Finished Music Magazine

Question Seven

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

A copious amount of progress has been made since my preliminary task, which is evident throughout its design in comparison to my psychedelic music magazine. Such advancements include my ability to enhance:

• ·         Images, through the use of editing by using colourful filters, enhancing their appearance by making them stand out more. These colours will also appeal to my target audience who respond to bright, colourful imagery very well. I also used the liquefy tool on Photoshop to distort the faces of my models, conveying a psychedelic trip. This taught me about attention to detail and how to use the tool with care in order to achieve the effects I wanted.

• ·         Embedding designs, such as inserting drawn pictures of flowers and recolouring, resizing and positioning them in order to ensure they work with the layout of my magazine.

• ·         Adding gradients, such as within text boxes and backgrounds, this uses anchorage in order to make the text stand out more and to add another dimension of aesthetic value to my design, whilst appealing to my target audience who enjoy interesting textures that are not plain.

• ·         Outlining text, to make it easier to read and to stand out more, to separate it from the background of the design. This also develops the house style of my magazine, with bold text running throughout.

Overall, this magazine looks more aesthetically pleasing and professionally finished. The magazine is also more audience enticing, with the use of better suited images and content.

Question Six

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? from joy g

Question Five

How do you attract/address your audience?

I attract my audience with the use of bright colours and artistic designs present throughout my magazine. The mode of address used is colloquial and entertaining, with references to drugs and government mockery. All of these features are attractive to my target audience of fun-loving, government-disliking hippies. This style is also present in real world psychedelic music magazines, showing that this is indeed what will attract my target audience.

Features like this can be found in my:

• ·         Front cover, through the use of psychedelic colours, because they will appeal to my target audience who would be interested in the psychedelic scene.

• ·         Contents page, through the use of relevant articles for my target audience.

• ·         Language, through the use of appropriate subject specific words and phrases.

• ·         Images, through the use of imagery that illustrates the topics discussed in the articles.

• ·         And my double page spread, through the use of interesting and relevant language, talking about topics such as hallucinations and mind bending experiences; which I know appeals to my audience as my research has shown that the majority of my audience read these type of topics.

Question Four

Question Three

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

Publishers that would publish my magazine are going to be those who are interested in particularly the classic rock or psychedelic genre, such as Bauer Media that publish Mojo and Rolling Stone. These magazines are known for including bands that are also present in my magazine, such as David Bowie, Paul McCartney, et cetera; therefore making it more likely that they would take interest in my magazine.

However, as Bauer Media is not known for publishing independent magazines, perhaps it would be better for me to go with The Wire, whom are a publishing company that publish independent, niche products.

Question Two

Question One

Question One from joy g

Music Magazine Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Slideshare)

My magazine includes conventions such as a bold masthead, inspired by other psychedelic magazines, as they, too usually contain bold mastheads; plentiful in colour and eye catching designs. Coverlines have also been used to attract my target audience, such as offering them a list of “The 10 Trippiest Records”; my stereotypical target audience are known for listening to trippy records which will help entice them into buying the magazine to read that particular article. A central image consisting of two unconventionally dressed band members of a genre suited to my target audience, with added art and image manipulation (colour, shape of faces). This will appeal to my target audience as the band members should reflect how the majority of my audience look, therefore making it relatable and interesting for them. A splash, containing the words “An exclusive interview with The Psychic Cats”, meaning that the audience only find that interview in this magazine, therefore they will need to buy it to find out what it is about. A barcode is also featured, which is present in the corner of any real world magazine. All of these conventions can be found in real world magazines. My double page spread includes a bold title, photographs of alternatively clothed band members, and an interview; which includes appropriate mode of address to my target audience of the young, psychedelic scene, along with references to hallucinations, which stereotypically appeals to my audience. My contents page includes a Contents title, photographs suited to the contents, text describing the contents of the pages, and page numbers. Brand identity and house style are continuous throughout my magazine, with similar colours and fonts used throughout.

    2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Prezi)

My music magazine represents individuals who are interested in psychedelic and hippy culture. My magazine appeals to this audience through the use of:

• Bright colours; found throughout the magazine, in images, text boxes and backgrounds, stereotypically representing the aesthetic of my target audience.
• Artistic designs; such as drawings of flowers and edits made to the faces of the people on the front cover. I know these appeal to my target audience as the psychedelic magazines (such as OZ, i-D, and some editions of Intro, Time, and People) I researched contained lots of colourful, natural art. These are known to represent artistic & hippy people, as they contain bright colours and natural art  which is what the psychedelic scene is all about.
• Colloquial mode of address; such as "trip ooout" and "time is all a bit wavey and merged together". Phrases such as these are commonly used among my target audience, along with being plentiful in other psychedelic magazines. This makes the magazine both relatable and entertaining for the reader.  This method is a cliché of my target audience, however I think it will appeal to my target audience as they are known to like this type of language, despite it being a stereotype.

    3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (Video)

Publishers that would publish my magazine are going to be those who are interested in particularly the classic rock or psychedelic genre, such as Bauer Media that publish Mojo and Rolling Stone. These magazines are known for including bands that are also present in my magazine, such as David Bowie, Paul McCartney, et cetera; therefore making it more likely that they would take interest in my magazine.

However, as Bauer Media is not known for publishing independent magazines, perhaps it would be better for me to go with The Wire, whom are a publishing company that publish independent, niche products.

    4. Who would be the audience for your media product? (Publisher)

The audience for my music magazine would be "hippies", people who are interested in the psychedelic/rock genre and aesthetic. Their age could range from 16 to 26, so I have made sure that my magazine is suited to that range of age groups, via the use of language and imagery. People of any gender could take interest in my magazine; however, sex, drugs and rock & roll primarily attract male audiences, meaning that the majority of my target audience will be male. So, in theory, my magazine will be catering to an audience of 60% males, aged between 16 and 26 (most prominently 16-20), who are interested in the psychedelia and hippy scene.

    5. How do you attract/address your audience? (Video)

I attract my audience with the use of bright colours and artistic designs present throughout my magazine. The mode of address used is colloquial and entertaining, with references to drugs and government mockery. All of these features are attractive to my target audience of fun-loving, government-disliking hippies. This style is also present in real world psychedelic music magazines, showing that this is indeed what will attract my target audience.

Features like this can be found in my:

·         Front cover, through the use of psychedelic colours, because they will appeal to my target audience who would be interested in the psychedelic scene.

·         Contents page, through the use of relevant articles for my target audience.

·         Language, through the use of appropriate subject specific words and phrases.

·         Images, through the use of imagery that illustrates the topics discussed in the articles.

·         And my double page spread, through the use of interesting and relevant language, talking about topics such as hallucinations and mind bending experiences; which I know appeals to my audience as my research has shown that the majority of my audience read these type of topics.

    6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? (Slideshare)

Many different technologies and programs have been used during the creation of this magazine. The technologies used include:

• Photoshop, which was used to enhance photos, along with helping to create my masthead. I have learnt how to use the liquify tool and layering image filters.
•  InDesign, which was used as the base for my magazine layout along with the text and text boxes. This has taught me how to lay a magazine out from scratch, how to add images, and how to use layers to create a 3D effect.
• A photography camera, in order to take professional photographs for my magazine. This taught me how to plan out photoshoots.
• Blogger, which was used to upload my progress and development by talking about what I did, and how and why I did it. This was also used to enable me to receive feedback and use this feedback to inform how my work develops.
• Slideshare, to upload PowerPoints to my blog. This is a more interesting way of portraying my ideas rather than just writing plain blogposts. It also expands my awareness of technologies.

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

A copious amount of progress has been made since my preliminary task, which is evident throughout its design in comparison to my psychedelic music magazine. Such advancements include my ability to enhance:

·         Images, through the use of editing by using colourful filters, enhancing their appearance by making them stand out more. These colours will also appeal to my target audience who respond to bright, colourful imagery very well. I also used the liquefy tool on Photoshop to distort the faces of my models, conveying a psychedelic trip. This taught me about attention to detail and how to use the tool with care in order to achieve the effects I wanted.

·         Embedding designs, such as inserting drawn pictures of flowers and recolouring, resizing and positioning them in order to ensure they work with the layout of my magazine.

·         Adding gradients, such as within text boxes and backgrounds, this uses anchorage in order to make the text stand out more and to add another dimension of aesthetic value to my design, whilst appealing to my target audience who enjoy interesting textures that are not plain.

·         Outlining text, to make it easier to read and to stand out more, to separate it from the background of the design. This also develops the house style of my magazine, with bold text running throughout.

Overall, this magazine looks more aesthetically pleasing and professionally finished. The magazine is also more audience enticing, with the use of better suited images and content.