Question 6: What have you learnt about new technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Photography:
I found it very easy to pick up the skills required to operate a digital camera and take good quality, effective photographs. The camera is also able to store lots of images which is useful as you can take as many as you need to and also have the ability to delete the ones that haven't turned out the way you wanted them to. This is a lot different to cameras used ten years ago for example, as digital cameras were not the norm and more care and focus was needed when taking images in order to achieve a strong shot, as the quality of a digital camera is a lot higher. The images are also easier to transfer to computers and to use different software to edit the pictures.

Software:

Photoshop - Using Photoshop was very straight forward and a really effective way of editing my photographs in order to make them high quality and unique images. The use of the clone stamp tool made it really easy to remove parts of the photographs that didn't necessarily have to be there and this gave an overall better result. It also made me very aware of the use of airbrushing in the media and how popular magazine edit images of celebrities in order to make them by society's standards 'perfect', and just how easy it is to do this and the effect it has on the overall look of the picture.

 

In Design - Using In Design was really easy process. It was very straight forward and user-friendly software that helped me to make high quality magazines that look effective and I am pleased with the outcome. Things such as the stroke and colour tools were a really good and simple way of having bold text, especially for my front cover. There is also a really good and wide range of fonts available to choose from. My favourite tool to use was the shadow tool, as it made my text and images really stand out on the page and gave them a really nice effect and pay off. The layout of the pages were very useful as well with columns and a bleed to help keep text and photos aligned and all are set on the page.

It was also a very straight forward process exporting my work into a PDF file and then into a JPEG to post onto Blogger. This enabled me to be able to use one computer and easily transfer all of my work onto my blog page straight away to show my completed work and get feedback on it.

Internet and Blogger - The internet has been really useful in helping me to carry out research and planning in order to create a strong magazine. I was introduced to multi-media programs such as Prezi and Slideshare where I could present my research in an effective and unique way that would help to make my blog more diverse. I also had access to lots of different websites and sources for information on what I needed in order to make my magazine good quality. I was also able to make use of Youtube by exporting Powerpoint slide shows and converting them into videos in order to show evaluation of my work.

Being able to post my work on Blogger saved a lot of time and resources when creating my magazine. It enabled me to publish my work quickly and easily onto one page where I knew I would be able to go back and find all of my work.

Overall, having software such as web 2.0 made the entire process of creating a magazine a lot easier than it would have been if I had to make everything to print. In doing this my IT skills have improved massively and it really made me aware of the fact that media production is available to almost anybody if they have access to the software.

Magazine Market Research - Prezi

Question 5: How did I appeal to and attract my target audience?

In order to produce a successful product, I had to conduct some audience research in order to find out what my audience would like to see in the magazine.

I then created a reader profile based on this research:

Once my magazine was finished I conducted some further research and gathered some feedback on my final product. I asked several of my friends what they thought of the product and they replied positively:

"The font cover is really eye-catching and bold" - Alexandra Moody

"I would buy this magazine because it has very nice images" - Alisia Evci

"They layout is clear and it makes you want to read on" - Jessica Harrison

Overall, I think that I have delivered to the expectations of my target audience and my magazine has been really well received. I kept a strong and eye-catching theme throughout in order to keep the reader interested and I also used bold images and text to appeal to my audience, giving them something different and unusual.

Final Corrections to Music Magazine

 

After looking back over my final product, I realised that improvement was still needed so I re-arranged the text and adjusted font sizes in order to make the magazine more reader friendly and also to help it stand out amongst other magazines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Preliminary an Main Task Production

Contents Page

Front Page

Improvements to Front Cover Design

Here I have made lots of improvements to my front cover design. The colouring of the previous design didn't prove as effective as I would have liked and so I completely changed the background and included my house style to create a bold, familiar product for the reader.

Improvements to Double Page Spread

Here I have added improvements to my double page spread design. I have infused some bright colours and a house style in order to make my magazine follow a theme and be more eye-catching for the reader.

Question 4: Who would the audience be for your media product?

When designing a media product, there needs to be a target audience in mind in order to keep the product relevant and focussed. The audience in mind will have a great impact on the content and design of the product and any other important decisions when producing it.

 

All media products should use demographics in order to determine who their audience is, this also enables them to discover and understand as much as possible about them in order to create a really good quality piece. They should take into account everything from age and gender to race, as this will help to ensure that their product fully caters to everybody in that target audience. They should also consider which band they wish their product to fit into, as this will help in the choice of advertising used in the product and also help to make sure that all of the content is relevant and useful for the audience. VALs should also be looked at so all aspects of the target audience are covered. This will help to specify exactly what kind of people are using the product and will help to make the product even more appealing to the audience.

 

As part of my research and planning tasks I produced a readership profile, similar to the example demonstrated by NME magazine. This particular task enabled me to really keep my work specific and my magazine remained clearly focussed. Up until this point I remained unaware of just how many things needed to be taken into consideration for my target audience, but I now understand clearly what is needed for my magazine to be a successful product for them.

 

 

Median Age Group: 24

Gender: Male/ Female

Social Grade: 86.6%

VALs: Experiencers

 

Specific Music Sub-Culture: Punk Rock

Current Media Texts: Kerrang, NME, Q, Rolling Stone

 

I have selected this group as my audience as I feel they have the most relevance to myself and my own interests. This therefore made it easier to create a product that appealed to them as I knew myself what appealed to me. There is also a very wide range of bands in this particular sub-culture, and as this is a magazine that only includes bands, this was extremely useful and was a really good opportunity to use this particular idea.

 

I also think that, even though this magazine is designed in order to appeal to fans of punk rock, it could definitely appeal to other audiences. The music style used as the basis of this magazine often crosses over into the mainstream of music and culture, which, I hope, would make this product popular.

Contents Page

Contents Page - Contact Sheet

Contents Page mock up

This is my mock up contents page, so far I am just experimenting with the layout but I really like the idea of the logo and title running up the bottom right hand side. Article information and photographs will be scattered yet clearly presented, and the text will be bold and informative, and I will stay within the black/ white/ grayscale theme again.

Contents Page Inspiration

These two example contents pages stood out to me due to there bold formats and good photography. I love the candid shot in on the 'Billboard' contents page and I wish to achieve this same effect with my contents page. The 'Kerrang' contents page uses really bold and eye-catching fonts and the sub-headings for each article are clearly outlined in black text boxes. I also really like the idea of an editor's introduction on the contents page and I myself might include this idea on my own music magazine contents page, as I feel it helps to create a closeness and exclusivity between the reader and the writer.

Front Cover

Front Cover - First Draft

 

This is my first draft of my music magazine front cover. I really love the image and am happy to keep that along with the magazine logo. The other text on the page, I feel should be a different colour than just the black and white. I might now incorporate some deep red or a colour like that in order to add some diversity to the magazine cover. I will still keep with the house theme of black/ white/ grayscale in terms of my images and main text but will stray from this on the front cover in order to make it stand out initially to the reader.

Front Cover Inpiration/ Emulation

 I really love this front cover idea, as it uses a very bold image of three band members presented in a way similar to my own photography. The main heading is bold and stands out more than anything else on the page and really helps to draw the eye. The logo used is simplistic yet bold and uses an effective white on red colour scheme. The rest of the text used follows the same colour scheme as the magazine's logo which keeps a running theme, and the use of bolder and taller fonts for the band and artist names really draw the reader in. I will try and use some of these ideas in my own front cover design for my music magazine and hopefully demonstrate the same quality of front cover as this.

This is my music magazine front cover plan. I have used some of my initial ideas along with some of the inspiration I got from the example magazine cover I chose. The colour scheme is black and white, and, as of the moment I will stick to this and see the overall effect on the reader and the visual outcome of this. I plan to have a very simplistic, bold, white title which covers the entire width of the cover. My photography for my front cover already resembles something similar to the example front cover I chose and this as it will enable me to emulate this existing magazine cover to a more accurate level.

Double Page Spread