wanted a font that was simple and easy to read and not too comic - like KERRANG!'s smashed font - so as to convey to the reader that the magazine I have produced is of great quality. As you can see, the vast majority of the fonts used on magazine covers today are easy to read and if seen any where else, you would be able to identify that font with the magazine it came from. As well as this, most music magazines use a SANS SERIF font. This is another convention is chose to follow as I felt a font with a serif appeared more like a fashion magazine and did not fit the picture or the type of magazine I was producing. The simple dark red colour of the font us a colour I chose as it was one of the only colours that looked appropriate against a black and white image. In a previous blog I showed that I did look at other colours to use for the title. Some colours were too bright and could not be read properly against the white background, another convention of most magazines. As well as this, the fonts and colours I originally researched were for my first magazine creation with the red. After I decided to change this, I simply took the picked the colour out of the guitar that my model was holding and coloured the text in that colour.
Main Cover
The main cover of my magazine follows the conventions of various different magazines. As already stated, the picture is of a medium close up of a male model. The model was positioned directly in front of the camera and told to look directly down the camera lens. The most notable thing is the picture. As in nearly every magazine that is sold, the picture is placed in FRONT of the main title of the magazine. This is because the publisher of a magazine would expect their audience to know what their magazine looks like - possibly even without the title -as it would have a unified house style that would be used in almost every edition that the recurring readers would identify.
As well as the picture being in front of the title, my magazine also has similar cover lines to others. The main cover line has been placed over the picture and it is obvious which is the main focus story within the magazine as it is written in a larger font on the front cover. The 'Nick Woods' is the biggest text found on the front cover. If I had have used the same size font for all of the cover lines on the front cover, it would not be immediately visible which story is the one has the most written about within the magazine. The front cover is described in more detail above.
Contents
As you can see from the two contents pages above, they are fairly similar. The fact that they both say contents -yes in their own ways- is the first thing to note. I did not want to make my magazine exactly like others so I used a technique that I stumbled across on the Internet in order to show my contents. Probably the most notable thing with the two pages is how they both contain large pictures in the top right hand corner. It is worth noting that the majority of music magazines do this. they do this in order to show what the main cover story is and where you can find it without having to scroll through the text on the left hand side. The other similarity between the two is that I have included an explanation after ever page reference. This is something that magazines do so as to inform the reader of what the titled article means. Something which I have included which challenged this magazine for a convention, was by including some information which would encourage the reader to purchase the next edition of the magazine. In this case, I have told the reader of an upcoming story they may be interested in and also the chance to win a years subscription to my magazine. Many other magazines use competitions in order to get the people to buy the magazine, but they are usually advertised on the front of the cover or simply on the brands web page should they have one. One last thing that I have included in my magazine that many others do, is the 'Regulars'. In the contents page on the right you can see that they have included an 'Every Month'. Most magazines use this convention to stick to their unified 
house style. It may be a quiz or a story that is updated every edition, but most magazines, not just music, have this sort of section. The last thing that I have included at this stage on my contents page is that extra piece of authenticity. It is just a summary of who did what in the magazine.
As stated when constructing my double page spread, it is similar to many withing the music magazine industry. This is because of the way it has been divided in to the six different columns. Without columns, the magazine would look more like a book and therefor less appealing to the target audience. As well as this, the way I have layed out the interview with the different colours for the asking and answering of the questions is a convention that I have used from other magazines. It is done so as to differentiate between the two speakers in the interview. 
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Double Page Spread
This (above) is the final of my double page spread. As you can see, I have used a unified house style when creating it by using the same colour scheme as I have for my contents and front page. Below are a selection of pictures which will explain how I managed to achieve it. The first thing that I did wa
s to load up a blank page on InDesign. To do this I had to make sure the dimensions were that of an A3 piece of paper and also include six columns. The reason I chose to have six columns is because many magazines with double page articles are split into six parts. The image on the left is of three magazine articles that I found. After putting them together you can see how each one is split up in to the six different sections via the green lines I have added. So, due to the six columns in most double page spreads, I followed this convention when producing my own. When I was near the end of creating my double page spread, 
I noticed that my magazine did not seem to resemble any columns at all. This was because I had managed to change the settings somehow on the screen and gotten rid of the template for the columns. The original is on the right hand side (without the proper columns). Once I realised that I had produced the wrong this, I simply reloaded another document and copied and pasted each item onto the new document and placed them into the different columns. It also meant that I was able to add more to the interview as there was more space to fill up. On my final double page spread at the top of the post, you can see the six columns due to the way the text is on the page. The next thing to do after establishing the six columns, was to add the black bars that you see on either end of the page. I did this so as to continue with my house style. My contents page had
the bars there, so I wanted them to appear on my double page spread too. In order to create them, I used the rectangular marquee tool just as I did when using Photoshop and drew a long box. The rectangular tool is the second one down on the tool bar on the right hand side. After this, I placed it in the position I wanted it and then copied the bar. After it was copied, I pasted it so as to get another bar and then moved that into the opposite side so as they mirrored each other. I did not want the bottom bar to stretch the whole length of the page as I felt that it would swamp the whole page and not look authentic. The title of the article was the next thing to create. I simply used the person in questions name, in this case, Nick Woods. To do this, I created two different text boxes.
I made two different boxes so that I could place each word in different places on the page and not just keep them in a line, which would look plain. Both pieces of text are in the font Futura, which is the same font that I have used throughout the project. The colour of it is similar to the title of the magazine. Because the front cover and contents page were created in Photoshop, it was difficult to obtain the exact same colour in InDesign, so after a long time of playing around with the colours, I managed to find this colour -the colour of the text- which I thought was the closest I could get to the colour I have already used for the other pages.
After the title was in place, I added a pull quote. The idea of using a pull quote is to give an insight to th
e reader to as what is going to appear in the article they are about to read. I included two pull quotes in the article. One below the name of the article, shown on the left, and one actually within the article itself, shown on the right. The pull quote on the right was inserted into the middle of the article for a number of reasons. Firstly, it breaks up the reading a bit so as the page is not just full of small size 12 font text. It is also there to interest the reader. Upon reading this quote, some people may ask themselves 'I wonder what was asked to get that reaction' thus making them read the article to find out more. After the first pull quote (left hand side) was inserted on to the page, I started to enter the text from the article that I had already written. The article was produced on Microsoft Word originally and then copied and pasted into text boxes in InDesign. I wanted the introduction of my article to be written in lines as opposed to in the six columns that I had produced. In order to do this, I created a text box where I wanted the writing to be and made it big enough so as it spread over two of the columns. After the writing was on the page, I started to edit it to my preferences. As you can see on the image below -GET IMAGE IN JPEG FORMAT- I have added a few drop capitals and also some colour to some of the text. The first letter is a drop capital as this follows the conventions of a typical music magazine. An example of the drop capital can be seen here. The drop capital is something that EVERY magazine seems to do without fail. It is done to show the reader where the article starts and also makes the page more appealing. I did it to show a sense of authenticity to my magazine. As well as the drop capital, note that I have put a few of the words in a different colour. The words are Sound HQ, and Sound. I did this because I wanted to highlight the word sound every time I used it to remind the reader that they were reading an article from their favourite magazine, SOUND. The title of the artists album was put in bold so as to define that word from the rest of the text. I did it also to show that if at a later date a reader would want to return to the article to find out some information, then the key part is in bold.
After the writing was added, I inserted two different pictures. One is of the cover model himself, and one of something that I created on Photoshop. It is important to include a picture of the interviewee so as the reader
one to use as it shows the young age of the artist, which is what I was trying to convey in my interview. The photo is a long shot which had to be edited in can see who they are reading about. The picture is an appropriatePhotoshop and then brought in to InDesign. The original photo is on the left hand side. I had to place it into Photoshop and use the magic wand tool to cut around the figure. After I had cut around him, I placed him onto a new transparent document and saved the image as a JPEG. After this, I used the Import button in InDesign and brought the edited picture in and placed it where I wanted it. The text then had to be fitted around the model. I did not want the text to be wrapped around the figure. This was for two reasons, the first one being that if the text had have been wrapped, then the page may have looked to cramped. The second reason is simply because I could not work out how to wrap the text around the figure! Even after watching many videos on YouTube, all of which were in a different language, I could not find anything that would work for me. I think that the picture may have been on a different setting, however I am pleased that I couldn't wrap the text anyway. The other image to be added to the page was the tape. Shown on the right, I designed this in Photoshop on a friends computer. When I had taken the pictures of my model, we started editing them as he had Photoshop capability. When doing so I wanted to create something similar to an album cover. My friend suggest that instead of being the 
same as everyone else, why not create a tape. I liked the idea so found a picture of a tape on the Internet and dropped it into Photoshop. After de-saturating the image, I placed a white bar over the top of the tape using the rectangular marquee tool. The writing was then placed on top using a text box and a font called Just The Way You Are from the dafont website.With the magazine now on verge of completion, I wanted to add that extra bit of authenticity. To do this I included who took the pictures for the article, who wrote the article and also included
a page number. On the left you can see how I signed the article. The camera and pen were fonts taken from the dafont website. I wanted to use the idea of a pen and camera instead of putting 'writer' and 'photography' which in my eyes is boring and too similar to everything else. Although I am trying to achieve a conventional magazine, I feel that it was important to add my own features so as to make the magazine my own!
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