Evaluation Question 6)

Looking back and you preliminary task, of designing the front page of a school magazine, what do you feel you have learn in progression from it to the full product.

I feel I have learnt a lot since I started at the preliminary task up until now, I feel I demonstrated a lot of creativity within my media product by using original images, editing them to how I like them, the layout of my magazine in my own way to make it suit my personal target audience, the specific colour of the fonts, and the fonts that I used, I feel they portrayed my target audience to a good standard. I also think that most of my ideas were original, although I did get some inspiration off of Vibe magazine, as I wanted my magazine to be quite similar to this type of magazine, although everything I wrote in my media product were all my own words, and again all images were mine, so all material was original. When it came to the technology part, at the start I had a bit of difficulty but as the time went on I found myself getting better and better until I was able to use all programmes quite fluently. With the photography, planning my shots was not a problem but I do not feel that I gave myself enough time to take my shots and create them exactly how I wanted them, working more on the production of the magazine itself and putting everything together, although in the end I was quite pleased with the shots that I did achieve. I found that putting lots of colours into my magazine seemed confusing to look at and made it harder to read, which led me to only using 3 colours which were black white and blue keeping my palette limited, these were bold colours that stand out to a person, so would be good to attract attention, also with the bold colours reflecting onto my audience as being bold characters. When using fonts, I learned not to go too over the top, but not to get a font that is unnoticeable, as I found that having a font that was a bit outstanding helped in order of recognition, that's why I chose to have a font specific to the name and a font that is bold and noticeable, whereas before I had done this task, I would of used a boring font because I wouldn't of thought that it was that important to the whole magazine. Before I had started this task I did not know anything about writing articles, I had read them before but never really thought about writing them, I tried a few times before I actually wrote out my  article/interview that would go into my media product, I used other magazines as inspiration for questions but did not use their questions exactly, it took me a few times before I was able to write my own, and before I would have thought that it was pretty easy but when it comes down to it, it is not easy, and that is what I have to keep in mind for next time. I feel more professional while doing this now.

Overall I have learnt a lot since the beginning of this project, and it has helped me an immense amount for if. When I ever have to do this again.

Evaluation Question 5)

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

When we first started this project i thought to myself it would be really easy to use programmes such as photoshop and Pages and as the project started, it got more and more confusing, until i finally got the hang of it, on Photoshop it was all about the layers and what image was on top of what text, normally while editing pictures i would use a programme such as powerpoint, but as this was not allowed for most images i had to use  photoshop which was difficult. Towards the end i got the hang of using these programmes more fluently, it became easier to edit images and place things on top of each other, cut things out and use different texts provided. I have learnt that i should not underestimate programmes thinking that i am good at using them, until it actually comes down to using it and i practically know nothing, i am now able to edit images to whatever i want them to look like and am able to control more than one thing on Photoshop at the same time without messing another layer or piece of information up. 

In photoshop I have learned different stuff like adding effects, changing 
colors,changing and designing fonts.I learned how to screen grab to take pictures of what is visible on the screen.  I     used this technique  to get the following pictures of photoshop:

Changing the color of text..

Changing the Font of Text

A black work sheet

Evaluation Question 4)

How did you attract/address your target audience

With the colours in my magazine i related these to my target audience by not using  "cool" colours, i used bold and strong colours, this relates to my target audience as at the age of 15-25 you are just identifying what makes you, you, so this is what makes them as a person and finding what makes them stand out as an individual. Like A Pulse
This is also quite similar to the fonts i used, i would say i used quite mature fonts and kept the same fonts consistant throughout my magazine. They want that Hip Hop Graffiti kind of style but still plain.
The images i used also related to my target audience as i tried to dress the people in the images as close to what "Hip Hop" people would wear, such as the Baggy Short Jeans in my front cover, this type of clothing is cool, as everyone tries to be unigue with what they wear, i displayed this in my images.
I wanted my readers to be able to relate to the language i used throughout my magazine, people in college and generally young people do not tend to be sophisticated, and tend to talk to each other in an informal way, so to get them to relate with my magazine i used informal language as if i was actually talking to them using some slangs.

Evaluation Question 3)

What kind of institution might distribute your magazine and why?

My music magazine would belong in a media instituation that focuses mainly on music in the media, in stores that distribute music, such as  HMV as this is a big company in the market and in local shops such as news agents, i would make sure that my magazine got sold in shops nearer colleges and work places, therefore being able to reach my target audience without them going out of there way to search for it.I would need it to be promoted first, which costs money, for it to be edited and produced, which will cost more money, and unless somebody has that money to support their product, then i would suggests becoming part of one of the publishing business, i would also choose this option as then a bigger company will have more links, so your magazine will be more likely to get sold in more shops. Or maybe are more specific institution might like my business which focuses on Hip Hop.

Evaluation Question 2)

How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

In class after reasearching many genres and target audiences, the question was asked how does my music magazine represent a particular social group.  Here are some links I encountered in my research

1)Hip Hop Culture- http://www.b-boys.com/classic/hiphopculture.html

2)Hip Hop Clothing-http://www.hiphopwardrobe.co.uk/urban-clothing/cart.php

                              -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_fashion

My music magazine represents more of a hip hop/urban/street social group. This is done mainly by the use of slangs, clothing, body language and the features found in the content. 

The image represents a youth from a more hip hop/urban culture.  His body language shows that he is laid back slouching and the clothes that he is wearing is more of an urban clothing line this is even supported by how he wears ie the size, the consistency of colours and the chain.  But he doesn't over-do it like a 'Gangster'.

Evaluation Question 1)

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

My music magazine,'Pulse' is a hip hop/ urban type magazine.  Inside you will find articles, interviews of of famous and soon to be famous Hip Hop artists.  In the contents you will find exciting features such as news and gossip about different artists. You will also find information of song/album information and new releases and dates.  You can see that the Hip Hop culture is embedded within the magazine.  The evidence can be shown through the graphology such as the images and text, I did this based on the Demographics and Psychographics information that I learned in class.  The images represented the Hip Hop culture the most. Like the picture of the rapper i used in the magazine below:

This magazine is different to other magazines because it is multicultural and multi gender is found in it.  What I did to make my magazine more interesting was taking ideas from many different magazines and mixing it together. 

My main motivator was the vibe magazine: 

Many Ideas was from Vibe such as the layout even though it was slightly different.  The main artist was located in the center on a chair .The masthead is above him with text located around him the text gives a preview of what is going to be in the magazine.  It plays the roll if a mini content page on the front page. 

The Barcode
The Barcode is found on every music magazine in the the media industry located on the front cover.  This shows that the magazine is able to be bought/purchased.  Pulse magazine costs £2 which is affordable for the target audience which is pocket money for teenagers 15 and up.

The Strapline
The strap line found on other music magazine gives us important information of the music magazine.'PULSE' informs the readers that it is a special anniversary Issue.

The Masthead
The masthead gives the readers of the magazine a general feel of the music magazine by use of colour, font and style.  'PULSE' colour was kept consist with the colour scheme of the whole magazine made with a font the complements the heart around the main image and also the name 'pulse'.

Evaluation Question 7)

Who would be the audience  for your music magazine?

My Target audience would be teenagers or young adults from about ages 14 up.  Stereotypically, the audience will most likely be from a black culture; the gangster type wearing bandanas and du-rags wearing the there pants below there bottoms.  Society see these 'gangster' negative people.  Of coarse these people are most likely to listen to Hip hop/rap but in reality anyone can listen to this genre, people you wouldn't expect like White middle age females may listen to rap although it would be rare. But nowadays this generation of children seem to know all the new Hip Hop songs and a now taking on the american gangster lifestyle.  There are now white children as young as 6 years old singing along to these songs making there own mini-gangs etc. But really and truly everything is based on the lyrics said in the songs because there are some people that listen to christian rap songs.  Some people just like the hear the beat or instrumental, some people like to hear the lyrics  and some people just support the artist making the song because they are drawn towards the reason why the song is made like the pain the rappers had while growing up having a lot of problems such as death and poverty.  So it is natural for some people to have sympathy and to be interested in fact that they grew up so poor and now they are the richest people in the world and they appreciate the fact that they  are doing what they love and the more time they spend in the studio the less time in the streets. So after all this evidence it should be clear that anyone in the world can be the audience to my music magazine; Rich or poor, black or white, male or female. And that is why the price to the music magazine is so affordable for people that do not have much money
For further information of  target audience look earlier into my blog for the research and planning
http://kirbzmuzick.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-music-magazine-planning-and-cover.html

Cover Page and Content Page Finished Product

Finished Product of the Double Page spread!

This is my finished product of the double page spread. As you can see I kept consistency in colors.  The only thing different is the fonts, now that the article is to inform I kept a more basic formal font even though the language is informal. Images  of the promoted superstar is located next to every feature so it doesn't look 'dry'.  Also the type of features found are only ones that my target audience will find interesting.  Stuff that Hip Hop based people will like such as cars,movies, music and fights with other people.

Coursework update Content Page ( 25/11/10 )

Today in class we continued working on the Content Page.  I have been told by my teacher that my content page needed more text so for the duration of the lesson i added more text and i changed my layout and some colours.