Final Products

FINAL PRODUCTS

These are my final designs. My front cover, then contents and finally my double page spread. I stuck to the theme throughout and I created a magazine that would suit well to my target audience.

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation of social groups from Jess278

Evaluation

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

When creating my front cover I used ideas from current music magazines to help me develop and challenge forms of media products. I made sure the theme colours worked well with the genre and that they followed all the way through. I used an image as the background to show what my double page spread was about which I found many music magazines did. I then planned my front cover text to make the page look full but still able to understand and see the background image. By using older text this kept with the genre and it challenged the conventions of real media products. 

 
For my contents page I carried out more research and took ideas from current magazines. I found that most magazines kept all their text to one side so that readers could find the information they wanted easily. Also they tended to keep the text quite small and made the pictures bigger, but doing this to my contents page, it will interest the audience more because they tend to look at the pictures more to see who is featured in the magazine. Plus my making the competition more obvious they will me more interested in entering. This shows the conventions on real media because it has all the same structure as a real magazine.

Finally for my double page spread I again did the research on current magazines and had to make a choice on whether to keep the text to one side or whether to have half and half. I decided to put it all on one side, by doing this it meant I could highlight the main subject (the band) with a bigger title and it meant the picture wasn’t covered up.

Once I had positioned the main picture and the title, I carried onto the text, I decided to make it a questions article which the band had answered, by doing this it would interest the reader because it would have the best gossip in the article which is what all main magazines have. By structuring the pages like this and creating my article into questions it entices the reader, again showing the conventions of a real media product.

Evaluation

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

Strengths- In the magazine industry computering technology is a must have throughout. When constructing my product, there were many strengths to the use of technology. When planning my designs and creating my flatplan it was easier to create it on the computer because it meant I could use the exact measurements because everything would fit perfect as the same as the flatplan. Furthermore the programme I used (InDesign) worked a lot better than any other programme because it is specifically created to design media products. I found using InDesign mean't I could experiment with different textures and change the fonts and structure easily. Moreover, when creating my blog it was much easier to keep track of everything I was doing and I had easy access to updating and changing my blog if I needed. Over all, I learnt how to use InDesign well and I found that having easy access to my plan and my blog meant that I was sticking to my initial ideas well. 

Weaknesses- As for most things there are weaknesses for everything. When designing my product I found that indesign couldn't do everything I wished for my product so I had to compromise with it and change my design ideas slightly. Also, I found that when creating my blog it was hard to structure it how I wanted it so I found working with blogger was harder than expected. 

Altogether I have learnt a great amount when constructing this product, I have learnt how to use indesign well and I have learnt how to keep track of my work and keep a time scale using a blog. Furthermore I have found usng technology to construct my product has made it a lot easier and found it would of taken a lot more time if I didnt have the programmes available to me.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task and the progression throughout, I feel that I have learnt how much work has to be put into creating a media product. I found that everytime I planned something to create my magazine I had to make sure I had done research prep to make sure that the customer would be satisfied with it. Furthermore, throughout the progression I found that everything had to fit to my target audience, so I was making sure my research was well thought through so that my magazine interested my target audience completely.

I feel I have learnt that the target audience is the most important part of creating a media product. 

Moreover, I feel that I have learnt how to attract a certain type of audience well, I've learnt how to make a magazine look presentable to the eye of the reader, and I have also learnt how to develop my ideas as I go, always doing research to help my development.

In addition, I feel my technology skills have improved a lot. I am able to use blogger easier than when I started off and I am also comfortable creating media products in InDesign.

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When designing my magazine I needed to choose a target audience to appeal too. I chose to design my magazine for the age range of 15-30 year olds with a interest of rock music. My typical stereotype of audience is dark coloured clothing, skinny jeans and band tops or patterned tops. Furthermore the girls tend to wear dark makeup, that makes them stand out to be original. Piercings and tattoos are very common with my target audience. Although they tend to wear dark colour sometimes they can vary with bright colour for hair dye or small parts of clothing. They like to keep to their group and as a rock listener they wil follow certain bands and stick to them. This means they will choose certain magazines because of the certain bands inside.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

I looked at current magazines and I also researched what these group would look for in a magazine and what they look like. I feel my magazine will suit these the most because I have suited it to fit them. 

The dark colours that I have used in my theme are the main colours that my target audience will normally associate with. Furthmore I looked at the way bands pose in the images in the magazines and I attempted to recreate these poses in my images. By doing this it makes the bands look professional and they suit my audience and how they like to see their favourite bands.When researching the current magazines I looked at the bands that were mostly used in all of the magazines and how much content they got. By doing this it meant I could work out how much content to use for my double page spread.

Evaluation

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

Publishing-When creating my magazine I had to decide ways in which I could make it available to my target audience. I chose to use IPC Media as my publishing because they are one of the leading publishing companies in the UK. Also magazines such as 'NME magazine' and 'Guitar & Bass' both use IPC Media as their publisher. Both these magazines are well known music magazines so IPC have a reputation when I comes to publishing music.

Distribution-

• • As a main form distribution I chose the traditional method of printing and manual transport in the local areas. By doing this I would be able to produce mass amount of the magazine, or I would be able to choose the amount needed for the area. I'd be able to choose this by finding out how many are bought every week in the area.   

   
  

  • Furthermore, to get the designs of my magazine

  delivered to all the printing companies in the country in time without rushing the editing or journalists I decided to use technology and send all the companies my designs through email. This way it meant that I wouldn't have to rush the rest of the production process and that the deadlines could stay as they were because by sending the designs by email the printing could be complete and transported in the same night ready for the next morning.
  

  •  In addition to distributing my magazine traditionally I wanted to make sure that everyone could read the contents even if they couldnt afford to buy it every week. I decided I would put my magazine on the web 2.0. By doing this it would mean that anyone that wanted to read it would have access to it at any point of the day. Also by my magazine being online, it would mean if collectors missed a week they would be able to find it without hassle.