Evaluating my product

Forms and conventions
I originally based my magazine design on a well known music magazine called Mojo. I did not base my magazine on the type of music that was featured in it but just on the layout as I think Mojo is mainly aimed at males and I wanted my magazine to be aimed at females.
Mojo inspired my type of fonts that I used (Viper nora) and also the way in which sections of font are boxed with a block colour rectangle behind them. I wanted to create a magazine which was different and unique as there are not many music magazines that are aimed directly at teenage girls.













I also wanted my magazine to have a casual view of music and I think basing my layout on the layout of Mojo was a perfect choice as the way everything is layed out looks very casual. The boxed text makes it look like it has been thrown on the page casualy.
I have a similar colour scheme to the one on the Mojo cover shown as it uses black, white and pink which is also featured in my own magazine.
I chose these colours as they work well together and they stand out extremely well.
For my featured artist (P!nk), I decided to create my own version of her trademark. I downloaded a font off a website called dafont.com called Billo which made the word "P!nk" look really realistic as a logo because of the star on the exclamation mark and the doodle circles on the letter P. This is also similar to the cover of Mojo as mojo have placed the "Sex Pistol's" trademark font on the front of their cover to feature the band.





On the cover, I overlapped the main image over the magazine title (Berry) as Mojo also does this. So do the majority of other magazines. I think it is because the company is expecting the same readers to buy the latest issue every month or so which connotes that the magazine is well known.

For my title of the magazine (Berry), I downloaded a font also from dafont.com called Viper nora as it was similar to the font used in the rectangle boxes down the right had side of Mojo. I liked this font as it was not just a clean clear font but had a worn, casual look about it which went with my magazine's casual attitude to music.







What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?


I have chosen IPC media to distribute my magazine as it has a gap in it's distribution of music magazines and they don't sell enough magazines aimed at directly at teenagers. They tend to use magazines to attract middle age and older adults, using magazines such as...






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So they could benefit from opening their instution to a wider age range of people.
How did I attract/adress my audience?
My target audience are girls aged between 15 to about 17 years old. I used a pink background to appeal to girls as pink is stereotypically known as a girl's colour. I also chose to feature a woman artist to be the main feature on the front of my magazine which would give the idea the magazine is for girls.
P!nk is stereotypically an artist girls listen to.

Social groups
I decided to show girls with a good image by choosing an artist who is well known as a good role model for girs to look up to. In my interview I discussed the topic of P!nk being a good role model. Also by choosing P!nk for the front of the magazine connotes that this magazine is not a "Girly girl" magazine as P!nk is a rock singer.
The viper nora font I used also connotes a sort of "no ones perfect" look about it as it looks quite worn and is not perfectly neat.
What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constucting this product?
For my first version of my cover I used macromedia fireworks but I found it confusing as I am used to using adobe photshop.I don't regret trying fireworks though as I have learnt how to use it but I just preffer photoshop.
I decided to use photoshop and create a new version of my cover. I was more confident creating my cover, contents page and article on photoshop as I was more used to it and it also meant I could work on it from home as I had photoshop on my own computer. I have learnt more about photoshop whilst completing my product and creating this product has also made me think about how real magazines are produced.
I have also improved my ability to cut around images and manipulate them on photoshop since I started creating my product.
I have learnt how to use blogger to record my progress. I liked using blogger as it is easy and practical so you can simply just update the blog after every media lesson. I liked how you could create separate posts for different topics which was good as it meant that I could keep my work organised and in order of when I produced it.

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




I think from looking back at my preliminary task, I have definitley inproved my way of laying out a magazine to make it look like a real magazine. As you can see on my preliminary task, I wasn't really aware of why I was putting text in certain places and I was only concerned about filling up empty space on the cover.

When I researched already existing magazines for my main task, I started to understand more about why it is formated and layed out in a certain way instead of just being put on a cover. This helped me a lot on how to structure my cover so that it could be better than my preliminary task. I also now feel more confident with photoshop than I did when I was completing my preliminary task which is good as I felt more confident on trying out new ideas on my cover, contents and article.

I have also learnt more about the use of images and photography. On my preliminary task, I only considered one image and did not realise that it would be better to take more and evaluate the photographs I had taken. I also did not think a lot about the pose of the model as much and the reasons behind that pose as much as I did for the main task.

For the main task I feel that I have picked better colours that match together well, whereas on my preliminary, the colours don't work as well together and not much matched. For instance, on my main task I took into consideration what colour clothes to be wearing on the image to make sure it matched and blended in well with the colours used and on the preliminary, the colours of clothing in the photograph don't blend well with the background although I may have reasons why I showed that particular clothing.

Creating my magazine article

This is a plan of what I want my article to look like.

I have kept the plan quite simple and easy but it will hopefully look effective.

To keep the house style going, I have kept the same background colour and font colours.

I have also kept similar images to my front cover.

I am still using images of the same person (P!nk) as that is my featured artist and that is who the article is about.






















I decided to smile on these pictures even though on the cover and contents page the face expressions are quite serious. I made the article photos slightly different as the article is revealing more about P!nk and letting the reader into more of her life and to know what is underneathe the "attitude" image. The smiling image lets you know who the real P!nk is underneath all of the media.


I decided to use the 1st image as my main image for the article as I think the other two photos don't look like they would be used in a magazine as they are too laid back and normal. The 1st photo still has a sense of seriousness in the face expression but only slightly.

I manipulated the photograph on photoshop by altering the contrast to make it brighter and I cut around it for my article page.



















I decided to put P!nk's "trademark logo" at the top of the page so as soon as the reader turns the page they are aware of who the article is about. It also adds to my house style by using the same logo throughout the magazine.

I also put the main image directly underneath the trademark for the same effect.



I think this works well as it has a large impact when you turn the page because of the colour intensity as the image is quite bright.

Also, the artist that is featured usualy has a medium close up image of themselves on the page as when I looked at examples this is what they tended to do.

I also used two smaller pictures on my article page to look like photo booth pictures to add a bit of fun to the page.

I made these photos more laid back and casual to give the impression of a photo booth style.
I manipulated these photos slightly on photoshop to make them brighter.

I put white boxes underneath them to make them look more like little photo booth images. I also moved one of the images to become slanted to make it look like they had been casually placed there.







For the font of the article, I used the same font as the cover and contents page to continue the house style of my magazine.
I used black font for the questions asked in the interview with "P!nk" and pink font for "P!nk's" answers.
I used the exact same colour font as the trademark I created for P!nk as it matches the whole "P!nk image"
The black font colour of the questions matches the colour of the image as the necklace of "P!nk" is black and the top she is wearing is pink which also mathces with the pink font.
Fot writing the actual article, I tried to make the style of answers quite chatty as if P!nk were really talking to someone.

I placed my questions and answewrs in two colums as this is usualy the format in magazines of the text when an article is shown.
I used questions such as
"Did you feel like there was loads of pressure to act a certain way when you were in your teens?"
as this question is directly aimed at teenagers which would interest my target audience. Also, having a well

known celebrity talk about things that she has experienced that normal teenage girls may be experiencing is good as they would be interested to read it and may be happy that someone they look up to also experienced these things.
I made the answers to the question quite detailed as if she were really talking to someone. I am really pleased with my written article as I think my made up answers as "P!nk" are quite realistic.

This is my finnished article which I am really pleased with as I think it looks quite realistic.

I put the main section of blurb at the top in the middle of the double page spread to make it look like there is a real split where the staples are usualy placed in a magazine.

I think the boxed quotes next to the image work well and it also keeps the house style going by boxing the text.
The fact that the quotes are placed right next to the image signify that that is who is saying the quotes.

I drew a line down the centre of the page and then used the blur tool to blur it to make it look like the crease in the middle of a magazine to make it look more realistic.