Friday, 30 March 2012

Evaluation: Question 7

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

Strengths

I am good at working out how to use Indesign to my benefit to create the magazine design I was aiming for. I succeeded well in creating the magazine look I wanted and the way my magazine turned out was very similar to the image I had in my mind of my image. Indesign is a complicated program to use but I found it fairly easy to get to grips with and work out how to use it for what I needed. I often stumbled across things I was not planning on adding to my magazine but used them because I thought it would suit my magazine well. I was good with managing my time well when designing my magazine and had a plan for what I was going to add to my design every week. I kept on top of the designing work well and the end result looked positive. I was pleased with my end result of my magazine design.

Weakness

I could improve on my use of images in my magazine as I don’t think I used enough images to make my magazine as interesting as I would have liked it to look. I should have also planned my cover lines in advance so I could have come up with multiple different cover lines that would make my magazine sound really interesting. I think the amount of text I used on the double page spread ruins my magazine a little bit as the page looks too busy and not as simple as I would have liked it too.

Opportunities

I can improve on my music magazine by using more images in the double page spread and not get too carried away with the article. I believe if I had taken the time to learn a bit more about Indesign before I started using it I could have found some really useful skills and used them to extend the quality of my magazine further. I also believe I could have used other software to help add extra interesting things on my magazine design.

Threats

The problems I encountered with designing my music magazine to how I wanted was often the lack of having Indesign at home to continue some of my work there. I also found that Indesign could be bit of a threat at times as you could do with learning how to use all the features on it before starting the design work. Often I had to spend ages trying to find a feature I had used previously and wanted to use again. This wasted a lot of design time and often ruined some of the ideas I had for my magazine. So because of this I believe that learning to use Indesign first would have helped but the problem with that is you need to remember what you learn and only skilled people who use it often have the knowledge to help you learn to use it.

Evaluation: Question 6

Evaluation: Question 5


How did you attract/address your audience?
















Friday, 16 March 2012

Evaluation: Question 3

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


  • I believe IPC media would be a suitable institution to distribute my magazine as they are one of the leading publishers in the UK.
  • This would be good for my magazine as they know how to publish and advertise a magazine well, this shows through their success.
  • IPC media have published the very popular music magazine ‘NME’, this magazine is a completely different genre to my music magazine so therefore can help to create music magazines that are appropriate for all of the market.
  • I believe IPC media have a gap in their market for my upper class music magazine targeted at teenagers.
  • This would attract a very different audience group to the one ‘NME’ attracts meaning that they can receive more of the market. My magazine could potentially be very good for the company.
  • With a gap in their portfolio for my magazine I think that with a good advertisement scheme and marketing strategy the magazine could be very successful and beneficial to the company.
  • The ‘NME’ magazine they produce at the minute aims at a wide variety of target audience, including people that are into anything from indie to rock. It covers a variety of ages as well as there are many people who find this magazine interesting and useful.
  • My magazine would make a difference to their company as they would be able to target the teenagers out there who enjoy knowing everything about chart music and all the artists and albums that are trending at the minute.
  • ‘NME’ is the only magazine devoted to just music that IPC media produce, this means there is a big gap for another music magazine to come in. Where my magazine is a genre almost completely opposite with a different look to it they will be able to reach all the audience out there that are interested in music.
  • My magazine would be very beneficial to this company as they could possibly provide magazines appropriate for everyone in the market.
  • IPC media would benefit me as they are a very successful publishers that would be able to advertise my magazine correctly to make it successful enough and reach my target market.

Evaluation: Question 2


How does your media product represent particular social groups?


This is my response to Question 2 in a powerpoint slideshow format.

Friday, 9 March 2012

Evaluation: Question 1

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














Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Music Magazine: Design: Double Page Spread: FINAL




















For my final double page spread I have added in some quotes to make the magazine look more realistic, I had forgot that quotes were often used in magazines. I think the double page spread looks a lot better now and more professional. The double page spread contains a lot of text and I could improve on that by adding in more images to make the page more interesting to the reader. I have stuck well the the theme of my magazine and I think the double page spread does match my proposal and what I wanted the magazine to look like. I believe it will match my target audiences needs well even though it is different to other magazines in the same genre on sale.

Music Magazine: Design: Contents Page: FINAL

This is my final contents page design. I have now added in all my images I needed too and made sure everything was positioned where I wanted and matched the style of my magazine. I added in some pictures I took at a live show to make the magazine look more realistic. I am happy with how the contents page has come out as I like the way I have arranged the text and the images. I could improve on the background colour and the contents page title as I think it looks a bit plain and could do with something more exciting.

Friday, 2 March 2012

Music Magazine: Design: Contents: Draft 1

This is my first design of a contents page, I decided to make it colourful and this page does not have a white background like my others. This makes it different from my other pages but I have kept the theme in the text by keeping the text colours similar and the font. The colours that make up the gradient background are also colours that have been used as the design colours throughout my front cover and double page spread. Next lesson I am going to add in more photographs of the artist on my double page spread and images from a concert to make the magazine look more interesting on one of the first pages people will come across.

Music Magazine: Design: Double Page Spread: Draft 2




















Music Magazine: Design: Front Cover: FINAL

I have added even more into my front cover design. I decided to add a banner as this attracts attention and makes the magazine style more interesting. I have added more cover lines sticking to similar fonts and using the same colours used previously, this helps stick to the theme of the magazine throughout. I have found a barcode and used that on my cover too. This makes it look more real and will be used for obvious payment purposes, I chose to put the barcode underneath the price of the magazine. I am getting closer to finishing my front cover, with one more attempt I think I will have a final design.

Music Magazine: Design: Double Page Spread: Draft 1

This is the start of my double page spread. I have started inserting the interview I have previously typed up in word. I have created a style for my paragraphs throughout the page and this style will be the same in each paragraph. Next time I need to think about inserting images, boxes and colour to make the page more interesting.