Evaluation 4

How does my media product represent particular social groups?
I think my magazine represents a social group with simple features for example the language that I had chose to use in my magazine it relates more to them and can interact with the magazine as they would have an understanding that they can follow along with. my target audience I highlighted from the title THE STREETS because I picture my audience hanging around the streets trying to cause trouble because they are trying to belong to that social group. I have also used image and text because I was aware of their common interests and realised that I could use similar colour scheme to pop because pop would use bright colours like pink and this would put my target audience of from buying my magazine, so I chose dark colours that symbolise danger and trouble because I tried to develop a relationships with the readers so they could really connect to my magazine making it more enjoyable to read.

Evaluation 7

Evaluation 6

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

To be perfectly truthfully the biggest the thing that I have learnt is not to rely on technology a lot because through out my project I have several issues where work hasn't been saved correctly and I have to start again and simple things like running out of battery have been a huge set back resulting in losing time. I have also learnt to take precaution for example take a spare set of batteries for your camera because you don't know when a problem might occur. I have also leant that designing my front cover, contents page and double page spread was a lot easier than expect I used Pixlr on the Ipad to construct all of my work and I was so simple using the software. when making I experiments using different software for example I used Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher and Pixlr until I found I had the look I was after. the hardware that I used was an iPhone 4s and ipad 2nd generation because I found it easier to use and edit all my picture and I got quality images of the technology

Evaluation 5

Evaluation 3

How did you attract/address your audience?

When trying to appeal to my target audience I tried to do simple but effective things such as sell lines on the front cover that will engage the audience into the magazine. the sell lines simply related to their interests because I believe that would be key in trying to get them to buy the magazine. I liked the idea of having the image as the main focus because its a powerful image and overpowers the text as I believed that text wouldn't be the selling point of the magazine , people wouldn't talk about the sell lines as much as my main image. I also tried to engage my reader further by asking them what the thing the greatest albums would be, I simply said "YOU DECIDE" because I wanted them to fell like they are part of something and feel like they are reading it I want them to feel like they can be involved in my magazine. through out the magazine strived for audience interaction I really wanted them to feel like they are part of a community so by giving them options to state their opinion and get free poster etc..

Evaluation 2

Who would be the audience for my media product?
Age- I believe the age range for my music magazine would be between the ages of 15 and 30 year olds in the stereotypical category C1 and C2 I believe this because this is very much the middle class as such and they would be more suit to that genre very stereotypical of course but a rich person from the A category would genuinely not be interested in spending their money on magazines and especially a hip hop/ rap magazine.
Gender- I believe that my magazine would be mainly males although I have aimed it at a specific gender I just don't think that women would show an interest in that type of music genre, some female could possibly be interested in the genre but I think male will enjoy reading it a lot more than most female would.

Interests- My target audience would be people that have a interested in hip hop and grime music, who typically hang around the streets playing their music in the local area.

Lifestyle- My target audience would depend on many things. I genuinely see my audience to be later years of secondary that don't show a interest in school or to any outside activity and would rather hang around with their mates and get up to things they shouldn't do. however they could be in university, have a full time job or ever just finishing GSCE's or A-levels.
 Socio-economic group - I believe that my target audience  fall into the stereotypical categories C1 and C2 . These two catergories are lower middle class and skilled working classed people.
however you can never really tell with a magazine because your readers could be your stereotypical readers as such or people that you wouldn't thought that would of bought it, for example you could get readers from category A because they could have an interest in that music genre

Evalution

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

My Front cover vs. A real front cover

When designing my magazine I always knew what I wanted my front cover to look like and I tried to achieve a very good professional look for my front cover, I really wanted it to look like a real magazine that is actually sold in stores all over the world. the purpose of my magazine is to show view new and unknown talent across the country, so they could become know in the industry. For my photo I took a long shot because I wanted to focus on setting as much as my model, the background was really important when taking the picture because I wanted it to engage the reader further of how my model has come from the streets and is now on the rise. Not many magazines chose to take long shots, they often take mid shots, however I wanted my magazine to stand out from the rest for a reason. As you can see from the professional magazine we have chosen to take different approach in terms of the picture but when I comes to text and further information we have very similar ideas of not trying to over complicate things and kept things very basic as it has more effect than trying to cram information onto the front cover. in terms of colour schemes a lot of magazines caught my idea but even more so this magazine because they have chosen two colours and kept the two colours consistent throughout the front cover. when I was designing the front cover I emphasised on the fact that pictures will over power words so I ensured that I had the right picture to carry that message across. I intended on using pictures to overpower words because I believe that when a reader grabs the magazine they will look and possibly buy it because the picture tells a story.
I like the idea that THE SOURCE only has a few sell lines and they are kept simple not over powering the picture I also wanted to do this because it betrays my model as hard and bad to suit my chosen genre. when I chose how I wanted my talent to look when taking it, I decided that I didn't want him looking at the camera so that he could continue being betrayed as a hard man and adds a hint of arrogant within the image. I made further edits towards the end of the design phase for example I thought it would be best if I altered the contrast making the background stand out and make the model stand out further. in terms of positioning the title I chose not to place it over my talents head because I believed it would take the effect out of the picture not many professional aim for the same look but I knew I didn't want to be the same in every aspect because it would make my magazine stand out from the rest.

                                                             
                                                                    



















My Contents page Vs. A real magazine front cover

                                 
My Contents page
Mine vs. a real magazine
For my contents I decided to take a different approach, instead of going for a long shot picture I opted for a mid shot I though about how I wanted my model to be betrayed once again and I really wanted to try and emphasise on him being arrogant so by taking a mid shot with my talent looking away it would once again show my reader the arrogant of my talent. For the contents I decided that I didn't want to much going on in the contents I wanted to make it even simpler with a simple background and my talent, this would make my contents a lot simpler. I tried once again to continue with the professional look through out my project so I decided to position all my text to the left hand side of my page and kept them similarly small so it look even and consisted on the whole page. I chose to place my title in the top left hand corner once again so that I had consistency throughout the front cover and contents.  By looking a the professional contents page you can see the similarities in my work and with the profession piece for example the positing on the text to the far left and keeping them inline and even.

         

My Double Page Spread vs. A Real Double Page spread
Once again I went with a professional look on my double page spread I went the look that many magazine decide to go with and I personally believe that its the most effective out of all of the possibilities. I decided to go with my image on the left hand side and text on the right in two columns. on my final product I went with a bold title so it stood out on top of the page and had a subtitle, I believed that had a lot of effect of my final piece because I think if I didn't have the bold title I believe it would lose elements of professionalism. My final piece continues to look professional except I didn't chose to go with a huge letter at the start of the text like most magazines decided to go for.

My Double page spread

This is my double page spread, when it came to putting it together i chose not not edit the photo because I was really happy with the photo that I took and didn't want to ruin the photo that I thought would be ideal for my double page spread. when I had finished the double page spread I was really satisfied with the final product I was impressed with the fact it had a professional look to the final product. through out the whole article I used the same font and font size and colour, once again I kept the simple look because I believed it would be more effective. For the title of the double page spread I decided to make make the title bold and increase the font size because it would make the reader interested in seeing his opinions on why he thinks he is the best and it would catch there eye from the moment they turn the page because most readers skip parts if they look boring so by adding the caption it adds a reason for the reader to engage.

My final front cover

Here is my final magazine front cover. After experimenting with lots of different effects fonts and colours I have finally found the right one that will make my magazine look effective and professional. I have kept the same font throughout the magazine front cover as it would look bizarre if I didn't keep the same font. When making the front cover I had to play around with some effects as the picture was a little bit to dark, so I wanted to make the photo a little bit lighter in order to give my magazine front cover the full effect. When editing my magazine front cover I continuously had to make changes for example the motto, I had to move it because it was slightly on my talents face and because of the contrast of the photo it meant you struggled to read the sentence towards the end of it. When I began inserting text I tried to make sure that I didn't cram the page full of text and so that it was covering loads of my talent as I thought it would look unprofessional so I tried keeping text on my talent down to a bare minimum.      

My second  draft front cover

On this front cover I used pixlr as I have used for the final front cover, however I didn't feel like that should be my final front cover because of some small errors for example forgetting the state what edition it would be. Overall I wasn't happy with the it because of the text it simply just looks to big and it fills the page but it shouldn't have because I haven't included a lot of information. Just for these reasons that's why I felt like I had to made an alternative version which I am much happier with now. On the photo I played around with some effect and at the time I was satisfied with out but after reviewing the front cover my self , it just didn't look or feel right the effect managed to blur the photo a little so my photo no longer had the effect it did before it became blurred.

My first draft  front cover
On this one I just felt like there wasn't  enough on it and it didn't particularly look like magazine front cover so I was a little disappointed with it and I didn't waste anytime I started again so that I would be wasting time and that would allow me to complete the front cover to a better standard I tried to use the photo with no editing but It just looked like it was naked and wasn't very professional. There was certain fundamentals that I wanted to keep on my final one for example
the text colour , font  and some of the ideas I used I really liked the thought of and transferred them on to my final cover.

My photos

These are the photos that I have taken for my front cover, double page spread and my contents page I knew what I was looking for when taking the pictures, I knew that I didn't want a clean setting I wanted something with a bit rough look because then it would be relevant to my chosen genre. I managed to find a Graffiti wall where I was able to take my pictures with the image I was looking for.

I took more photos because I didn't want to start editing the photo and there be a problem with it and not have a back up so I went to a different location where I was able to take further photo but yet with a streets vibe and unclean setting.

When taking the photos I would have to consider what's around I didn't want to mush going on around it so I had to find the correct location where it wouldn't over complicate the picture and would keep it relatively simple.

My first draft of my front cover

From the start of the design process of my front cover I had a rough idea of what I wanted it to look like, I wanted it to feel like it was something that had come from the streets a typical hip hop / rap magazine vibe to it, I didn't want it to look like it was something that had been edited and had relevance to the magazine and could engage the audience further in the magazine.

I had a rough idea about a colour scheme I wanted to keep it simple so in order to achieve this I felt it would be best if I stuck to two colours when using text black and white I felt as if that would magazine more effect in trying to achieve the street look. Once I had finished the front cover draft I knew that I would keep the simple colour because that will make it look more effective and I really liked the font and colour choice I felt it give the right vibe to my genre as it represents the dark routes that genre usually consists of.

Once the draft was finished i realised that I couldn't make all the text so big because it didn't look like a professional product that you would see on the shelve I am really striving towards that professional look so by doing this draft I was able to realise I need to make my text smaller and and a few more ideas on the front cover so it fills it better and doesn't look bare.

Choosing a title for my magazine

After deciding the genre of the magazine would be hip hop/Rap I thought about many titles for my magazine I took a lot of time and thought before I finally came up with the idea of calling it the magazine THE STREETS. I believe that that title was kind of fitting for the type of genre that I have chosen, seeing as a lot of the music is produced is often based from the streets so by linking the two together would make the reader be more engaged to the magazine. I didn't want to call it something that didn't give a good vibe about it or made it seem like you wasn't reading a hip hop/rap magazine.