1.
I have looked mainly at two types of magazines;
Q magazine and the uncut magazine. However, I have mainly looked at the Q
magazine. This is because I thought the magazines layout was better than the
uncut magazine. Q magazine has inspired me with their layout and colour scheme
of their contents page but the front cover of my magazine is generally in the
design I thought would look the best. My magazine has a similar layout on the
contents page with the Q magazine. It is clear enough to see what pictures belong
to what page. Also it is organised in sections, which means I have written
‘Regulars’, ‘Interviews’, ‘featured’ etc. This shows a separation of what pages
go under which category. This will make it clearer for the reader whilst
looking for pages. Also the numbering of the pages is in order and therefore
makes it easier to read through the contents page. Another thing which I have
been inspired by in my contents page is that there are different font sizes on
the numbering of the pages and there are plenty of pictures which makes the
magazine look like it is full of events which shouldn’t be missed; this has
given me the idea to also use different font sizes for numbers and numbering
pictures. I have also got the idea of the use of large fonts in sentences from
the front cover and the contents page to stress important words from the Q
magazine. This is because I thought that having big fonts are important to
stress words which need to be seen by the reader. It also draws large amounts
of attention when there is a bright colour like the colour white as an
attention grabber as it is also a bright and eye catching colour to draw
attention to special offers like ‘FREE’ is used, also making the font bold
helped me to draw attention to the consumers. However, I have used some things
professional magazines do not have which I have created my own. I have created
an interview format asked to celebrities which is only based on chosen
questions which come from fans on social networking sites such as Facebook and
twitter. This makes the readers more involved in the magazine; this could also
include getting suggestions for the magazine to have it the way the readers
would like to see it as. In other words it is more interactive which most
readers are interested in; being part of a magazine rather than just having a
boring old magazine which is full of writing which you cannot participate with.
From my case studies I didn’t like the dull colours of the ‘Uncut’ magazine; I thought
it looked too old style. However if I combined the plain style and font of the
uncut magazines front cover and the busy and lively layout of the contents page
of the ‘Q’ magazine for my contents page it would have made it look less
crowded. This is important for me as I didn’t want my magazine to look too
lively as this wouldn’t have fit the genre of country pop because it’s a half
classical genre. The other half is POP which is shown by the liveliness of the
contents page.
2.
My magazine portrays young females and males in
a positive way. They are shown as flawless and beautiful in every kind of way;
talented, girly, modern and stylish. My magazine is mainly aimed to be
attractive to people who are interested in country pop and people who usually
listen to lyrics which reflect their own lives rather than lyrics which sound
like they’re all over the place. My magazine is aimed to attract all ethnic
groups all around the world too. This is because country pop lyrics are based
on specific emotions some people feel, such as love; and every human in the planet
feels love and emotions to people regardless of their gender. This should show
that my gender is for every ethnic group and gender. I believe my magazine shows
the values people give/ should give to love and emotion in every kind of way
and was my aim also.
3.
I have thought that I would want Bauer to
publish my magazine. This is because Bauer is a successful magazine publisher
which publishes magazines like the Q magazine, ID magazine, TWIST, M and many
more successful magazines. Also, Bauer is a worldwide publisher; this is the
exact thing I want because I want my magazine to be known across the world. I
have made up a website which is www.countrypop.com
to gain a larger scale of audience through the internet. This will be easier to
engage with my audience. Facebook and twitter was also used which most
teenagers use; and because my magazine is aimed at younger people generally,
this would be a great way to earn a young audience. Young people these days are
often on the internet and on the twitter hash tags, so I have also made one
within the twitter website which is #countrypop. For Facebook, I have made
whatever was popular, so I have created a page called ‘country pop magazine official’
which our readers would like, and catch up with things like: when the magazine
is going to be published, important dates, special offers etc.
4.
The age group aim was from the ages between 16
to 35 years of age. This is because these age groups are often closer and associated
with love and love songs. Also because the artist which is on the front cover
is young; and young singers are often has a young audience whether they want it
or not. It’s the same with old people. They listen to singers who are slightly
older which are like the 80’s. Although my aim was to have an audience from all
around the world, my gender audience was more for females. But towards
finishing my magazine, I came to the conclusion that not only girls feel love and
like love songs. People who want my magazine could probably be people who like
to dress up and go shopping because all the people on my front cover and
contents page are dressed well and modern. A typical reader for my magazine
could be someone who is interested in instruments, like people who play the
guitar and sing along to it. These people could catch up with new songs and get
the notes for the songs, although they would have to pay a certain amount of
money and will not be the official guitar notes, this would be plagiarism.
5.
My audience was mostly impressed with my
photography. This may be because I have used the skills I know in Photoshop
such as using the spot removing tool which removes even the tiniest spots on
the face, leaving the skin to look clean and clear, almost perfect. My audience
also like my masthead which I have named countrypop. They have said that the
font was well fitted for my theme. They liked that I’ve used a 3 colour scheme
but said some text was blending in with the picture so it made it slightly
harder to read. They also liked the layout and the continuous colour scheme I
had used throughout my magazine, because I have used a RED colour scheme all
through my front cover, contents page and my double page spread. I also thought
using similar colour schemes and font types made my magazine look like it was a
whole rather than looking like three different magazine pages from three
different magazines. My audience also thought I portrayed the females in my
magazine in a good way. They thought that the girls in my magazines where shown
as beautiful, flawless and girly.
6.
In Photoshop I have learnt how to remove
blemishes on the skin, spots and how to generally design a magazine front cover
on it. I did have slight technical problems like forgetting to click on the
layer I want to edit and moving another objet out of place. I also had problems
fitting the masthead on top of my models head as the picture didn’t have space
to fit the masthead behind her head so I had to overlap her forehead which
covered her hair quite a bit. My audience also said the same thing about my
masthead covering too much of my model. To overcome this problem I have tried
to push my masthead up higher and a bit more towards the left so less of her
forehead is covered. My font also ended up looking bigger than I thought.
Having to adjust the size of the font was time consuming. In InDesign I have designed my magazine
contents and dps. I have learnt how to fit an image to the proportion when I
shaped the image box to the size appropriate. I have also learnt that using
rulers around the pages in Photoshop and InDesign is important because they
make the magazine texts look more organised, in line and more professional. For
my photography I have used a camera which was Nikon 700D DSLR. This has helped
me take good quality pictures. Also I have used the zooming technique by
turning the lens of the camera to try making my model look closer. This has
also helped me cancel out the areas not wanted in the frame of the picture
without having to crop It with the crop tool on Photoshop. I have used CTRL +
Alt + Print Scrn to print screen specific times of my magazine. I have used the
print screening technique to show the improvements I have done as I went by and
my step by step stages of the progress of my magazine pages. I have also used
this to show any improvements I have done after my audience feedback to show I
have listened to them and for my magazine to look better and uploaded it on to
blogger by exporting them into JPEG’s from the programmes its self. In the
photo studio we used plenty of equipment for my photography to come out nice.
For this I have used the silver side of the reflector to give a sharp look to
my models face and also experimented with the golden side of the reflector to
give a warmer look to the models face. I ended up using the photos I had used
the silver side of the reflector. Also I used the white reflector to reflect
off any type of shadow from my models face, but I decided to use a picture with
a reflection on the face, this made my model look more natural. For my
evaluation I have used many technologies like glogster to answer question one.
This is because this website has allowed me to add in pictures while speaking
about the magazines I have analysed. It also makes my points clearer when there
is images as the audience can see what I mean. For question two, I have used
GoAnimate because it is a question about social groups. In GoAnimate I have
used two characters. This shows that it is two friends where one is speaking
about how the magazine represents particular social groups. For question five I have used photopeach which
I believe suits the question very well as it allows me to put pictures up, and
then write captions below them. It also allowed me to add in music which
sounded very countryish.
7.
From my college magazine and my music magazine,
I have realised major improvements. These include front styles, font sizes, the
layout, the photography and many more. In my college magazine I had used smaller
fonts and I spaced them out very apart which made it look much empty. However,
in my music magazine I have overcome this and made the font bigger which made
the magazine look more busy and professional. The use colour for my front cover
of the college magazine was good, as it contrasted well with what the model was
wearing. In my music magazine I have used a colour scheme which was too camouflaged
as my friends had said in their feedback.
No comments:
Post a Comment