Evaluation

For my main coursework project i had to design and create a music magazine, and i chose the genre of Pop. In this post i will be evaluating the whole project and discussing what went well and what i need to improve on.

My magazine uses a lot of real conventions from other pop genre magazines. When i looked at and analysed some pop magazines, i realised certain conventions were always repeated and these are what made the magazine appealing to the eye and successful. I included my the title of my magazine at the top, in an eye catching and font that's relevant to the genre of magazine. My main image is of a person making eye contact and is a close up. These features conform to the conventions of most music magazines. The colours of the magazine are similar to other colours used in other pop magazines, for example; Mizz magazine is aimed at the same target audience as mine and this uses a lot of pink and feminine colours. Ways in which my magazine can challenge the forms of real media products is the type of photos taken aren't as staged and are more simpler. However apart from this, most conventions of real pop magazines are used in my product, i decided to do this because if all the pop magazines have been successful by using the same conventions but mixing it up a little each time for a new issue, it keeps readers interested and the magazines remain successful.

My magazine is for the pop genre of music,therefore represents people from that genre. For example, the pop genre portrays a 'squeaky clean' image of pop stars and everything is very happy and positive. The language used can be very stereotypical of certain subcultures. For example i have assured that this target audience likes the attractive men i have included images of. My magazine doesn't make any negative comments on any other social group or stereotype them. The variety of races is shown through the images by presenting an image on a African-Caribbean female on the cover for the girl band. This shows that it is not all based around one race of people.

If my music magazine was made and published it would be sold in all newsagents and stored like WHSmiths. they would choose to stock this magazine because it is suitable to a wide range of females and there needs to be a new pop magazine out there after the end of smash hits magazine. It will attract a range of ages of girls, it is fairly cheap to buy and it is appealing to the eye by having bright vibrant colours and edgy fonts.

http://sdcmed/iaasclairetunaley.blogspot.com/2009/10/target-audience.html
This is a link to blog 2 where i have explained my target audience for my product, however in this post i will discuss this in more detail. The magazine is targeted to all races of people and the age group is from 10 to 18 and is aimed at females. They would fit into the socio-econmic group of D up to A, however it is hard to state an exact grouping because the product is aimed at children, therefore this is not based on the occupation they have, but what their overall family lifestyle may be like. i think the magazine appeal to the stated age range because girls from 10 may get pocket money and this is the type of thing they may spend their money on and is cheap to buy. Also, most girls are stereotyped to love the celebrity gossip happening and also reading about boys. They like to delve into the lives of celebrities and read about their everyday routines. Audiences can also be grouped by psycho graphics, this is like the 'type' of person. For my magazine, its audience would fit into the main streamers category because they go with the flow and like easy reading but don't stand out from the crowd.


To attract and address my target audience i used friendly, simple and feminine language because the audience is females, so i used words like 'crush' and 'hot' to address one of the features that appeals to girls. Then i didn't make the words in such features like the interview too complex, by restricting the length of words and not using too high academic words so that the whole audience will understand the writing clearly. Then to make it friendly i used personal pronouns, such as 'you' and 'we', this makes the audience feel involved as it is personal to them. The tone of the whole interview is light hearted and friendly, and there isn't too many 'prying questions' asked. The images i have used will attract my target audience because they are all of famous people related to the music industry and are either of 'polished' girls or attractive males. They could see an image of a person they are interested in and this may sway them to buy the magazine by the image, that's why images are one of the most important parts of the content of the magazine. The images i chose are all of 'celebrities' that aren't that much older than my target audience, i did this purposely so that in a way they can relate to them easier, and if i used a picture of a 60 year old man as the main image on the front, the genre of the magazine may be difficult to establish and may deter children. To help decide which images to use and how to take my photos for the magazine, i looked at other pop magazines and their use of images. For example these two examples of Top of the Pops magazine, show the clear conventions of how images are used on magazines. There is a main image on the front, like mine and they have eye contact with the camera. There is also a higher percentage of images than text on the front cover as this is what attracts this audience the most.

The choice of font also has a big impact on addressing the audience because each font is suited more towards different types of people and especially has to compliment the genre of the magazine.
By looking a Mizz magazine, which has a very similar target audience to my magazine, you can see that the font used for the title is in a sans-serif font. This font is used for most main titles and subheadings in pop magazines, it stands out and looks a 'fun' sort of font for the audience it has to appeal to. Therefore i used this convention for my own.
In terms of mode of address, i had to make assumptions of what my target audience will want to read about. therefore when producing the interview, to attract and keep my audience interested i had to decide which questions were the best to ask the girl band and what language i used to approach these. For example i would talk about beauty tips and males.

I have learnt many things about technologies from the process of constructing my product. firstly about how to use the software, it is quite a complex software to use at first so it took some time to get to used to it but i had a lot of ideas about how i wanted my magazine to look and this helped. I used photoshop to edit my images and make them brighter and clearer and crop them to the size that suited the page they were on. The lasso tool on InDesign enabled me to cut around the photo, so i just had the outline of the image, this is something that was on my list of ideas of how i wanted things to look. However i found it really hard to get the same colour for all my pages, it was hard getting the exact same shade every time. Also i wanted to be able to draw my own shaped boxes to put text in, but as far as i know, the software did not allow me to do this.

From starting off with the preliminary task, i feel i have learnt a lot since then and progressed my skills on the computer and designing. I have been able to adapt my language to the suitable audience for the product and i did this through just looking and analysing lots of existing products with the same audiences. I learnt how to get a wide range of choice of different fonts i can use by going on www.dafont.com . They have a huge variety and I've learnt how each font has connotations and can be suited to really specific audiences. Since the preliminary task i don't feel like i have planned any more thoroughly as i have gone with the flow and developed my ideas as I've gone along and anything I've changed i have changed in my blog. If i was to do this task again and make another pop genred magazine, i would change the main photo, so that the person was looking at the camera and smiling because that would suit the conventions of the pop genre magazines than the one i have used.


Finished Magazine

Front Cover

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8HTNrxR8NouNzY4ODdmYTQtN2Q3Ny00YmJhLWIxY2YtMGRjNzdhZWYwMWY2&hl=en


Contents Page

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8HTNrxR8NouZjE2NDJiM2QtZmU4Zi00MDBhLTgyYTktOTMxODRhYmQxODhm&hl=en


Double Page Spread

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8HTNrxR8NouNzFkZWJiMDMtMmVmOS00MmFjLTlhMDgtYTIyYjJlNDEwZDcy&hl=en

Planning & Evaluation of article

This is an interview from 'POP' magazine No.18 with the actress Hannah Murray.

I have chosen this article as it is from the same genre magazine as mine and its the same genre of article as mine.

The language used is very friendly and it has an informal tone. Some of the words the actress uses are fairly complex but this is purely down to the way she speaks and her individuality. Although the tone is friendly it also is quite serious and she touches on some serious issues that are to do with her acting career, for example anorexia. This is different to my double page spread interview, because mine is for a younger audience of girls, so it doesn't need to touch on such serious issues and it is based more on celebrities and gossip.

Blog 7- Photo Editing

Here is a before and after of the photo i included on my double page spread. I chose to edit this photo and improve it using photo shop to make it more appealing for the magazine.

Firstly i cropped the image to make it smaller and cut out the plug socket in the background and the wall. I then brightened the whole photo up in Picasa, i did this using the tuning tools. This makes the photo seem less dull and freshens up the whole image. I also used the shadow tool which then emphasises the colours in the image to make the red and the back both really stand out. the picture looks more modernised and vibrant for the genre of the magazine.

Here is a before and after photo of the image included on my double page spread featuring the interview with the band, 'The Lilas'.

For this photo i vaguely did the same as i did to the other one. I cropped out unnecessary bits in the photo, like the wall. I then brightened up the whole photo, giving their skin a vibrant and using the shadow tool to emphasise all the colours present in their outfits.

For this photograph, i brightened up the colours and enhanced the colour of the pink background and the blue top. I made him wear a typical blue t-shirt so it fits in with the stereotype of a 'boy's colour'. I also cropped the photo by cutting out the unnecessary parts in the shot. It is a posed photo instead of a natural photo as this suits the pop genre.

Blog 6- Photos

This photo is included on my front cover because it shows the ban which is going to be interviewed inside. I made the girls pose in this way as it is a fun but still quite innocent pose. It isn't too staged and they look fairly natural to the camera. The facial expressions aren't harsh and two of the girls are smiling. This is good for the genre of my magazine as it has a real pop feel to the image. I kept their make up subtle but with the red lipstick to stand out and it ties in with the colours of their outfits. I chose the outfits they wore based on what messgae i was sending out to the audience of the magazine. I wanted them to look fun and fresh and be something that girls would look up to and what to be like. The Union Jack jacket shows how the magazine is British and so is the band and that they are proud of that. I kept the setting for the photo simple as i wanted it to focus ont he band and their look rather than their surroundings. Also as the front cover of the magazine is rther busy and colourful i didn't want everything to be distracting each individual feature. I think this photo appeals to my target audience because they are posing happily, so it looks inviting and they are all girls so girls reading it can relate to them and be inspired by what they have achieved and maybe want to look like them.

This photo is included on my double page spread to accompany the interview with the girl band 'The Lilas'. he pose she is doing looks cute and she is smiling again which reflects the genre of the magazine. When researching other pop magazine, most of the photos included in their magazine had the people smiling and looking at the camera, so i decided to confrom with those conventions to try and make my magazine successful. I chose for her to be sitting on this amplifyer as it ties in with the theme of music and looks quite retro. Her red cardigan stands out and looks bold against the background. The make up is simple again yet the hair is curly and volumised to give a cute look. The way she is sitting is relaxed and she looks like she is having fun doing it.

This photo is included on the front page to link to the feature: 'Backstage with the High School Muscial 2 Concert Cast'. This photo is quite different compared to the others

because it is much more posed. The way he is standing doesn't look as natural and his facial expressions are more serious. I have done this because it is a change in gender, he is supposed to look appealing to the eye and for the girls reading to find him attractive. I edited the photo to make him have more of a tan to stand out against the white backgorund and white t-shirt. The way he did his hair is to make him look similar to character he is portraaying- Troy Bolten. I think this photo appeals to my target audience because he is an attractive young man, not much older than the readers, so they will like to look at this photo then want to read on to find the article featuring him. Nearly all pop magazines feature an attractive man on the front to appeal to the young girls reading the magazine The front cover is the most important part of the selling of the magazine as children can be easily swayed by who and what is on the front cover, therefore may buy the magazine just because of who is going to be feautred on the front.

I included this photo on the Contents page as part of a quiz for the readers to guess which celebrity this is when they were younger. I decided to take this photo and use it as a professional dance show photo. This reflects the genre of the magazine by using a young girl and making it a cheesy photo. The way this is posed shows that it is a professional photograph, with the white/blue background and the choice of costume. I chose this costume as it is young nad fun and adds some humour to the magazine. Yound readers will want to turn to the page straight away to find out who the celebrity is pictured. The audience can refect on this photo by believeing that this celebrity was a normal young girl interested in dancing and made it out to be a big celebrity featuring in Planet Pop magazine.

Flat Plans

The front cover of my magazine conforms the conventions of most pop magazines' designs. I designed this based on the images of Top of the Pops magazine. The layout is similar and i have done this because it has a very clear but fun layout. I have used different shapes of text box and fonts to attract the readers. The colours on the front cover are going to be bright and vibrant to appeal to the target audience. The main focused colours will be pink and yellow, this is because the magazine is mainly appealing to young girls.

The contents page also conforms the conventions of pop magazines. The design is similar, it includes photos of what is going to be in the magazine and an editor's letter. Light and dramatic colours are going to be used again as this will express the genre of the magazine throughout. The same font is going to be used for the title so it remains consistent and people don't get confused with lots of different fonts. I have used stars as bullet points because this keeps in the theme of 'stars' and 'celebrities'.

The layout of my double page spread doesn't conform as much to the conventions of other pop magazines. I have chosen to do an interview as the main focus on the pages but then have a third of the page taken up with a shocking gossip story. I have done this so that people will want to read on about the story after they have read the interview. The pages have an equal amount of images and text so that the readers aren't distracted by more of one than the other. Each picture is related to the interview and includes the band and individual photos of each of them. The gutter on the double page spread is fairly wide as i wanted to be able to differentiate the two pages clearly and space each of the sections of the design grid out. I think these pages really appeal to my target audience because there isn't too much text that the young audience will be put off by and the images will grab their attention and young girls can be inspired by what the band look like and what they talk about.

Fonts

For my magazine i will have to decide what font styles i am going to use on each page and how each font will appeal to my target audience. The target audience for my magazine is mainly girls aged from 8-16, who are interested in pop music, fashion, celebrities, and celebrity gossip.

Front cover
For the main title on the front cover of my magazine, i will use the font 'Budmo'. I have chosen to use this font because it is a fun and interesting font. It is quite easy to read and it appeals to my target audience. Using this font will grab people's attention and make them want to read it as it looks fun and gives the magazine an edgy look to it. The font is also very relevant to the genre of my magazine. As the genre is pop, this font shows the lights on the letters like celebrities have over their mirror in their dressing room.

I have decided to use a different font for the rest of the features on the front cover because, if there is more text in blocks or subheadings in the Budmo font, then it could become quite unclear for the reader. Instead, i am going to use the 'Arial' font as this is a sans serif typeface, therefore it could appear clearer to read and understand with longer pieces of text. I can compare this with the front cover of Smash Hits that i analysed as this also includes both sans serif and serif typeface fonts.

Contents Page
For the contents page i will use the same fonts so that it is consistent throughout and people don't get too distracted by reading too many different font styles. I will also make the title on the contents page big and in the Budmo font so that reader's can see clearly what the page is and what it will consist of. I will use a font called 'new facebook' for the subheading 'contents' because its a very fun font and looks like the individual letters have been cut out and stuck down. I used the font 'Cheri' for some of the phrases on this page, as its a very feminine font, which appeals to my magazine audience. For the editor's note on this page i have used the font Arial', because this fits in with all the other fonts on the magazine pages. This makes it less confusing for the younger readers, as it there are lots of different fonts it can all look too much.

Double-page spread
For my double-page spread i will use the arial font again for the band's interview as it will be clear to read. This helps when there is a lot of text, because the words flow so it isn't confusing to read. Where i have the interview with the band 'The Lilas' i will use the font 'Cheri' for their name because it is a girly, fun font which represents the band interviewed and appeals to the target audience. Where i will have pull-quotes from the interview, they will be written in the font : 'Lucida Handwriting', as this looks like the band's thoughts have gone straight to paper and they have written it themselves in this style. Under the main heading i have written a little introduction to the interview and i used the font 'Snap ITC'. I used this as it is very appealing to the eye and will appeal to the target audience because it's quite a feminine font and is an edgy font, this also links to the relaxed tone of the interview and the personality of the band being interviewed.

Another font i looked at to use was 'Georgia'. It is a similar font to the 'Arial', however i preferred the 'Arial' type of font. I asked a few people in my target audience category about my choices of fonts and 4 out of 5 people preferred the Arial font, this is why i chose it as i want everything in this magazine to appeal to my target audience.
From analysing some magazines in the pop genre, all of their main titles on the front were fairly simple, so for my magazine to stand out and be unique i decided to use a bit of a more edgy and striking font.

Analysis of existing magazines 2

For the second magazine, i'm going to be analysing the design of Smash Hits magazine. Even though this magazine isn't around anymore, it was very popular at the time.

Front cover I think they have given smash hits as the title of the magazine because its catchy and easy to remember. Also it's very relevant to the genre of the magazine as 'hits' relates to top songs.
Colour
The main colour on the front page thats used is pink. This may indicate to readers that the magazine will be aimed more at females then males. Another thing to suggest this would be the features on the front, i.e '19 red carpet looks you'll love' and 'starts exposed'. These titles would mainly just ctah the eye of the girls. The title is pink yet outlined with white, this makes it stand out from the rest of the text on the page, so you can clearly see what they magazine is called. The colour yellow has been used around the text boxes, i think this has been used as its a very bright, eye-catching colour. It outlines the 4 images used and almost acts like a grid to seperate each picture from eachother and the rest of the text. As the style of music this magazine is promoting is very happy and modern, this colour presents this nicely.
Font
The font used on the front cover is a mixture of sans serif font and serif font. I think they have done this because, the bits that are in the sans serif font are the parts that need to be clearer for the readers. Quite a lot of the text has a white outlining to it, to make it appear bolder and clearer to read. A total of 5 different styles of fonts have been used, this makes the front cover more interesting and a chance for the designer to show off and play around with thses fonts. Sometimes, if too many fonts have been used it can look too messy and too hard to understand. However on the cover of Smash Hits they have used them very effectively and all for different reasons on different parts of text.
Images
All the pictures on the front cover are of celebrities, this shows that this is what the magazine is going to be based around. Also i have noticed that the pictures of celebrities they've chosen aren't hugely known around the globe. Most of them are teen stars. For example, Chantelle Houghton appears on the front cover, she won celebrity big brother and now is described as a celebrity thorugh being on a reality TV show. This show appeals to the target audience of the magazine therefore they are probably more familiar with her rather than someone in the older generation. An image of the singer Preston from the Ordinary Boys is on the cover too, as he is known for his singing in a band, this ties in with the genre of the magazine being pop. This image is also the biggest on the cover, showing that this is going to be one of the main features in the magazine.
Language
There isn't much to comment on about the language used on the front cover as there isnt much text on the cover. One thing however would be that the word 'exposed' is used, by using this word it grabs children's attention and makes them want to read on. If they read that something is exposed about celebrities, it may make the magazine seem more personal to them and like they are finding out something that no one else does. Also the language used is very simple, it needs to be simple because the text needs to get to the ponit, most of the text are like subtitles. A pull-quote is said to grab the reader's attention and make them want to turn to that page to read on about the interview with Preston.