Contents Page - https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B9lf8_zB0ij1NTYwZGU1ZmUtMTg3MC00ZjViLThkNTAtOWZmMTBlZmFiYzc0&hl=en
Double Page Spread - https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B9lf8_zB0ij1NDU5OGRmZGMtYmZlYS00Yzc0LTgxMzQtZjllZjhiNzg1YjVl&hl=en
Blog 9 - Evaluation of The Finished Magazine
My finished magazine is similar to a lot of magazines, the biggest similarity is the fact which it has a front cover, contents and double page spread which all magazines have. My magazines front cover has many similarities to many other similar exisiting publications, here is an example of this. As you can see here there are many similarities, first of all the masthead is on the top left side of the page, this is done because this is the way readers read from therefore they will read that bit first. The main flash is also in the middle of the page along with the image and the subhead which is also very similar to mine, this is done so that it catches the readers attention. It is important that all magazines have main sells on the front cover to allow the reader to know what is going to be in the magazine and to intice them to buy it, this is also a similarity which my magazine has to other magazines. On my front cover I decided not to have any straplines this was done as I wanted the headline and the image to be the main story which catches everyones eye, so therefore there was not enought room for one, unlike most other magazines which do have straplines showing the reader what else is in the magazine. I've tried to make my magazine stand out to others by instead of filling it with loads of information on the cover i've made the image and the headline and subhead the most important bit leaving not a lot of room for any mainsells, this was done because this is the biggest news to come out of the music industry for a long time therefore the audience will see it and they will see that there will be a lot of information about the split of 'the noise'.
I researched many different contents pages to get some good ideas for my own one, I wanted my page to turn out simple so that the audience can see exactly where everything is and on what page it is on. The most important thing I wanted to get across is that the audience are able to see the biggest news/articles that the magazine has to offer therefore they can turn to them straight away. My contents page is very similar to others in my genre, for example they all have what features in this weeks magazine, this is basically telling the audience the best and most important things to read, it also has a section where it tells the audience other things which feature in the magazine in this case there is an album review, this can hopefully excite the readers and make them want to check that page out. The contents page like many others also tells the readers what is going to appear in next weeks mag, this is a good idea as it encourages them to go out and get it next week as well. For my contents page I have tried to make the main article of the magazine stand out so the reader knows exactly where to go to, I have done this by showing a large picture in the middle of the contents with a page number explaining what is going to be said on that page, many other magazines also do this for example.
Many different magazines design there double page spreads differently, for example like mine where one page is covered with a picture then the next page is full of the text some have the full two pages of text with small pictures around the pages. For mine I wanted a picture showing the artist and his emotions on one page and the feelings and latest reactions of the artist written down on the next page. I was able to come up with these ideas by looking at similar styles and picking out strong points which I liked about them. Here are a couple which helped me do this;
As you can see both double page spreads have their pictures on the left similar to mine with the writing on the right, i've made sure mine was like this because I wanted people to read the main text without getting confused by loads of pictures and different colours, this is because the article shares some exciting news therefore the reader will really want to read it. Similar to other double page spreads I have used what is called a stand first, I used this so it catches the readers attention so that it draws them in and makes them read the whole article. I have also used a pull down quote for the article, this is where it reveals part of the article in bigger font so once again it is the first thing the reader sees and allows them to be drawn in to the article.
My magazine is targeted at the indie/rock genre and 15-44 males. I have tried to keep my images exciting but also meaninful for example the image for my double page spread shows that Kieran Hall is in deep thought and looks depressed by doing this he has shown it by having those facial expressions and also with the beers next to him but it can also excite the audience as it shows he is writing new music because of the pencil and notepad he has beside him. Because the age range is quite a big one I knew I had to cater for everyone, the language used is actually quite normal and basic throughout the magazine, this was once again done so that 15 year olds could understand it going up to 44 year olds who didn't find the language too basic.
The media institution that would publish my magazine would be ICP, this is because they are a very successful publisher and have made NME magazine very successful and because my magazine is similar to the NME magazine I believe it would work well. Due to my magazine being similar to a lot of other successful music magazines such as Q and NME, I believe that a lot of shops would want to stock it, not just record shops but places such as WH Smiths and supermarkets etc, anywhere suitable to get more people to know about it and see it.
My audience for my media product was covered in blog 2 -http://sdcmediaasalexoniell.blogspot.com/2009/11/as-media-coursework-main-task-alex_03.html
Market research tries to divide people into types in a wide range of ways this is called psychographics, for my magazine audience this is known as a mainstreamer this is someone who goes with the flow and doesn't want to stand out.
I attracted/addressed my audience by trying to include the latest and most popular artists/bands in my magazine, this was done so that the audience were able to see that the magazine is in the know of the new bands just like there audience. All magazines from NME to Q also do this, if they didn't then the audience wouldn't be interested as they would have people in the magazine who no one knows off. I also tried attracting my audience by allowing them to be able to see the main image of the front cover clearly so they knew exactly who it is without having to look twice. The language used in the magazine also had to attract the audience as well, this was quite hard because of the difference between the target age group which is 15-44 therefore I had to use language which was easy for the younger generation to understand but then not too basic for the older generation.
I feel I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing this product, I originally wanted to have a strap line on the front cover of my magazine with bands who are going to be in the magazine, I was unable to do this as there was not enough room on the front cover therefore I made sure that the image was the main focus of the cover managing to fit some main sells around the image making it fit nicely. Because the image is off a frontman of a band holding his guitar at the top of the page therefore it was hard for the masthead to be seen but I was able to fit it in just. With ideas in which In which I wanted to do but couldn't I had to adjust the ideas to ways which would make them work, for exampe I wanted all of the sub heading font to be red but as it was quite hard to understand it in that font I adjusted it to a more suitable colour in which the audience can read.
Since the preliminary task I feel I have learnt a lot and also progressed a lot further which is hopefully noticeable. A lot of elements have improved regarding things such as design skills, a lot more research was able to be done for the main task therefore I was able to look at magazines which are in the genre of my magazines and get a lot of good ideas, getting ideas for things such as the image, main sells etc, but for the preliminary I just made a magazine which I thaught looked acceptable. Simple things such as uploading images and changing the fonts become a lot easier the more I used indesign, the thing which I found I have improved on the most is the use of space, in the preliminary task I felt I just crammed everything on without planning but for the main task I made sure I planned it more effectively with the use of flat plans and obvious the main help which was time. The biggest thing which I found was the key to the main task compared to the preliminary task was the planning, regarding the preliminary not a lot of planning went in to it but as for the main task there was as much planning as there was creating the magazine. For the main task I looked at a lot of similar magazines that are in my genre to get ideas of what to do and what not to do, this helped me a lot. Also getting ideas of my target audience also helped me out on what they thaught would look good. The language used for the preliminary task was very basic but as I learnt more about magazines and the language used in them I tried to develop the language used for my main task a lot more, by using more stand out words which would attract the audiences attention.
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