Michael's magazine evaluation

The title of my magazine is 'Mix It Up' and it will be issued every two weeks (twice month). It is a hip-hop and funky house magazine which gives it a unique feature as hardly any magazine focus on music genres that different from each other, in the same magazine. I designed the magazine cove rin such a way that it was laid out as if it was a real and offical magazine, in order for it to appeal to potential readers. I did this through the different forms of layout such as alignment of texts, the positioning of images and the diffrent styles of writing, such as font size and punctuation. I also gave it a good deatil of colour and animation in order for it to catch the reader's attention, but at the same time, not too 'cartoony' as if it appeals strictly to children; i tried to keep it to a professional standard. By tradition, i kept the title of the magazine in the top left hand corner of the front page, and it was displayed in the largest and most vibrant font a sthis is one of the main selling points and regonition strategies of any magazine; its title.

On the front cover of my magazine, I featured a large image of the primary artist who is also the most well known, and due to their higher staus than the other artists on the page, they ar emore likely to attrat more attention due to their wider publciity adn fame. I also used controversial and 'shocking!' headlines such as short phrases and claim in order to interest the reader once they pick up the magazine, such as scandalous affairs and relationships feautred within it.

As for appeal, I fell that my magazine focuses on a young generation; people in their mid-teens to early 20s. This is due to the fact that after research, i found that this was the target audience that were most fammiliar and orientated to these genres of music, and thus making the themed magazine more appealing to them. For example, it was unlikely that they would be interested on a music magazine based on 'Opera' or 'Classical' music. I would not advise people who aren't fans of this type or music, or music of this kind to necessarily buy this magazine because it simply is not orientaed towards them. 'Funky House' especially is deemed as a very vibrant and explosive genre in itself, in terms of its versatility and large area differentiation as a type of music; therefore the theme i.e colours, language and design of my magazine correlated with its representation. My magazine is very colourful and 'interestingly' presented. In other words, its presentationw ill not bore you.

When giving my magazine an 'image', I tried to give it a humourous and positive image as I know that a lot of young people generally follow and copy the images of their favourite artists and musicians. Because music is such an inspirational and influencial form of art, it is important that the right type of message is sent out to it's readers; most of which are still young at mind, and are likel to immitate certain things they read or see. Media itself, is a promotion of music too; it is what seperates a well designed image, text, or magazine as a whole, from a poorly, edited, designed one. There is clearly a lot of technology invovled through Media in creating such a prudct as I witnessed firsthand when using 'Adobe Photoshop' software. I could finally understand why it takes so much time for publishers and designers to make different issues of real, respected and mainstream magazines.

It requires alot of hard work and dedication to get things just right, but at the same time, making every issue unique in its own way. When beginning the project, I initial thought that it was going to be 'a piece of cake', and be very straighfoward and easy, but this was not the case, and I wish I had included more planning in my project beforehand. However, I was glad with the eventual outcome.
From this project, I feel I gained vital skills such as:
1) new presentational devices, and they way their use has an impact on readers
2) how Adobe Phtoshop is used
3) why planning and organisation is important beforehand

If i could change one thing on my magazine cover project, I would change the scale of images and try another orientation int erms of presentation, just to see how it would differ to my eyes, personally. Although I was happy with the outcome, the psotioning of images was a little repetitive in comparison to other magazines that people were producing in lesson; I would liek to be able to add aunique touch to mine in another way. I would also prefer if I had had more time to work on my magazine; I was away for about 1 or 2 lessons, so I did not get to finally analyse it physically. In the end, I believe the project was successful, and I am happy with the outcome.

Last magazine lesson: Evaluation

My Magazine will be released every 2 weeks, the same as my group members. MIX IT UP! Is the name of my magazine cover, it is named “MIX IT UP!” because it is a mix genre of Hip Hop and Funky House. There is also a strap-line underneath the title of the magazine for first time readers who don’t know what the magazine is about. I and my group members made our magazine covers to look similar to the music magazines on the high street but at the same time different to capture the reader’s eyes. My magazine cover does this by having the main music artist in large taking up most of the page and with large bright front across the body of the pictures to state to the reader who the main article is about within the magazine. This is a good way to draw in the reader because the first thing they would notice would be the pictures the right underneath they will see the names of the artist to further entice and inform the reader. The colours used in my magazine front cover are very limited but there is a reason for this. Throughout my cover there is only 3 colours used, which are white, black and red The reason being is that I did not want my magazine to be too colourful to detract the reader from the main point of my issues of my “MIX IT UP!” which is the two artist. This form of using pictures and use of colour and positioning of words is a similar convention of magazines on the high street right now.

My magazine cover represents a certain social group that are interested in Hip Hop and Funky House, that like to know about the upcoming artist and new album releases and so forth. The income of these people would be rather lower or no income at all because they would most probably be studying. There interest would be similar such as like to go clubbing and drinking.

The target audience will be age from 16 – 20 of both genders but more so towards male side that live in urban cities such as London, the reason I state that it should be city young adults is that this is where most Hip Hop and Funky House audience are situated, where there is many clubs that play this sort of music, some clubs that even do both types of music in the club at one time. This magazine wouldn’t be targeted at the young that live in the rural area because isn’t a large audience to sell to due to the fact that there isn’t any clubs for them to go to listen to and they generally listen to more slow relaxing music. There is the odd group of people in the rural areas that may listen to Hip Hop and Funky House but as we are trying to selling as much magazines as possible we would rather go for the majority of the market rather than the small minority of people that may listen to it. The way that our target audience will know that this magazine is targeted at them is by the choice of my pictures, I deliberately choose 2 young males for my front cover to convey to the target audience that this is aimed towards the young and for both Hip Hop and Funky House music lovers, my choice of picture does this by having a young male on the left to covey the Hip Hop side of the magazine because he is wearing a baseball cap and has a large shinny watch with a baggy t shirt. This is the standard clothing of a Hip Hop artist. On the other hand on the right hand side we have another young male but this time to convey the Funky House side of the magazine, this is also brought across by what he wears the main point of it would have to be his headphones which signifies to the target audience that he must be some sort of DJ. My background that I have chosen has further emphasised that music genre, because it is an image of the inside of a club, which associates with the music genre.

To further entice and attract in my audience I used such advertising strategies such as “freebies” such as the one on my magazine cover which is a free mix tape when they buy the magazine. I placed this in the top left hand corner so when they read the title of the magazine cover they notice the free mix tape icon in the corner which is in red font and has a black background to make the writing standout to further persuade the reader to buy the magazine. To further draw in the reader there is an additional insight to what is to come with the magazine, towards the bottom left that stats what else there is inside the magazine by the + sign to signify more articles inside.

From designing and making my magazine cover on an Imac and used software called Photoshop. This was the first time I have ever used an Imac and also Photoshop so I found it difficult to use but gradually got the hang off how to use Photoshop after a short lesson with the technician. I was taught how to cut images out, but it was only easy to cut images out if the background was contrasting to person and his or her clothing. I was also taught how to design backgrounds and how to use different font styles and colours. I also found it difficult to use the Imac mouse because it only had one click and no right click, as I am use to using Windows which uses both right and left click. I have learnt from technology that it takes a very long time and effort to make a good magazine cover.

If I was to make another front cover I think I would change the front style and also make the title of the magazine more noticeable by using a larger font size. I would probably add more pictures of people to make the cover less plain but not too much so it looks cluttered.

Photo Taking The/Other/Day

We went out today, and took photo's of people we thought fitted our genre and we choose the angles we wanted the pictures taken in so that we can apply this to how we want it to appear in the front of our magazine. And we had to choose the backgrounds carefully in which we were taking the pictures because if it blends in then, it would make it hard for us as editors to manipulate the images and to cut out from the current images background, and to place on top of a whole new background. Which is why we have to consider the setting when we are taking photo's

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In my music magazine it uses and challenges the conventions of a real magazine because it has more or less the same layout. The layout of my magazine is similar to the layout of a real music magazine that is being sold today, because I have developed my magazine in a similar way to a real magazine by adding strap lines, to make it more aesthetically pleasing for its reader, overheads to draw in the readers attention, conventions such as the main picture right on the front middle of the page.
My music magazine cover represents certain social groups because of the main picture. It shows a group of young people all together advertising fun times. There for making it claer this is a young peoples magazine. Also the headings and sub headings attract a certain type of social group that has a preference for 'Funky House music' rather than a reader that you could say is into 'Jazz' or 'pop' music.
The main audience for my music magazine cover would be probely for the ages from fifthteen to eighteen, and any 'Funky House' lovers. In my magazine the main genre is 'funky house' so i would highly doubt that an adult would be included in the audience attracted to my magazine. 'Funky House' music is a type of music designed especially for teens because its fun, immature and spontaneouse. The different beats get you in a certain mood where you can't help but move in an awkward way. So i think it more relates to young people.
I attracted my audience with my main picture of a group of teens expressing their style and minds, with funky colourful clothes and actions. My straplines also attracted my audience with prize give aways, competitions ect. printed in big bold letters,in colours like black and white which i thought were plain but still stood out. Also i decided to go with a bold bright colour and a simple boarder which i thought would capture my readers eye.
I have learnt certain things about technologie that i could never have thought of myself. Photoshop is one of the things i think technologie has got right. It has so many exciting affects that helped me in a great way when constructing my magazine front cover. It helped me expand and develop my own ideas, e.g when i was cutting out my pictures and pasting them all together, i would have taken one big picture of everyone which probely wouldn't have looked so effective, or in changinging the colours and effects of my background or even the clothes the people on my front cover where wearing.
If i was to make another front cover, even doe i am highly proud of the one i have made, i think i would add more effects to it like colour fading, mix up the sizes of the letters, make it more graphical and abstract with the pictures than how it is now. But apart from that i don't think i would make anything to different next time.

Evaluation Of (M.i,U) DEREK

My magazine uses forms and conventions of real music magazines thorough the way i have layed it out, it is also similar to most magazines out there, due to the basic layout being used by other magazines, it has been developed by myself in a particular way and format to have similarities with other music magazines on the market. It also has some differences such as many strap-lines and overheads,also similar conventions such as the big main picture on the front of the magazine of the main artist, which normally it will have a two page spread in the magazine, this is what mainly probably this draws the attention of the consumer, when they are looking through a lot of magazines on a rack, it also helps to identify the genre they are after because it is what will drag the attention of their eyes.

my magazine represents certain social groups, which will be young teenagers that there age will probably go up from 17 too about 21, they will also live in a certain area that is urban like, towards the central of the city where there is a lot of different types of people. And are also surounded by a lot of diiferent types of magazines,my magazine wouldn't apply to someone that probably lives in a rural area such as a farm or very quiet area like that listens to quiet or soulful music, this is because they would probably not be the listeners of the Hip Hop genre. it mainly applies to hip hop listeners because of the location of the picture and also the actual person in the picture mainly because of the way he is dressed such as a baseball cap,a huge watch and a big chain these are all basic accessories of the hip hop genre. Therefore the items being given away in my magazine are considered and shows the genre because i am giving away tickets for the mobo's which is a uk HIP HOP award winning programme.

The kind of media institution that will distribute my magazine will be companies such as MTV because of there big contribution to hiphop and the people that follow MTV is the kind of people that would be interested our magazine (M,I,U). The input in our mag is what they would expect from that genre of hip hop. Channel U will also help promote my mag because they support uk music especially hip hop, and my magazine has a influence and news on what is going on in the UK hip hop and the readers will likely to be followers of uk hip hop.

The audience for my magazine cover would be young people from a young age from about 17 up to around early 20's that are interested in Hip Hop, and also show an interest in fashion and the biographys and knowing what artists have been through or are going through to get how their status is now. Also the main Sex of people i think it will draw would be the males as they are into more gangster rap than females but also the females get there far share of the mag because of Hip hop Artists like missy elliot that keep the female part of hip hop strong.

How i attracted my audience was mainly through my picture which had a young man dressed up influenced by hip hop such as baseball caps and jeans and a chain which is quite normal in an hip hop artist, I also addressed my audience of being young by having quite a young person on my front cover which will therefore attract people of that age or slightly older or younger this helps my magazine sell to a certain generation or bandwith or people.

What i have learnt from the technologies is that i could easily make fake images via photoshop, or easily manipulate and image to seem what it isnt or even better than it actually is, you can also add objects and items that was not there when the image was taken. I have learned that not all images on magazines and newspapers are as it seems it could have easily been altered just the same way that i altered my images to make my magazine front cover.

If i was to make another cover i would picked anothere genre just to make it that much harder to put together and take pictures of differently dressed people also so that the background images are also hard to put together. This is mainly because the genre i picked (hip hop) i am very familiar with it and it was nothing new me having a picture of my main image and putting it on a familiar background because i am familiar with all these types of images and the things i was giving away such as t shirts, the straplines and the overheads came easy because i have come across other magazines in the same genre so this gave me a good idea of what to include my magazine.

Magazine lesson 4: Photoshop

Today was a long lesson in the Mac room, never the less a good lesson as we were given the chance to make our magazines covers. We sat next to each other in our groups, to make it easy for us to communicate with each other. At the beginning to the lesson we were show how to open up Photoshop and create an A4 size sheet on Photoshop. We was then let off to design our magazine, each member of the group had to design their own front cover but the font style of the logo had to be the same on the each of our magazine cover, so we decided to use the front style that Derek had on his front cover. We then were able to fondle around with our pictures and cut them out to our preferences and place as we wished on our cover. I also went onto the internet to look for a good background for my cover. After many tries on trying to position everything in front of the background I called for Mary’s help and she showed me that there were layers and that I need to place the background layer at a certain position to make it behind all the other items.

Magazine lesson 3: Photo taking

In today’s lesson we were in our groups of 4 from the last week and were given a camera by Rebecca and shown how to use the camera, also she told us to take pictures vertically and on a contrasting plain background from the persons clothing. The reason being is because the magazine is printed out vertically and the reason the person in the photo need to be on a plain contrasting background, is so it makes it much easier to cut out the image in Photoshop. In our groups we went around the college asking people would they mind taking a picture for our magazine. We took picture from all different angles to give all different perspective. Once we had enough photos we had to go back to class and hand in our cameras to be uploaded onto the computers for us to use next lesson.