When designing my double page spread and contents page I used this software called Microsoft word, this programme let me create professional looking media products. I used this software because it has a lot of good tools that I could use to design the double and contents pages in an easy but professional way. The main tools I used from this software was the shape tool as it let me choose from a wide variety of shapes to add onto my pages such as the arrows and rectangle boxes which all give an effect on the page to make it look effective. I also used a lot of the text tool as it let me choose from a range of different font styles but also how I would like them to look from bold, italic or just the normal font. This helped me to make customise the page to however I liked, as I made the subheadings bold for them to stand out and made the normal writing just normal fonts.

When designing my front page I used this software called Microsoft publisher, this programme lets you create a variety of designs as the software itself has a range of templates to choose from for things such as broachers, leaflet and other things. This software was good to use for my front page as the tools was easy to use and give me a good variety of tools to choose from. The images and text were very easier to move around the page to wherever I would like to place them which made this software great to use, I used the wrap text tool where I choose ‘square’ to move all my images and text around with. The proportions on the page were an advantage as it gave me guidelines on where about to keep all of the design inside of so that front page would look professional. The colour tool was good to use as when I was choosing the colour scheme for my magazine because it let me see all the colours that could be used on my magazine and then went on to pick which colours I would use for the house style, I chose the red, black, white and grey.

I used this software called adobe photoshop to use some of the great tools this software has.  The tool I used the most was the lasso tool that let me cut out the backgrounds from some of my images so that I would just have the part of the image I needed. I  didn’t use this programme for a lot of my media designs as I thought that the software was quite hard to use and pick up on which would have been time consuming when creating my magazine. So I just used the tools that I needed.

Peer feedback

Madeline Hogg 

I have asked my peers to give some feedback of my magazine, if it meets their needs. This will give me help me develop my magazine further if improvements are needed.

'' I think that this magazine has a good front page as the main image is influential and powerful, showing me that women can come across as dominant in the media. The subjects fashion could set of new trend to people who are reading the magazine, i really like the clothes she has on and i would personally buy them myself. After reading this magazine i would defiantly recommend this magazine to my friends as i think that they would enjoy reading it and also we all share the same music base which is exactly what this magazine matches. Overall i think that this magazine would appeal to quite a lot of people and could be just as popular as 'NME' if the right fan base reads it, such as myself.''

evaluation

How does my magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media magazines?

my magazine has interpreted some of the same designs and features from real magazine front covers, contents and double page spreads as I have analysed different magazines and took some ideas from the different magazines I have looked at. This was so that the magazine I was designing had realism and looked like a professional magazine. For the front cover of my magazine I have used a strong main image which would suit the target audience. It also suited the real media productions because of the good quality and strong influential image. The masthead has strong connotations with the image because the masthead is funky, strong and eye catching just in the same way the subject is portrayed in the image. When I researched double page spreads I noticed that quite a lot of them had quotes which I thought looked effective so for my double page I decided to add a quote in to produce the more professional logo. When looking at contents pages I noticed that all of them had columns for their text to go in, for my contents page I put my text in columns but I didn't’ do the usual design I chose to put the text down the left hand size so the audience would focus their attention just down one side of the page rather than the text being scattered around the page. Whilst analysing front covers I noticed that a lot of magazines used plugs as they attract the audience attention because they recognize the symbol that there is free gifts inside. So in the process of designing my front page I added a plug to the page, this was to give the more appealing look to the front page.



How did you attract/address your audience?


The masthead of my front page attracts the audience because it is a big and bold which would catch the readers attention. The style of the masthead is also quite funky and has a bit of a rock style which draw the readers attention straight towards the masthead and would not forget the name of the magazine that easily. Mise en scene of my images are all different on each page. For the front of magazine i chosen my image to be the most powerful because it will stand out on the front and make readers look at the image. I took this image from a medium shot so that i could get most of the girl in the photo and could see her face and her fashion which could espire some of the teenage girls who read the magazine to copy her fashion. However i didnt take it from a long shot because i thought that it would have been less effective because the detail of the girl such as her makeup and hair wouldnt have been as noticable. The costume of the girl was rock chick portrayed her looking powerful and strong because of the clothes she was wearing. It made the girl look like she was dominant. It reflects the genre of the magazine because the magazine is a indie rock style which shows from the image of the girl. Throughout the magazine i didnt tend to just stick to one type of font style i used all different fonts because i thought that just sticking to just one font style all the way through would be quite boring so i used different ones from franklin gothic,Trebuchet, arial and Albertus Medium which were used in the front, contents and double page. I also used fonts from the website dafont.com, this website allows you to choose from loads of different fonts that suit your design. The reason i chose the fonts i did was because i thought they all went well together and made the pages look effective and stand out. The suited the audience well because they werent plain and boring for teenages they were impressive and practical. My magazine attracts the audience because of the representations as it shows a teenage girl in a positive light trying to get some where in her career in the music industry, this could make people want to read about her and the interview she is giving. The colours on my magazine are good appealing colours that make the magazine look realistic. The colours I have used are black, red grey and white which are all very powerful colour and are dark which makes the colours catch your attention and makes you focus directly towards the front page by the eye catching colours. The age the magazine is aimed at is teenagers 13-19 as it has information about people that are in the charts now that are giving interviews. It gives out a lot of music information which teenagers are involved in at the moment such as the top 40 songs and what new releases will be coming out. This would attract the audience as they will be wanting to know what new music will be coming out that they can download. The price of my magazine could Attract the audience as it is priced to meet the needs of the audience, the magazine is very well priced and affordable, which also gives away free gifts which cost a lot of money in the shops. The images on my magazine could also attract the audience as I have used a lot of strong images of an attractive young female, the image on the front page is strong because the representations of the girl posing is that she is communicating with the audience and making them feel involved in the magazine and also it is a long shot of the female which shows of her fashion and could be a fashion icon.



What kind of media institution may distribute your magazine and why?

If I was choosing what media institution I would like to distribute my magazine I would choose IPC media because they sell a range of different magazines which are popular and they are appropriate to the target audience, there magazines are also very successful. IPC media also specialize in music magazines as they distribute music magazines such as NME and uncut. IPC media music magazine ‘NME’ is very popular 1.1 million fans buys this magazine every week. I think that my magazine would fit in with NME and the music magazine category and become a successful magazine if  IPC were to distribute it. I think that if IPC can produce such a big selling music magazine base then they would be able to distribute my magazine which is another music magazine. As my magazine has a slightly different genre base to NME and uncut, I think that there would be a lot of interest in ‘Zinser’ because the readers would have a variety of styles to choose from.

How does my magazine represent particular social groups?
My magazine mostly represents females, the female that are featured in my magazine is a teenager and the images are showing the females in a positive light and that they are trying to succeed in her career. This is going against the usual stereotypical teenagers as they are usually shown off in a negative way. It shows that girl is powerful and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her success in her career.
The female image is showing of her fashion which could draw teenage girl’s attention to copy the fashion and be inspired by the subject. The image is also an attractive image of the female which could capture the male attention who is mostly the secondary audience as they may want to look at more images and carry on through the magazine. The magazine mostly features females throughout the magazine which could be good for both male and female audience as the female audience could be inspired by the fashion of the girl subjects. The male audience attention could be captured by the strong appealing images of the girls.

Who would be the audience for my magazine?
Audience code
A-doctors/professionals
B-teachers/police
C1-office workers
C2- plumbers/electricians
D-minimum wage
E-students/pensioners/unemployed

The audience that would be for my magazine would be c1 downwards as the target audience age is 13-25 which mostly would be in them category's, which would be the primary audience with mostly females and some males. People that is lower paid than the others are more likely to buy the magazine rather than the higher class such as audience code A and B. The percentage of people who read this magazine would be mostly females over males as the primary audience is women.

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

When designing my magazine I have learned how to use different software's and technology during the process of my magazine. When editing my photos for my magazine I used a software called Photoshop that improved my photos when I edited them, I also used a cutting tool on Photoshop that cut around the photo I was using which cut all of the background out and made the subject of the image stand out rather than having her on a background. It made the image that I was editing more professional without having a background on the image so that I could put it on my double page.

Another Software I used was publisher to design the front page of my magazine, this gave me a lot of tools to use that would make my magazine look professional. The tools on publisher were a lot easier and straight forward to use than adobe Photoshop. The tool that was the most useful was the tool that let you move and resize your images and text, this was useful because it let you move your image or text wherever you wanted to place them whether it was next to the text or further away from it. The shape tool was also very useful as I used this tool to help create my boxes, arrows, plug and a lot more things. I could also format the shape so that I could change the colour and transparency of the shape. The text tools were good in helping me create a professional looking front page as they let you change the colour of your text and also make it bold and italic.

I also used Microsoft word to create my contents page and double page feature as this program have good word art that would work well on the pages to make them look appealing and eye catching.

The last software I used was an online website called www.dafont.com which gives you a lot of choices on which style of fonts you want to use. The style of fonts I used was handwriting because I liked the style for my front page and also my double page. For my masthead I used the style called brush because it give a big bold effect which was perfect for my masthead as it would be striking for the audience and catch the reader’s attention. I replicate the masthead symbol throughout my magazine.

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

When looking back at my preliminary task to my magazine product now I think that I have improved a lot. I found out new ways to make my images effective with good effects used by publisher. When designing my front page for my magazine I looked and analysed some real magazines which made gave me ideas for my magazine that made it look a lot better than my preliminary task. when looking back to my preliminary task i feel as though my front page has improved a lot and has a more professional and real look as the preliminary task wasn't that effective. There is a more professional look with the final design as it uses some of the actual ideas what a real magazine would use, such as a plug, subheadings, bar code and the price of the magazine. On my preliminary task i didnt use any of those which gives the most effective view on my final front page. The image that i used on my final front cover is very powerful and effective which will make the readers look directly at the image and draw their attention to buy my magazine, however i dont think that the image on the preliminary task was very effective and wouldn't draw attention from the audience.

deconstruction of front pages

 I have analysed these two front pages, as i liked some of the features these two front pages have to take ideas from and use for my front page. I have chosen these two magazine front pages out of all the ones i have analysed because i think that they have a very appealing front page and would attract readers from their images and big headlines and fonts. The colours on these front pages are also attractive because they all work well with each other especially the bottom front page, i like the colours black, red, grey and white i think that they contrast well together and make the front page stand out.

deconstruction of contents pages

I have analysed these two contents pages because i liked some of the features that they had, so that i could take some ideas from them and then put some of the ideas onto my contents page. I think that these two contents pages are very professional so i would like to use some ideas so that i could have the same professional look aswell. The images on these contents pages are large but are very appealing to the audience because there is just one big image to focus your attention on. I also like how the text goes down just one side instead of being spread out around the page. It makes the readers look directly towards the text because they know where to start to read the text instead of looking all around the page.

final front page design

This is my final page design, i have changed a few things since my first attempt as i have changed some of the fonts as i thought it looked better having all of the text the same font and style as i didnt think it looked very good or appealing when all of the fonts where different. I have also changed the wording in some of the text from the first design as i think the phrases in the new design are more interesting than the other as i am using real celebrities rather than making up my own. I have also deleted the quotation that was in the bottom right hand corner as i didnt think it worked well on the page and it was also not clear enough to know who had said the quote as it was not next to the text about rebecca. The text of 'its all about' and 'talks about her rise to fame' have been changed as on my first design i used just normal Microsoft word fonts and i didnt think they attracted any attention as they were plain and boring, however i went onto the internet on a website called www.dafont.com and found some fonts that were more suitable and appealing for the front of the magazine and audience.
I had also changed the wording that was in the bar at the top of the page as i thought i should put something that would interest the readers rather than the date and price of the magazine. I think it now looks more appropriate for the magazine as it will interest the readers more now that there is something that will draw them in.
In my final design i decided to change the position of my price and barcode, i didnt think it worked well where it was so i decided to move it to the bottom right hand corner because alot of magazines use there barcodes in that position. I moved the price to underneath the barcode as i think that is the most suitable place to have the price as it a noticeable place for the price to be and also with the price being next to the barcode it relates to each other so it is better for the audience and the seller. I also changed the price of my magazine because i thought that £1.50 was too cheap for a magazine, so i decided to change it to £3.50. I moved the date and issue number above my Masthead as i think it is a good position to have it as when people are reading the masthead they will look just above and see the date of the magazine.
I havent changed the masthead position or my plug because i think they are in the right place and i think they look effective and appealing and will attract readers attention to buy the magazine. I like the plug i have put on my front page as it will draw attention from the readers that there is something on offer so it will have more popularity.
I have chosen the colour scheme to be red, black, grey and white as all of the colours work well together as they stand out from each other and give an impact of the page.The colours are also very clear to read. I have used the colour scheme all throughout the magazine because i thought replicating the scheme would brand the colours of the magazine and the readers will remember the colours of the magazine. I have put the made up website on the top on the page to make the magazine look more real.