Evaluation Question 7: Showing Progress Through Comparrison

Comparing my two media products I think that it is clear my skills in creating media texts has improved, regarding layout choices, ability using the resources and general knowledge on what makes a text visually pleasing with appropriate content.

 The music magazine looks more like a legitimate magazine product, with consistent fonts relevant to the genre and easily legible, and a busy general image that isn't overwhelming. The college magazine has a lot of negative space, and the fonts and colours are very basic. These choices had no sufficiency either, research and planning enabled me to justify decision made with my music magazine product, so the design elements were chosen with my goal/audience in mind. Furthermore, the college magazine's colour scheme is not explored thoroughly, in my second text I have used the same colours for big and small pieces to keep the same visuals consistent, and not uneven.  It's clear that I have produced the music magazine with edited contrast and brightness, to achieve this a level of diversity in the graphology. Also there is a barcode, date and price on CLASH where as there is just a date on EDUCATE's cover, this again brings more authenticity into the second text than the first, as it looks more like a legitimate product.

Here are my contents pages and again, in comparison I feel that it is evident that I have progressed from the preliminary task. Again, on the left a lot of negative space is expressed and overall it looks extremely amateur. On the right the contents page is filled up more with text and again a colour scheme is consistent. The images also demonstrate better quality and generally shows more professionalism. During the production and presentation of the college magazine I was more dis-organised in blogging and creating media, the example shown here is the same one I posted as my 'final contents' but I had failed to notice the text curser over some of my text, which could be a careless mistake but none the less demonstrates how I wasn't as thorough when evaluating my final pieces. Furthermore, with my music contents page I have experimented with capitalization, and font choice; the college contents font differs greatly in style from that of the cover, which shows I had little knowledge or consideration for cohesion between texts.

Evaluation Question 6/7: What Have You Learnt About Technology And How Do You Feel You Have Progressed From The Preliminary Task?

Evaluation Question 5: How Does Your Magazine Appeal To Your Target Audience?

    To attract my audience I incorporated the ‘essence’ of my target social group into things such as graphology, phonology and choice of cover lines and features. I have mentioned before that fans of Rock and Metal are known stereo typically to be disruptive and are often featured in the news relating to violent stories, such as the seaside riots in Brighton or general deaths related to the music genre (for participation in activities such as moshing). I kept this quality in mind when creating my magazine ‘CLASH’.

  For my font choices I used many different varieties that represented destruction, the font used for my masthead was one that I found on a website called DaFont.com and it looks like it has been eroded away, this represented my theme well. Some other fonts used also reminded me of scribbling or graffiti which also represents rebellion and anarchy, like the fonts used on my contents page and for the title/pull out quotes on my double page spread. Along with looking like they have been distorted in some way I also made sure these fonts were engaging and loud, representing members of my target audience further with their stereotypical loud personalities and daring appearances. There is a lot of current taboo language that is used sometimes to describe my target audience, such as ‘Greeb’ and ‘Emo’ because of their physical appearance and choice of clothing. These terms can sometimes be offensive but they are useful to take into account how my social group is perceived by others, Rock fans are often judged for not caring what they look like and being scruffy. This helped me in choosing fonts as they could look messy and distorted and this linked to the target audience well.

  When choosing a name for my magazine I kept these ideologies relating to my target audience in mind and eventually decided on ‘CLASH’. This was to play further on the idea of destruction and anarchy with my magazine and it is also an example of onomatopoeia making it appealing to the ear. Furthermore, some may interpreted this masthead choice as relating to the Rock band ‘The Clash.’

  For colours I made sure to use bright and loud tones with a contrast of white and black. Black is often associated with the Rock genre as a lot of Rock music is dark and ‘scary’ with the added connotations of dark clothing, make-up and hair styles. Also, I tried to stick to a main colour scheme of roughly 4 colours to keep the whole of the magazine looking consistent. The other colours I chose were yellow and red, these colours stood out against the white and black and are very eye catching and loud. This again attracts my audience as this relates to their outgoing personalities, and also red holds connotations of rudeness, rebellion and violence. The colour scheme differed slightly when it came to my double page spread, and instead of the loud cherry red I had been using throughout the texts I decided to use a more subtle plum colour. This was to go with my photography and also the music genre (hard rock) of my fictional band 'DEADRUNNERS.' This appealed to my target audience, as it communicated the diversity of the genre and liberal aspects to the collectivity of different bands with different genres and styles that make up the contents of my magazine. This idea also relates to the audience themselves, as my research has shown that fans of the diverse genre also widely differ in age, gender and characteristics. Furthermore, the colour is slightly more pink, and can be interpreted as reflecting the femininity of the model. Despite having a blurred representation of gender (I have explained how certain elements have given her a little more masculinity), the pinker colour highlights her gender well and I think added a nice touch.

    I also researched into other magazines that attract a similar audience to mine; they used many cover lines with news from the Rock industry such as new albums, tour dates, interviews and general news stories. Furthermore I noticed that one of the most successful ways of attracting this audience was to promote free giveaways, gifts and competitions with merchandise and instruments linked to this genre. This is because my core target audience of younger fans of the genre have been known to be interested in pull out posters for room decoration, possession of merchandise and other items that express what type of music and hobbies they are interested in. Therefore, this was a crucial element to include in my texts that would thoroughly engage the audience. Specific examples of this technique used was my advertisement for the issue being a ‘poster special’ for the Rock/Heavy Metal festival DOWNLOAD. As I have mentioned before DOWNLOAD is exclusively a Rock festival and my audience would be very interested in it, it may even have been an event they attended, which enhances the chance of them wanting to purchase the magazine in hope that they are included in one of the images. Also, on the contents page I promoted a competition to win a Drum Kit signed by Travis Barker, a successful Drummer in the Pop/Rock band Blink 182. These were the only competition/giveaway cover lines I used because even though they may be the most appealing factor to the audience, I knew that news about bands was the most important elements to the magazine.

      Also, I made sure the model I used for the front cover and double page spread of my magazine looked like she could fit into my social group as both a fan and a star. This is because musicians of Rock music also love the genre themselves and often come from similar back grounds as my audience. What I mean by this is that bands are normally self-created and sometimes self-taught as opposed to be being trained or manufactured through an agency, this fact comes from the DIY movement and Punk eras that occured over the timeline and development of the rock genre. I also thought this was a crucial factor to make my model relatable from the reader’s perspective; I kept this in mind when creating her interview also.  To enable that this idea was established, I researched how models similar to my own were represented and portrayed in similar products to mine before my photoshoot. This helped me decide what kind of look to give my model, and how to photograph her. She wears dark colours that my genre is associated with, loud edgy jewellery that feature spikes and metal (conveying toughness) and a strong, tough facial expression and pose. 

    In conclusion, I feel that my magazine both represents and appeals to the chosen target audience well. I have used factors that represent my social group both in appearance and personality traits, and used this is engage my readers and show that CLASH magazine is clearly written for fans of Rock music. I have also looked at how the audience will be attracted to the magazine with free gifts, news and graphological features.

Evaluation Question 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

                            -Traits, characteristics, interests and hobbies of my target audience-

This is a video I made using Windows Live Movie Maker

Evaluation Question 3: What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Product And Why?

Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent A Particular Social Group?

Media Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent A Particular Social Group? from Beth Sumecki

Evaluation Question 1: In What Ways Does Your Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

 Another way I challenged the typical form of real Rock media products was deciding to use a female artist in my double page spread and front cover. There are many famous female artists in this genre around today but they are certainly a minority. This isn't a form of prejudice it is just matter of fact, so using a female artist may be seen as challenging the stereotype because of it's infrequency. Furthermore, I liked the fact that having a female look confident and independent challenged gender stereotypes. My magazine is for both genders, and having a female on the cover of a Rock music magazine when females are seen mostly in fashion genres stands for gender equality in media.

     In addition, there is a total of 4 COLOURS used on my cover page, and 6 FONTS. It is a general convention of any magazine to keep these features to a minimum, here are some examples to illustrate:

                                          

 

One element of my double page spread that could be argued to be a development of classic conventions is the highlighted text, this was to signal the questions asked to the interview-ee. Having this feature of this text allows the reader to skim-read/skip to sections which interest them most. The slight development that I have made is adding in the extra space around this text to ensure that this separation element is translated, I also thought it looks more effective to have a tad extra white amongst the page. To show that this is not a challenge of a form/convention, here are examples of existing media that also use this feature:
                                           

Production: Final Outcomes

Production: Problems With The Double Page Spread

When creating my double page spread last year, prior to the first submission I had used a font from InDesign for the title and pull out quote of the double page spread:

  I really liked this font, as it was another visual element that literally represents connotations from my genre (destruction, again). It was also exclusive to this double page spread/article feature, highlighting it's separateness.

  However, when redeveloping my double page spread and making improvements, I realised this font was no longer available to use. Because I already had my written text, it didn't matter, so I proceeded in changing the background and colour schemes, I started editing the main article, adjusting fonts and sizes. However, whilst I did this editing, I had not realised that my font had been automatically substituted, and I had saved the file before I noticed this occurrence. I experimented with other fonts in InDesign, non of which I liked as they didn't fit in with my house style or motives. To work around this, I used a screen grab image of my double page spread with the correct colour scheme:

Then, I simply correctly adjusted my article and chose my final design outcomes for the main interview, screen grabbed, and then added this to the file image on Photoshop (with the improved page numbers too):

This however, resulted in the fact that my article is quite small and blurred. It's readable, but not of supreme quality. This factor also means that coherence has been lost with my other pieces, as the size of this font no longer corresponds with the size of the same font used on my contents page. This factor has been a frustrating turn in the project and I've found it difficult to compensate for the minor damage done. For instance, with the right hand text quote, I am not satisfied with the positioning and would change this if I still had the opportunity, I would also have experimented with the size of the title. However, I will re examine the contents page in comparison to the double page spread, to see if there is any changes I can make to add further correspondence. I could make the contents text smaller for example, but in capitals. Experimentation with this will be posted soon.

This slip up in my creation process has taught me that working with digital substance and media texts is delicate, and sometimes things can take turns for the unexpected. 

 Here is an update of my contents page, I have edited the size of the font to 2.5 pt and put the content in capitals. This is so the text is smaller but still legible, to correspond with my double page spread font size a little bit more. I also added in a few more contents listings, to make up the negative space created due to having a smaller font. 

Production: Double Page Spread Outcome Journey

Doublepagejourney from Beth Sumecki

Production: Contents Page Update

    Here is my contents page at the current stage in the project, here I am presenting two outcome that I have made. The only difference I have made is the size of the column separators,  and I did this because I thought this may look more authentic. However, I am unsure on this decision and will ask people soon for feedback to help me decided which draft is best.

Furthermore, after proceeding to work on my double page spread text, I knew from the beginning that I needed to have the same font used on the contents page to also feature for the double page spread to maintain my house style. But, after experimenting with font on the double page spread, 'Myriad Pro' worked much better on the text than 'Skia' (my contents font). This was because of spacing issues and over all tone, it just didn't seem to fit. Here is a section of my double page spread; the stand first, with both font outcomes:

  -Skia

- Myriad Pro

The two fonts are however quite similar when they are in small size,  so I decided to change the contents to feature 'Myriad Pro,' as the change isn't too significant and doesn't (in my opinion) harm the authenticity of the piece. Here are the results: 

Production: Front Cover Initially And Changes Made

First creation of my front cover                                                            Recreation of my front cover

After reflecting on this first mock up of a rock magazine, I decided to change a few things. After small adjustments I kept thinking of ways to improve and the result here is actually significantly different. I prefer my magazine now at this point in the project.

Production: Double Page Spread Construction and Changes

      Here is a draft of my Double Page Spread, initially I had written out the article in white, against a black background, in the default font on InDesign. For the stand first, I chose 'Myriad Pro' in size 24pt and added a plum colour to highlight the name of the person being interviewed. I chose this plum as it went well with the backdrop to the main image, also withholding a sense of femininity to the page. To select the colour I used the 'eyedropper' tool, to make sure this was communicated, and to keep this colour consistent, I looked at the coding name which was '23,100,74,15.' This was so I could use the colour again across the page. I also used this to highlight the word 'Change' and the speech marks around the pull out quote/ article title. Initially, for the main body of the article I created text boxes that were correctly aligned using the '........' tool.

However, after thinking rationally, I realized that a white background may be the better option for this text. This is due to my low distribution price, as white would be cheaper to print. Furthermore, this gives the text an authentic look.

Here, I have made the question titles the same plum colour that runs consistently through the page to make them standout, and put them in the same font and capitals as the stand first.

Here is my first draft of my double page spread, I am still thinking of changing elements such as the box of information included and how the questions are presented. I want to experiment with what looks the most visually effective before I decide on my final design.

Production: Contents Page Initially and Changes Made

On the right, was my finished first draft of my contents page product. I am at a stage now where I am reflecting over each text and making big improvements. 

The most significant alteration I have made to the contents page is the main focus image. Despite liking the initial image because of the eye contact with the artists and my camera, it occurred to me that the image quality was not good enough for such a big part of the page. Therefore, I replaced the image with the one on the right which is of a much better resolution. It also features the colour red more and so goes with the page's colour scheme nicely. 

To make sure this still fit with my over all product, I made sure to add in a cover line that referred to this image on the front page, to create synergy. (This is along the top banner, which I have added on to the front cover text. I will make a post about these changes soon). I also changed the cover line in this section 'Best moments 2012' to 'Best Events 2012' because I had changed the words on the cover as well for spacing purposes. Because I changed these two type factors, I unfortunately had to change the font used in this part of the page because the ones I had used were no longer available. 

For the new font, I used 'Dafont.com' again, and used the font '28 days later.' I thought this font alteration would be a negative change to the page, as the first fonts used are also used across the page which creates a neat and authentic look. However, I believe the new font choice goes well with the rest of the page, I have used san serif font frequently and this font is an example of this as well, therefore it does not standout too much as different, so it wasn't that bad of a change. I have been using san serif font frequently in my texts, this was a feature I picked up in my magazine analyses and think it adds professionalism to the pieces. 

    Another thing that I changed was plug on the top half of the page that indicated the 'cover story,' but I still featured the other ones on the bottom of the page. This was because I felt that there was too many of these on the page, and against the 'redness' in the photo the colours were too overwhelming and they didn't stand out. Furthermore, because I had changed the band featured in the image, and this cover line was also on the front page, that meant I would have had to add another one to that section of the page (next to 'Bowling For Soup'). I felt that I was in a position to get rid of these two plugs, because the two cover lines had a bigger portion of space on the page, and were also given red star shapes behind their page numbers that look like the plugs that I use. Therefore, it can be said that it's unnecessary to label these cover lines as ones that were featured on the cover, as because they have a significant amount of space it's indicated they are of importance, and because they are important cover lines it is likely that they would have been featured on the cover anyway.

Another change that I made was on the actual contents of the page, I added more features to the magazine as I felt there was too much negative space. Some of the content added was 'MCR reunion!' (Spelt incorrectly, this is not the final product!), '30STM film?,''Your local battle of the bands 2013' and some more band titles in the 'gig section.' I also made all the text in this section bolder, as I felt it needed to stand out more. I changed round some of the plugs and made them smaller, and may change them around again as I am not sure that this is the best position choice for them at the minute. I also added a picture on the far right of one of the bands I had listed that will be playing live soon (in the 'gig' section). I made sure that this picture was one of them playing live as it would go well with the context in which the band is mentioned, I liked this picture as it has a lot of blue, which contrasts my picture of 'Felicity State' well, which is purple. Originally I had these pictures slanted, but putting them upright I felt looked more professional and neat. Furthermore, I moved the line shapes dividing the page, and measured properly the length in which to place them so that they were even.

Production: Magazine Cover Creation Process

Production: Cover Page Draft

This is a screen grab from the production of my front cover page. At this point in the creation, I had fully edited the colour and contrast the fundamental main image, and had now added the masthead, some cover-lines and more images.

The masthead was created using a font creater website, I wrote my magazine's name: 'CLASH' into the font generator, then I print screened the outcome, in order to import the image onto my media text. This came with some complications, as originally the design had a white background and black text. I had decided I wanted to reverse this colour scheme, as I felt this way was more visually pleasing and also this worked to my advantage when comparing the text with my model. This was because I decided to keep the two images blocked, and not merge the model over the text (contrary to this convention of magazine cover pages) as my models hand would have covered too much of the text and her black hair against black text would have made the masthead less eye catching. I also like the fact I kept the blocked imagery, it creates a parallel with the main images colour scheme on white on black and devides the page up to make it look more interesting.

Here are examples of the magazine 'Kerrang' that has also used their masthead blocked:

 
The cover lines I had included at this point where the some in to a tour and the main cover line relating to my magazine's main feature. For the main feature cover line I used colours red and white, and used three different 'sections' to the text, coded by colour. The red 'section' was placed in the middle to highlight the point of the feature, which is the band 'Deadrunners.' Then, because my feature is an interview with one of the band members I included a quote in the first 'white section' which I placed above the 'red,' reading 'I get crazy when I'm on stage.' Using a quote from the interview will intrigue readers to want to read more and purchase the magazine. Then lastly, in the second 'white section' reads 'Felicity State's wild side' this confirms that the interview will be with a singular member of the band, and also expands on the first 'white section' of the cover line that tells us the musician becomes passionate (or 'wild') on stage. I also added a black border to every font used on my cover lines, mostly black, to make them stand out more. This also reinforces one of the fundamental colour themes I chose. For the main cover lines and the main 'sections' of the other cover lines (the band's name) I also used fonts from the font generator in order for them to grab the viewers attention. Using a variety of colours also contributed to this.

In relation to the added images, I decided to add some of the photographs I have taken at festivals to feature as posters for the readers to rip out of the magazine and use on their walls. Free posters is the most frequent free gift featured in rock merchandise, along with sample EP's and records. I felt this was something that made CLASH a little more authentic, and relates directly to the target audience as it is known that teenagers like to hang posters on their walls. I did this by importing the images and then adding the black border in order for them to look consistent with the visual themes of the rest of the page. Another image I had imported onto the page was the bar-code on the bottom right, this was to add further authenticity, along with the magazines date issue and price.

When I complete my first draft, I will post a full step by step creation process for my front cover, as I have been frequently screen grabbing the outcomes.

Production: Contents Pages Drafts

These are screen shots taken of my contents page whilst I was creating them, here I have imported the main image and added multiple cover lines along with feature listings, all conventions of a typical contents page. I decided to do all of this manually in order to achieve my chosen ratios, proportions and placing. I created three columns at the lower half of the page and listed my chosen contents. I listed only highlights of the magazine, not full chronological listing of the content, this way I could enc-operate a lot of the cover lines featured on my cover page. I also manually created a sticker that highlighted the stories that were shown on the front cover to make this clear for the readers, it was created from a red jaggered circle that I added a thick outline to and wrote 'cover story' in the same font that is shown on 'contents' and on the cover's masthead. This was one of the many factors I chose to make sure the magazine contents page looked consistent with the rest of the texts, another way I did this was to keep the colour scheme frequent, and use pictures of the model on the cover to highlight the magazines main feature. Furthermore, I have used a main image along with two cover lines in bigger font, this was enforce the some of the 'best features'. For example, the magazine will include smaller stories, such as weakly additions and information of smaller bands, there will also be slightly more valuable and enticing stories that correspond with current tours, dates, and record releases and then there will be the most intriguing stories that are the main selling points to the magazine. This will be interviews, photo shoots and stories that consist of rare happenings, and feature artists that are the most popular at the time. For example, I chose 'Best moments of 2012' as a bigger cover line due to it being an infrequent story to feature. Another significant story is the interview mentioned with band Tenacious D, which to enforce I have displayed a large picture of the band along with a large font on the matching cover line. And finally, the other 'main' story is the interview with my fictional band Deadrunners, which has been shown to be of importance through their spot on the main page, and further pictures featured on the contents page along with their 'cover story' sticker.

Production: Chosen Photographs

Cover                                 Double Page Spread                                Contents



These are my chosen images for the cover, contents pages and double page spread which were all taken by myself. I thought the picture for the cover looked very eye catching with the use of eye contact, pose and facial expression. It stood out the most too me so I thought it would be suitable for the cover, to attract readers. Further more this image is an example of the rule of thirds, this is also the case for the double page spread image. I thought this was a relevant image to use because despite the back ground being different, it is still obvious that the character is the same due to the styling, clothes and pose. Lastly I chose this specific picture for the contents page because I thought it would be useful to incorporate a legitimate band into my magazine to enable it looks realistic and also to ensure I would appeal to the correct chosen audience. This is a photo of the band Tenacious D that I took when I saw them live, they are looking directly at the camera and so I thought this photo was suitable to use on my contents page. I will not crop a lot of the picture as I think having it landscape will look good against the rest of my contents page.

Production: Photoshoot

beth sumecki's photostream on Flickr.

 This is my photography for CLASH, I used my friend Man Yee because I thought she could fit into the persona of a Rock artist well, with her long dark hair and pale skin tone, which fits into my genre and will also complement my colour scheme well. When directing her modelling, I encouraged her to impersonate an 'aggressive' style in order for the pictures to be suitable for my chosen genre of Rock/Metal music. This is how we achieved shots of her looking superior and of an authoritative position, a classic convention of featured models in most magazines. There are also shots of Man Yee screaming and pulling uncomfortable faces, I thought these worked well in my genre in an effort to communicate themes of distortion and destruction that conforms to the stereotypes evident in Rock music. Examples of this style of modelling came in my post about photography, which also inspired me to direct Man Yee to make 'smirking faces' as when writing that blog post and researching existing photography of females in this genre, I thought those types of facial expression were strong.
      I also styled her hair, dressed her and coordinated her make up. I chose dark colours, to go with her hair and embody a suitable image for the genre. The most significant element of her makeup was the black lipstick that I chose, this went well with the colours of the shoot and Man Yee wore it well, as the combination of the colour and her hair complemented the over all images. Black lipstick holds connotations of darkness, rebellion and rock music and was a theme I enjoyed when researching female photography. For accessories, I wanted to further communicate connotations of my genre. I chose a headband (that we also used as a necklace) and a bracelet that had metalic spikes on them. These items connotate themes of Rock and Roll as they are sharp and convey a certain edge/style that just reminds you of rock/punk stereotypes. I also knew I wanted to have either a white or red back ground, and so the black contrasts well with this, creating a pleasant and existing visual, that will contribute and influence my colour schemes.