Evaluation & Feedback

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

I did a lot of research on other magazines before I created my magazine. Although my magazine has individual appeal compared to other magazines, it is similar to existing publications such as Q and Mojo.

Similar to Mojo magazine, the masthead of my magazine is at the top of the cover page - this is to grab the reader's instant attention and would stay the same in every issue to enable recognition instantly the readers.

Also similarly to already published magazines, the main image is a full length photo of person who is making eye contact with the audience. This person is a (faux) world famous artist that would be instantly recognisable to my target audience.

Similar to other researched magazines I added a strap line at the bottom of my cover to add more information and make the magazine appear more appealing and full. I used the rest of the space on my cover for the main sells which are used to entice the readers into wanting to find out more by purchasing the magazine.

To make my magazine stand out from existing publications in a shop I used different fonts that were eye catching. I also added necessary important information such as the price of the magazine, the date of issue and a bar code to make my magazine authentic like a real media product.

I used four colours throughout my magazine: black, red, grey and white. I feel this was a suitable colour scheme for my target audience as it has a mature feel to it and also the red makes some things stand out and grab the readers attention.

The article in my magazine is one with the artist featured on the cover, which is a common convention in most magazines. Throughout the article I used language appropriate for my target audience

2. How does you media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the indie/rock social group. Theartist on the front cover has a relaxed attitude and is wearing "normal" everyday clothes such a polo shirt and jeans that the target audience would wear and could relate to. He has his hands in his pocket and all of this will make my magazine appeal to this social group because they will feel they can identify with him.

I also think my simple, mature but eye catching colour scheme will appeal to this social group as it is not boring but not too in-your-face. I think my magazine suggests that this social group is relaxed and confident and not too over the top. The features shown on the cover of my magazine such as Reading Festival and tickets to Kings Of Leon suggest the type of things my target audience would be interested in.

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

I think that a company such as large German publishing company Bauer Media would publish my magazine. They operates in 15 countries worldwide which means they would get a wide coverage for the magazine.

They already publish music magazines such as Q Magazine, Kerrang and Mojo and have an already established audience that fits the target audience of my magazine. The worldwide circulation of Bauer's magazine titles adds up to 38 million magazines a week.

My magazine would be distributed in shops such as WHSmith's as they have a wide range of magazine genres available in their stores. I also believe that larger newsagents such as Spar and Co-op will also distribute my magazine, however smaller local newsagents may not as they do not provide such a wide variety of genres as the larger stores. I also think that music stores such as HMV and perhaps smaller local music stores would sell "Shuffle" magazine.

It could also be sold online via it's own website as well as the websites of stores that sell the magazine.

4. Who would be the audience for you media product?

From researching similar magazines target audiences I created an earlier blog on the target audience for my magazine. The target audience for my magazine is mostly men aged 15-44 in the socio economic category ABC1.

After completing my magazine, I still believe this is an appropriate target audience for my magazine, however I feel my target audience is towards the younger end of the mostly men aged 15-44 scale mainly because of the young person's disposable income means they are more likely to be able to spend their money on magazines and other types of media.

I would also say that my target audience would be passionate about the music they listen to.

5. How did you attract / address your audience?

The title of my magazine initiated from the shuffle button from an iPod - this would attract my audience because most of them in my age range would have and use an iPod.

The image on my front cover presents a person that my target audience can admire yet relate with as they appear similar to the reader in fashions and interests. This would attract my target audience to the publication.

I tried to make my magazine appear sophisticated to attract my audience. I did this by using fonts that are engaging and distinctive without being too complicated such as the old typewriter style font and also keeping my layout quite simple.

I spaced out my main sells, mast head and main image evenly to create an appealing look and style to the magazine. I used language such as "exclusive" and "official" to make my magazine more alluring and give the feel that it is unique and contains information you cannot find any where else. I also tried to use quite a few main sells to make my magazine appear packed and full of lots of interesting stuff.

My double page spread includes an interview and a large photograph. An interview is a relaxed, informal way that makes the readers feel like they are getting to the featuring artist personally.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this magazine?

Firstly, I learned to use an online blog to record my work. After initial hesitation and a little practice, I found using Blogger to be easy and thing it is a great system to work with on coursework such as this. I also found that being on the internet to record my work made it easier to access necessary information from the internet.

Prior to creating my magazine, I had had minimal experience using computer software such as Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. I feel that I learnt, with some help, how to use these softwares quickly and found them simple to use and once I learnt how to use tools such as the magnetic lasso and clone stamp they were easy to control. From the process of constructing this product I have learnt how to use two new technologies that I will be able to use easily in the future.

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 feel that I have progressed my learning and confidence in using Adobe InDesign and I learnt how to use a new software - Adobe Photoshop. I also feel that I have learnt a lot more about the process of making a magazine and how to make it appealing through all of the research I carried out on existing magazines and articles.

I have also learned a huge load about creating and designing a magazine. I was surprised at the depth needed and large amount of thought and research necessary before even beginning to create the magazine itself. I learned some basics when carrying out my preliminary task such as the main things on the magazine e.g mast head and main sells but my understanding of media conventions and theories is greater now and I understand the importance of things such as font, colour, language and mainly that target audience must be taken into consideration before anything is done.

Feedback

To generate feedback on my final magazine, I created a questionnaire and asked people in my magazine's target audience to comment and tell me what they thought of the final product. This is the questionnaire I gave out:

I asked 10 people to answer my questionnaire and these are the results I gathered.

1) 6 out of 10 of the people I asked were male.

4 out of10 were female

2) 9 out of10 were in the age bracket 11-19

1 out of 10 were in the age bracket over 39

3) 10 out of 10 people said they liked the appearance of my magazine.


4) The most popular parts of my magazine where the layout and the colour scheme.


5) 9 out of 10 people said they wouldn't change anything
about my magazine. The person who said they would change something said that they would have made the image on the front larger to fill more of the cover, added more people to the cover or added a background.


6) 10 out of 10 said they would be attracted to my maga
zine in the store. Most people said this is because of the red in the colour scheme.


7) 10 out of 10 said they found the layout easy to read.


8) 8 out of 10 said they would buy my magazine.

Personal Reflection -

Personally, I am very happy with the final results for my magazine. I feel it has an authentic look for an amateur. I admit things could have been improved such as the blank spaces on the double page spread, but overall the feedback I received was positive.

Finished Magazine

Contents:

Double page spread:

Front Cover:

This is the final outcome of my magazine. I was originally planning to save it as a PDF but I encountered problems with the fonts I had downloaded to use in the magazine and therefore I had to save it as a JPEG and the quality is not as good as I had hoped. My magazine article is not completely legible in the picture but there is a copy of the article in this blog

Planning And Evaluation Of The Article

The above article is a double page spread from an issue of Q Magazine. It is an interview featuring well known artist Jon Bon Jovi. The first page contains the article and the second page is just a large old photograph of Bon Jovi. The first part of the article is just the writer telling the reader about the setting and filling in some background knowledge of the featured artist and the second part of the article is a question and answer between the interviewer and the artist. The article is informal, this is shown through the language used. For example, the use of the expletives such as "fucking killer!" and "That fucker's on the air". They also use words such as "pure dentist's porn" and this shows the article is informal and would appeal to the target audience as it is mostly men. In the article there are many different types of questions asked, for example they talk about the artist's wife and love life, and they also talk about his musical successes and things to do with his band.

The double page spread article above is also from a past issue of Q magazine. It is also an interview this time with Paul Weller. Similarly to the first double page spread, the right hand page is filled with a photograph, this time a more recent photo that was taken specifically for the magazine article. This article goes directly into the interview with the featured artist, it does not have an introduction like the first one did. The questions asked in this article are age related and about personal things and the article takes an informal approach, this is so that the readers believe they are reading a private personal interview between friends. They ask things such as "Can you imagine being a pensioner?" and "Do you become more aware for you mortality as you get older?" This would appeal to the older end of the target audience scale as some of these people may have been a fan of the artist when he was in his prime (as were they) and they want to see what he is doing now and see how they compare. The language used in this article is informal and colloquial. Paul Weller refers to the interviewer as "mate" and this gives the article a relaxed feel. They also use words such as "retarded" this shows the informality and the relaxed attitude towards the article as some magazines would not print this because it can be seen as politically incorrect.

After looking at these two articles, I decided I wanted to do an interview - question/answer - type article that would appear informal. Using some examples from the articles I came up with the following introduction and questions and answers for the article I will use in my magazine. I wanted to talk about a variety of questions so I including questions about music, relationships and general questions.

Noah Clark is the new artist that has taken the music industry by storm. With his first single "Anyone But You" reaching number one in the official single charts, his new up coming album is predicted to do great things in the album chart. We caught up with 21 year old Noah in his home town of London and now for you exclusive in Shuffle we have Noah and his first detailed interview.

Q: Noah, first off, congratulations on your first number one! Did you ever expect your first single to be such a hit?

A: Noah: Thankyou! Honestly, I had hoped so but you can never tell in this business so to have achieved my goal so early on is really great.

Q: People are often critical of
musicians these days who don’t play their own instruments or write their own lyrics, how do you feel about it?

A: Noah: I think there are some great artists out there that don’t play or write their own lyrics but I do believe that originality is key and to say you’ve accomplished something by
working so hard yourself is even better.

Q:Do you write your own lyrics?

A:Noah: I do, I’ve been writing songs since I was 12. In fact, I originally wrote "Anyone But You" when I was 15 about a girl I met on a train.

Q:Now you’re a big star do you still think you’re a nice guy?

A:Noah: Of course! I don’t think fame has changed me much at all! Obviously, I get recognised a lot more now and it does make normal life a bit harder but I like it and the girls.

Q:Who is your biggest inspiration musicly?

A:I’d have to say Queen as they were my favourite when I was growing up.

Q:Talking of girls, you’ve been spotted lately with Pixie Lott, are you two dating?

A:Noah (looks down and plays with his thumbs): Pixie’s a great girl, we get along well.

Q:So you’re single?

A:Noah: I am, and I’m looking. I want to prioritize my music at the moment but if the right girl comes along and I know she’s the one for me, then I’ll definitely get involved. I actually did get hit on recently by someone pretty famous.

Q: Who was it?

A: Noah: I don’t think I can say. It might
embarrass them, she is in a popular girl band that’s all I am saying.

Q:Are you going to be attending any festivals this Summer?

A: Noah: I’ve been attending Reading since I was 16, to be able to perform there on stage would be simply amazing.

Q:What’s the best piece of advice and support you have been given?

A: Noah: Well all support from my Mum and my family is the best and the most important to me as they’ve been here for me through the biggest change in my life but I met Mick Jagger at a movie premiere and he told me to never give up. I know that’s pretty simple advice but, it was from Mick Jagger and the fact that he knew who I was blew me away!

Q:We hear the new album is finished now, what’s it called and when can we expect it to hit the stores?

A:Noah: The album is all finished! Finally! I’ve worked on it for a long time and It’s exactly how I imagined it to be. I can exclusively reveal to you, that it’s going to be called "Lights". You’re the first to know that. It’s definitely going to be out sometime in March.

Turn over the page for more exclusive gossip and photoshoot with Noah.

Photo Editing

The only editing I did to my photos was in Adobe Photoshop, using the magnetic lasso tool to cut the person out and removed the background so that I could place the photo on the coloured backgrounds of my cover and double page spread. I also used the clone stamp in Photoshop to fill in areas such as hair and jeans that had been accidently cut out. These are what my chosen photos looked like after I had edited them.

Photos

These are the photos I took for using in my magazine. I chose a male cover feature as it is more common for male artists to be in this genre of magazine and it would appeal to my target audience of mostly men aged 15-44 because they would feel that they can relate to him and some people may aspire to be like him.

I took into consideration the distance between the camera and the subject and whether I would have a long shot, mid shot or close up on the cover of my magazine. I chose to have a long shot as this was a common convention for a similar type of magazine.

For costume, I chose a grey polo shirt and dark jeans because I wanted the clothing to be dark, plain and simple. This would appeal to my target audience because it's not over powering or complicated with patterns and colours that wouldn't interest them.

The background wasn't chosen as I knew I was going to cut out my image and place it on a plain background. I chose to use the first for my cover, I chose this pose because he looks strong and in control. I also chose this photo because photos 2 and 3 didn't have perfect lighting and you can see light change on his body.

I did not chose the photo above for my cover as the lighting is reflecting onto his body and changes the colour of his shirt on the right hand side. I also didn't like the pose as his legs look odd.

I didn't chose the photo above because of the lighting problem reflecting on his top and his facial expression looks sad which is not something that would appeal to my target audience for fit with my genre.

I chose the photo below for my double page spread because the lighting in the other above photos weren't to a suitable standard. I chose this pose because he looks relaxed and comfortable which I feel is something my target audience would be able to relate to and fits with the genre of my magazine.

I took the photo below at a concert I went to in 2009. I used it on my contents page. I liked this photo because of the lighting and it captured the singing expression of the artist Joshua Radin really well. This would appeal to my audience as it is a live concert and shows what the article will be about. Gigs and concerts are also something that would appeal to my target audience and so this would attract their attention.

Fonts

After looking at the mastheads and fonts on other magazines such as "Q" and "Mojo" I went on www.dafont.com to look for fonts to use in my own magazine. Dafont has thousands of different fonts available for free download.

Different fonts can signal and provoke different moods and can be the defining part of a brand or product. There are two types of font: sans serif and serif. Serif fonts are considered easier to read as the strokes at the ends join letters together nicely.

I was looking for a font that would stand out as my masthead and appeal to my target audience without being too complicated or hard to read. I was also looking for a simple but sophisticated font to use for my main article and contents page.

The first font (above) that I looked at for my masthead was called "Stentiga". I didn't think this would work well as my masthead as it is quite slim and doesn't stand out enough and therefore don't think it would be suitable for the front of a magazine cover.

The second one (above) was called "Boris Black Bloxx". I liked this font because it is bold and eye catching, but I thought it was not appealing enough for my target audience as a masthead as it is quite bubbly and would probably appeal more to a younger, female audience and be more suitable for perhaps the Pop genre.

The third was called "Tosca Zero" (above). This is the one I chose for the masthead of my magazine because it stands out and is unique and eye catching. The cracked and eroded style to the front suggests connotations of breaking the mould and being original - something my target audience would aspire to do.

I am going to use for my main flash is called "Alte Haas Grotesk" (below) I like this because it is simple, clear to read and sophisticated like the main flash that appears on other magazines such as "Q".

Below are some of the fonts I considered for the main sells on the cover of my magazine. I also thought I could use these on the contents page and double page spread to continue a theme in my magazine.

Above font is called Impact Label, I liked this font because it it really bold and eye catching and I feel itwould look good on the list of artists names on my front cover.

The font above is called "Mom's Typewriter", I liked this because it looks vintage and this would appeal to my target audience and fit with the theme of my magazine.

Body font:

The font below is called "contra" and I will use this for the body font/small writing on my magazine cover and for the main article on my double page spread. This is similar to the type of font used in the magazines such as "Q", I have previously analysed. It is a serif font and I think this will make my articles and writing easier for my audience to read.

Flat Plans

Flat Plans (left hand page)

Below - (right hand page) After looking at several examples from other magazines such as Q and Mojo, Idecided my double page spread will contain one photo of the artist featured. This will be on the right hand page. On the left hand page will be some of an article and on the right hand page next to the photograph will be the other half of the article.

The article I am going to write will be an interview and set out in questions and answers and it will seem to continue on to the next pages of my magazine. On the first page of my doublepage spread, I have the name of the person being interviewed in big font which is the same as my mast head, and a small description of what the article is, this is so that it is clear who and what the article is about. Along the bottom of both pages there will be a small area for the page number, date and name of my magazine. This is so the readers know which page they are on and find it easy to access pages they want by looking at the contents page.

The background of my article will be dark grey and I will stick the my continuing colour scheme of white, blacks and red.

Cover 1

Cover 2When drawing my flat plans, I decided to draw 2 ideas for my magazine cover. For my first cover I used a duet band singing, for my second I used a solo artist. I also changed the mast head by making it 3D on the first cover and 2D on the second.

Out of the two flat plans I created for the cover of my magazine, I had decided to use Cover 2 because I feel it looked better and would appeal more to my target audience as it appears more sophisticated than the other cover.

I will be using fonts that are attractive and appealing such as an old typewriter font on my main sells and I have included features such as the date, issue number, bar code and price on the cover of my magazine as this is needed for the reader to know when purchasing.

In my final magazine the main image on my cover didn't show a guitar as I couldn't get the prop for the photoshoot and I changed my artist's name from Mozzy to Noah, I felt this would appeal to my target audience more as Mozzy seemed quite immature and child-like. I also made the price smaller and I didn't put it in a bubble, this was to make my magazine appear more sophisticated and interest my target audience more.

Contents
The contents of my magazine will contain the same masthead that is on the cover of magazine. This is to produce familiarity to the readers as my masthead will be same every issue as the title becomes one of the most familiar things in a magazine or any kind of product.

I have two pictures on my contents and they will have numbers on to show which page they are on in the magazine.

There are 3 sections on my contents page: Features, Every month and Shuffle for you. The features will be things that are unique to this issue of my magazine. Every month will be the things that are in every issue of my magazine and Shuffle for you will be things such as songs the readers might like to download and movie reviews. I got this idea from looking at contents pages from magazines with a similiar target audience to mine such as Q and Mojo.

The fonts used will be pretty basic for the contents information but the headings such as Features will be in a font that is featured on my cover, again to produce familiarity to the readers and target audience. I will also include the issue number and date on my contents page.

I will stick to a simple colour scheme of red white and black, this will appeal to my target audience as it is not too visually busy or colourful.

Here is a labelled copy of my front cover flat plan.

For my final magazine contents page, I changed the position of the photos and added a "this months acts" box which showed a list of featured artists mentioned in my magazine. This is because when creating my magazine on InDesign I felt it looked much better and would allure my target audience more because they would want to know more of what was in the magazine. I also changed the smaller picture of 3 people to pictures of tickets so that it would make the featuring competition more important and visible. I also changed "features" to "this month" to make my magazine more unique.