Magazine Evaluation

By Emily Courdelle

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

1 – The Title of the Magazine

I think that my masthead uses forms and conventions of existing music magazines. For the masthead of my magazine I used a website called “Dafont” which allows you to create small amounts of text in fonts that aren’t available on programmes like Microsoft word. I print screened and pasted onto paint, sharpening the edges so that it would look bold when enlarged onto the page. I decided to stick with a black/white colour as this was a popular colour for music magazine and worked well with the rest of the magazines, especially ones with a busy front cover. My masthead follows the conventions of some existing magazines, like Kerrang for example.

Although the word ‘Kerrang!’ is longer and therefore fits right over the whole page, it could be compared to it as it is very similar to my masthead. It is bold and in capitals, as well and being black onto a white background and having an exclamation mark on the end.

You can see that this masthead is also quite a short word like mine and is positioned on the top left. It also has a small title above it, so it is not immediately at the top of the page. This is also similar to my masthead, as it wasn't quite big enough to put all the way across the page, so I positioned it in the top left corner, as well as putting some featuring artists above it.

2 – LayoutI think that the layout of my magazine is the most obvious when using forms and conventions of real media products. This is because my magazine is mainly conventional, and does not really challenge OR develop other media products. To make sure that my magazine was successful, I wanted to make sure that I kept it as close to an existing magazine as I could, without making it too obvious. I didn’t want it to look as if had completely copied another magazine, but i wanted it to look professional.

The contents page is the most noticeable for using a similar layout as an existing magazine.

I stuck with the traditional layout of having a column of the contents down the right hand side of the page like most magazines. The column has different sections in it to make it easier for the reader to find what they are looking for. It also has a hand written signature by the editor. I also used the same layout of images as Kerrang does, which I think would appeal to my target audience as it makes the page look full and interesting, as well as having bold quality images.

Also, I kept my article in columns as it looks smart and easy to read rather than the text going all the way across the page.

3 – Title and font styleThe font style in my magazine is conventional, as it is plain and simple (Arial) so that it would be easy to read. It would be silly to put a fancy font in my double page spread as it would be hard to read and wouldn’t look right. For my titles, I used several different fonts as most magazines do. This keeps the magazine pages looking interesting and not too repetitive. Although, the title for my article is slightly unconventional as most are large and in a different colour from the rest of the text on the page, where as mine is black which is the same as the rest of most of the text on my page.

4 – ImagesThe images I used are mainly conventional, as they are of artists who my target audience would find interesting and be able to relate to. Although in my double page spread I included both coloured images and black and white images, where as most existing magazine tend to stick to one or the other.

I used images that are similar to existing magazines, such as photo-shoot ones and the bands playing.

Photo-shoot

Artists ‘performing’

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

I’ve aimed my magazine at young females aged 15 – 21, and therefore tried to include an article that they would find interesting and be able to relate to in some way. The artist featured in my magazine is also a young female who had been involved in drugs and alcohol, which is a big problem in young people nowadays. I want the people reading my magazine to get the impression that she is fun and rebellious, but also a role model for young people. The readers should view her as a role model as she had sorted out her drug addiction and overcome her problems which can be very hard to do. The things she said during the interview should make the readers realise that although she is very serious about getting help with drugs, alcohol, etc. she is also fun and jokey which should appeal to my target audience.

Comparing the artist featured in my magazines double page spread to Ellie Goulding can help explain how I explain how my magazine represents a particular social group.

Both images are bright and bold, although the shadow is more prominent in the photo of Ellie Goulding. Also they both have different hairstyles, Ellie’s is up and blonde where as my sisters is up and brown. I think that these elements of the photos represent a normal young , fashionable social group and my magazine reflects this throughout – as the people featured in my magazine are quite normal looking – there’s nothing extreme or obscure about their appearances.

I wanted my artist to be similar to how people view Ellie Goulding, in appearance as well as in person. They are similar as the both have the same serious expression and are staring straight at the camera. They are also both dressed in a fashionable sense that my target audience would like. Both pictures were taken with a white background which is traditional for a photo-shoot, although my image has some steps and the seat in it which makes it slightly unconventional.

Overall I think my magazine represents young people in a negative way, although it would depend on different peoples opinions. Some people may view it as being represented positively, as she has managed to overcome her drug addiction and focus on her career. Where as I think most people may view it as young people being represented negatively because it’s a good example of what so many young people get involved in and there are ways you can avoid it.

3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?There are many magazines which target the same audience as mine. An example of one of them would be Teen vogue. The publishers of this magazine are called Condé Nast Publications. They publish a lot of women's and fashion magazines, such as Glamor, Allure and Vogue. Although none of these are music magazines, it targets the exact same audience as mine (young females aged 15 – 21.) This would be good as they may want to start publishing a music magazine with the same audience profile. Most of the magazines they publish seem to be distributed online as well as in printed form. This could also help as the internet is a great place for advertising and they could advertise my magazine. Also, teenagers/young people tend to use the internet a lot, and therefore it would be easier and cheaper to publish it online, as well as increasing its popularity.

4: Who would be the audience of your media product?The audience of my magazine would be females aged 16 – 21. After looking at existing magazines I realised that a lot of them were trying to aim for the same kind of age gap, so thought that this would be a realistic age group to attract as it’s not too wide and the artists included in my magazine are also of around the same age.

As my audience is for females, I had to make sure that I included things in my magazine that would be relevant to females, such as colour and images.

The typical girl who would read my magazine would probably shop in shops like Topshop, H&M, New Look, Hollister and other fashionable clothes shops. They would typically listen to music such as The Saturdays, Ellie Goulding, The Wanted, Katy Perry Etc.

Deciding the colour for my house style was a very important stage, as it would run throughout the magazine and reflect the type of audience I was trying to attract. The main theme colours were hot pink, bright yellow, black and white.

I decided on using these colours as they are quite loud which is similar to the title of my magazine. They are also bright, fun and they stand out well on the white/black page of the magazine. They are also very female orientated colours, but at the same time they aren’t too girly. 11th Nov 2010

Here is an example of the colours working together (featured on the contents page.) I love the way that the colours work with each other and how well they stand out of the page, it also has the “loud” effect I wanted it to have.

Here are the three other colours samples that I made. I Decided that these were not a suitable for my magazine and the audience that I wanted to attract as the are not as bright or fun. I originally tried using number 3, but it didn’t have the same affect as the one I decided to use so I’m very glad I changed it.

The colour scheme or house style is most noticeable on the contents page.

This is one of the images of my sister that I took and was included in my contents page. I picked out clothes and accessories that would appeal to young females and see her as modern and fashionable, like the image of Ellie Goulding. I tried to use the same facial expression as it draws attention to the face and makes the image look dramatic.

I used this image of Ellie Goulding which was from an existing magazine as inspiration for my photo-shoot images. She is a young artist who is also a fashion icon to the same audience as my magazine. I asked myself what it was that made it appealing and tried to use some factors of it in my images, such as facial expression and fashionable dress sense.

This is another one of the images that I took and was included in my contents page (of me this time.) I edited the images using fireworks and/or Microsoft image editor which is quite basic. For the image above I was a white background as lots of professional photo-shoots for magazines have a white drop behind them.

Some of my images

5: How did you attract/address your audience?I used a big bold masthead to make the title stand out from the rest of the cover. Its also white which stands out from the dark colours in the main image. This gives the audience an

idea that the magazine has lots of modern music information and upcoming artists.

The artist looks young, fashionable and attractive, so the audience may want to find out more about who she is and what the music she produces sounds like.

This small heading will attract consumers who listen to these bands/artists.

The smaller title and headline will attract audiences to the cover as its bright and bold and will make the consumers want to find out about who the artists is.

This small advert will attract audiences as they will want to enter the competition as it’s free. Also the yellow font stands out from the other colours on the page.

The fact that the magazine contains free posters will automatically attract my target audience.

I included a small section from an article in the magazine which would get the readers interested and want to read more.

I tried not to leave much (if any) blank white space because this makes the page look empty.

I used plenty of images to make the page look fun and interesting, as well as sticking to my house style of pink, yellow, black and white.

The main image is aimed to draw the readers into the page as the artists is looking straight into the camera.

The pages are clearly listed in a long column down the right hand side. They are listed in parts so that it makes the reader find the page they are looking for easier.

The small paragraph written by the editor helps the audience to get excited and look forward to what's coming up in the magazine; similar to existing magazines.

I used dark colours and images to give the readers an impression of the style of music and type of person this artists is, which makes the reader have an insight on the article before reading it.

I used a big image which fills one full page to make the double page spread look visually appealing as well as giving the readers a clear view of what she looks like.

I included a short paragraph on the first page which gives the reader a bit of an idea of what the rest of the article will cover and what they will be expecting to read.

The small section about “Everyone’s talking about” will make the reader want to fond out more about the artist featured in the next issue, therefore making them want to buy it.

The fact that some of the article is written in a questionnaire form will make the writing a lot less formal and repetitive, and make the readers more interesting in the content.

Smaller black and white images make the article look visually appealing and give the reader more of an idea of what the artist looks like.

Showing different images with the artist in different clothes and accessories may give the readers more of an insight to the artists and make then want to aspire to be like them.

6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?In order to create my music magazine I had to go through a planning process. This included looking at other music magazines that are already available. This was one of the most important parts or my planning and research stages as I could look at the way they present things, the language they use, and the overall view of a modern music magazine. Lots of the things I saw and read have been added into my magazine, such as the layout of the contents page, the images featured inside, and the amount of text to add. Another very important stage of the planning was creating the audience profile. This was my first step to creating my magazine after I conducted a questionnaire. My audience profile would affect my whole magazine and the contents of the article. I decided on creating a profile for females aged 15 – 21 who listen to modern pop music/hip hop. I thought this would be a good idea because I fit into that profile and therefore it would be easier to know what people of this category would like to see in a magazine. After creating the audience profile I had to decide on the colour scheme, fonts and the mast head designs. This was quite easy as I had already seen the fonts that current magazines had used so I was able to use those in my magazine. The last stage was creating mock up pages. This would help me decide on how I was going to lay things out in my magazine and also get a rough idea of how my magazine was going to look.

I used Microsoft Publisher to create my magazine. I learn a lot more while using for this project. I used new things such as how to create a double page spread, which I did not know how to do beforehand.

This is the blogging website I used while creating this magazine to upload my work and to keep track of where I was in my planning and research stages.

This was the website used to convert my images to the internet.

I used this website to edit quite a lot of my images used in my magazine. I had used this a lot in the past so was very confident in using it and how to make the images look affective.

This is the photo editor I used for my images in my music magazine. I had not used this programme before so it was useful getting to know

This is the website that transferred my slideshow from Microsoft PowerPoint to appear on the internet.

This shows some of the editing and adjusting of my final stages for my front cover. You can see that all of the colours of the photo are slightly different. The one on the left is the original one which wasn't edited, I then went to edit it on “Fireworks” which I learn hoe to use while creating this magazine. I tried it lighter, but it made the text fade. So I made the contrast higher, which made the image look bolder and the text stands out more.

I also got rid of the “free HMV card” sticker/sign as it covered some of the masthead, and without it there it gives the cover more of a professional look. I did this using the original programme I was creating my magazine with which was Microsoft publisher.

Overall I have learnt a lot about technology throughout this project. Before creating my magazine I had never used Slideshare, Imageshack, Fireworks, or the blogging website. However I now feel confident in using all of them.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, there is a significant difference in the quality and

general appearance of my magazine front covers. My knowledge in using programmes

such as Microsoft publisher and fireworks has largely developed. For example, I have

learn how to overlay images in Microsoft publisher, and how to make the writing on the front cover look more affective. I have

also learn that no magazines have any white gaps or spaces, so I made sure I used a

whole picture for the cover not two separate ones like my preliminary.

I have also learn about keeping a house style running throughout the magazine, this gives it a professional look and helps it to feel consistent. My preliminary task did not have a house style, and you can see how much more effective my final cover looks in comparison. that it is not good to try to overcrowd the magazine to make it look fuller, or more interesting as this can make the magazine

You can see a significant difference in the amount of white space there is on the contents page. In my preliminary task I didn’t include many images at all, but after looking into current and existing magazines I got a general understanding of what a contents page should look like.