This is my final product.

This is my front page

This is my contents page

This is my double page spread

This is my evaluation.

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

My magazine, both uses and challenges normal conventions of other magazines. Most of the components of my front cover are in keeping with the regular forms that you find on a magazine. These components are:

Banners - At the top of my front page I have a banner with a story that can be found inside as well as one at the bottom. This can be found on most magazines and is a way to edge the page and can also grab the reader’s attention. The banner sticks out because it contrasts with the dark background but still uses the colour scheme. The writing on the banner stands out because it is written in bold capital letters.

Main photo - In the middle of the page there is a medium close up of someone from the main feature. This is the same style of photo that can be found on most music magazine covers. His eyes look directly forward at the reader to catch their attention, the person behind also looks directly at the reader but this picture has been darkened so not as prominent as the main photo. They are both wearing dark blazers and the main person is only showing a hint of coloured clothing so it doesn’t draw attention away from his face.

Stories – The main story in this issue is the new drummer in fire escape and this headline has been put on the layer above the main photo in two different sized texts and two different colours. I decided to make the key words stand out by making them much larger and colour them white while the other text in the title is smaller and purple. I then stacked the writing to make a more bold statement. Now when a reader looks at the page he or she sees FIRE ESCAPE DRUMMER then at a closer glance sees the complete title. On the left hand side of the page there is a list of some of the stories that can be found inside each separated by a line which is a characteristic of most magazines, so when stacked on a shelf overlapping each other the stories will still be visible.

Pug – To advertise a poster which can be found inside I have used a pug which is located near the top of the page and overlaps the magazine title and part of the main photo to look like it has been stuck over everything post production. I made it bright yellow to stand out and tilted it slightly to make it more ‘sticker’ like.

Bar Code – In the bottom left hand corner is situated a bar code. I rotated it on its side so it was less visually imposing because it takes up less of the width of the page. I used other magazines to compare the size and I think this is the smallest I could have gotten away with. Above the bar code is where I decided to put the date and issue number as well as the English and American price of the magazine.

There are some components of my cover which challenge the usual conventions that we usually find in magazines. These are:

Magazine Title - Most magazines have logos or titles which stick out and drag the readers eye towards it. Mine is clearly visible however I decided not to make it too bold because I felt that I would need to change the colour and bright contrasting colours is not in keeping with the theme which I intended for my magazine so I put the logo text onto a lighter purple background which has a crumpled paper effect which is a theme seen throughout my magazine.

Photos - On my front cover there is only the main photos of 'Fire Escape' whereas on most magazines you can find various different photos dotted around the page. At first I had several photos but there was very little room for writing or anything else like a pug, bar code or the story headlines so I removed them and I think it was a good choice because the page looks OK without them and I prefer it not being so crowded.

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Similar to my front cover my contents uses and challenges conventions of real media products these are:

Sections - I have divided my contents page into two sections, 'Regulars' and 'This Week.' This is a common trait of magazines so people can easily find what they are looking for. If they wanted posters they know this will be in the regulars.

Photos - I have a picture on my contents with a caption underneath and a page number which is something that all magazines have however unlike other magazines I only have one picture as opposed to many different ones. I chose this because I wanted more room for writing and like the front page I didn't want it to be too overcrowded with photos.

Screenshot of Page - Accompanying the photo I have added a screenshot to the contents showing the reader what can the interview advertised on the front page will look like. This screenshot does not have a page number but is situated next to its place in the contents and the name 'Fire Escape' is clearly visible at the top of the screenshot.

Banner - At the bottom of my contents page there is a banner which is similar in colour to the two on the front page. This banner has the page number, the initials of the magazine TIM and the date. Some magazines include the email address and website of the magazine and some just have the page number. I decided to go for a suitable medium and choose the three which I thought were the most useful.

There is one part of my contents page which challenges usual conventions and this is,

Page Blurbs - Most magazines usually just have the page title in their contents however I have decided to add a small description under each heading in the 'Regulars' section just to give new readers some idea of what's what. However I didn't put explanations under the stories on 'This Week.' I am hoping the story headings are enough to draw the reader to a particular story. Example can be found on image used in 'Sections.'

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The forms and conventions that I have followed in my double page spread are:

Columns - When writing the articles I decided it would be best to stick with the columns because this helps break up the text and make it seem like there's less to read because of the shorter lines of text. I made sure all the columns were even with the Kerning tool which I talk about later on in my evaluation. However because of the shape of the background I was writing on which is the slanted crumpled piece of paper the area got too narrow to write in two columns so here I challenged the convention by making one wider column of text halfway down the page. However I still think it looks professional. I also decided that because a lot of the main interviews in magazines take up several pages my last sentence is only half finished and there is an arrow and a caption which tells the reader it continues on the next page. This is very common in all types of magazines.

Title across two pages - A common feature of double page spreads is a title of the band or the headline which spreads across two pages to attract maximum attention. My magazine does this, the title alone is not that eye catching but behind I have added different layers with the title in different shades of grey and different sized to cover a bigger area without imposing on the whole page too much. Only the purple part of the title overlaps the text section. The grey backing is overlapped by the paper effect text area. Although not visible in this picture the centrefold is about where the 'A' in 'escape' is.

Writing on one page - Many magazines have a double page spreads which are half covered by text and the other half is a large picture. To some extend I have done this because there is no main text on the opposite side of the centrefold however there is no definite straight line where the two pages meet but one side of the page is covered with text and the other has the two medium close ups of the band members. The two sections are visibly separated.

Other photos i.e album cover - Additional photos have been added to the double page spread to take up more space and give the reader something to look at whilst reading. One of the photos is to give the reader an insight into the life of the band with a caption which reads "dave and nick in their apartment listening to 'faces'" and below this image is an image of the album cover for "Faces" which helps promote the CD.

Words and Photos by - A small caption at the bottom of the page telling the reader the author of the article they just read and another caption at the side of the page informing them of the photographer. These are very discreet and do not impose upon the main image but is a common feature of magazines. Especially music magazines where image is important.

two.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group represented by my product, and the kind I would like to appeal to are young adults from the ages of 18 - 26 who are very passionate about music and really care about what the magazine is about rather than the pictures and what people are wearing. I have achieved this representation firstly by the dress code that has been adopted in the product. The dark jackets on colourful t-shirts suggests that even though they are young and willing to have fun they still want to take music seriously. The same feelings are conveyed through the expressions on their faces and their stance. The colour scheme used in the magazine remains the same on my cover, contents and double page spread and my product has a very strong yet simple house style which again shows that it's not all about everyone's individual image but the music.

three.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Click the pic

I would like ICP Media institution to distribute my product. The International Publishing Corporation is the institution behind some of Britain's most popular magazines like Marie Claire, Nuts and Ideal Home but the one that appealed to me the most was NME which is a music magazine with a very similar style to my own. IPC Media have quite an equal male/female audience with only a 6% more females. I think that this is good because I want my magazine to be both male and female friendly so I wanted to choose and institution that wasn't more well known for distributing magazines for one particular gender.

My magazine genre of Indie Rock is quite a popular one so it would be sold in a wide range of shops and supermarkets like Tesco and Asda rather than solely in music shops. Drug stores like Boots and Superdrug will also sell the magazine as well as stationary shops like WHSmith so when people are panicking 12 hours before they have to bring in a magazine to school to analyse they can rest assured that it will be sold in the first shop they try.

four.Who would be the audience for your media product?

To answer this question I would like to direct your attention to a previous post about the target audience for my magazine. Click here to open up this post in a new window. My target is mainly older teenagers/younger adults from the ages of 16 - 24. My magazine is not gender specific and can be enjoyed by anyone who likes this specific genre of music which is Indie Rock. However if someone who didn't really know what this style of music was like they wouldn't feel unwelcome to buy it.

five.How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my chosen target audience to my magazine I chose the colour purple which is a very popular colour so would attract attention straight away. This colour scheme is used throughout and the different shades of purple and black make the cover look more exciting and inviting from far away.

For the photos on and in my magazine I dressed and styled the artists in a similar way to my target audience so they could relate to the people in the magazines. For example the t-shirts, which were similar or in a similar style to those worn by the social group who would read my magazine and the messy hair which could portray someone as 'windswept and interesting.'

I addressed my audience by using language which wasn't too formal yet not too colloquial. Although there is no specific class aimed at by this magazine I can't see the people reading it getting frustrated at the lack of vocabulary. Also, my double page spread is an interview so it's in a spoken style rather than a written style which I think is more welcoming and is a good way to communicate information to this age group who just want to read the magazine for fun.

six.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the process of creating this product I have learnt several things about the technology I have used and I feel I've improved skills I already had involving photography and photo manipulation.

Initially, I had to take my original designs and turn them into the basic layout of my magazine. This is where I learnt to organise the layers of my pages in a way that was easy to edit with the use of merging layers together and later on creating vector layers for text enabling me to easily change any words at a later stage after I had moved it around.

A tool I learnt to use on Corel PaintShop Pro X2 during the making process was the kerning tool which meant I was able to adjust the spacing of the words in each individual line of text to make straight columns. This tool came in very handy throughout the process of making my double page spread.

To take photos for my magazine I borrowed a Nikon D40. Before this I had not had much experience with cameras which weren't compact digital cameras or disposable cameras. Just by using this camera I learnt a lot about photography like depth of field and aperture settings. However for this project I didn't really want anything more from this camera other than portrait shots of people which don't require a lot of technical knowledge but everything I learnt will come in handy if I were to approach a similar task in the future.

Another style of camera I used was the cheap disposable camera's which you can buy on stalls in London. I love this style although I have to keep reminding myself that there is a limit to the amount of photos I can take and I can't just keep taking photos until I find a decent one. This taught me about the importance of getting everything in the frame how you want it before taking a photo and I think, even though I didn't use many these photos we're the best out of all the photos I took for this project.

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

I have learnt the importance of having a house style throughout the magazine to improve the look and professional style, which includes using the same fonts colour scheme and general theme on the different pages. In this case I had the crumpled paper and damask flourish theme whereas in my preliminary task there was no sense of continuity or flow from the front cover to the contents page.

I feel that I have also learnt that any research at all, for example the target audience or the analysis of different magazines, is extremely helpful towards creating a product which looks professional and real rather than something made in class. I didn't think the research would have helped as much as it did but when I compared my preliminary task to my final product I noticed a big difference in the quality and visual impact of my magazine.

This is my list of final ideas.

This is my final sketch of the front page

This is my final sketch of the contents page

This is my final sketch of the double page spread

This is the typeface I will use

for my page titles:

for captions, subheadings and contents page:

for the text:

This is the colour scheme I will use

This is a selection of photos I will use

This photo will be my main photo on the front cover. It will be the biggest photo in the magazine so any facial flaws will need to be airbrushed out. His eyes are facing directly forward to catch the readers attention. I have taken this photo like all the others on a black background so it will be easy to cut around and hard to spot any mistakes on the dark magazine background. Because I want to put a large headline overlapping this photo I will need to extend the bottom of the photo using the clone tool so the title overlaps the t-shirt only and not the face.

This is the photo I will use on the front cover to go behind the main artist. It will be darkened and much smaller than the main photo but the same attention should be paid towards removing blemishes and cutting out.

The following two photos are very similar. The clothing and stance are basically the same however the facial expressions of the subjects are different which will give readers an insight into the personality of the two musicians. The expression in the face of the second photo looks slightly worried so I think I will have to change the shape of the mouth slightly with the warp brush. I will curl the edges of the mouth up slightly to make it more like a cheesy grin

rather than a worried grimace. I will also use the warp tool to manipulate the shape of the hair in picture #2 to make the quiff more defined. I will use the Hue/Saturation/Lightness tool to make the eyes of picture #1 more blue to stand out.

The idea for this photo was inspired by the photo on the contents page in the NME magazine I analysed. They showed a snapshot of the band in their apartment but it wasn't taken professionally. This photo is supposed to look like a quick unprepared snapshot and I will put it in my double page spread with a caption about listening to their new album.

This photo was taken in London on the South Bank. I decided to go to London with friends to take photos for my magazine. Instead of taking a professional camera I decided to buy disposable cameras in London because I like the style of pictures they take because they feel more personal and nostalgic. I thought the South Bank would be a good opportunity to take some interesting photos, luckily there were a lot of street performers there that day which is where I got the photo of the policeman in a tutu. I think I will put this photo in the contents page as a story about a celebrity embarrassing themselves.

This is my list of initial ideas.

Title

I have come up with several different names for my magazine and these were:

This is music

Music Notes

Noise

Sing
I wanted something that was easy to remember and catchy it

would stick in peoples heads. I think the four of these ideas

achieve this so I made them part of the questionnaire and let

the public vote. These are the results:

The questionnaire showed that the people who voted preferred This is Music as the title of the magazine. 12 people answered this question all together and 9 voted for this title.

Colour Schemes

A colour scheme is very important in any product. It tells the buyer a lot about an item for example something that is bright and colourful might be directed at children where as something that is dark colours is perhaps more adult orientated. For my magazine I will stick to only two or three main colours to prevent the magazine looking too garish. The colour theme that is chosen from the results of my questionnaire will be used for my house style throughout the magazine.

These are the five colour schemes I suggested on my questionnaire. My favourite here is purple and black because these colours are not opposite enough to each other to clash or contrast badly, but stand out from each other and they make the product look sophisticated and professional more so than something with many different clashing colours. My least favourite of the five is green and orange. I like these colours but I think that putting the two together is too much. They are very bright and I think I would need to balance it out with a lot of dark text and photos which would clash I would like to avoid the magazine looking to garish.

The questionnaire showed that the people who voted preferred purple and black as the main colour scheme. 12 people answered this question all together and 9 voted for this colour scheme.

Typefaces

Like colours it is important that I don't use too many different ones. I have decided to stick to 3 different fonts. These will be for the page title, subheadings and text. The following are the ones I will consider using.

Page Title

My favourite of these three fonts is the first one VTKS Revolt, however I think that it is too detailed and will probably be difficult to read so I think I will use a less detailed font like The Birth of a Hero. I have chosen this one over Cafe Lounge 19 because it suits the style of my magazine more because it has the rough eroded style that I like which many magazines of the same genre use. To suit the colour scheme this will probably be written in white or purple with a white border. If this doesn't work I will put it on a backing that makes it stand out.

Subheadings

There is a theme throughout my magazine of crumpled up paper and I think the font that would suit this best would be the Rough Typewriter font because it looks authentic and will add to the character and emphasise the house style of my magazine.

Text

The font I will use for the main text of my magazine will have to be a very simple font for a few reasons. Firstly it will be made quite small so the maximum amount of writing can fit in the selected area so if there was a fancy detailed font it would be impossible to read at such a small size. Secondly, there will be a lot of writing and if the font has a lot of detail and unnecessary patterns it will look too garish and disgusting. So the following are the four ideas I have to choose from:

Courier

Times New Roman

Arial

Georgia

Whilst analysing the NME magazine I noticed the font they used and I liked it however the magazine keep this font secret so I think I will create a similar font to use in my magazine. The font in NME is similar to the Georgia font you see above. If all else fails I will probably use this or Arial.

Photo ideas and inspiration

This is perhaps one of the most famous album covers ever and is very striking because of the contrast of dark and light. The way the light has been positioned has cast shadows in the eye sockets and cheekbones of the Queen band members, creating quite a haunting effect. However even though there is a lot of over exposure to the faces they are still recognisable. I like this idea and I would like to create this effect on the person in the background of my front cover so they stand out but are not as prominent as the main photo which will have more natural light and colours.

This is another album cover which I have taken inspiration from because they have also used the lighting to create shadows to emphasize the features in the bands faces. This style of the staggered faces is the same style I want to achieve in my cover but with more emphasis on the main person. An advert for this album was on the back page of the Kerrang! magazine I analysed and it caught my eye straight away because of the dark and light contrast.

Initial Designs

This is my first initial design for my front page, the elements from this design which I will take to my final design are:

• Magazine title on a background
• Inside stories down side of page
• Bar code in lower left corner
• Pug

This is my second initial design for my front page, the elements from this design which I will take to my final design are:

• MCU of main artist with background person/people
• Main story and/or artist
• Crumpled paper effect corners
• Banner at top of page

This is my first initial design for my contents page, the elements from this design which I will take to my final design are:

• Writing in straight rows not staggered like design 2. Makes numbers easier to rea
• Two sections of writing (regulars + this week)

This is my second initial design for my contents page, the elements from this design which I will take to my final design are:

• Page title at top of page
• Crumpled paper effect (inverted front cover)
• Slanted pictures with shadows

This is my first initial design for my double page spread, the elements from this design which I will take to my final design are:

• Crumpled paper effect at side of page
• Columned writing
• Album Cover
• Band name at top of page

This is my second initial design for my double page spread, the elements from this design which I will take to my final design are:

• Having the photos of everyone medium close up as opposed to full body shots.