Final Pieces

My Full Changes:

After a few days of attempting to render my design and piece to get a good mark, I realised that my whole idea was needing to be changed. This meant that I would need to take photographs of some new people, and change my design, colour scheme and images a lot.

Final cover changes: 
My new cover looks a lot better than the old one, I implemented ideas from my old idea, and new ideas to create this. I have used peer assessment to change the piece which I feel is for the better.  The main image I feel is very dominating, and the black and white effect makes it seem even more so. I also feel that the main cover line works very well and works together with the quotation. To do this, I used '1001freefonts.com' and searched for "edgy" looking fonts. I then added a 'stroke' effect to give it a black outline. I lessened the stroke effect when doing it on the quotation as the artists name is the main section of this. I also used another photo of Matt which I got to look up at the main artist, which I feel works together quite well. For his name I also used a 'stroke' feature to add an effect on his name, this time, I made the stroke section silver. I adjusted the text around him to go around his body. I kept the red line at the bottom of the page as that is one of the things I liked about my first draft. I also kept the "EXCLUSIVE" section but made it go straight across the bottom, rather than in columns. After more research on different magazines, I noticed that plugs have an impact on the reader. Therefore, I have put in a circle with a plug inside to draw attention to all areas of my cover.
Final contents changes: 
My contents page has changed the least of the three pieces. However, I have added several new additions to this. One of these being the 'Editors letter' which I have written a brief overview of the magazine as a whole. For the actual list of contents I have changed the 'main' sections to a golden colour, this draws attention to these and will show the reader that these are the important things. The two main artists have also got a little section next to their photos to give the reader another part of information to attract them to buy the product. I have kept the large 'CONTENTS' section down the right hand side of the page, as I feel that works very well with the title of my magazine. These have the 'stroke' effect on them, like several layers on the cover, as I feel the effect makes anything it is applied to stand out.
Final double page spread changes:
I think my double page spread has come out very well, I kept the same idea as my original but have changed the structure, to a positive effect. I decided to keep the Q&A style, and kept the twitter idea with it. However, I put in the page break, so I knew what would be cut off, and used it to my advantage, by putting the 'Tone Asks' layer across the line, I also made sure the title of 'Mol' Simpson' wouldn't be cut. I made sure the body text was in columns, and they didn't overlap. I like the two pull quotes, one in the middle of the article, one at the start to keep the intensity going. I like the simple colour scheme, which I primarily black, white and grey, but has occasional strikes of red, which I feel work very well in using the simplicity.

Peer Assessment

After Peer Assessment

After several opinions given to me I have decided to change my piece a lot.

Overall, I will have a completely different colour scheme as the blue 'dulled' the piece a little, and white was suggested as a suitable colour. A scenic background was also suggested, so I will visit a few locations around Hull and take photographs of them to possibly use.  I also have been advised to re-take my photos which I was already planning on doing.

Front cover changes:

I will change a few things on my front cover, firstly, I will remove the background colour and use a plain white background. I will also change a few of the cover lines. I would also prefer more than one photo on the cover, this could mean that I could use a photo of Matt, which was my previous idea.
Contents changes:

I will keep the contents page quite similar to the first draft. This is because of the structure, as I quite like the way it is set out. However, I will change the colour scheme to match the rest of the blog 

DPS changes:

I will completely change my double page spread, this is because of my change of idea. It was pointed out that the page break in the centre of my piece would go over my text.

First Draft

 I feel my final pieces have gone quite well. I like the colour schemes and I also like the structure of the pieces.

For my cover, I applied all the changes I said I would in my mock up post, and I feel that it has come out very well. I removed the blue banner and changed the colour of the background to show the cover lines better. I also leveled out the artists from "who's inside?" and "What's inside?" as it looked more professional. I also changed the artists so the whole piece is original. I feel the original image is okay, but could have been in a better quality.

I feel my contents page looks good, I changed the colours of the background and made the "Contents" the same colour as the box where the contents are. I also added an original photo of Matt and one of him playing guitar, I kept the opaque look to this photo. Next, I changed the colours of the artists in the subtitle to red so they are more outstanding. I aimed for the contents page to be simple as that was what other magazines had, and I wanted to emulate that. I spell checked my piece, then adjusted them so they lined up.

My Double page spread has come out the best in my opinion, I tried to keep the same structure as my mock up, However I moved around some of the components. I moved the title to the centre and added a bold quotation witch I got from 1001 fonts. I also feel the main image is good, but could be re-taken, to show more emotion in the artists face. I also adjusted the Q&A to follow the line of Matt's arm and shoulder. I  also kept the red bar down the bottom and applied the Tone. magazine website. I also checked my contents page to get the same page number for the page number. I also kept the twitter element as I feel including your reader is important as a successful magazine.

Evaluation Question 7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The differences between my two pieces are very apparent. I feel that I have greatly improved my Photoshop skills since doing my first piece and I feel that my music magazine has come out very well, and looks quite professional, especially compared to my preliminary task.
My music magazine still has aspects from the preliminary task for example the red footer and the masthead is the same font and has a similar structure. However, the differences between them are what makes the music magazine better, for example;

• The Masthead stands out a lot more and is more eye catching for the reader. 
• I actually have a main cover line and it is centered so the reader knows that is the main one. 
• The other cover lines are positioned in an organised manor and can be read easily and quickly as they don't have lots of information on them. They also intrigue the reader this way. 
• The photos are better suited as they match the cover lines.
• The colour scheme makes the text easy to read.

Evaluation Question 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

My target audience from Olly Edson

Evaluation Question 4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience for my magazine was helped to be determined by the survey monkey surveys, the reader profile and general advice from peers.

• Through this process, I have found that my audience will be mostly males, (68% Male/ 32% Female). 
• I also found out that they will be fairly young as they had a median age of 25. 
• They didn't make lots of money. 
• Their favorite artists were Ed Sheeran,  Adele and Sia.
• They said that the most important aspect of buying a magazine was recognizable artists. 
• Their most used way of consuming music was through streaming and listening to downloaded music...
• ...and they listen to this over 5 hours a week.
• However, they don't visit live music events often. 

Answers from Olly Edson

Evaluation Question 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To find our reader profile, we used a website called survey monkey, this allowed us to survey people and get some vital information on who would read our magazine and what they would be expecting from the final product.  Here is my survey:

From this survey, I found that:

I used this information as a basis of what to include in my magazine, and this impacted a lot on what my pieces looked like, for example, because the most favoured artist was Ed Sheeran, so I researched past magazines which Ed had done and used that as inspiration for mine. Another way the product was influenced by this information was the free gifts section as I included a free CD as a free gift. 

Evaluation Question 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation question 1

My piece follows a lot of conventions of a music magazine, however, I do feel it breaks some conventions. 

Cover: My cover follows the 'common' conventions, for example, the masthead, main image, cover lines, and the plug, however it does defy some conventions, for example the main image, the person photographed is not looking directly at the camera, this is because I wanted the cover to be a little edgy, also, I took several elements of other covers to create mine, and I used an issue of 'Q' as a Base for my my main image, on the edition of 'Q' it shows Ed Sheeran looking away from the camera which I felt worked, well and tried to emulate some of this. 

My contents page I feel strays the furthest away form the general conventions of a music magazine, even though it has several of the conventions typically on a contents page, it is layed out totally differently. It still has the main image, but it is slightly smaller than it should be, so it will be made slightly bugger, to actually dominate the page, and the amount of contents listed could be scaled down.

My double page spread follows the more common layout of what a double page spread looks like, for example it has all of what you would expect to see on a double page spread, such as the main image, quotes from the artist and the layout is stereotypical to a double page spread. 

Contents page & DPS Guidelines

Contents page:

• Multiple images (Four original images on the contents page at least)
• Contents page should reflect cover stories
• Largest image should be the cover star
• Not all contents is on the contents page
• Weekly = 60 pages
• Monthly = 140-180 pages
• Divided into sections
• Page number = 6 upwards
• Elements to include:
• Subscription offer
• Letter from editor
• Magazine branding (Colour and Logo's)

DPS:

•  A3 Landscape, 300 DPI
• Page numbers: Weekly=40s, Monthlys=100's
• Big letter at the begining of the paragraph (Dropped Cap)
• Pull out quote
• Columns
• Use photoshop for graphics, headlines and photos 
• Publisher for columns of text
• Column = No less than 6 words, no more than 12