Final Magazine

These are my final/completed magazines, the front cover page having one image at the centre of it and being dominated around it by story line in different fonts and colours. The one at the centre being the main story line which tells the reader what they should be looking out for in the magazine. 

The contents page has the featured located on the left hand side and the other story lines on the right hand side, i have made them into sections whilst above it and below it are images of related stories with the numbers helping the reader in knowing what page to find that particular story. 

As for the double page spread, this is full of an interview of the main story line which was display at the front cover page of the magazine, the image on the left is showing the artist and the rest is all she was asked and her responses. 

Thank you Moderator

My Overall Thoughts of the Magazine

Once the magazine was done I could say that I was happy with the way that it turned out because when I started on it, there were a few things that I did wrong, something’s I didn't like and so on, and in fact I restarted the whole magazine twice due to me not liking the way it turned out the first time then the second time, but with the experience gaining from both times, the third time ended up being better. One thing that I was happy is how I didn't give up on the task as I wanted to make the magazine be at the best of my ability.

The title or name of the magazine being “BOUNCE” I thought blended well with the genre of the magazine which being Hip Hop/ R n B and this was one of the influences of why I decided on naming it as it is. The next thing were the photos, having on image at the front cover instead of the few that I had originally had in my plan so making that change I think was the right thing otherwise I would have had a much complicated magazine, one thing that I wanted to keep in mind is the quality and simplicity.

With this I also had to think about some of the writings I wanted to include at the front of the magazine, with this being the fonts, their sizes and even their colours to which now I am amazed with the way they worked well with each other. Other factors such as the selling line, barcodes I am also pleased with how it turned out.

As for the contents page, one thing I would have preferred is if the features were all in one line but with the way it is works too. The background colour I’m happy with as I was trying to make sure that I keep the balance as due to the target audiences and with this It influenced me in deciding on the images that are on it which I find as the best feature of the contents pages. Not forgetting the double page spread, this was one of the pages that I found difficult due to the fact that there was a lot to write on the page other than the editing, and with there were some things that I had to be careful with such as the language in which the audience needed to understand also referring to it being a Hip Hop/ R n B magazine.

Overall I am really pleased with the way that my magazine has turned out in the end, if i had said to myself that it would turn out this way when I first started, i would have probably laughed.  

My Evaluation

CLICK HERE TO VIEW EVALUATION

How I Thought of the Magazine Name

Before starting on the magazine there were some things in which I needed to 

decide on and one of them was the title or name of the magazine.

I wrote myself some lists of some of the names that I came up with were such as “THE HOOD” but the three main ones were:

BOUNCE:

This name ended up being on my magazine, and the reason why I came upon to choose it was because it sounded much better than the other two, not only this but also when you say the name it just fits in with the genre of the HIP HOP. “BOUNCE”, noting that’s what happens when dancing to the music.

WORD UP:

I came up with this name as I was thinking of gangster names that would suit well in being in a magazine and this was one of them that I also considered before choosing on the name “BOUNCE”.

OFF THE HOOK:

This name I thought of when I was just hanging about with my friends and one of them reacted by saying the exact same words so I thought to myself why not have that as a name of a magazine with the genre of HIP HOP. 

Questions/Interview to Artist

Coming across the double page spread, my initial idea was to have a sort of bibliography for the artist but as I got more into constructing the magazine, I ended up changing my mind which i then ended up with having an interview instead.

To begin with since I still felt I needed to do a bibliography I managed to do a little of at the start of the first page of the double page spread. The questions were:

So how many tracks have you made so far? Asking this question creates that interest towards the readers by giving them as much information, and some of the responses that I got from the artist herself were “well so far the amount of tracks I have is about ten”.

On the next page of the double page spread I included a quote from me myself as the editor of the magazine, “She was born to be a star, and now she can finally achieve all she ever wanted”. The questions on this page are:

What made you want to become a rapper/singer? And some of her responses were “one thing I have always had is the inspiration from other rappers/singers.......”

What is the most memorable thing so far? This question she responded by stating how she was out with her friends and randomly someone approached her asking for her autograph, she was mentioning how she was in shock.

You mentioned you were out with friends, so how often do you go out or is it just music all the time? This questions acts as a second counterpart of the question before, she responded by saying how she give most of her time to music but if lately she has been trying to great that balance between her social life and her music.

Did you see yourself this far ten years ago? Her response was how she didn't really see herself getting this far from when she started.

One question that I wanted to make sure that was there if order to engage some of the readers, maybe accounting it as cheeky which was whether she was single or in a relationship? Her response being how she has just come out of a serious relationship and for the time being she wanted to enjoy her single life.

And last question was if there was anything else she wanted to tell us? And her response being how she thanked us and reminded us of buying her CD’S. 

House Style

As for the house style, it is one of the important things that I was informed about when I first started to construct my magazine, which is making sure that when you look at the magazine you see that they all belong together. So with this in mind is about being able to put the magazine together without being told that they are both from the same magazine. I managed to try and keep this in my mind so I have kept with up with three main colours which are Purple, Blue and Black, at the front of the magazine there is the title which is in blue together with some parts of the text right at the bottom, I would say that the information at the bottom reflects the three colours as bits of it are in black, blue and purple.  Why I chose to have this colours is due to the fact that I knew I had to balance things out on my magazine as in relates to the target audience being both male and females.

Being a hip hop/R N B magazine and with the research I managed to do, I wanted to make the front cover stick with my house style but also have other colours due to the genre. But as the house style I made it recognisable through some of the information displayed on it.

Looking at the contents page where I still have managed to keep the same flow of colours, not only this but the font style sticking to just two which is seen in both the contents page and double page spread. The background of the front cover is the wall effect and this was due to the help from the image location, and with a few editing of it made it turn out to be a good background. As for the contents page there is the grey/purple sort of background which is the same one as on the Double page spread, I wanted to have that plain background because I was trying to make the magazine to look good and also kept simple.

Feedback/Review

I did the feedback/review on the computer where I had a few friends to sit and have a look at the magazine then fill out the form which is shown in the above image, this is just one of the examples of the the feedback i set out. The amount was five in total in which the questions. 

Why did i ask "Is it attractive?", this is because I wanted to really find out if the magazine has had that success in that category in having that attractive look in order to attract the audience or customer. 

Why did I want to know if they are Male or Female? This is because one of my aims as a target audience was to both male and female and me asking this question means that I would want to know if i managed to balance out the way I presented the magazine. 

Why I asked about the layout? This was because throughout the making of the magazine I made quite a few improvements or adjustments and me asking this questions means that I am wanting to know what the reader thought of it, which i could then compare it with if i had done it that way or the other way. 

Why I wanted to find out about the price? I needed to know if the price was right due to the target audience being both male and female and of ages 16 to 21, so I needed to set out the right price for them to be able to afford it. 

I also asked about the language used and I thought of asking this because being a hip hop genre, the language was to be different from all the other magazines, this helps in attracting the reader if it is something that they are able to understand. 

And lastly I wanted to find out whether after being through it all, if they would buy it because this is the main important part of it. 

Finding a Barcode

It came upon the time where I needed to include a barcode in my magazine; with this I also done some research which I went onto the web and looked into some of the other magazines such as “VIBE”, or “Rolling Stone” which all had barcodes. Barcodes are there in order to speed up the checkout process and keep better track of inventory, originally it was for grocery products but due to its success it then spread out across to other products. Such websites like http://www.slideshare.net/asmediag12/front-cover-music-magazine-analysis-15483710)

Looking below where some of the magazines have the barcodes one the left hand side in a horizontal way and some are on the right where there are vertical, this is all determined by the position or layout of the front page such as the position of the image. In the end my magazine had a barcode on the bottom right hand side with the price directly above it.

Then and Now (My Progress)

When I first started I was asked to do a preliminary task and the main thing about this was to get me used or an idea of what I would be required to once I start the real main task. My preliminary task is shown in the image below. It was a school magazine for St Marks West Essex Catholic school, the first thing that I had to do is some research in order to know how some school magazine had theirs set out so I can get ideas, with this preliminary task I only had to do the front cover and contents page compare to the main task were the difference was the double page spread and being a music magazine, after the research was done the next step was to construct a draft of what I wanted my magazine to look like. With this done I then had to go off and take images of some of the things that I would have wanted to include in the magazine such as the school logo, pictures of teachers and students.

Beside is my construction of the magazine, and also are some of the images that I took when I was out taking pictures. I of course had to choose the best ones in order to place them on my magazine, in accordance to my plan which I followed through the preliminary task, a few changes came through with me unable to place the cross across the magazine in order to make the character seem as they are holding it, due to the fact that through its construction it ended up not looking so great. So with this I made some changes to the layout of it. After this I then went on to construct the contents page in accordance with my plan. Looking at the house style which I tried to follow it through the whole school magazine although there were some things that I hadn’t known of such as the back ground design being different on both pages which didn’t look great but as it was a preliminary task, it was to help me in understanding or getting a grip of what I should be expecting. On the 25/1/2013 I uploaded my preliminary task on the blogger.
 

The next thing was the main task and I pretty much followed the same sort of process as I done for the preliminary task, the first thing I done was the research for the front page, cover and double page spread, moving onto taking photos, and the construction of the magazine which involves such things as using Photoshop and so on.

Between then and now I can see a very BIG difference because there are other few things which I figured or learned through the progression of it, managing to use the web in order to find out more information in making the magazine to the best ability such as editing of the title which I as mentioned ion one of my blogs as I used (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/04/50-stunning-photoshop-text-effect-tutorials/), so overall there has been a positive improvement from when I had first started.

The Bad

The things that haven’t gone well are:

Selling Line

I think that the selling line hadn’t really turned out as well I first thought of it, to start with the thing that I had in mind were it going right across from left to right underneath the title. But in the end it ended up in the left hand side due to the image laid out in the centre of the page. Something else is that I would have wanted its background to be of some sort of colour which will help in bringing out the writing just like the cover line at the centre “The new chick on the block”.

Date Line

This also applies to the dateline because I would have wanted the selling line and date line to be directly below each other in front of the magazine but as mentioned above due to the change of layout with the image at the centre it meant that I had to split them both up, resulting in the dateline being relocated towards the left hand side.

The Good

The good things that about the magazine are:

The layout

To start with the layout of the front cover of the magazine is with the Title at the Top which acts as the masthead of the magazine. What I particularly find that is really good is how the name of the magazine is well recognisable with a very accurate size on it, not only this but also for the colour of the title is one that readable and not hard for one to read showing that the magazine is made simple to make sure that the audience will be able to understand.

There are also the different writings which are on the left third of the magazine and also the right, the way the different fonts have been used including the different colours creating that attraction towards the audience. So the left third is what one will be able to see in the shop as the audience because of the way the magazines will be laid out, the different colours on the fonts will create that though in the audience mind of “why” it is like that which makes them pick one up with the thought of interest or curiousness.

The caption in the centre of the page conveys the image, tell the audience who the actual artist is and with the caption it makes it the much better interesting towards the audience, which also acts the main cover line for the magazine. On the contents page there is the different images shown which is a good point shows the audience of some of the artists that will feature, so not only giving the written version of it but also the visual version of it.

Uses of Fonts

This I found to be very good because it was some of the things I had to make improvements on as I progressed further into it. To begin with I had only one or two types of fonts but with feedback from my peers and teacher, I then thought of changing it in order to have as it is now which I think turned out better that I had thought at first.

But from the contents page and Double Page Spread the fonts have remained to a limit in order to maintain the house style through the magazine.

Colour

Looking at the double page spread, the colour effect which is on it is good because it sort of has that balance remembering that my target audience are boys and girls. So with the colours of Purple, grey, yellow and black there is that balance through the double page spread.

Improvements/Changes

Through the whole task there have been ups and downs but the main thing was my action in order to change that, which is making improvements.

One of the things that I made improvements or changes on was the actual design for the front page of the magazine. Looking at the image conveyed on the left hand side, the parts in yellow were originally intended to be the layout of the images of the different artist who were to feature in the magazine. The Title of the magazine stayed the same together with the main image intended to be placed at the centre of the front cover page, however with the changes made to different artists being allocated onto the contents page meant that there were to be certain adjustments.

 
What made me made this changes for the magazine were due to the fact that the more I progressed, the more information I learned about, such as I managed to do some research finding out the different layouts of magazines with the same genre, which helped me in understanding more on what I needed to do in order to achieve what I really needed to for example attracting the audience.

Other improvements or changes made were the colours which indicated on the image above compared to the final magazine, the title as mentioned before has stayed with the same sort of plan or style, the background colour changed to a brighter colour and some of the factors which made me want to change this was the as I went through the magazine pitch, I came across some of the things that I intended on doing such as my audience being both boys and girls, so I had to be careful with some things such as the colour in order for me to balance things out.

My thoughts to the research done

When it came in doing my research for the cove, contents pages and double page spread, some of the things that I considered where as follows;

Colour:

Looking at the colour there were a few things that made me decide on what would have suited well with my magazine. And one of it was the image being shown of the different colours, why this helped was because looking at it made it much simpler as most of the main colours were represented on it, so I could be able to compare them and even determine which colour would go well against another, so this may have been looking across them, even beside to try and much them to the way I wanted them.

Fonts:

As for the fonts, I originally thought of having two to three different types which refer to the house style of the magazine being through the entire thing. The reason to this is it gives the magazine that little extra difference, so in the end with my front cover page, I decided on having the two main types of fonts that will follow through the whole magazine as a house style and the rest acting as way of making the front page look much more interesting. In the end the fonts that I decided on were Snap ITC and Papyrus.

Sizes:

As for the sizes, I wanted the titles to the biggest ones on the page such as conveyed in the final magazine in all the pages, making it the first thing that the readers see when they look at the magazine. The smaller texts are the sub headings and the story itself ranging from sizes of 12-16 and the sizes staying consistent through the magazine.

Image:

When it came in [positioning and deciding on the images, I came upon some things such as the clothing that the artist may have been wearing in order to make sure that I could try and match it up with he rest of the colours in the magazine, not even this but also the fonts, this makes the magazine look much better in quality in and professional. 

The Experience

When I first began this task, the most I knew was using the camera so all the rest such as blogger, Prezi and Photoshop were all new to me. And I can surely say that from the start to now there has been a vast amount of things that i have come across. One thing that I particularly enjoyed using was Prezi due to the fact it was much different from all the other software's or programs I used, it involved things that weren't as familiar to me Photoshop it seemed similar to something like (PAINT), Prezi evolved around new technology. 

Throughout, the more I worked on the magazine the more I gained more knowledge about what to improve and make better such as editing the Title as i did some research on how to do so, not only this but there were times where I chose random things on the different software's/programs I used in order to find out for myself what exactly it does. 

I can say that I have enjoyed this whole experience due to the fact that I began with very little knowledge of the different things and now I have learned and gained a mass amount of information. 

The Industry

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony) and the rhythm.

Further on Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, 

although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. To many people in many cultures, music is an important part of their way of life especially as the years have gone by music has become an icon into a large part of our lives.

The music that composers make can be heard through several media; the most traditional way is to hear it live, in the presence of the musicians (or as one of the musicians), in an outdoor or indoor space such as a concert hall. Live music can also be broadcast over the radio, television or the Internet.

Overall my magazine will be focusing towards this industry, making sure that I have the right details included all the way through the magazine in order to attract that certain target audience depending o the genre that I am attempting to promote which is hip hop/r n b. 

My thoughts to the Evaluation

Once I had completed everything there was one final thing that I was

informed about which I had to do and this was the evaluation. I was given seven questions which I had to answer them all to my best, and they were:

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

·                     How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

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

·                     Who would be the audience for your media product? 

·                     How did you attract/address your audience? 

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

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

With this it was really important that I answer them all to detail and not think about the quantity but the quality of it, one thing that I had to do is to begin to think of how I will be set out to answer each of the questions. 

Preliminary Task Contents Page Research

This is the research in which I done for the contents page for my preliminary task.

Looking at top left image, the first thing is the title of the page, it is the one that is in the biggest writing meaning that it is giving the reader that bit of information, stating what exactly will be on that certain page. On the right hand side it has one main image to  reflect or portray that that is the main story in the magazine. On its left side are the features in which the magazine includes and below are images or related stories.

Most of the images or the contents page shown in the collage above have the same sort of style and layout.

These example will be able to give me ideas and  help me in deciding on my school magazine and what to actually include in it. With the contents page there is the house style which stays the same throughout.

Preliminary Cover Page Research

This is the research I done which is to do with the front cover for my preliminary tasks.

This research will help me in making or designing my own school magazine. Looking at some of the features in which they have such as the title of the magazine being at the top of the page whether its positioned  left, centre, right alignment.

Other factors like to do with the imagery, the angle in which some of the images have such as the one on the bottom right hand side on the collage of the different images, it has that slightly low angle. So such things as this can help me in determining what I would like mine to be like.

The example of the front covers also involve the different texts and font sizes on left and right. However some of them have just one or two which are slightly underneath the image, not only this but also some being in the centre of the page but the house style stays the same through it, some of the magazines try and match the colour of the texts with the colours the character is dressed as in the image.

Preliminary Task Drafts

 

These images are conveying my drafts as i did the preliminary task of the school magazine, looking at the front cover, have managed to get the main image in the middle of the page whilst the others surround it. As for the contents page there are the features which are located on the left hand side whilst some images are shown on the right. 

Why I chose These Actors/Artists

My magazine having a genre of hip hop/r n b, having a target audience of ages of 16 and 21, this being both male and female There is also the music taste, as for this I will generally be targeting these with a taste of Hip Hop/R n B so basically rap in general. So having all this in thought I needed to choose the right character in order for me to try and achieve or attract this audience. These four images show the characters that I ended up choosing.

“Deborah” known as Dee-Dee on the magazine is shown in one of the images, I chose her to be the cover of my magazine because out of all the other characters she seemed the most suited one, she is ticked all the boxes that I wanted, such as loving the genre.

Looking at the first one, her name being “Maira”, I felt that she really fitted in with my ideas, and looking at the image one can see that even with the clothing it reflects that, with the hoody and so on because some things such as clothing, one can be able to see if it really suits them, her character also showed that she loved hip hop, so having someone like this would have made my works even easier. The second image shows “Jerone”, I chose him due to similar reasons as “Maira”, I can probably say that he is a hood man/gangster, one who love such hip hop tunes, but mainly I thought of using his fashion style as one of the covers that I can be able to include in the magazine, having male also means that I would have a balance in the magazine as it targeted at both male and female.

Lastly there is “Paul”, I chose him due to the fact that I needed something different on the magazine, attracting other sorts of audience as well, his character is towards hip hop but he also likes other genres such as pop, so I thought having him on can be able to feel in that character as himself just as if he was a real artist, sort of like a Justin Bieber.

 

Myself Using The Technology

These images show me using technology during this whole entire project. The three that above show me using and setting up a camera in order to take the pictures that i needed for the magazine.

The one that is on the right shows me using the computer on the program photoshop as i edited and finalised my magazine but not only this but also using blogger.

Editing Process PhotoShop

Looking at both of these images, they are conveying me when i was using what is known as the layer style in order to try and make my title have some sort of chrome coloured style.
 
I managed to find some help on the web which would help me in editing the title, this website had a broad and variety of other styles, being precise it had 50 stunning photoshop text effects, these were tutorials. (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/04/50-stunning-photoshop-text-effect-tutorials/)
 
I chose the coloured chrome text effect tutorial in order to make the text shown in the images above look better that it was before. I was hoping on ending up with a chrome effect but i ended up with something different from what the tutorial had, but what i ended up with was something that i actually preferred, so the tutorial helped, the main thing was to play about the the blending options which are found on the left hand side of the layer style box shown in the images.

How I Managed To Get On With PhotoShop

When i first started this project, the only thing that i knew how to do is actually just placing an image into a page in order to edit it. Knowing that through making this magazine i will be using Photoshop i needed to get more of an insight of how to get things done whilst using it. I used a video known as Photoshop tutorial in under 25 minutes (http://lifehacker.com/5753459/learn-the-basics-of-Photoshop-in-under-25-minutes) which was on this website. This taught me the basics and how to get going with Photoshop, the video is short considering how much it covers. In the video it takes a look at every tool in the toolbar, the palettes on the right side of the screen, and what you'll find in the menus.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaBw5fZPzw), other videos that i came across such as this one which was one that helped me in knowing what the eraser tool does not just erase lines but being able to also erase backgrounds that i didn't need. 

Videos weren't the only thing that got me used to the software, i decided on choosing a few images which i didn't need then played around with a few things which are on the software and those that i hadn't come across before in order to see what they do, such things as the "3D tool" or "Analysis".