Evaluation Joe Reynolds

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? [Front Cover] When designing my front cover I followed similar conventions to NME, as that was the style of magazine I wanted to produce. This can be seen for parts of my magazine as I have used similar simplistic colour themes like NME. The reason I did this was because NME is a mainstream magazine that features a range of content. However I purposely broken specific conventions to create a diverse magazine, that allows it to stand out more. For example I decided to use an edgy masthead font, that readers would not usually except from a mainstream magazine, purely for the reason that it makes my magazine unique and adds personality. Although I did break conventions when making my magazine, I ensured that the genre was clear by including other main conventions that portray mainstream music. For example I feature many world famous artists that are currently in the charts on my contents page and plugs, that help reinforce the identity of my magazine. Using NME as inspiration allowed me to create a magazine full of exciting content, that uses a strict colour scheme with the occasional abnormality. Space has been used efficiently, with very little gaps which is common for popular magazines.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? [Contents Page] My contents page follows the same colour scheme as my front cover as it is a simplistic and effective range of colours that tie together. The reds, whites and blacks compliment each other and I feel like this is a development on typical conventions for magazines, as it is converging a range of features together in a professional way. Also the layout of my contents page is similar to many other magazines, as it is an efficient way of displaying content clearly. As I was aiming for a similar styled magazine to NME or Billboard I analysed there contents pages to see what conventions I could use in mine. I broke the typical convention of over filling my contents page, as there was no need for me to do that due to my content being so exclusive and interesting. I followed typical forms as I used bold subtitles that would catch the readers eye, and allow them to navigate through the page with ease. These subtitles used dark paint splats as a background, that linked to the edgy look my masthead gave off. The slight tilt of the subtitle ‘Horizon’ catches the readers eye alongside the image, to highlight that it is one of the main stories. You can see I used many similar design features to NME, but challenged forms by not ‘over-crowding’ my page like most magazines. I have took ideas on how to layout the magazine, and then added my own ideas to make it unique and interesting.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? [Double Page Spread] When creating my double page spread I could not find an exemplar by any other big company that I wanted to follow, which meant I picked ideas off various different magazines. I followed typical conventions as I wanted to use a big main image to cover one of the pages, as the artist displayed is famous and draws the audience in. This was similar to the double page spread below. I’ve maintained a standard colour scheme throughout the whole of my magazine as this is what all popular companies do, and makes the magazine look professional. The article is split up neatly into 4 sections, where the questions are clearly presented in a bolder and larger font. This makes the text easy to read and follow. Overall when designing my magazine I have took many things into consideration such as; questionnaires, audiences, typical conventions, etc. So this affected my decision making when deciding to break conventions to intrigue the audience. I used a small caption on my image, as this is common for magazines to give the reader a brief description of the artist.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? Horizon Drummer My magazine specifically targets typical teenagers who enjoy chart music, so all of the articles and stories that feature in the magazine have been designed to interest that social group. All the content on my magazine reflects my target audience, for example the price of the magazine is fairly cheap due to the fact that teenagers have less money. I wanted my magazine to give off a chilled theme where readers can relax when reading, which is appealing to the social groups I’m targeting and links in with my other features. The front cover displays a world famous young DJ who is slightly older than my target audience, which also helps attract my social group as they are of a similar age. Also my double page spread features an up and coming rapper, that may inspire musicians reading the magazine to be adventurous. Overall by including a variety of mainstream acts in my magazine, where some are of a similar age, makes this magazine more appealing for my social group and help reflect them. I thought it was particularly important for my magazine to also appeal to other social groups as well as my main target audience, so that I could increase the popularity of the magazine. To do this I added other small features that were appealing to an older audience, such as featuring a well know band ‘Horizon’ in the contents page. This band is more well known to the older generation, so by including various artists in my magazine allowed it to attract a wider range of people. DJ who is a similar age to social group, that reflects a positive reputation for teenagers.

What would be the audience for your media product? The target audience for my magazine would be people aged around 16-25 who have small jobs or are still in education. They are unlikely to be wealthy as they are young adults who have just finished (or are still in) education. Their financial status is not an issue with my magazine, as I have purposely made it an affordable price that promotes free links to music. My target audience enjoy music as a whole, and have passion for mainstream chart music. As the magazine focuses on mainstream music, it appeals to many people, so I included other features that would also interest a slightly older audience. As chart music attracts a large amount of people, I included a variety of content that would be appealing to them all.

What kind of media institution might release your product and why? The type of media institution that I think would publish a magazine like mine would be ‘Time Inc. UK’. This is because they publish a range of magazines, such as NME, that have a similar style of content to what I have produced. Also this company is well known for dealing with very popular magazines that produce a high income and demand, which is similar to mine as it has a large target audience (due to the genre being mainstream). ‘Time Inc. UK’ publish magazines that vary in content, for the purpose of it appealing to a wider audience meaning a higher income can be produced. This is one reason why I feel it would release my magazine, as it fits their style of product. My product is slightly different to NME as I mainly focus on the younger age range (teenagers), that have a passion for all the new and hot music. Whereas NME include more content to appeal to the older audience. However this is only a slight difference, and I feel that my magazine would still be popular with the regular readers of NME and the audience in which ‘Time Inc. UK’ target.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing your product? When making and producing my product I came across a few situations where I had difficulties making my ideas come to life. I have had previous experiences with programs like Photoshop, so I picked it up fairly fast. One problem that I encountered was when I removed the background colour on my main image for the front cover. This was because it made the edges of the photo rough, and did not look professional enough for my standards. After using various tools, such as crop and blur, I managed to get the look I wanted. Photoshop also allowed me to consistently use the exact same colour of red, by entering the colours code. This was useful as it helped maintain a colour scheme which makes the magazine look more professional and slick. Another difficulty that I came across was when I designed my badge. I felt like Photoshop was overcomplicating some simpler tasks (like the badge), so I decided to create it on Microsoft publisher. This program is easy to use, and suited this task. Once I created the badge on publisher I saved it as a photo and imported it into my magazine (I felt like this was a quick and effective method). Overall I felt like the combination of using Photoshop and Microsoft publisher was effective and allowed me to produce the desired magazine I wanted.

How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my target audience in a range of ways by using various techniques and features. I used a simplistic colour scheme that looked clean and professional which helped attract my audience, as the colours I used were the most popular on my questionnaire. I knew that reds, whites and blacks were commonly popular with my audience, and suited the style of my magazine as it is multi-genre (mainstream). The specific content I included focuses on the type of stuff my audience would enjoy reading, which ranged from upcoming DJ’s to Beyoncé updates. By covering a wide range of content in my magazine I was able to appeal to a much wider audience, which would then lead on to more sales and an increase in popularity. Another way I tried to attract my audience was with an attractive looking masthead, that would become easily recognisable. I did this by using my colour scheme combined with an edgy font that breaks typical mainstream genre conventions. I purposely did this to create controversy that would make people remember the magazine. COLOUR SCHEME The sliced up letters, and bold font create a diverse look which is not commonly expected with this genre of magazine. This creates controversy and makes the magazine unique which I purposely did to attract my target audience.

How did you attract/address your audience? My main images used throughout my magazine have also helped pull my target audience in as it displays many high profile artists that appeal to them. This acts as a huge feature as I rely on it as a unique selling point due it being exclusive for my magazine. My questionnaire informed me that frequent use of images is very popular, and makes the magazine as a whole more interesting so therefore attract my target audience and increase sales. There are many other small features that I used all for the soul purpose of attracting my audience such as; badges, tagline, layout, etc. However the last main one I used was the fonts, as this play a massive part in the overall look of the magazine. The font I used most frequently was a big bold blocky font, which I felt fitted with the style of my magazine. This font stood out and was easy to read, as well as looking smart. I also used other more decorative fonts in the contents page, to add variation and excitement to the magazine. This badge displays a well known festival that attracts a similar target audience to mine. I included this in my magazine as I knew my target audience would be excited by the chance to win tickets, so therefore be more likely to purchase my magazine

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The difference in quality between my preliminary and full product shows clearly the progression I’ve made, and the knowledge I have gained when designing and creating a magazine. One clear progression I made was colour scheme and layout, as in my preliminary I used only blue and white which was bland and boring. However I now know that an interesting and exciting magazine should include a range of colours that work together well, like my final product. Also I discovered that using a couple of different fonts rather than just one makes the magazine more appealing and make certain words stand out, where as in my preliminary I only used one which made the magazine look drab and boring. My general skills with using Photoshop have improved and I have been able to use some of the special features to add character to my magazine. This has allowed me to create exactly the magazine I wanted as I have used the software to the best of my ability. Overall I have learnt that it is essential to always refer back to the questionnaire results, codes and conventions and all my other planning when making decisions towards designing the product so that the most successful product can be created.