On my magazine designs i have used similar conventions of a front cover and a double page spreadsheet. For example my title/ masthead on my front cover at the top of the page, it stands out in a separate font and uses up to three different colours to suit the effect of a heavy metal magazine. Also, following the conventions of a front cover, the cover lines match my title/ masthead and suit the theme of the magazine to entertain the audience including the same colours as the title but with a different font.
I have mainly kept the colour theme to my magazine designs so that the whole idea for the audience is to attract people who like heavy metal music. Plus, i have gather the results of my questionnaire which has help me find the write colour for the attraction of a suitable audience for a heavy metal type of music.
Plus, my central image of my front cover is a close-up of the the musician, which i quite normal compared to another magazine, but I took the image of the person playing music at a low-angle, which makes my magazine look different to others. The image of the musician/ main person is not looking at the camera, therefor he is not looking at the audience/ reader which makes him look unique, compared to the rest of the artist that are involved in the magazine. This keeps the audience entertained before they have even looked onto the contents page. For example:
At the top of my front cover, my masthead says 'Unleashed' meaning to unleashed your inner rock soul. It was an idea of my own so that it relates to heavy metal. I'm hoping that this title/masthead inspires the audience and promotes my magazine and persuade the audience/ reader to buy it.
The convention that i challenged was the heavy metal theme, font and language. When researching heavy metal and knowing my cultural knowledge of the music genre itself, i knew some speeches/quotes/ words that some rockers or heavy metal musician would say or use. So then it was hard for me to find a font to the theme but also the words/ sentences i used in my front cover. But before i could find the font, i decided to make it look really dark and Gothic for it to be suitable for the heavy metal theme, i did this so it can look more presentational and more exciting for the representation of the magazine front cover. When i font the right font(s) for my front cover, i also had to choose about 2 separate fonts from the masthead for the cover lines of my front cover design. My main achievement for the design was to attract a suitable audience and to make the reader feel like they are involved in the presented stories and images that are revealed in my magazine designs and not make them feel as though they are reading a T.V guide magazine.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents an audience aged 12-20 who have an interest in heavy metal music. I think that my magazine reveals musicians as an inspiration to the audience/ reader of the magazine which is why my front cover presentation is different to a similar rock magazine.
On the front cover of the magazine there is a picture of a young teenager playing a guitar which fits perfectly into the music genre and the theme of my magazine. Also, its suitable to gain the audience's attention that inspires them to read them magazine. The cover line that says 'Ryan McMannion' is sort of an introduction to the audience, so they know who he is. i think that Ryan represents a lot of teenagers and their favourites types of rock music as he wears the right style to match the magazine. Plus he shows the aspects of young teenage life in their time of music as he has long hair and dark clothing, which evidently does suit heavy metal. On my finished designs, as you can see that Ryan's pictures is the biggest item on my front cover and i think this helps him stand out and reveals the outlook on teenage music. Also, i think i draws the attention of the audience towards the magazine as it looks persuasive and it may be able to communicate to the audience through all the aspects in which he represents himself to teenagers.
When the audience of the magazine look at the front cover i think that they will be inspired by the image of Ryan, judging him as a great, successful young musician trying to reach his full potential in life, searching for his main goal in his career. but if the audience does disagree with that, then that is what my magazine is trying to tell everyone, including the people who aren't interested in heavy metal or rock genre music.
I think that Ryan could be shown as a young successful musician for my target audience because the position of his picture shows that their is music anywhere is any ones life, and you shouldn't be afraid to express your inner musical spirit, and your talent if you have any. The magazine front cover teaches people that not only rock is a great taste fo music but so is edverything else, by reveling the main image of Ryan.
Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Before I started my creating my magazine and whilst i was researching the conventions of different pages in a magazine, i was mainly looking at rock magazines like kerrang and Q published by Bauer, and NME published by I.P.C MEdia. The Media i chose was Bauer, because they publish the kerrang magazine and its successful in everyway possible. Plus, its simialr to my magazine and it relates to my heavy metal theme and my questionnaire and my questionnaire results. Plus, the Bauer Media Group publishes 46 magazines. so it came to my mind that bauer publishes maggazines like kerrang and Q, the audience would be more interested in the product, since that kerrang have a weekly issue. Also, I realised that bauer published magazines are suitable for young teenage audience, that give out news and other interresting events that would attract its suitable audience.
Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product or my magazine designs would be both genders between the age of 12-20. I think this is a good idea to be chosen because all the different types of conventions in heavy metal/ rock music would appeal to this age group. Even though the maximum age is 20 years old, i still think that people at the age of 20 would be interested in rock and the events that would happen around their own area. But under the age of 12, i think that the theme and colour would be too Gothic and graphic for children under the age of 12. The way Ryan is dressed on my front cover would also suit the audience's appearance. The way Ryan's hair is long and straight, but in its own style. plus his clothing is dark and matches with his hair colour, but the hair colour doesn't really matter, just as long as it is a dark colour. The clothing on the front cover is a black jacket with an Iron maiden T-shirt, which gives out that Ryan is also a fan of a rock band and could be a fan of many others. Also, the prop which is a guitar evidently gives out that Ryan is into rock music by the way his guitar is designed and the colour of it, which signifies that he is obviously a guitarist too. The guitar also attracts musicians, people who would be inspired in rock music.
Having Ryan as a main picture on the front cover helps the audience connect to him More because it would be more easier to communicate somehow to someone in the suitable audience if they are the same age, that is why i took a picture of him because he is 16 years old so he an elate to people younger than him, from experience, and the older side of the audience can relate to him from experience, also connecting with advice and other things that they know between Ryan and the audience. Also, its very likely hat most teenage musicians would be around in Ryan's local area to purchase this magazine on a mothly or possibly a weekly issue. The images for this questions are some examples of teenagers that have the same style as Ryan, the way thier hair is, and there clothing, they are all similar to the picture of Ryan on the front cover, and a perfect example of an audience.
Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Well my audience was based on my magazine theme but the opinions i have heard so far would probably think that the magazine is interesting and attractive.
My masthead and cover lines attract my target audience because of the features i have chosen that would match the theme.
Ryan who is the artist on the front cover is an inspiration to the target audience because one of his quotes from the interview is "Rock hard or die" which reveals the imaginary idea that he is a symbol of rock.
Also the font on the all of my designs have a Gothic type, which is another attraction to the suitable audience. The thought of this would also be suitable to the magazine even though it is based round the rock genre of music.
My music magazine attracts my target audience by its entertaining colour scheme. I have kept to a professional layout which also helps attract readers.
I got some feedback for my magazine by interviewing at least 2 people that have thier own opinions on my magazine designs. Plus, they also menton some of there thoughts on improvements which could possibly help me make my design look alot better.
Interviews
My masthead and cover lines attract my target audience because of the features i have chosen that would match the theme.
Ryan who is the artist on the front cover is an inspiration to the target audience because one of his quotes from the interview is "Rock hard or die" which reveals the imaginary idea that he is a symbol of rock.
Also the font on the all of my designs have a Gothic type, which is another attraction to the suitable audience. The thought of this would also be suitable to the magazine even though it is based round the rock genre of music.
My music magazine attracts my target audience by its entertaining colour scheme. I have kept to a professional layout which also helps attract readers.
I got some feedback for my magazine by interviewing at least 2 people that have thier own opinions on my magazine designs. Plus, they also menton some of there thoughts on improvements which could possibly help me make my design look alot better.
Interviews
Q6. What have you learnt about the techniques from the process of construction of this product?
Well before i started the construction of my magazine i knew the basic things on the similar programs i used for my designs. Throughout this period of time i managed to know the basic of other programs like QuarkxPress and Photoshop. This made my magazine front cover look professional and gave it a great look to the audience, mainly my front cover was used for Photoshop and my contents page was used for QuarkxPress.
When i first started using Photoshop i already knew some basic stuff on the program from similar Adobe programs like Adobe Illustrator. But with Photoshop i learnt that you can change the colour, brightness and the effect of the image. Plus i also learnt that you can divide other images by separate layers which could help the user of the program. Photoshop was a really good use to me and using the tools like the quick selection tool, the eye dropper and the crop tool. Some of the others tools in Photoshop did seem to help my work look alot better but it was more about changing the settings of the image.
These are all the tools in Photoshop:
I also figured out the methods that can be used on the QuarkxPress program that i used for my contents page and double page spreadsheet. Basically this program was easy to use because even though you can put images onto your design, it helps you guide the images and texts to wherever you want so that it makes your pages look a magazine designs.
Both of these programs are really helpful and they are the reason why my designs look professionally well done, hopefully these programs would help me create other designs in the future.
Q7.Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before creating a music magazine we were given a task to create a preliminary task to create a college magazine which consisted of creating a front cover and a contents page. This task was merely set so we could become more familiar with working in the QuarkxPress and Photoshop.
In the past i have used Photoshop before but i have never used QuarkxPress, so this kind of made my designs easier for me, because in comparison the programs are not that difficult to use because both of the programs have the same tools which helps a design look better. But with QuarkxPress its more of a guide for images and text, which is why my designs look professional. In the progression time between the preliminary task and the full product of the music magazine designs, i feel that i can used Photoshop a lot better and that it has improved my skills on creative programming for a media situation. Overall i think producing my music magazine has been really successful and i am really pleased with the outcome.
Well before i started the construction of my magazine i knew the basic things on the similar programs i used for my designs. Throughout this period of time i managed to know the basic of other programs like QuarkxPress and Photoshop. This made my magazine front cover look professional and gave it a great look to the audience, mainly my front cover was used for Photoshop and my contents page was used for QuarkxPress.
When i first started using Photoshop i already knew some basic stuff on the program from similar Adobe programs like Adobe Illustrator. But with Photoshop i learnt that you can change the colour, brightness and the effect of the image. Plus i also learnt that you can divide other images by separate layers which could help the user of the program. Photoshop was a really good use to me and using the tools like the quick selection tool, the eye dropper and the crop tool. Some of the others tools in Photoshop did seem to help my work look alot better but it was more about changing the settings of the image.
These are all the tools in Photoshop:
I also figured out the methods that can be used on the QuarkxPress program that i used for my contents page and double page spreadsheet. Basically this program was easy to use because even though you can put images onto your design, it helps you guide the images and texts to wherever you want so that it makes your pages look a magazine designs.
Both of these programs are really helpful and they are the reason why my designs look professionally well done, hopefully these programs would help me create other designs in the future.
Q7.Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before creating a music magazine we were given a task to create a preliminary task to create a college magazine which consisted of creating a front cover and a contents page. This task was merely set so we could become more familiar with working in the QuarkxPress and Photoshop.
In the past i have used Photoshop before but i have never used QuarkxPress, so this kind of made my designs easier for me, because in comparison the programs are not that difficult to use because both of the programs have the same tools which helps a design look better. But with QuarkxPress its more of a guide for images and text, which is why my designs look professional. In the progression time between the preliminary task and the full product of the music magazine designs, i feel that i can used Photoshop a lot better and that it has improved my skills on creative programming for a media situation. Overall i think producing my music magazine has been really successful and i am really pleased with the outcome.
