Evaluation 7 Preliminary Contents vs Final Contents

I have taken my preliminary contents page from the school magazine that I created, Autograph magazine and placed it next to my contents page from Pulse R&B magazine. I think this accurately shows my progression through using photoshop and the skills I have developed throughout the coursework. When creating my preliminary task, I had very little knowledge of Photoshop and how to use each of the tools, I have also missed out vital aspects of a magazine contents page such as the page number, and clearly laid out sections of the magazine, it is instead more of a list. I ensured I addressed this issue when I came to create my final product. I have also included far more pictures in my final product, with a clear colour scheme that soon became a trademark of the Pulse magazine. It is clearly laid out with exactly where you can find each of the features in the magazine, with a special feature clearly laid out with a larger image. I have also made the competition more professional looking with a picture of what the reader will be winning, and the subscribe advert clearly laid out with the colour scheme of how a reader can obtain the offer.

Evaluation Q7

I have included the preliminary task that I did before creating my music magazine. The task was to create a school magazine in order to practice using photoshop. My school magazine was quite simple and lacked some of the vital conventions needed for a magazine such as slogan, cover lines and colour scheme. Looking back at my school magazine it looks rather dull and boring and doesn't really have anything on it that would encourage the reader to pick the magazine up and buy it. In comparison, I believe my R&B music magazine has far more conventions needed and is far more advanced than my preliminary task.

I have learnt from going from the preliminary task to my final product how important research and planning is for creating a magazine that is attractive for the target audience. My research and planning influenced decisions such as cover lines, slogans, buzz words, fonts, content and colour scheme. This was vital to get right in order that my target audience actually want to buy my magazine and having my 'PULSE' next to 'Autograph' it is clear how this research has helped with my editing. My Photoshop skills have improved massively as I learnt how to use far more features and how to achieve the goal I had in my head on Photoshop. Drafting also helped with making my final product, as I have included on my blog I first drew out a plan of what I imagined I would make my magazine look like, after doing research and planning those plans have changed somewhat to adapt to what my target audience wanted from an R&B music magazine. Attention to detail was very important to creating my final product, e.g. website, social media links, ensuring that each underline follow the pattern and where the same size. Taking constructive criticism from my target audience helped me when choosing what to get rid of in order to ensure my magazine was perfect. E.g. I changed the font of 'DJ BOD' on the front cover over 5 times before I found one that I and the people in my target audience I asked liked.

I have had to change things on my magazine many times throughout the production process but I feel that it was definitely worth it, I enjoyed learning about media institutions and magazines and how they are sold and distributed along with creating my own magazine. I have taken a lot of time over my final product and I feel that it shows and I think that it attracts my target audience well and is suitable for 16-25 year olds both with language and visually.

Evaluation Q6

Q6 from brandonforan

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q5

Q5 from brandonforan

Evaluation Q4

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Q3

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product?

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Q1

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My Final Product

Thumbnails

I have included a list of the thumbnails of photos taken when creating my R&B magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. This is a selection of the photos that I did and did not use, due to changing angle types and suitability. I have tried with a selection of different shot types including mid shot and two shot angles. I aimed to be critical in choosing the successful images to go on my front cover, contents page and double page spread in order that my magazine had a fresh, professional look.

My chosen article

This is my chosen magazine article, having written a few and shown them to my target audience, this one was by far in a way the most popular and is therefore the one I have chosen to run with. I am very happy with the way it has turned out and I feel that the questions asked are relevant and interesting to the target audience with key information about the artist and social media links to keep the reader interactive and interested in the content of my magazine.

Cover Line and Slogan Ideas feedback

This task was to go out and interview people in my target audience and ask them which out of my potential cover line and slogan ideas were their favourites so that I knew which ones would most appeal to my target audience.

This has helped me when creating my magazine because I have now decided that "Buy it, Read it, Love it" is going to be my chosen slogan and I have a better understanding of which out of my potential cover lines are the best ones to choose when I come to deciding which ones I would most like to use on the front cover of my magazine to draw my target audience in to wanting to buy a copy of my magazine.

Examples of potential fonts

I have looked at a variety of fonts on 'da font' that could be used for the title of my magazine. I have narrowed them down to the fonts below and will get research from a questionnaire that I have sent out to my target audience to understand which fonts are most popular and therefore influence my decision of which font I will use for the title of my magazine.

Potential Contents Page Pics

Potential Front Cover Pics

Cover Line and Slogan Ideas

This is the selection of cover line and slogan ideas that I showed to my target audience in order to get audience feedback on which ideas were most popular, in order to steer my decision in the right direction when I come to create my magazine.

The most popular slogan idea was "Buy it, Read it, Love it" due to it being catchy and memorable. This will influence my decision when I come to create the slogan for my music magazine. Gaining this feedback from my target audience will ensure that the cover lines and slogan that I eventually choose will be appealing to my target audience and therefore will encourage them to buy my magazine.

Initial Magazine Layout Ideas

Below I have included pictures of my initial planning ideas for my music magazine's front cover, contents page and double page spread, they are a rough draft that I have drawn out of how I intend my magazine to look. I have tried to gear my magazine towards my target audience by not putting too much text and including lots of pictures to make it an attractive prospect on the magazine shelf.

This should hopefully help me when coming to create my magazine because I will already have an idea of how I would like it to look meaning that I will have a vision that I can recreate on Photoshop instead of simply 'going in blind.'

My Initial Magazine Ideas

Initial magazine ideas from brandonforan

I have included a presentation of my initial ideas that I have for my R&B magazine. I have done research into which magazine title I should use and presented my findings in a pie chart as a clear way of understanding which name's are most popular. I have done research into other magazines in order to gain a greater understanding of what is already available and what is not in order to understand where my magazine can fill a gap in the market. I have also researched into other magazines to get inspiration of how they lay out their front covers. I have also looked into my chosen genre R&B to understand how I can best focus my magazine on this genre and the types of artists I should write about, along with the typical conventions associated with the genre. Finally I did research into the costs of current music magazines on the market to understand where I should place my magazine in terms of price in relation to the competition.

Preliminary Contents Page

I created this contents page for my school magazine, autograph. I have included features that I think will attract my target audience, and have tried to make it interactive by including a vote and a personal account from a student. I have kept the same grey colour scheme from the front cover to ensure continuity throughout the magazine and to show that they are both from the same magazine.

JCoSS Magazine

In preparation for creating my R&B music magazine front cover, I have put together a practice example of a school magazine, "Autograph." This has helped me in getting to grips with Photoshop, how to add certain effects and how to edit each individual item. I looked at a variety of fonts and chose ones which I felt were suitable for the genre and target audience, whilst retaining a professional look.

This will help me for when I come to create my music magazine because I now have a greater understanding of how the font I choose can impact the look of the magazine, and how I can achieve what I have planned on Photoshop, whereas before I was unsure of how to use certain functions. I aim to create a professional looking magazine that is appropriate for my chosen target audience.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and gratifications theory from brandonforan

This is a Slideshare of the Uses and Gratifications theory by Blumner and Katz. In understanding how audiences use different media products will help me when coming to create my own music magazine because it will guide some of my decisions in ensuring that my magazine achieves the 5 uses and gratifications outlined by Blumner and Katz:

Diversion/Escapism
Personal Relationships
Personal Identity
Surveillance/Information
Entertainment

This will ensure that my magazine satisfies these needs and provides my target audience with the needs they have for a media product.

Magazine Name Interviews

For this task, I asked a selection of people in my target audience to choose out of a selection of potential magazine names that I had come up with. My aim was to understand which were the most popular amongst my target audience and therefore assist me in choosing a suitable name that would appeal to my target audience.

This task has helped me in getting a deeper understanding of what it is my target audience look for on the front cover of the magazine, specifically the name and headline of the magazine. I have now narrowed down my choice of names which will make it easier when I eventually come to creating the front cover of my magazine.

Weather Report

In this task, I made a weather report analysing a double page spread from Q magazine. I did this task as a way of understanding how the conventions of magazines helps to attract their target audience and ensure that the content stands out and appeals. I aimed to understand what goes into making a double page spread and what I should include/exclude from it. I also needed to gain a greater understanding of the type of language used in a typical article relative to the target audience it is aimed at.

This task has helped me for when I come to create my own magazine double page spread because I now have a better understanding of how I can lay out the text and picture in such a way that is attractive to my target audience. The task has also helped me to understand brand identity and how I can continue a brand's presence throughout the magazine e.g. with the use of a repeated colour scheme/font. It has also helped me to understand how I can incorporate other forms of media in a double page spread e.g. with the links to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter at the bottom of the page.

Magazine Name Ideas

I have included the mind map that I gave to my target audience with ideas of what I could potentially call my magazine. This has helped me in choosing the name that I will ultimately choose as I now know the names that are popular amongst the audience that will be buying my magazine.

As the name of my magazine is so important to creating the right image, I used more than one research method. I have included the interviews I did with 3 people from my target audience, and I also send around a questionnaire to more people, and the name that came back as most popular amongst my target audience is 'Pulse' and this therefore will be the name of my R&B magazine.