7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When looking back at the process of making the preliminary task and the actual assignment, i feel i have improved a lot with knowing the forms and conventions of a real magazine and applied it to 'The Mix'. I now have an insight in the magazine making process and how long it takes when you need to meet a deadline. i've learnt a lot through the research of music magazine and how much your target audience matter in the production of your magazine and also how much marketing research helps your production.

There are still things i would try out , for example, trying a new image for the front cover etc, and looking at different house colours.

Overall, i am pleased with how my magazine has come together and the feedback i have got. I have really enjoyed making the magazine as it gives me bigger vision of what it would be like.

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

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

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5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I first attracted and addressed my audience by creating a questionnaire about what they would look for and what they like in a music magazine. I got the feedback back from the questionnaire and put them into pie charts if you look on my previously blog. I found the results very helpful as this helps me to create the magazine for my ideal reader. On my front cover, I address them by using a puff advertisement for winning gig tickets, I also addressed them by using the word ‘your’ one of my headlines, and this makes the reader feel that the magazine is specifically for them. On my contents page, I have address them and attracted them by having an editor’s note, this makes the reader feel like the editor is talking to them and can relate to them. Along with the editors note I have added a picture of the editor and the picture involves direct address, this immediately lures the reader in and interests them. On the double page spread, I have attracted and addressed my audience yet again by using direct address in the pictures, this interests them and they feel yet again a personal connection. I have also used a very hard hitting article title as its blocked letters and in a bold bright colour. I have used witty words within my article to keep the reader reading on and not lose interest.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I've made a collage of what my ideal reader would be interested in, boys and girls. My magazine would appeal to them because like this collage, it has a mix of genres in one magazine. my readers would be interested in the latest trends on the highstreet as well as music. They would be interested in  tv shows such as 'Friends' as every 16 - 24 year old has heard of that tv show. Most importantly they would be interested in by music and music channels such as MTV which is the biggest music channel today. Also social networking sites like facebook and twitter to access music trends etc... They would also go to festivals such as Reading and V festival since they are filled with arists from different music backgrounds. iTunes is used my most music buyers as it's the worlds biggest music store. Spotify is also used by music lovers. Age is represented in my collage with the 'L' learning sticker, this represents my target audience may be in stage of entering maturity and learning to drive and also attending raves and clubs and going up to london by themselves.These images depict what my audience would be interested in.

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

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

When designing a media product, you need to take into consideration how will your media product represent your target audience and the social groups?
The small collage I have put together show that my media product represent a group of mixed gender from 16 year olds to 24 year olds. The people presented in the collage are looking very confident and carefree, I have tried to experiment with magazine colours and the layout to match the personalities of the social groups represented here. By being carefree and confident they are proud of the music they listen to and will listen to whatever they want. By being carefree, it shows they would be open to new music, which is why my initial ideas for the magazine include being based around the charts and mixed genres and introducing new artists/unsigned bands within the music world. This is why the magazine has mixed genres included so it can target a larger social group than just one in particular which will limit the sales it would get. The age range I am focusing on is into the stage of going to gigs, attending house parties, and loving music. As you can see in the collage, the teens are partying which suggests they are care free and do not care what anyone thinks, the expressions of their faces show the confident and carefree attitude with a bit of a rebellious side added to it. I have chosen a picture of a model which represents how my social groups try and stay with the new trends, not only in fashion but with music, this is presented in our magazine by offering an overview of the UK chart. I have also included a picture of a rave, the particular music featured in a rave is included in the magazine, and the colour of image suggests the bright personalities the social groups hold.

Evaluation - Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation q1

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Final double page spread

Final contents page

Final Front cover

Final double page spread draft

 

As you can see, I have made  improvements to my magazine double page spread from the first draft I had designed. For the double spread, i have changed the colours of the pull quote i felt like the pull quoates should be the same colour as the masthhead 'Kimmy B' to show a relation to the artist and what they are saying. In the final draft i have added a subhead along the black line, this makes it look more like a double page spread. I have also changed the layout of the pictures so they dont overlap so eachother. I have also added a caption so make it seem like more of a double page spread.

Final contents page draft

                                                                     

First draft of contents page                                     Final draft of contents page 
As you can see, I have made many improvements to my contents page from the first draft i designed. The first change I decided to make was the image I was using on the top half of the page. I changed the image because I thought the picture had a burst of overwhelming colours for a contents page and it wouldn't go with many colours for the bottom of the contents page I would use. I think this was good a good decision because the picture seems more relative for a contents page. Like the front cover, I have also changed my font from Candy Square BTN Striped to Diamond Heavy SF because the font on the contents page looks a lot like Comic sans and that type of font isn't used for serious text content. So I changed it to match the front cover and decided this could be part of the House Theme. I have kept the editor’s note the same. I have change the colour of 'p14 Gigs to look for 2011' to bright blue as it would stand out on the page as it is surrounded by dark bold colours and it also matches the masthead original colour scheme. Previously, My masthead for the contents page matched the masthead on front cover but I chose to have the original masthead as the readers can know that this is a special Christmas issue hence the non matching mastheads. In the bottom half, I got told to add colour, I feel by adding colour it looks much better as before it looked quite bland and wouldn't appeal to readers as much. I decided to use a colour scheme of Grey and Sea Green from Page Plus. I feel these colours work well together as it doesn't manipulate the feel for both the magazine being for both genders. I also used white font in the sea green boxes as it would be better to see and can also be eye-catching. I have changed the layout of the 'Top Picks' section as before it wasn't clear who people were and what their opinion was. I have included names and roles they would play our magazine production team. I feel that I have made improvements to my contents page and could potentially look like an actual contents page.                                  
                           

Final front cover draft

  

  First Draft                                                                  Final Draft 

As you can see, I have made many improvements to my magazine from the first draft I had designed. The most drastic and effective change I element I have changed and improved is the font I have used for my final draft. Looking back, I feel the font I used for the first draft looks to social and quirky for a magazine whereas most magazines just use bold and simple font which I decided to use after researching more media conventions of magazines after my first draft. For my first draft I used the font Candy Square BTN Stripped. For my Final Draft I used the font Diamond Heavy SF which is very bold and big so it is easier to catch the eye of readers. Most of the font on the final draft is in bold as it will be easier to see and most of the font is white as it is clearer to read on the amount of colours involved in my background image. I changed the colour of 'Josh Farro' to white as black is harder to read in comparison with a white font which can stand out of anything. I kept the colour red but I put a higher intensity of the black outline than it was before so it would be easier to see. I also changed the wording from 'Wicked' to 'Wild' as it is very similar to an NME article. In the first article I had stars around the font 'Christmas issue'. I decided to remove the stars as it doesn't make the magazine look realistic and it also wouldn't appeal to my target audience as it looked childish and didn't really relate to Christmas. I also removed the headline 'Hooray! Gigs to attend for 2011' as it is advertised on the contents page already. I feel this was a good decision as it gave me more room and it allowed me to add an advertisement puff which is what many other music magazines include. I feel by looking at the improvements I have made from my first draft, I have recognised the music magazine conventions successfully and included them in my final draft successfully.

        

Article for double page spread

As Kimmy B strolls modestly through the door, I notice the nervous smile on her face. Even when her heavy dub step beats took over the charts, she still has that vulnerability of a teenage girl. Camden’s Katy B is just an ordinary girl who casually chugs back the beers and stuffs down pizza. Her edgy style and amicable aura lightened the dull mood of the pub as she was dressed surprisingly with dark clothes contrasted with the vibrant green scarf perfectly perched around her neck and beautiful green contact lenses with hid her pure and seductive brown eyes.
‘When I go out and perform, I want to feel comfortable so therefore I wear whatever the hell I want to’. Sorry to break your hearts ladies and gentleman but Kimmy is no Pixie Lott. ‘I’m not a washed up artist who gets someone to write my songs, I write them myself so I can connect with the audience and have a great time. I don’t do the whole tacky girly girl shit like usual, I have my own style and that’s all I need’. The vulnerability that was there before is now gone.
Despite her sudden rise in the dub step industry, Kimmy still finds this exposure positively weird, even when she goes into McDonalds dressed casually in Nike trackies and dunks. Sipping on our beers, she reminisces her school days when she was always sitting at the front of the classes. ‘I remember sitting in my English room, we were studying an extract from a literature story, the quote ‘We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.’ really caught my attention and is still with me today. To me, this describes me in a nutshell. A lot of my songs are inspired by my creative literature I picked up. To others literature is just a boring piece of crap, but to me it’s more than a group of acquaintance with letters, they’re simply the words we cannot express without our true emotions’. I begin to see what Kimmy is really like, under all of the heavy beats she creates, she is really a Jane Austen.
Coincidently, Kimmy’s new tune bounces off the speakers in the pub in an instant. We immediately snap back to reality and talk about her sky rocketing music career. 2011 is defiantly the year for her! Her well grounded attitude shines through yet again. ‘I really aim for 2011 to be the year for me and other artists like myself who have struggled. The hardest thing is having people tell you’re not good enough and the worst thing to do is to believe them’. I must admit, I admire her strong will to prove those who doubted her! I wouldn’t like to be the ones that will receive a subliminal F you from Miss B! Her amazing new floor filler track ‘Lashing Out’ already takes to charts at number 3! ‘I’m amazed it got to number 3! I never thought I would beat Rihanna! She is my idol!!!’


As we flutter on with the chatter, Kimmy lets me know that she is off to Aiya Napa in 2 weeks to promote her heavy beats across nightlife central! Even I can feel her excitement! She is definitely one of the lucky ones who get to travel due to their work! Where’s a job like that when you need one eh?! I stupidly ask her if she is scared to travel to Aiya Napa for this big promotion. ‘I’m not scared, I’m more anxious in how a European crowd would act! It’s feels a bit like the awkward moment when granny asks you do you like the ugly knitted jumper she gets you, and you hesitate! I’m in the anxious neighbourhood but I will definitely not run away!’ By that she means she is definitely getting slaughtered after her gig!


As the afternoon starts to take a hit into the evening, our chit chatter is starting to become more of a gossip than an interview! Then, I pop the big banger of a question for all the guys out there! Don’t worry lads! Miss B is very much single and is planning on staying like that for a while until her career jet sets off! Better luck next time!

First Draft of Music Magazine double page spread.

This is my first draft of my double page spread. When researching music conventions I looked at double page spreads in music magazines and how they would be laid out. I chose to lay mine out in a very simplistic way. I decided to have my article on one side and my images on the other side as I feel it looks less cluttered and it would also be easier to read. Like every double page feature spread, I have included 2 pull quotes. They are in a grey colour and I feel it works well with the black text and the cream background. At the very beginning of the article I have the letter 'A' enlarged. Having an enlarged letter at the beginning of an article allows the reader to be encouraged to read on and is a good way of catching the eye. I have chosen to use a black strip to separate the title from the article, I am thinking of adding a strap line along the black line. My Article name 'Kimmy B Exclusive Interview!' was made on urbanfonts.com. I wanted to get an unoriginal font for the article title. I chose to put 'Kimmy B' in a bright colour so it would contrast with the background colour and stand out more. I found the process of my designing my double page spread a very slow process and complicated. I have gotten great feedback to make the double page spread a lot better than it is now.
Improvements to be made :
• A strap line should be added along the black box as that's what double page spreads normally have.
• Change the colour of the pull quotes to match 'Kimmy B'.
• Cut around the one of the pictures to make more room for the other pictures.
• Try the background as white instead of cream.

First draft of Music Magazine contents page

This is my first attempt of designing my contents page. I have recently research on magazine conventions so I would know what to include making sure my magazine can survive in the market. For the contents page, we decided to split the page in half like Kerrang! does. We split it into the top half being images and the bottom half being text. The imaged I used is my own photography and is of a stage at a gig. I feel like this image is a good choice as it also has a personal feeling to it as it is taken from a fan within a huge crowd. The image is all in focus and the colours of orange and red are good to have in an image as they are very alarming colours. The fire is also a good effect because it can represent maybe a 'fiery' experience at a gig. Also along with the background image on the top half is my own picture of one of my peers posing as an editor for my magazine. I have also included a short editor’s note. By looking at contents pages, most editors’ notes are long, and it's a waste of space as many readers just want to get on with reading the whole magazine so most readers may not even see the editor’s note. I put it in because it gives a close and personal feel to magazine. On the top half I have also included a bit of text referring to a page number which is in relation to the background image, 'p14 Gigs for 2011!’ I added a black strip which is what most magazines may have to split up a page. I made sure it was black as black can easily go with the image above and with the content below. Along the black strip I state that it is a weekly issue by saying ' This week in'. It is then followed by the masthead front the front cover. I and my partner decided to have 6 categories of content. Instead of going for the obvious 'News', we chose 'Bulletin' as we felt it was a better name than 'news' as that is used all the time. We also have Charts, Features, Reviews, Gig Guide and Win! We chose the name Win! Instead of competitions because like 'news' it is used continuously. The 6 content categories are placed in a black box with white text on top (WOB - white on black). i chose this because there would be no worry about colour matching and it is also easily stood out. Lastly, on the far right side, we came up with a section called 'Top Picks'. This is a section where people within the magazine have their say on what aspect of the magazine they like in the weekly issue. We thought this was effective as particular features within the magazine may not be as big as others but yet it will still be recommended. I feel this is a good attempt for a first draft but I can drastically improve it by the feedback I have got.

Improvements to be made:
• To place the page numbers more carefully and maybe get rid of the 'P'.
• Under 'Top picks' I would make it clear who is giving an opinion and I would change the placing of the text.
• Maybe change the Font
• Could use colour on the bottom half
• Maybe change of image in the top half with more less overwhelming colours.

Contents page screen shots

Contents page screen shots

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First draft of Music Magazine front cover

 

This is my first attempt  of designing my front cover. I have recently research on magazine conventions so I would know what to include making sure my magazine can survive in the market. The imaged I used is my own photography and is of a Band member. I chose this image because it is a medium shot and medium shots can feel very personal and intimate which is what I wanted to do. By having such a close up like this, it would make the reader feeling close and included in the magazine. I chose white for the majority of the text as it can easily stand out my image as my image has a lot of bright colours in it. I also chose Black as it can stand on my cover image because of its bleakness and boldness. Lastly, I used red text on ' Wicked Wicked' as it's the apart of the main story on the cover and also because it's got a short and snappy repetition, I wanted to highlight it in an alarming colour so it would interest readers. The logo was designed by me and my partner. From a previous post I have showed the original masthead (blue). I am doing the Christmas issue and i thought of changing the colour of the logo to a Christmas theme of Red and Green, I am aware that magazines wouldn't normally use a contrast like this for their masthead so I made sure when viewing the front cover I put 'Christmas Issue'. I got this idea from Kerrang! I notice that they change the colours of their heading a lot, and for Christmas they may add the Christmas theme. I wanted to be different and change the masthead for Christmas as it wouldn't be considered a safe option as the colours clash. I want to add a picture to relate to one of the subheadings on the cover, I have not decided yet. Our magazine is for ALL genres, I made this clear by having a black strip on the top of the page with different artists from different music backgrounds. I feel this is a good attempt for a first draft but I can drastically improve it by the feedback I have got.

Improvement to be made : 

•  Change the colour of black and red involved in the main story as it can we seen as too overwhelming and is difficult to read.      
• Resize some of the text, for example; 'Bella Mary', it could be made bigger to catch the eye.                                                                                               
• Maybe add an Advertisement puff to make the front cover entice the reader.

• Make the Price more noticeable.

 I appreciate the feedback I have got back and will work on it.

                                              

Screen shots of front cover development

Whilst designing my front cover, I have taken Screen shots to show my development whilst designing the first draft of my front cover.

Screen shots of front cover development

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Logo Development

Me and my parnter designed our logo together. I was given the christmas issue to do, so I needed to change the colour of the Logo to match the issue. Heres my Development of the logo.

                                                        

                                                      

 

When I got up the Filters Effect option, i changed the intensity of the outlining Red. It was 0 and I changed it to 14, I wanted the red to stand out and Green and Red are known as Christmas colours.