Evaluation for media magazine.

Evaluation for media magazine.

In media class, we were given the task of producing a magazine cover using DTP and the mock-up of the layout for a contents page. We also had to produce a double-page spread, and research each of these, including details such as mastheads and use of colour, photography, the structure of magazine stories and contents pages, and put our thoughts into spider-diagrams and mood boards during the process. All work would be put into a blog we created for this project, and pictures also had to be included as research if possible.

The first thing that I did after being given this task, was to list the conventions of a school/college magazine, using LIIAR, both things we had studied in class. Covering language, institution, ideology, audience and representation, I discussed what would be included in each as a rule for every magazine, and used this to give me ideas for my magazine cover and contents page. I then looked at conventions of a contents page, which followed the same rules.

The next thing I did after this was analyse a magazine like the one that we were aiming to produce, to study the key features and what was important to remember for the creation of our own. The magazine that we looked at was a secondary school magazine, named ‘Secondary Teachers’. This was to guide teachers at the school through difficult topics or subjects, giving them advice and knowledge, and all of the important information which they may need to know.

The magazine was set out basically, with a large title at the top, and a central image on the page, with pictures of eyes to represent the students watching the teachers in class. An appropriate heading was placed in bold next to this image to represent this message. Underneath this was extra information explaining the image and the heading, and at the top of the page, were bright bold titles for some of the main stories/topics included inside the magazine. This was an unusual layout for a magazine, as the stories are not usually at the top, yet the bright colours attracted the reader instantly so they would not be confused as to where they are on the page. The bold title is iconic whenever reading this magazine, as the reader remembers it as the title on all issues for that magazine, and the main image in the centre is attractive and gives meaning to the heading below it. This was a good example to use for research, as it had many key features that were suitable for that style of magazine, was appealing to the target audience, and contained a simplistic layout for easy guidance and reading for the audience.

After analysing this, I created a mood board with any thoughts that could be contributed towards the magazine based on the research I had already studied. This included any relevant story titles, and colour themes I thought would be appropriate, which were chosen by referring to the ‘Secondary Teachers’ magazine, and any style of photography I thought would be appropriate for the image on the cover.

The next thing I decided to research was mastheads and use of colour. This was important, as the wrong colours could give the wrong approach to the magazine, and the wrong title could offend the reader and make the magazine unpopular. It was a key feature to study, therefore I decided to find two different magazine covers on the internet containing mastheads and colours suitable to the genre of that magazine.

The first was ‘Take A Break’ magazine, which was a women’s real life issue based on real people and events, which women could read in their break from work or household jobs, which the title references. After looking at the masthead for this, I noticed that the colours used were white for the main font with a red background. This was a resemblance of a newspaper, to give the text a sense of importance to the audience, and an attractive, bright look. The text used was curvy and light to suit the gender aimed for the magazine, but was still large and bold to stand out and be iconic to the magazine.

The colours used for the issue were very bright to again appeal to the gender the magazine is aimed at, and also to give attraction to the reader, grabbing their attention and making them want to read the contents of the cover.

I thought that this was a good design and idea for a magazine, as it fitted its audience, used appropriate attractive font and colours, and had the right masthead and bold text to give an important and iconic look to the title.

The second magazine that I studied was ‘Kerrang’ Magazine, and had totally different features to the first. This was a magazine for teens and adults that wanted to find out about what bands were up to, the latest interviews, and any important news released about artists. The ideology was that rock/metal music was considered important. The text was very different to the first, and was placed in differently to ‘Take A Break’ magazine, which was in the top left. ’Kerrang’ was in the top centre, giving a more direct look to it and getting the reader’s attention more directly. There was an image in the centre which was placed slightly over the top of the masthead, but did not matter, as the title was iconic to the reader already. The representation of this magazine is rebellion and rock, and so the connotations such as text for the title was black and sketchy, as a pose to ‘Take A Break’, which was curved and light. The font was still thick and bold to stand out, but had a different effect on the reader, as it included other features, such as the glass lines going through it to resemble smashed glass, another reference to rebellion. This magazine was aimed mainly at males, as this is stereotypically what they are known for compared to females, and had colours to suit this gender.

The majority of colours used on this cover were black, white and red, again resembling a newspaper for a sense of importance in the story and title/masthead. This gave the total opposite effect from the other magazine which used bright colours to attract, however this magazine attracted the audience in a different way, mainly by the theme it was based on, and what was contained in the magazine.

I think that this magazine gives the right effect to the reader, using simple bold colours that give a raw yet striking appeal to the magazine, whilst using the right style of font and image effects such as the smashed glass, to appeal to the target audience and create a feeling of the message/purpose of the magazine to the reader.

After looking at that, I next studied the structure of the stories in magazines, and what the key features are to think about.

For this, I got two examples of pages in magazines, the first being a double page spread of a fashion magazine, aimed at women who are heavily into the fashion industry.

The first things that I noticed about the structure of this story, was the large image covering the whole first page, with the large title and extra information below. This instantly attracts the readers’ attention, as it is the only things that you see on the page, and uses bright colours in both the image and title to give more attention to the page.

On the other page, there is two images, the first being of a group of girls on a night out, representing them as being young and carefree, giving the ideology that young people are considered important, and the second being a white background with makeup placed onto it, to show what makeup the girls are wearing, and how it makes you look and feel. Next to these images, are two paragraphs, giving information on how to get the latest ‘look’ by using this makeup. The text used for this is thin and plain, however, the second paragraph, giving extra tips on getting ‘the look’, is contained in a purple box, with bright pink titles to give emphasis and attraction to the reader.

I think that the layout of these pages is successful, as it is unique, using one whole page for just an image and a title, making it instantly attention-grabbing to the reader, and then giving extra information and pictures on the second page, making it informative and interesting, with a good combination of both styles.

I then looked at the next page idea, which was a TV magazine page, advertising a new program, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. This is aimed at the older audience who want to catch up on the latest programs, or find out about anything on T.V which they have missed.

When looking at this, I first noticed the title, which was colourful, large and eye-catching, a key convention used in magazines. There is also some information next to it in white font, elaborating on the title, and a large image next to that of Simon Cowell, showing how the magazine is using a star to gain attention to the magazine, another convention, making them wonder what the story is about. Underneath there is a large white box to highlight the story, and the text for the story is placed inside. There is another image inside the box also, to represent a part in the story that they are talking about, and there are smaller pictures underneath the one of Simon Cowell for extra information on the program. The colours are bright and colourful to attract the reader from every angle, and the page uses all kinds of text. It is an attractive page to read, and has many creative factors.

Both of these structures were individual to the magazine’s purpose, and appealing to their audience. These were things that I had to think about when creating my magazine.

The next thing that I looked at for research was camera angles. These included finding out about shots such as medium close-ups, medium shots, close ups, point of view shots, very wide shots, and wide shots. All of these had different factors for different photograph effects. I would have to look through these when taking my photograph, and decide which I thought was suitable for my picture to suit the college theme. After looking at these, I decided I would use medium close-ups and two shots for group pictures and to allow the audience to see the subjects in the pictures clearly. I also decided upon using low-angle shots t0 represent power towards the subjects, as this attracts the audience, showing they are dominant and powerful, making them more appealing and attractive.

After doing this research, it was time for me to start making ideas for my magazine cover. I created three different ideas, and discussed them in my blog, stating the good and bad ideas in each. I then created a final draft, adding the good ideas from each design to this, to make a cover that I was happy with. I also combined the colour choices that I thought were appropriate from each idea, and decided where each would go.

I then made a list of the costumes and props that I would need, which only included the clothes Sophie wore for the photograph, and the pencil and book which she was holding. I decided to make it a simplistic photograph, as it would not be too complicated for the reader to understand and would look smart.

The next stage was to take my photograph for the cover, which I took of my four friends. I decided that a long shot would be appropriate, as it included just enough of each of them to capture the needed details, without being too close or too far away. They all posed randomly and picked up one of them, Ryan, and all wore normal costume as a teenager their age would to give this ideology. This related to the students, as they were in a playful mode and looked at ease and relaxed, a positive outlook on life, also giving the representation that they were confident and powerful to the audience. I made sure that I did not cut any part of them out of the picture, and that the photograph itself was clear.

Finally, with all of my research and planning put together, I designed my magazine cover, using Photoshop. In this cover, I included my main chosen image, which I cut around and placed a black background behind. As at the time I was designing a New Year edition of the magazine, I placed images of fireworks in the background behind the main image creating the mise-en scene, and placed the title in large silver text at the top of the page, adding a glow to make it stand out to the reader. The font that I used to create this was 'Bison'; a sketchy rough font which I thought was appealing to my chosen audience. I then added titles and information to the left third, and the right hand side of the magazine, using the same text and bright colours to suit the New Year theme, and to attract the audience. I also added a competition at the bottom of the page, using conventions such as bright bold colour so that it would be instantly noticeable to the audience, as I did not want it to be something that was missed when reading the page. I also placed a barcode on the top right, stating the issue number and date below. However, as I have progressed and changed my other designs, the cover no longer matches the other pages, and the theme is no longer New Year, so note that the cover is not in any way similar to the other two designs.

The next design I created, was my contents page, following a house style by adding a black background like the cover, and including the fireworks image in the background behind a white glowing title for emphasis and attraction to the audience. I tried to include a similar font, but could not find the original. Below the title, I included brief pages with their numbers, stating what would be in the magazine. However, this page was too simple, and so I had to re-design to make it more appealing to the audience, and to add more conventions to make it appropriate and clear. My next design of this page again included a black background with the fireworks image, yet I changed the title colour to make it more appealing and to match the other colours, and added more colour to the background. I also changed the font colour, and added bright colours at the bottom of the page for a competition advertisement to attract the audience to it after reading the contents features. However, this design this time included too much colour , and was not clear enough and again did not follow enough of the right conventions to appeal to my chosen audience. This meant I had to re-design for a third time, therefore I decided to use a reference from another magazine's contents page, and totally re-design the page itself. This was a 'Kerrang' magazine layout (see paragraph on blog), and I adapted a lot of this into my own page, including primary colours for the background, bold but simple text, and quotes and images set out in a simple way for the audience to follow. This design was more successful, I believed, as it contained more of the right conventions to convey the right information to the audience, whilst still attracting them to the page.

My final design was my double-page spread, which I designed with a white background, and snowflakes falling infront in light purple and blue shades, to represent the end of Christmas and the start of new year, as the band on the spread had just finished working over the season. I used the Bison font included in my cover again for the title at the top of the spread in the middle of both pages, keeping the house style again, and made the colour of this a light blue to fit the snowy theme of the page. I also added white text boxes variously around the page, with shadows underneath them for emphasis, and text inside these boxes with interview questions and answers from the magazine editors to the two band members, making it more interesting and personal to the audience. I also added a brief summary of what the pages were about on the top left of the page in pale purple to get the message accross to the audience clearly when first turning to the pages.

The only issue that I had with this design, was that it was in the centre of both pages, meaning when read, the centrefold would get in the way of the text and main image, making it illegible, meaning I would have to re-design it again.

For my second double-page spread design, like the contents page, I took reference from another 'Kerrang' spread layout, which used a primary colour throughout the pages, conventions of a newspaper, including red and white text for urgency to the audience, and a paragraph of text talking about the subjects in the large main image, spread over one whole page so that it was seen when first turning the page.

When creating my own double-spread, I used these similar conventions, using a navy blue background for both pages so that it was not too light or too dark for the text to be read, and placed a bold red title on the right hand side of the page to inform the audience and give an urgent representation to the audience for it to be read, using the newspaper conventions as in the first. I also used a white advertisement on the right, stating where the band's album could be downloaded, also representing the music industry that produces and distributes the music, and included a small iTunes image for iconic representation to the audience. I used a gold headline in capitals below this to give a catchy, short and attractive outline of the paragraph below, as in the first (see post on blog), also giving a professional representation from this colour to the band, another convention used frequently in magazines such as 'Rolling Stone' Magazine. I coloured the paragraph in black for easier reading, and below, stated the editor in white text to contrast and again resemble a newspaper. On the left page, like my reference, I used my main image accross the whole page to represent the band as being important and the main attraction to the audience, but put it at the bottom, as it was a medium close-up. To fill the space above it, I added a bright yellow tab for attraction, giving information on the band's book signing dates and where they would be, to relate to the other page, giving continuity throughout. I was happy with this design, as it used the right conventions, and was simple and appealing to the audience, easy to follow, and had the right representation a double-page spread should have.

In this task overall, I learnt about many key things that go i nto the production of a magazine, such as photography and shot types, colour schemes, texts and mastheads, story/page structures, and conventions of magazines and contents pages. I also developed my understanding of the production of magazine covers along the way from my research, and gained experience with the production and planning from this task.

In conclusion, I think that the task we were given was difficult to begin with, as it was difficult to begin finding the right research for what we were studying, and to think of ideas for my spider diagram. Though after the researched began to be rapidly produced, the ideas became inspired and created quicker. The photography was simple and basic, meaning it was easier for me to take photographs, and the actual production of the magazine on Photoshop was also simple, as I had the plan already and was happy with it, so all that I had to do was to make it better using PS. Since the preliminary task, I have developed my understanding of media terms such as LIIAR and conventions such as the use of bright iconic colour and features like black and white text resembling a newspaper, and the use of codes on the front cover, such as the 'splash', the masthead, coverlines and left third. I have also gained experience from my research about how to structure a magazine, something I was unsure of in the preliminary task. It was a very full and challenging task, which took much research and good time management, yet was worth it for the final outcome at the end. I think that my final products looked professional and were appealing to my target audience (see poll), as they included the right text, imagery, terminology and colours to attract teens and young adults in the desired way.