Sunday, 16 December 2012
Friday, 4 November 2011
Main Task: Evaluation FINAL
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
From the beginning of preparing to make my media product, existing magazines were viewed and analysed to help us interpret which conventions are being used and why they are being used. My magazine contains a mixture of both following the conventions that were existent on real magazines and challenging the conventions with adjustments and other actions of originality. I used many conventions to start off with to try and make my magazine similar to some existing magazines to put myself on track making the magazines to look real and well-made. One convention I followed with this was the masthead, where it was placed behind the main subject’s head yet still visible to the audience. Many magazines follow this convention, but not all and I thought if my masthead looked very original and clear – this would be a good starting objective that has been completed.
As you can see from an existing magazine Vibe the masthead is behind the subjects which is shown by the magazine really encourages the focus on the three subjects used in the cover as well as the masthead due to the size and bold font used. I wanted to create something along the lines as this one, but with an original twist and encouraging focus on my subject.As you can see from my magazine cover, the Vibe edition had influence on the creation of the masthead being behind the subject – but without being too big and distractive so that the audience would not be encouraged to focus on the subject. As shown, my masthead does have a very original look and the slight changes to the starting letter’s really makes this masthead different from others in the music industry. I believe that committing to this choice with the masthead has been a good decision and helped me gain a rough idea of what to do for the rest of my magazine. Also the left third has been differentiated from Vibe as my creation displays the masthead aligned with the website and a cover line displaying a neat and easy-to-read convention.
Another convention that I followed was a certain feature within one of the cover lines which really caught me eye when I was analysing the existing magazines. With the cover line starting with ‘PLUS’ and making a list of some artists that would be involved within the magazine, this helped me to follow the similar way this convention was made – but just like the masthead, keeping it as original as possible with a couple of amendments.Although on my creation, there are less artists but more features shown with things like boxes behind the text and making the one behind the ‘PLUS’ in a different colour. This convention in itself needs to be engaging to the audience and the good example shown to me by XXL; it helped me to learn from what they created whilst making it more bold and appealing.
However, despite following the conventions, they have helped inspire me to be included in my magazine cover - I felt like I needed to challenge some conventions to make my magazine a bit more interesting and appealing to the audience to try and win them over to buy this magazine and not a similar competitor. The main cover line is a convention that would stand out the audience at first and depending on how it’s been executed, can really be successful to attract audiences. The main cover line I used was slightly altered and an unorthodox method was used that I haven’t seen much by other existing magazines.
As you can see, the font was changed from the first 2 lines and the bottom 2 lines – but I think this was a good choice as it looks very different, yet not too different to perhaps affect audience’s engagement to the whole cover. It corresponds well with the other cover lines but displays a sense of firm presence to make it known that this is the main cover line. Comparing my one to one from SOURCE, the main cover line used in mine seems to stand out more and is displayed more to show that the audience can see it well and acknowledge, whereas to the other one which doesn’t seem big nor bold enough and by looking at both magazines, the main cover line that would help gain more attention would be mine due to changes in font and size – which is an important factor for all main cover lines. So by challenging the normal convention of a main cover line slightly with these changes, it has helped my magazine to gain a whole new feeling to it which should be intended by all magazine covers.One other convention I aimed to challenge a bit would be how the barcode is shown within the front cover of the magazine, as VIBE has it in a horizontal way with the price shown quite discreetly, whereas I have made the barcode vertical and with the price clearly shown to catch the eyes of the readers or people wanting to buy it. Most music magazines vary from having the barcode either horizontal or vertical, but as I was using Vibe and Source the most to obtain my ideas for my magazine and they had horizontal barcodes, I felt like I was challenging the normal convention more. I did however follow the orthodox convention by making the barcodes reasonably large and viewable for the audience, as on other products that are not magazines, barcodes are often small, whereas many of the magazines I’ve observed have them large.
My contents page also followed a couple conventions yet challenging some as well, perhaps not so much to the same genre like from magazines like Source and Vibe as a different sort of layout was used for it.
Hip-hop
Hip-hop
Indie/pop Despite the difference in genre, my contents page has followed similar features with the pop magazine Q rather than Source’s layout which is both challenging and following typical components on a contents page. However my contents differs from Q’s as there are also images on the right side the pages are more brief – which I’ve used as a reader would want to know what’s on these pages without too much being revealed or having to read too much, therefore the layout and structure was followed, yet the amount of text and more images used wasn’t.
I believe that my double page spread has followed mostly all conventions used normally for double page spreads. As shown below, I’ve used the main text on the left side of the page and the main image on the right – so that when the page folds, it looks both neat and the reader could focus on certain things within the page. Possibly the part that I’ve challenged on this page would be that the text side seems to be more engaging due to the colours and font, whereas the one used on the right seems more casual and a little bit non-engaging – even though the real one looks more professional and typically made, My DPS (double page spread) seems to make the whole page to gain a certain look and feeling as the red and black colours would connote a determined and serious look for my artist, whereas Dr.Dre looks a bit plain and no clear connotation can be made. Also, I have provided a quotation from my text unto the subject which immediately gives the audience an insight to what the subject is talking about – this has not been used on the creation with Dr.Dre in it and therefore would be able to lose focus of the audience as nothing is standing out for them to view.
I believe that my double page spread has followed mostly all conventions used normally for double page spreads. As shown below, I’ve used the main text on the left side of the page and the main image on the right – so that when the page folds, it looks both neat and the reader could focus on certain things within the page. Possibly the part that I’ve challenged on this page would be that the text side seems to be more engaging due to the colours and font, whereas the one used on the right seems more casual and a little bit non-engaging – even though the real one looks more professional and typically made, My DPS (double page spread) seems to make the whole page to gain a certain look and feeling as the red and black colours would connote a determined and serious look for my artist, whereas Dr.Dre looks a bit plain and no clear connotation can be made. Also, I have provided a quotation from my text unto the subject which immediately gives the audience an insight to what the subject is talking about – this has not been used on the creation with Dr.Dre in it and therefore would be able to lose focus of the audience as nothing is standing out for them to view.
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?My magazine targets young teenagers of both genders who are interested in R&B and Hip-hop, which seeing from my magazine images are examples of the target audience I’m targeting. There are such props, clothing, text style and other conventions that make it clear to my target audience that they are looking at the right magazine that would appeal them.
The content of my magazine isn’t just for the UK either (although it would play a big part in distributing well here) as I’ve made it to be suitable worldwide as well. From the start of making my magazine, I wanted to be original than from those other RnB/Hip-hop magazines, as they seem to be styled for people in USA. As you can see from my the screenshot from my Contents page below, it contains other news from other places worldwide – which would wouldn’t just appeal to British and American audiences, but of those from other backgrounds.
The clothing, unlike the text is very individual and shows a clear taste of my target audience due to such items like caps, tracksuits, hoodies etc. Once again this would appeal to teenagers the most with artists used in the magazine about their age wearing things that the target audience are also likely to wear. The items of clothing used connote the stereotypical assumption of someone who likes hip-hop as demonstrated by many of these influential artists like Snoop Dogg and Drake for example. The clothing is very consistent between the artists used to display the main social groups for this genre and is the main aspect to what makes the social group intended to be represented very clear.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
The first thing I aimed to attract my audience with was the cover lines’ relationship with the main image; I thought that this would be important as if they looked segregated from each other or they don’t match well, then I would instantly lose the interest of the readers. As you can see from my front cover, the text has boxes behind it and the fonts are different from each other – which would immediately appeal to my target audience as they stand out, but not too much that the main image is out of focus to the reader. I believe that this was a positive convention from the front cover and from my feedback, it was liked. The styling of the text is important for the target audience to see and interpret and by using this text really connotes a bold feeling to the magazine which is both neat and expressive to my chosen genre. The same font however isn’t used for all my cover lines on my front page however, nor are they completely different. I believe that this develops a more diverse look to my magazine that it doesn’t have the same look throughout the 3 pages – but they look slightly different from each other, yet it still looking like part of the same magazine. As you can see from my front cover below, all the cover lines contain different text, therefore adding variety to the magazine so it isn’t too dull.I also wanted to make sure that my masthead was original as well as attractive, as this would be the key thing the readers would remember from any music magazine as well as the image. I made the beginning letter of each word more bold and recognisable to readers and my slotting it behind my subject made it less dominant at the image is a convention that needs to be stood out as well.
The content of my magazine isn’t just for the UK either (although it would play a big part in distributing well here) as I’ve made it to be suitable worldwide as well. From the start of making my magazine, I wanted to be original than from those other RnB/Hip-hop magazines, as they seem to be styled for people in USA. As you can see from my the screenshot from my Contents page below, it contains other news from other places worldwide – which would wouldn’t just appeal to British and American audiences, but of those from other backgrounds.The clothing, unlike the text is very individual and shows a clear taste of my target audience due to such items like caps, tracksuits, hoodies etc. Once again this would appeal to teenagers the most with artists used in the magazine about their age wearing things that the target audience are also likely to wear. The items of clothing used connote the stereotypical assumption of someone who likes hip-hop as demonstrated by many of these influential artists like Snoop Dogg and Drake for example. The clothing is very consistent between the artists used to display the main social groups for this genre and is the main aspect to what makes the social group intended to be represented very clear.
I believe that every convention used really does balance an understanding of the social group represented by my media product. As my target audience would wear similar items to the artists doesn’t exactly mean that they would be appealed to the same things, which would be a main reason for the different text styles and colours so that some teenagers that like this genre would be appealed to it, but most of them. The way the text is written also displays little bit of slang, not too much as it may distract some readers from following the content and could affect their opinion of the magazine. The same thing can be seen with the attitude by the artists, as some of them are displayed serious like this one and some can be more cheery and positive like this artist, which would widen the social group intended for my media product and would try to aim for many people within different social groups within the teenage bracket. I would say however less serious people are targeted more due to these factors, as many R&B/Hip-hop magazines does connote a very serious tone to it with mainly dark colours – which would make my media product stand out more and appealing to not only the main social group of this genre, but others as well.
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
During the planning and research period, I was asked to choose one of the distributors for my magazine out of a selection of some. I had chosen MusicMags as they had quite a wide variety of music magazines which involved DJ Times for example and also contained ones about instruments like guitars and drums. As there weren’t any to do with RnB or Hip-hop, I thought that this niche market would be ideal for them as most of their magazines are suited for an older audience and as DJ Times would be appealing for teenagers, why not add my media product where teenagers are also the target audience?
By looking that all the magazines that they publish, none of them really stand out or make a clear impression of what their magazine is about. I believe that my magazine does stand out in comparison to MusicMags other magazines not only because the genre is different, but all the other conventions as well. By introducing a magazine like TopBeat would widen MusicMags target market and would expand also their name would gain recognition and would be able to be more successful with their other magazines as well.
MusicMags do seem to target a niche audience for younger audiences, but seem to be broader with their other magazines that appeal to older audiences – so by adding TopBeat would expand the niche market for teenagers and more variety can be offered to them. As shown by the screenshot below, most of the magazines do seem adult-orientated and as a teenager, I didn’t find any of these magazines appealing to me, which is another reason for TopBeat to be involved with MusicMags.
I believe that choosing which stores to distribute in is quite tough and important as it would be ideal for my magazine to be distributed in many music and clothing stores to attract my audience, but also stores that the other magazines distributed by MusicMags. I would say WHSmith, HMV and major stores like Tesco as the mass market would be attracted, but I would also recommend stores like JD and FootAsylum as that’s where teenagers are likely to be and by distributing a few magazines there would increase the likelihood of increasing sales and to gain a popular customer base and ultimately profit.
During the planning and research period, I was asked to choose one of the distributors for my magazine out of a selection of some. I had chosen MusicMags as they had quite a wide variety of music magazines which involved DJ Times for example and also contained ones about instruments like guitars and drums. As there weren’t any to do with RnB or Hip-hop, I thought that this niche market would be ideal for them as most of their magazines are suited for an older audience and as DJ Times would be appealing for teenagers, why not add my media product where teenagers are also the target audience?By looking that all the magazines that they publish, none of them really stand out or make a clear impression of what their magazine is about. I believe that my magazine does stand out in comparison to MusicMags other magazines not only because the genre is different, but all the other conventions as well. By introducing a magazine like TopBeat would widen MusicMags target market and would expand also their name would gain recognition and would be able to be more successful with their other magazines as well.
MusicMags do seem to target a niche audience for younger audiences, but seem to be broader with their other magazines that appeal to older audiences – so by adding TopBeat would expand the niche market for teenagers and more variety can be offered to them. As shown by the screenshot below, most of the magazines do seem adult-orientated and as a teenager, I didn’t find any of these magazines appealing to me, which is another reason for TopBeat to be involved with MusicMags.I believe that choosing which stores to distribute in is quite tough and important as it would be ideal for my magazine to be distributed in many music and clothing stores to attract my audience, but also stores that the other magazines distributed by MusicMags. I would say WHSmith, HMV and major stores like Tesco as the mass market would be attracted, but I would also recommend stores like JD and FootAsylum as that’s where teenagers are likely to be and by distributing a few magazines there would increase the likelihood of increasing sales and to gain a popular customer base and ultimately profit.Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
TopBeat is aimed to mainly teenagers and young adults ranging from 16-23 and to inner-city teenagers, as those of remote areas wouldn’t be interested or as able to purchase this magazine. RnB and Hip-hop are increasing more in popularity in the UK, especially parts like London and with many magazines of this genre is not a clear favourite in the UK; this would be a good chance for TopBeat to make a name for itself. There is no specific audience based on ethnicity – as the UK is a very diverse region especially in inner city (where my target audience would be), this is also shown in my magazine with different races present within it, which is also shown with my image of profiling my audience as well. RnB and hip-hop has become more diverse itself as a genre, which is a positive thing to notice as my magazine isn’t race or gender specific.
The colours used in my magazine are very neutral (yellow, black and white) as there is no clear identification whether the colours are masculine or feminine. With the colours being either one or the other, it would distract the opposite sex and would prove to be fatal for my magazine if it were to make as most sales as it possibly could. Also the overall styling and impression of my front cover really shows off a clear personality for the audience to see. I have not gone for an organised approach nor a messy one, but a more crooked yet tidy characteristic of the front cover has made clear that the majority of the teenage audience would be appealed by this.
The content of my magazine isn’t just for the UK either (although it would play a big part in distributing well here) as I’ve made it to be suitable worldwide as well. From the start of making my magazine, I wanted to be original than from those other RnB/Hip-hop magazines, as they seem to be styled for people in USA. As you can see from my the screenshot from my Contents page below, it contains other news from other places worldwide – which would wouldn’t just appeal to British and American audiences, but of those from other backgrounds.
I felt that I needed to make my target audience as wide as possible for this genre, as there are many magazines that people can’t buy is it may be specific for certain genders and races, so by trying to link them all together and by attempting to make it appeal to everyone would make TopBeat more known worldwide and would give it a better chance of surviving within this industry as the competition is quite tough. A popular look nowadays would be the chunky headphones used in my main subject’s image to instantly grasp the audience with this in sight.
TopBeat is aimed to mainly teenagers and young adults ranging from 16-23 and to inner-city teenagers, as those of remote areas wouldn’t be interested or as able to purchase this magazine. RnB and Hip-hop are increasing more in popularity in the UK, especially parts like London and with many magazines of this genre is not a clear favourite in the UK; this would be a good chance for TopBeat to make a name for itself. There is no specific audience based on ethnicity – as the UK is a very diverse region especially in inner city (where my target audience would be), this is also shown in my magazine with different races present within it, which is also shown with my image of profiling my audience as well. RnB and hip-hop has become more diverse itself as a genre, which is a positive thing to notice as my magazine isn’t race or gender specific.
The colours used in my magazine are very neutral (yellow, black and white) as there is no clear identification whether the colours are masculine or feminine. With the colours being either one or the other, it would distract the opposite sex and would prove to be fatal for my magazine if it were to make as most sales as it possibly could. Also the overall styling and impression of my front cover really shows off a clear personality for the audience to see. I have not gone for an organised approach nor a messy one, but a more crooked yet tidy characteristic of the front cover has made clear that the majority of the teenage audience would be appealed by this.The content of my magazine isn’t just for the UK either (although it would play a big part in distributing well here) as I’ve made it to be suitable worldwide as well. From the start of making my magazine, I wanted to be original than from those other RnB/Hip-hop magazines, as they seem to be styled for people in USA. As you can see from my the screenshot from my Contents page below, it contains other news from other places worldwide – which would wouldn’t just appeal to British and American audiences, but of those from other backgrounds.
I felt that I needed to make my target audience as wide as possible for this genre, as there are many magazines that people can’t buy is it may be specific for certain genders and races, so by trying to link them all together and by attempting to make it appeal to everyone would make TopBeat more known worldwide and would give it a better chance of surviving within this industry as the competition is quite tough. A popular look nowadays would be the chunky headphones used in my main subject’s image to instantly grasp the audience with this in sight.Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?As I am part of the target audience, I tried creating the magazine the way I would be appealed to it and then by receiving feedback from my audience research helped me to change a few things to try and appeal to everyone who is a targeted audience. I wanted my magazine to look interesting as well as original and I aimed to get the readers’ attention straight away and to consist of this throughout the three pages.
The first thing I aimed to attract my audience with was the cover lines’ relationship with the main image; I thought that this would be important as if they looked segregated from each other or they don’t match well, then I would instantly lose the interest of the readers. As you can see from my front cover, the text has boxes behind it and the fonts are different from each other – which would immediately appeal to my target audience as they stand out, but not too much that the main image is out of focus to the reader. I believe that this was a positive convention from the front cover and from my feedback, it was liked. The styling of the text is important for the target audience to see and interpret and by using this text really connotes a bold feeling to the magazine which is both neat and expressive to my chosen genre. The same font however isn’t used for all my cover lines on my front page however, nor are they completely different. I believe that this develops a more diverse look to my magazine that it doesn’t have the same look throughout the 3 pages – but they look slightly different from each other, yet it still looking like part of the same magazine. As you can see from my front cover below, all the cover lines contain different text, therefore adding variety to the magazine so it isn’t too dull.I also wanted to make sure that my masthead was original as well as attractive, as this would be the key thing the readers would remember from any music magazine as well as the image. I made the beginning letter of each word more bold and recognisable to readers and my slotting it behind my subject made it less dominant at the image is a convention that needs to be stood out as well.
As a comparison to this one made by Vibe, the masthead isn’t too dominant and the main image seems to overpower it and may not have a big enough influence to attract audiences as much as TopBeat’s front cover which displays an equal balance of power between the image and masthead which I believe was important for me to consider when making my front cover. Also, the cover lines of Vibe don’t seem as noticeable as the ones I made; I looked at this magazine when creating my magazine and thought that my cover lines would need to be more engaging and more interesting for the reader to notice. One another way would be the main cover line; again I wanted this to be clearly presented yet not too overpowered. I liked the main cover line used in Vibe as it was big and displayed a clear sense that this was the main cover line, but I thought if my main cover line was too big – it would get in the way of my subject. The image of T.I. used in Vibe is more zoomed out than mine, which was why I decided to make the main cover line slightly smaller and not too dominant as it could affect the structure of my front cover, yet still large enough to appeal to the audience as well. But the use of T.I may require Vibe to make him more dominant as he is a popular artist in this industry and by including a celebrity in your magazine, the audience would be interested if they see this.Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I learned about different technologies that I needed to use as part of my creation of the music magazine which was the camera I used (Canon E0S 400D) and the software was Photoshop CS3.
I learned about different technologies that I needed to use as part of my creation of the music magazine which was the camera I used (Canon E0S 400D) and the software was Photoshop CS3.
Starting off with the camera, I needed to learn how to use it and to be able to use the basic things needed to take a picture (e.g. zooming in and out etc). I used this camera for both my preliminary and main task; I noticed that this camera was a lot more advanced then camera’s I’m familiar with and due to the quality of the camera – this helped me get the best out of my pictures. I didn’t find it too hard to manage and I was able to learn how to use the different functions properly, but it was quite a heavy camera and needed a strong grip to retain the camera in my desired position. Despite its weight, the camera was small and mobile which was useful when I needed to position myself differently to take certain shots from different angles which were helpful when I was taking pictures for my magazine. I also learned from the Canon E0S 400D about the focus on it, which was especially important for front cover images to be able to make the image as good as it can be. When learning about the Shutter speed, this helped me to understand why this was important for taking certain pictures. The lighting of the image would depend on this and to make the intended look more successful; in this case I was looking for a high key lighted area to show my subject more to add boldness to my front cover. Focus as well helped the presentation of my images as I would have to adjust the focus into a certain area and to maintain it there in order for an important part of the image being the focus of the overall picture. Learning about this camera played a very important role for when I was taking my pictures and after when I was picking the images for my magazine pictures and has helped me gain a better understanding with cameras used in media.The other technology I learned about was Photoshop CS3 which I have not used before, however I now believe that my skills have progressed in using his program. At the beginning when I was first learning about Photoshop, I thought that I would struggle as there were many features available to use and I thought that learning them all would be hard for me. After a few weeks, I began to understand this software more and the features soon became understandable to me from then on. There were many features I was on Photoshop to assist making my magazine a professional and successful one, but the basic features were the most important to start off with. One of these was the Shapes tools and the many different shapes that I could choose like Rectangle tool or Line tool; this gave me knowledge that there were many shapes I could use to convert my image into a magazine.
There were many other tools I learned and used, but one part of Photoshop that I thought was really important for my magazine – which was layer styles for my text where I could add such things like Drop shadows and Strokes which helped my magazine differentiate from others and give a distinctive style to it. Once you click on the text button, go to the layers and find the words used in your text and double click it to receive the table shown in the screenshot above. This helped me to develop an understanding that I could use any of these effects as many times as I want to try and find the perfect style to go with the font of the text and the overall style of the magazine cover. Once I’ve chosen the styles, I was able to adjust them slightly – for example with the stroke I could edit the size of the stroke on the text, whether it were to be bold and dominant or small and more discreet. I believe that learning about this had helped me adjust my text quickly and effectively. 
One other helpful technique I learned on Photoshop was the use of guides. Guides are useful as a light blue line acts as a barrier to let me know whether the conventions used are in line or not, this was important as if it were out of place – it wouldn’t look as professional and would look messy and poorly created. I clicked on View (at the top) and then onto new guide. After choosing whether I wanted it vertical or horizontal, I was able to drag it out and place it wherever a guide may be needed as displayed in the screenshot on the left. Guides proved to be very useful after I finished designing my magazine cover as I realised that there were some parts out of line with each other and was quickly identified and edited.
So to summarise for Photoshop, I had learned a lot from both technologies and had definitely made my experience of making magazine pages more understandable and effectively with the features they contain.
For my front cover, I decided to use Dafont.com to download one unto the font book by using an iMac. My masthead before was quite unimaginative and not particularly engaging for an audience’s point of view, therefore I thought that I needed to download a more eye-catching font to use for my front cover.
This site contained a wide range of fonts that I could use; I was able to pick different styles of font by choosing within the category I found suitable for my covers and I was able to find one effectively and quickly. I felt that my masthead became so much better than before after this process and had played a big part in making my magazine covers that extra bit of creativeness. My knowledge of these technologies has certainly played a big (perhaps the biggest) role during this process and throughout my learning of using these, my understanding on how they all work has certainly been expanded.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
As shown, the masthead was very basic and doesn’t look like much work has been implemented to it to make it look at all professionally designed. As for the cover-lines, they are reasonably good, but look a bit dull and repetitive as the same font; colour and stroke were used for them both of them. The main cover line I suppose was alright as it was dominant and makes the whole cover look relatively satisfactory. During the making of this I thought that the circles used behind some of the cover lines was a good idea, now I think it was a bit of a mistake. It doesn’t really blend in with the rest of the page and looks very average as well. Lastly, the price above the barcode isn’t that visible and due to the colour, one would have to squint to see it clearly. All in all, I think it was a good creation during the time when I was learning the basics of magazine conventions and Photoshop, but I believe I’ve develop hugely from then.
Looking at my contents page now and it looks very basic and not much variety was used in order to make it appealing. The text looks very simple and unattractive, whilst the structure of the left side was minimal making the layout of that side poorly used. The editor’s message seems to be part of the contents as well and looks like that it’s been squashed in as the image for the editor’s note is too dominant. There should be more text for the contents as well. More images could have also been placed within this page to make it look more interesting to look at. From both the college pages, the mass market was targeted and I had struggled to try and appeal to everyone within this market. Whereas my music magazine was more niche as it targeted those into hip-hop and R&B and I was able to show a specific look towards my music magazine to appeal to them.
As shown by my Photoshop skills and understanding of magazine conventions, they have been improved vastly and it shows if you look at my music magazine and then to my college one. My ability to use the Canon E05 400D was improved as well as during the taking of my images for my music magazine, looked more suited for the type of magazine I was using as the shots used were more carefully took whereas I rushed when I was taking the pictures for my college magazine and didn’t really think about the subjects’ position for example. Acknowledging all the aspects during my experience in this unit, I have improved quite a lot within my designs and my understanding has grown within this area of media.
There were many other tools I learned and used, but one part of Photoshop that I thought was really important for my magazine – which was layer styles for my text where I could add such things like Drop shadows and Strokes which helped my magazine differentiate from others and give a distinctive style to it. Once you click on the text button, go to the layers and find the words used in your text and double click it to receive the table shown in the screenshot above. This helped me to develop an understanding that I could use any of these effects as many times as I want to try and find the perfect style to go with the font of the text and the overall style of the magazine cover. Once I’ve chosen the styles, I was able to adjust them slightly – for example with the stroke I could edit the size of the stroke on the text, whether it were to be bold and dominant or small and more discreet. I believe that learning about this had helped me adjust my text quickly and effectively. One other helpful technique I learned on Photoshop was the use of guides. Guides are useful as a light blue line acts as a barrier to let me know whether the conventions used are in line or not, this was important as if it were out of place – it wouldn’t look as professional and would look messy and poorly created. I clicked on View (at the top) and then onto new guide. After choosing whether I wanted it vertical or horizontal, I was able to drag it out and place it wherever a guide may be needed as displayed in the screenshot on the left. Guides proved to be very useful after I finished designing my magazine cover as I realised that there were some parts out of line with each other and was quickly identified and edited.So to summarise for Photoshop, I had learned a lot from both technologies and had definitely made my experience of making magazine pages more understandable and effectively with the features they contain.
For my front cover, I decided to use Dafont.com to download one unto the font book by using an iMac. My masthead before was quite unimaginative and not particularly engaging for an audience’s point of view, therefore I thought that I needed to download a more eye-catching font to use for my front cover.This site contained a wide range of fonts that I could use; I was able to pick different styles of font by choosing within the category I found suitable for my covers and I was able to find one effectively and quickly. I felt that my masthead became so much better than before after this process and had played a big part in making my magazine covers that extra bit of creativeness. My knowledge of these technologies has certainly played a big (perhaps the biggest) role during this process and throughout my learning of using these, my understanding on how they all work has certainly been expanded.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?During my preliminary task, I was learning the necessary basics about the technologies and conventions on a magazine. This has helped my to develop my knowledge within this topic and when the main task was starting, I felt ready to made my final product due to my early experience. At the time, I felt like my college magazine was nicely made and looked really well for the task I was set – looking back at it after creating my music magazine, it doesn’t look as well-designed as thought a few months ago and proves to be quite a huge comparison to my music magazine.
As shown, the masthead was very basic and doesn’t look like much work has been implemented to it to make it look at all professionally designed. As for the cover-lines, they are reasonably good, but look a bit dull and repetitive as the same font; colour and stroke were used for them both of them. The main cover line I suppose was alright as it was dominant and makes the whole cover look relatively satisfactory. During the making of this I thought that the circles used behind some of the cover lines was a good idea, now I think it was a bit of a mistake. It doesn’t really blend in with the rest of the page and looks very average as well. Lastly, the price above the barcode isn’t that visible and due to the colour, one would have to squint to see it clearly. All in all, I think it was a good creation during the time when I was learning the basics of magazine conventions and Photoshop, but I believe I’ve develop hugely from then.Looking at my contents page now and it looks very basic and not much variety was used in order to make it appealing. The text looks very simple and unattractive, whilst the structure of the left side was minimal making the layout of that side poorly used. The editor’s message seems to be part of the contents as well and looks like that it’s been squashed in as the image for the editor’s note is too dominant. There should be more text for the contents as well. More images could have also been placed within this page to make it look more interesting to look at. From both the college pages, the mass market was targeted and I had struggled to try and appeal to everyone within this market. Whereas my music magazine was more niche as it targeted those into hip-hop and R&B and I was able to show a specific look towards my music magazine to appeal to them.As shown by my Photoshop skills and understanding of magazine conventions, they have been improved vastly and it shows if you look at my music magazine and then to my college one. My ability to use the Canon E05 400D was improved as well as during the taking of my images for my music magazine, looked more suited for the type of magazine I was using as the shots used were more carefully took whereas I rushed when I was taking the pictures for my college magazine and didn’t really think about the subjects’ position for example. Acknowledging all the aspects during my experience in this unit, I have improved quite a lot within my designs and my understanding has grown within this area of media.
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This image wasn't chosen for quite a number of important reasons like the low key lighting hardly shows much of his face - and espically that his hat is covering most of his face really makes this image unworthy to choose. Also the text that is going to be included would not have as much space as the other one I chose and may block some of the text at the top. Also the pose isn't as good as the other one as he seems a bit to serious and unfreindly which may prevent for some readers to read on and may keep this page rather than to carry on reading it.