Monday, 23 April 2012
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Final evaluation activity 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Computer:
I used the computers at school to create my magazine, and to do the research required before creating my magazine.
Photoshop:
I used photoshop to create my front cover, contents page and double page spread. This enabled me to edit the photos, and add text all in several different layers so it was easy to move around each bit of text without messing up the rest of the page.
Samsung camera:
I used my own camera to take all the photographs used in my magazine, I think the camera produced some alright quality pictures considering it's not of the standard that would normally be used for taking pictures to be used on professional magazines.
Microsoft word:
I used microsoft word in some of my research, like annotation of magazine pages, and I used it to write up my interview so that I could keep a check on the spelling and word count.
Scribd:
I used this to publish word documents so that I could then embed them onto my blog.
Animoto:
I used animoto to create my pitch, as it was the best technology for creating a movie like pitch which could include music and be detailed without too many words.
Facebook:
Before I decided on which pictures to use, I posted them onto facebook to get opinions from other people.
Internet:
I used the internet during nearly all of my research, to find inspiration and to post my work onto my blog.
Websites I have used are facebook, to get ideas from friends about photos. Blogger, to post my research. Coverjunkie, to get inspiration from magazine covers. Google, to research certain things and google images to look at several different Q magazine covers, contents pages and double page spreads.
Computer:
I used the computers at school to create my magazine, and to do the research required before creating my magazine.
Photoshop:
I used photoshop to create my front cover, contents page and double page spread. This enabled me to edit the photos, and add text all in several different layers so it was easy to move around each bit of text without messing up the rest of the page.
Samsung camera:
I used my own camera to take all the photographs used in my magazine, I think the camera produced some alright quality pictures considering it's not of the standard that would normally be used for taking pictures to be used on professional magazines.
Microsoft word:
I used microsoft word in some of my research, like annotation of magazine pages, and I used it to write up my interview so that I could keep a check on the spelling and word count.
Scribd:
I used this to publish word documents so that I could then embed them onto my blog.
Animoto:
I used animoto to create my pitch, as it was the best technology for creating a movie like pitch which could include music and be detailed without too many words.
Facebook:
Before I decided on which pictures to use, I posted them onto facebook to get opinions from other people.
Internet:
I used the internet during nearly all of my research, to find inspiration and to post my work onto my blog.
Websites I have used are facebook, to get ideas from friends about photos. Blogger, to post my research. Coverjunkie, to get inspiration from magazine covers. Google, to research certain things and google images to look at several different Q magazine covers, contents pages and double page spreads.
Final evaluation activity 5
How did you attract or address your audience?
My target audience is for teenagers and young adults, so I needed to design my magazine in a way which would attract this age group. The magazine was mainly aimed towards women, although no womanly colours such as pink were used so that it could also appeal to male audience. Because the majority of my audience would be women, I used a female model for the front cover who is of similar age to the target audience. I considered her as someone who would appeal to the female population, someone nice to look at without looking 'fake', a natural pose so it wouldn't put off the female readers and nice long blonde hair for the innocence look. I mentioned big artists/groups on the front cover which are well known for being liked by the female population in the UK. The contents is designed for my audience because it contains pages with mainstream artists/groups which they would be interested in, there is also 2 images to make the page look more interesting and for them to see which artists are featured most in the magazine.
The language I have used in my interview for the double page spread would appeal to my audience because it is a relaxed tone, seeming more like a normal conversation rather than a formal interview. I feel this would match my target audience more because formal language and a formal interview would bore them more than a casual flowing conversation styled interview. The quotes that I pulled out of the interview and put into large are the quotes I felt would appeal to the target audience the most, and show the new artists in a good light to this audience, so therefore keeping the audience interested and getting the artist a new wider fan base. The interview represents the artist in a positive light, which will make the audience want to buy the magazine whenever she's featured in it again. I took my answers from my questionnaire for inspiration of what the target audience is looking for, so I could include these things and therefore make
my magazine attract the target audience successfully.
Overall, I think I have done a variety of things to attract the target audience that I chose for my magazine.
My target audience is for teenagers and young adults, so I needed to design my magazine in a way which would attract this age group. The magazine was mainly aimed towards women, although no womanly colours such as pink were used so that it could also appeal to male audience. Because the majority of my audience would be women, I used a female model for the front cover who is of similar age to the target audience. I considered her as someone who would appeal to the female population, someone nice to look at without looking 'fake', a natural pose so it wouldn't put off the female readers and nice long blonde hair for the innocence look. I mentioned big artists/groups on the front cover which are well known for being liked by the female population in the UK. The contents is designed for my audience because it contains pages with mainstream artists/groups which they would be interested in, there is also 2 images to make the page look more interesting and for them to see which artists are featured most in the magazine. 
The language I have used in my interview for the double page spread would appeal to my audience because it is a relaxed tone, seeming more like a normal conversation rather than a formal interview. I feel this would match my target audience more because formal language and a formal interview would bore them more than a casual flowing conversation styled interview. The quotes that I pulled out of the interview and put into large are the quotes I felt would appeal to the target audience the most, and show the new artists in a good light to this audience, so therefore keeping the audience interested and getting the artist a new wider fan base. The interview represents the artist in a positive light, which will make the audience want to buy the magazine whenever she's featured in it again. I took my answers from my questionnaire for inspiration of what the target audience is looking for, so I could include these things and therefore make my magazine attract the target audience successfully.
Overall, I think I have done a variety of things to attract the target audience that I chose for my magazine.
Final evaluation activity 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Georgia is a 17 year old girl from Leicestershire, who is in her first year of A-levels studying: Economics, French, Media and English language. She is quite a girly-girl and what people would expect to see from a 17 year old girl. She enjoys listening to artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Emeli Sande. She likes to follow music magazines and enjoys going to concerts and music festivals. This year she is attending Glastonbury and T in the park, because she enjoys the live music atmosphere and likes the line up for these festivals. Most of the music on her itunes is the music previously or currently seen in the uk top 40 charts. She always carries around her ipod, which contains around 4000 songs. In the rest of her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends, going shopping, going out for meals, attending parties and having some time to spend with family. She uses facebook and twitter and follows many of the artists she enjoys listening on twitter to keep up with what they've been doing etc. She is interested in fashion, shopping at a wide variety of shops and takes inspiration from Beyonce in her choice of clothes. She respects their sense of fashion rather than trying to copy it completely. She subscribes to Q magazine because it is the magazine which commonly features her favourite artists.
Georgia is the type of person I feel would fit perfectly into my target audience, she is young, fun, enjoys music, and enjoys reading about her favourite artists.
I also created a questionnaire for people to fill out about the ideas for a magazine, I chose people like Georgia to fill it out because they were already my idea of a target audience, I got inspiration from their ideas, such as which artists to have mentioned in it, and what kind of music genre to have my magazine based around.
Georgia is a 17 year old girl from Leicestershire, who is in her first year of A-levels studying: Economics, French, Media and English language. She is quite a girly-girl and what people would expect to see from a 17 year old girl. She enjoys listening to artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Emeli Sande. She likes to follow music magazines and enjoys going to concerts and music festivals. This year she is attending Glastonbury and T in the park, because she enjoys the live music atmosphere and likes the line up for these festivals. Most of the music on her itunes is the music previously or currently seen in the uk top 40 charts. She always carries around her ipod, which contains around 4000 songs. In the rest of her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends, going shopping, going out for meals, attending parties and having some time to spend with family. She uses facebook and twitter and follows many of the artists she enjoys listening on twitter to keep up with what they've been doing etc. She is interested in fashion, shopping at a wide variety of shops and takes inspiration from Beyonce in her choice of clothes. She respects their sense of fashion rather than trying to copy it completely. She subscribes to Q magazine because it is the magazine which commonly features her favourite artists. I also created a questionnaire for people to fill out about the ideas for a magazine, I chose people like Georgia to fill it out because they were already my idea of a target audience, I got inspiration from their ideas, such as which artists to have mentioned in it, and what kind of music genre to have my magazine based around.
Final evaluation activity 1
1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the research stage of the product, we had to develop our ideas from looking at existing magazines and past students magazines which they had created. The most successful or well graded magazines were the ones with the conventions that I followed to create my magazine, the succesful magazines are a good example to follow because they are created by professional magazine editors who know exactly what their target audience looks for in a magazine. The golden spiral concept suggests that magazines are created to draw your eyes to the most aesthetically pleasing part of the page. Some magazines will challenge these conventions, but only if they know it will appeal to their target audience and still be successful. Other conventions rely on the rule of three: The way the page is divided portrait and landscape, the colour scheme, and the different fonts used. The masthead will always go across the top of the page, starting from either the center or the left side of the page.
The size of the magazine depends on whether it is a monthly or a weekly magazine, most monthly magazines have an average of 70-100 pages whereas a weekly magazine would have a much smaller number of around 30-40 pages. Other conventions such as colour relies on factors such as the genre of the magazine and the target audience, male or female etc.
When it came to designing the magazine, I made sure I took these conventions into account because they have proved to make the magazines pleasing to their target audience. I took a lot of interest from Q magazine because it was the magazine which stood out most to me and interested me most. This is because I would be included in their target audience range, of which I had a similar target audience for my magazine. My masthead is conventional to other magazines as it is the largest text on the page, it is also conventional to Q magazine as it follows the large white text on a red background, I followed Q magazines idea for the masthead because the contrast of colours and large text makes it stand out and it's eyecatching. It is placed along the whole of the top of the magazine, which again follows the convention. My choice of title reflects the magazine, which is a convention used by NME, which is an abreviation for a longer topic reflected title.
The graphology of the pages is something I strongly took inspiration for from successful magazines such as Q magazine. This is because these magazines have been edited and tested to find the most appealing layout to the reader which will be pleasing to look at and easy to read. So following the layout of a successful magazine will ensure that the layout of my magazine will work successfully. I think the layout is particularly effective on the front cover, I mainly took inspiration from Q magazine which tended to have not too much information on the cover, but enough to make people intrigued about the magazine and I put similar phrases/text ideas on my cover to Q magazine. The layout consisted of a large masthead, following the white text on a red background idea from Q magazine, a large close up shot, with text going across the person with enough text to get people interested. I then had cover lines at the edge of the page on each side which is another thing Q magazine has on their front cover, I chose the text for these to relate to articles that readers would be interested in because they follow the current gossip.
Photographs are another key part of the magazine, although it is difficult to match the standard of photographs on successful magazines because they have been taken by a professional photographer and the model of the image has also been styled in a certain way by professional stylists. When I chose my model I already had some criteria I had previously decided, for example I wanted a blonde girl who was naturally pretty so not much makeup was needed to make the red lipstick stand out the most. I wanted the hair to be medium to long lengthed hair so that there would be some natural flow in her hair if I decided at any time to do a photo representing movement of some sort. The clothing and styling of the model was a key part, the clothes had to match the colour scheme of the magazine, for this reason I chose a black and white polka dot dress, as black was a main part of my colour scheme and all my backgrounds were to be white. I wanted darker clothing to make the hair and face stand out the most. I kept the makeup fairly simple, although I wanted the eyes quite dark and the lips really red, this was to match the colour scheme of black and red. I found that most magazines don't include any instruments in their photo shoot, so for this reason in my photo shoot I purely used my model on her own. I tried to adeer to the code of the golden spiral because that's the most prominant place that someone would look at when looking at the magazine.
During the research stage of the product, we had to develop our ideas from looking at existing magazines and past students magazines which they had created. The most successful or well graded magazines were the ones with the conventions that I followed to create my magazine, the succesful magazines are a good example to follow because they are created by professional magazine editors who know exactly what their target audience looks for in a magazine. The golden spiral concept suggests that magazines are created to draw your eyes to the most aesthetically pleasing part of the page. Some magazines will challenge these conventions, but only if they know it will appeal to their target audience and still be successful. Other conventions rely on the rule of three: The way the page is divided portrait and landscape, the colour scheme, and the different fonts used. The masthead will always go across the top of the page, starting from either the center or the left side of the page.
The size of the magazine depends on whether it is a monthly or a weekly magazine, most monthly magazines have an average of 70-100 pages whereas a weekly magazine would have a much smaller number of around 30-40 pages. Other conventions such as colour relies on factors such as the genre of the magazine and the target audience, male or female etc.
When it came to designing the magazine, I made sure I took these conventions into account because they have proved to make the magazines pleasing to their target audience. I took a lot of interest from Q magazine because it was the magazine which stood out most to me and interested me most. This is because I would be included in their target audience range, of which I had a similar target audience for my magazine. My masthead is conventional to other magazines as it is the largest text on the page, it is also conventional to Q magazine as it follows the large white text on a red background, I followed Q magazines idea for the masthead because the contrast of colours and large text makes it stand out and it's eyecatching. It is placed along the whole of the top of the magazine, which again follows the convention. My choice of title reflects the magazine, which is a convention used by NME, which is an abreviation for a longer topic reflected title.
Photographs are another key part of the magazine, although it is difficult to match the standard of photographs on successful magazines because they have been taken by a professional photographer and the model of the image has also been styled in a certain way by professional stylists. When I chose my model I already had some criteria I had previously decided, for example I wanted a blonde girl who was naturally pretty so not much makeup was needed to make the red lipstick stand out the most. I wanted the hair to be medium to long lengthed hair so that there would be some natural flow in her hair if I decided at any time to do a photo representing movement of some sort. The clothing and styling of the model was a key part, the clothes had to match the colour scheme of the magazine, for this reason I chose a black and white polka dot dress, as black was a main part of my colour scheme and all my backgrounds were to be white. I wanted darker clothing to make the hair and face stand out the most. I kept the makeup fairly simple, although I wanted the eyes quite dark and the lips really red, this was to match the colour scheme of black and red. I found that most magazines don't include any instruments in their photo shoot, so for this reason in my photo shoot I purely used my model on her own. I tried to adeer to the code of the golden spiral because that's the most prominant place that someone would look at when looking at the magazine.
I took over 100 photos and narrowed them down to the photos which the model looked to be most comfortable, as I thought it an important convention that the model should look comfortable in their poses. I then chose from the images which matched my style of magazine best and chose from different angles and different lenghts of shots.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Updated final copies
We were given a new extended deadline to make improvements to our magazines which had been suggested to us, I would have liked to make 3 smaller columns on the double page spread, with smaller writing but I had many complications with the computer, I slightly changed the layout for the contents page and used a different picture, on the front cover, I only did small tweeks such as making the banner, bar code and issue/date smaller.
Friday, 23 March 2012
Evaluation task 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During my preliminary task, it was mainly figuring out how to use photoshop, and styling a magazine basing on what I thought a magazine would look like. My preliminary task had a lack of colour and didn't stand out enough, also the layouts weren't what would be expected from a successful magazine. During the process of research inbetween the preliminary task and the full product, all the research enabled me to really get to grips with how a successful magazine looks and works. I took a lot of inspiration from Q magazine, and really looked at how they styled their magazines. From doing this research I got a better idea of how to set out my layout on all 3 of my pages, and an idea for what the text should say. I also got inspiration about how to style my model, looking at many magazines and looking at what colours their models were wearing and which colours really worked well. I took inspiration from a wide variety of magazines to help come up with my final colour scheme, I looked at how certain colours worked well together, and what sort of model should be used against certain colour schemes. In the end I decided to go with a colour scheme which I saw on a Q magazine front cover, this magazine was mainly white black and red, but had very small amounts of a light aqua blue which just added the extra bit of colour but didn't make the page look tacky or too overloaded.
During my preliminary task, it was mainly figuring out how to use photoshop, and styling a magazine basing on what I thought a magazine would look like. My preliminary task had a lack of colour and didn't stand out enough, also the layouts weren't what would be expected from a successful magazine. During the process of research inbetween the preliminary task and the full product, all the research enabled me to really get to grips with how a successful magazine looks and works. I took a lot of inspiration from Q magazine, and really looked at how they styled their magazines. From doing this research I got a better idea of how to set out my layout on all 3 of my pages, and an idea for what the text should say. I also got inspiration about how to style my model, looking at many magazines and looking at what colours their models were wearing and which colours really worked well. I took inspiration from a wide variety of magazines to help come up with my final colour scheme, I looked at how certain colours worked well together, and what sort of model should be used against certain colour schemes. In the end I decided to go with a colour scheme which I saw on a Q magazine front cover, this magazine was mainly white black and red, but had very small amounts of a light aqua blue which just added the extra bit of colour but didn't make the page look tacky or too overloaded.
My knowledge and understanding of how magazines work has drastically improved, and I believe this is shown in the drastic change from my preliminary task and my full product.
Evaluation task 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Computer:
I used the computers at school to create my magazine, and to do the research required before creating my magazine.
Photoshop:
I used photoshop to create my front cover, contents page and double page spread. This enabled me to edit the photos, and add text all in several different layers so it was easy to move around each bit of text without messing up the rest of the page.
Samsung camera:
I used my own camera to take all the photographs used in my magazine, I think the camera produced some alright quality pictures considering it's not of the standard that would normally be used for taking pictures to be used on professional magazines.
Microsoft word:
I used microsoft word in some of my research, like annotation of magazine pages, and I used it to write up my interview so that I could keep a check on the spelling and word count.
Scribd:
I used this to publish word documents so that I could then embed them onto my blog.
Animoto:
I used animoto to create my pitch, as it was the best technology for creating a movie like pitch which could include music and be detailed without too many words.
Facebook:
Before I decided on which pictures to use, I posted them onto facebook to get opinions from other people.
Internet:
I used the internet during nearly all of my research, to find inspiration and to post my work onto my blog.
Computer:
I used the computers at school to create my magazine, and to do the research required before creating my magazine.
Photoshop:
I used photoshop to create my front cover, contents page and double page spread. This enabled me to edit the photos, and add text all in several different layers so it was easy to move around each bit of text without messing up the rest of the page.
Samsung camera:
I used my own camera to take all the photographs used in my magazine, I think the camera produced some alright quality pictures considering it's not of the standard that would normally be used for taking pictures to be used on professional magazines.
Microsoft word:
I used microsoft word in some of my research, like annotation of magazine pages, and I used it to write up my interview so that I could keep a check on the spelling and word count.
Scribd:
I used this to publish word documents so that I could then embed them onto my blog.
Animoto:
I used animoto to create my pitch, as it was the best technology for creating a movie like pitch which could include music and be detailed without too many words.
Facebook:
Before I decided on which pictures to use, I posted them onto facebook to get opinions from other people.
Internet:
I used the internet during nearly all of my research, to find inspiration and to post my work onto my blog.
Evaluation task 5
How did you attract or address your audience?
My target audience is for teenagers and young adults, so I needed to design my magazine in a way which would attract this age group. The magazine was mainly aimed towards women, although no womanly colours such as pink were used so that it could also appeal to male audience. Because the majority of my audience would be women, I used a female model for the front cover who is of similar age to the target audience. I considered her as someone who would appeal to the female population, someone nice to look at without looking 'fake', a natural pose so it wouldn't put off the female readers and nice long blonde hair for the innocence look. I mentioned big artists/groups on the front cover which are well known for being liked by the female population in the UK. The contents is designed for my audience because it contains pages with mainstream artists/groups which they would be interested in, there is also 2 images to make the page look more interesting and for them to see which artists are featured most in the magazine.
The language I have used in my interview for the double page spread would appeal to my audience because it is a relaxed tone, seeming more like a normal conversation rather than a formal interview. I feel this would match my target audience more because formal language and a formal interview would bore them more than a casual flowing conversation styled interview. The quotes that I pulled out of the interview and put into large are the quotes I felt would appeal to the target audience the most, and show the new artists in a good light to this audience, so therefore keeping the audience interested and getting the artist a new wider fan base. The interview represents the artist in a positive light, which will make the audience want to buy the magazine whenever she's featured in it again. Overall, I think I have done a variety of things to attract the target audience that I chose for my magazine.
My target audience is for teenagers and young adults, so I needed to design my magazine in a way which would attract this age group. The magazine was mainly aimed towards women, although no womanly colours such as pink were used so that it could also appeal to male audience. Because the majority of my audience would be women, I used a female model for the front cover who is of similar age to the target audience. I considered her as someone who would appeal to the female population, someone nice to look at without looking 'fake', a natural pose so it wouldn't put off the female readers and nice long blonde hair for the innocence look. I mentioned big artists/groups on the front cover which are well known for being liked by the female population in the UK. The contents is designed for my audience because it contains pages with mainstream artists/groups which they would be interested in, there is also 2 images to make the page look more interesting and for them to see which artists are featured most in the magazine. The language I have used in my interview for the double page spread would appeal to my audience because it is a relaxed tone, seeming more like a normal conversation rather than a formal interview. I feel this would match my target audience more because formal language and a formal interview would bore them more than a casual flowing conversation styled interview. The quotes that I pulled out of the interview and put into large are the quotes I felt would appeal to the target audience the most, and show the new artists in a good light to this audience, so therefore keeping the audience interested and getting the artist a new wider fan base. The interview represents the artist in a positive light, which will make the audience want to buy the magazine whenever she's featured in it again. Overall, I think I have done a variety of things to attract the target audience that I chose for my magazine.Evaluation task 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Georgia is a 17 year old girl from Leicestershire, who is in her first year of A-levels studying: Economics, French, Media and English language. She is quite a girly-girl and what people would expect to see from a 17 year old girl. She enjoys listening to artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Emeli Sande. She likes to follow music magazines and enjoys going to concerts and music festivals. This year she is attending Glastonbury and T in the park, because she enjoys the live music atmosphere and likes the line up for these festivals. Most of the music on her itunes is the music previously or currently seen in the uk top 40 charts. She always carries around her ipod, which contains around 4000 songs. In the rest of her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends, going shopping, going out for meals, attending parties and having some time to spend with family. She uses facebook and twitter and follows many of the artists she enjoys listening on twitter to keep up with what they've been doing etc. She is interested in fashion, shopping at a wide variety of shops and takes inspiration from Beyonce in her choice of clothes. She respects their sense of fashion rather than trying to copy it completely. She subscribes to Q magazine because it is the magazine which commonly features her favourite artists.
Georgia is the type of person I feel would fit perfectly into my target audience, she is young, fun, enjoys music, and enjoys reading about her favourite artists.
Georgia is a 17 year old girl from Leicestershire, who is in her first year of A-levels studying: Economics, French, Media and English language. She is quite a girly-girl and what people would expect to see from a 17 year old girl. She enjoys listening to artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Emeli Sande. She likes to follow music magazines and enjoys going to concerts and music festivals. This year she is attending Glastonbury and T in the park, because she enjoys the live music atmosphere and likes the line up for these festivals. Most of the music on her itunes is the music previously or currently seen in the uk top 40 charts. She always carries around her ipod, which contains around 4000 songs. In the rest of her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends, going shopping, going out for meals, attending parties and having some time to spend with family. She uses facebook and twitter and follows many of the artists she enjoys listening on twitter to keep up with what they've been doing etc. She is interested in fashion, shopping at a wide variety of shops and takes inspiration from Beyonce in her choice of clothes. She respects their sense of fashion rather than trying to copy it completely. She subscribes to Q magazine because it is the magazine which commonly features her favourite artists. Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Evaluation task 3
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think the kind of media institution that would distribute my media product would be an institution like Bauer media group, because this is the company which publishes Q magazine. I think this because I feel that Q magazine is targeting the most similar target audience as my product.
I could distribute the magazine in many ways, including postage to subscribers and selling on shop shelves. I could also publish the magazine online as using the internet and smart phones has become increasingly more popular over the past few years and is still a growing trend.
Of the three types of circulation I think paid circulation would be the type I'd choose for my magazine because this is what the majority of other music magazines do.
I could distribute the magazine in many ways, including postage to subscribers and selling on shop shelves. I could also publish the magazine online as using the internet and smart phones has become increasingly more popular over the past few years and is still a growing trend.
Of the three types of circulation I think paid circulation would be the type I'd choose for my magazine because this is what the majority of other music magazines do.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Evaluation task 2
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My product represents the social group that would be called 'mainstream' and I have designed my magazine to suit this social group. The style of my magazine is similar to Q magazine because Q magazine regularly includes a lot of mainstream music and artists. The red black and white with a small bit of blue colour scheme represents the genre I have chosen as these colours are also quite 'normal' to use for magazines and therefore mix in well. I chose my cover artist to look similar to those in mainstream music, she has the similar look to pixie lott when she was a new artist with the long blonde hair. I followed the image idea of Adele on the front of Q magazine, with a turned face and a close up shot. I feel this makes people focus in more on the facial expressions, for this reason the image is more suited to woman viewers and men tend to like a full body image. Her clothes are dark which is something I picked up on when viewing mainstream artists on the front cover of magazines, it also matches the colour scheme, which helps to blend in the outfit and make the face of my model stand out. I feel that mainstream music wouldn't be represented well by someone with messy black hair and very heavy eye makeup with dark lips as this would put most 'mainstream' listeners off buying the magazine, they expect someone looking nice with well done hair and perfect makeup.
My product represents the social group that would be called 'mainstream' and I have designed my magazine to suit this social group. The style of my magazine is similar to Q magazine because Q magazine regularly includes a lot of mainstream music and artists. The red black and white with a small bit of blue colour scheme represents the genre I have chosen as these colours are also quite 'normal' to use for magazines and therefore mix in well. I chose my cover artist to look similar to those in mainstream music, she has the similar look to pixie lott when she was a new artist with the long blonde hair. I followed the image idea of Adele on the front of Q magazine, with a turned face and a close up shot. I feel this makes people focus in more on the facial expressions, for this reason the image is more suited to woman viewers and men tend to like a full body image. Her clothes are dark which is something I picked up on when viewing mainstream artists on the front cover of magazines, it also matches the colour scheme, which helps to blend in the outfit and make the face of my model stand out. I feel that mainstream music wouldn't be represented well by someone with messy black hair and very heavy eye makeup with dark lips as this would put most 'mainstream' listeners off buying the magazine, they expect someone looking nice with well done hair and perfect makeup. Evaluation Activity 1
1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the research stage of the product, we had to develop our ideas from looking at existing magazines and past students magazines which they had created. The most successful or well graded magazines were the ones with the conventions that I followed to create my magazine, the succesful magazines are a good example to follow because they are created by professional magazine editors who know exactly what their target audience looks for in a magazine. The golden spiral concept suggests that magazines are created to draw your eyes to the most aesthetically pleasing part of the page. Some magazines will challenge these conventions, but only if they know it will appeal to their target audience and still be successful. Other conventions rely on the rule of three: The way the page is divided portrait and landscape, the colour scheme, and the different fonts used. The masthead will always go across the top of the page, starting from either the center or the left side of the page.
The size of the magazine depends on whether it is a monthly or a weekly magazine, most monthly magazines have an average of 70-100 pages whereas a weekly magazine would have a much smaller number of around 30-40 pages. Other conventions such as colour relies on factors such as the genre of the magazine and the target audience, male or female etc.
When it came to designing the magazine, I made sure I took these conventions into account because they have proved to make the magazines pleasing to their target audience. I took a lot of interest from Q magazine because it was the magazine which stood out most to me and interested me most. This is because I would be included in their target audience range, of which I had a similar target audience for my magazine. My masthead is conventional to other magazines as it is the largest text on the page, it is also conventional to Q magazine as it follows the large white text on a red background, I followed Q magazines idea for the masthead because the contrast of colours and large text makes it stand out and it's eyecatching. It is placed along the whole of the top of the magazine, which again follows the convention. My choice of title reflects the magazine, which is a convention used by NME, which is an abreviation for a longer topic reflected title.
The grapology of the pages is something I strongly took inspiration for from successful magazines such as Q magazine. This is because these magazines have been edited and tested to find the most appealing layout to the reader which will be pleasing to look at and easy to read. So following the layout of a successful magazine will ensure that the layout of my magazine will work successfully. I think the layout is particularly effective on the front cover, I mainly took inspiration from Q magazine which tended to have not too much information on the cover, but enough to make people intrigued about the magazine and I put similar phrases/text ideas on my cover to Q magazine. The layout consisted of a large masthead, following the white text on a red background idea from Q magazine, a large close up shot, with text going across the person with enough text to get people interested. I then had smaller bits of text at the edge of the page on each side which is another thing Q magazine has on their front cover.
Photographs are another key part of the magazine, although it is difficult to match the standard of photographs on successful magazines because they have been taken by a professional photographer and the model of the image has also been styled in a certain way by professional stylists. When I chose my model I already had some criteria I had previously decided, for example I wanted a blonde girl who was naturally pretty so not much makeup was needed to make the red lipstick stand out the most. I wanted the hair to be medium to long lengthed hair so that there would be some natural flow in her hair if I decided at any time to do a photo representing movement of some sort. The clothing and styling of the model was a key part, the clothes had to match the colour scheme of the magazine, for this reason I chose a black and white polka dot dress, as black was a main part of my colour scheme and all my backgrounds were to be white. I wanted darker clothing to make the hair and face stand out the most. I kept the makeup fairly simple, although I wanted the eyes quite dark and the lips really red, this was to match the colour scheme of black and red. I found that most magazines don't include any instruments in their photo shoot, so for this reason in my photo shoot I purely used my model on her own.
I took over 100 photos and narrowed them down to the photos which the model looked to be most comfortable, as I thought it an important convention that the model should look comfortable in their poses. I then chose from the images which matched my style of magazine best and chose from different angles and different lenghts of shots.
During the research stage of the product, we had to develop our ideas from looking at existing magazines and past students magazines which they had created. The most successful or well graded magazines were the ones with the conventions that I followed to create my magazine, the succesful magazines are a good example to follow because they are created by professional magazine editors who know exactly what their target audience looks for in a magazine. The golden spiral concept suggests that magazines are created to draw your eyes to the most aesthetically pleasing part of the page. Some magazines will challenge these conventions, but only if they know it will appeal to their target audience and still be successful. Other conventions rely on the rule of three: The way the page is divided portrait and landscape, the colour scheme, and the different fonts used. The masthead will always go across the top of the page, starting from either the center or the left side of the page.
The size of the magazine depends on whether it is a monthly or a weekly magazine, most monthly magazines have an average of 70-100 pages whereas a weekly magazine would have a much smaller number of around 30-40 pages. Other conventions such as colour relies on factors such as the genre of the magazine and the target audience, male or female etc.
When it came to designing the magazine, I made sure I took these conventions into account because they have proved to make the magazines pleasing to their target audience. I took a lot of interest from Q magazine because it was the magazine which stood out most to me and interested me most. This is because I would be included in their target audience range, of which I had a similar target audience for my magazine. My masthead is conventional to other magazines as it is the largest text on the page, it is also conventional to Q magazine as it follows the large white text on a red background, I followed Q magazines idea for the masthead because the contrast of colours and large text makes it stand out and it's eyecatching. It is placed along the whole of the top of the magazine, which again follows the convention. My choice of title reflects the magazine, which is a convention used by NME, which is an abreviation for a longer topic reflected title.
Photographs are another key part of the magazine, although it is difficult to match the standard of photographs on successful magazines because they have been taken by a professional photographer and the model of the image has also been styled in a certain way by professional stylists. When I chose my model I already had some criteria I had previously decided, for example I wanted a blonde girl who was naturally pretty so not much makeup was needed to make the red lipstick stand out the most. I wanted the hair to be medium to long lengthed hair so that there would be some natural flow in her hair if I decided at any time to do a photo representing movement of some sort. The clothing and styling of the model was a key part, the clothes had to match the colour scheme of the magazine, for this reason I chose a black and white polka dot dress, as black was a main part of my colour scheme and all my backgrounds were to be white. I wanted darker clothing to make the hair and face stand out the most. I kept the makeup fairly simple, although I wanted the eyes quite dark and the lips really red, this was to match the colour scheme of black and red. I found that most magazines don't include any instruments in their photo shoot, so for this reason in my photo shoot I purely used my model on her own.
I took over 100 photos and narrowed them down to the photos which the model looked to be most comfortable, as I thought it an important convention that the model should look comfortable in their poses. I then chose from the images which matched my style of magazine best and chose from different angles and different lenghts of shots.
Friday, 9 March 2012
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Front cover image ideas
I would use a dark or light top so the shoulders which will just be visible will stand out against the white background or blend into it nicely to make the face stand out more.
The pose I get my model to use will depend on which pose suits them best and which pose they look the most comfortable in, but will also fit onto the cover of my magazine nicely.
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