Final designs

Here are my final designs. They are slightly different to the images I have in my evaluation questions because I have been working on them bait more and changing things slightly. I have progressed a lot over the past couple of moths and my destines have changed a lot. this is because i have been doing more research over time, and then I've been applying different ideas to my designs. Overall, I am quite happy with the way they have turned out because they all contrast well and I can clearly see where I have gained my ideas from. Also,I have learnt a lot while producing these. This includes different technologies and skills that i have gained while using different internet sources etc. 

My front cover has changed a lot since I started creating it. I have changed many conventions by adding/taking away different parts of my front cover in order for me to decide what I actually wanted it to loo like. I feel like it looks a lot better now than when it did before because I have put a lot of hard work into it over the past couple of moths after receiving feedback from my teacher. I have spoke about my conventions used in one of my evaluation questions and why I have used them, but since doing my evaluation questions, I have changed a few things around. For example, the font. I have used a tool on Photoshop to make my fonts more bold and clear. I done this because I wasn't really happy with the way the fonts looked before as I feel they looked too overcrowded and plain. So I made them look a bit more interesting by the layout, font and colours.  I tried to blend the colours bait more because I had lots of different shades of red which looked all over the place, so I changed that by making them to a grey and cranberry red colours. This is to make my magazine look more put together and match my contents and double page spread. 

My double page spread has also changed a lot since doing my evaluation questions. I really like the layout of this of my double page spread as I feel like it fits in well with the whole design of my magazine. I tried to include as many conventions as I could to make it look more professional and I feel like I added a lot. I also added my own little touches such as the 'Rebecca' signature to make it look more realistic and I created that via the pen tool. I just think it ties all of the article together. I do think that my image could be improved and made bigger, but the way that my double page spread turned out, made it really hard to do that. I couldn't make the image bigger without making the background bigger and that just messed everything up. But so far I am happy with the way that this has turned out even though there could be more done to it. The image was inspired by magazines such as Acoustic. The pose and prop was used to show the emotions of my model which links in with the article. I think the prop also tie-in with my genre which is weird but looking at images I have researched, they see to have some sort of prop. 

My contents page didn't turn out the best but I am happy with how it has improved over the past couple of moth. I found it hard to make a layout that I was happy with and that would attract my target audience. I also tried to include more than one image just to make it look more interesting rather than just having one image by itself. And looking at magazines out there, the ones that are my genre tend to have a variety of images on their contents. I included as many conventions as I could which makes it look professional and clean. Since creating it, I have changed a lot of things such as the layout, font, images etc. And for my final design I feel like it does look a lot better than it did before. Since receiving feedback from my teacher  I have been able to use that as a way of improving my contents page and looking again at magazines out there so that I could have some more inspiration. Even though I still have ways of improving this, I feel like I have shown how I have progressed and at the minute I am happy with the way it is and how it contrasts with my front cover and double page spread.

Time management

Over the holidays, my final pieces were looked at by teacher. From the feedback I am slowly making some changes to my front cover, double page spread and contents page. I do feel like the feedback has helped me realise clearly, what changes need to be made in order for me to move forward and progress onto higher grades. The main thing I am changing is to do with the layout. I am sort of changing things around to make my magazine look more contrasting and eye-catching. This includes moving around fonts and chaining some of my images.  I do feel like I ran out of time when doing my contents page, which made it look quite different to my other designs. So over the next few days I am going to look at some influences from other magazines to help me change a few things around for my magazine. The inspirations I will look for are conventions and where they are situated on the page. I will use Billboard and NME magazine for inspiration as they are the main magazines i have been researching. 

Time managment

In todays lesson, we looked at part of the film industry. After we completed that, we came onto the computers to complete some work on our blogs. Today, I aim to get any odd bit of work completed, and some more work done off the checklist. I have got some more research completed which was the facial expression research by Millium and Ferguson, and I have added this to my blog. I will also look at my evaluation questions, and add more so that i can improve. 

Facial expression research

A man called Trevor Millium identified five key facial expression theories. He looked and research different magazines and the facial expressions made by the models. The five facial expressions he identified were:






















Another researcher called Majorie Ferguson identified four different types of facial expressions. These were:

















Reference:

Time management

In todays lesson, I created a mood board on front covers, double page spreads and content pages. The products I have included all have inspired me in some way. I have pieced them all together as separate mood boards and I have included them in my blog. I feel like I have progressed well over the past few lessons and have got a lot of work done.

Today we also sat as a class and looked at ethnicity within TV drama and analysed one video. We didn't write in great detail as we only looked at sound and camera. I think that I need to do some more independent studying on the theory work and practice the terminology a bit more. This will help me when it comes to exam practice.

Mood boards

Here, i made some mood boards of the front covers, double page spreads and contents pages that have overall inspired me. I have already included some of these in my blog posts, but i have pieced them all together to make a creative mood board on the existing products that have inspired me, and helped me gain ideas on creating my own work. 

Evaluation question #7

My final front cover just shows how much I have progressed since the start of my course. I now have a much clearer understanding about what a professional magazine should look like. I have also learned to use a number of new tools and softwares such as Photoshop. I have included all of the essential conventions such as masthead, barcode, main image and page number which I didn't do in my preliminary task as I wasn't fully aware of what conventions were.  looking back at my preliminary task, I can see how my skills have developed and how i have shown improvements. 

The quality of my images are a lot better and now have a basic understanding of how to edit images. 

Overall, I can see how my skills have progressed and how I have gained a number of new skills in terms of research, planning and constructing work. 

Evaluation question #6

Time management

In todays lesson, I aim to get all of my evaluation questions done. I have struggled a bit with understanding each question, but then I used some resources that my teacher had emailed me separating the question into different parts. Today I am also going to try and get my mood boards done and then add them to my blog. I think I am progressing well, and starting to get y blog organized. 

Evaluation question #5

One of the ways that I tried to make my magazine appealing was to include the price on the front cover. which is already a big convention needed for a music magazine. For one of the tasks I had to complete, I found out some information about my target audience. The task was to film an interview between me and a person of my target audience and ask questions about music magazines. I asked the person, what process they find reasonable and affordable. The price I came up with is one pound fifty, I thought that the was very affordable for the age range in my target audience, and people might feel more relived to buy it compared to other expensive music magazines. 

Another way in which I would attract people to my magazine was through social media. I advertised my front cover to Facebook, including a few friends and I asked their opinions on my designs and if it would appeal to them. If you don't advertise your magazine, your audience won't be as big. People will share it, and more and more people will be aware of it, and might want to buy it. To make my magazine more popular, I would maybe put posters up in big stores to let the public know of the new magazine. In the future I could make a website all about my magazine and its features, and then advertise this on my front cover and social media. This would make my audience grow, and then become quite a tending magazine for people who are fans of my genre. So I think advertising my work will help people more aware of my magazine. 

Evaluation question #4

Evaluation question #3

Media institutions from shantelle bowman

Evaluation question #2

For question 2 I used Padlet which is an online resource. I think this helped me explain things in a more creative way. 

Evaluation question #1

My evaluation questions will be answered in a variety of ways. They will sum up my ideas and knowledge. 

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

Since the very start of studying media, I have seen magazines in a different way. I look at the front cover and name the terminology I can see. I have looked at many real media products to see a variety of different conventions and how they use them to portray there aim. Like professional magazines, I have included the obvious codes and conventions, to make it look like an actual magazine rather than looking like a poster. 

Front cover

Masthead - I started of by looking at national magazines that appealed to me. I went onto a website called 1001fonts.com and experimented using different fonts in colours and styles that I was going to include in my magazine. I wanted a title that was simple but eye-catching. I wanted a one word masthead so I came up with 'unique' which is self-explanatory as I wanted my magazine to be individual. In addition, my masthead was put in lower case as I though it looked better on my front cover. Originally I had the title behind the head but a new reader wouldn't be able to see what the magazine was called. I wanted it too look very bold, so when creating the masthead I made it the colour I wanted and made it fit across the top of the page so that it is the main focus of the magazine. Another way in which I challenged typical conventions was through the use of fonts. I made my fonts quite similar throughout my contractions and didn't use a lot of variety, like the national magazines I have looked at did use different fonts. 









In comparison to the Billboard magazine, I did attempt to put my masthead down the left hand side of the page, but I don't think it worked well with the design I was aiming for, so I put it at the top. I went for the same sort of style which was very simple but bold. The difference from this existing magazine is that the fonts are slightly different, and the Billboard masthead is all in lower case. Also my masthead it a dark colour against a light background where as the existing magazine used a bright font against a dark background. 

So overall, I looked at existing magazines to identify conventions and then use those as inspiration for my own conventions. I used different sources to help me create my masthead. This involved websites helping me look for different fonts. 



Main Image
I started off with a long shot of my model situated in the middle of my front cover. It didn't look very professional so then I made it to fit over 3/4 of the page, which will help fill in any gaps on the front cover and will draw the reader in. My main image still makes room for cover/sell lines without it looking too overcrowded. This is how I wanted my layout to be, with the cover/sell lines at each side and the main image being the focus.  The mood of my model is relaxed and slightly leaning towards one side which implies that the model feels comfortable. The costume the model is wearing is very simple and quite casual, this links in with my target audience and the way they dress. Also linking in with my design being understandable.

The billboard magazines main image is very bold. The image almost just focuses on the face will a close up shot. His facial expression is almost quite serious. The eye-line match fits really well as his eyes are almost in the center of the front cover, and the shadows on his face are very artistic and blend in well with the background. The masthead doesn't really overtake the main image as it is to the side and with this magazine being quiet popular, the target audience will focus more on the image rather than the masthead.

Main Sell Line
I do admit that my main sell line could stand out more, but you can still see what my main sell line actually is as the artists name is one of the biggest font on the page. I split mine into two part, the main was the artist name 'Rebecca Volt' and then like a cover line above it in a different style of text. I think this makes it look more interesting to read. It says "The journey to my dream" which I thought was quite catchy and it link in with my DPS. I think this was appropriate for my magazine as it is quite inspirational to my target audience. For the artists name I just hose a casual name and then for the surname I thought of something unique, which again links in with my masthead. 

Unlike my magazine, the Billboard magazine doesn't really have much text on its front cover. It only really has one main sell line and then a short column of text above it. The difference here is that i used a bold sentence for my main sell line, where as this one used the artist's name for a main sell line and didn't really include cover lines.

Neither my front cover or the existing cover used additional/secondary images. I looked at a lot of front covers and I didn't really want to include additional images as I was going for the simple layout and having you focus on just the one main image. 



Contents page

Masthead
My masthead is larger than the Q magazine, I thought that having it a bit bigger would make it stand out more. I simply had it in a white font so that it stood out against the dark box behind this. This allow the reader to understand clearly what this page is about. The font is very simple and easy to read just like my front cover masthead. This is the layout/design I was aiming for. I used a backdrop via Photoshop just to make it look a bit more put together.
















The 'Q' magazine's masthead is in a very bold font and all in capital letter. This makes is stand out and i think this magazine uses the same masthead for each of its contents pages. We have both just used the word 'contents' which is just the content inside of the magazine. This magazine have got its icon at the side of it, however i didn't really want to do that as my main title was a longer word. Both contents pages have used bold text against a dark background. 

Essential information 
I have tried to link the contents page in with the front cover so that it all makes sense. To do this i have numbered each piece of writing to a page they would be on. I have included a page number, icons, website and issue date, these are all essential pieces you need to have to make it look professional and organised. I have tried to make them small so that you can focus more on what the contents has to offer but I have made them clear enough to see. 

The 'Q' magazine has layed it out into different parts. This makes it look very neat and tidy. It has also included a issue date, page number and website. We have situated them in similar areas, and I used this as inspiration because I liked the layout and how they looked. Similar to my product, we have both used cover lines to section our page into different parts by putting a different coloured box behind each title. 

Main Image
My main image consists of two images put together. I erased the background so that the models would stand out more and the sot used was a long shot to show the fashion inspiration. I have other additional images so that there is a variety and it looks more interesting. The pose of the models from my main image are quite bohemian and layed back. The pose suggests they are relaxed. I wasn't going to use this as my main image, but then I thought it looks quite good against the background and I wanted to include many different images. Rather than use one main image like the 'norm', I wanted to include smaller additional images together to create a "main image". 

The 'Q' main image is very appealing to me. I like how it is bold and stands out against the smaller text. It is of a band and they are stood in some sort of outdoor area which makes the magazine look quite cool and unique. I didn't really have the facilities to take images outside so i used the studio. However like my contents page, we have both used additional images that are smaller than the main image. I think this gives the magazine more character and lets the audience know what it inside of the magazines. 

Double page spread

Masthead
My masthead is in a totally different font to any other I had used. I really like how it looks and fits across the page, and how the contrast of the colours work. I wanted my masthead to go across the full length of one side of the page so that it leaves room on the other to just focus on the image. I used lower case just because I thought it looked better. It gives a freelance effect to it rather than using a bold font, I wanted to make it to stand out from my introduction section. 

Similar to mine, this masthead cover is just if a name, This name links in with the article on the page. This masthead goes over the middle of the page, but it is closer to the top just like mine. This masthead is in capitals which makes the name really stand out. 





Main image
My main image takes up one full side of the page, the pose kind of links in with the article as they are quite personal and calm. I have used a prop (which was a chair) just to make it look different from other images I have used. I really like how this looks because she is looking to the ground and is sitting in a way that she looks important. Her head is tilted slightly towards the floor, just to change around the poses. It could also represent her vulnerability during her experience (which is in the article).

The existing magazine is very similar to mine. it also has a prop which is a guitar (linking in with the genre of the magazine) and he is looking down. This image is slightly more up-close which may be used to make it fit the page without leaving any gaps. It also emphasizes his passion for guitars as he is holding it carefully. Here I think the main focus is the guitar, and it could link I with the article about music. 

Article/text
By the looks of it, both articles are to do with an artists career and what they have been through. My article is quite personal and goes into detail of experiences my model has had. My article will appeal to older teenagers who are into indie-pop. I have made the first letter of the article larger that the text just to give it more of an effect and make it look professional. In between my article I included a quote which was "you will never make it" and this is one of the main cover lines included in my article as it concluded what point I am trying to get across.

Like my product, the existing magazine has quite a detailed article, and the subheadings make it look more interesting as it separated the text. It has also started off with the first letter being larger, and this is where I got my inspiration. The layout of the article is very similar as it starts at the first quarter of the page to leave room for the masthead. The language used is also similar due to the same type of target audience. 

Overall, these are some of the main inspirations I used to help me create my own conventions that are unique. (Relating to my masthead). My conventions are similar to other existing products but I have chanaged them around to suit my genre and target audience needs and interests. I did use other inspirational products but they have been included elsewhere in my blog and explained in some detail. I am quite pleased how my magazine turned out, even though there are improvements to be made. 

National and regional magazines

National magazines are the ones that everyone knows about. They stick to the same genre each time so that it can create a target audience around the world. The magazines will tend to be quite popular and many people will have seen or heard of them. They try to include a range of different content to keep people interested. They may include content such as interviews, personal articles on a well know artist and Q&A's. 

Regional magazines are likely to focus on a specific area that will have a target audience of certain people. They can range from local music magazines to gardening magazines. They will also include content such as interviews and articles but they will refer to its local region. 

Overall, national magazines are the big well known magazines that most people will know about, they will have a massive target audience from across the world and they tend to be more successful. On the other hand, regional magazines tend to have a smaller target audience due to its buyers being local and the articles tend to relate to local places which other countries may not be interested in. 

An example of a national music magazine would be NME.

Time managment

Today i aim to organise my work and look at the checklist to make sure i am up-to date with work. Hopefully i will be able to complete any work that needs to be finished so that i can start my evaluation questions. I am also going to start planning my evaluation questions and use different resources so that i can experiment and find a way that i feel is easiest.  I feel like i am progressing well with my work, as i feel like i am completing my work in a good amount of time. I wanted to make sure i am not wasting my time, so that i don't need to rush at the end, i try to balance my work out so that i have time to do my work properly. 

UK music magazine output

These are screenshots of music magazines from the UK. This website is used industrially to show magazines that are out there in the UK. I screenshot this particular section because they sounded like they fit in with my genre. 

I found the website of the 'Guitarist and Bass' magazine to look at it in more depth. 

                                               On this website you could get access to their latest magazine. 

This shows the latest front cover. I really like the style of this
magazine and it looks quiet country style. But it is actually an indie sort of genre. 

I took a part of the article just to give an idea of what articles are inside of the magazine. 

"Join us as we take a trip to Guitar Town, tracing the history of the Nashville music scene and profiling a who’s who of the city’s galaxy of guitar stars." 

I think this sounds quiet poetic and historical, which seems quiet interesting. 

Front cover Inspirations

This post is just going to be a brief way of showing where i got some of my ideas from. These pieces helped me choose how to design my own front cover. These aren't all of my inspirations, this is just a conclusion sort of thing to quickly show my main inspirations. 

This particular front cover caught my eye because i liked how it was simplistic but attention to detail. i like how it really focuses on the image, but the sell lines also stand out. I also like the use of color as they contrast very well together and make the masthead look very appealing to me. The font is also very easy to understand and they have used different colours and styles of text, which make it look a lot ore interesting, rather than having just the same font and the same color which would look quiet boring. 

This front cover was the most appealing to me. it caught my eye straight away. I really like the layout of this front cover because it looks very simple but detailed. The image is really good quality, the use of font styles and colours go really well with the style of the magazine. The costume the models have on looks quiet indie, which fits in with my genre, and the title really stands out. These front covers are from the same magazine, but the color of the masthead has changed which i like because it makes each magazine unique, and the clouds link in with the band/artist on the front cover. 

Update on my work

Progress

In todays lesson am just going over my final pieces making sure everything is in order and that i am happy with my final work. 
Here are my pieces. I will be making more improvements once my teacher goes through and gives their opinion, but this will be later on. 

Front cover

Contents page

Double page spread

Overall, i am quite happy with the way they have turned out. They have changed quite a lot since the start, but that just shows how much work and effort has gone into them. Obviously there will be improvements to make, but that will be resolved once my teacher checks through it. 

I really like the contrast between the colours as they all match. By the looks of it my colour scheme is like a grey and a cranberry red, (i mainly chose those colours because i personally like them). My layouts are quite simplistic and organized which is what i was aiming for, so i am happy with them. 

Time management

In todays lesson, i have managed to finish my contents page and complete my double page spread. My double page spread will need more work doing to it, but i will make them changes when i find more inspirations. I have tried to make them all match and make the contrast between them match so that you can tell it is from the same magazine. I feel like i am progressing well, and learning from my mistakes. I am looking at more magazines that inspire me to help me develop my ideas further. 

Research into my genre

I went onto the abc website and found a magazine called 'Indie' and some information about it that can help me.

This shows the amount of issues bought around the world, and this concludes what countries but that magazine most. in this case, the united kingdom bought over 8000 of the 'Indie' magazine in 2003 and the remaining 58 were bought else where. It also shows how poplar the magazine is, and how big the target audience is.

Another magazine called 'Q magazine' showed that just over 98% of purchases were made in the UK and 12% were from retail sales. it also shows your prices and subscription rates that apply to that magazine.