Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Monday, 19 October 2009
Question 7: what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Throughout the time spent designing and creating my magazine front cover, contents and double page spread, I have developed a lot of skills. From the preliminary task, I have been able to use Photoshop a lot easier. This has extended my use on Photoshop which means I can use better techniques and better effects. When started my preliminary task, I knew Photoshop's basic features, but as time and experience has evolved, I have become much better at it. I have a much better attitude towards my work as it looks and feels much more professional. I think that I could always make room for improvements but I needed to make sure that I set myself a deadline. When I was designing my college magazine, I was very limited to ideas and thoughts because I didn't know about a lot of features in Photoshop. Once I learnt and extended my knowledge, I experimented with different options and effects on my final product. My college magazine had very limited colours too. This would not be suitable for magazine shelves as this would not stand out to anyone. So I thought that the best thing to do would be to add more colours but still keep it simple.
In the preliminary task, my target audience was college students however, when designing my music magazine, I had to focus on different types of people and their habits. I found this harder to do because the use of bright colours and borders could have been inappropriate. I tried to keep the colours bold and simple instead of having lots of different colours and shades throughout the whole thing. I wanted my magazine to look professional with no faults just like Kerrang! or Smash Hits. I've tried my best to keep a simple but professional style. I have also tried to make use of empty space but to leave some of it empty. I believe that if all space is filled, it would be too crowded and too much going on.
If I were to do the magazine again, I would use more pictures and instead of text to fill up the space. I have made my music magazine much more professional than my college magazine with more pictures, more text and more information but if I had time, I would still try and make final improvements.
In the preliminary task, my target audience was college students however, when designing my music magazine, I had to focus on different types of people and their habits. I found this harder to do because the use of bright colours and borders could have been inappropriate. I tried to keep the colours bold and simple instead of having lots of different colours and shades throughout the whole thing. I wanted my magazine to look professional with no faults just like Kerrang! or Smash Hits. I've tried my best to keep a simple but professional style. I have also tried to make use of empty space but to leave some of it empty. I believe that if all space is filled, it would be too crowded and too much going on.
If I were to do the magazine again, I would use more pictures and instead of text to fill up the space. I have made my music magazine much more professional than my college magazine with more pictures, more text and more information but if I had time, I would still try and make final improvements.
Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the process of creating my music magazine products, I have used programs and cameras to capture and create my overall product.
The use of a 8.1 megapixel digital camera enabled me to take high quality images for my magazine. I also used a 6.3 megapixel digital SLR to take the small pictures for my contents page. I used these cameras to take high quality images in macro and portrait modes.
I then uploaded these images onto a computer and edited them using Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop CS4 was the program of choice because it has a lot of options in which I can use to edit and transform my images. Once edited, I uploaded my images to Flickr and Blogger to show what pictures I have taken and which ones I will be using. I used blogger to upload my original pictures and my final images then explain and describe which pictures were what. I used blogger to analyse each of my images.
Some of pictures were taken outside, so I didn't have to do much with the camera to take a perfect picture. Some of my pictures were taken inside. I had to try and adjust the lighting in the room to make the picture as clear as possible.
One picture that I used for my front cover was left until the last minute. This was poor time management for my overall product.
The use of a 8.1 megapixel digital camera enabled me to take high quality images for my magazine. I also used a 6.3 megapixel digital SLR to take the small pictures for my contents page. I used these cameras to take high quality images in macro and portrait modes.
I then uploaded these images onto a computer and edited them using Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop CS4 was the program of choice because it has a lot of options in which I can use to edit and transform my images. Once edited, I uploaded my images to Flickr and Blogger to show what pictures I have taken and which ones I will be using. I used blogger to upload my original pictures and my final images then explain and describe which pictures were what. I used blogger to analyse each of my images.
Some of pictures were taken outside, so I didn't have to do much with the camera to take a perfect picture. Some of my pictures were taken inside. I had to try and adjust the lighting in the room to make the picture as clear as possible.
One picture that I used for my front cover was left until the last minute. This was poor time management for my overall product.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
When designing the overall concept for my magazine, I planned to attract and address my audience in a range of different ways including colour, design and photography and content.
For the colour scheme, I firstly tried a simple black and white scheme but early feedback amongst the target audience indicated that black and white was too boring so I experimented with the colour scheme and decided on using bright primary and secondary colours which connoted energy and youth. I showed drafts to a sample of the target audience and they preferred this colour scheme to the others ones I had tried.
For the layout, I chose to use lots of graphic devices to make the pages look full and interesting, contemporary and graphic. My decisions were based on research amongst the target audience which included showing them copies of existing magazines and watching how they read them and listening to what they said about them, their likes and dislikes.
For the photography, I wanted to avoid images that looked to artificial and conventional of lifestyle magazines. I thought about the style of the band I wanted to feature and also the readers' tastes and came up with some informal but cool images of the band. I think that the dark background on the cover image and the subjective gaze of the band will help to attract the target audience.
Overall, the target audience for my magazine are people who base their life around their music, for example, wearing their favourite band t-shirts or hoodies and wearing shoes which are about 10 years old. They do not aspire to the latest fashions and like to think of themselves as 'Individuals' in terms of psychographic classifications. Understanding their tastes and attitudes help guide me in deciding how to design the magazine and what content to include. I know these people play different instruments so the promise of instruments as promises should be a seller. The offer of an exclusive view of all the concerts coming up should have also been a good selling point because these my target readers love to attend concerts.
Here is a Flickr annotation of my magazine and Kerrang!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenlowe/4135765542/in/photostream/ - Kerrang!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenlowe/4331998595/in/photostream/ - My front cover.
For the colour scheme, I firstly tried a simple black and white scheme but early feedback amongst the target audience indicated that black and white was too boring so I experimented with the colour scheme and decided on using bright primary and secondary colours which connoted energy and youth. I showed drafts to a sample of the target audience and they preferred this colour scheme to the others ones I had tried.
For the layout, I chose to use lots of graphic devices to make the pages look full and interesting, contemporary and graphic. My decisions were based on research amongst the target audience which included showing them copies of existing magazines and watching how they read them and listening to what they said about them, their likes and dislikes.
For the photography, I wanted to avoid images that looked to artificial and conventional of lifestyle magazines. I thought about the style of the band I wanted to feature and also the readers' tastes and came up with some informal but cool images of the band. I think that the dark background on the cover image and the subjective gaze of the band will help to attract the target audience.
Overall, the target audience for my magazine are people who base their life around their music, for example, wearing their favourite band t-shirts or hoodies and wearing shoes which are about 10 years old. They do not aspire to the latest fashions and like to think of themselves as 'Individuals' in terms of psychographic classifications. Understanding their tastes and attitudes help guide me in deciding how to design the magazine and what content to include. I know these people play different instruments so the promise of instruments as promises should be a seller. The offer of an exclusive view of all the concerts coming up should have also been a good selling point because these my target readers love to attend concerts.
Here is a Flickr annotation of my magazine and Kerrang!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenlowe/4135765542/in/photostream/ - Kerrang!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenlowe/4331998595/in/photostream/ - My front cover.
Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience my magazine is aimed at, is people who listen to rock/metal music. These sorts of people are known as "metalheads" when they are at a concert. This means to "head bang" to the music.
They wouldn't normally shop for clothes in their oprdinary high street shops as many of them do not sell the band t-shirts or big leather boots. This means that they would usually shop online for their clothes. Many "metalheads" revolve their life around music. Their favourite TV programs/channels would be MTV, Kerrang and Scuzz. These are music channels which normally play music from rock/metal bands.
As "metalheads" do not have the time for hygiene or cooking their own food, they will tend to eat takeaways and ready meals. They are known for not bothering about their appearence and may only spray deodrant once a day.
As "metalheads" do not have the time for hygiene or cooking their own food, they will tend to eat takeaways and ready meals. They are known for not bothering about their appearence and may only spray deodrant once a day.
They would buy my magazine because of the offers of new gigs and cheap instruments. Most of these people will most certainly play a type of instrument so this is an offer they cannot decline. For drummers, the offer of new and improved double bass drum pedals, this would be appealing to them. The information to new and best gigs are being offered in this magazine so the people who buy the magazine will have inside inforamation to what bands are playing, where and when. Also, the discount of tickets is avaliable when the magazine is bought. The title/masthead/cover of my magazine should attract my audience because it is colourful and stands out to other magazines. The picture on the front cover draws the audience in by the bright lighting and simple composition.
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would like to distribute my magazine throughout the UK. The ideal distributor for this would be IPC Media. IPC Media is the second largest publisher of magazines in the UK with 20% share of the country's consumer titles. They publish everything from radio magazines to food and car magazines. By using IPC, I could launch a radio station which would be a sister product to my magazine and the synergy this would generate would benefit both the magazine and the radio station. As IPC is such a large publisher and as my magazine is quite mainstream, it could be distributed in the same way to the same outlets as Kerrang! (which is a Bauer publication) which has similar contents and targets a similar audience. I think there is room in the market for another Kerrang style magazine but mine would have a less hard rock/heavy metal style than Kerrang!.
Most magazines published by IPC have a subscription offer. I would want to use this form of sales for my publication as subscriptions ensure repeat purchases and therefore increase circulation figures. I would also launch an online version of my magazine, this is essential these days. The advantages of this would be that, it is free of charge, it is easy to access and the readers do not have to leave their homes. There would be a free magazine site as well as subscribers only area where there would be exclusive articles and downloads that people would be prepared to pay for. The free part of the site would be paid for by web advertising.
Once the magazine became successful, I would like to promote the brand through tie-ins with related entertainment and media. For example. I would want it to sponsor award ceremonies, concerts, bands etc just as Kerrang does. This would further raise the profile of the magazine, making it more successful.
If I were to use a smaller company, there is the risk that they couldn't get the widespread distribution and promotional deals that IPC could demand. A smaller company might mean more editorial independence but I wouldn't want to risk failure due to poor distribution. The success rate for magazines in the UK is very low. Only 3 in 10 magazines survive their first 4 years.
Most magazines published by IPC have a subscription offer. I would want to use this form of sales for my publication as subscriptions ensure repeat purchases and therefore increase circulation figures. I would also launch an online version of my magazine, this is essential these days. The advantages of this would be that, it is free of charge, it is easy to access and the readers do not have to leave their homes. There would be a free magazine site as well as subscribers only area where there would be exclusive articles and downloads that people would be prepared to pay for. The free part of the site would be paid for by web advertising.
Once the magazine became successful, I would like to promote the brand through tie-ins with related entertainment and media. For example. I would want it to sponsor award ceremonies, concerts, bands etc just as Kerrang does. This would further raise the profile of the magazine, making it more successful.
If I were to use a smaller company, there is the risk that they couldn't get the widespread distribution and promotional deals that IPC could demand. A smaller company might mean more editorial independence but I wouldn't want to risk failure due to poor distribution. The success rate for magazines in the UK is very low. Only 3 in 10 magazines survive their first 4 years.
Friday, 9 January 2009
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine represents a group of teenagers and adults combined. For example, my magazine does not just contain adults who love metal and rock music, it contains teenagers who have the same desire for that type of music. This enables both adults and teenagers express their opinions about heavy metal music. The front picture is quite deceiving as it doesn't look like these people are part of a heavy metal band. In my picture, I have tried to keep the expressions simple. With no smilies and simple expressions, it shows that these guys are dedicated towards their music. Their music is based on war and death, so smilies wouldn't be very appropriate. The people who buy the magazine will know what these expressions mean and what sort of band they are from. I wouldn't be worried to place articles about drugs and alcohol because heavy metal artists are known to take drugs and drink. This would not influence drugs, only talk about them and their part of a musicians life and how it effects them. Long-ish hair with hoodies and coloured jackets is popular with metal musicans as it shows they are not always screaming about life and death. The cartoony effect I have put on the pictures also reflects this. I would not want the muscians to be smiling because this gives them a happy feel but their music is not about happiness and joy. From this Kerrang front cover, we can see that they also have simple facial expressions which show that they are serious about their music. The image on Kerrang is a much closer shot because the image has been shot in a studio. We can tell this because of the white background. I decided to have my shot full body to show the posture of the band members. The costumes within my image and the kerrang image are very similar. Simple clothing is part of their simple image. They do not want to be over-dramatised.
Demographics of my magazine:
Gender: Mainly males because of the male colour schemes.
Age: 14+
Race: All races
Social:C1C2DE
Area: All areas within the UK.
The Psychographics of my magazine are individuals that believe that music is their life and they will do anything to go to their favourite band's concert.
I would say that my image has an anti-consumerist stance as they have no facial expressions. This shows that they have no intention of selling themselves but more worried about the quality of thir music.
The comparison between my image and the kerrang image is that the facial expression, hair and costume are all similar. Long hair is a typical aspect of people in rock or punk bands. The facial expressions of both images are bland and serious faces. This shows that they are serious about their music. Both the costumes in the images are simple because both bands do not want to be over-dramatised.
Demographics of my magazine:
Gender: Mainly males because of the male colour schemes.
Age: 14+
Race: All races
Social:C1C2DE
Area: All areas within the UK.
The Psychographics of my magazine are individuals that believe that music is their life and they will do anything to go to their favourite band's concert.
I would say that my image has an anti-consumerist stance as they have no facial expressions. This shows that they have no intention of selling themselves but more worried about the quality of thir music.
The comparison between my image and the kerrang image is that the facial expression, hair and costume are all similar. Long hair is a typical aspect of people in rock or punk bands. The facial expressions of both images are bland and serious faces. This shows that they are serious about their music. Both the costumes in the images are simple because both bands do not want to be over-dramatised.
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have made a collage on Photoshop of the key elements of my music magazine. These elements are from the front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have done this so I compare my key elements to an existing magazine. I can then make comparisons and show similarities and differences. Below is a collage of things from existing music magazines.
The title of my magazine is a mess with words. The title "Phlawless" comes from the word "Flawless" which means amazing or unbelievable. I wanted my title to have a meaning with a play with words so that's why I chose this title. Unlike other magazines, they have titles such as "Kerrang!" or "Smash Hits". These do not have dictionary meanings of words but the titles relate to the music. I used the idea of having an exclamation mark in my title as I thought this brought out the title a little bit more. I have used a thrashed and scattered font to show that the music is very thrashed and metal. I have also given it a white colour as it stands out on the dark background.
I have chosen for my images to be in remote locations as it reflects on what the music is about. Heavy metal, rock music tends to be able life and life's problems. I thought that if I had a bush/ tree/ forest background with a bright light, it would make the band look professional. The people on the front cover of my magazine have no costumes. They simply wear normal clothes when performing their songs. For the picture, it would be unnecessary for the band to wear clothes different to what they perform in. Being in a dark environment, the lighting in the picture needs to be bright. This is what I have tried to achieve. By using a Digital SLR, I was able to achieve good lighting as the flash contributes a lot of artificial light.
I have not used any props in my pictures because I didn't want to use any. I didn't want to use them because I realised they would be in the way of the overall look I wanted to create. I wanted to create a simple look without adding props. I could have added props such as instruments etc, but this proved to be difficult. So I worked around this problem and carried on creating the effect I originally wanted.
The band "Forgiven Rival" are an all male band. There are five members in the band and I have only 3 people in the picture. It would have been better if I had more people as it would have made a better effect, however, I still think the people look professional and that they look part of a band.
I have used a range of different font styles and colours within my front cover, contents and double page spread. I Have used fonts which I thought were suitable for my genre. On my front cover, I have used fancy fonts such as "Birth of a Hero" and I have used a simple font such as "Arial". I have used these two fonts because they are completely different. I think if I used too many different fonts on my front cover, the audience would be put off as they wouldn't know where to look first. Even though it is not that visible, I have put a black outline on my title as I thought this gave it a shadow effect. If I put a shadow on or left it blank, the title wouldn't be as interesting. Throughout my magazine, I have continued to used "Birth of a Hero" as this font represents my magazine and I have also continued to use the simple font "Arial" because it doesn't overload my contents page with different fonts and colours.
I have chosen to do a interview in my magazine. I chose to do this because I thought it would suit the band I was interviewing. I knew the kind of questions I could make up and what the answers could be from day 1. So, I thought I would stick with that idea throughout. The written content is a simple question and answer where the questions and answers are in two different colours so the reader can differentiate between the two. I have asked relevant questions towards music, but have also asked some personal questions. I thought this would attract the attention of the reader. I haven't used complex language because I think that the audience could get quite confused with some words. I have tried to keep the language as simple as possible.
Overall, I have tried to make my magazine represent the genre of music it is about. It would be pointless if I had pictures of models because this does not represent my genre. The picture on my cover shows image of rock/metal music because they are standing straight with no facial expressions. This gives them the impression that they are serious about being a band and about playing music. Different colours and styles reflects on my genre because rock music is about wearing different clothing with different types of people.
I have tried to layout my masthead and my cover lines and simply as possible as I didn't want half my picture to be covered up and I wouldn't like for my front cover to be overload with cover lines too. I have tried to line up and keep my font as straight as possible. I have tried to keep the same layout within my magazine because if the layouts are completely different, the whole magazine would not look professional. I have also tried to keep the text relatively in line as this
makes it look neat. I have also rotated some text because it makes the layout of my magazine minimalist.
My contents page is filled with different things. All the things in my magazine are music related. I have added pages numbers to let the reader know which article is on which page. I have added a border around the outside of my contents page but the picture that is in the top left, breaks the boundry and goes outside of the image. This gives the magazine a rebelious effect. I chose to give my background a gradient of blue and white because I tried adding a picture, but it didn't look right. The picture has a grass background with plants. I was advised to change this because it didn't suit my genre. I solved this by adding a black stripe in the middle of my contents page. I put it across my whole contents page to make sure it looked right. I incoportated the stripe between his legs as this looked more professional.
Overall, both my magazine and other magazines have similarites and differences. My magazine has a variety of colours and and brushes but other magazines would have the same layouts, fonts and contents pages.
This is the other music magazine collage.
This is a video of "Forgiven Rival" that I did a made up interview with.
The title of my magazine is a mess with words. The title "Phlawless" comes from the word "Flawless" which means amazing or unbelievable. I wanted my title to have a meaning with a play with words so that's why I chose this title. Unlike other magazines, they have titles such as "Kerrang!" or "Smash Hits". These do not have dictionary meanings of words but the titles relate to the music. I used the idea of having an exclamation mark in my title as I thought this brought out the title a little bit more. I have used a thrashed and scattered font to show that the music is very thrashed and metal. I have also given it a white colour as it stands out on the dark background.
I have chosen for my images to be in remote locations as it reflects on what the music is about. Heavy metal, rock music tends to be able life and life's problems. I thought that if I had a bush/ tree/ forest background with a bright light, it would make the band look professional. The people on the front cover of my magazine have no costumes. They simply wear normal clothes when performing their songs. For the picture, it would be unnecessary for the band to wear clothes different to what they perform in. Being in a dark environment, the lighting in the picture needs to be bright. This is what I have tried to achieve. By using a Digital SLR, I was able to achieve good lighting as the flash contributes a lot of artificial light.
I have not used any props in my pictures because I didn't want to use any. I didn't want to use them because I realised they would be in the way of the overall look I wanted to create. I wanted to create a simple look without adding props. I could have added props such as instruments etc, but this proved to be difficult. So I worked around this problem and carried on creating the effect I originally wanted.
The band "Forgiven Rival" are an all male band. There are five members in the band and I have only 3 people in the picture. It would have been better if I had more people as it would have made a better effect, however, I still think the people look professional and that they look part of a band.
I have used a range of different font styles and colours within my front cover, contents and double page spread. I Have used fonts which I thought were suitable for my genre. On my front cover, I have used fancy fonts such as "Birth of a Hero" and I have used a simple font such as "Arial". I have used these two fonts because they are completely different. I think if I used too many different fonts on my front cover, the audience would be put off as they wouldn't know where to look first. Even though it is not that visible, I have put a black outline on my title as I thought this gave it a shadow effect. If I put a shadow on or left it blank, the title wouldn't be as interesting. Throughout my magazine, I have continued to used "Birth of a Hero" as this font represents my magazine and I have also continued to use the simple font "Arial" because it doesn't overload my contents page with different fonts and colours.
I have chosen to do a interview in my magazine. I chose to do this because I thought it would suit the band I was interviewing. I knew the kind of questions I could make up and what the answers could be from day 1. So, I thought I would stick with that idea throughout. The written content is a simple question and answer where the questions and answers are in two different colours so the reader can differentiate between the two. I have asked relevant questions towards music, but have also asked some personal questions. I thought this would attract the attention of the reader. I haven't used complex language because I think that the audience could get quite confused with some words. I have tried to keep the language as simple as possible.
Overall, I have tried to make my magazine represent the genre of music it is about. It would be pointless if I had pictures of models because this does not represent my genre. The picture on my cover shows image of rock/metal music because they are standing straight with no facial expressions. This gives them the impression that they are serious about being a band and about playing music. Different colours and styles reflects on my genre because rock music is about wearing different clothing with different types of people.
I have tried to layout my masthead and my cover lines and simply as possible as I didn't want half my picture to be covered up and I wouldn't like for my front cover to be overload with cover lines too. I have tried to line up and keep my font as straight as possible. I have tried to keep the same layout within my magazine because if the layouts are completely different, the whole magazine would not look professional. I have also tried to keep the text relatively in line as this
makes it look neat. I have also rotated some text because it makes the layout of my magazine minimalist.
My contents page is filled with different things. All the things in my magazine are music related. I have added pages numbers to let the reader know which article is on which page. I have added a border around the outside of my contents page but the picture that is in the top left, breaks the boundry and goes outside of the image. This gives the magazine a rebelious effect. I chose to give my background a gradient of blue and white because I tried adding a picture, but it didn't look right. The picture has a grass background with plants. I was advised to change this because it didn't suit my genre. I solved this by adding a black stripe in the middle of my contents page. I put it across my whole contents page to make sure it looked right. I incoportated the stripe between his legs as this looked more professional.
Overall, both my magazine and other magazines have similarites and differences. My magazine has a variety of colours and and brushes but other magazines would have the same layouts, fonts and contents pages.
This is the other music magazine collage.
This is a video of "Forgiven Rival" that I did a made up interview with.
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Reader Profile Montage & Physcographic and Demographic Profiling.
Demographic Profiling
Gender: Mainly males.
Age: 16 - 25
Martial Status: Mainly single.
Location: London, Manchester.
Class: BC1C2
Income: 30,000 - 50,500
Education: Going to/Been to college/sixth form.
Eating Habits: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Physchographic Profiling
Mainstremers/Aspiriers
Broadband Internet
Males: 82%
Females: 18%
Full time: 70%
Part time: 30%
Use iTunes to download music/movies.
Xbox 360's used for playing games and downloading/renting HD movies.
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