FINAL OUTCOME

Evaluation - Question 7

Q: Looking back at your preliminary task (College magazine) What have you learnt in terms of progression from that to the full product?

Since the first task, I have now developed and deepened by understanding in magazine components and features which has allowed me to create three authentic parts of the magazine. Also I have progressed through photoshop and learn to do some quite unique effects. There is a definite huge difference between my preliminary task and final product, this shows how I have progressed positively through the course.

Evaluation - Question 6

Q: In what ways does your media product challenge forms and conventions of real magazine products?

My magazine doesn't hugely challenge forms and conventions of real magazine products. The only thing that does, is that the double page spread doesn't have a huge amount of writing on which is unusual for magazines as it usually has about a page worths of text on a double page spread. Also I have kept the coverlines simple and not surrounded the whole cover with them.

Evaluation - Exercise 5

Q: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I'd say the language used would be the main thing that would represent different social groups as it is fairly informal and it would represent the youth of today. Also the pictures, and the type of clothing the image models are wearing would represent social groups.

Evaluation - Question 4

Q: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and Why?


I would choose IPC Media to distribute my magazine as they would probably be the most reliable choice having worked with one of the countries most popular music magazines, NME.


Although, as the magazine would probably be based on a lot of local bands, I would sell it in local music shops and venues especially. So such a large scale distributor may not be necessary, it may be more sensible to keep it on a smaller scale.

Evaluation - Question 3

Q: Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience would mainly be people between 14-20, with this in mind I tried to aim all of the features of the magazine at them as these would be the main people to keep hooked if possible.

Evaluation - Question 2

Q: How did you attract your audience?

Obviously my front cover is the first thing that grabs the reader's attention so I tried to use attractive images and text to catch the reader's eye. Once there attention has been grabbed, they will read what's on the cover so I used quotes that were particularly interesting to make the reader want to pick up the magazine and read about it. Also, I used pictures which were suitable for the target audience as they were of young people and also used things that would particularly relate to teenagers such as sticking the middle finger up.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

For the majority of this task, I have used a lot of PhotoShop. Before the task I only had little knowledge of the software, knowing only a basic way around it. Since then I have greatly improved and would now say I am confident in using it. I have used various online tutorials to improve my skills which has made a massive difference on the outcomes of my work. You can see an obvious difference between my preliminary task and final task which is due to the better skills I have gained since then. Also I have learnt more about camera work, through taking various amounts of photos, it has helped me to understand about how effective different types of shots are for certain situations.

Double Page Spread - Step by step creation

I began with a normal picture that I wanted to use for my double page spread and blew it up to A3, but slightly cropped some of the edges.

 I was aiming to make a CCTV image effect so after this I added a series of effects to the photo to make it look like it was taken from a poor quality video camera.

Next I added some text to make the picture look more authentic such as the time:

After this, I added the necessary features to make it look a double page spread article - a space for the interview on the left hand side of the image and a main title and sub line.

For the actual article, I started with some larger text, introducing the article like so:

I then added the main interview. To fit with the colour scheme I used a dark red text for the questions and just kept the answers black.

I then added a finishing touch of some text at the bottom of the article reading "CONTINUES ON PAGE 20" just to add to the authenticity of the spread. The final product is at follows:

Double Page Spread Mock Up

For my double page spread I would like to put a CCTV camera effect on the picture I have taken and to fit in with my style model, the majority of the spread will be image with just one column of writing. This is a simple mock up of my plan:

Double Page Spread Style Model

This is my style model for my double page spread. I will change the layout of it but use a similair style.

Contents Page Step-by-Step Process

I began my contents page by placing a blue banner across the top of thepage with a smaller version of the logo on the left hand side like so:

I then added some text onto the banner. A title of just "CONTENTS" and also the issue number, date and website.

After this I created a stamp effect which says "THIS WEEK" and placed it in the top right hand corner to look as if the page had been stamped.

Next I added a series of pictures over the entire right side of the page. These varied in size, the biggest being the main article. I also added page numbers to these pictures.

I then added subheadings to the left hand side of the page which would be to split the list of articles up.

After this, I added all of the articles into the page, keepign the same format for each article apart from the main article, in which I changed the font to the same as the cover font and made it a little bit bigger.

Lastly, I added a quote onto the picture, firstly in red to keep with the colour scheme but it made it difficult to read so I changed it to white and made it  bolder and also added a drop shadow.

Contents page mock up

This is the mock up of my contents page done on Paint. I will use a blue banner across the top with a small logo on the left of it, this will contain "CONTENTS" and also information such as the website, issue number and date.
On the list of articles I will use sub-headings to break them up betwen regular content and main features.
The whole right side of the page will be taken up by pictures.

Final Cover Step-by-Step

I began by stretching background from one of my photos onto an A4 canvas on Photoshop and then applied some gaussian blur to it so that the clouds weren't as sharp - I didn't want them to stand out. I also put a thin banner along the top of the cover which would be part of the masthead.

I then added the logo which I placed in the top left hand corner of the cover, a common feature of most magazine covers. I also added the main image which slightly overlapped the logo to show that it was important. This was originally taken with the model leaning against a brick wall to give a slightly grungey atmosphere, but I decided that the wall was not a good enough back ground and so edited the picture down.

I added the sub images and then wrote some coverlines over the cover. I varied the font as this was something I found out in my research of existing front covers.

Lastly I added some small album covers at the bottom to advertise some review written within the magazine and then a finishing touch of the barcode, price, issue number and date.

The finished product looked like this:

Magazine Title

One of the things I found out by uploading my front cover to facebook is that my magazine title already exists as a popular website. So I decided I would change the title and the logo a bit.

After several ideas and considerations, I decided on the name  Alternative Judgement.

Also I decided on the font, Impact Label to use on the logo, Like so:

Second Cover Attempt

This was my second cover attempt which I then uploaded to facebook to get some audience feedback. I received varied feedback and some tips on how to improve so I decided to change the cover a little as it was still lacking something.

Facebook feedback ^^