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

Since creating my school magazine, my knowledge of Adobe programmes has increased widely. I barely knew how to use Photoshop when creating my preliminary task, therefore in creating this music magazine I have broadened my skills with Photoshop and also enabled myself to improve and investigate more about the InDesign programme. I now know how to use different effects such as the translucent black boxes I have inserted around some of my photos and key points in my music magazine, and have also learnt how to use effects in order to create background such as the sketchy effect I have used in my second magazine. I have also learnt how to download and use a range of different fonts from the internet in order to make my magazine look more unique and appealing to the target audience rather than keeping to the same general fonts which are offered on the programmes.

In conclusion I feel that my skills have progressed widely when it comes to using programmes on the computer, as I have gone from never using Adobe products to being able to produce a professional looking article such as this music magazine. 

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For the process of constructing my magazine I have a used a number of different programmes for a number of different functions, firstly I used the college apple Macs to do the majority of my work on. I used a Samsung digital camera to take photos for use in my magazine. 

I used a memory stick to transfer work I had completed on other computers, such as my laptop at home, to move onto my apple Mac at college. 

During my creation process I used two new programmes that I had never used before, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop.

 I only used a small minority of the tools on Photoshop in order to create the sketchy background and to edit some of my photos. However I learnt to use a large range of the tools on the InDesign programme which helped me greatly with the process. I also created a blog account to record my processes on for my coursework using the website ‘Blogger’. 

In order to create some slideshows to upload onto my blog I used the Microsoft PowerPoint programme and then went on to use the Slide share website in order for me to be able to upload my slideshow onto my blog, both of which I have used previously to this project. 

In addition to this I also used the website ‘Survey Monkey’ to produce a questionnaire to obtain audience feedback on my original design ideas. 

5) How do you attract/address your audience?

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4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my magazine is students ranging between the ages of 16-21 for both genders, although with a slight bias to females due to the way my magazine is written and the topics it covers. They will enjoy socialising and listening to a large range of music mostly from the R&B genre but also flooding into other genres also. They will be interested mainly in artists such as Tinie Tempah, Drake, Rihanna etc. They will typically spend their time watching TV, shopping and possibly taking part in sports/extra curricular activities such as dance. They are likely to spend a fairly large amount on their appearance shopping anywhere on the high street from River Island to Topshop, whilst also spending money on designer brands such as Abercrombie and Fitch. 

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that a magazine company such a ‘IPC media’ would be a good distribution company as it already has experience in distributing music magazines, although they are of different genres such a ‘NME’ they still have the experience and insight into the music magazine industry. Also they distribute teenage/fashion magazines that are aimed at the older ages in my target bracket e.g. 18-21+ which would mean that they also have the insight into this industry which is the perfect combination needed in order to successfully distribute my magazine to the potential customers. 

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social

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1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation

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Final Pieces

Front Page

Contents

Double Page Spread

Research and Planning: Improvement of Contents Due to Audience Feedback

Before Improvement

After Improvement

After consulting my audience in order to gain feedback on the current contents of my magazine, i decided to slightly improve the page, by splitting the contents up into sections. I asked them a number of questions regarding the contents page such as, 'Do you think there is a sense of continuity throughout my pages so far? Why?', 'Why do you feel the pictures i have used are relevant to the genre?' 'Are there any improvements you could point out for the layout of the page?', when asking the first two questions, they felt that i had done enough to ensure a sense of continuity and they felt the pictures reflected the genre very well. However, they suggested that i broke the contents up into sections, to make the page look more desirable to the audience which enables them to pi-point certain parts of the magazine which they wish to read, and to keep in with the key trend of other magazines in order to make it look more professional. Therefor i took this criticism on board and improved my contents page, here is the finished result. 

Research and Planning: Process Of Contents Page

Firstly i have used this font for the title of the contents page as it is the same font as i have used for the front cover, therefor i am creating a sense of brand identity throughout the magazine. I have used the colour red as this is a very bright, vibrant, bold colour, which is similar to the personality traits the target audience are likely to have. The scratchy effect i have used around the edge, links in with the edgy urban feel, without trying to be to sever trying to be portrayed throughout this magazine. 

I have then added the main part of the contents page which is the text. This informs the audience clearly of what is to come in the magazine. I have used the same font as i used for the title, to once again create the sense of brand identity and to keep in with the theme of the magazine. I have titled the text so that it is on a slant in order to aline with the red box which is situated around it. This also links in with the theme trying to be portrayed as it is not straight like text normally is, it is an alternative idea, which can be seen as interesting to the target audience. 

This is the final look of my contents page so far, i have no added three images to make the page look more interesting and to entice the audience into reading the magazine, due to the look of the images. They portray a sense of urban street which is what my target audience will be interested in, so the images are hopefully going to be successful in enticing them to read on. I have used the yellow borders around the images to tie in with the front cover frames, to create a sense of brand identity once again. The vibrant yellow also contrasts well with the red, to give a very bold confident feel to the contents, which is, as i have said previously, apparent of the traits the audience is likely to obtain. 

Research and Planning: Mock Up Of Contents Page