Evaluation- Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I can see a great improvement, the photography is more advanced and looks a lot better; this might be due to the fact I have progressed in my AS Photography lessons. My Photoshop skills have improved a lot and if I were to do my college magazine again I would change the edit slightly as I think the filter could be dialled down slightly or maybe I would use a different one. The fonts and synergy are more fitting to the genre of the magazine and I think looks more professional than my college magazine.

Here is my college magazine cover and my music magazine front cover, if I was in a shop I know which one I would pick up and that would be my music magazine, it looks a lot more professional and catches your eye more than my college magazine which just looks amateur. More Photoshop skills were used for my preliminary task as I had to add a filter, crop the subject and insert it onto InDesign, with my music magazine I used my photo that I edited originally and all I did was adjust the levels and brightness and contrast. This shows that my photography skills have improved a lot and I didn’t need the aid of Photoshop as much as I did before. I think the content on my music magazine has developed and more like something I would read in a real music magazine, my college magazine has some good text but I think you can see a development.

My InDesign skill have improved a lot, the fonts, colours and layout are a lot more appropriate and goes well with the genre compared to my college magazine. Even though my music magazine is in black and white, I think that those colours look more professional and better suited for a music magazine whereas the colours on my college magazine are too bold and not subtle or clever. I added a lot more details in InDesign that an average person might not even notice and with my college magazine I didn’t which shows that my thought process has become more in depth and because I have learnt more about InDesign I think about all the little things I need to add.

Overall I think you can see a great improvement from my preliminary task to my music magazine, the biggest is that my music magazine looks a lot more professional and I am really pleased with the outcome, I am glad I did my college magazine how I did cause it helped me learn and get the outcome I wanted for my music magazine. My music magazine looks like a new magazine and is similar to NME, it represents teenagers in a positive way, it would be produced by IPC Media and has a young specific audience and I have enjoyed doing it and learning new skills along the way.

Evaluation- Question 6

This is the sixth question for my evaluation

Evaluation- Question 4 and 5

Evaluation- Question 3

This is question 3 for my evaluation.

Evaluation- Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine represents young teenagers, both boys and girls in a positive way. It does this by showing a teenage boy playing the guitar rather than doing something more stereotypical or in a negative way, going out getting drunk and smoking. Girls are shown to be strong with piercing eye contact and still be girly by holding a necklace; this is apparent in the front cover of my magazine and in my double page spread.

My double page spread has a stereotypical representation of a musical teenage boy, who loves playing the guitar and writing songs, this is a positive representation compared to what teenage boys can be shown as. The only clothing you can see is him wearing a hoody that can signify violence and bad behaviour but the hood is covered showing he doesn’t act like that. The boy has an Afro, which can make him seem sensible, and kind, which is another positive representation. The main image is of the boy looking at his guitar, which shows his dedication and passion for music, which is inspiring for the audience and will make them, want to read the interview. The three photos on the left side of the page also show a positive side to him, one photo is similar to the main image and is of him looking at his guitar, another is of the guitar which shows his love for it, and the third one is of him smiling showing a happy side and lightens the mood of the page. The main colours are blue and grey which together look quite modern but also shown as gloomy, the photos are all in black and white though so the audience will be able to see past that.

My contents page has a few different photos on it, one of them is of my double page spread promoting it, one is of a girl dressed quite fashionable, one of the boy from the double page spread suggesting he is important within this issue of the magazine, one of the girl on the front cover of the magazine also showing she is important within this issue and one of four girls; all dressed casual and similar. None of these photos are showing a negative side of teenagers, there is dominance in girls on my contents page attracting the female audience but also attracting the male as they all look nice. Most of the photos have direct address making a connection with the viewer and also shows that they have a passion for what they do which is play music. None of the photos are of the artists smiling which can make them seem moody which is a negative representation but I think they look determined and strong which is positive. Red and grey are the main colours, which are a good contrast; red can be seen as a passionate colour which shows passion once again.

My front cover I think shows a positive representation of teenage girls to the audience, there is one photo and it is of a teenage girl and she has piercing eye contact which again is drawing the audience to the magazine and doesn’t show a stereotypical ‘lazy’ teenager. She is holding a necklace with a butterfly pendant which suggests she is still a kid at heart which makes her more relatable, it also shows that she is into girly things which is hard to tell with the photo being in black and white. Her clothes are quite casual and boyish which contrasts with the girly necklace and shows she is not all about what she looks and how she dresses, it’s her music and style which is important which shows a positive representation of teenage girls.

I think my music magazine shows teenage boys and girls in positive ways, it shows their passion for music and not the stereotypically aggressive teenagers the older generation seem to think we all are. Clearly my magazine is aimed at teenagers so it would be pointless to show them in a negative way. Music magazines generally show a positive side to teenagers compared to others like gossip magazines, my magazine as well as most music magazines really highlights the passion which is positive and makes the target audience want to read it.

Evaluation- Question 1

Final front cover

This is my final front cover, I have moved a few things around, added a thicker stroke on the image of John Gould and have added some text on the left which links with my contents page, I am pleased with the result and I am glad I chose to use this image and keep it in black and white. NME magazine was my main inspiration for this, I have seen old issues of the magazine which are in black and white and thought it looked nice which was one of many reasons I chose to use black and white as well as others. I am really pleased with my front cover and think it goes well with the rest of my magazine.

Front cover- progress

Here is my front cover in work and progress, I have added more text advertising my double page spread which I also did on my contents page showing that it is a highlight and links all three together so no one will think they're not meant to be in the same magazine. I have added a barcode in the bottom left corner, I have added the issue number, month and price in the top right corner which is all needed on a front cover and makes it more realistic. I have added more strokes to my text to make them more bold and on the main headline I have changed the size of some of the words for more emphasis on the key words, I have put the word 'from' at a slant as it looks more interesting and gives the magazine more attitude I feel. I have changed some of the fonts so they are more interesting but also fitting for my genre and suits the rest of my magazine. The main colours on my front cover are black and white as I feel there is more synergy with my double page spread but I didn't want my contents page to be black and white because otherwise the magazine would not be eye catching enough I feel. I think having the main colours as black and white makes the cover stand out as most front covers are in colour and even though I had my doubts I think it is a good desicion.

Flatplan

Here is my flatplans for my double page spread, contents page and front cover.

I did these before I created any of my magazine and you can tell that I have used it as a guide line but have devloped on them and I think made them better.

Front cover- Starting off

This is the image I have decided to use for my front cover, it is using direct address which I think works nicely in connecting with the audience but the only problem is that it is in black and white so if I cannot crop her out and put her on a different background if I wanted to.

Here is my front cover, I have started to experiment with fonts and I am not quite sure I like the font used for my headline. I am also not quite sure on the photo for the front cover, I think there is synergy using a black and white image because my double page spread is black and white but I was hoping to use a photo in colour for my front cover, so I am not sure if I am going to keep it or not. I have put the title of the magazine at the top with a tagline saying ' The alternative rock magazine of the year' which makes it more realisitic and gives it critical acclaim which will impress the audience.

Contents page- final

Here is my final contents page, I added an extra photo and added more page numbers and titles to the right hand side as I felt there wasn't enough before and it shows that there is more in the magazine. I changed the 'R' on Rosie Kelly's name to a different font and colour as I think it looks nice for an artist to have something different on their name and it makes her stand out and look more realistic. I changed the words 'TheBeat' to the same font and used that font for the page numbers for more synergy. I am pleased with the outcome and after a few trials and errors finally got the outcome I wanted. I think this contents page goes well with my double page spread and the main colour on the background is grey which is the same as my double page spread but my contents page has more colour which is good because it makes the magazine come to life more and it will be the first thing people will see after the front cover. I can now start creating my front cover.

Contents page- Progress

Here is the development to my contents page, I decided to use a completely different design as I was not happy with my other one. I took a photo of a base guitar and then edited it on Photoshop by adding a filter, I then placed it on my contents page as the background. I then changed the font of the word 'Contents' as I felt the other font was a bit ammetuer. I then put the text on the page; adding an interesting font and changed the colour to black with a white swatch. I then placed images I have already taken and put them on my page and rotated them to suit how I wanted which links with my double page spread as I did the same thing. I then placed an image of my double page spread in the bottom right hand corner and put 'John Gould Interview' next to it to show that it is a highlight of the magazine and links the two.

Here I have decided to use a different filter on the background as I think this one looks more modern and bold and better suited to the genre of my magazine. I added page numbers to the photos and added a date in the top left hand corner. I also added information on subscribing to the magazine on the top right hand corner.

Contents page- Ideas

This was an idea for a contents page background, I thought it was a bit weird and people agreed with me so I decided to not go with this idea. To make this I cropped around a photo of the girl in Photoshop and then copy and pasted her into InDesign, I didn't want to get this outcome and it was an accident but when I saw the page it stood out to me so I asked people and they all agreed it is weird so I am not going to use it but now I know I want something a lot more mature.

This was another idea for my contents page, to get the background colour I used the injector to get the colour of the ring and painted over a photo using Photoshop and used a filter to get this effect. For the photo in the top right corner I used the injector to get the colour of her top and painted around the girl and then inserted it into in design, I then used an outer glow, satin and shadow. For the font I used is called 'Xenophone' and I used a red swatch on the outside. I like this contents page but I feel it could be improved as at the moment it doesn't look like a contents page from a music magazine and looks to girly which is not what I want and would not go with my double page spread at all.

Double Page Spread final edit

This is my double page spread after I changed the font, I added a text box over the columns and made it grey, I then changed the opacity so it was really faint but still visible so the writing will be visible over it. I then changed the font colour to black, I think the colour of the font on the text box look really effective and goes with the photo and creates a nice and effective style to the page.

Here I made some more changes, I changed the blue outline of the text above the main text to a higher opacity as I didn't like the other blue I had. I added 3 photos on the left page to make the page seem more interesting and to show a happier side to the artists personality as people might percieve the facial expression on the main photo as sad or dull, but I think he looks like he is concentrating on playing the base. 

I added the magazines name at the end of the main text so people know the name and I replaced 'Continues on next page'. I added page numbers on the top left and top right corner in the same font as the magazine name.

Here is some fonts that I experimented with to use for the name of the magazine 'TheBase' I chose this name because the photo is of the artist playing the base.

TheBase

TheBase

TheBase

TheBase

TheBase

TheBase

I chose the 4th font because I felt it was quite modern and not too flashy as music magazines are not very fancy, I think it goes well with the style of music my magazine is which is alternative rock.

After making a few adjustments like making the writing in the text box not to the edge, making the photos on the left page bigger, and making the page numbers smaller, this is my final double page spread. I am pleased with the result and I think choosing the boy double page spread was the right thing to do, putting the photos on the left page made it look less serious which is what I wanted. Using a black and white photo meant there is not much colour on this page but I have read many double page spreads over the years that are completley black and white so I am not worried about that. I can now focus on my contents page.

Survey

I carried out a survey of 3 girls and 3 boys to ask which double page spread they liked the best, this was my result:

Paige Muir- Boy double page spread

Alfie Gould- Girl double page spread with a black background

Emily White- Boy double page spread

Isaac Jones- Boy double page spread

Ashleigh Kimber- Girl double page spread with a white background

Larry Marshal- Girl double page spread with a white background

Most people thought that the boy version was the best one so I am going to use that as my double page spread, I might change the font colour of the text as I feel it can be better and make more adjustments to make it as professional as possible. Choosing between a boy and girl double page spread proved difficult as they both give out different representations and messages, the boy one looks more serious and shows a musician wheras the girl one shows a happy carefree teenager so I was torn, doing this survery helped my desicion and I am pleased with the outcome either way.

Double Page Spread Girl Version

Here is the original for my double page spread girl version.

Here is my girl version of my double page spread, I decided to use a photo with a black background, I used the same fonts as the boy version but changed the colours to pink so they're more steretypicaly girly and I think the contrast looks nice with the black background. I am going to try the double page spread with a white background to see what looks best as black might suggest the wrong type of music genre.

Here is my original for my double page spread girl version with a white background.

Here is my double page spread with a white background, I decided to change the picture as I felt this picture worked better with the white background as it was a bit more light hearted. I like the girl version in low key lighting and a black background and I also like the boy version so I am going to ask people which one they think I should use.

Double Page Spread Boy Version

Here is the original photo for my double page spread

Here is my double page spread boy version, I decided to change the font as I felt the font I used before wasn't strong enough, I changed the text colour so it is more visible but I might have to change it again as it might be hard to read once printed out. I added a photo I have taken on the left page and decided to make the photo go across both pages, doing this made it hard to read the text so I had to copy the picture and crop it so it was the right side of the photo and change the opacity so it was fainter and easier to read the text.

Text for my double page spread

This is my text for my double page spread, it is about an artist called John Gould and I interviewed him on his 3rd album release.

Here is a version for a female artist called Rosie Gould with an interview about her 3rd album being released, I decided to do a boy and girl version as I am not sure whether to take photos of a boy or girl, and I was hoping this would help make my decision. I think I am going to test out both and see which looks better, I am going to experiment with different fonts and decide on a more suitable and professional lay out.

Double page spread draft

Today I made a draft for a double page spread for a magazine, to do this I clicked on layout and added an extra page, then I placed an image on the left hand side that went across the whole page, then I added a fairly big title for the article on the right hand side at the top, then I added an introduction before the main text, for the title and this text I changed the colour of both to dark blue and light blue to match the boy in the pictures shirt. I then added random text into 3 columns I inserted. I changed the font of my title and introduction to make the text more interesting.

I then inserted another photo onto the right page and placed it over the main text, I then clicked on window and text wrap so the writing went around the image.

I then clicked on paragraph and made the main text more neater, doing this I can know focus on creating my final double page spread now I know the basics.

Here is a preview during the process of making my draft.