I did a questionnaire with a girl from my target audience and i asked her what she thought of my magazine and several other questions. The girl that completed my questionnaire is Emily Gates from Priory School in Lewes, she is 13 years old and i think she is perfect to ask what she thought of my media product as she is in my target audience.
1. Do you like the magazine?
Yes, it is interesting and has a lot of information and gossip and is written so it is easy to read. It is also set out in a good format so it isn't just a big long page of information.
2. Do you think the colours are eye catching?
The colours are eye catching because they are girly and bright.
3. Would you buy it in a shop and why?
I think i would buy it in a shop because it has a god front cover that has a lot of the latest gossip that makes you want to read the magazine to find out more.
4. Do the stories on the front cover make you want to buy it?
Yes, it has the stories in different fonts that catch your eye and they are the right gossip that i want to read about, because they are about music, fashion, tips and celebrities.
5. Do you like the layout?
The layout is god because the magazine title stands out and the stories are on the sides so you can see the background picture of the band behind.
6. Do you think the pictures work well?
Yes, the pictures are good because if you don't know who the celebrities are, but you know what they look like then you will know who they are because you can see their picture.
7. Do you like the fonts and why?
The fonts stand out because they are white on a dark background. Also all the words that will make you want to read the magazine are in different fonts and different colours.
8. What are your favourite parts and why?
My favourite parts are the contents page because it is set out so it's easy to read and they make me want to flick through all the pages all at once. I also like the double page spread of 'The Queuetee's' because it gives me all i need to know about them and has information about there tour in London and a website.
9. Would you change it to make it more appealing to you?
I wouldn't change anything because i think it has everything a teenage girl magazine should have.
After doing this questionnaire with a member of my target audience i can see that i have achieved what i needed to achieve by making my magazine suit my target audience.
She also told me that the language was easy to read and that she would read on.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Planning and evaluation of the article. Blog 8
This is the draft of my article, I decided to write the article as an interview so that i could make it more interesting for my audience. I started the article by introducing that our magazine managed to get an interview with them and used language to make the audience think that we were the first to talk to them after their split, so that it makes the audience want to read it.I then went on describing what it will be like interviewing the band by saying what the weather is like, which involves the audience and by giving a summary about what will be asked, this gives the reader a chance to decide whether they want to read on or not. This is why it is very important to make this part of the article interesting and appealing to your target audience.
I then started asking t
he interview questions, i asked questions that would be interesting for the target audience and an example of a question i asked is, ' So it's tru
e Kat that you now have your own make up company?' This sort of question reveals a lot and the audience would then know that Kat has a make up company, which also promotes the band members company.
This is my first example of the double page spread i have chosen to analyse. The article is from top of the pops magazine and it is in the form of an interview. I think it works very well for the target audience it is aimed at because
the band is very famous in this age group and by using an interview it let's the audience know what the band are doing and is
also interesting and keeps the audience wanting to read on. They use language that is interesting such as this example from the article:
The language is easy to read and is typical language that the target audience would
Before they start the article they introduce it by deciding what they had to go through to get an interview with this very famous band, this gives the audience an idea of how hard the magazine had to work to give them this information, which makes the audience want to buy the magazine more because they are asking the band questions that the reader has always wanted to know.
In the middle of the article they used a circle shape to write a quote from the article, by doing this it lets the reader has a first glance of what will be said in the rest of the article. Usually the quote will be the most interesting part of the article to draw the reader in more. They used a circle shape to make it look more interesting and to aim it at the target audience. An interview is defiantly the kind of article i would use.
This is my second example of an article of the same target audience as me. This article is from the magazine top of the pops and is in the form of small bits of information on different celebrities. Doing this is a different way of doing an article on a double page spread but by doing this the audience who are young don't get bored or intimidated by big bulks of writing but uses small facts about famous people that the target audience will know well. This will keep their attention.
Again they use language that the audience can relate to which is informal and interesting. Here is an example:
As you can see the language is exciting and makes the reader want to read on.
Lots of different images are used to make the double page spread eye catching and when the reader is flicking through they will notice this page. The images are of celebrities ding some silly stuff which appeals to the target audience as they are young and also of famous people meeting other famous people. Again this is interesting to the audience and makes them want to know about why they are meeting.
I don't think i would use this kind of article because it doesn't give a lot of detail and doesn't focus on anything in particular.
Editing Photos. Blog 7
To make my magazine look like a professional magazine i had to edit my photos, i did this using photo shop.This photo that i used as the front cover image needed to have a transparent background so that when i placed it onto the front cover it would be able to go on top of a coloured background of my choice, which would then help make it more appealing to my target audience using colours.
This print screen is of the original image before i used photo shop to edit it.
I have changed the layer to layer 0 which then means it has been unlocked and the background can be transparent. If i don't do this then the background will be white.
This print screen is showing how i used the magnetic lasso tool t
o cut out the background, i did this by going around the subjects in the image. I found this quite hard to do because if the area that you are using the magnetic lasso is light and blends in slightly with the background the tool can't find the defining line that it would stick to, this means that i had to start again quite a few times to get it just right and to get the tool to go around the parts that i wanted it to.
After using the magnetic lasso tool i needed to select the background so that i could delete it and make the background transparent. To do this i went to select, then inverse.After s
electing the background, i needed to get rid of the background. I did this by pressing, apple and X, this deletes the background and shows the image in front of grey and white squares.
To save this image with a transparent image, i went to file, save as and changed the format from photo shop to photo shop PDF, this means that when the image is on Indesign there is n background and it can just be placed on top of the coloured background, this makes it look much more like a pop magazine.For the rest of the images i used i did the same thing as i have done above apart from a couple of images.
This image which is used on the front cover needed to have a theme with it, the theme for the band 'The Queuetee's' is pink so i decided that i wanted to use a pink background behind the subjects in the photo. To do this i did the same as the main image on the front cover which was the use the magnetic lasso tool to cut the background out.In this print screen i used the magic wand tool to select the background, this means i could use the paint brush tool to paint the background without going onto the image, this way i could get a clean and neat edge of colour.
This print screen shows how i could use the paint brush tool freely all over the image without it going on the subjects. Again i wanted to use a bright pink to go with the theme of pink with 'The Queuetee's'.
This is the finished image that i used on my front cover. I think it work really well because it is bright and colourful which appeals to my target audience.
With this image i needed to get rid of the background so i used the same technique as before, this time i am using this image for a slightly different purpose, it is going to be used for a prize. I needed it to have a signature on it so that if the reader wins they can see that they win a signed photo of one of the members out of 'The Queuetee's'. Showing my target audience what they could win in picture form shows them what they could win and is easy for the reader to know what they are getting and will want to enter the competition.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Photos. Blog 6.
To put on my magazine pages i had to take photos that i thought would be suitable for my target audience and think about what the photos would be used for. I thought of my main flash and main sells when i did my flat plans, so that i could then take the pictures for the stories.
This is the photo i used for the story about the pop star Cameron Williams. I used the brick background so that is isn't a really busy background and is easy to cut out in photo shop. I wanted to cut out the background and then in photo shop use the paint brush tool to colour the background in a bright and eye catching colour. By doing this it would appeal to my target audience a lot more as it is eye catching and would draw them in. The way he is posed would also be appealing to my target audience because its like he is keeping a secret from the audience and my target audience would automatically want to know what his secret is and would by doing that draw them in and want to read about it especially if he is well known which is meant to be.
I really wanted his image to be like a typical girl band image fro young girls because for one my target audience will look up to this kind of band and so they have to be happy, enthusiastic and look fashionable. I think that i have achieved all these things when i took this picture and i defiantly think that it would appeal to my target audience because of these things. I wanted them to look happy and enthusiastic because they need to be role models to the target audience and because the audience is quite young they wouldn't understand properly why the subjects looked unhappy and wouldn't by the magazine especially if the image is on the front cover. I wanted the subjects to be a typical girl band and got my inspiration from the spice girls because they were looked up to by young girls all over the world and partly because they were always happy, enthusiastic and energetic. I chose these clothes to wear because i thought they weren't too over the top but they were still in fashion and again i went with the more casual look with clothing. In the magazine there is a page on fashion and i had the idea of letting the subjects wear the clothing on that page so that it promotes the clothing. The fashion page isn't shown in my double page spread of front cover but it says on the contents page that there is a page later on in the magazine on it. Again i wanted to use a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i want to colour the background in a bright colour so that it is eye catching to the audience. I am also going to do a theme colour for the Queuetees band which goes throughout the magazine and onto the double page spread so i thought the colour pink would look good in the background of this photo because this colour is popular with my target audience which is young teenage girls. I think i could have improved on the lighting as i think it is too yellow and maybe sunlight would have been better for this image and would also make it more bright and clear.
This is the photo i used for the main image on my double page spread. I wanted them both to be looking at the camera and smiling because this connects with the audience and draws them in, they also look very friendly and when looking into the camera and smiling this makes the audience think that they are being friendly with them and this is inviting to my age target audience.
My main flash front cover photo:
The main flash on my front cover is about Pop stars new years resolutions and so i wanted to have a photo that would represent famous pop stars getting together to do a photo shoot, you can tell that they are all famous for their own reasons because one of the subjects in the photo also have a story about him later on in the magazine.
I wanted to have a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i wasn't planning on keeping the background at all, i was going to cut it out completely. I think the lighting could have been used a bit better because it looks quite yellow but i don't think this effects the image too much, possibly using daylight would have made the picture look brighter and clearer.
I wanted the subjects to be wearing casual clothing because all of them are supposed to be from pop rock bands, by wearing casual clothes i think that it draws the target audience in because they can relate to them. On the other hand i do think they could have been more fashionable clothing as the magazine is mostly aimed at young teenage girls who are easily influenced by fashion. I also wanted the clothes to have bright colours but that doesn't stand out too much because the background on the front cover is bright anyway, i think this would be too blaring. I put the guitarist in the foreground so that he is the one that stands out the most and captures the most attention because he is supposed to be the most admired by young girls and most well known. By doing this when the audience glance at the magazine they will see this famous pop star who they admire and want to buy the magazine. I defiantly think that this image stands out the most compared to the rest of the images i did for my magazine, which then makes the magazine stand out most to the target audience.
Main Sell-Cameron Williams photo:
This is the photo i used for the story about the pop star Cameron Williams. I used the brick background so that is isn't a really busy background and is easy to cut out in photo shop. I wanted to cut out the background and then in photo shop use the paint brush tool to colour the background in a bright and eye catching colour. By doing this it would appeal to my target audience a lot more as it is eye catching and would draw them in. The way he is posed would also be appealing to my target audience because its like he is keeping a secret from the audience and my target audience would automatically want to know what his secret is and would by doing that draw them in and want to read about it especially if he is well known which is meant to be. Although i think i chose this model at the wrong time as one of his eyes is slightly swollen and there is a scar visible, this wouldn't look good in a children's pop magazine but i am going to use photo shop to try and hide the scar and make it look as realistic as possible so that it would be suitable for my target audience. Again i think that the way he is wearing casual clothes makes him look more natural and makes him look as though he is more of the pop rock sort of person, which my target audience really likes. The lighting that is used is daylight which i think works really well and makes the subjects skin look much more clearer which then means that i wont have to use photo shop to makes his skin look clear. I wanted this pop star to have long hair so that he would look more like he is from a pop rock band and i defiantly think, by looking at other kinds of magazines that I'm doing, that my target audience will be drawn in by this.
The Queuetee's band photo on the front cover:
I really wanted his image to be like a typical girl band image fro young girls because for one my target audience will look up to this kind of band and so they have to be happy, enthusiastic and look fashionable. I think that i have achieved all these things when i took this picture and i defiantly think that it would appeal to my target audience because of these things. I wanted them to look happy and enthusiastic because they need to be role models to the target audience and because the audience is quite young they wouldn't understand properly why the subjects looked unhappy and wouldn't by the magazine especially if the image is on the front cover. I wanted the subjects to be a typical girl band and got my inspiration from the spice girls because they were looked up to by young girls all over the world and partly because they were always happy, enthusiastic and energetic. I chose these clothes to wear because i thought they weren't too over the top but they were still in fashion and again i went with the more casual look with clothing. In the magazine there is a page on fashion and i had the idea of letting the subjects wear the clothing on that page so that it promotes the clothing. The fashion page isn't shown in my double page spread of front cover but it says on the contents page that there is a page later on in the magazine on it. Again i wanted to use a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i want to colour the background in a bright colour so that it is eye catching to the audience. I am also going to do a theme colour for the Queuetees band which goes throughout the magazine and onto the double page spread so i thought the colour pink would look good in the background of this photo because this colour is popular with my target audience which is young teenage girls. I think i could have improved on the lighting as i think it is too yellow and maybe sunlight would have been better for this image and would also make it more bright and clear. Double page spread main photo:
This is the photo i used for the main image on my double page spread. I wanted them both to be looking at the camera and smiling because this connects with the audience and draws them in, they also look very friendly and when looking into the camera and smiling this makes the audience think that they are being friendly with them and this is inviting to my age target audience. Again with the background i wanted it to be clear and unobstructed so that it is easy to cut out on photo shop. The lighting doesn't make this picture look that bad but the same with the other images i think i could have used sunlight instead. The subjects are very central in the image and i think this is very important because it means that the eye is drawn straight to them with no distractions and i also think that by them both having their arms round each other they look even more friendly and welcoming to the audience.
I wanted them both to wear stripped tops because they are supposed to be a very close girl band and it shows that they are really close to be even both wearing stripped tops, i think this important to grab attention to them to my target audience, as the story is about their band getting back together after 4 years, this kind of story needs to have attention drawn to it. I have decided not to cut the background out on this image and to leave it the way it is, as this image will be on the double page spread it wont need as much attention as the front cover because the reader has already got to the double page spread. I also looked at other examples of double page spreads for my target audience and they didn't seem to take the background out of the main image.
This is the photo for the competition on the double page spread:
I chose this photo to be the competition photo because it is an image just before the subject (Kat Cooper) dyed her hair and this could represent her before the girl band broke up for four years and you can then see a change in the band. I think this is the best photo for what it is going to be used for because it is different from the rest of the images and looks more like it could be a prize and signed by the band member. I chose the background to be quite clear for the same reasons as before, so that i can cut the background out on photo shop and colour in the background so that it looks professional and also goes with the theme pink for the girl band, by doing this the audience can see a connection.
I wanted the subject to be wearing something elegant and pretty so that it shows that she is in a girl band, also because for the purpose of this photo the fans would want her to be wearing something pretty and girly because my target audience are young girls and aspire to be like the girl band. I wanted the subject to be quite central in the image because it is then eye catching straight away. Although i did want the subject to be slightly to one side so that the composition is more interesting and not just right in the middle. I didn't want her to look at the camera for this photo because unlike most of the other photos i took fr my magazine it doesn't have to connect with the viewer straight away to capture their attention, the image is for a prize so connecting eye contact with the audience isn't essential.
This is the photo for the competition on the double page spread:
I chose this photo to be the competition photo because it is an image just before the subject (Kat Cooper) dyed her hair and this could represent her before the girl band broke up for four years and you can then see a change in the band. I think this is the best photo for what it is going to be used for because it is different from the rest of the images and looks more like it could be a prize and signed by the band member. I chose the background to be quite clear for the same reasons as before, so that i can cut the background out on photo shop and colour in the background so that it looks professional and also goes with the theme pink for the girl band, by doing this the audience can see a connection.
I wanted the subject to be wearing something elegant and pretty so that it shows that she is in a girl band, also because for the purpose of this photo the fans would want her to be wearing something pretty and girly because my target audience are young girls and aspire to be like the girl band. I wanted the subject to be quite central in the image because it is then eye catching straight away. Although i did want the subject to be slightly to one side so that the composition is more interesting and not just right in the middle. I didn't want her to look at the camera for this photo because unlike most of the other photos i took fr my magazine it doesn't have to connect with the viewer straight away to capture their attention, the image is for a prize so connecting eye contact with the audience isn't essential.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Evaluation. Blog 9
1. How does your media project represent particular social groups?As i am doing a pop magazine for children, the photos and language needs to suit this particular age group. The typical children's pop magazine always has the most up to date famous pop stars on the front cover and throughout the magazine to suit this age group. Pop stars are mostly always shown to be happy and very smiley because this is what their music is like most of the time, for example a hip hop/rap magazine would
have images showing rappers with their facial expressions completely different to pop stars because their music is about more serious things, so their expressions would be aggressive and angry. Doing this helps the magazine to sell more as the age group it is aimed at, knows who all the people are in the photos and picks the magazine up. Here is an example of using very famous people of the front cover to draw the reader in and also how their facial expressions are compared to the example of a hip hop/rap magazine. As you can see facial expressions on the front cover image are very important and influential to who buys the magazine. The hip hop magazine wouldn't be suitable to my target audience because they wouldn't want to buy a magazine if the person on the front cover doesn't look friendly.The pop stars all look straight into the camera which is also a way of drawing the audience in and picking up the magazine because the buyer feels like the stars are looking at them and connecting them, this is what draws the audience in, especially with a younger audience. The pop stars also always have lots of make up on and their hair is done to the fashion of the time so that this appeals to the audience that its aimed at, they are made to look perfect and attractive so that children can aspire to be like these pop stars. The famous people especially on the front cover are always very smiley and look very friendly, this is suited to the age group that it is aimed at because children are drawn to friendly faces and happy emotions, the fact that the audience will know who is in the photos helps because it makes them feel that the star is friendly and the reader will want to read about them.I used language that was exciting and humorous because it needed to suit my target audience, without the language being fun, easy to read and exciting the reader would get bored and not want to read on. I also used language that would appeal more to girls because in the research i did, more girls than boys read this kind of magazine, so by using language that would appeal to girls more i am making the magazine suit my target audience again.
2. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Places that might sell my media product would be supermarkets because parents may pick up a copy when they are doing their shopping. When parents take their children to the supermarket the children might ask their parents to buy it for them if they like the front cover and it appeals to them. Supermarkets are one of the best places to sell magazine because of how many different types of people go there because they have to buy food, but if it was a different shop such as, 'Superdrug' for example a smaller amount of different people shop there and they may not be the right target audience for your magazine. You have a much better chance of selling your magazine at a big chain company like supermarkets. A place such as a Shops that sell toys such as, 'Toys R us' may sell my media product because the products that they sell in these shops appeal to this type of audience and this target audience may go to these places and find a copy and want to get it. Anywhere that sells products that appeal to the particular type of target audience is a place that would defiantly want to sell my media product because they would get more sales.
Publishers such as 'Paton' would publish my media product because it has been publishing 'POP!' magazine for several years this is a young person's pop magazine and falls into the target audience category that my magazine does, although they are based in Canada.
Another publisher that might consider publishing my media product is 'Panini' because it is the second largest publisher for teenage and children magazines and my magazine fits into this publisher's criteria.
Another publisher that might consider publishing my media product is 'Panini' because it is the second largest publisher for teenage and children magazines and my magazine fits into this publisher's criteria.
3. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine are young girls around the age of 12/15 years of age. In the research i have done into the magazine 'Top of the Pops' i found that these kind of children's pop magazines are mostly read by classes C2DE. The age group that it showed on the statistics was that girls aged 15-44 read 'Top of the Pops' magazine but this is a very large age gap and personally i think that girls in the younger stage of that statistic read this particular magazine more than much older women. My media product would be aimed more at mainstreamers because there is nothing in the magazine that is out of the ordinary and particulaly different to any other pop magazine, it includes the usual fashion, gossip and tips that my target audience would like. Even though this magazine is aimed more at mainsteamers, i wanted to make sure that the images, font and colours would stand out from the rest of the magazines so that it would sell more.
I wanted my magazine to be aimed at a slightly younger target audience so i changed how i used language, images and font in the magazine to suit my target audience. I changed the language so that it was easier to read and was about things that a slightly younger target audience would know about and understand, the images i used were very happy and the subjects in the images were smiling and making eye contact. As my magazine is aimed at the classes C2DE i needed to make my magazine affordable to that target audience as these classes are in lower paid jobs. The parents would possibly buy the magazine for this age group so making the magazine affordable is important as the parents would be the ones with the lower paid jobs and this would effect how much for example, pocket money would be given to their children.That is why i made the magazine 99p. Another reason i made the magazine 99p and not one pound was because 99p sounds cheaper and would then make the shopper want to buy it more.
4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To make my media product suit my target audience i needed to research other pop magazines, the main magazine i looked at to get ideas from was 'Top of the Pops' magazine, this was really helpful because i got an idea of how to set out my magazine successfully and to get the images and font right to suit my audience. This font is from the older version of 'Mizz' magazine, this font for the masthead is bold, big and very noticeable which is what you want for the masthead of a magazine, it lets the audience know what magazine it is and also makes it stand out the most so that more people buy it. Because the magazine is aimed at younger people the font it easy to read and uses sans serif font which is very popular in magazines aimed at younger people.
The font that i used for my media product is quite similar to the font that 'Mizz' magazine used because i have used sans serif font and it is very easy to read. I used bold colours to stand out and did two colours alternating to make it even more eye catching and to make it appealing to my audience. To get my idea for using this sort of font i looked up these sorts of magazines and found that all of the mastheads were very easy to read and very bold which is why i chose this one.
The main image on the front cover of my magazine i had to think about because i wanted it to be big and eye catching but didn't quite know how i would do that with three people in the photo. I looked at other pop magazines and found that all the front cover images were very big and close up to the face to make eye contact even greater, so i thought that by using a guitar in the image with three other subject would make the magazine stand out from the rest as i haven't seen many pop magazines that use instruments in their front cover images.
This image is from the cover of 'Top of the Pops' magazine.
By looking at this example from 'Top of the Pops' magazine and my front cover image you can see that they are similar in some ways and not in others. The 'Top of the Pops' example is a lot closer up to the subject so you can see his facial expressions better and eye contact is better. But with my front cover image, i think it is more eye catching because the whole page is taken up by the image behind the writing. Both of the images use eye contact to make the audience feel like they are looking at them. I also wanted to make sure that the front cover image would stand out so that it is noticed more than the other magazines so i used three subjects in my image, this makes it look bolder as the whole page is taken up.
I looked at this double page spread from 'Bliss' magazine and got the idea for my layout from this for my double page spread. I liked the idea of having the main page image on one side and then having all of the text from the article together so that it's easy to read for the target audience. Not everything is similar like the smaller side images. In my double page spread i wanted to do something that would appeal to my audience and get them involved more so i chose to do a competition so that one reader could win a signed photo from one of the band members. There is my double page spread below.
As you can see there are some similarities to the 'Bliss' magazine double page spread but not that many, i wanted my pages to suit my target audience completely and to do this i tried to involve them more by doing competitions and giving information about how they can get more from the band because if the reader is reading the page then they are most probably going to like the band. This means by informing the reader they get more out of the magazine, which will then make them want to buy it more and buy it again after that.
Overall looking at my media product and other media products in the shops that aimed at my target audience as well, i think that i have got good ideas from different magazines and made them my own so that they stand out from the rest.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
For my double page spread i had to think about how to write my article to attract my target audience, to do this i had to plan what the article was going to be about and how to use language that would make my audience want to carry on reading. I decided to do an interview with a well known band that had split up for a few years and are now back making music, the band i chose to do this was a band that would have been like the spice girls as this band suited my target audience. Here is an example of how i used language to attract my audience.
I used mostly present tense so that it makes the audience more involved and it seems as though we are talking specifically to that reader which makes them feel like they are being spoken to. I used language that is easy to read for my target audience and there are no long complicated words that they won't understand, this will make them feel more confident in reading the rest and not get bored because they don't understand properly. I tried to make it exciting by saying ' Pop Rocks are the first to interview them', this makes the audience feel special because they think they are going to be the first to read about the band. By doing that it makes the magazine stand out because the audience thinks that no other magazine on the shelf has this information about the band. Addressing the audience by saying 'get all the answers you wanted to know' means that the reader thinks that the magazine is taking interest in who reads the magazine, this would make the reader want to buy other issues because the magazine listens to the reader. It also makes the reader think that their question has been answered which will make them read on in the article. By opening the article this way it gives the audience an idea of what it is going to be about and makes them decided whether they want to read on or not, this is why it is very important to make it sound as exciting and interesting as possible especially if the target audience is young.
I used white sans serif font so that its again easy to read and to make the page not look too boring, white font makes it look different and slightly more interesting.
This example from the front cover uses language so that it invites the audience in. I wanted this main flash to be eye catching and to make the reader want to read the rest of the magazine. By saying 'All your favourite pop stars' means that a larger range of people may look at the magazine because it isn't saying one particular pop star but many, this means that more people might buy the magazine. Another way i wanted to make the audience want to read more was by saying ' reveal their new years resolutions', by saying this it makes the audience feel like they want to know what it is because how it has been said it quite mysterious and doesn't give much away. Again i used white font to stand out from the rest on the front cover as it is the main flash.
The images i used were very important in making my magazine appeal to my target audience because the audience is young and would look at the images more than the text at first. The most important image is front cover image that relates to your main flash. I used three subjects in my image and they all represent very famous pop stars, this would immediately appeal to my target audience because they are famous people that they will know. I used three subjects because i thought that if i used most of the front cover up with the main image then it would be much more eye catching to my audience which would then make them want to pick up my magazine rather than the others on the shelf. I included an instrument for one of the subjects to hold, again to make it more eye catching and to make it stand out, as what i have researched i haven't seen many instruments being used on the front cover. Here is my front cover image.
As you can see all of the subjects are making eye contact with the camera and making a link with the audience. The two other images on the front cover are smaller and not as important as the main flash image. I wanted to make the image with 'The Queuetee's' exciting and be more appealing to girls as it is a girl band, by using a pink background it carries the theme of a girl band throughout the magazine so that the reader can link them together. I thought that the subjects in the image would look better if they were looking at each other instead of the camera because it shows the audience that they are back together as a band, i also thought it would be better to have this image so that they arn't looking at the reader so that it isn't all the same and looks more interesting.
The bottom image with the artist, 'Cameron Williams' has a different compostiton and i think this works well with what the main sell is about. It shows that he is doing a 'shhh' gesture which my target audience would understand and make them intrigued into what the story is about. The blue background is bright and eye catching but is also a male colour.
The font that i used for this main sell i thought would be good to use because it is modern and clear to read which is good for my young target audience. Out of all the research i did for my magazine i saw that many magazines like mine used this sort of unusual font to make it look more interesting and modern so that it appeals to the audience. I made the colour of the font pink to show the connection for the band 'The Queuetee's' and to make it again appeal to girls as more girls read these sorts of magazines than boys. The font that i used is called 'pussycat' which i got from www.dafont.com.
I wanted to use lots of colour to appeal to my audience so i used bold, bright colours that linked with certain things such as 'The Queuetee's' band. This is my contents page which shows that i used colour a lot in my magazine.
I wanted to use a bright bold background so that when the reader flicks through the magazine they will stop at this page because the colours are bright and will be interesting. I think that the contents page is one of the most important pages in a magazine because it tells you what will be in the rest of the magazine and so i wanted it to be eye catching.
I used other very bright colours to use in the boxes with the images so that the colours kind of clash with the background but i think this works well because it is more interesting to look at and links to the way pop is, as pop is bright and colourful and aims its music mostly at younger people i wanted to show this in my magazine.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
To make this magazine work i used Indesign software which helped me do a lot of things that i wouldn't be able to do without it. Indesign allows you to have the freedom of putting text boxes where ever you want on the page which is very good if you are making a magazine because in magazines the text boxes are sometimes put in places that arn't even to everything else of the page, other software won't let you do this as easily.
Arranging your images is a very important thing in a magazine because sometimes you want the image behind the writing or possibly in front. Indesign lets you do this just by clicking on 'arrange' and you can then choose where you want the image to go, for example if you wanted the image behind the text then you would click on 'send to back'. Most magazines use this technique on the front covers of magazines to make the image stand out but also so that you can see the writing and see what will be in the rest of the magazine.
By using 'fitting' you can make the image you want to use fit to how ever you want it to. If you want your image to fit the box in proportion then you can by clicking on 'fitting' and then choose fit to content, by doing this it gives you the freedom to have your image how ever you want.
A really easy and helpful thing that i found was that you could download a font that you chose from www.dafont.com which has a very good variety of fonts which can make your magazine suit your target audience. If you download the font then it goes into your font library and you can choose to use it when ever you want. I found that this was one of the most helpful things that Indesign let you do.
To make your magazine look more interesting and eye catching to your audience it is very easy to choose a colour for your font. All you had to do was highlight the font and then click on 'swatches' and choose the colour you wanted. You could also save in 'swatches' a particular colour that you have chosen and it will be saved for when ever you want to use it, instead of having to find the exact colour again when you next go on it.
One more thing that was really helpful in making your magazine look professional was not having to use text boxes that are visible. By using these text boxes you can write things and place the text where ever you want without seeing the text box lines which gives mainly the front cover a professional look.
Using photoshop to change your images is a very helpful way to make you images suit your target audience, for example i used photoshop to cut out the subjects in the images and then put a coloured background behind them so that the images are more bright and eye catching. I did this to most of my images, to do this i just used the magnetic lasso tool to cut the subjects out with a neat finish and then highlighted the background with the magic wand tool and then i was able to colour the background in a bright colour without going over the subjects in the image.
I had to use photoshop to crop things such as the examples of fonts that i was going to use in the magazine (blog 5). I did this so that i didn't have to use the whole page that i print screened and it just focused on what i was talking about.
For a magazine people use the dodge tool to airbrush out blemishes on the models in the photos a lot. I used this on one of the subjects in one of my images as he had a cut near his eye and this wouldn't look good on a pop magazine front cover. Using this tool is a very good way to make the subject's look 'perfect' especially in a fashion kind of magazine, although they do use this a lot in pop magazines.
There weren't many things that i couldn't make Indesign and photoshop do but there were some things that i found quite difficult getting used to. At first i found getting the images to be sized down proportionally and not become distorted but after doing it a few times i got used to it and found it quite easy. Finding out how to do things such as getting the text boxes without the lines and getting the background to have a colour were quite difficult at first. I found out how to do this after a while but it was hard to find. I knew how to use most of photoshop before i started this project so i didn't find it that difficult and i didn't use many techniques that were hard as i didn't need to for my media product.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on my preliminary task i think i have improved on planning my work thoroughly and i have realised how long the process of making a magazine takes. To make a magazine you have to plan what the genre of the magazine is, what the masthead is going to be, what is going to be in the magazine, plan the images, how your going to write the article, what fonts your going to use. All these things have to be planned before you even start making your media product.
I have improved on using Indesign a lot and how to make the magazine suit my target audience. With my preliminary task i didn't consider target audience as much as this task and didn't plan it very well but by using Indesign more i have learnt new skills by practising. When i did the preliminary task i didn't have to use Indesign as intensely as the main task and so elements such as how to layout things effectivley have improved by using text boxes and placing images, these were the main two things i used throughout making my magazine.
I have learnt how to use language when writing the article in an effective way that will suit my target audience, to do this i learnt that using exciting and humorous language that is said in the present tense involves the audience a lot more and keeps them wanting to read especially for my particular target audience. Unlike the preliminary task when i didn't consider how to use language effectively this time i planned what i was going to say.
Finally the images i used were planned well, i had to consider if they would suit my target audience, if the images linked to the story and if what they were wearing would be suitable. In the preliminary task i didn't consider any of this and probably didn't suit my target audience.
By looking at what i had done in the preliminary task and what i have achieved now i can confidently say that i have improved on my Indesign and Photoshop skills and i have done a lot better of a job than i did with the preliminary task.
Front Cover of my magazine.
I wanted my magazine to be aimed at a slightly younger target audience so i changed how i used language, images and font in the magazine to suit my target audience. I changed the language so that it was easier to read and was about things that a slightly younger target audience would know about and understand, the images i used were very happy and the subjects in the images were smiling and making eye contact. As my magazine is aimed at the classes C2DE i needed to make my magazine affordable to that target audience as these classes are in lower paid jobs. The parents would possibly buy the magazine for this age group so making the magazine affordable is important as the parents would be the ones with the lower paid jobs and this would effect how much for example, pocket money would be given to their children.That is why i made the magazine 99p. Another reason i made the magazine 99p and not one pound was because 99p sounds cheaper and would then make the shopper want to buy it more.
4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To make my media product suit my target audience i needed to research other pop magazines, the main magazine i looked at to get ideas from was 'Top of the Pops' magazine, this was really helpful because i got an idea of how to set out my magazine successfully and to get the images and font right to suit my audience. This font is from the older version of 'Mizz' magazine, this font for the masthead is bold, big and very noticeable which is what you want for the masthead of a magazine, it lets the audience know what magazine it is and also makes it stand out the most so that more people buy it. Because the magazine is aimed at younger people the font it easy to read and uses sans serif font which is very popular in magazines aimed at younger people.
The font that i used for my media product is quite similar to the font that 'Mizz' magazine used because i have used sans serif font and it is very easy to read. I used bold colours to stand out and did two colours alternating to make it even more eye catching and to make it appealing to my audience. To get my idea for using this sort of font i looked up these sorts of magazines and found that all of the mastheads were very easy to read and very bold which is why i chose this one.
The main image on the front cover of my magazine i had to think about because i wanted it to be big and eye catching but didn't quite know how i would do that with three people in the photo. I looked at other pop magazines and found that all the front cover images were very big and close up to the face to make eye contact even greater, so i thought that by using a guitar in the image with three other subject would make the magazine stand out from the rest as i haven't seen many pop magazines that use instruments in their front cover images.
This image is from the cover of 'Top of the Pops' magazine.
By looking at this example from 'Top of the Pops' magazine and my front cover image you can see that they are similar in some ways and not in others. The 'Top of the Pops' example is a lot closer up to the subject so you can see his facial expressions better and eye contact is better. But with my front cover image, i think it is more eye catching because the whole page is taken up by the image behind the writing. Both of the images use eye contact to make the audience feel like they are looking at them. I also wanted to make sure that the front cover image would stand out so that it is noticed more than the other magazines so i used three subjects in my image, this makes it look bolder as the whole page is taken up.
I looked at this double page spread from 'Bliss' magazine and got the idea for my layout from this for my double page spread. I liked the idea of having the main page image on one side and then having all of the text from the article together so that it's easy to read for the target audience. Not everything is similar like the smaller side images. In my double page spread i wanted to do something that would appeal to my audience and get them involved more so i chose to do a competition so that one reader could win a signed photo from one of the band members. There is my double page spread below.As you can see there are some similarities to the 'Bliss' magazine double page spread but not that many, i wanted my pages to suit my target audience completely and to do this i tried to involve them more by doing competitions and giving information about how they can get more from the band because if the reader is reading the page then they are most probably going to like the band. This means by informing the reader they get more out of the magazine, which will then make them want to buy it more and buy it again after that.
Overall looking at my media product and other media products in the shops that aimed at my target audience as well, i think that i have got good ideas from different magazines and made them my own so that they stand out from the rest.5. How did you attract/address your audience?
For my double page spread i had to think about how to write my article to attract my target audience, to do this i had to plan what the article was going to be about and how to use language that would make my audience want to carry on reading. I decided to do an interview with a well known band that had split up for a few years and are now back making music, the band i chose to do this was a band that would have been like the spice girls as this band suited my target audience. Here is an example of how i used language to attract my audience.
I used mostly present tense so that it makes the audience more involved and it seems as though we are talking specifically to that reader which makes them feel like they are being spoken to. I used language that is easy to read for my target audience and there are no long complicated words that they won't understand, this will make them feel more confident in reading the rest and not get bored because they don't understand properly. I tried to make it exciting by saying ' Pop Rocks are the first to interview them', this makes the audience feel special because they think they are going to be the first to read about the band. By doing that it makes the magazine stand out because the audience thinks that no other magazine on the shelf has this information about the band. Addressing the audience by saying 'get all the answers you wanted to know' means that the reader thinks that the magazine is taking interest in who reads the magazine, this would make the reader want to buy other issues because the magazine listens to the reader. It also makes the reader think that their question has been answered which will make them read on in the article. By opening the article this way it gives the audience an idea of what it is going to be about and makes them decided whether they want to read on or not, this is why it is very important to make it sound as exciting and interesting as possible especially if the target audience is young.I used white sans serif font so that its again easy to read and to make the page not look too boring, white font makes it look different and slightly more interesting.
This example from the front cover uses language so that it invites the audience in. I wanted this main flash to be eye catching and to make the reader want to read the rest of the magazine. By saying 'All your favourite pop stars' means that a larger range of people may look at the magazine because it isn't saying one particular pop star but many, this means that more people might buy the magazine. Another way i wanted to make the audience want to read more was by saying ' reveal their new years resolutions', by saying this it makes the audience feel like they want to know what it is because how it has been said it quite mysterious and doesn't give much away. Again i used white font to stand out from the rest on the front cover as it is the main flash.The images i used were very important in making my magazine appeal to my target audience because the audience is young and would look at the images more than the text at first. The most important image is front cover image that relates to your main flash. I used three subjects in my image and they all represent very famous pop stars, this would immediately appeal to my target audience because they are famous people that they will know. I used three subjects because i thought that if i used most of the front cover up with the main image then it would be much more eye catching to my audience which would then make them want to pick up my magazine rather than the others on the shelf. I included an instrument for one of the subjects to hold, again to make it more eye catching and to make it stand out, as what i have researched i haven't seen many instruments being used on the front cover. Here is my front cover image.
As you can see all of the subjects are making eye contact with the camera and making a link with the audience. The two other images on the front cover are smaller and not as important as the main flash image. I wanted to make the image with 'The Queuetee's' exciting and be more appealing to girls as it is a girl band, by using a pink background it carries the theme of a girl band throughout the magazine so that the reader can link them together. I thought that the subjects in the image would look better if they were looking at each other instead of the camera because it shows the audience that they are back together as a band, i also thought it would be better to have this image so that they arn't looking at the reader so that it isn't all the same and looks more interesting.The bottom image with the artist, 'Cameron Williams' has a different compostiton and i think this works well with what the main sell is about. It shows that he is doing a 'shhh' gesture which my target audience would understand and make them intrigued into what the story is about. The blue background is bright and eye catching but is also a male colour.
The font that i used for this main sell i thought would be good to use because it is modern and clear to read which is good for my young target audience. Out of all the research i did for my magazine i saw that many magazines like mine used this sort of unusual font to make it look more interesting and modern so that it appeals to the audience. I made the colour of the font pink to show the connection for the band 'The Queuetee's' and to make it again appeal to girls as more girls read these sorts of magazines than boys. The font that i used is called 'pussycat' which i got from www.dafont.com.I wanted to use lots of colour to appeal to my audience so i used bold, bright colours that linked with certain things such as 'The Queuetee's' band. This is my contents page which shows that i used colour a lot in my magazine.
I wanted to use a bright bold background so that when the reader flicks through the magazine they will stop at this page because the colours are bright and will be interesting. I think that the contents page is one of the most important pages in a magazine because it tells you what will be in the rest of the magazine and so i wanted it to be eye catching.I used other very bright colours to use in the boxes with the images so that the colours kind of clash with the background but i think this works well because it is more interesting to look at and links to the way pop is, as pop is bright and colourful and aims its music mostly at younger people i wanted to show this in my magazine.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
To make this magazine work i used Indesign software which helped me do a lot of things that i wouldn't be able to do without it. Indesign allows you to have the freedom of putting text boxes where ever you want on the page which is very good if you are making a magazine because in magazines the text boxes are sometimes put in places that arn't even to everything else of the page, other software won't let you do this as easily.
Arranging your images is a very important thing in a magazine because sometimes you want the image behind the writing or possibly in front. Indesign lets you do this just by clicking on 'arrange' and you can then choose where you want the image to go, for example if you wanted the image behind the text then you would click on 'send to back'. Most magazines use this technique on the front covers of magazines to make the image stand out but also so that you can see the writing and see what will be in the rest of the magazine.
By using 'fitting' you can make the image you want to use fit to how ever you want it to. If you want your image to fit the box in proportion then you can by clicking on 'fitting' and then choose fit to content, by doing this it gives you the freedom to have your image how ever you want.
A really easy and helpful thing that i found was that you could download a font that you chose from www.dafont.com which has a very good variety of fonts which can make your magazine suit your target audience. If you download the font then it goes into your font library and you can choose to use it when ever you want. I found that this was one of the most helpful things that Indesign let you do.
To make your magazine look more interesting and eye catching to your audience it is very easy to choose a colour for your font. All you had to do was highlight the font and then click on 'swatches' and choose the colour you wanted. You could also save in 'swatches' a particular colour that you have chosen and it will be saved for when ever you want to use it, instead of having to find the exact colour again when you next go on it.
One more thing that was really helpful in making your magazine look professional was not having to use text boxes that are visible. By using these text boxes you can write things and place the text where ever you want without seeing the text box lines which gives mainly the front cover a professional look.
Using photoshop to change your images is a very helpful way to make you images suit your target audience, for example i used photoshop to cut out the subjects in the images and then put a coloured background behind them so that the images are more bright and eye catching. I did this to most of my images, to do this i just used the magnetic lasso tool to cut the subjects out with a neat finish and then highlighted the background with the magic wand tool and then i was able to colour the background in a bright colour without going over the subjects in the image.
I had to use photoshop to crop things such as the examples of fonts that i was going to use in the magazine (blog 5). I did this so that i didn't have to use the whole page that i print screened and it just focused on what i was talking about.
For a magazine people use the dodge tool to airbrush out blemishes on the models in the photos a lot. I used this on one of the subjects in one of my images as he had a cut near his eye and this wouldn't look good on a pop magazine front cover. Using this tool is a very good way to make the subject's look 'perfect' especially in a fashion kind of magazine, although they do use this a lot in pop magazines.
There weren't many things that i couldn't make Indesign and photoshop do but there were some things that i found quite difficult getting used to. At first i found getting the images to be sized down proportionally and not become distorted but after doing it a few times i got used to it and found it quite easy. Finding out how to do things such as getting the text boxes without the lines and getting the background to have a colour were quite difficult at first. I found out how to do this after a while but it was hard to find. I knew how to use most of photoshop before i started this project so i didn't find it that difficult and i didn't use many techniques that were hard as i didn't need to for my media product.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on my preliminary task i think i have improved on planning my work thoroughly and i have realised how long the process of making a magazine takes. To make a magazine you have to plan what the genre of the magazine is, what the masthead is going to be, what is going to be in the magazine, plan the images, how your going to write the article, what fonts your going to use. All these things have to be planned before you even start making your media product.
I have improved on using Indesign a lot and how to make the magazine suit my target audience. With my preliminary task i didn't consider target audience as much as this task and didn't plan it very well but by using Indesign more i have learnt new skills by practising. When i did the preliminary task i didn't have to use Indesign as intensely as the main task and so elements such as how to layout things effectivley have improved by using text boxes and placing images, these were the main two things i used throughout making my magazine.
I have learnt how to use language when writing the article in an effective way that will suit my target audience, to do this i learnt that using exciting and humorous language that is said in the present tense involves the audience a lot more and keeps them wanting to read especially for my particular target audience. Unlike the preliminary task when i didn't consider how to use language effectively this time i planned what i was going to say.
Finally the images i used were planned well, i had to consider if they would suit my target audience, if the images linked to the story and if what they were wearing would be suitable. In the preliminary task i didn't consider any of this and probably didn't suit my target audience.
By looking at what i had done in the preliminary task and what i have achieved now i can confidently say that i have improved on my Indesign and Photoshop skills and i have done a lot better of a job than i did with the preliminary task.
Front Cover of my magazine.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BxX0LAwPDMMWMGNlNjgwYzUtMDE1MS00Mzg4LWI3ODYtODI0NTM1ZTU1YWU1&hl=en
Contents Page of my magazine.
Contents Page of my magazine.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BxX0LAwPDMMWN2E3OTA5ZGMtNTdiOS00NWVhLTg1MDMtMTc1MWYzYzYzODIx&hl=en
Double page spread of my magazine.
Double page spread of my magazine.
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Flat Plans. Blog 4
This is the flat plan of my front cover. I decided that i wanted the background to be the same shade colour as parts of the masthead because it will link in a way. After looking at lots of different shades of this colour with the masthead i found that it looks better as a children's magazine front cover for the background colour to be very bold as well as the masthead and have the masthead and background colours kind of contrasting so that it stands out and is eye catching. I wanted the masthead font to be two different colours that alternate because it is brighter and more eye catching to a younger audience, the colours of the masthead also show it is a children's magazine and this would appeal to children.The main flash that i have done on this flat plan isn't the one i am going to use because i decided it wasn't the right kind of story of the target audience i am aiming this magazine at, i thought it was more for in a gossip magazine such as, 'Heat' or 'OK!'. This kind of main flash would be aimed at people more around the age of 20+ but my magazine is aimed at children 10 and up. The main flash i am now going to use is, pop stars new years resolutions and it will include the pop stars that would be this target audience's favourite and most well known.With the tagline, 'The BEST place to find the HOTTEST pop goss!' I wanted it to sound exciting and for children to read this and want to read more of the magazine which is the aim of a tagline. Using capitals for the words 'BEST' and 'HOTTEST' enhances and emphasises the adjectives which the target audience for this magazine will look at the most.
On this flat plan it says in a star shape to one side how much the magazine is going to cost, it says it will cost £2.00 but i am going to change that to 99p because i think this will attract more buyers as the target audience is young and may not be able to afford £2.00 for a magazine especially with pocket money. By making the price 99p it sounds cheaper than £1.00 and so the customer will be more willing to buy the magazine.
One of the other main sells i chose to do was about a famous male actor called 'Cameron Williams' which my target audience would know and admire and to draw them in, the article is about secret confessions the famous actor has and is only telling this magazine which then makes the audience want to know the secrets he has, as no one else will know, this makes them feel special.
The second main sell i wanted to do was about a famous band that has come back into the charts with a new album after being away for a while. The band is called the 'Queuetee's' because i thought it is a girl band and so they should have a name that sounds quite girlie but unusual and unique so the spelling is different to how you would expect it to be. This main sell would appeal to my target audience because the majority of them would be female and females in my target audience like girl bands and idolise them.
Finally the third main sell that i want to write about is 'How to get your ideal guy' but after thinking about it, i thought that this was aimed for older people again people that might read 'OK!' and 'Heat' magazines. So i changed the language and rephrased this to 'How to impress your CRUSH! All the best tips from REBECCA STARLY' by rephrasing this it is now aimed for the target audience i am doing.
Lastly i wanted to do all the most important information such as, names of the pop stars and adjectives so that the audience see these first and read the articles inside.
For the page heading which is contents on this page i wanted to use the same font as the masthead on the front cover so that a pattern is followed to the next page. It shows on this page that the background is shaded a pink colour but i have now decided that i want the background to stay white so that everything that is on the page is more bold and the colours show up more, i think this will be appealing to a younger audience and be eye catching. I wanted to use boxes to show what was going to be in the magazine because that way you can then visually see what is going to be further on in the magazine and i think this is important for a young audience because they can get bored easily and so by using images in boxes it could make the buyer look further on in the magazine. I wanted the boxes to be tilted because this way it looks more quirky and not as dull as just straight and upright boxes, this is again important for a young target audience and all these things could help get their attention and want to read on.
How i set out what was going to be in my magazine i found quite difficult but i found a way that makes everything that is going to be in the magazine like clear and bold and easy for young people to read. I put the column to the right of the page so that when the reader reads the title contents they will then automatically read what will be in the magazine after that because when you read you read going right and then the first thing you would read after the title would be whats in the magazine, this again would help to catch the attention of a young audience. I have put the writing in a different colour for the page numbers so that it is more bold and easy to read so that they can quickly skip to that part of the magazine.
After researching lots of different pop magazine i found that they had lots of competitions and opportunities to win things, so in my pop magazine i wanted to do the same thing because i think this also can have a factor in whether the child wants to buy the magazine. For example if the child sees something that they would really like and there is a possibility of winning it then they might be more likely to buy the magazine. I put prizes to win that i know that the target audience will probably want such as a Nintendo DSi as this is new on the market. I wanted to put pictures of these prizes but i thought it would be better if the images were later on in the magazine and had a whole page to do with prizes this way the reader knows what page the prizes are on from the contents page and will skip to that page.
At the bottom of the page i put a welcome section which says hello to the reader and welcomes them to the magazine basically, i thought this would be a good idea because this is a friendly gesture and i think would be suitable in a children's magazine as they then can have a clearer idea of some of the things that are going to be in the magazine by having someone tell them in an informal way. I have added at the very top of the page, the masthead of the magazine 'POP ROCKS' above the title contents which then reminds the reader of what the magazine is called. I have also used the same font as the masthead for the words 'POP ROCKS' so that this font is recognised to the audience.
This is my double page spread flat plan, as you can see i wanted to create it so it is very bold and eye catching so that my target audience won't just skip past it when they are looking through the magazine. I researched other pop magazines like mine so that i could see how they layed out their double page spreads, i did this so that i could adapt mine to suit the target audience and looking at other magazines like mine really helped me create something that catches my audiences eye.
I wanted to make the background colour pink so that i could create a theme colour for this particular band ' The Queuetee's' as on the front cover their image's background is also pink. I did this so that the audience could link them and know who is being talked about. I thought a good idea would be to use a darker colour to use as the background colour of the boxes that the article will be written in so that it is more bold. I thought having the main image of the band in the middle of the page so that it is the most eye catching part of the page and this also shows the young target audience what the double page spread is going to be about. Also if the audience know who the band is and they are very famous then it will be even more appealing to them and make them want to read the article more. I wanted the 'Queuetee's' part in the heading to be bigger and bolder than the rest of the writing because this is also one of the first things that the audience will see and will make them want to read more if they know who the artist's are.
To give more information that doesn't relate to the actual article i used a different shape to write text in so that it looks more interesting but you can tell that it isn't about the article. This was used to tell the audience about where they are touring and how to get tickets, by doing this the magazine is promoting the band but also informing the audience about what the band are doing. After thinking about how the double page spread was going to look like, i decided to make some changes when i was making the magazine.
I changed the layout quite a lot but i think it benefits it. I moved the main image to the left hand side the the double page spread so that i could fit more of the article in and so it wouldn't be confusing to read especially as i have a young target audience, having all of the article on one side would be easier to read and make sense. I looked at 'Top of the Pops' magazine to see how they did their double page spread layouts and i saw that they mostly kept the article together and had the image to one side. I still wanted to keep the background colour as pink but the only thing i changed was not filling the boxes with the article in a different colour because i couldn't find a colour that would go well with the theme and that would make the text easier to read so i left the boxes blank and transparent so that they are the background colour.
I also moved the circle shaped box that tells the audience about the band touring to the bottom right hand side of the page, this shows the audience that this information isn't about the article but information you might want to know after you have read the article.
The only thing i added to the double page spread was the box and image where you can win a sighed photo of one of the band members, this would attract my target audience because if they are fans of the band then this is something that they would want to win.
I used a font for the title that links with the font used for them on the front page, again i did this to create a link that the audience could recognise.
I wanted to make the background colour pink so that i could create a theme colour for this particular band ' The Queuetee's' as on the front cover their image's background is also pink. I did this so that the audience could link them and know who is being talked about. I thought a good idea would be to use a darker colour to use as the background colour of the boxes that the article will be written in so that it is more bold. I thought having the main image of the band in the middle of the page so that it is the most eye catching part of the page and this also shows the young target audience what the double page spread is going to be about. Also if the audience know who the band is and they are very famous then it will be even more appealing to them and make them want to read the article more. I wanted the 'Queuetee's' part in the heading to be bigger and bolder than the rest of the writing because this is also one of the first things that the audience will see and will make them want to read more if they know who the artist's are.
To give more information that doesn't relate to the actual article i used a different shape to write text in so that it looks more interesting but you can tell that it isn't about the article. This was used to tell the audience about where they are touring and how to get tickets, by doing this the magazine is promoting the band but also informing the audience about what the band are doing. After thinking about how the double page spread was going to look like, i decided to make some changes when i was making the magazine.
I changed the layout quite a lot but i think it benefits it. I moved the main image to the left hand side the the double page spread so that i could fit more of the article in and so it wouldn't be confusing to read especially as i have a young target audience, having all of the article on one side would be easier to read and make sense. I looked at 'Top of the Pops' magazine to see how they did their double page spread layouts and i saw that they mostly kept the article together and had the image to one side. I still wanted to keep the background colour as pink but the only thing i changed was not filling the boxes with the article in a different colour because i couldn't find a colour that would go well with the theme and that would make the text easier to read so i left the boxes blank and transparent so that they are the background colour.
I also moved the circle shaped box that tells the audience about the band touring to the bottom right hand side of the page, this shows the audience that this information isn't about the article but information you might want to know after you have read the article.
The only thing i added to the double page spread was the box and image where you can win a sighed photo of one of the band members, this would attract my target audience because if they are fans of the band then this is something that they would want to win.
I used a font for the title that links with the font used for them on the front page, again i did this to create a link that the audience could recognise.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Fonts. Blog 5
This font is one of five fonts i am going to choose between for the masthead on the front cover of my music magazine. I think this would be a good font to have, but i would like my title to be in all capitals.
This is the second font i looked at for the masthead. I like the way it is very bold and makes a statement and also the way it looks like it has a shadow behind it, but i don't think i goes well with a pop magazine for a younger audience.
This is the third font that i looked at, it is very clear to read and i think would look quite good on the front cover of my pop music magazine, but i think my masthead should be more informal and not so neat.
This is the fourth font i looked at for my magazine. This one looks more informal than the third font, which makes it good for a pop magazine for a younger audience. I don't think this font is bold enough and will be eye catching enough.
Finally this is the font i have chosen for the masthead of my pop music magazine. I think this font is informal enough, creates a good effect with the way it is 3D and i think would be very eye catching to a young audience.All of the fonts i have considered are from the category 'cartoon' on http://www.dafonts.com/. I chose this theme because from looking at different pop music magazines, they all seem to have quite cartoon type mastheads to make the magazine appealing to young people. I have also noticed that the letters in the font on pop magazines are usually slanted or tilted in some way to make it look informal and interesting to young people as well as less intimidating, i think.
This is the first font i looked at to be the font for my main flash head line. I really like the way it looks quite comical and would be good to put in a magazine aimed at younger people because its easy to read and isn't very intimidating. It is bold and very noticeable, which is what i want for a main flash headline.
This is the second font i looked at, it is bold and would be a good font to use colour in for the main flash but it looks too similar to the masthead so i don't think this would be the best font to use, i would like to use something different.
This would defiantly be a good font to use for the main flash because it looks like handwriting which would appeal to a younger audience and is very easy to read. Although i don't think it is bold enough to be the main sell font. 
This is a very easy font to read and looks fairly bold but i think i would like to use a font that looks a bit more interesting. I don't think that this would be eye catching to a younger audience.
This is the font i have chosen to use on the font of my magazine for the main flash. I think it is bold enough and is easy to read for a younger audience. It also looks more interesting than some of the other fonts, but it looks professional enough to put on a magazine.I have looked at five different fonts to see which one would look the best as the main flash font. I came to the conclusion that i would like it to look eye catching but also look professional. I would also like it to be bold and easy to read as it is aimed at a younger audience. All of these fonts i have looked at are in the category 'comic' on the website http://www.dafont.com/. I really like them all but i defiantly think the one that i have chosen for the main flash font is the best one as it will be eye catching to young people.
This is the first font i looked at for the font i am going to use for my main sells. I like this one because it is simple and neat but it is also again easy to read for younger people. It isn't too bold but it is noticeable.
I quite like this font as the main sell font because it is unusual and eye catching if it is in capitals but on the other hand i don't think i would use it because it isn't bold enough and may not be very noticeable on a busy front cover of a pop magazine.
This font is really bold and easy to read but i think it may over power the rest of the front cover and take the attention away from the main flash. I think this would be good if it wasn't so bold. 
This font was from the category 'groovey', i quite like it because it is very different and would be very good to fill in with colour. I think it would be interesting to a younger audience but i don't think it is very easy to read for young people. i would like my font to be clear. 
This is the final font i have chosen for my main sell font, i really like it because it looks quite interesting and is bold but not too bold that it will over power the main flash. I think it would be good to fill in with colour and i think it looks clear and neat which is important for this kind of magazine.I looked at two different categories for choosing the font for my main sells, i looked at 'sans serif' and 'groovey'. I looked at these two because i wanted the font to be clear but interesting. I thought i would look at 'sans serif' first because that is more of a clear and easy to read font but then i thought that it was quite plain and dull, so i looked at 'groovey' which is where i found my font that i will use. I think i made the right choice because it is clear and looks interesting to a younger audience.
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