2. Front Cover. Overall i am pleased with my front cover and i feel that the outcome has been successful and appropriate. When planning for my front cover i wanted to achieve a female and ‘girly’ magazine suitable for teenagers and above. I feel that i have achieved this well by my choice of colours and use of model. The look and pose of my model is young and attractive, relating to some of the magazines i researched into. By also using shapes such as pink stars i was able to create a female atmosphere, whilst in addition relating to my magazine name ‘Magic’.I am happy with the name of my magazine. It relates to the feminine side of the magazine and is also short and easy to remember. I am also happy with the choice of font i made. I love the heart on top of the letter ‘i’ which adds even more female character into the magazine.The layout of my front cover is fairly simple with the large picture in the middle and text around it. This is a common layout you see on many magazines but i think i still managed to make my front cover look original and interesting. Finally i am happy with my front cover, if i were to change anything i think i would add more subheadings or try to make it slightly more original.
3. Contents Page. Overall i am really pleased with my contents page. When planning for my contents i wanted to produce a simple idea, as most of the contents pages i liked had a simple layout and image. I decided to relate my contents page to one i had researched from the magazine ‘Vibe’ by using a similar position for my photograph. I decided on the outfit by looking into my research and seeing what worked well with the theme and layout i was going to achieve. I am happy with my image featuring on the contents page and think it works well with the theme i was trying to create. The position and outfit of my model adds to the attractiveness of my contents. I am happy with the overall layout of the contents page. I think the colour theme continues to work well and the use big numbers make it clear what is being said and where to find it. Throughout my contents page i have continued to use the selected fonts that i chose. The masthead saying ‘Contents’ is simple but neat. The font i used is in italics to add to the appearance. I am happy with my contents page, i think if i could change anything i would add more detail into the top left corner as it is blank.
4. Double Page Spread. On the whole i am pleased with my double page spread. When producing it i wanted to ensure that i stuck to my original colour, font and image theme so that it would look professional and relate to the rest of my work. I used a long shot image of my model, ‘Chelsea Lloyd’ to show her full appearance and to also add difference, as most of my other images have been medium/close up shots. Above the image i added the quote which was also seen on the front cover. I used this to draw people in and to hopefully get them reading my magazine. On the right page i based all of my text. I decided to use my double page spread as an interview as this is commonly found in popular magazines and on my questionnaire many people were interested in this particular top area. I didn’t want my masthead to be too big so i decided to stick to the same font as the contents page. Although i did not try something new i still think this worked well.I used a stand first to mainly introduce the audience to what the article is about and give them a choice to read on or not. I then produced the text in columns to add a professional look and continued on with the colour theme to separate the questions and answers. Generally i am happy with my double page spread. If i were to change anything i would probably try to add a different photo to fill both pages or simply add more detail on the left page.
5. In what ways does my music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines? My music magazine that I have produced has been successfully like some music magazines that I have researched during my coursework.Firstly I tried to use forms and conventi0ns of real music magazines by using a similar layout to the magazines that inspired me. By doing this I managed to give my music magazine a professional and well presented look. I also tried to use similar images, by relating the same poses, outfits and props I was able to create an attractive photograph suitable for my magazine and suitable for the audience viewers. I tried to develop ideas I had seen on other magazines by using similar ideas. For example, on one magazine I saw that they had used little hearts to decorate the front covers, by developing my ideas I decided to use stars instead of hearts to give the same effect. I also did this with the effects and styles of the writing and mastheads. When I saw something that caught my eye I would elaborate on this idea.
6. How does my music magazine represent different social groups? Although I based my music magazine on a female audience I do think that it relates to more than one social group. When making the magazine I thought about what type of people would be interested in reading it. The first social group that is represented in my magazine is obviously feminine girls, who relate to other female singers and like feminine things. My magazine does come across very feminine with the pink fonts and feminine models so the main social group should be interested in these kind of things. My magazine could relate to girls with ambitions too. In my interview with ‘Chelsea Lloyd’ I talk about how her ambition has always been to sing. This could relate to many girls who would like/want to be a singer or anything to do with performing. I would say my magazine is for mainly girls although boys with different opinions could enjoy this music magazine too. I would say the target audience for my music magazine is for teenagers around the ages of 14-20 years old or older.
7. What kind of media institution may distribute my magazine and why? If I were to choose any kind of media institution to distribute my magazine I would probably choose Emap or Bauer. Personally I think that these institutions are the most related to the type of music magazine I have produced.From my research into magazine institutions I found out that the radio stations Emap produced are Kiss and Magic. These radio stations feature and play many songs by similar singers and bands that are enclosed in my personal music magazine. Although Emap did sell off to Bauer my magazine still relates to what they produced and thought it was important to mention them. Overall I would say Emap/Bauer is the most related to my music magazine, and the other institutions are concentrating on magazines of a completely different genre.I would also choose Bauer to distribute my music magazine because they are a successful and I would trust them to sell my magazine well.
8. Who would be the audience for my music magazine? As my music magazine is very feminine I would say that the main target audience for my magazine would be a feminine and girly person. Firstly my magazine contains many girly colours such as pink which is featured a lot throughout, so the person should be into these type of colours. The audience I would hope to read my magazine should be interested in things like make up, fashion, singers as this is the type of topic that will be mentioned throughout my magazine. I would also expect my targeted audience to be interested in singers and bands such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Girls Aloud etc so that they are into the same music which is being featured in my music magazine.I would say my music magazine is suitable for teenagers mainly as the main things that will be featuring in the magazine are what teenagers are interested in. I would say it is suitable between the ages of around 15-20 years old. This gives the audience a chance to look through the magazine and find the pages they particularly like whilst still catching up on their favourite music and celebs.
9. How did I attract and address my audience? I tried to attract my audience by containing things that I thought would be interesting to them and their age group. Firstly by using an attractive model to be on the centre of my front cover I am catching the viewers eye straight away to look at the model and see who she is. This does encourage many readers to buy the magazine and read on about the celebrity on the front.I also tried to add interesting and catchy sub-headings to intrigue the audience and get them interested about certain articles included in the music magazine. I used appropriate colours and shapes to show clearly what kind of audience the music magazine is aimed for as well. I addressed my readers in an appropriate and polite way. On my front cover I used catchy quotes to pull the reader in. On my contents page I used standard English to address my audience so that anyone would be able to read this magazine. If I were to have used slang words and text speak then this would have risked some readers not understanding what something meant and so by using proper English I avoided this completely. I also continued to use standard English on my double page spread as well. During my magazine I used different punctuation, such as exclamation marks and questions marks to entertain the audience and make different sentences look exciting.
10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this music magazine? During the process of my magazine I have experienced many different programs and pieces of equipment that I have never used before. The programs that I used to present most of the text or charts were Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Excel. As I have used these programs before I found it quite easy and straight forward to work and use these programs to a high ability. To construct my main magazine I used the programmers' Indesign and Photoshop. The programme Indesign was completely new to me as I had never used this before so I found it quite hard to learn all the different ways of making my magazine look good. By using special programs off Learnzone and getting help from my teacher I was able to find out more about the program and how to use it. In the end I found this program very useful and used this a lot when making my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. Another program that was fairly new to me was Photoshop, only having used it a couple of times for the same things. Also by help from my teacher I was taught new things to use when making my magazine, which helped to make my magazine look professional and suitable.Whilst making my music magazine I also had to use equipment such as an SLR camera. I was showed how to use this in more detail and carried out my photo shoot in the studio to make my photos look better and skilled.
12. Looking back on my preliminary task, what do I think I have learnt in the progression from it to the full production? Looking back on the preliminary task I feel that I have progressed a lot. I think that mainly my designing skills are a lot better and I think by using different programs and equipment I have achieved a much higher quality magazine front cover and contents page than in my preliminary task. I think that a big difference in my main task is that the layout is much more organised and professional looking. In my preliminary task I feel I didn’t do enough research to be able to develop my ideas into anything appropriate but with my main task I have done the full planning and research to produce a good quality magazine. I also feel that because I was more planned on my main task the photographs I have taken are impressive and relate more to what you would find in a magazine in a shop, whereas my preliminary task photos were more relaxed and ordinary.Overall my preliminary front cover and contents page comes across quite jumbled and disorganised compared to my main task so I feel I have progressed in that way and improved my skills on the new programs Indesign and Photoshop to produce an overall better magazine.
13. Audience Feedback After asking a ranged audience to give me feedback on my magazine this was the outcome:
14. Reflection on Audience Feedback Overall I am really happy with the feedback I was given, having achieved high scores for everything. I think that my overall magazine is presentable and would be enjoyable for a teenager in the age range to read. The areas I scored highest on are the photographs and the use of language which I scored 10/10 for both. I feel that these areas were focused on the most as I did try hard with the photoshoot to make it look exactly how I wanted and I feel that I spent a lot of time when writing the magazine text to make sure the writing was suitable and easy to understand. I also looked at the kind of language other magazines used to make the writing interesting and draw the reader in. The areas I scored slightly lower on were the layout, masthead and subheadings even though I still scored a reasonable 8/10. I think I may have scored slightly lower in these areas because they were not focused on as much. Although I did try hard on them I see areas that I could have improved.Overall I am happy with the outcome of my final music magazine. If I were to do it again I think I would to make my front cover look more like a professional magazine by maybe adding more text or images.
