Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in your progression from it to full product?

I feel as though my understanding of conventions has vastly improved and why the use of certain conventions are important in creating an authentic looking magazine for example, the inclusion of a barcode is one of the main features that I included in my final magazine and not my preliminary work, this is an example of my progression in knowledge of magazine conventions. 

I used my preliminary task as a learning experience as the finished product was uneasy on the eye due to the colours of the text and the clothing of the model clashing, this helped to teach me of the importance of pre-planning and choosing a suitable colour palette that prevents colour clashes whilst also looking interesting and suitable for the theme of my magazine. In my preliminary photo I cut out my model and put the picture over a green background, I felt that this looked tacky when looking back on it and so for my final music magazine I chose to pick a background that I would like on my magazine, I also chose not to have the background cover the entire magazine and instead condensed the photo to a small box to make my masthead stand out more against a white background. My preliminary work was also completely self thought out and did not take inspiration from existing texts, this meant my final result didn't look authentic, however when I came to do my music magazine I drew inspiration from a number of existing magazines and emulated their styles to create a visually pleasing text. The shots used for the cover on both magazine were mid shots from a mid angle, I chose to stay with this shot type for my final product as I grew to learn from my magazine research that this was a generic style of shot used to showcase the star on the cover and allow the image to be noticeable from a far to potential buyers. My contents page for my preliminary work was very basic and contained little information, on my final magazine I had developed my skills and created a very informative and categorised contents page. The font choice also vastly improved from my preliminary work as I chose basic and common fonts that weren't attractive and would not increase audience appeal, in my final magazine I chose to pick more unique fonts as they are more interesting for audiences to view.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?


I think that the cover is the most crucial part of my magazine in drawing in and generating audience attraction, I created a cover with a simplistic but stylish appearance, by including only limited information I was able to draw audiences attention to both the masthead and my star cover image. The artist on the front cover represents a young popular indie/alternative singer, wearing a camo green bomber jacket with medium length styled hair, a generic indie/alternative singer appearance that mimicks current popular singers of the same genre, therefore attracting audiences to read the magazine. My mast head is centred at the top of the page in a large bold font that is unique as it has the appearance of a water blur running through the centre, this contributes to the overall stylish effect that as I learnt from my audience research, is popular amongst my target audience. I chose to have my artist keep a friendly but focused look as he looks directly at the camera that would develop a likeableness to him whilst also adding an air of mysteriousness to his nature. Whilst the idea for my masthead design was developed from existing texts such as 'Mojo' who also position their mastheads centrally, My design emulated the music magazine 'Paper' who also use a white background whilst containing the artist photo in a box with the text giving the artists name with a line of text beneath it lay over the image.


The contents page is the final deciding factor in whether consumers will purchase the magazine or not, it is where all potential readers will view the content of the magazine and make an assumption upon it's quality. I wanted my cover page to both attract readers whilst addressing them simply and being set out in a manner that made it both informative and simple to read, I therefore chose to align both columns of text to be the same width and in a size that can be read from afar, I kept the segment for my main article on my double page spread separate to allow me to use a larger font size to draw the readers attention towards it, also I included a separate coloured box to advertise the competition running in that issue as this would be one of my initial main selling points as it directly appealed to individuals that fall into my target age bracket of ages 15-25. I took inspiration for my cover from magazines such as 'NME' who stick to a basic colour scheme and arrange the information in columns with a separate box to showcase the main story the magazine is running.


On my double page spread I chose to not follow conventional styles of having a singular big photo of the artist but instead I included a number of smaller photos surrounded by text from the article, I chose this style as the content within my article was an insight into the life and childhood of the artist, I therefore found it suitable to use photos that appeared more natural and less styled to allow readers to connect with my artist. The language focuses on keeping the readers attention through being informative and interesting written without using too many extravagant words that may interrupt the audiences flow of reading. There are two quotes from the article embedded in the text that are in a larger font size and blue in colour, these are interesting quotes that causes a desire in the readers to explore the context behind the quote as it will be one of the first things the reader sees when first viewing the pages. I drew inspiration for this from magazines such as 'DIY' where the pictures are not as large as is conventionally seen and quotes are scattered throughout the text, I admired the simplistic but informative approach that I chose for my cover and contents and so decided to continue this in my double page spread.

Magazine stages

Cover

 Contents

Double page spread

Teacher feedback on draft magazine

Main points to fix of teacher feedback:

- Change image on front cover

- Increase size of barcode

- Add another image on contents

- Align text on contents

- Make two columns on contents same width

- Change heading on DPS

- Align texts into columns

Magazine Draft

Due to problems accessing my work on my laptop, I was not able to complete the double page spread, however I decided that it would be more beneficial to add in the pieces of text showing audiences what would make up the rest of this individual text instead of rushing to complete it as it would allow me to begin collecting feedback from my audience on the lay out and overall appearance of all three pieces of work. By collecting feedback early I am allowing myself adequate time to create my product to the standard I am aiming for with time to spare for final adjustments before the final deadline.

Flatplans

These are basic flatplan designs for my draft magazine, their is multiple examples for each as I have not yet decided which I will use. They are basic flatplans that offer guides to where certain key elements of the cover, contents and double page spread will be located on the page to make designing and creating the magazine fast and simple. Detailed aspects such as borders or page numbers are not added as they are not required.

Relevant fashion mood board

Relevant fashion mood board

Analysis of existing magazine titles

After reviewing existing magazine titles I have concluded that the most successful magazine titles are short, I will therefore also choose a short magazine title. I have decided on creating an indie music magazine which I will name 'Vinyl'. I have chosen this name as it has musical relevance and is short. The design of the mastheads for all the magazines are bold and tidy fonts, I will also think of this when designing my magazine.

Colour palette analysis

Colour palette analysis from davo28

Preliminary magazine

Displayed here is my preliminary magazine in the form of a school information magazine. 

Font analysis

1) Blacklisted - This is a font I have downloaded from dafont.com, I chose to include it as the water blurred effect that runs through the middle of the font is unique and may work well as a masthead.

2) Coconut Express 01 - This is another font downloaded from dafont.com, I liked it because of its neat styling with a quirky twist on some letters and numbers, I do not believe I will use it as a masthead due to it's thin appearance, however I think it will be good for an article due to it's interesting appearance.

3) Futura - This font I chose as it was similar to number 2, however it is without the quirky twists on certain letters, I feel as though this would be a good replacement for number 2 if it turns out that the quriks look out of place.

4) Lemon/Milk - Another downloaded font from dafont.com, this one I chose as it looked suitable for headers or the quote extract for the double page spread as it is a very bold and thick font which attracts the readers attention.

5) Bebas Neue - The final downloaded font from dafont.com, this I chose as it could have a diverse range of uses due to its thick lettering style, meaning it could be used for anything from mastheads to article text, also due to its slimmer style it uses less horizontal space which could be useful if I have limited space on my magazine.

6) Monaco - Similar to number 5, it is a slightly less bold version of the previous font, meaning if I use number 5 for an article heading or sub-heading then this would be suitable for the text underneath.

7) Phosphate - This font is slightly more unusual, it would only be used for the masthead, it takes a similar style to the 'NME' music magazine masthead which I particularly enjoy and may seek to mimic in my own project.

8 & 9) Rockwell, American Typewriter - These are two similar fonts with small variations that I chose because of their aesthetically appealing look which I think will work well in an article in the double page spread.

10) Copperplate Gothic Bold - This is a font that I have chosen as a potential masthead or sub-heading, however I am not sure if I will use it due to its wide nature which may prove to be too space consuming.