Evaluation

My evaluation for my media project.

I enjoyed my magazine projects as they let me experience new software and creative ideas towards creating the finished project. Creating a magazine that does not involve me in the target audience of gender, or being a genre that I would never take an interest in – I believe made the project I challenge, however I have done this to the best of my abilities, stretching myself to see another point of view.

My music magazine challenges the conventions of a normal men’s music magazine as the model I used for the photos was female (which is not usually common) but through my research I found other evidence of the use of women used in a sexual but classy way. I decided to change the photo for the final product because I believe it works better with the concept of my magazine, and looks more professional against the rest of the layout of the front page. I chose to use a semi-naked photo because it stretches my limitations, makes the magazine more appealing and also unique compared to others. The convention of the article is very similar to an article in a real magazine; there is a large photo, headline of the artist’s name, an introductory paragraph, an interview, a concluding paragraph, and finally the magazine’s name along with a page number. This is very usual for an article in a real media product, as I believed I should develop the codes and conventions in my own way while still creating a strong bond in the layout to an original magazine.

My media project focuses on indie/punk males between 16 and 30; I have represented this social group by the layout, the photos and the use of language. The layout represents this social grouping because the colour scheme is dark with some contrasting bright colours (for example the red masthead) to catch a potential reader’s eye, the layout is quite blocky and the text is usually black or white so it is easier to read. The photos are mainly of women, in the front cover photo the model isn’t wearing many clothes to particularly attract a male audience, and the other photos have been edited using photo shop in such a way to seem attractive to a male reader (big eyes, big lips, smooth skin etc). The photos are all quite dark and mysterious to attract the indie/punk readers. The use of language in the article is quite harsh and strong because this social group is not going to be offended by obscene language unlike a younger audience may do.

I believe most supermarkets and garages would sell my magazine as it appeals to a quite varied audience, I believe that ‘The National Magazine company’ would distribute my product because it would sell, and it means this company could branch away from women’s magazines (like Company) and create a new market segment for them in the male music industry.

As I have said before males would be the target audience for my magazine, as it is affordable it would be open to all income brackets in the market. The main age grouping would be between 16 and 30 as they would be more interest in the music genre that is indie/punk.

I have learnt the use of photo shop during my media project as when I started I was not able to understand it. To the end where I have edited most of my photos using this programme, by changing the appearance of the model and even creating my whole front cover using this software. I am pleased to be able to do this as I was getting frustrated at the programme as I have never used the software before.

From my preliminary task I have learnt how to use software like, as said before, photo shop. The use and decisions to use different colours and fonts within my front cover and contents page helped me with my main task as I was able to choose fonts that would stand out against the background and attract my target audience.

In conclusion I have enjoyed both the main task and the preliminary task, and hope my work reflects this enjoyment. I am pleased with the result from my main task and the only thing I might of changed if I was to re-do a page would be the contents page, but noticing the bad things about my project I believe gives it a better value behind it as it shows I have been critical about my work. I have stretched my imaginations and limitations of what I have been able to produce in a school environment to make it as professional as possible.

Final copies - Double page spread

I love the professional look of my double page spread

Final Copy - Contents Page

i did a whole new photo shoot for my contents page and double page spread to make it look more professional. However there are still sections on this page that i would like to change to make it look better.

Front cover Designs

These are some sketches so i could see how i would layout the front cover, this is because when i start designing to cover on photoshop it will be easier as i know a basic idea of what i will be designing.

Survey

This survey helped me decide about certain aspects of my magazine, the reason it was useful is because it helped me see what would advertise my magazine to its target audience.

I analysed each question on this page on the back of each pie chart.

Name Ideas

This page is focusing on name ideas:

There is at first a brainstorm of name ideas for my music magazine, as my magazine is of an indie punk genre i wanted the name of my magazine to reflect this...as this would set the atmosphere for my magazine as a whole.

i flipped between a lot of names, but in the end i decided to call my magazine...Saviour. I called it this because i felt it suited the magazine as the feeling of ''the SAVIOUR of real music''. i believe this suits the rock/ punk feeling of the magazine and sounds professional, so would fit in to a music magazine rack without looking out of place.

Planning Ideas

This page is mainly about putting my ideas about the magazine all onto one page. The first section is a mind map of all the the things i want to incorporate within my magazine and what would be the normal interests of a typical reader of the magazine that i am trying to produce.

There are eight main sections to this mind map; listening to music, motoring, bands, food, festivals, technology, instruments and alcohol. These are all things that i believe my target audience would want to read about.

The second section of the page is a mood board.

This tries to incorporate all the ideas a put into my mind map, but show them in a visual way - which means that someone who knew nothing about the magazine could look at this section and instantly recognise some of the key aspects/ features that the magazine focuses on.

Analysis of Double Page Spread Articles

Double Page Spread Analysis

These two double page spread articles were chosen to be analysed because they are both from music magazines, with a woman as the main focus (Shakira in the first and Florence Welch in the second) - I liked these two spreads because they both showed women in a positive light and both article layouts are completely different.

The first article is about the artist Shakira, the main thing i liked about this page is the layout - the different sections of the page is very appealing to the eye, as the contrasting colours of each different section grabs the readers attention.

What is also interesting about this piece is the smaller picture of Shakira where she is not wearing a top, i find this interesting because at first the picture seems slightly random on the page but it would grab the readers attention, also the way they have shot the photo reiterates my idea of being able to create photos of females with them wearing no clothes, however the photo not being explicit. The one other main point that i like from this article is that they use interesting quotes in the middle of the article (these are in a much larger font than the rest of the text) which any reader might see before they actually read the article which means it is like an advertisement for the rest of the article.

The other double page article I analysed was about Florence Welch (or Florence and the Machine), the photo is very strong on this spread as it takes up almost 2 thirds of the page but also moulds into the rest of the page and text which makes the whole page flow together and seem like one. The photo basically somes up the rest of the article as it shows the artist in a military styled outfit sitting on an American flag, with the concept of the article being the artist has managed to get into the American music market (conquered).

There is also very little text on the page which makes the article seem less of a 'drag' to read, the headline "USA got the love" is a play on words because one of the artists song's is called "you got the love" but as the article is about the artist's music making it in America then 'USA' was substituted in. The main text also begins with an accent on the first letter (larger and different font), which draws the readers eye onto the text which gives the article more chance of actually being read.

Analysis of Contents pages

Contents page analysis


I analysed the contents page of Q magazine, i focused mainly on the different sections of the page, because this would help me decide where to put each section on my page - the special section really interested me because it gives this version of the magazine a unique selling point which makes it more attractive to any potential readers.

The position of the photo in comparison to the other sections makes it the main focus of the page and the way the photo is shot makes you realise it is a band straight away, but the low angle of the camera gives the members of the band a more rock genre. I also like the review section on the bottom of the page because it is to advertise the magazine directly to music fans as they would be the only ones who would be interested in others opinions on songs and albums.

The second contents page i analysed was from the magazine NME, the main feature of the page that i like is the that all the headings are individually boxed in the contrasts of black and white. It makes each heading stand out nicely so any reader would know what each section of the page was about immediately. The colour schemes of the page are effective because they contrast nicely with each other, the main uses of red, black and white gives the magazine the feel of an indie genre.

The photo used isn't one you would definitely recognise as one from a music magazine, but it is affective with the use of the heading and the short description underneath, which shows that the magazine's audience is one of devoted music fans, as they would understand the photo without the description underneath. The subscription section focuses on trying to make readers loyal to NME magazine rather than stray to other magazine like Q or Kerrang - the use of yellow font on this section really grabs the readers attention as it is unlike the rest of the text on the page.

Analysis of front covers

FRONT COVER ANALYSIS

This is the page where i analysed two different front covers of different music magazines, one from the magazine NME and the other is from Q magazine. The reason i picked these magazines is they are both well established indie rock music magazines which are good starting projects for learning about the codes and conventions of music magazines. I specifically picked these two covers because of how they portray women, and as my magazine is for men then the portrayal of women is very important. They both show women (of very different sizes) neither is completely covered up, however neither photo is explicit or would look out of place on any magazine stand.

The text is interesting because both mastheads use the red and white colourings, and the rest of the text on the page, whether a comical text (NME) or a rather formal text (Q) it always contrasts with the front cover photo and the rest of the texts.

The main cover lines are very musical related so any potential reader would automatically know the genre of the magazine just by looking at the front cover.

The main focus of this analysis is the photos on the front cover, this is because the way the models are posed (in the exposed but not explicit) is what i would like to try for my magazine because i believe it would push my personal limitations and make my magazine unique as i have the courage to pursue these artistic routes.