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

If you look at both of my magazine covers you can clearly see with practice I have been able to target my audience a lot better. My actualy music magazine looks like a music magazine you may see being sold at news agents and retailers whereas the preliminary task doesnt really have a clear target audience even though it was meant to be aimed at 6th form students. In my personal opinion I believe that the preliminary task front cover looks more like a music poster from a distance instead of a music magazine, it doesnt really attract an audience because there isnt much that stands out even though the image has got a higlighted area with a black and white background.

I have realised the higher the production rate is, the better your magazine will actually look, with a lot of effort the magazine would look like a conventional music magazine if you have done the right research, especially the research into what your audience are hoping to see in the magazine.

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

Throughout this project I have learnt and developed my skills in different areas. These areas included using Photoshop, publisher and I improved my skills in photography during the production stage when I had to plan a professional photo shoot.

During the stage of my photo shoot, I had to make sure that I had planned it thoroughly a few weeks before so I knew what I would be doing on the day of the photo shoot. This was a useful thing to do because it allowed some time to get things ready for the shoot, which made the whole shoot a lot more successful than it would have been if things were unprepared.

Using Photoshop to design my magazine was really helpful because I had to make sure all the measurements were correctly positioned, also the composition of some of the things I had included on the page had to be perfect, so it looked like a magazine instead of looking like a poster. Although I have had previous experience on photoshop, this allowed me a chance to practice a different style of editing images and using photoshop.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience mainly consists of male teen readers. This is because the genre of music is seen to be a more male dominant genre of music, whether it be the artists involved with the music or being the audience listening to the music. I decided to try and attract a lot of students too by making sure the magazine wasn't too expensive or didn't relate to the audience, my research stage really helped me make my decision on who my target audience should be. I had then looked at the Users and Gratifications theory, by looking at the Users and Gratifications theory, i was able to concentrate on making the magazine represent the social group i was aiming at so the audience will end up reading the magazine due to Personal Relations or Personal Identity portrayed within my media product instead of reading it for diversion or surveillance, this is so i will end up having a loyal fan base for my media product which will mean they'll always be a consumer of my product.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In my media product I had made sure that the language used related to my target audience which meant i had to use some form of colloquial language and standard English language instead of formal language. Also the images used portray the everyday male teenager quite well, so just by taking a quick look at the magazine, consumers would be able to relate to the magazine almost immediately. My research also helped me decide what to include on the front cover of my magazine because there is one crucial thing i made sure i had included on the front cover, in the sky line of the front cover i have mentioned a famous dubstep artists name (Skrillex) who is well known by my target audience. I know this because of the wordle i had made from the feedback i got from the research stage.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

If my magazine was to be published by an exisiting publisher i would think that a much smaller publishing company may distribute my magazine instead of a mainstream publishing company. Big publishing companies such as Bauer Media Group may not fit in with my type of magazine because its not as flashy as Q magazine which is a product that Bauer Media Group publish on a monthly basis. My magazine may fit in more with a self publsihed magazine or a much smaller publishing company such as IPC Media which in fact publish NME magazine and other UK consumer magazines. This may be a better distributor because it means instead of having a large flashy company publishing and distributing the magzines per month, it allows my music magazine to gain more fans in a shorter period of time being sold weekly.

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

I decided that my front cover should in fact adhere to a lot of music magazine conventions. Conventions such as having a big masthead, a plug in on the front cover, having the most important cover lines on the front cover and having an image of the featured artist on the front cover all add up to make a well thought music magazine cover because it allows the audience immediately realise that the magazine is a music magazine, the photo I have used is a direct address image because the artist is looking at the . I chose to follow these conventions because other magazines such as Vibe, Q, NME and other mainstream magazines generally follow these conventions and have done quite well in the magazine industry, so following these examples allowed me to make the decision that i want my magazine to be recognised as a music magazine which from some brief feedback was successful.

Although for the front cover i had chosen to follow the conventions of music magazine, i had decided to challenge the conventions of music magazines for my contents page. Instead i decided to follow the conventions of my music genre and base it around the iconography of the dubstep genre. I had decided to call my contents page a playlist and not a contents page because by doing so, it would immediately have an impact on the audience because it has challenged the conventions of music magazines. By doing so I have built up some form of brand identity and by including the UKF logo it increases the iconography of the music genre which is good. The ideology of the dubstep genre is basically about technical equipment being used a lot and I have adhered to the ideology of the music genre. The sound bars in the background also link into the genre of the music but don't really follow the conventions of other music magazines.

For my double page spread I wanted to adhere to the conventions of other music magazines as well as challenge it at the same time. So i decided to base my double page spread around the conventions of music magazines but almost adapt those conventions to suit my music genre. By that i mean i had taken photos of the artist in a way that would probably only be acceptable to use in a dubstep magazine and the editing wasnt so complex. This shows how i have followed the conventions of not over editing the image of the artist but the shot type i have adapted to fit in with my music magazine. Also the layout is quite conventional too, by having the artist cover the majority of the left side of the two pages i was able to concentrate the text on the right side of the magazine which allowed me to make it a little more text heavy than i planned which is good because then it may get more readers interested in the magazine on the whole. Although it seems like i have followed a few conventions, i havn't included a box out on my double page spread which is generally used in a lot of other magazines, instead i have just included the twitter name and facebook page at the bottom of the right hand page, which in a way is both conventional for some magazines but unconventional for other magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

1. The costume the artist is wearing relates to the social class of the target audience. The target audience are teenage boys (between the ages of 15-19). The costume relates and represents the social class because the artist is not dressed in any fancy brands such as gucci or prada, instead the artist is dressed in a way that any other normal teenage male would dress.

2. The price of the magazine also represents the social class of my target audience. Due to the reason my target audience would most likely to be students ( Looking at the demographic table my target audience fall into Band E). This is the reason why I have decided to make the price of my magazine only £1.99 so it seems to be a cheap magazine but for good quality.

3. The language used also represents the social group because it isn't formal English being used. Instead its on the verge of colloquial language. This represents the target audience and the social group i have targeted. The "wub wub wub" also represents the social class because it relates to the people that listen to dubstep.

1. The image of the artist on the contents relates to the social class of students and working class people because the attire he is wearing isn't too fancy, as well as the fact the headphones aren't very expensive to buy it shows that the magazine is trying to relate to the audience by promoting affordable equipment. Also the social class would most probably be very similar to the artist in the image which represents personal identity within the community the audience may feel they fit in with.

2. The branded logo of the "UKF" is a good way to represent the audiences social class, this is because although the company is funded independently its very well known in the dubstep fans and industry, and this may represent the audiences lives; they may be quite independent in society but within the dubstep community they feel like they are important.

3. I think the assertive language and language on the whole used on the page represents the social class quite well because it isn't too formal but at the same time it isn't just plain colloquial language, which actually does represent the social class of my target audience.

1. I believe the fact that the double page spread includes a little something about the social network sites represents the social class very well, this is because the targeted audience being made up by a majority of students i believe that a lot of them would have some form of active social networking site such as twitter or facebook. This shows that the magazine is representing the target audience very well.

2. The article also represents the social class because i have made sure the article represents the youth of the modern day quite well by including some colloquial language. This will help build a personal relation with the audience and it also represents some of the readers which links into why the audience may want to read the magazine whether it be for diversion, surveillance, personal identity or personal relationships.

If you click the following link, you can see that the front cover of my magazine is a similar resemblance to this professional magazine cover. I think I have done well to adapt the styles of the magazine into my designs to make my magazine look quite professional and a bit more conventional. You can also look at the past issues of the magazine to see how the magazine covers differ from the past issues but although the style does differ, the magazine has kept the house style the same, which is what I have done with my magazine.

Link: http://www.woofahmag.com/

Final Designs of Music Magazine

Draft of double page spread

I quite like how i have designed my double page spread, this is because it looks very similar to my draft and the composition of the two pages put together are really good. Some feedback was for me to write the article in columns instead of having two separate text boxes so it conveys to the conventions of music magazines. I also got told to add a stand first so the title of the article makes a bit more sense; giving the reader a brief intro on what the article is about to interest them into carry on reading. Other than that the feedback was overall pretty good. The image is well positioned and the shot is really good, and the enhancement of the image itself helps it stand out a lot more than it would if it wasn't edited at all.

Draft of contents page

I decided to make my contents page relate to the genre of my music magazine quite strongly. The image of the DJ on the decks shows the audience that the magazine will strongly relate to the dubstep and DnB genre. The sound bars in the background are a good contrast the dark colours in the back which will help the page stand out. Also the sound bars in the background relate to the genre of music that the music magazine is about. Of course the sound bars are edited to make them stand out a little more instead of having the original image that was used. I think that this is a good design for the contents page because it would be the first page the consumer would be looking at and due to the fact it will have a big impact once they open the magazine it would persuade the consumer to read on. I had included the "UKF" logo due to the fact that it is a well known dubstep promotion company and consumers will instantly recognize the logo. This is a good use of synergy because it shows that the viral company "UKF" are being promoted by a magazine and vice versa, thus giving the reader the idea both types of media are working together.

Draft of front cover

I have decided to make my front cover like this because it allows the audience to see the artist that is going to be featured in the magazine. The mid shot allows the audience to feel as if they know the artist personally because the positioning of the artist seems like its closer to the reader. the colour scheme also relates to the research I had done; having brighter colours on a dark background, this is good because it has adhered to what the target audience have asked for and it also allows the cover lines and important bits on the front cover to stand out. I believe my masthead stands out because the typography I used is big, bold and bright which will help it stand out to the audience if it were to be sitting on a shelf amongst other magazines.

Photoshoot

These are some of the images I had taken in my Photo shoot. I wanted a variety of different shot types such as mid shots, mid-long shots, mid-close ups and some close ups because it gives me a wider choice for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I made sure I had a few pictures of my chosen artist as well as getting some random photos to include in the magazine such as the skate park images and i was lucky enough to find an artist that had made a 3D dig out of a space invader because this ties in with the genre of my magazine really well. I will be either enhancing some of these images or completely manipulating them so they look a lot better and have more technicalities to it; i will either be merging more than one image on top of other photos or just adjusting the lighting, contrast and colour balances.

Photoshoot Plan

Photoshoot plan

Front cover: i would like a Long mid shot to show the audience a large amount of the artist that is featured on the page. Dark casual clothes such as jeans,checkered/plaid shirts and jackets would probably be worn because I want the front cover to be quite dark with a contrasting colour for the font. The Photoshoot wwould take place on the millennium bridge and by the river bank early in the morning (5/6am) because i want the setting of the area to be really empty and dark. This is because i want the whole magazine to relate to the genre of music i am concentrating on.

Contents page: i was planning to get a shot of a mixing deck for my contents page. But if that's not possible i am going to take a close up picture of my model wearing headphones. This would be a good shot because it adheres to the conventions of music magazines when they promote certain brands for support in income. It’ll also be a better shot for the magazine because it could be a good way actually make my contents page look like the back of a cd cover because the conventions of cd covers usually use a image of the artist on the back of the cover.

Double Page Spread: I want a mid shot for my double page spread because of how my draft looks, i think a mid shot would be perfect because it allows the audiences eyes to be drawn to the page immediately which will make them want to actually investigate what the page is about. The clothes would be the same as the front cover because it is the artist that is being featured in the magazine. I would like the image to be taken with the artist standing against a wall because i quite like how the artist in the draft stands out from the background.

First Draft of Double Page Spread

This is my design for the double page spread. I quite like this design because the artist is positioned slightly off center which helps grab the audiences attention. I think the colour of the page is actually good because the clothing the artist is wearing is contrasting with the background which also helps catch the audiences attention and lifts them off the page. I think the lack of bright colours on this page helps link into the ideology of the music genre. I quite like the way the artist is posing in this image because the mid shot allows the audience to see the artists facial expression as well as there body language. I also think the layout of the page would be really good like this because it allows the audience to see the image of the artist first and then concentrate on the article which is almost wrapped around the side of the artist, the fact that the background of the article isn't a solid colour allows the audience to see through the article to see the full image.

First Draft of Contents Page

I have decided to call my contents page a play list because it links in to the whole magazine being a music magazine. It also is what you find on the back of album covers giving you a lineup of what songs are included in the album, and the contents page being a playlist gives the audience a line up of what the magazine is going to include. The contents page is also very different compared to other magazines which will help create a branded identity for itself.

The typography i have chosen for the "PLAYLIST" is the transformer movie font i had talked about in a previous post, I decided to use it because it stands out from the background and is very bold which will make the audience see it almost immediately once they open the magazine.

I have included a strap line at the bottom mentioning a competition on the double page spread which will make the audience want to visit the double page spread as soon as possible.

First draft of front cover

This is the first actual draft of my magazines front cover, as you can see a lot of the colours contrast with the background which helps it stand out to the audience. I'm quite happy with this draft because it shows how the layout which will obviously be adapted a bit with the final design. the rest of my magazine will also carry on this sort of house style because it'll show that the magazine is very genre based instead of being an all round music magazine. This will allow the audience to easily notice and pick out what magazine they want. The image on the front cover has not yet been decided, but will be planned and taken during the photo shoot for the double page spread which gives me a bit of time to decide on what kind of pictures I'd like on the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Initial layout

 This is the initial layout for the front cover of my magazine, I had made this layout before I had decided what my magazine will be called, the reason why it just says "magazine title" instead of the actual title I have chosen. The cover lines may need to stand out a bit more and I'll probably have to make a more detailed version of this layout in my second draft to show how my colour schemes will work. I think this layout would actually attract the audience because the title of the magazine would stand out the most so even people who aren't interested in the magazine will still see it. The image I will be using would have to be a strong convention of the dubstep scene; a male wearing a gas mask, this is so some people may find the image is quite controversial but that'll be good because it would create a brand identity for the magazine.

This image shows the initial layout of my contents page, I decided to call my contents page a "play list" because its a music magazine and its a what you generally find on the back of albums, which tell you what the albums content holds. I think this is a good way to interest the audience so they read on because its not like any other normal magazine contents page. The image (a set DJ mixing decks) in the background of the contents  page also relates to the genre of the magazine; being a dubstep magazine there had to be something to do with music technology involved in the magazine. I think this is challenging the conventions of lots of other magazine because usually they'll include an image of an artist that is going to be featured in the magazine. The line up of the pages will be in "impact" font but some of the exclusive or more important pages will be in bold and will be bigger with a small thumbnail of the stars that are going to be featured on that page.

This is my initial design for my double page spread article. The majority of the two pages will consist the image of the artist I am going to feature in the article. The background may be a separate image which I would manipulate to make it look like the image of the artist was taken in the setting. The article would be written on the right side of the page which is a convention of a lot of magazines  because people usually look at the image of the pages first so if they see an image they are interested they may read the article, also I want to include a small info box on the left page giving a brief outline on what the article is about. This will allow the audience to decide whether that want to read the article or not before wasting time and reading half the article without any interest.

Colour schemes

Looking back on my chart I can see the audience had said that they want the colour scheme to be bright colours on darker colours, so I have decided to choose these three different colour schemes I could use on my magazine cover and through out the whole magazine. I want to make sure that I adhere to what my target audience want and also I need to follow the generic conventions so the audience are attracted to the magazine a lot more. I don't want to limit myself to be using these three colour schemes over and over again so I decided I could use any of the left side colours contrasting with the darker colours on the right side. I probably will be using some other pastel colours but these contrasting colours would be the main colour schemes of my magazine.

Fonts for the magazine

These are a few font designs I could use for my masthead, I made sure I concentrated around the techno type fonts because dubstep is said to be a sub genre of dance music. These three fonts were the fonts that stood out to me the most, this was because of the thickness and boldness of the font so it stands out to the audience, also it relates to the thick and bold sounds of dubstep. I've decided I want to use the"dimitri" font for my masthead because its really different and I haven't seen any other magazines use it before, I will also like to use the "Transformers movie" font for my headlines because it'll stand out on the double page spread. I've also thought about the font I will be using for the rest of my magazine and I decided I will be using the "impact" style font because its really bold and it stands out well. Also when you type in capitals for sub headings it really catches the attention of the audience.

Masthead titles

I decided to do a small brainstorm of what mastheads I could use for the title of my magazine, I made sure that all of the titles relate to the genre of my magazine so it is clear to the audience what the magazine is about. I have decided I will use the title "Bass Culture" for my masthead because it relates to the audience, it will also make them feel as if their music choice isn't just something they enjoy listening to but in fact its some form of cultural and traditional trend that has been going on for many many years, which will make them feel as if they are part of some family or group.

Deadlines for planning stage

Deadlines

16^th January: House style

-Name of the magazine – related to the genre of the magazine

-Font(s) of the masthead and throughout the magazine

-Font of the masthead should relate to the genre of the magazine

-Colour scheme – look back on the charts

-Plan what pictures should be taken

-Deciding a price, possibly theme, and amount of pages

-Theme should target your audience and the genre

-Initial layout of front cover, contents page and double page spread on blog

23^rd January: Front cover

-Possibly second draft of front cover

-Planning the image (shot types, setting ect.)

-Take the photographs and analyse (must be before the 10^th of Feb)

-Planning the layering based on your initial layout

-Planning the placement/positioning (of masthead and cover-lines)

-Deciding the cover-lines – pull quotes etc

-Detailed layout of the front cover

30^th January: Contents page

-Possibly second draft of contents page

-Planning the images (shot types, setting ect.)

-Take the photographs and analyse (must be before the 10^th of Feb)

-Deciding the content

-Use pull quotes and bold fonts to make bits stand out

-Detailed layout of the contents page

6^th February: Double page spread

-Possibly a second draft of double page spread

-Decide what your main article will be about

-Have a beginning stage of your article

-Planning the image (shot types, setting ect.)

-Take the photographs and analyse (must be before the 10^th of Feb)

-Plan and create a headline/subheading and stand-first

10^th February all above must be done.

Target audience research for my music magazine

This graph shows me that ALL of my target audience are in fact in some type of education. This helps me understand that I might be able to include an article on or linked into school or college which could help me gain a wider audience because people might be interested in the article that is related to education. It also allows me to refine a list of gigs and other events to the weekend more because my audience may be in school during some events. I was expecting this answer, so in fact having proof that all of my audience is in education makes it a lot easier for me to write up cover lines and articles.

This graph has made things a lot more easier for me because it has already refined an age group that I should concentrate on. It helps me narrow down some of the contents I should include in my magazine. Although there are many advantages of having a certain age group to focus on it disallows me to attract a wider audience because the contents of the magazine may not appeal to the older generation.

I also asked the the people answering the survey if they search for any new upcoming artists, the feedback of the question shows that I my audience sometimes look out for new upcoming artists, this is a good thing because it means I can now include a few underground upcoming artists in my magazine so the people who read it would have some sort of outcome from it which will hopefully get them to get the next issue if there was to be one. This also means I can generally concentrate on mentioning new artists would could help in the marketing department because the audience that are looking for new artists would always get a copy of the magazine just to be up to date.

This wordle graph shows that the audience I am targeting is a very niche audience because all these artists are very well known amongst the dubstep scene, although there are a lack of variety of well known artists I think it'll help with making more detailed articles instead of image based articles. This means as well as including some articles about upcoming artists I would have to include some of the well known artists like Mt Eden, Skrillex or even Nero. This would help me gain keen readers that will always be a consumer of my magazine.

As you can see the wordle shows that a lot of people go out with their friends as well as people revising and   playing music etc.. This helps me understand  that maybe every fourth or fifth issue I should include something about a gig or an event that relates to the audience. I think it should be every fourth or fifth issue because it seems like a lot of my audience do tend to study in there free time due to the fact they are in a form of education.

I wanted to ask my audience what kind of colours will  they be attracted to. I wanted to find this out because it will help me design my front cover so it catches the attention of people passing by. As you can see the majority of people prefer bright colours on dark colours, contrasting colours and dark on bright colours. This shows the colours on the cover will have to be very different on every layer so it helps make each bit stand out which will automatically draw attention to the audience

All this shows that I will have to make sure I have to adhere to what the audience want, although some of the choices the audience have chosen do challenge the conventions of some magazines I will have to attract the audience in one way or another.