Evaluation 7

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

Since my preliminary task, I have greatly learnt and understood the forms and conventions of a magazine. It helped me greatly to help progress to my full product. Without truly understanding the forms and conventions of a music magazine, you can;t really create a successful music magazine. Only after understanding it, then can you develop and experiment from there. I also realized how important typography and photographs are. In my preliminary task, I used too many different fonts which made it look too messy. I learnt how to chose my font properly, checking the readability, and the way it fits into my deign. The font can be sophisticated and experimental at the same time. Photographs are really important, the resolution. The sharper the image, the more impact it makes on the targeted audience. Finally, a good masthead is important. I liked my preliminary task masthead that I created in illustrator. The design supports the meaning behind the word. I used what I learnt from this and applied it to my magazine's masthead. Hence, I think that now my magazine is more professionally done as compared to my preliminary task. 

Evaluation 6

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

In the process of creating my magazine, I have used various technologies.

I used my DSLR Nikon D5100 to take photographs for my magazine. I learnt how to frame my photographs. How to frame my subject in a way it creates an interaction with the audience. I used manual focusing for all my photographs so that I could choose which part I wanted to focus at.

Next, Adobe Photoshop. I learnt how to edit my photographs that I had taken using saturation, contrast etc. I could manipulate the photographs any way I wanted. However, I didn't really manipulate it much because I wanted the image to seem real and raw. The colors are genuine. To match with my target audience of the acoustic side. Photoshop did help me to change my photographs to black and white and also to change the background to blue.

Thirdly, Adobe Illustrator. I learnt how to create my own Masthead and how to manipulate fonts into the way I wanted it to be.

Adobe InDesign helped my for the layout for my magazine. I learnt how to place my images and text layouts in the way I wanted it to be when I printed it out like a magazine. I learnt how to put my text in a circle. Haha. This made it so much easier for me to try different layouts quickly and effectively.

Safari, well google, helped me to do research. I was able to do loads of research in a short span of time.

I learnt the different ways of saving my work. Jpeg, Pdf, Ai, Indd, Png, Tiff. These really helped to keep the high quality of my images and work.

I have learnt a lot from various technologies and they have helped greatly to improve the quality of my magazine and helped me accomplish many tasks that I wanted to do. 

Evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Since most of my target audience is interested in creativity and design innovation, I would say that my design for the magazine is very different and experimental. It is different from the "usual" magazines. There's a pop of neon color at the border of my front cover to attract my audience. It has a surprise element and a sense of creativity. My magazine is also very minimalistic but with lots of information. Black on yellow is one of the most conflicting and complementary colors there is, so it would attract people's attention. However, I thought black and yellow was too common. So I changed the background of my photo to blue. It is very subtle. However, you can see the difference under light after I printed the magazine out. I wanted my masthead to stand out and state what my magazine is about straight away with a glance. That is why my masthead has more elements while the rest of the information is kept simple. There's a lot of subtle elements that reveal what my magazine is about without having to actually read cover lines to know what is going to be in my magazine. So I guess its an element of surprise yet of knowing when the audience buys the magazine. 

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Dual Gender, Male 49% and Female 51%. Around the ages 15-35, but mostly 23-28. Most of my target is either in College, Post Graduate or in the working field. They are employed or studying full-time. Mostly in the creative and entertainment industry. Transport taken is usually public transport such as the underground. Personality or Character is creative and experimental. Generally likes indie, acoustic or both together. Interested in design innovation, desire for inspiration, information, and to promote up and coming artists. 

Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute media product and why?

Media institutions such as Dazed group, poster magazine and publishers of inventory, interview, who's jack and love magazine. It is because I believe by having my magazine being distributed by these institutions, my magazine would be successful as their goals aline with mine. My magazine is both a visual and textual embodiment of that desire for inspiration, information, a hunger for creativity and awareness of up and coming artists.  Also, these companies are big and have successful magazine. Therefore, would have more experience in handling my magazine and their way around the media world. The way their magazines look, fits the look of my magazine. Simple and young yet sophisticated.

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is targeted at both male and female, of ages 15-35 but mostly 23-28, either in college or in the working industry. So my magazine isn't too cheap or too expensive. I researched that the average for all magazines in UK is about 3 pounds. So 5 is a good price. My model is young, but not too young. Around the age of 19. The color scheme is fun and energetic but yet soft and elegant. Text is sophisticated yet young and experimental. 

Evaluation 1

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

While researching magazines, I realized that they all had a "template", conventions of magazines. Such as Masthead, Dateline, Main image, Main cover line and barcode. These are the main ones that appear in every magazines. Other conventions are the selling line, cover lines, model credit and the left third. I went to research further on more "artistic magazines" since indie music was a part of my magazine. In those magazines such as Indie, AnOther, Inventory went for a more simple yet powerful approach. Meaning, their main image was usually in the middle, not leaving a left third. This was to create focus and tension between the buyer and the magazine. They had less, or no cover lines at all to emphasize on the detail of the design on the magazine and their content. Since I was doing an indie-acoustic magazine, I researched acoustic magazine and indie magazine. I realized that both magazines had different target groups. The layout for acoustic's magazine was the more contemporary kind like cosmopolitan, however, indie's magazine was more "artistic". I had to find a way to combine both to suit my target group. Since it was an indie- acoustic magazine, I would say the percentage of my target group for indie to the percentage for just acoustic would be 60% to 40%. Hence, I decided to make my magazine simple but yet informative in a way that does not include cover lines. The cover photos of most "artistic" magazines are usually crazy, wild and colorful. So I decided to tone down on my image but have that eye contact with the viewers- potential buyers. I used the forms and conventions of real magazines such as a masthead and selling lines.   I developed by instead of having the cover lines; I put the model credit, cost, barcode and issue number in the third left. I challenged forms and conventions of media products by having a neon border on my magazine and having my main cover line like that of a text book. 

Moving on to content pages, the forms and conventions are usually: heading contents, name or brand, usually a white background, features organized into a column, one large image or a few more, page numbers, issue number and date and no more than 3/4 colors. I did all these forms and conventions, but just developed and challenged these conventions using layout and typography. Usually, real magazine content pages are only one page, instead I made it a double spread. I put in more amount of pictures than the normal conventions. However, it still looks simple and little due to the layout. Since there is only 3/4 colors on the content page, I edited all my images in the same color scheme or made it black and white.  

For my double spreads, the forms and conventions are usually a title, a sub title and editor/ photographer credit and photos. I followed all these but did it in a slightly different way. My magazine is more simple, yet eye catching. My target group has quite a wide age range gap. So i had to make the photographs seem as important as the text. My layout of text was very "box" like. My main inspiration was shapes. Quotes and headings were in a typical way of most magazines that was just written in a line. Some of my text was placed diagonally, like a triangle and even in a circle. To ensure that my text was readable, I printed out my double spreads to let people read them. True enough, it was. Some of my images filled up 3/4 of a page. This was how I challenged and developed from the forms and conventions of real media products- magazines. 

Final: Third Double Spread

Final: Second Double Spread

Final: First Double Spread

Final: Content Page

Final: Front Cover

I made the masthead a little smaller because the top looked too heavy.

Third Double Spread Development: Photos 2

I like the first photo, however when I put it on the double spread, it looked too messy and confusing. So I changed some of the opacity of the photos and made a vocal point. One photo is more prominent than the rest. Making it more pleasing to the eyes. 

Front Cover: Layout 4

Trying to get the layout right:

Front Cover: Comparing

I think the first one looks better to me, however, it looks as if there is too much white. 

Front Cover: Cost of Magazine

I researched and found out that the average price of a magazine is about £3. 

Indie Magazine:  £7

Acoustic Magazine:  £3.3

These are already established magazines in their own industries. 

However, magazines such as:

 Betty Magazine, just recently released its third issue costs  £6.

Inventory Magazine, just recently released its forth issue No 7 costs  £12.

According to my target group, most people that would buy my magazine ranges from 23-28 years of age. This would mean that the majority would be working. As most of my target group is employed or studying full-time, I think that it would be best if my magazine costs £5.

Front Cover: Layout 3

Experimenting with different ways of placing the barcode, date, edition, issue, model credit.

Front Cover: Researching Different Ways of Placing

I started researching on some magazines to see how they placed their stuff:

Just Issue No. on the above left hand side and bottom right hand side. No date written. 

Its blurred but date and issue on right hand side. 

Issue No, date and price on above left hand side.

Issue No, Date and Website all at the bottom. 

Text at the side. 

*ATTENTION*: REALIZED THOSE TEXT IS VERY SMALL FOR ALL. 

It should not take away the attention from the masthead and cover story. Instead to add to the appeal of the magazine. 

Front Cover: Other Typography and Conventions of Magazine Cover

INVENTORY

VOLUME 04 NUMBER 07 TAKASHI TATENO COVER

I like the above typography, very simple and classic. Makes you feel peaceful at the same time. I want my magazine to have that "feel" too. I started to add in things I was missing out: Barcode, model credit and Dateline. 

I was trying out different fonts:

Front Cover: Research Conventions of Magazine Cover

I started comparing my magazine to the conventions, to see what else I was missing. Obviously, I'm going in an slightly different direction because of my target group. 

However, some conventions still must be kept. 

Such as: 

Masthead

Barcode

Left Third

Selling line

Dateline

Main Image

Model Credit

Cover line

Still left:

Barcode     X      

Dateline      X

Model Credit       X

My Left third, if it is not obvious, is the letter 'T'. I think the 'T' is very distinct enough to represent my Masthead, Timbre.