What I have learnt from the progression from the preliminary task to my full product

Problems Page

The preliminary task of making a problems page allowed me to learn the typical conventions of a magazine page. For example the layout in columns, a slogan, a bold title, drop caps, images and quotes. I also learnt how these conventions can be used effectively in order to create a successful magazine, such as pull quotes being used from the article to entice the reader.







Furthermore I learnt about the importance of house style in order to create consistency throughout the magazine and how certain choices made about it, such as colour scheme and font, can be used to appeal to your target audience. This enabled me to make an appropriate house style for my magazine. The feedback I got from my problems page helped me do this as it showed which aspects appealed to certain ages and genders. 

Preliminary Task Feedback Table

The preliminary task also showed me which software was best for making my final product. I found that when making my problems page that programmes such as publisher did not make my product look professional. Therefore for my magazine I used more advanced and professional looking software such as photoshop, which made my page look much more like products from the real media.

Construction of problems page (Publisher)

What I have learnt about photography through the process of constructing my magazine

In order to take my pictures I used my digital SLR camera. By using this I could see what my pictures

looked like straight away using the screen. It also allowed me to experiment with the different modes/settings for the photographs to give the best overall effect. Furthermore SLR cameras are often much better quality than normal digit cameras so my photographs were able to look much more professional.

When taking the pictures I also learnt that I need to take the lighting into consideration and which kind of light gives certain effects. For example natural lighting often gives a much clearer effect. My photographs were taken in a studio setting and so artificial lighting had to be used in order to make my images look professional.

As well as this I tried to experiment with camera angles to see which would achieve the most flattering effect. I found that the more higher angle shots were more flattering for close ups, such as the image I used for my front cover, and lower angels for more medium and long shots, such as the image in my feature article.


I also learnt the important of mise-en-scene which included; props and costumes. I found that the use of no props and plain background gave a much more classy and professional effect to my images. I also learnt that the use of bright colours for her costume drew the readers attention to her and made the image eye catching.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my magazine pages

To produce my magazine pages I used the software Adobe Photoshop. By doing this I think that I managed to create high quality and professional looking pages. Photoshop allowed me to easily construct a neat and consistent layout throughout all of my pages.

The software allowed me to choose from a variety of fonts styles and sizes as well as providing flexible layouts so I could place things exactly where I wanted them to be, for example placing one of my pull quotes from my feature article in the middle of the main text. It also enabled me to use the technique of layers so I was able to put items, such as text, over other items, such as images, without it looking messy or unprofessional making it easy for my audience to read. This in turn allowed me to make my pages as similar to my initial designs as possible.

I also learnt how to edit my photos on Adobe Photoshop, as well as creating my final pages through the use of it's many tools. Some of the most used tools I used were cropping and light adjusting.

However I also used an online editor called Picadilo.com in order to remove any blemishes the model had and to even out her skin tone. I also used this site to remove the lines in the sheet behind the model to create a smooth professional looking background. I did this by using the "wrinkle remover" effect. 

Before and After (Picadilo and Photoshop)

The Microsoft Word software allowed me to prepare my written content for my feature article before adding it onto the final design.
It also enabled me to draft some of my blog posts before publishing them on my blog to decrease the risk of mistakes.

How I Have Attracted My Target Audience- Front Cover

How I have Attracted My Target Audience - Contents Page

How I Have Attracted My Target Audience - Feature Article

Original Photography

Target Audience

Since making my magazine, I think that my target audience has change slightly. I think that the minimalistic and more classy photos and layout of the magazine included appeal to a marginally older audience such as 16 to 25 (rather than the original audience of 16 to 20).  However I think that this is beneficial for the magazine as it has widened the range of their target audience hence attracting more people to buy the magazine, making more money.

Furthermore my colour scheme has slightly changed. I decided to do this is as I thought that making the colours match with the colours of my feature artist's costume would make the magazine more visually appealing.The colour scheme now includes more greens and redish pinks. I think that this could benefit the magazine as it makes it less 'girly' and so attracts a broader audience. Whilst the redish pinks still maintain the idea of it being mainly targeted at females.

 

Media Institutions

Bauer Media

Bauer Media is Europe’s biggest privately owned publishing group. It provides over 300 magazines in 15 different countries along with TV and radio stations. It is a widely recognise, UK based multi platform group mainly focusing on magazine and radio. It employs around 6,400 people.

In 1990 they worked with the London dance station Kiss FM (now called Kiss 100), followed by  Liverpool's Radio City and later by TWC and the Metro Group.  In 1994, the company bought a small magazine called For Him Magazine which is now the core of the best-selling international multi-platform brand FHM. In 1996, they work with the TV channel The Box, as a route into the small screen business, which has grown into Box Television, a seven channel joint venture TV business with Channel 4.

The magazine launches, Closer was launched in 2002 and Britain’s first weekly glossy, GRAZIA, was launched in 2005. Today, Bauer Media has over 80 influential brand names covering a range of interests including heat – the must have weekly celebrity title.

Magazine’s Similar To  My Target Audience

Bauer Media cover a very wide range of target audiences successfully. For example FHM who are the UK's biggest men’s lifestyle media brand to MOJO who are the world’s largest UK music magazine to Heat who are woman’s must have magazine. They also work with Q magazine who is a very well known and popular music magazine. 

IPC Media

IPC Media has over 60 successful and well known brands providing content for multiple platforms including print, online, mobile, tablets and events.

It has three publishing divisions; IPC Connect, IPC Inspire and IPC Southbank. IPC Connect, their mass market women's division comprises famous women's weeklies including Now, Chat and Women; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV,  TVTimes, and TV & Satellite Week and the goodtoknow network.

Magazine’s Similar To My Target Audience

I think that Bauer media would distribute my magazine.  This is because they work which brands such as Kiss, Closer, Grazia and Heat who all have similar target audiences to my magazine and have also been very successful. It also works with one of the most popular music magazines available today, which is Q magazine. This shows that they have been very successful working with magazines which are the same genre as mine. Whereas other media institutions such as IPC cover media target at an older audience. For example Woman’s Weekly and Country Homes and interiors. 

Representation of Social Groups

My artist represents female teenagers which is the same social group as my target audience. In the image of the feature artist she is very naturally beautiful, as she is wearing minimal makeup, creating a sense of innocence and naturalness in teenage girls. This is also shown through the use of her basic clothing and natural prints and colours. However her position, with the hands on her hips suggests confidence and that she is not to be messed with. She also has a very relaxed facial expression which give a very relaxed and natural representation, rather than the more "pouty" facial expressions teenage girls have in other magazines which give more sexual representation. The pull quotes used from the artist are very genuine and down to earth, such as “I don’t consider myself to be famous”, which helps to create a very positive representation of this social group. This is not similar to the representation of teenagers in real music magazines. For example teenage icon Selena Gomez. In this magazine she is wearing heavy eye make-up and dressy clothes which represents teenage girls as unnaturally beautiful and perhaps fake as they are hiding behind the makeup. She also has a seductive facial expression exposing the more sexual representation of teenage girls.

Contents Page Analysis

Feature Article Evaluation

Front Cover Analysis

Final Front Cover

Final Feature Article

Final Contents Page