VOILA!
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Tuesday 17 April 2012
How did I attract my target audience?
(Between 15-27 years old
Interested in a variety of music genres
Interested in fashion)
When you first see my front cover, does it look like a magazine you would pick up off a shelf in a shop?
CHLOE (16): I think the magazine looks really trendy and modern. I'd probably be first of all attracted to it because you can tell by the clothes the model is wearing that it is going to have something to do with fashion in there and I like reading about fashion when I get magazines.
LOUISE (20): The way the model's standing looks really professional, I don't like magazines with papparrazzi photos on the front cover because you can tell it's a gossip magazine and is normally full of lies but this one you can tell is about clothes and the people in it because it has a music artist as the focus of the page.
JOE (18): Even though there's a girl on the front I would still want to buy this magazine because it's not girly and you can tell it's for boys aswell because of the colours.. if anything the girl makes me want to buy it more! She looks like a model so I know it's going to be about clothes and all the headines are about either fashion or music, which are my two fav' things!
What do you like about my contents page? Does it support your origional opinion of the magazine?
CHLOE: Because you can see that she is wearing different clothes it looks professional, as if it was a photoshoot with loads of clothes and also still makes me think it's to do with fashion. Even the pose makes her look like a fashion model but because its a photo of a singer, it still looks clearly like a music magazine.
LOUISE: I like the layout of this page, all the bit coloured numbers and white text makes the page look modern and is really easy to read. It still looks like a music magazine because you can see all the headlines about festivals and cocerts but also about fashion and even though you can't see much of her outfit, her pose makes her look like a catwalk model.
JOE: I don't think this looks like a normal contents page, they normally have a square picture and then the writing goes down the side, but this looks alot less boring. The numbers stand out and match the colour of the model's top and I think the page generally just looks really professional and modern.
Do you think my double page article suits my music magazine?
CHLOE: I like that the background is green which is a a different colour to the theme of the magazine because it makes it stand out and shows that this page is more about the artist that the magazine; like this is HER page. She also looks less "modelly" in the pictures on this page because she is smiling and more casual as if she's just relaxing and being herself in this article.
LOUISE: She looks really proud in her photos, like she likes what she's doing so looks like a genuine music artist and making the article look more interesting rather than someone who's vain. Having her take up a whole page makes it clear what the article is about and is almost like it's revealing, seeing her up close and like you're going to find out about her personally.
JOE: The little fact box adds interest to this article, its something you could easily read as you flick through the pages and is interesting so might make someone actually want to read the rest of the article, people always like finding out secrets and personal things about celebrities. Green is a really good colour because it's bright and happy and goes with the photos because she looks happy too.
Interested in a variety of music genres
Interested in fashion)
When you first see my front cover, does it look like a magazine you would pick up off a shelf in a shop?
CHLOE (16): I think the magazine looks really trendy and modern. I'd probably be first of all attracted to it because you can tell by the clothes the model is wearing that it is going to have something to do with fashion in there and I like reading about fashion when I get magazines.
LOUISE (20): The way the model's standing looks really professional, I don't like magazines with papparrazzi photos on the front cover because you can tell it's a gossip magazine and is normally full of lies but this one you can tell is about clothes and the people in it because it has a music artist as the focus of the page.
JOE (18): Even though there's a girl on the front I would still want to buy this magazine because it's not girly and you can tell it's for boys aswell because of the colours.. if anything the girl makes me want to buy it more! She looks like a model so I know it's going to be about clothes and all the headines are about either fashion or music, which are my two fav' things!
What do you like about my contents page? Does it support your origional opinion of the magazine?
CHLOE: Because you can see that she is wearing different clothes it looks professional, as if it was a photoshoot with loads of clothes and also still makes me think it's to do with fashion. Even the pose makes her look like a fashion model but because its a photo of a singer, it still looks clearly like a music magazine.
LOUISE: I like the layout of this page, all the bit coloured numbers and white text makes the page look modern and is really easy to read. It still looks like a music magazine because you can see all the headlines about festivals and cocerts but also about fashion and even though you can't see much of her outfit, her pose makes her look like a catwalk model.
JOE: I don't think this looks like a normal contents page, they normally have a square picture and then the writing goes down the side, but this looks alot less boring. The numbers stand out and match the colour of the model's top and I think the page generally just looks really professional and modern.
Do you think my double page article suits my music magazine?
CHLOE: I like that the background is green which is a a different colour to the theme of the magazine because it makes it stand out and shows that this page is more about the artist that the magazine; like this is HER page. She also looks less "modelly" in the pictures on this page because she is smiling and more casual as if she's just relaxing and being herself in this article.
LOUISE: She looks really proud in her photos, like she likes what she's doing so looks like a genuine music artist and making the article look more interesting rather than someone who's vain. Having her take up a whole page makes it clear what the article is about and is almost like it's revealing, seeing her up close and like you're going to find out about her personally.
JOE: The little fact box adds interest to this article, its something you could easily read as you flick through the pages and is interesting so might make someone actually want to read the rest of the article, people always like finding out secrets and personal things about celebrities. Green is a really good colour because it's bright and happy and goes with the photos because she looks happy too.
What kind of media institustion might distribute my product and why?
I found out about a company called IPC Media which describes itself on its website as being "A Leading Magazine Publisher In The UK". It is known for comprising not only leisure and TV magazines, but also (more importantly to me) both women gossip, fashion and lifestyle magazine including a few music magazines. They may be interested in producing my magazine and I would like to have my magazine associated with others produced by this company such as NME, InStyle and Look as these magazines have good reputations and are well known.
What have I learnt about technologies from constructing my product?
When manipulating my photos to get the effect I wanted, I realised how much photoshop can completely change a picture. I managed to not only make my model clearer, brighter, and air brushed in all of the pictures to add a professional look to my photography, I completely changed the backgrounds to the colours I wanted and hid the background and imperfections on the backdrop to ensure maximum focus on the model and making sure it looks professional.
I also attempted to hide the shadow by moving around the lighting. The lights I used in my photoshoot changed the photos completely compared to my trail pictures I had taken before without them. The colours were alot clearer with the lights and it looked a lot more professional.
By having the light at different angles it also created different effects; having the light from below shining up on her face made the picture look spooky and made her pose look evil. By having it from above it looked like sun was shining on her and that she was outside. I used pictures where the light was directly on her face as I wanted it to look intense and to show her in the spotlight; the focus of the photo.
Although at first I struggled to get used to InDesign, I realised that it was the most suitable software for designing my magazine as the functions incuded tools for text and a large variety of options around it, ways of moving images and shapes and layering them however you want.
I enjoyed using this programme, and although I couldn't put my magazine name behind my model's head, I found an effect I could not have acheived anywhere else; where the text curves up the models leg on my contents page.
Blogger has allowed me to explain in detail the thought and improvements that went into making my magazine. I have been able to show my origional ideas and how my research has changed it to look so much better now and what research my inspiration has come from. By being able to include Prezi presentations and powerpoint slides through SlideShare, I was able to show visually my ideas and though processes through the creating of my magazine and makes my whole blog alot more varied and funner to read.
I also attempted to hide the shadow by moving around the lighting. The lights I used in my photoshoot changed the photos completely compared to my trail pictures I had taken before without them. The colours were alot clearer with the lights and it looked a lot more professional.
By having the light at different angles it also created different effects; having the light from below shining up on her face made the picture look spooky and made her pose look evil. By having it from above it looked like sun was shining on her and that she was outside. I used pictures where the light was directly on her face as I wanted it to look intense and to show her in the spotlight; the focus of the photo.
Although at first I struggled to get used to InDesign, I realised that it was the most suitable software for designing my magazine as the functions incuded tools for text and a large variety of options around it, ways of moving images and shapes and layering them however you want.
I enjoyed using this programme, and although I couldn't put my magazine name behind my model's head, I found an effect I could not have acheived anywhere else; where the text curves up the models leg on my contents page.
Blogger has allowed me to explain in detail the thought and improvements that went into making my magazine. I have been able to show my origional ideas and how my research has changed it to look so much better now and what research my inspiration has come from. By being able to include Prezi presentations and powerpoint slides through SlideShare, I was able to show visually my ideas and though processes through the creating of my magazine and makes my whole blog alot more varied and funner to read.
Tuesday 3 April 2012
What have I learnt from my preliminary task?
After struggling to make layout of the front cover of my school magazine look professional, I realised it was becuase I had taken the wrong kind of pictures. Where I had a landscape picture with the focus all the way across leaving only space above and below, it made my magazine look alot less like a real life product as most magazines have text down either side of the photo which I couldn't do with the photo I had taken. Although this left a good amount of space where I could put part of an article at the bottom, which is a convention of a school magazine, it does not suit the purpose of my music magazine and so from this I knew that I would have to take my photos keeping in mind it needs to be portrait, taking up the whole page and leaving space either side of the model for headlines.
On the contents page I found it hard to fill up white space, I used alot of shapes and colours which made the page fuller but also more childish and although this meant it suited its purpose of being a school magazine, it was not the right way to fill space in a music magazine and so instead I decided that the most successful way to take up the page will be to again take a photo that fills the whole page and to include the text in spaces beside the model in the photo where the back ground would be faily plain.
I realised that font was an important way to set the tone for the magazine; if it's too plain it looks formal and business-like, if it's too curly and pretty it looks childish. For my music magazine I used a simple font but included a variation of colours and sizes to make sure it didn't look too plain and had some amount of fun and liveliness.
I think that planning the layout before I started preparation for my music magazine, so that I knew exactly what photos to take and what text I would need, was the best way to make sure it ended up working and looking professional.
On the contents page I found it hard to fill up white space, I used alot of shapes and colours which made the page fuller but also more childish and although this meant it suited its purpose of being a school magazine, it was not the right way to fill space in a music magazine and so instead I decided that the most successful way to take up the page will be to again take a photo that fills the whole page and to include the text in spaces beside the model in the photo where the back ground would be faily plain.
I realised that font was an important way to set the tone for the magazine; if it's too plain it looks formal and business-like, if it's too curly and pretty it looks childish. For my music magazine I used a simple font but included a variation of colours and sizes to make sure it didn't look too plain and had some amount of fun and liveliness.
I think that planning the layout before I started preparation for my music magazine, so that I knew exactly what photos to take and what text I would need, was the best way to make sure it ended up working and looking professional.
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