My front cover is based very much around that of KERRANG! Magazines. It consists of a large masthead, which is the name of my magazine “DOUBLE KICK”, at the top of the page. There is a bar-code with the price and web address of my magazine and the publication date is underneath the masthead. There is a skyline, showing the feature story of the issue clearly to catch the eye of the audience and also smaller printed teasers for other stories that the magazine would include. There is a puff advertising and promoting download festival, with the word “DOWNLOAD” slightly bolder than the rest of the text and coloured yellow.
My contents page goes against conventions, as it only has one image. This is because I wanted all focus to be on my feature story. It has a new section and a reviews section with numbers to allow the readers to see which page each subject is on. I decided to do my feature story in a bigger, bolder font to allow it to stand out. I did not add an editor’s note, like most contents pages conventionally do, instead I added a competition for winning tickets to download, which links to my puff on the front cover. I also added a section on interviews.
On my double page spread I followed the conventions of a typical double page spread. There is a large headline above the main image so the audience understands what it is about. I decided to write an introductory paragraph to describe what the interview in my double page spread will entail; I wanted to grip the audience so they would read the full text. I used a drop cap at the start of the article and two pull quotes that might encourage the audience to read on. I didn’t include the photographer or journalist name because I did the article on myself.
I chose to base my magazine around the rock/metal genre as it is the genre of music I listen to and therefore I know a fair bit about it. Stereotypically this kind of music is listened to by the emo/mosher scene. The people within this scene are usually between the ages of 15 – 24, both male and female, so I had to make my magazine suitable for that age group through the appropriate use of colour, content and music genre. My front cover represents the genre in several ways, for example, the font of the masthead is distorted. This represents my genre because it links to the distorted guitar effects used in the music. The music within the genre is also stereotypically aggressive, so I decided to make my image look aggressive to represent this stereotype. I also tried to represent my genre through use of colour; my house colours are black, red and white. These colours are quite typical of the genre and often colours worn by the social groups within it.
The institution that may publish and distribute my media product would be Bauer media. This is because they produce KERRANG! magazine, which is very successful, so they would definitely consider another magazine of the same genre to further compete with similar media products published by other institutions. If Bauer media have two successful magazines then they will have a larger percentage of the profit made by the magazines.
The audience that would buy my magazine would most likely be between the ages of 15 - 24, both male and female and normally middle class. This is because the majority of people who are interested in my genre are in this age range. They are in several different social groups, such as emo, scene, mosher etc, so I have made sure my magazine is suited to attract each of them as they are all slightly different. My magazine would also be popular among drummers, as my main story features the drummer of a metalcore band, so they may be interested in the contents of my magazine.
I have made sure my media product will attract my target audience by making sure that the price of my magazine is a reasonable price, relative to the quality of my magazine. I therefore decided to do a survey, asking 10 people (5 of each sex) within the age range if they believed that £3.50 would be a reasonable price for my magazine, the results confirmed that 8/10 people would pay £3.50 for a good quality magazine. I believe this is because the majority of people within the age range of my socio economic group are currently working part time, some may even be working full time, so they have access to the money. I also made sure that the content of my magazine was suitable for my audience, making sure that the artists are relevant to it in both genre and age. I made sure that the layout and font of my magazine is interesting and relative to the preferred genre of my audience. I also included a competition to win tickets to go to download festival, which is a very popular music festival for the people within my socio economic group that are interested in my genre, therefore they will be attracted to my media product through the puff on my front cover.
To find out exactly what my audience thought of my media product, I asked 10 people within it, 5 male and 5 female, to ensure a balanced and unbiased result, to fill out a small questionnaire:
1. Do you think that my magazine front cover has qualities that would attract and audience between the ages of 15 - 24?
Yes:IIII IIII
No: I
2. Do you think that the contents of my magazine are suitable for an audience between the ages of 15 - 14?
Yes:IIII IIII
No:
3. Do you think that I have used a suitable colour scheme that would match that of an audience associated with the genre of my magazine?
Yes:IIII II
No: III
4. Do you think that my magazine represents the chosen genre appropriately?
Yes:IIII III
No: II
As the majority of my results were positive, I can confidently confirm that my magazine will attract the majority of my target audience.
I used a lot of technology to produce my magazine. First of all, I planned out my magazines layout using Microsoft Office Publisher so that I knew whereabouts I would place everything when I moved onto creating the magazine in Adobe Photoshop CS5. I started off by taking some pictures with my 7 mega-pixel digital camera. As I decided to use only myself as a model, I had to set my camera up on a bi-pod and set a timer while I prepared for the photo. When I had enough images, I selected one and imported it into Photoshop. I then used the pen tool to accurately cut around the image and then decreased the brightness slightly and increased the contrast. I used the red eye removal tool to make sure my eyes looked natural, and made sure my face was clear with the spot heal tool. I used this process for the images on my contents page and double page spread. I then took some pictures of brick walls and fences to use as a background and ended up using a wall. When I added it into Photoshop I increased the contrast and turned down the brightness. I also edited the levels to further balance it, then used the airbrush tool to create a dark sweep along the bottom of the image.
I then downloaded the font "action of the time" from dafont.com and used it as the main font of my magazine, using more basic default fonts for the less important text. I manipulated all my images and text through the use of layers, making sure that the more important images were at the front, then I used the blur tool to ensure that my images blended together properly to look as natural as possible. After I had finished manipulating my images for the double page spread I saved it as a jpeg and imported it into Publisher. This allowed me to easily add text into my article. I also added a drop cap at the start of the article and a pull quote in the centre of the text by placing it in a separate text box. All three pieces of work were then saved as high quality jpeg images and uploaded to my blog.
Since my preliminary task, I have improved a massive amount on photoshop. I have learned how to use all the basic tool properly, and can now do some of the more advanced things. On my preliminary task, I found it very difficult to make my main image blend with the background, so I practised at home to make sure that on this task my image was blended properly to ensure that it looked professional.
As you can see, I have learned much more about the conventions of a typical magazine and made sure that I have included them on my music magazine, while my college magazine lacks the conventions needed. I have tried to fill as much space possible on my music magazine, while my college magazine has a lot of blank space that should have been filled with teasers, puffs etc. The only thing that is similar about my college magazine and music magazine is the layout; I think that I had a good understanding of this on the preliminary task and so only felt the need of a slight improvement on it on my music magazine. The amount of time I had on the music magazine compared to the college magazine also allowed me to make a massive improvement on my portfolio work. I surprised myself with my abilities on photoshop in this task, as I did not think it would be this successful. I have also improved my understanding of the audience; on the college magazine I struggled to design my work for a particular audience, whereas on the music magazine I have aimed my work at a very distinctive audience to ensure better results.
The institution that may publish and distribute my media product would be Bauer media. This is because they produce KERRANG! magazine, which is very successful, so they would definitely consider another magazine of the same genre to further compete with similar media products published by other institutions. If Bauer media have two successful magazines then they will have a larger percentage of the profit made by the magazines.
The audience that would buy my magazine would most likely be between the ages of 15 - 24, both male and female and normally middle class. This is because the majority of people who are interested in my genre are in this age range. They are in several different social groups, such as emo, scene, mosher etc, so I have made sure my magazine is suited to attract each of them as they are all slightly different. My magazine would also be popular among drummers, as my main story features the drummer of a metalcore band, so they may be interested in the contents of my magazine.
I have made sure my media product will attract my target audience by making sure that the price of my magazine is a reasonable price, relative to the quality of my magazine. I therefore decided to do a survey, asking 10 people (5 of each sex) within the age range if they believed that £3.50 would be a reasonable price for my magazine, the results confirmed that 8/10 people would pay £3.50 for a good quality magazine. I believe this is because the majority of people within the age range of my socio economic group are currently working part time, some may even be working full time, so they have access to the money. I also made sure that the content of my magazine was suitable for my audience, making sure that the artists are relevant to it in both genre and age. I made sure that the layout and font of my magazine is interesting and relative to the preferred genre of my audience. I also included a competition to win tickets to go to download festival, which is a very popular music festival for the people within my socio economic group that are interested in my genre, therefore they will be attracted to my media product through the puff on my front cover.
To find out exactly what my audience thought of my media product, I asked 10 people within it, 5 male and 5 female, to ensure a balanced and unbiased result, to fill out a small questionnaire:
1. Do you think that my magazine front cover has qualities that would attract and audience between the ages of 15 - 24?
Yes:
No: I
2. Do you think that the contents of my magazine are suitable for an audience between the ages of 15 - 14?
Yes:
No:
3. Do you think that I have used a suitable colour scheme that would match that of an audience associated with the genre of my magazine?
Yes:
No: III
4. Do you think that my magazine represents the chosen genre appropriately?
Yes:
No: II
As the majority of my results were positive, I can confidently confirm that my magazine will attract the majority of my target audience.
I used a lot of technology to produce my magazine. First of all, I planned out my magazines layout using Microsoft Office Publisher so that I knew whereabouts I would place everything when I moved onto creating the magazine in Adobe Photoshop CS5. I started off by taking some pictures with my 7 mega-pixel digital camera. As I decided to use only myself as a model, I had to set my camera up on a bi-pod and set a timer while I prepared for the photo. When I had enough images, I selected one and imported it into Photoshop. I then used the pen tool to accurately cut around the image and then decreased the brightness slightly and increased the contrast. I used the red eye removal tool to make sure my eyes looked natural, and made sure my face was clear with the spot heal tool. I used this process for the images on my contents page and double page spread. I then took some pictures of brick walls and fences to use as a background and ended up using a wall. When I added it into Photoshop I increased the contrast and turned down the brightness. I also edited the levels to further balance it, then used the airbrush tool to create a dark sweep along the bottom of the image.
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| Before Edit |
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| After Edit |
I then downloaded the font "action of the time" from dafont.com and used it as the main font of my magazine, using more basic default fonts for the less important text. I manipulated all my images and text through the use of layers, making sure that the more important images were at the front, then I used the blur tool to ensure that my images blended together properly to look as natural as possible. After I had finished manipulating my images for the double page spread I saved it as a jpeg and imported it into Publisher. This allowed me to easily add text into my article. I also added a drop cap at the start of the article and a pull quote in the centre of the text by placing it in a separate text box. All three pieces of work were then saved as high quality jpeg images and uploaded to my blog.
Since my preliminary task, I have improved a massive amount on photoshop. I have learned how to use all the basic tool properly, and can now do some of the more advanced things. On my preliminary task, I found it very difficult to make my main image blend with the background, so I practised at home to make sure that on this task my image was blended properly to ensure that it looked professional.
As you can see, I have learned much more about the conventions of a typical magazine and made sure that I have included them on my music magazine, while my college magazine lacks the conventions needed. I have tried to fill as much space possible on my music magazine, while my college magazine has a lot of blank space that should have been filled with teasers, puffs etc. The only thing that is similar about my college magazine and music magazine is the layout; I think that I had a good understanding of this on the preliminary task and so only felt the need of a slight improvement on it on my music magazine. The amount of time I had on the music magazine compared to the college magazine also allowed me to make a massive improvement on my portfolio work. I surprised myself with my abilities on photoshop in this task, as I did not think it would be this successful. I have also improved my understanding of the audience; on the college magazine I struggled to design my work for a particular audience, whereas on the music magazine I have aimed my work at a very distinctive audience to ensure better results.
