Foundation Portfolio Targets

Research and planning

1.     See new AS deadlines on Fronter and add new tasks. Also use Susana Quinn blog for guidance (on Fronter).

2.     Carry out more detailed research into examples of professional magazines – aim for analysis of 3 covers, 3 contents pages and 3 double page spreads. This can be annotated analysis (See Susan Quinn blog on Fronter). Ensure that examples are recent (last 2-3 years) and from the same genre as the product you will create.

3.     Evaluate focus group video responses – show how this research has informed your final product.

4.     In title block analysis, analyse mastheads from the same genre as your own – show how this research has informed your final product (include your own design and explain choices).

5.     Drafting – include more designs (base on professional pages) and explain choices made.

6.     Research and planning should show in-depth analysis - this element is worth 20% of the marks, so a lot is expected (see level of detail in Susana Quinn blog on Fronter). Add tasks from new checklist! Research is minimal at the moment!

Product

1.     Make it clear what genre your product belongs to. Show that you have engaged with the codes and conventions of your chosen genres.

2.     Find PSD files and I will help you to improve

Evaluation

1.     Use a wider variety of ICT in the Evaluation (not just text, images and slides). This is a requirement in the Marking Criteria. Use a wide variety of appropriate resources in the evaluation, such as Youtube, Prezi, Soundcloud, Urturn, Glogster, Wix etc.

2.     Evaluation should show in-depth analysis - this element is worth 20% of the marks, so a lot is expected (see level of detail in Susana Quinn blog on Fronter).

Overall, the blog should be used as a detailed work in progress, which highlights the creative journey that you have undergone – post to your blog weekly, showing what you have done, why and what you have learned.

Front page, contents page & double page spread

Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
   My magazine supports media conventions yet on the other hand it does not. For my magazine I took inspirations from various magazines from The Rolling Stone's to NME in create my outcome. As well as this I also took inspiration from a limited edition NME in which the front cover is black and white and the Masthead as well as subheadings were a bold and main colour. The way that I did not support all magazine conventions was the fact that I did not capture the artist's entire body - which shows the entire costume - for my front cover I did choose to go with the normal magazine conventions, so the Masthead, being at the top, the rule of thirds, the subheadings, and the traditional bar code in the bottom right hand corner.
   
   For my contents page I gathered inspiration from the same magazines as I have mentioned above. The contents page was based on two large, bold, eye-catching photos down the side with the traditional numbers following the opposite side of those. I chose to not include much writing in my contents page, it was made for the reader to actually know what the most important pages were and what they consisted of, hence the information text below every subheading of which page is most important. It follows from large, bold writing to small and italic writing (which is the information about the pages provided.)
   My double page spread follows all the traditional magazine conventions used for these two pages. I was inspired by the NME double page with quotations from the artist and made it my own. I also included the main background image which all double page spreads include and the text explaining more about the artist and showing them in a different perspective.
   
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
   My magazine is mainly aimed at the audience which mostly listens to the genre of music considered "indie." This target audience are those teenagers and young adults that love acoustic music and indie songs. In my opinion I have achieved this representation style, throughout many features in the magazine, from the images used and text involved in the pages, hence I think that I have represented this social media group well through my magazine. In the double page spread I used very simple yet modern text, a as well as a simple and classic photo for the background which occupies most of the left page. As well as this the artist used for the images is the same age as the target audience allowing them to relate to that artist and yet like the magazine even more. Moreover my magazine was targeted at any gender, either male or female audience, hence the use of both sex's on the contents pages and the information given about the rest of them.
   
   
3. Who would be the target audience for your media product?
   For my magazine, the target audience are teenagers/young adults that are around the age of 16-28. I think this is a good target audience to be aimed at mostly because these are the people in the population that mostly buy magazines on a weekly basis, also because this age group is at the stage where they are young enough to listen to this genre of music. The reason as to why I think my media product will be successful is mainly because there are not many magazines that are targeted at this genre of magazine with the type of music, hence it will be successful.
   
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?The media institution that would distribute my media product would be the ones that specialise in "acoustic" and/or "indie" genres, mainly because it is for their age and would be able to promote it significantly and successfully because that is the targeted audience, On the other hand, I would not like my magazine to be published/distributed by any other institutions like those who distribute NME because the competition level is too high and it would mean money loss. Personally, the best way to distribute my media product would be to advertise over social networks like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. The main reason as to why I think this would be a successful way to distributed my media product is because digital publishing is the future of all publishing and advertising institutions, as well as this meaning that the product would go international and/or even world wide. Another reason as to why social networks would be a perfect way of advertising my media product is because this is where young adults and teenagers socialise and spend most of their time. 
   
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
   In order to attract my audience the best way would be to have the magazine text being bold - especially the title and what the title says (it appeals to the target audience) - and in bright colours. The masthead is in a lipstick, deep, blood red which helps attract the audience, as well as the name being about what the magazine actually is. The title is the most bold feature on the front cover so it is eye-catching and the audience remembers what it was called. As well as this I used a very familiar prop to those who use it - this being the guitar - but it is also a very old, and rusty, you could call it vintage guitar, which gives the magazine a different style to what a new, modern guitar would do. As well as this, I added a subheading by the artists' face that allow the audience to win free tickets for them and their mates, this also bribes the audience into picking up the magazine and even buying it. Not only did I include this, but I also added a white bubble, with bold, italic text introducing exclusive interviews which this target audience loves, because it explains more about the artist. Finally I made the background image black and white and the text a bold colour and font, making the magazine cover eye-catching and having a contrast of colours throughout. You can see that I didn't use much text on the cover. This is mainly because I believe that audience is mostly attracted and their eyes are drawn to the images instead of the information on the cover. If the image is spot on and appeals to them then the text wont matter. 
   
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
   In order to be able to achieve what I want as my outcome for my media product, I need to improve my knowledge on not just software but techniques on technology that I have never even used - this being Photoshop. I have never used this software so getting to know it and what I want from it took some time, this meant playing around with everything and anything I could find on the software. I also had to play around with the images themselves, the contrast, brightness, colours, literally every button there was on the camera to see which image would attract my audience the most and give me the perfect outcome I was looking for. I not only used Photoshop  but used websites to edit the images and give it a finishing touch to once again, achieve that goal I wanted in the end.
   
   

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK VIDEO

FOCUS GROUP VIDEO  

My Magazine Sketches

http://prezi.com/dxf-1nuuyf-5/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Title Block Analysis

This title block is very contrasting as we see; white on a black background. These letters are bold and stand out, almost as if they were about to jump out of the magazine as well as this,  they also look like glass shattering. Kerrang's target audience is mostly made up of those who are passionate about their heavy metal, hence the contents of the magazine and this title gives it away. The way that all the letters have the effect that they are shattering, in capitals and the exclamation mark is positioned at the end of the word, connotes some sort of aggression or almost as feisty-ness which make it a large part of the magazine’s identity. This title block is n excellent way to spot the magazine’s identity from all the genres.

The title block on this magazine ‘Billboard’ tells us that the target audience is a sort of young age. This is due to the font being Sans serif as this is seen to be a modern text, and also even though the font colour is black they use an element of fun to attract their target audience by filling in the ‘b’, ‘o’, ‘a’ and the ‘d’ with the colours red, yellow and blue – these are all primary colours. It also looks simple but is also effective and makes it easy to remember as well as attracting somebodies eye and making it well known. 

Designing Magazine titles