Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback Record Sheet – Audience 1

Please rate the magazine for the following categories.  Circle the most appropriate.

5 = Excellent               4 = Proficient             3 = Basic          2 = Minimum              1= Poor          

Realism of front cover                                                                                      5              4              3              2              1

Layout and page design                                                                                   5              4              3              2              1

Integration of illustration and text                                                                 5              4              3              2              1

Use of language (mode of address)                                                                                                                5              4              3              2              1

Main Image (Framing and mise en scene)                                                  5              4              3              2              1

Variety of fonts and text sizes                                                                        5              4              3              2              1

Following  conventions                                                                                      5              4              3              2              1

Appropriate for audience                                                                               5              4              3              2              1

Appropriateness for purpose                                                                         5              4              3              2              1

Audience Feedback Record Sheet – Audience 2

Please rate the magazine for the following categories.  Circle the most appropriate.

5 = Excellent               4 = Proficient             3 = Basic          2 = Minimum              1= Poor          

Realism of front cover                                                                                     5              4              3              2              1

Layout and page design                                                                                   5              4              3              2              1

Integration of illustration and text                                                     5              4              3              2              1

Use of language (mode of address)                                               5              4              3              2              1

Main Image (Framing and mise en scene)                                                                                                                     5              4              3              2              1

Variety of fonts and text sizes                                                                       5              4              3              2              1

Following  conventions                                                                                    5              4              3              2              1

Appropriate for audience                                                                                 5              4              3              2              1

Appropriateness for purpose                                                                           5              4              3              2              1

Audience Feedback Record Sheet – Audience 3

Please rate the magazine for the following categories.  Circle the most appropriate.

5 = Excellent               4 = Proficient             3 = Basic          2 = Minimum              1= Poor          

Realism of front cover                                                                                        5              4              3              2              1

Layout and page design                                                                                    5              4              3              2              1

Integration of illustration and text                                                               5              4              3              2              1

Use of language (mode of address)                                                             5              4              3              2              1

Main Image (Framing and mise en scene)                                                  5              4              3              2              1

Variety of fonts and text sizes                                                                        5              4              3              2              1

Following  conventions                                                                                    5              4              3              2              1

Appropriate for audience                                                                              5              4              3              2              1

Appropriateness for purpose                                                                        5              4              3              2              1

From my audience feedback I have seen that the majority like the images and the text. Which means that it is relatable to the audience and the potential readers. The one that got the least marks for was the realism of the front cover. I am disappointed with the results for this because this factor was that was most important for me, the realism. I think that the main reason for this was that it does not look as much like a real magazine as I would have hoped, the image and text probably let it down a bit, I think the layout is good. Wick they seem to agree with.

Final Double Page Spread

My double page spread is the one I am most proud of. This is because I worked relay hard on getting the layout correct and the images in the right place. I feel that I have achieved in making it look realistic and like a good magazine double page spread. 

When making the double page spread I made 2 different layouts that I could choose from. It was a hard decision to choose which one to use, so I decided to make further drafts for them both. For the first one I used one of my favourite images form the front cover and made it fill the whole double spread. For the second I sued another one of my favourite images and filled it to fit the right hand side of the spread. When looking at both spreads in full, I made the decision to choose the second layout. This was because when I included the article for the interview the writing would have blended in with the background of the first image too much.
I really like the second image, it is a great pose of them both, and they both look really nice and have an edge in their faces. I needed to edit the image because it looked like a pipe had come out her head and into her body. This is before and after I edited the image:

Before:

After:

I have edited the pipe out of the view using paint, I thought it would be OK if the pipe was left on the floor where it is, but after looking at it more I decided to edit that pipe out, so I went back to paint and did it again. After doing this I was able to focus on the other side of the double page spread.

The text on the page is very much similar to previous pages because I used the same font. The rest of the font is different, I decided to change it because I didn't want it to look too much the same as the rest of the magazine. Diversity is very important so I wanted to change the font, to MV Boli, this makes the writing look more sleek because it looks like real hand writing, I like this effect because it makes the interview more believable. I decide to make some of the text in bright pink and the rest in white to split the interview up. With real magazines in an interview the questions and answers are always different in some way, so I thought to go with the bright pink of the title that the bright pink would be a nice touch to the page. The colour is a girly one, but because it is bright pink as opposed to a pale pretty pink, this one has a bit of an edge and is less feminine, helping the effect of the magazine as an indie magazine.
The other images on the left side of the magazine are my favourite part of the spread this is because when choosing the layout I really liked the effect as if they are photos take in a photo booth, they look real and like the girls are having fun together. The pictures are in black and white, I like the effect of this with the rest of the page because it splits the images up from the rest on the whole magazine, making them different and something new for the reader to look at.

The black background was to avoid making the page looking too dull and boring. The connotation of this colour use could be that even though there is white and pink writing the black background could show that the girls have a darker side.

Final Contents Page

In the process of making my contents page I went designed 3 different possible layouts. I chose this one because I thought it would be the most interesting and functional. It is important to get the images in the right place and for the text to be good, so this is what I focused my attention on the most.
The main image has the same background as the one on the front cover but it is a long shot as opposed to a medium shot. This gives the reader something different to look at, and their poses are different to those on the front cover meaning that it is diverse. The both have their hands on their hips and are both laughing, this shows how they are together as a band and as friends, having a good time together shines through the image and on the whole page. The image at the top shows the free CD that comes with the magazine, by having an image as well as text for the CD it shows the reader exactly what they will be getting. The image below that is an image of my friend posing for a feature of what to wear at a festival. This relates to the reader if they are planning on going to a festival this year they can easily find out and get help (if they need it) on what to wear. The girl looks confident and happy in what she is wearing and in her pose so it can be relatable to girls who read it, as a good role model.
It is important for me to have more than one image on the contents page because it can fill up the page more and can make it more interesting to look at.
I varied the text on the list of contents changing the font from black to red, so that all the writing did not blend in together and look very boring. By including sections for the list of contents it highlights what each page belongs to which section, making it more functional for the reader to navigate through the page.

Final Front Cover

The process of making my front cover was considerably long. I firstly had to choose the orientation of the cover. I did this by going on publisher and creating three different layouts; I then had to choose which one I liked the most. I chose the first design because I thought it would be the most readable and flow the best. 

The image itself of Lauren and Shannon is the image I liked the most out of all them taken from the photo shoot. It gives off a great vibe about them, how they are smiling and back to back shows that they are friends and make it more believable to the reader that they are a band. The colours that they are wearing are very feminine colours, but they have an edge, the ripped t-shirt and striped vest make them more than just two girls in a photo, but represent them through the genre of music. Their hairs are quite messy meaning that appearance is not the most important thing, relating to the audience that even though they are on the cover of a music magazine, they are two normal girls. As there is only two of them it would be hard to establish who is the lead in the band and who is dominating the shot. However, the fact that you can see more of Lauren (left) it could be suggested that she was the leader of the twosome. 

The masthead is is the corner of the magazine cover, even though it is in the corner it still makes a big impact on the rest of the cover. The masthead is bold and black, contrasting with the image, standing out to the reader. It has a slight shadow underneath, showing how it can stand out that extra bit, and looks almost 3D, this may appeal to younger readers.When developing the masthead I wanted to make it bold, which I have done and to make it look diverse from all the other masthead's on the music magazine market. Even though I took inspiration from NME masthead, I think I have made it different so it doesn't look like a copy. I have made it so that the masthead overlaps the image, this is because the magazine name is not well established, if the masthead was behind the image then it would not be obvious. 

The text next to the masthead has the flash word 'NEW!' in a purple font, slightly bigger than the rest of the text, the other text is in white font, standing out against the brick wall background, so it is easier for the reader to see. The same applies to the text underneath the masthead, making the text all flow together. 

The main cover title is below the main image at the bottom left of the cover. Even though it is at the bottom of the page the red bold font helps make it stand out against the rest of the cover. The red colour can represent being passionate, and it is mainly the colour for rock music, meaning that the girls are not too traditionally 'girly' but they have an edge whilst still remaining feminine. 

Evaluation 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back on my preliminary task I learnt and found a lot of information that helped me create my main task.
I did my first bit of research, learning how to to deconstruct a magazine's front cover. I learnt some terminology about the different features of a magazine, such as the masthead and cover title. These words I did not really know before, so from learning it in my preliminary task I was able to adapt these words and use them in my main task.
When taking the image, I further developed my technology skills because I was able to use photoshop and edit the photos. I adjusted the image and uploaded it to InDesign and was able to work and navigate my way through this program.
I learnt about how important the text is on the front cover and contents page. The mode of address and style of lanuage was also something I learnt about, knowing how to address the target audience, which in this case was students.
The most important factor that I learnt from the preliminary task was the image on the front. When doing the research I had to evaluate the images on the front cover, this was the first time I had to do this, so I thought about what would I like to see on the front cover, and the answer was a famous person. The second magazine I looked at did this, making the magazine more desirable to look at. Since for my main task we had to our own photography and not images from the interent, so I had to take pictures of my friends posing as if they are a band. This made it more difficult to make the magazine more desrivbale to buy because the reader would not know who they are, but instead of using a msuical instruemnt, like the college magazines used a photo of the school, on the front cover I made it more interesting with two girls.
When making the contents page I looked at the three examples and saw that they were very simple and fucntional. I thought that that would be a good way for me to develop my own, by taking inspriation I was able to make my own contents page look functional for the reader and interesting using images. This has helped me in the main task, because my real contents page is quite similar to the one in the preliminary task. The plain background focuses all the attention on to the text and images, making there be no distractions away form them. The title had to be contents, so it would be more obvious and helpful to the reader, so they don't just bypass the oage and actually stop to look at it.

I have learnt a great deal of information from the preliminary task because I was able to adapt my knwoledge of college students and focus that as my target audeince, which incorperated the image and the masthead to suit a college student. The reserach I did for the task was much simplier than what I had to do in the main task, but it enabled me to learn about the features of a magzine and how to evaluate them. Form the research I could develop my own ideas into the preliminary task.

Evaluation 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a considerable amount about technology when doing the main task.
When developing my front cover I had to use InDesign. I learnt a great deal when doing this. I was able to crop the image using the move/drag tool I dragged the corners in to fit the A4 page perfectly.
When looking at the picture I went into Photoshop to edit the images. This program was new to me because I had never used it before, before started the main task we had a tutorial using InDesign so I was familiar on how to use it, but not for photoshop.

I was able to enhance the image by adjusting the curves and the exposure, this was so that colours were brighter and the image did not look dull. I was able to learn about putting different effects on the image for my double page spread, because I wanted to make some of the image black and white so I had to do that. Photoshop came in useful for my masthead as well because I was able to correct the edges around the letters. When first developing my front cover and putting my masthead on it, it was evident that the masthead looked messy. At first that was the effect I wanted but when looking at it the masthead did not look right, so I went back into photoshop and erased all the messy edges and made it look sharp.

Overall I have learnt a lot about technology for my magazine, I am now able to navigate through InDesign and be able to make the images and the layout of the magazine pages look good. From photoshop I have learnt how to edit images in a way that looks sophisticated and like a real magazine image. I am also able to use Blogger well and now know how to upload my work easily.

Evaluation 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted/addressed my audience by the following:

Use of language/mode of address:
I tried to use more informal language so that I could relate better to my target audience. The age group of my target audience is aged 16-24, both male and female. Even though I decided to use both genders as my target audience I think that from the way i have written it and my style of language that females would be more attracted to my magazine. The style of language that I used was very informal but language that was sophisticated enough for the older ages of my target audience. 

Use of font:
Through my font I tried to make the style as gender universal as possible on the front cover. I used font that had sharp edges and looked sophisticated as opposed to curvy and rounded edges, I did this to make it more un-bias towards females and more all rounded for all ages and both genders. In the double page spread I think that because the article is of two girls that I made the font more girly, having the writing slanted and in bright pink, so it may look more feminine, so it would attract my female audience.

Contents:
On my list of contents I tried to make it as exciting as possible, with a little mention of various famous stars, like Vampire Weekend and Warpaint. Since they are not the most popular artists I thought it would be more interesting for the readers, if they like the hear about new artists then they will be attracted to read my magazine. On the contents I made it clear to see that there was two exclusives, they were a chance to win Gig Tickets and free Vampire Weekend CD. I thought this would appeal to my audience because when doing my audience research the most popular promotion was free gig tickets.

Images:
All the images I have used on my blog have been for the benefit of the reader. The front cover image could be more bias towards females in my target audience because they are smiling together and look like two relatable normal girls, as opposed to traditional women on the front cover of magazines. The contents images include a feature - festival wear and the preview of the girls on the paper dolls interview. Since they are both girls you could say the magazine is more bias towards girl readers. The double page spread images are very female based because they look very friendly and happy together, giving off a good image to girls who read the magazine.

Masthead:
The masthead is not very feminine, this is because it has no feminine features, no colours and no pattern, it is just plain black with sharp edges. Meaning that it could attract male readers to the magazine.

Layout:
I tried to attract my audience with the layout of my magazine because I wanted it to flow well and be functional. The contents page has sections to divide the list of contents so that if the reader wanted to read predominately about the music they could look at that section, or if they wanted to read about artists/bands they could just look at the section below.