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

 

 

To reinforce everything I have said, I believe I have progressed a lot since the preliminary task and have learnt a lot

 

Design

After the preliminary task I learnt that for the next task I had to have an image with a clear background, and the image I had chosen for the prelim was a disadvantage to the final product as it had a busy background, which made the font on the front cover difficult to see, this then was a disadvantage for the readers, and would also not stand out on the shelves. For my final product, I made sure the image I took for the front cover was against a plain background. The font also chosen from the prelim task was quite basic (even though it matched it's genre), I felt that it didn't have much effect on me as it's targeted audience. For my magazine I made the font quite different, it is in bold, jet black with a 'graffiti' look to match it's 'indie' convention. Both images used in the two tasks are 'preety' images, I learnt from the prelim task that an 'attractive' image is appealing to an audience, especially male. Due to my magazine being an indie pop genre, I could again take an attractive image, the models hair is 'big' with links in with the indie theme too.

The contents page of the prelim task is very basic and plain, therefore I made my magazine contents page 'busy' with many images and different sized fonts to make it more attractive for the audience. I followed the convention of NME's contents page, where there are a lot of different images and text, this gives the audience opportunity to look at many different things the magazine offers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

What kind of Media Institution might distribute your Media Product and why?

I have been following closely the magazine of NME, my reason for choosing this specific magazine is that I believe it attracts it's targeted audience; it features contrasting artists and is never afraid to go against conventions of 'usual' magazines. The publisher of NME is IPC Media, which is the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher that engages with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. I would want IPC media to be the publisher of my magazine, the demographic that I have aimed at are similar to NME. I have tried to maintain many of NME's conventions, as the magazine is successful. I have also created different artistic ideas that differ from NME, which would create a gap in the market for LOUD magazine.

Who are IPC?

IPC Media

Parent company	Time Inc.
Founded	1958
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Headquarters location	London
Publication types	Magazines, Comic magazines(defunct)
Official website	www.ipcmedia.com

Looking at my front cover, the chosen image is of an attractive girl who wears bright lipstick, this could appeal to the male audience as she is 'preety'. However, I believe the female audience would like this image as they can relate to the artist. The quote explains the year the artist has had, as part of the the female audience myself I feel like i would want to read further into the magazine. Stereotypically, I believe the male audience would not not be interested.
IPC Media attracts 53% of a female audience. This links in with the targeted audience of my front cover of the magazine.

What benefits would a Major Distributor bring?

A major distributor is more well known than individual distribution company. In our media exam previously we had to study the distribution of two films; one being a major successful film that had the largest distribution company, then one who had an independent company. The major distribution company had more money to spend on the product, and could publish more films in more screens. 

I put this research into the magazine industry, as IPC is well known and successful I thought that my magazine would be more of a success, it would be   more well known and more copies would be published.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I believe my media product represents my social group in a positive way. Looking at the Front Cover, I haven't set a negative tone. The quote from the artist was deliberately chosen as it is quite inspirational, it will attract the targeted audience (which is teenagers interested in music) and inspire them to follow the new artists first year of success. The image chosen for the front cover of the magazine is an extreme closeup, it does not show the artists figure, just her facial features. This suggests that I am not focusing mainly on the artists 'look', just her voice, therefore little criticism may be made in me branding the artist as a 'model'. Following the contents page, I aimed to keep the magazine topics as 'down to earth', as I can relate to the targeted audience myself, relating to the 'fry up' breakfast, is a 'normal' subject, which I believe will interest my social group. The image of the artist again featuring on the contents page shows her in an urban background, this is conventional for indie artists, they never get shown in glamourous locations, which will help the reader identify with the artist. The artist is also in casual clothes; a jumper and pair of jeans. The bands like to look like their fans, so that the fans can feel like they are 'one of them'. The contents also offers a festival guide, this gives the best opportunity to my targeted audience to find out about the latest festivals, as I aim at youngsters passionate about music, from the magazine I am offering as much as I can. The double page spread again deliberately sets a positive tone, it can inspire young musicians to follow their dreams to succeed, with the detail of how the artist got into music and her success after her first year.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?(Contents Page)

As you can see the top of my contents page has followed the conventions of NME’s music magazine header, as I have maintained the bold colour black for the header of the contents page, I thought it was important to make the title ‘LOUD’ a larger font, which makes the title stand out. If I was to complete the task again, I would make LOUD a different colour, just so there is more of a colour scheme conveyed throughout.

Looking at part of NME’s contents page, noticeably the page number is quite large. I wanted to use this convention for my music magazine, I believe by making the page numbers stand out it is clear to the audience of where they can look. The numbers standing out is also emphasised through the use of the bold colour, against the white background.

To the right of my contents page, I specifically made a bold, black box. This includes other page numbers of the magazine, which is set in white - again making the numbers stand out. I decided to choose a black box because it adds a different colour to the contents page, I believe it is important to add a different colour instead of having a simple white background, the music contents needs to stand out. There is a brief description underneath each image, this will explain to the reader about the page, they can then decide whether they want to read it or not.

I decided to use a ‘subscribe’ box on my contents page, similar to NME. My reason for this is that it is extremely conventional of any magazine to give their audience a chance to subscribe to the magazine to save some money. My ‘subscribe’ box is in a bold red, this was chosen deliberately to add more colour, as it is quite plain. 

On NME’s contents page, there is only one image presented. I wanted to include more images on my contents page, so it is not just full of text. NME has a busy contents page full of a lot of text. I wanted to go against that convention, as I believe it is vital to make it clear to the audience of where they can go and look for what they want to read.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Double Page Spread)

I believe my double page spread follows the conventions of other successful music products. When looking at other magazine designs I instantly preferred the double page spreads that had a large image on the page, I thought this deliberately attracts the audience to the page, the audience can recognise the artist which would lead them into reading the article about them. The location of the image looks ‘grungy’, I thought that this location would be ideal to show the artists indie side, that although she is good looking she is not afraid to ‘let herself go’. A stereotyped indie musician is said to be quite ‘rough’ looking with an edge, I thought the edgey sid of the artist is brought out through the use of the ‘dirty’ background. I decided to take a long shot of the artist to show the whole body, as I chose a close up for my front cover I thought it was important to show the reader the whole body. The head line at the top of the page is noticeably not centre, I chose to do this deliberately, as I noticed throught music magazines especially NME the structure is never the same. The overlapping of text also insinuates that the page is a double page spread. The text is in a bold black font which in conventional of a magazine to draw the reader in to read the interview. I decided to state the artists name in a larger blue font, the reason for the choice of blue was that it contrasts with all the colours on the page, this will make the artists name stand out and suggests what the interview will be about. The beginning of the interview begins with a larger letter in the blue coloured font, it is a convention to make sure the beginning letter is in a larger font. The structure of the interview is in three separate columns, I decided to choose this structure as then it is not set in an ‘essay’ structure, many music readers would not want to read a block of text. The bottom right of the double page spread is black box that states another page number suggesting a ‘gig guide’, I decided to choose this as it attracts the reader to carry on reading the magazine, and also links in with the interview when ‘Fleur’ is talking about a festival.

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

Firstly take a look at the title of the magazine. ‘Loud’ is an appropriate name for a music magazine, it fits into the music genre. When researching different music magazines, I focused on the magazine title ‘Kerrang’, initially most readers would think it is just an unusual magazine title, however beyond the surface is a further meaning. The stimulus for the title of ‘Kerrang’ is the sound of a guitar, ‘Kerrang’ is the noise when playing the guitar. I used this idea for the final product name, LOUD is a basic title, and is relevant towards music. Most readers would relate LOUD to any music genre. As my magazine is not just aimed at a niche audience, it is including Indie artists and Pop artists LOUD fits into both genres. The colour of the main title is in black, I thought this was a suitable colour as black fits in with any colour scheme and can stand out on the shelves. Through researching other products it is noticeable that black is a popular colour to pick for the title. The design of the font for the title of the magazine is quite ‘edgy’. It creates a ‘paint’ look, my reasons for choosing this specific font, is that I believe it looks ‘cool’ it makes the magazine look interesting and focuses on the importance of ‘looks’ for the magazine plus the genre. I decided to use a tag line as I thought it gave the audience more knowledge about the magazine. Like NME, instead of the cover being totally about another artist, I believe it is important to state how popular the magazine is with the use of the tag line. The tag line is in white, and is ‘Courier new’ font, my reason for choosing this font is that because I am aiming at an indie audience I looked closely at an indie artist; Ed Sheeran. Noticeably on his album he uses a similar font, I believe it sets an indie specific look. I have gone against a pop magazine convention for choice of surrounding font, as most pop magazines set a ‘fun’ looking font. Also as I have been focusing on NME’s magazine I have gone against their convention, as they use basic fonts throughout their magazine. The quote used “ I simply cannot believe the year I have had - I’ve learnt so much” could be going against an cool indie artist, however I had to consider that I am aiming for a pop audience aswell, where I think this quote attracts the audience to read more about the new upcoming artist. The main artist name is in a bold, white simple font. This is similar for many magazines to state the main aritst in bold on the front cover. The colour white can be seen as going against convention, many magazines like to show colour on the front of the magazine, or choose a specific colour scheme. The problem I faced was that due to the artist wearing bright pink lipstick, I could not state any text in bright pink, it could make the magazine look ‘tacky’ and loose its indie identity. However, I believe black and white do contrast each other well, If facing this task in the future, I would want to focus on a constant colour scheme throughout the magazine. The image chosen for the front of my magazine is a close up image of my artist. The reason for choosing a close up is that when researching different front covers, I was always drawn to the covers that had a close up of the artist, I think it captures the audiences eye if they are drawn to the artists face. Instead of a long/middle shot, where there would be other things distracting the audience from the main artist itself, the close up focuses simply on the artist. As I am focusing on an Indie/Pop genre, the look I focused on for the artist was a pretty image however the use of ‘messy’ hair represented the indie genre. I believe it is important to consider the looks of the artist, it represents the magazine and what artists their interested in. I decided to state some other artists on the top right hand side of the magazine, as it were noticeable that other magazines included a lot of artists that they interviewed on their front cover. It gives the audience an idea of what the magazine includes. The artists that I chose were indie and pop, I stated ed sheeran and snow patrol, that present the indie genre, then Jessie j and rhianna who present the pop genre, the magazine then appeals to both indie and pop audiences.

What I Had Realised?

Definition - A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something.

I realised I am a gatekeeper, I could control the flow of information given to the readers. At the start of the project I didn't realise the power I had and the control I had over the readers of the magazine. I could make all the decisions for the magazine and could put what I wanted in it to attract my readers.

I also learnt the 'prenumbra effect' - people outside your target audience will like your magazine. Just because I have a specific audience it didn't mean that others would not read the magazine. I will attract other readers due to the style and format. 


Time management was vital throughout this project. One thing I have learnt was to keep up with everything. For example, when my media teacher taught the class theory work, instead of going straight to my blog to upload the information, I would continue with the work that I were doing previously. This then lead me to immediately being behind the work, it put more pressure on me at the end of the project to put it onto my blog.
I never knew the time and effort it would take to do the evaluations, I admit that I should of started the evaluations straight away after producing my magazines, I would of then had enough time to perfect my blog before the final deadline.

Final Front Cover

Final Contents Page

Final Double Page Spread

Consistency

Consistency is vital when producing a magazine. Consistency makes the magazine all as 'one' which contributes to make the magazine look professional.

 
Looking at my front cover the font for the mast head is different from all the text displayed on the page, this makes the main title stand out. The sell line font is used more than once on the front cover, I have used it for the quote of the artist and the artist names, I think it was a good idea to maintain a same font on the page, else if every piece of text had a different font it wouldn't look professional. The name of the artist however is in a different font, this was chose purposely to make the artists name stand out in bold. 

 

One thing I wish I had changed was the 'LOUD' font on the top of the contents page, for it to be consistent I should of maintained the font of the LOUD on the front cover for the contents page. I think this would the name of the magazine more consistent. However I did maintain the font used on the front cover of the artists name, for all the other artists on the content page. This font was used throughout the contents page, which I thought look professional. 



The font used throughout all of the three pages was maintained, this added consistency and achieve a better 'look'. One thing that was not kept consistent was the colour scheme throughout, however when i thought about changing the colours to make it proper colour scheme I thought that most magazines would have different colours on every, who wants a magazine that is going to look boring? The image of my main artist is used on every page, this signifies to the reader of who they are going to read about.