Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79NMTdmgyGs

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2x-NSZ5Mpg

Question 4 & 5: Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

Audience for the Product 

As mentioned before i think my magazine is of greater interest to those who have interest in rap music. Its mainly for urban music, with a black African American style. I think this will be more eye catching for a male audience, because of the style of music and some female pictures that would be presented within the magazine. The age range for this would be roughly 16-24 or so i reckon. I think my audience would also have interest in fashion, music channels especially BET( Black entertainment TV) and even other various types of magazines. I would say that some of them would spend their time trying to get into the hip-hop industry trying to make their own music to be like the rappers that are already there right now. 

I would say that roughly 80% of the magazine is targeted at a male audience, with the median age of 27 and maybe around 40% of college buyers. 

Most of the readership are of a young age meaning they are very involved with technology the latest sites and social networking. Twitter has become very popular even most of the celebrities have this, and some of the issues and stories of celebrities they would already be familiar with them from this. Some of them even follow these celebrities meaning that if they are presented with a magazine on more information of their favourite rapper or artist they would be more than willing to take a deeper look into it. 

I've had to make some assumptions of the type of things that my audience would like to see by looking at other magazines( mode of address).I think I mainly found it a lot easier to make this product because the particular genre of my magazine is the type of music that I have an interest in. I focused on some of my interests that would also be of interest of other readers. I looked at what's in style at the moment making sure that my magazine keeps up with the world changes. I think most of the readership of this magazine would be very into music and the celebrity culture life. I made sure that my magazine includes the basic type of artists and stuff that would even be presented on music channels. Enticing them also by featuring some of the main singers and rapper e.g Kanye West, Rihanna and ASAP Rocky, even though there are limited amounts of features, it is still a point of interest to the audience. 

Question 3 : What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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

Bauer Media 

Bauer Verlagsgruppe has been managed by four generations of the Bauer family. Originally a small printing house, The Bauer Publishing Group has grown into a worldwide publishing and media company. The Bauer Publishing Group comprises 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started in the UK with the launch of Bella magazine in 1987 and as H Bauer Publishing became Britain's third largest publisher.



Another company would be IPC it produces magazines that target everyone, both male and females magazines but women essentially as their target audience. Most of their magazines like the ones in the IPC connect division focus on Fashion, Women's lifestyle,Home interest. They have associated with Marie Claire, Look, Ideal home, woman and and the popular magazine NME.




Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio - widely recognised and rewarded as being industry innovators. It has a lot of knowledge of the music industry, because of this it is They have a lot of knowledge and understanding of how a successful music magazine should be like. I think that the types of genres of music/ types they are likely to publish would be ones that are currently popular. Them keeping up to date and relevant, means that they are more likely to entice a bigger audience likely to be able to run a music magazine efficiently. I think this institution would be pretty good for my magazine because they already work along side a lot of companies, even though they are not the same type of genre. 

I reckon my magazine would be something different that they could introduce to other readers. It attracts a different type of audience, could be a way of filling some of the missing blanks that the company may have, to introduce a different styled product to other people as well. I think it would be a success 
because its pretty relevant with the way that music is nowadays.

Question 2 : How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Who have you included images of ? 

One of the first things about my front cover is the social group that is represented. I choose to base my magazine around the black American music industry and how they are portrayed. My magazine if mainly represents urban type of music and I think that the image I captured was a good way of presenting this. I decided to photograph a male as I felt that it shows a lot more dominance and power and most of them make they music because of their previous experiences, so they are showing how their lifestyle has sculpted them to the person that they now are. For my contents page I added various images, the main image being of a female. I decided to add this in as it shows some side sexual appeal to the male readers. 

How have you posed them/ dressed them? 

When it came to the dressing I just got my model to dress in something simple, this is mainly because most of the r&b rappers and singers don't mainly tend to over dress. They mainly just have the typical flat cap or beanie hat, and the most popular shoes within that season. I wanted to keep the simplicity as I thought it would also work well with my choice of colours. With my female model I got her to dress in something a bit tight but still covered to sculpt her body frame a bit. When it comes to the pose of the model, I just got them to move as if they were rapping in a music video and just captured some of the shots. I thought that this worked well and I was able to capture the right feel that the magazine should have. On the double page spread I had my model in a praying position mainly because this is a typical pose that most of the rappers tend to do. 

What does your mise-en-scene communicate about the people (social group) represented? 

I have kept the lighting and the placing of the picture very simple and relaxed because this is how this type of genre of music is communicated to people. In comparison to a rock music magazine it is much more calm and relaxed whereas with a rock magazine the placing and lighting would be a lot more drastic. 

How does your product represent its target audience? 

Hip hop has been stereotypically represented for black people, and I think this is a type of product that would capture peoples attention. This type of genre is increasing its popularity and dominance in the music industry.

Have you done anything different from other representations from within your magazines genre?

I have followed it to keep the professionalism of the magazine but I have also challenged it to show the originality and difference of my magazine. 

Does the representation you offer challenge or support dominant ideas about your social group?

I think mine most definitely supports the type of social group that I am directing this towards. I have followed the way that most of the same type of magazines present and attract them. I have fitted in the American type of culture, even with some of the words that are in the magazines, not overly but its some that can be related to. 

Question 1: In what ways does your product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Introduction to Evaluation Questions

I have now completed my work. The next few posts will be of my evaluation questions. Within my evaluation I will be presenting my skills in the use of technology and ICT. I will be describing the development and process I went through to achieve my final product. 

Final Double Page Spread

 This is my final Double Spread after all the changes. I agree that this now looks a lot more realistic in structure and represents the way in which professional magazines are presented. 

The above image looks slightly pixelated here are some images of the view of both pages. 

Feedback: Double Page Spread

"Once again this is great quality work ! Re-consider the layout of your double page, Think of how a magazine would fold, I think you would find that some of your text would disappear." 

I did notice that my double page was not proportionally correct, and thinking realistically the magazine would not come out well. I am going to reconstruct my double page spread so that it shows a true representation of an actual one, treating it as though it is actually going to get published. 

My Double Page Spread

This is what I managed to make for my double page spread. I enjoyed making this and it look me a very short time when it came to making this. I got most of the inspiration of the fonts from other magazines. Most of it was all down  to creativity. I am very impressed with how the images turned out I think that these were more than perfect for this, and the difference of the background colour from the other ones is pretty good making sure it varies unlike just staying the same colour through out. I still managed to use the same type of colour scheme for this like the ones that i used for the front cover. I think that what I have produced is something that could actually be seen in existing magazines.  

Final Contents Page

I recieved feedback from my initial final outcome of my contents page. It was said to have been constructed very well and followed structure of a realistic magazine. However I had a few changes that I had to make. Some of the smaller sets of images that I had included where not mine, so I had to replace them with my own images.

Here is my final outcome! I think that this is a very realistic contents page and it works well with my double page and front cover of the magazine.

My Contents Page

This is the final look of my contents page. I decided to use a different image for this as with existing magazines it is very unlikely that the same person would appear on almost every page of the magazine. Even though i previously wanted to use an image of the same person again I think that this works out a lot better.I love the way that it has all turned out, I have still manages to keep the main colour schemes there. 

Contents & Double Page Spreads

I have decided to do some research into contents pages and double page spreads, I thought this would be a good idea so that I at least have an idea of what I could do and looking at how the ones of existing magazines look like. I thought that this would be a good in sight for me to be able to make mine successful when I come round to doing it. One of the contents pages that I took a look at was from Vibe magazine ( one to the left) and then the other is from MixMag, I love the way that they are both presented and the different styles that they have. I think they are both very visually appealing. Since I am going for a Urban type of style I think that something like the Vibe magazine contents page would be much more relevant for the style of genre. 

For the double page spreads I looked at one from XXL magazine ( one ontop) and I also took a look at NME magazine one the one with Nicki Minaj. I must say i love the way that they are both laid out, NME magazine one being my favourite. The main images say a lot and they are very appealing. I have also noticed from this that colour scheme is an important aspect and can bring across a different message. From looking at this I now have a few ideas of the type of double page spread that I would like to create, I am actually looking forward to doing this. 

Final Magazine Cover

This is my final magazine cover. I must say I do agree that the close up image works a lot better on a magazine. He is now the main subject within the cover as opposed to being very distant. As you can see the cover lines and taglines are still pretty much the same as previous design. Some fonts are now a bit different and the magazine logo font size is now much bigger. Before I had not placed a bar code and now after placing it, it looks more like an actual magazine front cover.

Feedback: Magazine Cover

Feedback from my Media teacher : 
" Very nice work, really comes up to professional quality. My main concern is the main image its very distant whereas magazine covers tend to have a close up shot. I'm sure you have a lot more images you took that you can work with. Where's the bar code ?" 

I really considered my feedback and decided to look at magazine covers once again. I noticed that close up images are most featured and there was literally no use of the type of shot that I had chosen. This is something that's a fundamental point in the making of a magazine cover that I had clearly ignored. And I also didn't incorporate a bar code. I was not too keen on making the following changes but I think its something that needs to be done. 

My Front cover

This is the final outcome of my magazine front cover. my main inspiration when making this was from xxl magazine, I completely love the style of this magazine. I selected red black and white to be my colour scheme, I think that this works out very well, and there seems to be something that is very edgy about all the colours together. As I mentioned before I want to keep the simplicity there and I have managed to do so. The front cover is not at all bombarded with endless cover lines but they are all in moderation to the image. This is good because it means that the readers don't have to read a lot but instead the cover lines are quick, direct and easy to understand. I think the image also represents the genre of the magazine very well. I am very pleased with the way that this turned out. 

Music Magazine: Research & Planning

MUSIC MAGAZINES RESEARCH 

Task: You are now at the stage where you need to complete research and planning tasks which are specific to music magazines. You must conduct research into the product and target audience. You must relate your research to your own product. 

  ............................................................

Research:Different Genres 

These four magazines represent different kinds of music genres. Each genre can be clearly recognised from the style of fonts and from the celebrity that is on the front cover. KERRANG
has a masthead with shattered font, the layout, the rest of the font  and the artists on the cover clearly represent that is it a rock magazine. I like the style of the rest of the three magazines ( billboard, NME and VIBE). The way that they are laid out and the style of the magazines is the type of style that i am looking to go for, for my magazine. I am very much into rap/ urban mainstream music and i think using these three as ideas could help me to make my magazine a success. I have done some further research into other magazines such as XXL, and this has helped me to gain more ideas of that i could potentially use. 

The main image on this magazine is of Wiz Khalifa and his partner. They are iconic in the music world and having them there makes it easy for the audience to recognise them. From seeing him it is easy for the audience to recognise what they would expect to see in the magazine and the type of genre that would be contained within. I think this type of magazine is not for older adults but mainly for the older range of teenagers and young adults. It clearly doesnt cater for those of a young age as it seems a bit too explicit or in some way grown for them.

I know the basic style that I would like for the presentation of the front cover and now I have to think of the type of cover lines that I could have. Most magazines tend to have the name of the artist on the magazine so that its easy for those who are reading to know what they could be expecting to read about in the magazine. I don't really want to have a lot of cover lines, I want the image of the front cover the centre of attention of the magazine. With this magazine i like the positioning of Rihanna's name with the large font, with the Chris Browns name added to it aswell, they are a very hot topic and the audience will easily understand what will be in the magazine. 
I will also need to take into consideration the type of audience that I'm trying to appeal to and whether the cover lines and picture will be the type that would appeal to them. For example if I was targeting it to males putting a picture of a girl with a lustful pose is something that would draw them to the magazine unlike a family image.

Ideas for my Music Magazine

So for this task I will be designing a music magazine the magazine will mainly be based on urban music. So my target audience is for those who are interested in this type of music and for young people and young adults, mainly the ages of 16-25 or so. This is to be a magazine with a lot of entertainment, filled with celebrity gossip, fashion trends, top music charts and insights into a celebrity (one on the front cover). I have thought of a few cover lines that I could possibly use for the magazine front cover such as " tunes that are a must", "change to win tickets to see your fav artist" or "Lil wanyes disses Kanye". They are all simple but could really entice potential readers to look at the magazine. Its important that I do all I can to catch their attention as the music magazine is a very competitive market and there are plenty of music magazines that are successful. I want to be able to indicate the success of each magazine and find a way that I can apply it to my own one.


 I have to also take a look at a lot of Masthead names and consider my own ones, the ones that I have thought of so far are "DMX"  "WAVE" and "UNLEASHED. I am not too sure yet whether I am definitely going to use them, I want a name that is pretty short. I want a name that appeals to the reader and one that is also memorable and unique. The look of the magazine is a very important aspect, especially the main image, I want it to be very eye catching. 

The colour schemes, image and fonts are all very important and need to be taken into account. With whatever I choose to do I want to make sure that the magazine will still be relevant for both males and females, for the style of magazine that I want to do, for it to be successful I can't just categorise the gender. I will also need to take into consideration how I am going to take the picture this including the black ground colour of the image. I will also need to look at when I would be looking to publish the magazine and how often that would be. I reckon that they would come out pretty often, as there are always stories going around and different types of trends and seasons changing every now and again. 

College Magazine Contents page

I want my contents page to be very closely linked in some way with the front cover. I think I will make sure that I follow the same type of colour scheme. I still want it to be different and not like the usual boring layouts that some college magazines may contain. I have done a bit of research and looked at some contents pages. I mainly took at look at the contents pages of NME magazine, reason being I love the simplicity and its a type of type that I wouldn't mind having for my contents page and I'm sure that everyone reading the magazine would be in favour of it. 

Final Contents Page  

This is the final design that I have done for my contents page. It has the simplicity that I wanted, and I managed to keep some of the colours of the lines on the front cover on the contents page as well. I am sure that I could have possibly added a few more things to it. I don't really think that I followed the style of the NME contents page, I'd just say that looking at it was just a form of inspiration. I am pleased with the way that it turned out. 

College Front Cover

Getting started with me college magazine 

This is the appearance of my magazine so far. I had a few studio shots taken and out of all the ones that were taken i thought this one would be the most relevant one for this magazine. Its different looks a bit edgy ,modern and i think it makes the magazine look a bit more interesting. I had to use a bit of photoshop to edit the image so that it has the tone that it has right now. 

I went for a big and bold font in the end i decided to call the magazine "COOLAGE" something a bit out of the ordinary, simple and easy to remember. The imagine and some of the text had some dull colours and didn't really have much that would pop up to the reader. So because of this i decided to add a few lines with colours, it was simple but yet it gave the magazine an instant pop, a great look for it. I am still yet to consider what other types of coverlines that i would like to add to the magazine. 

I am actually very pleased with the presentation of my magazine so far. I think its very unique there are still a few things that I am yet to add, and i am considering playing around with some of the colours just to make sure that they are the way that i want them to be like. 

This is my final front cover now completed, I have changed just a few things one thing being the colour of the splat. I am very impressed with the way that it has turned out, I think that it is something that will be appealing to audience that I'm targeting. There isn't much of a great deal of difference to the first draft of the front cover to the final one. I think that's because i was already pretty pleased with what I had produced so I didn't see that there was much that I could have changed. During the making of the magazine cover I still continued to look through other examples of college magazines just for a bit of inspiration and to help me spot the typical trends that I didn't want to appear on mine. I decided to change the colour of the splat, this is because I wanted it to pop out and to be clear and noticeable so I thought the change in colour did just this. I decided to put '' 157 ultimate winter activities" because its very eye catching and could be something of interest to the college age readers. " Revise Strive" I thought this was something pretty simple but of interest, linked with something within the magazine to inspire college students to do well and work hard to strive. 

Task 5:College Magazine Research

My task is to design a college magazine. I have taken a look at some former college magazines, most based on a specific college but i intend on making my magazine relevant to anyone from any college or those looking for a college. So this will mainly be relevant for those between the ages of 16-18 but will also include some pages with adult courses and information. I am going to be focusing on the college lifestyle how to make it enjoyable and productive and helping them to find a college that is close to them. I am also going to be looking at the things that they should take into consideration when choosing a college. I do not intend on favouring another college in comparison to another this will just be a viewing of each one and what they have to offer. With the appearance of the magazine i will need to take into consideration taglines, coverlines, the main image and masthead. I want the magazine to be very relaxed more of a source of entertainment, i will do this by focusing on seasonal subjects or activities, and discount offers that would be available to them as students.  I have thought of some coverlines like "summer madness" or "revise strive", just simple but yet engaging. I want people to see it as something different a magazine that is actually relevant to each individual, filled with context that anyone can relate to, kind of just like a normal magazine but education based. I am going to take a wide look into other magazines before considering what i want to do for mine exactly. I have to also consider different types of titles for the magazine, one that is memorable. I don't want to go for the ordinary classical college magazine names, i want something that stands out and is seen as something unique, i am yet to think of some possibilities. I will also take a look at different fonts because as much as the name is important so is the font, it could really show the potential success of the magazine. I want to keep all the things within it modern based so i will have to take a look at different types of fonts. 

The overall look of my magazine is very important, all the colours, fonts and images all contribute to how appealing it will be to someone. If its just dull, boring and very information based it is very unlikely that it will be looked at by most people especially of that age. I want it to be for a broad audience, so i can't just have context that will only be relevant to females otherwise it will only be relevant to them. I want to use a variety of colours and images so that both males and females will take on interest. My magazine will be aimed at college students and also people that might be taking University courses at the college. I want the magazine to represent the culture of college, and to show the different diverse groups within the college and the different interests that people have, so that almost everyone is in favor of it.

As i have mentioned earlier on i would like to have seasonal subjects within the magazine, so when it comes to publishing i think it would be best to make it termly. I don't want them to be published to frequently that it would end up being a bore to people, but i want it to be an excitement something to look forward to. This would also work efficiently especially considering events and holidays that could be happening at the time. 

Here is are some examples of the type of work i would like to produce.