Q7 - looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product (your music magazine)?

Early in the course I designed a new school sixth form magazine that acted as a preliminary task to the music magazine that I designed. The prerequisites were essentially the same, but it was just a Front cover and a contents page, we were not required to design a double page spread.
I feel that I have learnt lots of new ways in which to construct, refine and lay out a typical magazine since I finished my Preliminary task.
Firstly, I learned to use many new technologies more effectively and appropriately than before;
1. I have learnt to use photoshop to both edit photographs more effectively and also to construct a complete front cover, contents page and double page feature article.

2. I have changed some of my previous design elements, or simply just added some on. For example I have made use of a puff in my front cover, which was non existent in my preliminary task. I have paid more attention to the conventions used in existing magazines, and applied what I have found into my own work, for example I have made more significant use of hierarchy of text.

3. The idea of creating a double page spread was completely new to me, but I felt that the skills i had already put use in my Preliminary task and in designing my new front cover and contents, given a little tweaking could simply be applied in the same way. I also felt that the double page spread was a test on my preexisting knowledge of photoshop, but the key conventions were similar to what I had already worked with.

4. I used research to solidify my choice of genre and tone for my final magazine piece, whereas I had done no research in preparation for my preliminary excercise, so this was new to me. However, the excercise was simplistic and easily applicable, as I just handed out questionnaires to likely candidates and analysed the results.

Overall, I feel that since my preliminary task I have gained greater knowledge and understanding of key conventions and constructions of magazines. I feel that I have applied this well throughout my music magazine coursework.

Q6 - what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?

I have employed and made appropriate use of technologies that were new to me in the making and refining of my music magazine.
The main change in technology that I experienced was the use of Photoshop. I was used to using InDesign, which I used to develop my preliminary piece, but felt that PhotoShop would be more useful in my second piece due to some facilities that were more cumbersome or inaccessible in InDesign. For example, I could simply edit my images to what I needed them to be and put them straight back into my magazine without having to change the format. I particularly learned a great deal about photoshop, and how to properly photoshop images. I mainly used the magnetic lasso tool to cut my images out from the background, and modified the models that I used in my images slightly with the use of red eye remover and spot remover. I also used the spot lightening tool on the front cover image as the lighting had previously been too dark.
As to using stills cameras, I learnt a great deal about composing an actual image as opposed to actually using the camera. I made use of a reflector, different lighting and adpated to different locations whilst using the stills camera. I used a reflector on the front cover image, but I learned not to position it to close or the features of the model would be washed out and the features difficult to make out. As it turned out, the reflector may have been positioned too far away from the model as his features turned out to be quite dark, and had to be edited.
Once the images were finished being edited, I needed to compile the images how I wanted throughout the pages of my magazine. I was more familiar with this process than some of the other functions of PhotoShop, as the use of layers was similar to how InDesign worked. I used layers to control how the coverlines, masthead and other texts were placed over the front cover image.

I didn't experience any problems with making layers and fitting them together in the magazine, the only part that I found at all frustrating was the constant moving around of the layers and images to fit them without overlapping.

Overall, I was faced with many new technologies throughout the making of my final magazine piece, but learnt to use them effectively and appropriately towards the task.

Q5 - how did you attract/adress your audience?

I have tried to vary the methods that I have employed to attract my audience to my magazine. The majority of these methods are features of the Front cover, for example masthead, coverlines etc.
I tried to not only use graphological features to establish a bond between the magazine and the audience, but to also use the content of coverlines and other promtional texts to ensnare the readers interest.
The graphological features throughout my magazine are mainly designed to capture a readers eye, especially the colour scheme. The colours of the text on the contents page stand out from the plain background. Rather than blues and greys I used oranges and reds to create a fiery contrast.
The text used on the contents page, apart from the banner, is designed with similarities to the models clothing. I was trying to create a feeling of symmetry within the page. For instance, the smallest lettering is the same colour as the models shirt.
Actual text contentis mainly used in the front cover and contents pages. The coverlines are simply statements about what is inside, with an authoritative tone. The same is used for the short page summaries employed in the contents.
I could not use these same techniques, or identify with the audience through the use of personal pronouns and direct mode of adress in my double page spread article as it was an interview rather than a review, and what was said was dependant on the interviewee.

Q4 - Who would be the audience of your music magazine?

I think it is hard to define a specific group and audience at which to direct a music magazine, as music is heavily affected by own choice and extremely wide and diverse in catergory. However, were I to aim my magazine at specific groups and the category was age, I would be inclined to aim the magazine at young adults aged 15 - 21, as this is the most prominent age group for this genre. If the grouping was social class, I would mainly exclude upper class individuals and focus mainly on middle and working class teenagers. The genre dubstep does not tend to have any inclination towards any ethnicity.
I feel that there are certain factors within my magazine that promote the specific groupings that I have mentioned above.
For example all the images in my magazine feature tenneage males, due to the fact that as to gender grouping in this genre, the masculine role is dominant.
The image depicts the model holding an iPod touch, which is widely used throughout age and gender groups, but has the album artwork of the corresponding band.
Overall, the groups that i have specified are represented through the images in my magazine.

Q3 - what kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

I think that my magazine would be distributed by a younger generation, volunteer based program operating at gigs and at bars. I think that this is a likely method of distribution due to the genre I have picked. Dubstep is quite new, and features a range of listeners, from middle class to lower class, but rarely any older generation listeners or artists.
However, the magazines distributed by volunteers tend to be shorter and more leaflet like, whereas mine would be relatively long, more like Mojo or Mixmag and therefore distributed by highstreet newsagents such as WHsmiths or simply regular subscribing newsagents.
If I were to choose a media distributor for my magazine, I would choose IPC media, because some of the magazines that they currently distribute are quite similar to the format of my own magazine. This cover featuring Florence and the Machine uses a few of the conventions that I have employed in my own magazine. They have used a banner at the top of the magazine, whereas I have placed mine at the bottom, but they both promote a special offer.
Also, their regular coverlines are placed towards one side of the cover, and there main coverline is placed over the image, which anchors the two together, which I have emulated in my own piece.
Overall, IPC is more relative to my ow magazine than other distributors such as Bauer, as it controls and distributes various diverse magazines.

Q2 - how does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

Representation of social Groups

I feel that my Magazine represent a variety of particular social groups, as the Genre I have chosen, dubstep, is specific to many social, ethnic or other categorised groups. The image that i have used on my front cover is of a typical Dubstep artist perhaps; dark skinny jeans, collared polo shirt and shorter hair, but this grouping can vary hugely. Throughout my magazine the images remain fairly generic towards this grouping, which in hindsight I feel that I should have introduced some degree of variety to properly represent the full range of artists through both ethnicity, social class and clothing differentiation.
Looking back through my magazine I also felt that the actual facial expressions of my models should have been changed up a bit, to create diversity throughout the images.
Moving away from the images, I don't think that I have represented social groups in any way, eirther through language used or appearance and layout of pages. If there was one, it would be to represent younger generations, as Dubstep tends to be a young scene, more or less devoid of elder generations.

Q1 - In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?

I decided to make to make a magazine based on the music genre dubstep to be aimed at...
I decided to use the conventions of currently existing music magazines which are:

Front cover -

Hierarchy of text



Front Cover:
I feel that the use of hierarchy in my coverlines is quite conventional in relation to other magazines such as Q or Kerrang.
I think that my magazine follows quite a few of the conventions shown in this edition of Q magazine, especially the hierarchy of text. The regular coverlines tend to be regular in size and font, which leads to a sense of Brand identity. The main coverline is positioned over the actual front cover image to anchor it to the magazine.
The Masthead 16BiT is also similar to Q in terms of hierarchy as it is positioned close to the feature image, in these cases close to the models head. Texts such as date, issue number and price are all much smaller texts, as they are only informational and of little significance to actually persuading customers to purchase the magazine. The one detail where I would say I have broken the conventions shown in Q magazines front cover with regard to hierarchy of text is the difference between our special offer banners. Whereas Q has used a separate colour scheme and text that is larger than the majority of it's coverlines in order to make it stand out as an actual offer rather than another coverline. My banner on the other hand, is still promoting a special offer, but remains regular size and colour to the coverlines. Although this does make it slightly similar to the coverlines, i don't think that they are easily confused, and the general look of the text adds to further brand identity. Both my magazine Front Cover and Q's have made use of a strapline or 'puff' to enhance the Masthead, which in my opinion is a generic magazine convention but does fall into the hierarchy of text. Both magazines have made use of their brand font and size for the strapline, adding to brand identity and not taking focus away from the Masthead, which obviously holds the most identity for the Magazine.

Contents page:
Hierarchy of text has been used to less of an extent in my contents page than on my front cover in my opinion. I will compare it with a contents page from Mixmag, to measure the extent of key conventions being used. I chose this particular contents page because the layout is generally similar to my own piece, whereas the one below that is quite different in layout and hierarchy, which makes it useful as a comparable piece. The contents page from mixmag features a line of text from the header down to the bottom of the page coupled with an image of a relevant musician/celebrity. This layout is in many ways similar to my own contents page. However, Mixmag have used a further two 'sub-images' below the main one to enhance the text on the left. on these images there are small captions which help the images relate back to the content. My contents page however, uses a banner in place of any further images, which may be less effective as it doesn't promote what is inside the magazine, simply forms a brand identity. As to hierarchy of text, there are various ways in which it is employed in these contents pages, although not as extensively as on the front covers.
Header - larger than all other text
Strapline - considerably smaller than Header
Short description of page: smallest text on page, yet hold the most informational value
Subheaders - these tend to be slightly larger than the descriptions, but i have simply used the page numbers to head the description. This convention can be seen in the other examples.
I have broken conventions with my Banner, as the line of text is almost, if not equal to the main header in size, which is uncommon as it draws some focus from the header. I feel that this may be the case with my contents page, as the banner is also in a more vivid colour than the header. It shows that it is a break with regular conventions as neither Mixmag or Kerrang! show any form of banner on the contents pages, but the rest of the text on my contents page seems to be regular with conventions. Kerrang! uses many regular conventions, but is quite different to mine, in my opinion. It uses many images to explain some of it's pages rather than a short descriptive passage, or in some cases, an image is coupled with a short descriptive extract extract. my contents page and Mixmag's use either or.
This leads to Kerrang!'s contents being much more eye grabbing and detailed for the readers, but does take awawy from the visual effect and makes it a bit more cluttered.







Double page spread




















In my opinion, hierarchy of text is almost non-existent in double page spread articles compared to other mediums such as Front covers. this may be due to the fact that the article has far more length than a coverline or page description, and therefore the text is more regular in size and colour throughout. Following regular conventions, the main header is the largest text on the page. The next largest is the standfirst in enlarged letters, which provides another entry point into the article. the rest of the text is simply the article itself, in regular size, except for the fact that the questions are in bold text.

Main coverline stands out from other coverlines and anchors directly to image

The main coverline in my piece is clearly distinguished from regular coverlines due to placement, colour, wording and hierarchy.
The coverline is placed away from other coverlines, directly over the main image of the cover. This placement sets it apart from regular coverlines and at the same time anchors it directly to the image.
The colours used in the main coverline are still in keeping with the actual coulour scheme of the cover and the magazine, but modified slightly in order to further set it apart from the other coverlines. This is useful to me because it set the main coverline apart whilst retaining brand identity.
The wording has also been modified and differentiated slightly from the regular coverlines. Instead of just placing a solitary sentence over the main image, I ahve included a sub header, to further explain the main coverline and distinguish it.
Finally, to add a last degree of differentation, I have placed the entire coverline high up in the hierarchy of text, second only in size and visibility to the masthead. As the hierarchy and colour scheme is so similar to the masthead only, it establishes a strong link of brand identity to the consumer.
Overall, I feel that I have successfully emulated a variety of music magazine conventions in order to successfully distinguish my main coverline from regular informative coverlines. These conventions were specifically, placement, colour, hierarchy of text and wording.


Banner at the bottom of the cover promotes special offer




I have used a banner to promote a special offer to be found within the magazine upon purchase, as a secondary motive for buying the magazine. Said special offer can be identified as a free, genre specific, music poster featuring this weeks front cover artist, Borgore.
I specifically placed it running conventionally lengthways towards the bottom of the screen across the dark jeans. This made sure that the banner did not fade into the coverlines but stood apart to a small degree.



Although a lot of banners use actual borders and separate colour schemes to emphasize their banners and special offers, I felt that my front cover would begin to lean into the cluttered side of covers rather than the neat, tidy, simple look that I was going for.



Had I indulged the banner in the complete set of conventions that are often used in banner constructuions, I feel that it would have compromised the chemistry of the magazine, possible through the conflicting colour schemes or through the attention being drawn away from the masthead/main coverline. I also think that the placement of the main coverline was complementary to the banner as they both advertised the product 'Gorestep Vol 1', therefore if a consumer was drawn by the main coverline, their interest would be consolidated by the banner, being so close.

Brand identity created through colour scheme
Throughout my magazine I have tried to make use of colour to not only enhance the actual image of the page, but also to create a strong sense of brand identity.
In my front cover, I have consistently used reds and oranges against the plain white background. The background is white through my choice, not only to make the coloured text stand out, but also to lighten the features of the model.

My contents page required a little more thought than than my front cover, due to the actual background being a wall, and so i had to use a whole range of new techniques in order to achieve the potential of the page.

My double page spread follows the same conventions as my front cover.

Introduction

My name is Oliver Wilkinson and i am an A Level media student. The purpose of this blog is to evaluate my AS Media courtsework.
The brief was PRINT:

• The preliminary task - create the front page and contents for a new sixth form magazine
• Main task - The front page, contents and double page spread for a new music magazine