Joe and Nat: Evaluation Questions.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?

Instead of our magazine being generic and following the mainstream pop/rock magazines (NME) we’ve decided to create a magazine aimed at older teenagers. We’ve given our magazine a sophisticated style by using a minimum colour pallet and highlighting the main articles and points throughout the magazine. The colour we have used is red because it is a prominent colour and stands out from the monochrome background. We’ve also used a pale yellow to contrast with the red but still highlights the pictures and the logo.

Normally the model on the front cover of the magazine gives a slight sex appeal for the audience; this tends to draw the teenage society in because in modern day society there is an interest in the opposite gender. However, as we aiming to interest an older audience, we have used models who have a softer look to them; people who still have a lot more to them than just the sexy look.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our Magazine doesn’t involve the major gossip of which celebrity went to which party, and who is going out with whom. We have stories that will entice our audience, making them want to read full articles and not just the heading. It will make the reader want to read different stories, therefore making them buy the next issue of Music Frequency. Although we have stuck to an indie theme, we’ve created our own style, which links between both magazines.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? We have researched publishers, and we have found that ICP (www.icpmedia.com) publish a wide range of magazines for all genres. “IPC Media (formerly International Publishing Corporation), a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.”

We would like Music Frequency to be published by ICP because the magazines produced by this company are of high quality: NME, TV Times and Marie Claire. In addition the magazines produced by this company are very popular with the public. If our magazine was produced by this company, it is likely that our magazine would sell. Also, the magazines can be produced in batch; this is an important point because it is cheaper to produce a large batch of magazines than producing few. We understand that we can produce ten issues of this magazine however if the consumers are not interested in the product, then the company can go bust and will have to go back to the drawing board and create something new.

Who would be the audience for your magazine?

An older audience would hopefully be attracted to this product as it has a more sophisticated style; this is because the models on the front of the magazine show more than just a “sexy” look. In addition, the traditional “NME” magazines have cluttered and crammed front covers. We analysed these magazines and agreed as a pair that we were looking a simpler and contrasting look to this

mainstream magazine because although we have seen that this is one of the best selling music magazines within the industry we wanted to show something different to the mainstream and give the consumers a choice.

How did you address/attract your audience?

It is very important to address your audience when they first look at the magazine and catch their eye this is why we’ve got one picture dominating our front cover. This attracts the eye of the audience making them want to purchase the product. We’ve included a bright red/yellow to outline the pictures and make them stand out from the background.

We are aiming our publication at a more sophisticated and older audience. Therefore we have made the magazine straight to the point with page numbers telling them what page a particular story is on, the magazine stands out more compared to some of the magazines which are aimed at a younger reader.

On the contents page we have included a small note from the editors. We have used our English skills to attract the reader’s attention and may persuade them to purchase the magazine again. For example, we have used direct address to show that we’re talking to the read and involving them with the articles and news written." YOU will buy the magazine" the you in this text engages the reader and includes them. All magazines are made for "skimming" through because a reader doesn’t sit and read from cover to cover, it’s the articles that catch their eye that will read. So placing the word "YOU" in capital letters makes it stand out to the audience and make them involved with the magazine.

We also attracted the audience with subscriptions and competitions on the front cover and contents page, this is important because it looks like the magazine has a varied taste and will appeal to our audience. For example, on the contents page there is a yearly subscription which is cheaper than buying the single magazine each month, this is important because it means the company has the consumer’s money and they are tied in for the year. However if they just bought an individual copy, there could be a chance that they might not buy the next issue. In addition, the bold "£2.50" sign means that it draws customers in as it is cheaper and is around the same price as the popular mainstream magazine NME.

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

Firstly, we both learnt how to use Photoshop to a good standard, as before starting this coursework we had had limited practise on this program. This was one of our main points of the magazine task and I believe we managed to use it well and have created a high standard Magzine cover, contents and double page spread.

Also, we have used the internet well in this task, for research and to find style models which we then broke down and found the main elements of any magazine and used them in one way or another in our own product. This is an important point as we must take the best points from the magazines and then apply them to our own designs to make sure it attracts and appeals to the reader.

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

During the preliminary task, our group were still getting used to how a magazine would be created and the workings of Photoshop. We had a look at what different magazines looked like and when doing research we looked at a certain layout (NME), it gave us an idea on what to set out magazine out like. This means we managed to get the best possible ideas from different magazines and add them to our own.

In addition, we chose a colour scheme that we both liked and thought would suit our magazine, in our preliminary task we picked the colour that suited the purpose which we then followed through to the next process this is because we chose colours what would attract the consumer’s attention.

An improvement was the different fonts we used, we picked the fonts that fitted best for our magazine and we used them all the way through the production whereas we didn’t stick to a proper style in our preliminary task. It was also better than the Photoshop fonts that we used in the first task. The fonts we used matched the type of pictures and text we were using.

In addition, we improved our front covers by keeping them simple and uncluttered. We realised that there shouldn’t be whole paragraphs of text on the front cover, only snippets and photos so that it will make the readers turn to that page and read the whole article.