Evaluation

Evaluation

I tried as much as possible for my final product to reflect the codes and conventions of media artefacts already in circulation. I did this because I wanted my piece to look realistic and professional. I’ve stuck to typical layouts of all magazines. Although audiences are attracted to new things that are different, I didn’t want to alienate my magazine and make it too different from others layout wise, as to not confuse audiences.

My front cover featured a focus point, being the act I chose to be a ‘main feature’ in my magazine. This typical of magazines to advertise the main person or act they choose to feature that issue. I used my two friends as models and even dressed them to codes and convention on what I saw on dance magazines, such a crop tops and head phones. I chose a large masthead ‘HOUSE’. I featured typical stories an incentives on the page. Such as winning rave tickets and using buzz words such as new or better to create the idea that my magazine is better than its competitors. I stuck to a 3 colour code convention typical of most magazine styles. This was to help my magazine design become recognisable. When you think of NME you know the logo and the colours red and white I wanted this same establishment with my magazine. This is why I used the same fonts and colours throughout to establish the look that my readers would become familiar with and learn to recognise ‘House’ from. This is great for marketing and becoming a recognisable brand.  I researched what colours dance magazines usually used and it what neon and bright so I did the same. 

My contents page sticks to the standard layout of most. I tried to fill it as much as possible with stories to make it seem as if my magazine contained the most for money. By featuring two pictures on it, it seemed more professional as that is what most existing magazines also do. I did this to show that I know magazines feature on a range of ‘stars’ rather than just one. My double page spread is the feature of my act from the front cover. I tried to choose professional looking pictures. Based on that of a studio shoot by using white backgrounds and interesting costume for my models. I wanted to do this against a location shot as I could control extraneous variables. Such as I used a bare light bulb to create a Photoshop look on my photos and a camera with filter options. This is something real photographers would do on their shoots.

My cover lines were also specifically chosen. My main cover line is the story with the act featured on the front. I overlapped it over the image which is something most magazines do to save space and to make the audience aware there is a personal story involving the act. I used different shapes and use of bullet points to layout my stories in a more interesting way. An arrow on the front is unusual and connotes to reader to open the magazine to see further into my stories.

I feel my media has represented the dance, alternative scene which is popular in a few niche magazines at the moment. Dance/trance or alternative music is popular with both male and female groups. It mainly appeals to teenagers so I aimed my magazine at ages 16-21.  I chose the name ‘house’ as it could be misconstrued as a range of other magazines such as estates. But for the niche market I’m aiming for, they would realize it’s a music genre. I tried to achieve the alternative look by using interesting and in your face kind of colours. Such as neon green black and bright reds. None of the colours really match which was purposeful to create an alternative look. Techno looking font styles. One featured throughout was a font called ‘impact label’ which was meant to be a big creative font to draw attention to my magazine, as more simple fonts are used on most other magazines. And the use of my models. In poses and in the costumes and props they were put in. Such as the neon glow sticks over my models eyes to create a 90s rave sort of look. I thought it was key to use important iconography as props ca b everything to giving your audience a feel of what genre your magazine is. Their dress also. I chose young clothes such as ‘wet’ leggings and crop tops all of which were also featured on existing articles I looked at. This creates a connection with my audience. My models are doing unconventional poses such as no mode of address is featured on my front cover, but then is used on my double page spread. I did this on the double pag spread to connect with the story. Seeing it was an interview the direct mode o dress would make the audience feel like it’s more person and my stars were almost ‘talking’ to them. I used a range of different poses and zooms on my photos but I found the best for them was medium shots as you can see a lot more of the detail I put in with their costumes. All giving off connotations to my audience of what my magazine is all about.  I think these together all attract the audience I was aiming for.

My incentives being rave tickets, something a younger person would aim for. And my use of models were important. They are both young girls so they are the age group of my target audience. Girl readers would like their fashion and look whilst boy readers could find them attractive.  I used use of posters which teenage girls and boys would both have an incentive to buy the magazine for. I could have posters of male and female artists to attract them both.

A media institution such as Bauer Media might distribute my magazine because it has over 80 influential brands. Some very similar to my magazine. Such a kerrang is a very unusual magazine although not being the same as my genre I can see Bauer Media publishing some alternative types of media.

I have learnt a lot about construction from my experience making this artefact. I learnt that I’m very comfortable with using Microsoft word but that it was not effective enough for my final product. I switched to serif page plus which allowed me to crop photos and edit them at the same time as making my artefact. They had use of tools such as shadowing which I’ve used on my images to make them more 3d and add a more professional look. I managed to edit fonts and use websites such as dafont.com to find ‘impact label’ which was used throughout my pieces. The website gave me a great range of fonts to think about. There was a whole genre of fonts called ‘techno’ which gave me great ideas for the type of look I was going for with my magazine. For my images I didn’t need to use the media on the computer, my iPhone allowed me to use different filters. I did not know the iPhone could do this before making my product. Also taking the photos helped me realise the amount of effort that would go into a photo-shoot. Using bare light bulbs and finding the right backdrop as well as poses were all things I learnt. On my planning you can see the range of photos I didn’t use and why I didn’t use them.

Looking back on my preliminary task, I feel I have progressed lots compared to my final media product. My preliminary task was very simple. I used very simple fonts, and my mastheads and colour schemes were all over the place. I used text box shapes on my product which and make it look quite tacky.

My cover lines were very boring and my stories within the leaflet have very boring one word titles. I have since learnt more buzz words and how to entice a reader with incentives into stories.

My image use also. I didn’t know how to properly edit or the cropping tool. Both my images are very stretched and look unprofessional. My camera angles were obscure and I did not pose my model. Comparing my preliminary task to my final products I have learn a lot of techniques and come a long way. I have used a lot of programs I wasn’t using before and thought about every part of my magazine to make sure it as optimum for my target audience. This I feel has made my final product a success.