AS Media – Main Task – Evaluation
For our main task we were given the assignment of constructing a magazines front cover, contents page, and a double page spread. I thought that completing this task would be very achievable as I had a quite a few ideas on what it was that I wanted to do after completing my preliminary task. Since i have all the response questionnaires that was taken from my preliminary task, I now know what areas of the magazine i needed to improve and do differently so I had confidence that this project would turn out exactly how I expected. I had to decide on what genre of music I would be representing in my magazine as well as the audience I intended to target. I decided on creating an R’n’B and Hip Hop magazine, which would target an audience of females between the ages of 16 and 21 who embrace the genre and like to keep up to date with the artists and music within it. The target audience would be generally be individuals who are currently students at college, uni, or have part time jobs and will have disposable incomes, with no worries of bills, loans etc. These individuals will range in various ethnicities and will also be part of the working class bracket. They will generally be based in the areas of london as this is were a lot of this type of genre circulates. This is the audience that i feel will have the most interest in the magazine that i will be producing for my main task in media. I have confidence that this will be a hit with the audience i have targeted.
The choice of genre was based on the fact that I like this type of music and therefore would find it relatively interesting to do. I found that it is something can relate to and would be able to produce pieces of work that reflected this. In the duration of my research and planning I looked at magazines of similar genres as well as others because although I was aiming to produce a magazine with a hip hop genre I thought it is necessary to look at contrasting magazines to provide me with an insight into what general magazines possess. I looked at front covers first s this would be the first page I would be creating, and I found that most if not all the covers had very large and bold mastheads, which would be one of the main focuses on my front cover. Also I found that many of the colors and themes of the magazines were bold and bright, and this is what firstly caught my eye so I felt that this should be an element I would include into my cover. At first I thought that the front covers of magazines had to be filled with exclusives and loads of writing, but in actual fact many of the covers I researched and found didn’t really have that and I thought that sometimes simple can be better than flooding the page with unnecessary writing. This was an element that I included in my final front cover. When researching contents pages I wanted to pay quite a bit of attention to it as in my preliminary task I had a layout that was busy and confusing, which wasn’t effective in its approach. I needed to make sure that this would not happen to my final construction of the contents page because it may have the same effect.
The layouts of the contents pages I analyzed were simple in its layout and didn’t really bombard the page with irrelevant information that would cause the reader to become confused and unsure of what is going. This was an aspect of my magazine that I desperately wanted to portray as this was a prominent criticism in the response I received for my last magazine assignment. I finally started my research on double-page spreads which were once again very simple in its displays. Again I thought that I would need to create an article discussing a specific artist or topic, but the research showed that double page spreads can consist of many things for example a large main image with writing on either side of the page, an interview between the magazine and an artist, also the spread may have an image on one side of the page whilst the other has the article. I decided that for my double page spread I would create an interview with an artist for the double page spread, which used one color for the questions asked and another color for the interviewees responses as this I felt would work well with how I wanted my magazine to look. As my target audience were females of a fairly young I wanted to keep the layouts of the pages simple but captivating, as this is part of what will draw them to the shelves and cause them to want to buy and read it. After conducting the research of all the different types of front covers, contents pages, and double page spreads, I felt that I had made a good foundation of ideas that would ultimately aid me in producing my final pieces as I now had all the information and made the necessary plans that would help in making this goal possible. I also researched poses within images as this would be things that i wanted to focus on in my magazine, rather than just having plain images. I had to make sure that the images i took were ones that would be easy to manipulate and edit for use in the magazine pages i would later create. The process of taking the images gave me an in depth insight into how the technology of the camera worked for example, the best form of picture that is to be manipulated is in good light and not in dark places as the colors and objects in the picture will become difficult to refine. All information concerning the processes and stages of the construction of my magazine, including production logs, screen shots, and final images can all be found at my media blog www.wordpress.com/yaya91
The next step after conducting my research and planning was to progress onto creating mock up pages which would be small representatives of what I would want the three pieces to ideally look like. This task was made possible with the use of Photoshop. I was able to take images from the internet, which were similar to the original images I would later take for my final pieces. In the process of creating my first mock up page, which was the front cover, I began in choosing a color which in a way related to my target audience as it ended up to be a pale shade of pink. This color was chosen, not just because it is a color commonly linked with girl, but also because it fitted well with the theme I wanted to use. I created a large rectangular box on the top of the page and this would contain the masthead of the magazine, which was later called ‘SWAGGA’. I placed a smaller sized strip along the bottom of the page which would include the barcode, price and website. For the main image I edited and adjusted an image, which was scaled to fit the middle of the page, just enough so that the image would not become obscured and blurry. I also included an issue number and date. I thought it would be nice to add a small circle onto the page which had gave the reader the opportunity to win something. I found this to be effective because small elements like this may draw the potential reader’s attention to the magazine and its exciting features. After adding these final things to the magazine I felt that I was now in a position to save and move on to the creation of the next mock up page as I was happy with the layout and general setting of the page. The next page I began to construct was the contents page, which was a fairly easy task because I knew what colors I was using to keep continuity with the first page and also the rest of the magazine as this was a key aspect of the magazine a whole. I began with placing an identical rectangular box at the top as this would contain the contents title. I then placed a smaller sized box at the bottom and included the issue date and page number along with the name of the magazine, these were common aspects of magazines that I found during my research and planning. After doing so I moved my focus onto the middle of the page which was currently blank. I inserted and image of a music artist standing upright, whilst brushing off her trainers. I thought this will look good with the layout I aimed to have for my final piece. I found that after placing the image onto the page I had quite a bit of empty space to fill, and decided to add a small circled box which I would use to break up the writing so that it wasn’t just a block of writing alone. I then made two text boxes which contained the contents for the page. I placed one of the boxes into the smaller box and the rest I placed underneath it and without a box. I found that again that there was space, but within the small box that needed to be filled as it looked like it needed something extra. So I placed an image which I scaled to fit the small box into it. I was satisfied with how the contents page looked so I moved saved it and moved onto the next page. The double page spread was a challenge as I didn’t quite know how I wanted the layout to look, whether it was a large image across the page or just again something simple. I decided at the time to have a large image on the first page which slightly crossed over to the next page. I left enough space on the right hand side of the page for the article of the artist featured on the other page. I kept the background of the double page spread white as I felt that having it plain would make the main image and text stand out a lot more, instead of adding a main background color which would take away from the image and writing. Once I had the main image a text in its rightful place, I had some extra space and I chose to add in a small rounded square to the bottom right hand corner into which I wrote a quote that I made that the artist stated. I also inserted into that same box a different image of the same artist, one that still tied in with the colors and general theme of the page. I ended with placing a page number alongside the name of the magazine and issue date to keep continuity. I was pleased with outcomes of all three of the mock-up pages. I felt that I took most of the critical response and projected the improvement into the main task. I feel that I have made a huge progress from my preliminary task as I have become more confident in the use of the Photoshop application and its many elements.
Upon completing the mock up pages of the magazine (front cover, contents page, and double page spread) I was now at the stage of beginning the process of constructing what would be my final pieces. I wanted to make sure that my mock up pages exactly how I wanted my final pages to like, I was in a position where all I really needed to do was replace the temporary images with my original ones and possibly make a few minor changes to make it better. By constantly referring back to my response questionnaires and research and planning, I was able to make take the all the elements that would attract my target audience as well as improvements to the areas that were not so great in my preliminary task so that the magazines was something that the the target female audience could relate to as this was what the whole purpose was, creating a magazine for a specific type of audience that they can relate to otherwise what is the purpose of creating a magazine for someone if they cannot relate the elements within it. After considering all of these aspects I finally started the process by taking my original images which were somewhat similar to the previous images used in the draft pages and editing them accordingly, this involved cropping, scaling, and refining the images to make them suitable to go into the magazine. One problem I had with the images is that I couldn’t get some of the pictures to resemble those used in the mock up as closely as I wanted to, and therefore had to change some of them, which was slightly disappointing and wasn’t necessarily how I wanted them to look, but still fitted in well with the layout and its overall theme. After dealing with the images I started off with the front cover and took out the images previously used and replaced it with my original image, which didn’t resemble the same pose as the temporary one but again still went well with the layout. I then continued by adding in different features and exclusives onto the page, and changed the writing within the opportunity to win stamp on the cover. I was happy with what my final front cover looked like and was happy enough to save and move on to the next page which would become the final contents page. The next step of the process was to begin working on the final contents page which came with a few problems. the first problem in encountered in finalizing the page was that the large image that i had placed in the right hand side of the page was of a female standing whilst brushing off her trainer. I realized that the closest original image i has was of a female standing with her hand on her hip. As this was the closest image decided to use it because it didn’t really take away from the layout , but i would of nicer to have an image with similarity to the temporary one. Once this was completed i then changed some of the text within the text boxes i.e the article that was going to be included on the double page spread, so that it would be match the page number and also the topic of the article. I replaced the small image within the small box in the left hand corner with my original image, and i was happy with this because the colors within the picture linked into the theme of the layout. Little was needed to do with this page because again i wanted to make sure that everything produced in my mock up pages were exactly how i wanted them to be in the final product.
Once i felt that the layout and format of the contents page was of a suitable standard i began to saved this page and then continued on to my final page which was the double page spread. This was a page that i was sort of excited about as i have never made a spread like this and was eager to start it and finalize my ideas. I kept the background color white as i wanted to stick to the idea of not taking away the focus from the main image and text. I felt that white was a suitable color and would fit well with the current theme and layout of the previous pages. After referring back to my research and planning I decided that having a decent sized image rather than allow it to take up most of the page would be more effective, and would provide me with the space in which i will be able to add more writing for the article. I was going to write about the female artist who had recently become a big hit in the music scene. I decided, after looking at my mock up of the double page spread that i would have a large heading instead of a large picture. This conclusion was based on the fact that if i was to scale the image any larger it would become blurry and obscured, which would then make the page look weird. I created a large pink square box, which i added into it the heading. The article i create was about a young female artist who had recently released a song that had gone straight to the top of the charts within its first week of debut. Also had the heading align to the left of the page, because i didn’t really like the look of it across the top of the page. I had already had my idea of how i wanted the article to be, I wanted to have an interview between the magazine and the artist which would be a series of questions directed at the artist to give the magazine and the readers a small insight into the goings on in the artists busy life and hectic schedule. I felt that this would be successful with the target audience as they are not just reading a plain article on the artist, but getting direct feedback from the artist themselves and this is a popular choice in most of the music magazines i researched. I wanted to insert the text into the page after i had finished creating the title as i wanted to know exactly where i would have space and what i needed to do to fill it in. I placed the writing on the right hand side of the page as i had a large heading along the top left hand corner and i wanted to have the image if the artist underneath it so the writing would have to be on the right hand side. Below the heading i wrote some text that would speak briefly on the artists recent success and the fact that ‘SWAGGA’ wanted to catch up with her to get the latest news. This text box was aligned to the left underneath the title, and next to it i placed an image of the artist which was scaled to fit in bet ween the bottom of the title box and the bottom of the page, this made it look like she was leaning on the writing on the left of the page. Once this was completed i moved my focus onto the right hand side of the page which had the interview and the small box at the bottom which included the quote by the artist. I wanted to keep in there as i felt that it would be encouragement to the reader who had similar interest to that of the artist. I placed a line which separated the pages in two as this would help me keep everything in proportion and also because magazines pages are normally halved. I had to split the text box containing the interview into two text boxes as the space was sufficient enough to keep the text in one column, so it was divided into two columns placed beside each other. I replaced the temporary image with my original image into the small box at the bottom right hand corner of the page. Finally i ended with adding in a text box below the the writing, which had the name of the journalist who wrote up the article. As this was the final touch to my page i felt that it was ready enough to be handed in for the deadline. After reviewing all three of the pages i felt that they were all pieces that were of better quality than those of my preliminary task and this was a goal that i really wanted to achieve. I felt that i had more of an understanding of my target audience and what they wanted to see in the specific genre of music magazine i chose. I am really pleased with the outcome of the pages and felt that i made a significant jump from my previous media assignments.
In conclusion i decided to ask a few of my peers who were interested in the type of music genre i chose for my magazine to look at it and give critical feedback,which would allow me to have a deeper insight into how they really feel about the layout and overall look of them magazine and i could of done to make it better or whether it was fine how it was. In doing this i was able to find that they liked the look of the magazine and felt that it was suitable for the type genre i picked. I was happy with the feedback and it gave me confidence in knowing that i have indeed made an improvement front he last task and that it was generally a hit with he target audience and caught attention well. The only critical piece of feedback o had was that the colors were really good , but i could of made them that much more bright as this would attract them more. This was an element that i would take into consideration, and aim to improve on. I feel that overall this magazine is very relevant to the genre and target audience i chose as it is targeted to females, the colors are well fitting and the images can be related to the genre also. The magazine choices i have made have been similar to that of the magazines, but i felt that i didn’t need the magazine to be the same as the others so i made slight changes like instead of having a traditional heading for the double page spread i aligned it to the corner of the page, and these small changes to the layout of the magazine made it more effective in my eyes rather than just sticking to what everyone else does. I wanted my magazine to stand out and be attractive to my target audience as it is a magazine created by a person who likes R’n’B music for people who share the same interest in the genre. I think that the layout an themes represent the genre well as its eye catching with little hints of edginess, and that is an element of the R’n’B urban magazines. This magazine can be distributed by many institutions, for example news agents, and the big grocery stores that have the small magazine sections in them. I feel that if the magazine was to be distributed into different stores and corner shop, colleges etc it would be successful and may even attract those who do not generally read these genre specific magazines. This magazine would also be distributed in music labels such as Sony and L.A records as these companies share the same interest in their choice of genre of music. I have learnt that using the different image applications, i can manipulate an image to become suitable for use in a magazine, and have therefore strengthened my confidence. In the process of looking back on my preliminary task i have discovered that i have made a significant step forward and have been able to improve on the areas of my work that were not so great, and in the act of referring back to my previous pieces and feedback i am very pleased with the outcome of my main task pieces. I have become more aware and confident in the use of photoshop and the different aspects of media.
