How did you attract/address your audience? [double page spread]

                                        Double page spread 

When comparing my double page spread to a professional double page spread, both do seem to have the same elements within. The things i done which were similar was using a bright colour that stood out from the background for the main pull quote. I chose to do this as this part of text needs to be the part that stands out first and what the audience notices, as it will draw them into reading the full article. Also the poses within the images on a double page spread seem to be a lot more serious as usually the article is about something serious and the facial expressions of the models puts this across to the audience. The fonts throughout my double page vary. My main title is all in capital letters and is the biggest font on the page as it's a punchy tag line to get the audience thinking. The entry paragraph turns to a more calligraphy font to make it look professional, and also to match the text of the other pull quote on the right hand side of the page under the models. This font also continues in the ending paragraph, i thought this was a good way to round off the article. The main article is in an Arial font so it very clear and understandable. The font i used for the main pull quote which is situated in the middle of the article, is a lot bolder and also red so this stands out all the other text is either black or white. However the questions of the interview, i put in red to separate them from the answers. This made the article a lot more clear to read and also made the page look more interesting. I also used the red text in the ending paragraph to point out about 'The Gogos' new album that was getting released as it was being advertised there.
The language in my article is a lot more professional than on my other to pages as this needed to appeal to both my primary and secondary audience. Also some parts are still less professional with the use of exclamations and personal knowledge, it is understandable. The models in my image are both making eye contact with the camera, this makes the audience feel like the article is a lot more personal towards them and as if the models want them to read their part of life. The layout of my page is very clear and neat. I changed it a few times throughout the creation but eventually got the layout to look the best it could and get the most attention.


This is the feedback i received from my target audience about how they felt towards my double page spread. Most of the feedback was good and not much criticism. This made me a lot happier about the presentation of the double pages. As this was viewed from the prospectus of my target audience it made it a lot more real than what it would if it was from my secondary audience or others. Getting feedback really helps as when you're the one creating the magazine, you get used to what you're looking at and need someone else's opinions.

This is the comparison between my final outcome and the first draft flat plan i done. I didn't change a lot with in the layout but i did change a few things a lot the way.
The first thing i changed was where the title of my article was going to go. On my flat plan it shows that it should have went at the top of the left hand page but i changed it to the top of the right hand page. I done this because as i also moved the pull quote down to the bottom of the page, it looked eye catching enough and it didn't seem to need the title on that page. I moved the pull quote to the centre of then bottom left hand page as i thought this drew attention to the eye as there was nothing else important to fit in that space where the black of the image was.
This is all i changed within the layout of my double page spread and i am happy with the out come.

How did you attract/address your audience? [contents page]

                                          Contents page

When comparing my contents page with a professional contents page, they are quite different as i didn't follow conventions. In my magazine i used bright colours and it looks very eye catching with the use of the image, lighting, fonts and text colour. However in this professional contents page it is a lot more simple and has mainly the same colour throughout although the image is effective. The poses in my contents page are a lot more fun looking than on the other pages of my magazine. I chose to do this as i wanted my contents page to look more fun, to make it look interesting and make my audience want to read what is inside of the magazine. The costumes are the same and my other pages as i wanted them all to relate in some way and also i took all the images in the same shoot. Also as i liked the pink tint over my images i decided to keep it there for all three images. There is not a lot of different fonts on this page as i didn't want it to look over crowded as there was already a lot of text going onto that page. I used a more fancy text for the titles of each column and then a simple text for the contents but i changed the colours between red and white to make sure it still looked creative. I decided to add images to go with a few of the contents to fill in space and to make it more appealing to my audience. Most teenagers would prefer to look at images rather than text, so this went well with my magazine. The language i used on this page was more professional but i tried to keep it punchy and interesting. In the image on this page the poses my models are doing make it a lot more personal towards the audience as they are both making eye contact with the camera and not pulling serious faces. Also the models are in reflection    with each other and i thought this worked well. I made sure to not take the image too close to the models as i knew i was to cover most of the image with text, so i made sure not to have to cover the faces of the models. The use of font would go well for both my primary and secondary audience as it is understandable for anyone. The only contents on this page was the text telling the audience what to expect to see inside the issue. I kept the masthead of this page similar to my front page. I kept the red out line and black filled letters as this stood out also on the background of this page. The layout of this page worked very well with the amount of text and the background image. As i placed the two columns of text over the top of the less important areas of the images and made sure that the faces of the models were not covered. Also i made a grey strip running across the page before meeting the models faces, and made it a little opaque so it was able to see the image behind it. With in this strip i put in which page and the description of the main article which is about the models which are on the page, making this stand out more. 

This is the feedback i got from my target audience about my contents page. 

By getting this feedback i realised things that i needed to change to make it more appealing towards my audience as my feedback was from both my primary and secondary audience. 

This helped with what i could improve to make my page better. 

This is my final contents page, compared with the rough draft of my flat plan before i started to create the page.
My final outcome is a lot different to my flat plan as i noticed my plan wasn't going to work. I was going to put the contents down the middle of the two models but i noticed there wasn't enough space to make it fit and clearly readable. I quickly thought of a different that i could lay this out. I figured the bottom half of my image wasn't so important so i decided to separate the contents into two columns to make it a lot neater. By doing this i then had extra space on the right hand side which i filled with eight small images that related to a few of the page descriptions. I thought by adding more images it would appeal more to my primary audience as teenagers would prefer to understand the page by images rather than reading all of it. Other than that i kept the mast head in the same place but added a small logo of the name of my magazine and the issue number in the right hand corner. 

How did you attract/address your audience? [front cover]

                                           Front cover

When comparing my magazine and a professional magazine with the same target audience, they seem to have quite a lot in common. When i was creating my magazine I made sure to use a good choice of colours that would stand out on the background. Also making sure to differentiate the colours and fonts throughout the page to keep it looking interesting and appealing to the correct audience. Also with the use of costume, by making sure it is still fashionable so it appeals to females but not taking away the fact the magazine is about music. The poses create a big impact within the font page. By having the models looking directly at the camera, it makes the audience feel like the magazine is more personal towards them. As of this i done the same with one of my models on the front page, but made the second model do a more striking pose and use a prop, which is the sunglasses. 

After doing my research, i realised that the type of language that gets used within the magazine is very important when thinking about the target audience. Making sure the text on the front page was all punchy and not too serious, as my primary audience are teenagers. I noticed this in a few magazine that i researched and it made them appeal a lot more to myself as a teenager so this gave me a better idea about the language.
The mode of address also plays a big part in making the magazine look appealing on the first look. The attitude within the image has a lot to do with the primary audience. For example if the image was boring and simple, it wouldn't really be advertising towards the audience unlike when the images are all thought out. The use of font on the front page is the most important, as this is what draws the audience in. When looking at 'Billboard' magazine, i realised that it didn't have much text around the image but it had just enough to show the most important areas which are shown inside the magazine. Therefore, for my magazine i made sure to only use the most important articles and put them into pugs\puffs to place on the front page, to be used to draw attention. The content that is added is also important when creating a magazine. The bands that are referenced must be relatable to the genre of music that the magazine is about. Also by adding in exclusives, these draw the most attention as they refer to the audience as they have never been seen before. It is important to make the masthead very eye catching as this is what the audience will know the magazine by in future. In Billboard magazine, they seem to change the colour and layout of the masthead, due to what background image or colour is used to make it stand it upon it. I chose to use a very thick red outline which is very eye catching and also goes with the house style of the full magazine. The most help i needed was about how to layout my magazine. By researching professional magazines with the same target audience as my own, it gave me a lot more help with how to layout my own. I seemed to like the layout of not using many other images apart from the main background image and not filling the entire page with text to make it look over crowded and give away too much information away on the front page.




















This is the feedback i got from my teacher and from my primary and secondary audience, of teenage boys and girls. By getting this feedback, it helped with how other people would see it, and what other things they would like to and would not like to see on my front page. My feedback helped with letting me know about the strengths of my product and how i could improve it to meet the audiences needs.

This is the rough flat plan of my front page and my final outcome of my front page.
My final outcome is very similar to my first draft as i tried to stick to the layout. The things i changed around were as follows
- I added another puff on the left hand side, with an image
- I added a link to the website at the bottom

I made changes to these areas because i thought it looks bare on the left hand side so i added another puff and also an image, which i found made it a lot more eye catching. I added the link for the same reason, there was a lot of space at the bottom of the page but this link added a lot more opportunities for the audience. As the audience may like the ideas of having the magazine delivered to their home every week so they never miss an issue. 

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

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

Construction between my college magazine and music magazine

Progression from my preliminary task

Audience Research

Visual examples of my audience and their interests

How my media product challenges and uses conventions of real media products

How my media product represents particular social groups [video]

http://youtu.be/mv13SyPsg7k

The above link will take you too a youtube video i created to explain about how my media product represents particular social groups. 

Evaluation

Q1.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The research i found to come to my final idea for my mast head.

By looking at other popular magazine front pages, and researching up different companies i found a lot of different mast heads. By doing this research i found out that depending on the target audience and the genre of music the magazine is aimed at, the masthead will differ.

I got the inspiration for my mast head from researching Mojo magazine. I liked the idea of this title as it was very simple but the use of the shadowed outline made it a lot more eye catching. I tried to stick with the idea of a simple choice of font and black text. However instead of using the shadowed edges, i chose to add a red background as it went well with the house style of my front cover and it stood out a lot on the background image.



My mast head




The mast head i got my ideas from

 While i was researching other magazines i started to take interest in the layout of having a very eye catching mast head and making sure that it doesn't look too busy around the outside of the main image. Also just sticking to three main colours throughout my magazine kept it looking professional and not messy. I also liked how each part of text is pretty much straight and it's clear and easy to read yet still stands out with the use of different fonts and sizes. However using different colours for pugs can help to intrigue the audience to purchase the magazine.  Having too many images can make the page look too busy and confusing, where as using 1 or 2 different image that relate to specific puffs can make the page look more interesting towards pieces of text.

Through looking at different front covers, and deconstructing them to see every initial part that has went into the cover to make them stand out has helped a lot, when it came to making my own. Also by using different fonts and different size areas of text, made it a lot more interesting to look at and draws attention to parts for different reasons. By making the puff about the main article the most eye catching and usually over the top of the main image, makes it clear to the audience that this is what the main story inside the magazine is about. I found out its very important that the main puff is either a very intriguing quote from the article or has a very catchy punch line.









With the ideas iv found from researching up different music magazines that hit their target audiences, i finally created my own front cover. Using the ideas for the title, font sizes and colours and the choice of only one image. As my magazine is very dark i decided to bright colours to make everything eye catching on the dark background. The over all outcome of my magazine shown out to be quite original with the layout, even though i got my ideas from researching other magazines. Also the use of different fonts is a lot more varied than most other magazines, as i noticed some magazine keep the same font but change it's size to create an eye catching effect.

Changes to my front page

After i got more feedback on my front cover i noticed there was changes i could make to improve my magazine. Firstly i moved the 'more on page 6-7' to the right hand side of the pull quote, as when it was underneath it didn't look clear enough that it related with the pull quote. By doing this meant i had extra space to fill near the bottom of the page. I filled the space with information to a web address to keep up to date with the magazine. Another thing i changed was the box in the bottom left corner. I noticed by removing the white border it seemed to fit in better and look more in place. further more, i thought it would look better if i added another image as there isn't many. I chose to add a picture that related with the puff in the red text, to fill the space and draw more attention to this area. 

changes to contents page

After i got feedback on my contents page, i made some changes to make it better. I chose to add a pink light pattern in the background to reflect against the pink light on the models faces. I also done this to cover some of the infilled space, making the page look a lot more exciting and interesting to read. Also staying with the colour pink as my target audience is females and pink is a more feminine colour.