Audience Feedback

After my own evaluation questions, I wanted to see how other people viewed my blog, and what they thought my blog represented. This was extremely important because their opinions validated who my blog was aimed at and the genre, and if they didn't understand who my Target audience were or the genre of music, I would not have designed my magazine correctly because it doesn't appeal to my target audience.

However listening to the responses gave me satisfaction as they understood the Genre of music and the Target Audience. This made me happy as I designed my magazine's correctly. They had different views about my magazine, however they all picked up on the genre which is pop as they could tell this By the image, and the other artists that My magazine is promoting.

They could tell the target audience by the colour of the font which is Pink which represents women and teens. The image is also of a teenage girl, therefore if would be targeted at that age group. My Friends also knew that my blog was not targeted at boys or men as the colours and images are feminine and does not represent men. 

Evaluation Questions

Evaluation questions powerpoint[1] finak

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Double spread Article

As part of the music magazine, I have created a double page article to go inside the magazine. I created my double page spread on "Pages". It was very easy to use and was a quick process to make my article.  Firstly I wrote my article in pages, then I added columns to add a clear structure to the layout. This also enables the pages to be read easier as the audience will find it easier to glide through the columns and read the text. I then added some images I'd  taken and pasted them into pages. I then added the title, and additional details such as the fact box which was answered by the artist. Here is my double page spread:

Comparison between Prelin Task and My Magazine

Looking back and analyzing the preliminary task to my music press magazine, it is easy to see how my skills have been developed and how I have embraced the concept of inputing the right information that appeals to my target audience into my music magazine. I have made a comparison table to see what the similarities and differences are about both magazine which I made.  These are the Pre-Lin task and my music magazine called "Edgy Sound".

Similarities	Differences
I used one main image on both magazines as I feel that one image attracts the audience, and If I used more than one image I feel that all the images would over-power and dominant each other and this means that not one image stands out to the audience therefore I decided to use one main image on both magazines.	On the preliminary task magazine, there is no additional information around the image, as the magazine looks quite boring however on the music magazine its got lots of information informing the audience what is inside the issue.
Both magazines have a good masthead which is clearly visible for the audience to understand and read. They are both centred in the middle of the top half of the music magazine, and both have a larger font size then the other font on the page.	In the Preliminary magazine there is no barcode or price, so the audience does not know how much the magazine will cost them but on the music magazine task there is a clear barcode with the price clearly displayed so that the audience knows how much the magazine will cost them. Also by adding these features makes the magazine look more professional and more compacted with information making the magazine look more interesting as there is loads of features inside.
Both contents pages has a mixture of different images which are relevant to the magazine.  In the preliminary task the images are of the school and on the music magazine the images are off the artist the magazine is promoting.	The preliminary task also has no headline to grip the reader’s attention. Therefore the audience do not know what the main article is about, and this does not attract any of the audience to the magazine.
Both contents pages have titles informing the audience what is on each page also showing the page number. This is to indicate to the audience what article is what page, and this helps navigate them around the magazine.	In the contents page on the preliminary task, the contents page doesn’t go into depth on what the audience should expect from each page, it just gives a brief title of “pictures” but the audience do not know what kind of pictures as this is not indicated.
Both magazines have a clear layout and it is very easy to the readers eye, as both magazines are not to over-powering which attracts the reader because the magazine looks very professional with a good layout.	The background colour on the preliminary task is white as this is not a bold colour, and it is not appealing as it is very bland, however on the music magazine front cover and contents page the background colour is black as this colour is very powerful and attracts the audience’s attention.

From this table, I can see the changes that I made from the designing process from the preliminary task to the final outcome of my music magazine. I feel as if I gained alot of key skills from the Preliminary task that I developed and inputted to create the final result of my music magazine.  From this I believe my music magazine is of a better quality as it includes the main important features such as Bardcode, the date, prices and a hint of the articles that are inside the magazine. It also looks more professional with the colour's that I used as I chose them to aim them at my target audience. I think I have made a clear table explaining the similarities and differences of both the pre-lin task and the music press magazine task. 

Photoshop Skills

During the making of my pre-lin magazine task, there were many skills that I learned while using Photoshop. I inputted these skills to the creating of my Music press; front Cover and Contents Page. I used Photoshop to create effects on my front cover and contents page to make a more attractive magazine that is appealing. Photo shopped helped me do this, as it allowed me to embrace different colours,different fonts and fonting effects which I could add to my magazine. It was also a crucial software as I used it for many photo's and layout of heading's that I peiced together and was used in my final outcome. I wasnt advanced when using Photo shop as I hadn't used it previously. This created a few problems as I didn't know how to use it, or how I could change my font with effects. This made me very slow at first, as I took extra time trying to create my font. However, when I gained experince I enjoyed using it, and gained basic skills that I can now re-use when I need to use this software again.    Here were some of the features of Photoshop that I learned:

This is the basic tool box which I used alot during the process. The tool box made me perform certain tasks such as selecting a photo to crop the photo down to a smaller size. It also allows me to input text, by adding a text box. While adding text, I can change the size, font and colour to what I prefer making the text more exciting which I done on many occasions. The tool box also allows me to erase any mistakes or pictures that I do not want which is necessary as mistakes are always made, as I deleted many photos which I thought did not fit in with my magazine. I also have the option to Blur, sharpen or smudge pictures or text which makes it look more appealing and more creative.  I think Photoshops Tool box is handy as it allows me to edit and change certain things on my magazine which helped me alot.

Photoshop also allowed me to change the colour of fonts. They have different ways to change the colour as seen in the 3 pictures. Changing a photo is very easy as photoshop is very easy to navigate as everything is clearly named making it very easy for me to use.

As you can see photoshop has many different colour options available,   which is handy because it gives me more of an option to choose from. A feature of photoshop is that once you have chosen a colour, you can make it dark or light depending on what shade of colour you want. Once I found the pink shade which I wanted, I lightened it a bit to give the colour a more girley feel because I wanted quite a light pink colour with a bit of darking added, and photoshop allowed me to have this effect.

This application which I learnt helped me create an effect to my font. It worked by me inputting my font onto photoshop, then I could edit the effects by adding a glow to border of the font, making the font have a bolder border or make the font have a Pop-out effect. Having this application on photoshop was handy as It allowed me to experiment with my font to see what effect was better for my magazine.

Editing My Music Press Images

When all my images were taken, I had to edit them to make the photo's more appealing that they displayed my point therefore I wanted each photo to have a different effect and appeal to the audience. I edited all my photos on Picasa as Picasa has many different features on how you can edit your photo. I felt that Picasa was the best software to edit my photos.


Here is how I edited my Main image:

To get this effect on the photo, there were many different fixes which I had to do to get from the ordinary photo to the final edited photo.  The steps I had to take where :

1. Crop the Photo - There was excess background in the shot which was not needed for the photo therefore I cropped a fair bit of the background out of the shot.
2. I then changed the effect of the photo. On Picasa there are many different effects such as sepia, Add film grants and Tint the photo however I chose to edit the photo to make it have a black and white effect
3. Once the effect was added I then Lightening the photo then I shadowed the photo to create a dark/light effect of the people body's being light but the background being black. Once the photo was shadowed the edit was complete.

This was an easy way to edit my photo's as I have had experience working on Picasa as this is were I edit a lot of my own photos. I edit my photo's using the effects that are displayed on Picasa therefore I already knew how to edit each photo to how I wanted each photo to look. To edit each photo roughly took me around 20 minutes so that I could ensure that each photo was edited to the best of my ability, and had the correct effect and Lighting.

My Music press Front cover and Contents Page

This is my music magazine's front cover and my contents page. In order to create the final outcome there were many design processes to get different effects for my first cover. Firstly as my target audience ranges from 17-23 I had to ensure that the design will forfil their needs and attract them to buy my magazine.  While I was creating the front cover I also had to consider the:

• Colour
• Layout
• Information text used on the front cover to give the audience and insight to what is inside the magazine.
• Language

To create the cover, I had to take many photos that I would be using. I wanted the front cover image to be at a mid shot angle. Once all my photos were taken, I then began to edit the photos slightly to make the photos stand out because of the effect. Once all the photos were taken, I then had to decide the background colour and the masthead. I decided to have a black background colour as I do not want the background colour to over-power the masthead and the images. I also think that black is quite a bold colour therefore it still attracts the audience. I then had to decide the font colour which I would be using. I had to choose from a paint panel as these were the colours that were available to me. I chose  the colour pink as I feel that pink is a fun colour, and the shade of pink that I decided to use is very femine and girly.

Once the background colour was decided, I then had to create the font for my masthead. I wanted the font to be unique and eye catching and a BOLD font. Therefore I went www.da-font.com to get my font as they have thousands of different styles of font. Once I found the perfect font, I then edited it on photoshop. I changed the background colour to black, and changed the font colour to white.  I felt that this makes the font bolder and unique and still manages to appeal to the target audience.  However I decided that for my masthead I wanted two different fonts so that it appeals to more women because they should either like one font or the other font.  I also felt that by having two different fonts that make up the masthead, makes the magazine have a different appeal because it feels that is attracts a variety of women.  I wanted the second font to be very soft and gentle which stereotypes women because women are seen to be the gentle and more sensitive then men and are seen to be the more caring gender.  Therefore I want a font to represent and support this stereotype. The font I chose is very feminine because its very soft and tender and this holds the right emotion.


Once, the Fonts and Main image were decided and inputed onto photoshop to create my font cover, I then had to add all the information onto my front cover. The additional Information that I had to add where the Bar-code, the date, the issue number it was and other features which was Inside this weeks issue. Here is the process of how I made My font cover.

To gain extra knowledge on previous magazines covers, I based my front cover on KERRANG magazine, as I feel this cover best appeals to there target audience. There do this is many ways, firstly by the font that they use. The magazine promotes punk and rock music which is seen to be very "loud" and the disfigurement in the text symbolises this. Having big sound represents the big fonts. I like this effect because it attracts its audience and because the font is very different and can be easily regonised by other audiences as they would become familiar with the font. I also like the design layout that KERRANG uses on the front cover, therefore I based my front cover on this issue of KERRANG.

Contents Page:
While creating My contents Page, I researched different Music Magazines to ensure that I was creating and designing my contents Page correctly. While researching, I found a good contents page in the music magazine of KERRANG, therefore I decided to base my music magazine on KERRANG so that I could be inspired by many different ideas just by looking at KERRANG's context page.

As you see, KERRANG contents page has a very good layout which I like. I like how it is very simple to navigate around with a few images and information but it still attracts the audience. It is appealing to the audience because of the colour of text which is used. Yellow and Black are both very bold and appealing colours as they easily stand out against other colours. Therefore this is my contents page (be-low), I needed to use bright colours with many images which portrays the features inside this weeks issue.

Therefore with my contents page, I needed many images that could be used on this page. I wanted to use images of the artist I was promoting as this was the main article inside this weeks issue that is attracting a lot of the audience. Therefore I decided I would Use 3 different images which would go across the bottom on the contents Page. I would also have to add the different features which were inside along with page numbers to give the audience an idea of what page each article and feature was at.

I also wanted to make my contents page more unique then other content pages, therefore I decided to add a "Subscribe" feature where it gives the audience the option to get the magazine delivered to their door weekly. The contents page also gives a clear understanding of what page you can find a feature on, and by having numbered pages makes it easier for the audience. Here is a process of how I made the contents page:

To create my Contents Page was a long process. This was because I had to add more images and more information. My contents page was made when I had to add the "Edgy sound logo". I decided to add the logo to the top of the page so that audience recongises it straight away and it becomes a logo that they become familiar with. I then added the pink boarder to the left side of the contents page as It was on the front cover and I wanted to substain the consistency throughout the magazine, the "subscribe" feature and the features which were inside this weeks issue.  To add the final touch, I then added the pictures. I had a few problems with the pictures as I did not know where to place these images as They couldn't fit onto the page. I didn't know how many images would be be good and how many images would fit. Therefore I decided to add 3 images and tilt them at an angle at the bottom of the contents page to ensure that they would all fit, and luckily they did.

Analysis of Music press Images

Nickies images for media


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How does your Images reprsent particular social groups?

While taking these images I needed to remember who these images where aimed at therefore I felt that I needed to ensure that my Target audience felt included in these image's. In these images I had to represent the older generation of teenage girls and women who are in there mid 20'S. Girls and women at this age are very much into fashion, beauty, family and friends, therefore I felt that is was necessary to ensure that these images caught the interest that the targeted audience can relate to. In Many pictures I wanted to portray  women having fun therefore in most images the artist is smiling and I believe this portrays all women in a positive light. As a social group I believe my images are more for the women social group and this is because my images symbolise the interest and representation of women in all photos.

 As well as portraying women in the images, teenage girls are seen in the "youth social group". With youth having a bad stereotype that is mostly portrayed by the media and the older generation I wanted to ensure that none of the images portrayed youth in a negative way therefore I wanted all my images  to break stereotypes of the youth. I think I portrayed this in many ways. Firstly all my images are of an artist having fun and just being happy with her-self. My photos also break stereotypes because is some images the artist is looking away or closing her eyes. Most of the older generation view the younger generation of being over confident and displaying there views and opinion in a wrong manner, however these images break stereotypes because these images view a young girl who is looking away which portrays her as shy and this shows her innocence. This breaks stereotypes because it shows that not all young teens are over confident because some are shy to display who they really are. Therefore I feel that my images do portray women in a positive light while breaking the stereotypes of the young youth of today's society.


I think it is important to break stereotypes as it is unfair to judge every different social group in the same image. By fitting the younger and older generation into each different social group gives away everyone's individuality as every generation is seen as the "same" type of person. By the media oftenly referring to the younger generation as "a joke to society" I think they forgot that there the generation that raised this generation.  I do believe that my images break stereotypes and allows individuals to be who they really are and I believe that this creates a new positive light which represents the younger generation of today's society.  

Images For My Music Press magazine

For my music press Magazine, I had to take different photos that I would use in my magazine. I took a range of different shot angle and changed the effects on most photos to add a different feel and appeal to each photo to make each photo stand out individually and make its own statement. Here where the images I took:

Organisational of Photoshoot: 

I took my images of a Friend, therefore we had to organise many things about the photoshoot:

Time

Place

What they would wear

Make up that would be used

Therefore to ensure that the photoshoot went to plan we had to organise it well to ensure that we get as many shots as possible that would be used in my magazine.  I told my Friend to come to my house at 12.00 on a Saturday, as we were taking the photos in different locations in my house. The locations which were being used in my house were against different walls as I liked the colour of the wall therefore it could be used a background.  To make the photo shoot run more smoothly, before my Friend came, I organised the cloths which I wanted her to wear, I had also set up the make-up I would be using. When my Friend came, she was late as she arrived at my house at 2.00pm. This made us lose time as I wanted to be finished by 4.00pm. But when she came she went straight into hair and make-up and then she got changed. We then took many images against different coloured walls in my house. When I took about 2o images I then loaded them onto my computer, were we looked at them and decided which ones I wanted to use. When we choose the ones I wanted to use, I then went on to edit them. I liked the photo's I chose as they represent the artist and my magazine clearly.

Flat Plan of Front cover and Contents Page

To create am over-view of what I want my magazine to look like, I have designed 2 different flat plans for both the front cover and Contents page. I create both flat plans on white paper, then scanned them though to the computer to uploaded the flat plans onto my blog.


My front cover flat plan has a variety of different design techniques that I used. I firstly designed a masthead which is suited at the top of my magazine. This font is bold and attracts the audience to the magazine. The bold font makes the magazine stand out more from other music magazines as the font is very individual.  The font also had a slight pink colouring so that it attracts the target audience as most women like PINK as it is their favourite colour. The additional features around the main image make the magazine look interesting because alot of gossip is inside the magazine.


flat plan:

Ideas For masthead of Music Press Magazine

Creating a masthead for my magazine was difficult, as I wanted to ensure that I had the correct font for my magazine. I wanted a unique font that had a different appeal to it so that my magazine was not like other existing music magazines. Therefore I font 3 amazing fonts That I could use for my magazine. However, to ensure that I made the correct decision I analyze each font on how would it appeal to my Target audience. Once I analysed all 3 fonts, I came to my final decision on font number 3. I liked font number 3 for a variety of different reasons as It is very bold with the use of 2 different fonts, and I liked the fact that both fonts and kept in boxes and I found that this type of designed really worked. I feel that I picked the best font for the magazine, and attracts my target audience of teens and young women and this has lead me to believe that I have chosen a successful font.  

Mood Board for My Target Audience

As my Target Audience for my magazine is Older teens and young adults from the age of 17-23, I research what kind of things that age group would like and what would appeal to them. From researching different things I created a Mood board to show what their interests, hobbies and activities are. I carried this out based on my own knowledge and of those close to me with opinions. Ages do vary to make it a fair result. Here is my mood board:

After creating my mood board, I gathered a better understanding on what my target audience likes and whats their interest's are. From my research, I can see that my target audience are into gadgets and new technologies.I know this because a lot of older teens and young adults use there phones and computers to regularly keep in contact. A increase in social network websites such as facebook and twitter are growing in demand. This is because it is an easy and a free way to communicate with people all over the world. I can also see that my target audience are very keen in fashion and make-up as they regularly going shopping to see what the latest fashion trends are. My Target audience are also influence by different kinds of music culture such as Pop and rock as music plays a role in the target audience life and relates to their life styles.  

Over-all this mood board sums up the interests and hobbies of a teenager and young adults, as these are the gadgets and hobbies they love, therefore what type of music they listen to, and what is displayed on social network sites does influence them as they take notice of what there interest and hobbies are advertising. 

Planning for Publication

This is a brief Planning for publication on who my magazine is targeted at, and what fonts and colours that can be used in my magazine.

Front Cover Analysis Slide

My school mag power point.

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After creating my pre-lin task of creating a school magazine front cover and contents,  I had to analyze why I created my magazine to look like the final outcome and why did I use the fonts therefore I made this slide.

Analysis of Prelin Task

Front Cover and Contents Page of Pre-lin Task:

Overall I think the pre-lin task gave me a better understanding of the final outcome that I have to complete of the music magazine. I have found out that it is very important that I have a magazine that is relatable and appeals to to my target audience. I have to create a magazine that entertains and forfills there needs when they read a music magazine.

As a Pre-lin task I had to create a school Magazine which will be read by Teachers, Pupils and their parents.  It was a long process because I have to make many decisions of what will attract Readers to the magazine. I firstly created my font which I made on Photoshop.  I chose a font that stood out and this font was very fun and unique and it have an edger appeal to the Magazine. I then changed the effect of the Writing by adding an outer glow, with a darker bolder line around the font. I then added the color Blue, as Blue is a versatile color as it appeals both Boys and Girls.  While creating the font, there was servail layers of the font, as I was continuously changing the Bold-ness and outer flow of the Font until I found the perfect Balance of Boldness and outer Glow. 

I then had to go around Acland Burghley School to take servial pictures that could be featured in my school Magazine.  I wanted to get images of pupils in their normal school environment; therefore I took pictures of Pupils in Class rooms doing work. Then I wanted to get pictures of the school to show where lessons and other fun activities are taken place and this is why I took photographs of the School Hall and the Football pitch. While taking pictures I also had to get a range of different shots such as Long shots and mid shots to give more of an effect to each of the pictures by taking a range of different shots. 

Once all my photos had been taken, I then uploaded all the photos onto Iphoto, this allowed me to view and inspect the photos I took to determine the best ones to use on my blog.  On Iphoto I got the chance to edit the photos. On some photos I cropped the background of the image as it was not needed. On other photos I edited the photo by lightening the photo or darking the photo to give the photo a better image. 

Once my photos were uploading I then had to make my front cover. To do this I had to add my font which I had already chosen and make this my Masterhead. Then I had to add one of the images as my main image. I chosen my mid shot image because this type of image is better as it gives the audience a closer look to the image.  I then added the strapline to the top of the magazine which additional information such as the school website. Once All the edits had been made my font cover was completed.

Once my font cover was completed, I then had to create my contents page. To do so I had to add the same master head to show consistency to the magazine. This also adds a professional feel. I then labelled the pages with the numbers, this is so it is easier for the audience to navigate around the magazine and to find specific pages they want. If the audience cannot find pages that they want because it doesnt have a clear structure of heading and numbered pages it will cause annoyance tothe audience. This may result in the audience not buying the magazine again. Once this was complete I then added images to give the magazine a lighter feel so that it wasnt all text based, this part of the process appeals more to the pupils.

Orginal Phots of Primlin task

For this Task, we had to go around Acland Burghley School to take pictures for our Prelin Task which is creating the Front cover and Contents page for a school magazine. We took photos in different locations around the school so that the target audience of the magazine which are teachers, students and parents can see images which are relatable and be identified to the school.

While taking different photos there where many things that I had to take into consideration in order to get a shot that represents and gives an image of the school. These things were:

• Lighting: In order for my picture to be of a good quality the light balance had to be clear in order for the focus of the photo to be seen.  Also, if I wanted a photo to have a specific effect I had to create it. For example, if I wanted a shadow in my picture I would have to get an angle of the shot that represents a shadow being inside the photo.
• Angle: While taking these photos I wanted to get each photo at different angle shots to make each shot look different and for each shot to give of different view points. To help me do this I used Close up, Mid-shots and Long shots to create a different feeling for each photo. By having a long Shot it allowed more of the shot to be in my picture giving the audience more in the picture by showing surrounding. I have used a close up shot of the Acland Burghley sign because I wanted to get the specific details on the board so that the audience can see it and also because Acland Burghley is the main focus of my task, I have to get an apropiate shot of the school name and sign as this is relevant. Also I took photos from different angles such as straight on angle and at side angles.

In some of the photos I found that the lighting came out a little dark, therefore in some of the shots were lightened in order to make the images have a better quality of light in them. As having a dark effect on the photo's gives of a different feel. I wanted the pictures of Acland Burghley to represent the school postively and having dark photos gives a dark negative feel.

During this task, I came over many challenges as children would not behave while taking the shot as they would do funny faces which depurpose the use of the photo as we wanted to catch children in there natural working environment. Therefore we had to take less photos with children in as many children did misbehave which was very disppointing as We wanted childen in most of our shots however over-all I believe we took good images of the school as my images shows a variety of different places in school giving the audience of the magazine a better pictures of what the school has to offer them.