Evaluation Q1

Q: in what way does your product use or challenge conventions of real media products?

My music magazine challenges and adheres to many conventions of a music magazine. Each page has its own conventions and challenges them.

I have followed them more than challenged them to make my music magazine appear like one at the first place, and also to look appealing to my audience.

The Front Cover:
My masthead adheres to only one convention, and it is that it's located at the top of the magazine, so the audience can tell what it is called without confusion.
However, the fact that it is two words, and how they share the first letter together challenges conventions as music magazines usually have one word as a masthead to make is short and recognizable.
For example, Q is a singular letter that is recognized because of the red box out that makes it stand out in comparison with the rest of its front cover. 
However, I wanted my masthead to mold into the magazine and become a part of it instead of popping out like Q, and therefore, I have used my colour scheme and applied it to my masthead to make it look like a part of the magazine, and become part of my synergy throughout the pages.
The font that I have used also challenges conventions, as a 2D fonts are used more than 3D fonts, as they look more flat and a part of a magazine. After doing some research on vintage magazines I have found that 3D fonts were used quite a lot, and so I have adhered to  an old convention, but challenged an old one at the same time. 

The main cover story that I have created Adheres to the convention that it is the biggest story on the front cover, and is usually in the centre of the front cover, that is also a convention I have followed because that was the story I wanted to be most eye catching and to be one of the first things the audience looks at. 

I have used one pull quote for my main cover story, to show a little insight into the article and what it will be about. It also acts as a lead for the audience as it is intriguing as to why the star image is so defensive about herself. Pull quotes are a popular technique used within front covers of music magazines due to how effective they can be, depending on the choice of words used .
I believe I have used mine successfully as it is intriguing due to repetition of certain words, and the personal tone of the star.

I have adhered to many conventions of a music magazine and its cover stories, for instance, that they are on either of the sides of the magazine, and that they have many different fonts, and could possibly be divided by lines or little symbols which would give them a more creative feeling, and be more aesthetic. Even though my cover stories do not have a range of colour in them in order to stick with the colour scheme and the synergy, I have used little dividers like other magazines to create an original look. 
 The sizes of my fonts were not too different either, however their style is and that is what made them stand apart from each other. 
I have placed them on both sides so the magazine would look organised, yet  busy and cluttered at the same time. I kept the cover stories not slanted because I wanted them to be easy to read and  look organised, but vary them in slight size differences and fonts, also colours. 

I have included a sell line within my music magazine which is a limited convention that a select group of magazines use to create an impression about themselves, which is what I was trying to do, I wanted to impress my audience with it, and attract them to read into it more, so in a way, it acted as a lead or a pug in this instance. I have located it at the top of the page, just above the masthead and kept it a small size, so it wouldn't be the most important thing on the page, but still have meaning and significance due to where it is placed.

Another convention that I have adhered to was having a banner, however, mine was transparent, and had very little within in comparison to the other magazines because I did not want the attention to go to the banner, but the image and the stories instead. I have included links to social media in it and a cover story with the scan code instead. I didn't use any images in it either, and I only had one image overall on my front cover to keep it clean cut and not as confusing.

It is typical to see a puff to interest a reader with bright colours or interesting shapes and buzz words inside, and that is why I have decided to use a few on my front cover.
I have crafted a circular puff on the top corner of my magazine which seduces the reader by offering them something or interesting them with a word that makes the magazine appear like it holds content that cannot be found anywhere else. Even though the puffs are not bright coloured, they have exclamation marks which automatically becomes a connotation for something exciting. The baby blue for the exclusive puff may not appear bright, but in comparison with the dark fuchsia it stands out a lot for a tiny sign, and therefore I have successfully adhered to a convention.



Finally, I adhered to one of the main conventions within music, or any magazines which is eye contact with the consumer. I have done it so the model looks like she is willing to share secrets with the audience, and this can be clearly seen as she looks happy and innocent,yet remains flirtatious with her pose, makeup and clothing. So, her looking at the audience links with the DPS and all is explained in a way in the article.

The contents page:

 

  DPS:

  

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Q3

Institutions 1: Team Rock from GretaAsMedia

Research institutions 2 from GretaAsMedia

Research institutions3 from GretaAsMedia


Out of the institutions that I have researched,Bauer and Rhinegold seem to be the ones that would be most suitable, and interested in distributing my magazines.
However, Bauer would  not be interested due to the fact that they have MOJO in their possession already, and  so many magazines in distribution already. I would've liked to choose them because of how modern, media involved they are, and how wide spread they are across the globe, how successful their business is, which would make them reliable in my eyes.

Rhinegold would be a good distributor because of the fact that they are really interested in niche audiences, and because of that they do not distribute many magazines, and not all of them are music, therefore, I believe they would be interested in cooperating with my magazine. I also really like them because like Bauer, they are very much involved in social media which creates interest within the young audience, which is exactly what I am targeting.

So, therefore, I have decided that Rhinegold would be the most suitable for my magazine as they are interested in niche audiences and are up to date with modernity.

Evaluation Q4

Greta M's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

I created this Slidely by finding photos that show what my TA is, look like or are interested in.
My TA would be young, 17-25 year old college/university students, who are free spirited, care about the environment, are against drug use, want to change the world for the better. Initially the age group that I wanted to target was slightly younger, they'd be 16-20 years old, they are still students, however, after doing my TA research, I found out that my magazine suits a slightly older, wider audience.
 The new TA is interested in fun aspects of life, but also want to learn from other's lives and educate themselves further as individuals. They seek to constantly learn and better themselves, they're called aspirers. They want to learn about the world and improve/gain new skills which I targeted.
They extensively use social media, enjoy concerts, gigs, learning new things, and this is exactly what I have shown on my Slidely.
I have Aspirers as my TA, as they wish to see exemplar stories of how to succeed and that there is one than more way. My star image and her story would represent exactly them.

Overall, the middle class would be my TA, and this is shown through the photos, the stories and the star image, due to her being middle class herself. Overall, the main gender that I will be attracting with this magazine will be the females, however, I have included males in my Slidely due to the fact that today we challenge stereotypes and my magazine may appeal to a modern male audience as well.

In conclusion, my magazine's main TA would be young, teenage females who are students, are willing to learn, enjoy concerts, reading about success stories to look up and are eco concerned.

Evaluation Q5

Evaluation Q6

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

Since the beginning of the course I did not use much technology to what I do now, before I would only use social media and a camera, but to a certain extent.

I have learnt how to use Blogger effectively, and upload/embed different things onto it to make it as creative as possible.

I have also discovered many different websites and ways to show my research and work such as how to upload a slideshare, how to create a prezi, an emaze, thinglink, flickr, slidely...

I also learnt how to use Adobe Elements 11.

It is a massive program with endless possibilities, and I have been using this to create my magazine.

Using tools such as the Text Box helped me draw out the sizes of the columns and the text boxes in each page, supporting the construction of each page. 

This tool helped me the most when constructing my contents page, as I had to create three columns.

There are many tools that I used to create effects, add things and enhance sections of my magazine to make it outstanding in quality.

There are many things that are used in Photoshop, but before I would even be able to access them all, I had to remember and learn that I should always work on Expert mode in order to edit my product in any way, shape or form.

I have learned about how to use layers and make them appear on the right hand side in order to get a clear view of what you are doing.

I have also used tools such as the photobin, which allows me to insert different photos as new layers, or as a new background.

This was one of the most crucial skills to learn on photoshop in order to be able to create my magazine pages.

Another important skill that I learned about photoshop is Levels.

By using this you can change the brightness and the shadows on the photo of your choice. I used this quite a lot on my pages, on my front cover image it was used to lighten the photo and make it pop more from the background, in my contents page I have used the same for the same model, to make her stand out more from the background, and in my DPS article in order to make the shadows less dramatic and more natural and light, which makes it easier to look at.

  I also learned how to use shape tools which helped me create different puffs and boxes in my pages and create a busier, more professional look for my magazine.

Another big page that I learned how to use was Flickr, which is where I uploaded the photos that I took and got feedback from my peers and classmates about which ones are the best to use. The media course in our college have our own little group where we all post photos that we took in photo shoots and this way getting opinion from people our own age, which are our TA.
This was one of my favourite websites to use and I believe it was extremely useful.

I found ThingLink as one of the most useful webpages, as it allowed me to annotate my research with speech bubbles directly on the photo/image which meant I spent lest time making screengrabs and placing them and instead, I could talk about the specific details of the image directly. I believe this webpage was very interactive and fun, also very easy to use. I love this webpage!

One webpage that irritates me to this day is PowToon, I cannot stand it up to this day. It was very difficult to use, as the page is too crowded and too many pop-ups from every side of the screen. It does the same thing as Prezi or Emaze, however, it is 'fancier'. I found it difficult to use and so I stuck to not using it. However, when I began my Evaluation work, I thought that it would be a good idea to revisit PowToon. It was not. It was a terrible idea.

Evaluation Q7

FRONT COVER FINAL

CONTENTS PAGE FINAL

DPS FINAL

dps draft 3

dps draft 2

dps draft1

Contents draft 5

Contents page draft 4

Contents page draft 3

Contents page draft 2

Contents page draft 1

TA Survey Analysis

In order to make an effective music magazine, I wanted to know what my niche target audience are looking for, and created an easy survey which will allow me to make effective decisions whilst editing my magazine. I have handed out my survey to ten people and have gathered the answers which will lead me to make conclusions in relation to the design, stories, context and links to social media. After gathering all of the information, I have placed them into individual pie charts in order to make it also visually clear what answer is most popular.

My first question was in order to help me with deciding on the size of my masthead and possibly colour, it was 'Would a large logo/masthead of a magazine grab your attention from a shelf? And these are the answers that I have received:

I did expect the majority of the answers to say Yes, however, I also expected at least one or two participants to say no. Nevertheless, no matter what the votes would have been, I would still use a relatively large masthead, or at least elements of it to grab attention of readers.

My second question was asked so it would help me make decisions on what sort of colour schemes I should look at, as I did not know whether I would use a vibrant or a toned down colour scheme. These are the results that I have received from the 10 participants:

Yet again, I expected to see the majority of answers to agree that a bright element is important, and the answers delivered. I will use bright elements on the front cover, however I will not make all of it vibrant, as it will look lower quality and will not stick to most conventions of Vintage magazines.

My third question was: 'Is a big central photo with a quality/interesting pose important?'. I asked this question as I wanted to know what style of photos and poses I should try on the front cover of my magazine to make them appeal to my specific niche audience, as I had to get that right in order to gain customers. These were my results:

Because my central photo is rather serious this has made me reconsider using a different one, and so I posted a draft with a more youthful, cheery photo, however, I feel that it appeared more like a fashion magazine that way, and so,for now, I am leaving the original photo for the front cover, unless I take a better photo.

Question number four was in regards to know for what reason does my audience purchase magazines in general, so I would be able to know what style of article I should write for my double page spread.

Referring to Blumer and Katz I have asked what type of article they would be interested in:

Because I have concentrated on the personal story of my star,which isn't very uplifting but rather inspiring, I still have tried to appeal to the results, and so I have added elements of humour in it, by using rude language in occasion to make the article more entertaining for the young audience. However, if I had an older audience that would be over 40, taboo language would not be used as it is considered unacceptable for people who are older. 

My fifth question was asked in order to aid me to choose the suitable colour scheme or something similar, so not only would the cover stories intrigue them,but also an aesthetic colour scheme. Here are the results I have received:

I have tried to make the masthead a pastel/cream colour, however it looked horrendous and so I did not use these results on my magazine and instead I have used gold and red, which are both from the remaining results, and seemed to appear nice together.

Question number 6 was asked in regards for me to know if I should have more than one photo on my front cover, not to make it only appear busy using text, but also image, and the results I have received are quite interesting:

It was a tie, and because of that I was not sure what to do, and just  left it without for the time being, however, if I would select interesting photo/s and they would look appealing and nice on the front cover, I'd keep it on.

Because I am unsure as to how much I should charge for my magazine, I have asked approximately what price they would be willing to pay, for question 7 I have asked if they would be willing to pay more than four pounds for a music magazine, and these are the results that I have received: 

Since my price was ever over £4, and was £2.50, I have decided to possibly raise the price to £3, depending on the quality of the paper. As I would not like my quality to be like Kerrang!'s but rather like Vintage Rock or MOJO's I have thought that it would be reasonable to raise the price by 50p.

Because my niche audience is young, interactive and very much involved within social media, I have decided that it would be a smart idea  to ask them, how and what do they use to consume music? This question allowed them to choose more than one answer, which  would then allow me to gain better, more accurate results. And this is what I received:

By looking at this data, I believe I should definitely add some links to Spotify, YouTube or Apple Music, as they seem to be the popular choices, and would definitely bring success to any music magazine.

Blumer and Katz believed that there were different categories of people who consumed media for different purposes: For entertainment, information, or being able to escape their daily lives and being able to relate to what they are reading. Reflecting on these theorists I have formed one of the questions to figure out why my specific audience would consume print media, and what they are looking for in an article, and these are the results:

Because such a large audience is looking for amusement, in my DPS article, I have been adding humorous elements to it, and some taboo language to make is acceptable and relevant to teenagers, as they tend to find it more amusing than an older audience.

The price that I have decided on, I believe the quality of the paper must be important as well, and it also depends on whether the issues are weekly or monthly, and I believe that if it is monthly, the quality must be very good.

Because 7 out of 10 believe that the quality of paper must be good, I have decided that if I would print my paper, it would be a better quality than Kerrang.

The audience is linked with modernity and use social media a lot, I am not sure whether they would like a free song from iTunes, or a free poster, and so I asked them what they would prefer to get with an issue, and these are the results:

I expected this to happen, because more than half would like to get a free song legally, I will possibly do a scan code which would allow them to get a free song from an artist of the week to their phone/device.

front cover draft 6