Adam Jones Media Work: March 2011

The front cover

The front cover colour palette used goes well with the headings and font styles used. The editing of the photograph and the design concept of the silhouettes give the cover a new dimension.

The contents page

The contents page is split into categories such as interviews & articles, most popular and competitions which makes it suitable. The white background along with the orange page numbers helps the design to be brought to life more. I had feedback to include a signature and also the spacing of my contents page was well considered, I made changes to the design to include these and my final design is more improved.

The DPS

The DPS feedback was that it should include more colour as the other pages of the magazine look better developed. The small print on the competition makes the design more professional along with the font used throughout the magazine design.

These comments help to further develop and design my work; I changed some of my design as suggested by the feedback. This was an important part of the design process, getting information relating to the designs of my magazine. The front cover was less developed to begin with but I feel that I have changed that by working more on the editing of the photographs.

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

The key ingredients of music magazines consist of articles, competitions and interviews which interact and appeal to the target audience that the magazine is being aimed at. Competitions are a good way to generate excitement and also interact with the audience, with large prices up for grabs more people will want to enter the competition. The key ingredients to make a successful magazine is to keep the colour palette to a bare minimum using only 3 or 4 colours and not many different font types / sizes. An editor’s message isn’t a main ingredient but it adds more communication between the reader (audience) and the editor of the magazine.

The barcode is a convention because this has to be there for scanning at the checkout, the front cover also usually has an issue number and website address details. These are pretty standard conventions for the intended use of the audience or reader, the website address also provides traffic to the magazine website for further details. The front cover should include cover lines to give a preview into what’s inside the magazine.

Usually there is an article / interview on one page and a large image on the opposite page, this is because a double page spread links and relates to the other page strongly, the double page spread is usually set out in a column format on one page for the article / interview. The double page spread sometimes hosts competitions to enter on the page with the photograph on.

I have included the conventions of magazines in my music magazine, harmonized by using an image on the front page, barcode for scanning at the checkout, cover lines to give a preview of what’s inside, a range of articles, interviews, competitions and most popular readings with the audience; these all are conventions which are used and therefore need to be followed in order to make a successful music magazine. The audience feedback suggests that I have used a good colour palette range and also an effective magazine design layout.

I haven’t changed anything within my magazine that would not be considered as a convention, I think I have considered and covered the convention quite well within my magazine. I have only used one photograph of the singer, ‘Kerry Davies’ on the front cover and also on the double page spread, I have used different pictures and have also edited the front covers photograph used.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have represented the older teenagers such as 16 – 18 year olds, I haven’t really represented them in a stereotypical way, perhaps this could have been done through using festival pictures of crowds something that you would see on TV or ‘T4 on the beach’ with panning shots. However, I think that I have portrayed the pop theme through my photographs used within the design.

I have used more text within the magazine than images because of the interview with ‘Kerry Davies’ on the double page spread of my magazine. I have used formal Standard English within the interview on page six and throughout the magazine, the magazine photographs are all teenager related photographs as they are between 16 - 18 years old.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teenagers aged 16 – 18 would be my main target audience although slightly younger and older age groups would also be interested in the magazine as it would appeal to them due to the pop / rock mix genre.

The gender covers both males and females due to the mixed genre of the magazine, rock and pop. The main gender of the magazine could be seen to be females due to the female artist appearances listed within the contents page such as lady gaga. Although some appearances of rock bands such as nickleback also do interviews, this will appeal more to the male readers of the magazine.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

I have attracted the audience to my magazine by using a main photograph and then creating silhouettes by filling the image and then changing the colour twice (blue and red). This will draw people to it due to the bright colours used such as the blue, red and yellow that will attract attention therefore making the magazine more noticeable to the reader. This is important as people usually use the visuals on the front cover to determine the overall quality and content of the magazine; it has to interest and impress them. The yellow text background catches the eye, and therefore highlights the cover story of ‘Kerry Davies’

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

I have used blogger, polls, publisher, coral, gimp, digital camera and PowerPoint while designing and constructing the magazine. However I have only learnt more about using gimp during the process of editing my photographs for the front cover. I have used all the other software and devices before doing the product design as I have used Coral Paint Shop Pro X in graphics and photography for image manipulation.

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

I have learnt more about my target audiences’ needs and also the content and structure of magazines. Furthermore, I have learnt that the designing structure that goes into magazines is well considered to make them as professional and appealing as possible. This incorporates graphics; photography and ICT into the design process which has also helped me use my skills in those areas to produce a more considered and well planned magazine design.