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James, the AS coursework deadline was a month ago!

Masthead – The name and logo of the magazine.

The Lead – the introductory paragraph of an article. Usually written in bold or capitals.

Body copy refers to the text of your written articles, which should be produced as a printed presentation to accepted industry standards, e.g. correct use of language, font size, word limits etc. Usually written in columns.

Serif font – fonts like Times New Roman, or Baskerville Old Face, which have little bars (serifs) on the end of the letters.

Sans serif font – fonts like Impact, or Agency FB, which do not have little bars (serifs) on the end of the letters.

Drop Capitals – Really big letter, which start off an article.

Cross Head – Small sub-heading used to split up a large block of text.

White Space – white parts of a page other than text or pictures.

Mode Of Address – How the magazine talks to the audience.

Sell Lines – Text on the cover that helps to sell the magazine to the audience. Kerrang!’s sell line is “life is loud”.

Banners – text, which stands out because its on a coloured background.

House Style – a magazines distinctive design that distinguishes it from its competitors.

Borders – the gaps at the edges of the page.

Gutters – the gaps between the columns of text.

Leading - the space between lines of text.

Kerning - the space between letters.

Strap Lines – a smaller headline, printed above the main headline.

By-lines - name of the person who wrote the article. Picture Credits - where did the photos come from, or who took them.

Anchorage – The way in which text helps to pin down the meaning of a picture and visa versa.

Evaluation Question 7

Feedback

In this part of the evaluation I needed to get feedback to achieve the last appendix objective. I asked people to look through my front cover, contents and double page spread to see what they thought and if I achieved and professional looking magazine aimed at the right audience.

Josh Rodgers

"The Magazine Cover I believe is pretty well thought out. The shot of the four people are all well positioned and doesn't affect the masthead at the top of the page. I think the masthead has a good colour choice of red which is bright and easy to see. This will be good for catching passing people for potential readers.

The contents has a simple yet affective design which stays in homage to other classic magazines like Kerrang. No faults to point out on the contents page.

The double page spread really has been thought out well. The splatter effect used is very teenage looking with the headline "Teen Spirit" indicating its aimed directly at teenagers so the target audience is achieved.

Overall a very professional looking magazine"

Jade Dannatt

"What I like about this magazine cover is the image used on the front, all 4 people are in focus and it is clear to see even though 2 of them are in the front. I also like the fact that the front cover isn’t too cluttered, this makes it easy to see too. I also like the colour used on the front cover, a good contract between the red and green. As for the contents I really like the placing of the images, I think this because once again it makes it clear, and also makes it look authentic. Finally I love the double page spread. I think the use of the film stripe for images is a great idea aswell as the blood, it looks very professional. Overall I think this magazine looks professional and real."

Evaluation Question 6

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


Blog Web 2.0 (blog)

I was already pretty familiar with using the internet for a long time now I already knew how to use a blog etc. While I knew how to use one I have never used it for this much of posting. Throughout my whole project I had to make sure that I kept it up to date with the work I needed to complete. I didn't have much time to change my background etc so I just kept it basic and simple looking because it wasn't really relevant to change any of the background colours or add a logo etc.

Photoshop

I had already had a fair bit of experience with Photoshop. Photoshop is one of the most well known and most used design tool in the industry. I was well aware how to use the basic functions of Photoshop and also some of the advance ones. I really liked Photoshop to design my front cover. Its a really easy program to use and it has all its most useful tools layed out well on the tool bar like the lasso tool which I used to cut out pictures. I also found Photoshop a lot better when it came to adding different text effects like drop shadows. If I had to do a similar project I would use Photoshop again.



Quark Express

I experienced many problems with Quark. I thought it was a pretty basic program and didn't offer as many features as Photoshop did like different text effects etc. I was really dissapointed on how plain my text looked in some cases but due to the task objective I had to make sure I made my contents and double page spread in Quark. I would not use this program again and I think that Quark is overal I much better program in terms of layout and features

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract your audience?

On my magazine cover I have used a few different features in order to attract my audience. I think the image I have used is very effective. This is because the front people of the image are the centre point of the cover. Around them are images and advertisements to whats going to be in the magazines. I think the colour I have used is something that attracts the reader because it the red and white contrast so that it is easier to read and because it makes it clearer.

Behind my masthead I have a grey banner, this makes my masthead easier to read.

The mode of address on the cover is more teacher pupil, this is because it is informing the reader on news and what is in the magazine. Also on the top of the page I have used a sticker feature, this makes the magazine look more authentic in order to attract readers.

By having a group band with Males and Females I did this to attract Boys and Girls because they were featured to attract this audience. I tried to position them so it looks like they are kind of rebellious and they represent the ideal self image that a lot of magazines try to accomplish this. For example of when I looked at a previous magazine with "Avenged Sevenfold" featured on the front cover the magazine tried to make them positioned so they are rebellious and also a gang. I have tried to re create the rebellious look with mine and give this the edge for my magazine to pull in my target audience which is teenagers.

Evalution Question 4

Who would the audience be for your media product?

Len Ang (1991) shows Media Institutions view audiences as a group of imaginary individuals. Therefore this tries to create a generic, typical member of this person to help them to create a demographic group.

The target audience of my magazine is around 14-21 year olds which means that this audience will still be in some sort of education like second school, college or university. To draw people to my magazine I made it look colourful which is what Pop-Punk music is mostly all about. To do this I made my text bright and made it stand out.

Kerrang is a similar magazine and they have a large group following in the UK with having a Radio station and also a music channel to go along with the main magazine. I have tried to base my magazine around a similar group of people because when Kerrang first started publishing it was more a Metal magazine but has changed over the years slightly with now Green Day and Blink 182 on the front. More Pop-Punk mainstream bands are making it to the front covers of magazines like Kerrang.

This is the type of audience I have tried to aim for I and think I have achieved this by using a typical stereotypical group of people for Pop-Punk music on my front cover.

Evaluation Question 3

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

The company that will most likely want to publish my magazine will be the likes of Bauer because they have a huge weeky buyers. For example with Kerrang they get over 55,000 readers each week which is pretty large numbers for a weekly magazine at £2.20. I think mine would fit in with this perfectly due to how my magazine is also based around other mainstream magazines and Bauer publishes a few like Q and MoJo. It will take part in synergy to make sure that the magazine will be well marketed and will get the recognition