Friday, 10 May 2013
Thursday, 9 May 2013
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Re-Draft: Evaluation
1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
It was important that I researched into Existing Real Media Artifacts before constructing my own Music magazine as I had to understand how music magazines target their audiences and what codes and conventions are used with the magazine to make it effective.
For example including basic things such as a bar code and the price of the magazine on the front cover as well as a large title and sub-heading. I also noticed from looking at other music magazines that it is common for them to include a pug on the front cover so I chose to advertise free downloads in a bubble on my original front cover, as this draws the audience’s attention in. However, when redrafting my music magazine this year I chose not to include a Pug. As I have researched again this year and realised that Real Media Artifacts that are similar to the specific type of magazine which I am trying to create such as NME do not include pugs, as they tend to target a younger audience. I did not want to make my music magazine appear too childish or put off readers so I therefore decided against including any form of Pug on my Front cover, Contents or Double Page Spread.
As my music magazine is aimed for young adults, I chose to develop the forms and conventions of a music magazine that targets a similar audience. I found a successful magazine called MOJO which is similar to the magazine I was trying to create, so I then studied this magazine and learnt what worked well within it and what did not work so well. This helped me to plan my music magazine as I was learning the forms and conventions of the magazine and developing them further into my own work. I think the general house style of MOJO magazine challenges the usual codes and conventions of a music magazine, as the overall style is quite minimalistic. This gives the music magazine an edge to it, which the audience may find intriguing as it is unusual and makes the magazine stand out from others. I thought this was a clever technique and tried to develop this style in my own music magazine. I also looked at other magazines which are not just focused on music but also feature photography, culture and fashion such as i-D Magazine and Dazed&Confused Magazine. Both of these are targeted at young adults with a similar age range as my target audience so I have looked into these Real Media Artifacts in detail to see what codes and conventions they are using and I have tried to develop them in my own work. For example, I have tried to develop on the minimalistic style within these existing Magazines, as this look more fashionable and interests a younger audience. These two Magazines also influenced me to focus on the main artists Charity work instead of her music career, I wanted to focus on a different aspect as I wanted my music magazine to be unique. Therefore when interviewing the artist it was mostly based on her opinions and how she wanted to make a difference, which I think is what young people generally like to read about as she could be seen as very inspiring, as well as giving the source of music a deeper meaning as the artist in my music magazine is trying to do something really special.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product would reflect a younger generation; due to the Indie/Alternative style of music my magazine therefore represents young Alternative social groups between the ages of 17-20. When I began re-drafting the construction I planned what my female artist was going to wear in order to ensure that she would be accepted by the social group reading the magazine. For instance, I ensured that she would wear a beanie hat as this is what typical Indie boys and girls wear, as well as a plain over sized tshirt with rolled up sleeves. This is not the most exciting outfit in the world, but I chose it because it is recognised by this particular social group as an acceptable thing to wear and they can relate to it easily, making it more likely that they will relate to the artist. As well as this, the images that I took and included in my magazine also represented my target audience, as I featured both male and female artists. Although a Beanie hat could be seen as quite a masculine thing to wear I think it worked well with the female artist because she has very feminine features and is very pretty, therefore these things contrast against each other but work well as they even each other out. If I had photographed the female artist without a heavy hat on she may have appeared to feminine and my male audience could have been put off. The female artist therefore represents both genders in an Indie social group.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I found out where people prefer to buy their music magazines from my questionnaire. The most popular choice for young adults to read magazines was online, so if I was in charge of distributing my magazine I would make sure that it featured a website (named Voltage.co.uk so it would be easy to locate online) I would also make it easy to for anyone to sign up online and ensure that subcribers would save money so that they would be more tempted to subscbribe to my magazine. As the idea of an online magazine was a popular choice of distribution for my product I'd have to make it fully available to view online. I could even set up a free trial for each customer, in order to try and sell my product more as many young adults like to look at new sites everyday and it's likely that they could stumble across my magazine website. A free trial would therefore grab their attention and which they are unlikely to say no to, helping my product to become more well known. Another popular choice was subscription, so I would also make sure that my magazines could be posted door to door, as this would ensure that my magazine made a certain amount of money each month. As people tend to forget to buy magazines each month, by subscribing it would ensure that they never miss an issue. The most popular choice for people to buy the magazine each month was in a Supermarket, as stores such as this are more convenient for the audience, compared to shops they are less likely to visit on a regular basis such as HMV or Water stones. It’s therefore important that I consider this when distributing my magazine, as Supermarkets are a popular choice for my audience. In Supermarkets such as this, my magazines main competition on the shelves would be indie/rock music magazines, such as NME, Q, and MOJO. I think these three magazines would be my strongest competition, as their readers tend to be a little bit older than audiences for magazines such as KERRANG!
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Young adults that are interested in the different effects that music can have and the power it has. I have tried to focus on this in my music magazine by featuring Avery Rose's DJ event which raised money for charity. Topics like this where someone has become successful through music and is then trying to do good from that is generally in the public interest, no matter what age they are. I also wanted to do something slightly different in order to interest my target audience and stand out from existing Real Media Artifacts which could be seen as competition. The genre of my music magazine is mostly Indie but also features some Alternative music such as Drum and Bass. So my target audience would be young people that enjoy these types of music and that are also likely to enjoy big nights out such as drum and bass events or DJ sets. Something like this is fits in well with my target audience, as young adults are going to be more interested in events such as this. If I was targeting a younger audience I wouldn’t mention nights out, as many of them wouldn’t be old enough to go. I have tried to make my magazine look quite professional and give it an Alternative feel so that the house style suits the genre of the music in my magazine, so my target audience could possibly match this type of style themselves.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I looked at other music magazines and worked out what worked best when it came to attracting a younger audience. Generally speaking, I found that most magazine's targetting young adults stick to a simplistic and minimal style. There is a bold use of white and black in most magazine and they tend to include only one main colour alongside this. I tried to develop this in my construction by making my music magazine look edgy and up to date with the time, so that young adults would be interested in buying it, as younger audiences want something new and exciting. As well as this, I also made sure I took notice of my questionnaire, as it helped me to get a better understanding of what young adults want to see in a music magazine. It was important that I featured up and coming artists and new music in my magazine, as I found this was the most popular feature in a music magazine. This was therefore the most popular thing to see on a front cover from my questionnaire, so I chose to include a new artist who is named "Your favourite artist of 2013" on the front cover. In my questionnaire I asked my target audience what captures their eye most on a front cover, my results showed that the image is the main thing that draws the audience in. It was therefore vital that the image was perfectly in focus, edited and looked professional as I had already planned that it should be a medium close up of the artist from the shoulders up, as they are the images that sell magazines most effectively. In my original draft I included a quote taken from the interview with the artists featured as this interests my target audience and draws my readers in. However, for my re-draft I chose not to include a quote from the interview as it seemed to take up too much space and made my front cover appear messy. When constructing my re-drafts I asked 5 people that fitted into my target audience what they thought of my magazine as the process went on so that I knew whether or not I was on the right track, this really helped me to understand my target audience better and made me feel more confident in my work.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I learnt how to use Serif Page Plus, which I used to construct my music magazine. When beginning this coursework I had never used the programme before but it was very easy to understand and extremely useful for this piece of coursework. I learnt a lot of new skills from it and I'm glad that I used Serif for my music magazine as it has more options and made my magazine look much more professional, compared to a magazine that has been created on a common programme such as PowerPoint. For my original drafts I played around with lots of editing techniques on Serif, such as the option of making things 3rd, and putting text in different shapes such as circles or L shapes, allowing me to make my double page spread more effective. I learnt how to create a colour scheme which I used in my plan for my original drafts, this was really handy as I had Serif save the exact colours I needed so that I could use them over and over again for every draft. When starting my re-draft for this piece of coursework I taught myself to alter the font by changing its transparency, as well as giving the text a pattern, which I used in my title "Voltage" on the front cover.
As well as this, I also edited the images I took that featured in my magazine on Photoshop. This allowed me to edit my images to so that they suited the style of my music magazine and linked in with the genre of music I was including in my magazine. As my music magazine follows an Indie/Alternative Genre it was important that I edited my images so that they suited the grungey genre. I therefore made all my images that featured in my magazine black and white as it made them look darker and more edgy, which suited the style of the magazine. I then played around with the contrast and curve levels for each image, as this adds more depth to the image and makes it look more effective. It could be argued that this is an unusual thing to do to an image that is going to feature on a front cover, as I learnt from researching other music magazines that artists are usually airbrushed and made to look as perfect as possible as a way of promoting them. However, in my original construction I wanted to challenge this when it came to my front cover, so by highlighting his bad skin instead of trying to airbrush it, it made the image seem more realistic which fitted in well with his “unfortunate background” which featured in the interview. Obviously, I have changed my artist since then in my re-draft so I had to alter this slightly for a woman. The female artist I photographed did not have bad skin so I did not have any problem areas to deal with, which was quite lucky. If she did have bad skin I don't think I would have tried to emphasise on her flaws like I did with my last artist, as this would effect the idea of male gaze and male consumers may have been put off.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking at my Preliminary task now that I have completed my final pages for my music magazine, I think the Prelim looks very amateur. This could be for a number of reasons; one being that my choice of background colour on my Preliminary task is quite childish. For my final front cover I chose to make the image take up the entire page, which made my front cover look more professional. The image on my final front cover was also taken at a better angle, as the image was closer up, this showed more detail on the artist and I think the photo was more effective compared to the image I used in my Prelim which was a medium close up and seemed too distant.
I feel as though I have progressed a lot and now have a much clearer understanding of the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine, and that I can now effectively target a young audience. There is not a huge difference between my orginal drafts and my re-drafts which I have done this year but I think the small changes are what make it look a lot more successful. I'm glad that I chose to feature a female artist as this is a more modern approach that hardly any music magazines do and I felt as though I should take advantage of this niche market whilst still targetting both genders.
It was important that I researched into Existing Real Media Artifacts before constructing my own Music magazine as I had to understand how music magazines target their audiences and what codes and conventions are used with the magazine to make it effective.
For example including basic things such as a bar code and the price of the magazine on the front cover as well as a large title and sub-heading. I also noticed from looking at other music magazines that it is common for them to include a pug on the front cover so I chose to advertise free downloads in a bubble on my original front cover, as this draws the audience’s attention in. However, when redrafting my music magazine this year I chose not to include a Pug. As I have researched again this year and realised that Real Media Artifacts that are similar to the specific type of magazine which I am trying to create such as NME do not include pugs, as they tend to target a younger audience. I did not want to make my music magazine appear too childish or put off readers so I therefore decided against including any form of Pug on my Front cover, Contents or Double Page Spread.
As my music magazine is aimed for young adults, I chose to develop the forms and conventions of a music magazine that targets a similar audience. I found a successful magazine called MOJO which is similar to the magazine I was trying to create, so I then studied this magazine and learnt what worked well within it and what did not work so well. This helped me to plan my music magazine as I was learning the forms and conventions of the magazine and developing them further into my own work. I think the general house style of MOJO magazine challenges the usual codes and conventions of a music magazine, as the overall style is quite minimalistic. This gives the music magazine an edge to it, which the audience may find intriguing as it is unusual and makes the magazine stand out from others. I thought this was a clever technique and tried to develop this style in my own music magazine. I also looked at other magazines which are not just focused on music but also feature photography, culture and fashion such as i-D Magazine and Dazed&Confused Magazine. Both of these are targeted at young adults with a similar age range as my target audience so I have looked into these Real Media Artifacts in detail to see what codes and conventions they are using and I have tried to develop them in my own work. For example, I have tried to develop on the minimalistic style within these existing Magazines, as this look more fashionable and interests a younger audience. These two Magazines also influenced me to focus on the main artists Charity work instead of her music career, I wanted to focus on a different aspect as I wanted my music magazine to be unique. Therefore when interviewing the artist it was mostly based on her opinions and how she wanted to make a difference, which I think is what young people generally like to read about as she could be seen as very inspiring, as well as giving the source of music a deeper meaning as the artist in my music magazine is trying to do something really special.
My media product would reflect a younger generation; due to the Indie/Alternative style of music my magazine therefore represents young Alternative social groups between the ages of 17-20. When I began re-drafting the construction I planned what my female artist was going to wear in order to ensure that she would be accepted by the social group reading the magazine. For instance, I ensured that she would wear a beanie hat as this is what typical Indie boys and girls wear, as well as a plain over sized tshirt with rolled up sleeves. This is not the most exciting outfit in the world, but I chose it because it is recognised by this particular social group as an acceptable thing to wear and they can relate to it easily, making it more likely that they will relate to the artist. As well as this, the images that I took and included in my magazine also represented my target audience, as I featured both male and female artists. Although a Beanie hat could be seen as quite a masculine thing to wear I think it worked well with the female artist because she has very feminine features and is very pretty, therefore these things contrast against each other but work well as they even each other out. If I had photographed the female artist without a heavy hat on she may have appeared to feminine and my male audience could have been put off. The female artist therefore represents both genders in an Indie social group.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I found out where people prefer to buy their music magazines from my questionnaire. The most popular choice for young adults to read magazines was online, so if I was in charge of distributing my magazine I would make sure that it featured a website (named Voltage.co.uk so it would be easy to locate online) I would also make it easy to for anyone to sign up online and ensure that subcribers would save money so that they would be more tempted to subscbribe to my magazine. As the idea of an online magazine was a popular choice of distribution for my product I'd have to make it fully available to view online. I could even set up a free trial for each customer, in order to try and sell my product more as many young adults like to look at new sites everyday and it's likely that they could stumble across my magazine website. A free trial would therefore grab their attention and which they are unlikely to say no to, helping my product to become more well known. Another popular choice was subscription, so I would also make sure that my magazines could be posted door to door, as this would ensure that my magazine made a certain amount of money each month. As people tend to forget to buy magazines each month, by subscribing it would ensure that they never miss an issue. The most popular choice for people to buy the magazine each month was in a Supermarket, as stores such as this are more convenient for the audience, compared to shops they are less likely to visit on a regular basis such as HMV or Water stones. It’s therefore important that I consider this when distributing my magazine, as Supermarkets are a popular choice for my audience. In Supermarkets such as this, my magazines main competition on the shelves would be indie/rock music magazines, such as NME, Q, and MOJO. I think these three magazines would be my strongest competition, as their readers tend to be a little bit older than audiences for magazines such as KERRANG!
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Young adults that are interested in the different effects that music can have and the power it has. I have tried to focus on this in my music magazine by featuring Avery Rose's DJ event which raised money for charity. Topics like this where someone has become successful through music and is then trying to do good from that is generally in the public interest, no matter what age they are. I also wanted to do something slightly different in order to interest my target audience and stand out from existing Real Media Artifacts which could be seen as competition. The genre of my music magazine is mostly Indie but also features some Alternative music such as Drum and Bass. So my target audience would be young people that enjoy these types of music and that are also likely to enjoy big nights out such as drum and bass events or DJ sets. Something like this is fits in well with my target audience, as young adults are going to be more interested in events such as this. If I was targeting a younger audience I wouldn’t mention nights out, as many of them wouldn’t be old enough to go. I have tried to make my magazine look quite professional and give it an Alternative feel so that the house style suits the genre of the music in my magazine, so my target audience could possibly match this type of style themselves.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I looked at other music magazines and worked out what worked best when it came to attracting a younger audience. Generally speaking, I found that most magazine's targetting young adults stick to a simplistic and minimal style. There is a bold use of white and black in most magazine and they tend to include only one main colour alongside this. I tried to develop this in my construction by making my music magazine look edgy and up to date with the time, so that young adults would be interested in buying it, as younger audiences want something new and exciting. As well as this, I also made sure I took notice of my questionnaire, as it helped me to get a better understanding of what young adults want to see in a music magazine. It was important that I featured up and coming artists and new music in my magazine, as I found this was the most popular feature in a music magazine. This was therefore the most popular thing to see on a front cover from my questionnaire, so I chose to include a new artist who is named "Your favourite artist of 2013" on the front cover. In my questionnaire I asked my target audience what captures their eye most on a front cover, my results showed that the image is the main thing that draws the audience in. It was therefore vital that the image was perfectly in focus, edited and looked professional as I had already planned that it should be a medium close up of the artist from the shoulders up, as they are the images that sell magazines most effectively. In my original draft I included a quote taken from the interview with the artists featured as this interests my target audience and draws my readers in. However, for my re-draft I chose not to include a quote from the interview as it seemed to take up too much space and made my front cover appear messy. When constructing my re-drafts I asked 5 people that fitted into my target audience what they thought of my magazine as the process went on so that I knew whether or not I was on the right track, this really helped me to understand my target audience better and made me feel more confident in my work.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I learnt how to use Serif Page Plus, which I used to construct my music magazine. When beginning this coursework I had never used the programme before but it was very easy to understand and extremely useful for this piece of coursework. I learnt a lot of new skills from it and I'm glad that I used Serif for my music magazine as it has more options and made my magazine look much more professional, compared to a magazine that has been created on a common programme such as PowerPoint. For my original drafts I played around with lots of editing techniques on Serif, such as the option of making things 3rd, and putting text in different shapes such as circles or L shapes, allowing me to make my double page spread more effective. I learnt how to create a colour scheme which I used in my plan for my original drafts, this was really handy as I had Serif save the exact colours I needed so that I could use them over and over again for every draft. When starting my re-draft for this piece of coursework I taught myself to alter the font by changing its transparency, as well as giving the text a pattern, which I used in my title "Voltage" on the front cover.
As well as this, I also edited the images I took that featured in my magazine on Photoshop. This allowed me to edit my images to so that they suited the style of my music magazine and linked in with the genre of music I was including in my magazine. As my music magazine follows an Indie/Alternative Genre it was important that I edited my images so that they suited the grungey genre. I therefore made all my images that featured in my magazine black and white as it made them look darker and more edgy, which suited the style of the magazine. I then played around with the contrast and curve levels for each image, as this adds more depth to the image and makes it look more effective. It could be argued that this is an unusual thing to do to an image that is going to feature on a front cover, as I learnt from researching other music magazines that artists are usually airbrushed and made to look as perfect as possible as a way of promoting them. However, in my original construction I wanted to challenge this when it came to my front cover, so by highlighting his bad skin instead of trying to airbrush it, it made the image seem more realistic which fitted in well with his “unfortunate background” which featured in the interview. Obviously, I have changed my artist since then in my re-draft so I had to alter this slightly for a woman. The female artist I photographed did not have bad skin so I did not have any problem areas to deal with, which was quite lucky. If she did have bad skin I don't think I would have tried to emphasise on her flaws like I did with my last artist, as this would effect the idea of male gaze and male consumers may have been put off.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking at my Preliminary task now that I have completed my final pages for my music magazine, I think the Prelim looks very amateur. This could be for a number of reasons; one being that my choice of background colour on my Preliminary task is quite childish. For my final front cover I chose to make the image take up the entire page, which made my front cover look more professional. The image on my final front cover was also taken at a better angle, as the image was closer up, this showed more detail on the artist and I think the photo was more effective compared to the image I used in my Prelim which was a medium close up and seemed too distant.
I feel as though I have progressed a lot and now have a much clearer understanding of the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine, and that I can now effectively target a young audience. There is not a huge difference between my orginal drafts and my re-drafts which I have done this year but I think the small changes are what make it look a lot more successful. I'm glad that I chose to feature a female artist as this is a more modern approach that hardly any music magazines do and I felt as though I should take advantage of this niche market whilst still targetting both genders.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Re-Construction: Double Page Spread
I have chosen to layout my Double Page Spread in this way because I wanted it too catch my readers attention in order for them to be more likely to read it. I found from researching Real Media Artefacts that the audience will be more inclined to read a Double Page Spread if the image or images in this case bleed through onto both pages as it makes the DPS appear more dramatic to the reader. I specifically chose to include humorous or casual images of the artist - Avery Rose in order to make her seem more realistic and human to the audience. As the technique of portraying her as laid back and real helps to promote her as an artist, as the consumer is therefore more likely to connect with her. This also helps to promote the Magazine, as images such as this suggest to the audience that we have a strong rapport with the artist. The Audience is likely to be more interested in a story if they think that we are close to the star or even friends with her as the suggestion of knowing her well connotes to the audience that we will have all the best stories about her.
"Like I said in when I gave you feedback for your Contents page: don't worry about it looking a bit masculine! Women are much more likely to be interested in a product that is a bit manly as we often think it makes us more attractive to men. That sounds weird but women do things all the time to impress men and if something is slightly manly I honestly think it makes it seem cooler and more interesting to women. Things that are too girly are often looked down upon. So I think you've just following successful magazine's by altering the balance slightly."
"The text looks fine, I like the style of the boxes I think it looks fashionable and unusual. It's good that you have come up with a layout that is not often used, I think it works well and makes your magazine seem modern."
"Everything on your page compliments one another. The quote text is modern and alien-like which is a similar style to the boxes of text which almost give off a sci-fi feel. I think the images are fantastic, it's nice to see a bit of humour in your mag. I would edit them in colour and see what looks better, just to compare."
"I love the idea of this interview. It's nice to see that you've thought of new idea's and haven't just opted for an easy double page spread about an artists new song, you're delving in deeper instead :) I like the font and the text looks good, it's clear and clean looking."
"I would edit the images in colour then they would stand out more on the page. The font looks great, particularly the heading and sub-heading. I like the overall style of it, it's just little bits you need to improve on."
Final Double Page Spread:
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Re-construction: Contents Page first draft
I plan on asking 5 people that fit into my target audience what there initial thoughts on my Contents pages (above) are so far. Although the drafts are not quite complete I will be telling them how I am planning to fill the gaps and taking into account any criticism in order to ensure that I am targeting them in the best way possible.
"I like 3 columns it helps to break up the page well and gives off a professional feel. The use of grey in the background suits the front cover but it does look a bit dull. I would add a different coloured column just to spice things up a bit. Pastel colours look great and the font is easy to read and quite unusual which I like, it's quite hippy/alternative which I suppose works with the genre! Plus, Carys look like a proper Editor! Can't wait to see what you do next."
"I would try and make the title CONTENTS seem a bit more interesting by adding in more colour? That would definitely make it stand out more on the page, which it needs to, instead of blending into the background. Apart from that I'm glad that you have kept to the original style from your final draft before. It worked wonderfully last time, so you can do it!"
"I agree about the colour of the columns, you need to break them up by making the middle one black or white? A colour would not work with the pastels used in the text so a plain colour like that might work? I would also try to avoid using only black and white images, it make the page look flat and doesn't pop out to the readers eye. Make it more eye-catching!"
"All of your pages have quite a masculine and boxy theme to them - I'm not put off by this as [as a woman] I just think it is unusual. It looks very modern actually and works well with Holly [the main artist featured]. Woman are way more likely to buy a magazine that looks a bit manly than the other way around. Men would never buy a girly magazine so you are targeting both genders well by doing this."
"I would use a different image of Holly [The main artist Avery-Rose] for advertising the double page spread. You've already got one of her smiling so use something different or funny to add humour and make the feature stand out more on the page."
Re-Draft: Construction Front Cover 1st draft
This is my first draft of my Re-construction using a new female Artist. I have kept to the house style of my orginal music magazine (featuring the artist Maxwell) as the pastel colours were popular with my target audience of young adults between the ages of 17-20. However, I have made some small changes as I did not want my music magazine to appear too girly. I have therefore tried to even out the amount of colour with the use of black and grey, by making the background grey and including mostly black text. As well as making the image black and white, this effect helps to make the pastel colours look more vintage and gives off an indie vibe which links in with the Indie/Alternative Genre of the magazine and will hopefully be recognised by my target audience.
I have also made some changes to the text including the title, I chose to listen to my audience feedback as one person suggested using a more "Retro" font for the title Voltage in order to give off a more ecclectic and vintage feel that links in well with the pastel colours and Indie Genre. I think this looks a lot more effective than the original 3D effect blue title I had in my first draft, as it gives it a more polished feel and links in well with the overall house style.
Overall, I know there are things that I need to improve on for this page for instance I am not 100% happy with the coloured font as it is quite hard to read and looks quite messy in places. I'm planning on showing this new draft to 5 people that fit into my target audience to see what they think of the changes and what elements I could improve on.
Audience feedback for first Draft:
Audience feedback for first Draft:
“I love the picture! Great close up shot, she looks just
like a real artist. The hat works well too as it fits in with the indie genre
you’re focusing on. I like the title name and font that looks professional and
clean. Only negative is I’m not sure about the font colours? Maybe using one
pastel shade instead of many different ones would look better. All the
different colours make it hard to know where to look first and your eye should
immediately be lead around the page.”
“I think it looks too feminine. I get what you were trying
to do with the pastel colours but I don’t think you need it. The black and
white style of photography is already vintage enough, so you should just stick
to a plain colour.”
“You’ve done a good job at targeting your audience, the text
is relevant and I like the fact you’ve made it more cultural by mentioning
charity work as not many music magazine focus on aspects of society. You’ve
given your music magazine a new twist, making it stand out from the rest. The
picture’s great, although I think it would look more effective without the
border.”
“I think you need a
bolder title, this first font you have chosen is very girly. I would maybe try
it in capitals with a larger font as it needs to stand out more on the page.
The font you’ve chosen doesn’t really link in with a male audience, so it would
be better to use manlier fonts if they exist.”
“The artist looks great, keep her and the topic about charity
work I think that’s a great idea to bring in other affects from music. However I
think the use of colours looks weird, I would get rid of the pink, purple and
orange they are too bright and don’t link in with the indie genre. Maybe stick
to one colour for your house style like the blue? That would be more effective
at targeting both male and females. “
I chose to do several drafts of my front cover, which are shown below, in order to try out a number of different fonts, layouts and colours so that I can show the 5 people that fit into my target audience and see which one they think looks most effective.
Audience Feedback from 3 re-drafts:
“I’m glad you’ve gone for blue instead of a mix of colours like before. It looks a lot better and doesn’t look too manly either because it is a pale shade of blue. Therefore I think it looks really effective and works well both with you target audience. The pale shade looks very fashionable with the black and white image and I think that young people of both genders would be drawn to your magazine because of that. “
“The bold titles work really well. I like the contrast between the big title and the artists feminine features it makes the page look more interesting and grabs your attention. I think between the two bold capital titles, I prefer the second font which is slightly Italic. It looks stands out much better on the page making you want to read it.”
“Your front cover looks so much more professional without the border! It makes the picture look more eye catching and just works. I love the blue but not sure about having the entire small text one colour? The drafts that only include black text look very dull; you should include some blue text in there as well to link it in with your title.”
“The bit of text that mentions winner itunes vouchers doesn’t look right on the page. You should change that in some way it seems to sit funny. Some text also needs to be slightly larger and you need to sort out where you want everything to go so that the reader has a clearer idea on where to look. I like the bold font in the last draft that looks fantastic and works well with the other fonts. I personally think you should shorten the festival names into slang like “Glasto” etc. as you did this in your previous work from last year and it works well with the young audience you’re targeting.”
“The ice effect you’ve put onto the last font looks great. I
would maybe try and make that more obvious as it is quite subtle at the minute.
I prefer the front cover without the border, as it only diverted attention away
from the image. I think you’ve done a great job this is really coming along! It
now clearly targets males and females. Although the blue font is quite manly I
would not be put off [as a woman] to buy this magazine because it features a
female artist."
Final draft:
I have taken into account all the suggestions and thoughts made from the 5 people who gave me Audience Feedback. I am now happy with how my front cover looks as the overall house style of black and blue works well with the black and white image and it allows your eye to travel around the page. I have tried to organise my text in this way so that it does not appear too messy as it is important to have the right balance, of lots of text - to show you have an interesting magazine as well as keeping it looking clean and professional - as a messy page could put readers off. I decided to change the sub-heading from "Making a Stand" to "Give what you take" as this links in with the artists charity name and seemed more relevant to the story featured in the double page spread.
The use of colour gives off an Indie/Alternative "Cool" Vibe which was recognised by my target audience and also links in with the use of ice in the title. As well as asking for audience feedback for my drafts I have asked them if they like this draft to ensure that is it acceptable to use for my final draft.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Re-draft: Planning construction
I have chosen to re-construct this coursework a year later in order to improve on it, as I feel that I am now more experienced when it comes to the software used and that I will be able to add more to my music magazine in order to make it more successful. As this years A2 Coursework allowed me to be more experimental and creative and I would like to expand on my AS work in this way.
I have started re-doing this peice of coursework by looking over recent Real Media Artefacts for inspiration. For example looking at recent editions of MOJO Music Magazine, as well as NME and Q. When looking at the Front Cover and Double page spreads of these magazine, I have noticed it is unusual for any of them to feature a Female Artist as their main focal point. As I have looked through the Archive on the existing magazines website's and only found one edition which features a woman as the main focal point on the front cover. 
I find this really interesting, as it means there is a niche market which I could use in order to attract my target audience. My Music magazine is likely to be more effective if I am doing something different to the existing real Media Artefacts, as it will make my Music magazine stand out from the competition.
Before I plan on constructing my Music magazine using a Female Artist I need to go back to my target audience. As I must ensure that my audience would not be put off from buying the magazine if the main Artist featured was a woman. I have therefore gone back to the 30 people I asked to answer my questionnaire and asked them one simle question in order to get a reliable answer that will tell me how they feel about the sex of the artist.
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