Evaluation of Final Product-
When I initially started the development of my magazine I looked into all the different old and new types of media magazines that I wanted to base my product around. I found that most of the magazines that I looked into were all relatively the same conventionally i.e. fonts and colours. The ways I have used the conventions that I have seen other music magazines use would be using unoriginal colours and fonts so that it stands out from the other upcoming and already out there products. I have used the conventions of other media magazines to help me produce and develop my final product. The examples of music magazine conventions that I used to help me develop my music magazine would be by seeing how they used their fonts and colours and try and base my product around that but change it so that mine was original and wasn’t like all the common music magazines. I have used the right conventions for my product so that it targets my specific targeted audience that I was aiming it to be at. The conventions that i have used based around images would be that of that the ones used from Rolling Stones magazine as that was my inspiration for my product, I intially wanted to do my magazine exactly like The Rolling Stones product. I have looked at other products which i will add below and describe the conventions that i have based my product around, the reason i done this was to get an insight as to other conventional music magazines.
Conventions & Representation-
I have added this picture of The Rolling Stone magazine to show the comparisons that i have used to signify the similarities between both the magazines. I have based my layout around the conventions of Rolling Stone magazine because i think that they are good magazines to base other products around. I thought that it was a good product to work around because they have a high selling rate and are aimed at the same targeted audience that i have based mine around.
The ways that the people are represented an my magazine are by the genre that i aimed to use (indie) the typical conventions would be clothing, and props that would be used have to link in with the genre of my magazine. I think i have used the conventions well because the person in the pictures has a guitar that look indie, and then fit together with the targeted audience. The ways that all of the conventions work together to form a well produced product is because i have done researched into what other music magazines need and use to make a well developed magazine. I have used a long shot image type for the picture on the front of my magazine as i thought that it would give the readers an overview as to who will be included in the magazine, and via what she is wearing what the product is about. I wanted to use an image that stood out and caught the eye of my chosen target audience but i wanted to use specific fonts and colours so that is what the audience focused on. As the image is in the route of the eye that is what will be seen first and then the headlines around it therefore i added coloured dividers and eye catching fonts to draw this attention away. Becase of the artist i have used i feel that my magazine is aimed at girls purely based on the fact of the images, if i had used both and male and female model then it would most definately attracted both sexes.
I have added my double page above and used another conventional music magazine to compare it to. The way that my magazine is different to this one would be that it has one main picture and small ones on the side around the edge, whereas mine is unconventional because it only uses small images around the edges it does not use one large main image of the artist that i was talking about in the article. I have included a small 'fact file' about the artist in my magazine to give the readers an insight as to what she is about, i think this adds effect for the readers when they are scanning through my magazine. I have chosen to use a different layout of my pictures compared to the layout of the magazine that i have compared it to. I think that this makes my magazine stand out from the rest and in some way gives it its own 'personality' because it has a different look to the others. Like the magazine that i am comparing mine to i have used the same conventions of colour as have the compared magazine, the reason why i have done this is because it makes the magazine look professional and sticking to a colour scheme doesnt confuse the readers with lots of different colours on the page. Like the conventional magazine i have again used a standfirst which gives the readers an insight as to what the article is about, this is typical for a magazine as it saves the reader from having to read snip bits of the article to see what it is about. Again they will use pull out quotes to give this effect so that it makes the target audience want to by the magazine, in some cases quotes can be found on the front cover of the product too to draw the audience in to purchase it. I have used a range of shot types for the doule page spread, this is to portray different elements of the artist whom is included i.e. an new indie upcoming artist, i made sure that she represented this look using the conventions i knew about. Like the magazine i have compared mine to there is one single artist used in the imagery, this is to show significant dominance towards the artist. I chose to use images that attracted the audience but use a bright font colour so that they were not draw completely away from the article itself. Similary i have i used images of the artist through out the magazine to portray to the audience that this artist willl be featured throughtout resulting in them being able to relate to this. The language of my magazine is formal yet it still has the added sense of informality because of the words that i have used, for example i will add words in that are targeted for the younger audience so that they are able to relate to this. When reading the double page spread for my magazine again it is formal due to the questions i asked, she was very open and wasn't afraid to share personal information which i feel readers look for. The language does not appeal to one set target audience as i feel that the generation nowadays old or young all relate to the same thing because it is used throughout the daily life so much. I didnt want to just discuss the music side of her life i also wanted to include more personal questions for example the question about her father, this is so that i didnt loose interest in the audience when they are reading it. I didnt want to aim the price of my magazine too high because of the audience that it was based around, students wouldnt have that much money and pricing something too high would just draw them away. I looked into how much other music magazines were pricing their products and based it around that to follow their lead. As a result of this the social class of my magazine would be of the middle class diversity.
Mycontents page does not compare to this one that i have used to compare it to, the one on the left is an actual magazine this uses more pictures than text compare to my magazine which has headlines and then information as to what the features are. Like the magazine on the left i have added conventions for example adding page numbers, the name of the magazine, 'contents', page numbers for the features and odd pictures that link to things that are included in the magazine. I think that i have followed the basic concept of the typical conventions of a music magazine but added my own twist to ensure that it stands out from the others. As you can see from above i have compared my magazine to different types of music magazines for example Rolling Stone, NME and Kerrang - those magazine do not all relate to each other this shows that i can use different music products to base my design around and still produce a well thought up and created indie music magazine.
Institutions-
As i mentioned earlier in my coursework, the magazine that i chose to base my product around was The Rolling Stone magazine this is because i liked the images, fonts, colours and featured artists and bands that they incuded within their product. Not only did they use music artists but they used actors and other various job titles; this just shows that they are still able to include things that arent technically genred for music magazines yet still make them work. Rolling Stone was founded in San Fransisco in 1967 by Jane Wenner who to this present day is still the publisher and editor. Rolling Stone magazine changed its format in the 1990s to appeal to younger readers, often focusing on young television or film actors and pop music. I then found the official Rolling Stone website which included more information as to what they are about and upcoming magazines and competions etc. http://www.rollingstone.com/
I already have both of these key references previously in my coursework but it links in with the Institutions to the Rolling Stone magazine. It provides a chart as to who is more prone to reading and buying it, what age range of people chose to buy the product adn then personal information such as how much they make a year, whether they are employed or have their own business, single/married/other and what their ethnicity is. The similarites that my product and the Rolling Stone product would be-
- The celebrity on the front cover is the main image.
- Articles.
- Layout.
- Features .
- Use of colours and fonts.
Target Audiences-
My magazine is aimed at young adolescents 13-18 who enjoy reading music magazines i.e. indie/pop and will include many features that go along with this.
From this question it is clear to see that my magazine would be aimed at people aged
13-18. This shows that my product is popular to those who are of a young age, although there are a few who are 19 and over.
From this question you can see that my target audience gender would be that of females, although this is the case males are not far behind, due to this i feel that maybe my magazine needs more female influences included.
From this question i can see that most of the people i asked prefered to listen to indie music, which related well to the magazine that i am producing. Pop and dance music were 2nd and 3rd for the choice. 
I then asked what their favourite music magazine was, the most popular answer was NME. Although this was my target audiences favourite i still thought that i would base my product around Rolling Stone, i think that maybe the choice of using this magazine would be slightly difficult due to the fact its not very well known. I didnt rule out NME as i used conventions from some of their magazines. 
I then asked what they think makes a music magazine, most of the responses i got said that they believe articles about the artist makes a music magazine. Therefore i took this into consideration and produced an article on 'Alexa Simons', making sure that i correctly related it to the target audience. 
From this question my target audience buy their magazines monthly or not at all, i would take account to the monthly statistic. I dont think that this would majorly effect the product as that is only a few people of whom i asked.
I asked my target audience what they most attracts them to a front cover of a magazine and they answered- pictures of the band/artist who is included within the magazine. I took this into consideration and done exactly that.
I then allowed the audience to state which colour schemes they would most like to see with the magazine itself i.e. the front cover, contents and double page. The most common colours were; black, red and blue. I chose to use the black and red that the audience suggested and also use purple which one of the answers states (i also thought about using this colour initially). I think theses colour worked well together and all three were a good combination, they are not set colours for one gender they are suitable to either.
I then asked whether when reading an article would they prefer to have one big main image or smaller images arranged around the page, they answered; one big main image. I chose to go against this and add small images arranged around the page. Personally i think that it has worked well and does not make the page look untidy or confusing as the target audience assumed that it may do. Appeal to target audience-
The chosen target audience for my magazine is 13-18 year olds who enjoy reading music magazines i.e. indie/pop and will include many features that go along with this.
Front cover-
The front cover of my magazine uses plently of features, colours, varieties of fonts and one big main image that is situated in the centre to immediately draw the attention of the audience. As the image is of an adolscent girl it may attract the attention of male readers which would be a good thing for the production and sales. I also chose to put the image in this manner because the readers can relate to the image that they are seeing making them want to buy the product. I believe that the colours and fonts that i have used also help me to attract the target audience, they are not 'in your face' colours but they do stand out and all work well together as a whole. Using the red and purple against the toned down main image results in the cover lines and masthead doing its job in standing out. I feel that the cover lines relate to both the male and female gender because i have included bamds such as ''maximo park and friendly fires' on the other hand the rest of the coverlines relate to both male and females because they are to do with festivals and events that have been happening. Also another aspect would be i have included Pixie Lott in a cover line she appeals to both male and females as she has done extremely well within her carrier and is always up to date with the new fashions (appeals to the girls) and then she appeals to the male population because she is a good looking, young artist. This also relates to what i said previously about not making the magazine specifically around indie, i also wanted to include other appealing topics. Below i will include survey answers of what people think of my magazine and how maybe i could improve it. I didnt get many responses so will include positive and negative personal comments.
I have included images of my results from my final draft survey asking people what they thought about my magazine, here is what they responded with; that it was clear, the design look professional and the images were good. Personally i think that my magazine is laid out formally as it is not untidy and things are not scattered all over the place. What i could improve on would be to change the 'live lounge' feature in the bottom left hand corner because i feel that it makes the rest of the magazine look out of place.
The ways in which my contents page appeals to the target audience would be that i have used a similar but not the same picture on the right hand side of the page, i wanted to do this so i could relate to the target audience and ensured that they knew she was to be continued throughout. I have kept the colour scheme the same which does not confuse the reader when they turn the page from looking at the front cover. I added another image this is of Strictly come dancing, again this does not tie in with the typical indie magazine because i wanted to add different features so that the readers didnt get disinterested. I didnt want the contents page to be cluttered as some can do, i thought it would be a good idea to add small information boxes underneath the cover lines on the page so that it gave the reader a chance to see what i was including. Adding the correct layout and including page numbers/headlines gives the reader the opportunity to see exactly where everything is, this can often be something people look for resulting in it being appealing.
I didnt get reasonable responses as to what was and wasnt good about my contents page but i think that it has used the conventions well for example it has kept to the typical layout where everything is neat, tidy and 'findable' which attracts the audience in. Negatively i would say that maybe my magazine needs a background colour because sometimes the plain white background does not always appeal to some people. In addition to this i feel that because i have used many colours in my images and in my fonts i could maybe get away with having a plain white background.
I feel like all my other pages my double page spread would be appealing to the aimed target audience because i have included more images and again kept the colours the same. Yet adding in a bright yellow outline of the box to draw in the fact that i have added a 'fact file' about the artist, the reason i done this was to ensure the readers saw it and wanted to read information about her. I kept the information about her the same colour as the masthead both on the front cover and 'exclusive' title. I used a bottle top on both the contents page and double page, i thought this signified the rock and roll/indie image that some people may have perceptions about. I thought it would be a good idea to say that the images are from her first ever photoshoot and that they are for her new upcoming album (first look) this allows the readers to feel that they are getting exclusive information about her and the new album out, this is a positive aspect to include as many people like to be the first to hear or see about new gossip. I feel like the other pages i created again the layout is tidy, i have arranged the photos around the edge of the page and left the writing in the middle so that that is the main focus.
Technologies-
To create my magazine i used many documents from the PC and i used a proffesional photography camera to ensure that my images were to the best quality they could be. I used this camera for all of the images throughout my product, a tripod was used to capture the images. I thought that i would use a long shot of the model for my front cover, this shows the audience exactly who will be featured in my magazine, what they are wearing i.e. how they are presenting themselves to the magazine. I used Windows Photo Gallery to edit the contrast and brightness of the image to make the pictures stand out and catch the attention of the reader.
Front cover development-
I used microsoft publisher to produce my magazine as i felt that had more design layouts and was the best option to use when creating a product such as this. I used dafont.com to get my fonts from as that was a quick as easy website to use to find sufficient fonts that were suitable for anything. The layout of my product is pretty self explanatory, i added the image so that it would fit the whole page and designed my cover lines around the edge of the page. I used the coverlines from the front cover of my magazine and throughout my magazine for the features shut as; the word contents, the numbers on the contents page, the exclusive on the double page and the pull out quotes. The masthead font on the front cover was also used to write '2011' on my double page for the fact file, i thought that this was a good idea because i wanted to signify the whole fonts that had been used on the front cover throughout the magazine and i think that it worked to my advantage. I made sure that i correctly alined the masthead so that it fit in place along the top of the page, i then positioned image so the back so that all of the cover lines and other various things that i wanted to add could be placed over the top of it. I then used the font from 'The Rise Of', used dafont.com to change the words and used that to make the kanye west&madonna&j bieber above the masthead, i then simply changed the colour of it on paint which was simple and easy to use. I used black for the cover lines because they would stand out from the white background and it linked in with the clothing that the model is wearing (black leggings&white cardigan). I used google to get a union jack flag and i saved this image and used microsoft word to apply this image within one of the fonts that i wanted to use, this was also simple to do. This also ties in with the other colours on page; the 'free tickets and issue number' and the red dividers between each cover line. I like the use of this union jack colours because it portrays that the model on the front of the cover is a british artist. The very last things that i applied to the front cover, contents page and double page spread was the price/date/issue number/page numbers and barcode; these were all included in the past colours that were used on the front cover- blue and purple.
Contents page development-
I also used microsoft publisher to create my contents page i followed the previous steps of my initial contents pages as that was how i had aimed to achieve my final piece, i divided the 'Dancing Queen' headline away from the various coverlines below it to signify that this was something that did not relate to music. I added the image to portray to the audience what Dancing Queen actually meant this gave them an insight to the article itself. The 'Dancing Queen', 'Reviews', 'Pixie Lott at the BRITS' etc are all used in the same font as the 'The Rise Of' on the front cover, i wanted to promote all of the fonts througout because it leaves the page looking tidy and readable which i have already explained earlier on. Each number, headline and informaation pieces were all put into seperate text boxes so that they were easily able to move if i wanted to make changes to the layout. I print screened the Amplification from the front cover so that i could apply it to the top right hand corner of my contents page this again symbolised the link between each page that i began creating.
Double page spread development-
Like the other two pages i produced my double page spread was also made on microsoft publisher, the very first thing that i began doing was creating the boxes that my images were to go in, making sure that they were correctly in place on the page. I then applied two text boxes one on either page ensuring that this worked around the pull out quotes and images that were already in place. I was again using dafont.com to make the pull out quotes, headlines and factfile date to the page, i added a black letter T to show that that was where the beginning of the article was starting this is a very conventional thing for a magazine to do.
Progression from preliminary task-
This was my preliminary task that i produced, as you can see this was aimed for school children as it was designed as a school magazine, i used publisher to produce this magazine just like i did for my final magazine; i didnt use the best of fonts and kept it pretty basic but i got to grips as to how to use the publications well. I used one main image on the front cover of school children this was because it linked in with the conventions of a school magazine, a variety of colours were used because i wanted it to stand out, the masthead was used in a basic font from publisher and i used it again to replicate the words 'contents'. The NW logo was used on both pages to signify the similarity on the front cover to the contents page. The main colours that were used were green, black and blue; blue was also used for the background colour of the magazine. It is clear to see that i spent more time and effect on my other product than my preliminary and used better publications and websites to ensure that i got the best outcome. Pictures were used and laid out better on my final piece because i wanted to represent the genre in a better way and use the conventions to the best of my ability resulting in my production skills increasing from creating the school magazine. Before hand i had researched other school magazines and looked into what conventions and representations they had used, and again for music magazines, from this i got a better understanding as to what the good and bad ways of producing a magazine is. I made sure that i followed the correct ways i.e. the layout, what colours to use and image types. I feel from doing this i am able to further my skills that i have picked up onto better things and create more products to a higher standard.
From designing the preliminary task i have been able to gain relevant ideas and see what the typcial conventions of a well prodcued magazine are. this reassured me that i could produce a well put together magazine that i could easily be able to relate to my target audience. I now have a better understanding of how to use professional websites and from this have created a good magazine that people think is professional looking and laid out. I have stuck to the genre that i aimed to use orignially and i also stuck to the magazine that i wanted to base my magazine around (Rolling Stone), doing research into this has helped me a lot becasue i now know what proper magazines look like and base their own coventions around.
