Double Page Spread Updated

Contents Page Updated

Front Cover Updated

Evaluation Question 7

Question 7: Looking back at my preliminary tasks, what do you feel you have learnt through the progression of the full product?

For my Aquinas magazine I wanted to make a magazine that would be a magazine that was fun to read but also was informative. I used photoshop to do my publications because it gave me the best result. The house style that I used is white, black and red. The reason I chose these colours is that they all worked well together and stood out. The picture that I used was taken outside by college. The reason I took outside college is that it would give natural light. My cover star is someone that goes to the college, therefore meaning that the audience can relate to the star.

My masthead is the biggest writing on the page and takes up the top of the Mise-en-scene. I have done the first letter of the name in red because it's aquinas colours and also makes the a stand out on the page. The tag line I have used is "keeping you in the know". The reason I have chosen this tagline is it shows the reader that the magazine will let you know about what is happening around college. I have included Facebook, Twitter and Instagram links, this creates the symbiotic relationship because it creates a world around the magazine so people can get involved through social networking. Also because the magazine is aimed at college students, they are more likely to used social networking it will be posative to have it. In the top right hand corner I have included the issue number, date and the website. The reason I have included these is they are important conventions for a magazine to have.

I have included a pug on my magazine. The reason I have included a pug is that it makes the information inside it stand out to the audience so people will be drawn to the magazine by whats inside. Inside the pug it says "only £1". I decided to have this in a pug because it's a cheap price for a magazine and the audience will be drawn to a good offer.

At the bottom of my page I have included a banner. The reason I have done this is it makes the offer stand out and also breaks up the page. In side the banner it offers vouchers for different shops. This is a good offer to have because young people are interested in fashion and therefore would use the vouchers.

 I have used a continuing house style on both my front cover and my contents page. The reason I have doe this is to make it look professional and so it correlates with the rest of the magazine. I have made the contents page blocked, the reason I have done this is to make it easy to read for the audience and so that it looks neat rather than it being messy.

 I have included an editors letter on my contents page, The reason I have done this is it makes a connection between the audience and the editor and makes the audience feel welcome. I have also used a picture so that the reader knows who they are talking to rather than just reading it. In the right hand corner I have included the page number. I have done this because it is an important convention and will correlate with whats on the contents page.

 On my contents page I have put a a red box with competition details in it. I have chosen to put this on the contents page because it will draw the reader in straight away because it is one of the first things that the audience will see when they are reading the magazine. I have put the feature in a red box because it makes it stand out and goes with the house style. The reason I have chosen to have a competition is that it increases audience participation.






The masthead that I have chosen has the first letter in red. The reason that I have done this is it becomes a style throughout the magazine of having the first letter in red because it links with the logo Aquinas. In the right hand corner I have put the issue number, date and website. The reason I have done this is because it links to the front cover and also are important conventions the audience expect to see.



Looking at at my preliminary tasks, I feel that my skills have improved alot, for example I have managed to put more all the relavent conventions in the final product, therefore making it appeal to the audience more. Also I have improved my skills in photography more by using more than one person on my front cover, which was a challenge to get the
spacing correct. I have also used different kind of banners and pugs, in my preliminary
tasks I have used more basic shapes, whereas in my final product I have used the shapes and altered them so that they don't look so basic. In my preliminary task the house style that I have used is red, black and white. I chose to copy this in my final product because they are colours that stand out and look good on a front cover.

 Their are various differences I have made in my music magazine then in my Aquinas magazine. One difference  I have made is to put a picture of the front cover of the magazine on the contents page. This then correlates with the front cover and people know that its that issue they are reader. Another thing that I have done different is instead of using the word contents I have gone for instead "this week". The reason I have done this is it makes it a bit less formal which will appeal to my age group. I have also included more images in my music magazine to make it more visual and to promote the artists that will be features more. 

Evaluation Question 6

Question 6: What kind of institutions might distribute your product?

The institution that I will be using is Bauer Media Group. I have chosen to have a different institution than NME because they will be my main competitor so I would try to steal their audience. My magazine would be published weekly, this making more competition between NME and my magazine. The price therefore will be cheaper than a monthly magazine that focuses more on the quality.





The ways that I give my audience chance to access the brand is on my front cover I have social networking apps that are available such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I also have the website on my front cover. This will create a symbiotic relationship because it then creates a world around the magazine that people can get involved in. Also because my target age group use social networking more, It means that it would be useful to have them for updating the audience. Also because social networking is so easy to do, it will a quick way to access information. This will increase the audience loyalty because they can get there information through various ways.

The other ways I could share my product other than social networking is having a music channel. The music channel would have things such as this weeks top 10 songs, features on bands that shows there top songs and other features like 50 funny music videos. This will increase the target audience because it allows them to access their favourite music while they are whatching TV, it also creates another part of a world that the magazine is. Also I could have a radio station  that would be able to stream from any part of the UK. The reason I would do this is it would create loyal readers that would be able to listen to their favourite station if there in the house or out.

Another way that I will be able to promote my product is through merchendising. This will be useful to distributing my product because if people see the product then they will want to know what its about. So my examples are using t-shirts, mugs and headphones. I have used these examples because they are the most common merchendise product that people can get easily and can use all the time.

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of other media product.

My magazine is similar to NME because I have used the masthead is the first letter of each part of the name, the reason I have done this is that the reader will remember the name of the magazine as it is something short and snappy. Also, like NME I have included more bands on my front cover as well as my cover artist, the reason I done this because it allows to reader to have more variety in what they are reading and if they may not like the cover stars then they have other options. I have used the regular conventions such as the barcode, date, issue number and price, the reason I have done that is that they are what audience expects to see and therefore important for the publication. The house style of my magazine is red, white and black, the reason I have chosen to have these colours is they are bright and stand out with each other and the connotations of a colour such as red is loud,  like the genre of music I am doing. This is similar to NME because they always have bright, loud colours in there magazine. My main feature takes up most of the room on the page and is presented with a pull quote, the name of the star and then the feature. This is similar to NME because it means the reader is given a preview of what the feature is about and weather they would want to read about it.

My main image is a medium close up of the two stars, this is so that the audience can see them from the waist up and see a lot of there body language and facial expressions the cover stars are using in my magazine is moody and not really smiling, more looking like they are ready to do something. Also the body language is simple, not doing anything in particular. I have chosen to have my stars like that because it fits the iconography of the genre. This makes my magazine similar to NME because all of the examples I have use the same facial expressions and body language, fitting the iconography. I have also used secondary images in my magazine. The reason I have done that is it means the reader can see previews of the features in the magazine and also allows something else for the reader to look at. I have used a pug on my magazine front cover for promotion, it says “we ask reader what there perfect gig is”, the reason I have put the pug in there is it makes the feature stand out more to the reader. Also because the feature is about readers opinion, it shows that my magazine uses audience participation, this shows the reader that their opinion is valid to help there favourite magazine be better.

 At the bottom of the Mise-en-Scene I have included a banner with a feature on it. This is similar to NME because it blocks the page so it looks more professional and also makes the feature stand out to the reader. This with also the picture added to the feature shows that feature must be an important one.

The way that the text in positioned in my magazine is that it wraps around the image so that you can see the cover stars features, I have done this because it allows the reader to read around the features easily without having to keep jumping from feature to feature.

 One thing that is similar to NME is that the masthead of the page are similar in that they both say “this week”. The reason that I have done this is that it highlights the fact that my magazine is a weekly publication and also makes it a bit less formal rather than just using contents for a heading. I have also used a lot of images on my contents page. The bigger one for my main feature and my other two smaller images one relating to the pug  I used and also a picture about a concert review. The reason I have done this is it highlights they are good features in the article and also to give more visual previews rather than just writing. I have included captions with page numbers and a little bit about what the article is. This is to correlate with the page it’s on and what it’s about. Down the left hand side of the Mise-en-Scene I have put all the features down one side with the page numbers and a small description about what the feature is. This is similar to NME because in 2 out of 3 of the ones I am comparing they have all of there features down one side. Something I have done that is different to NME is to include an editors letter, the reason I have done this is to create a relationship between the reader and the editor. 

 One thing that is the same as NME is I have used is that on one of the pages on my double page spread is to have one big picture. The reason I have done this is so the reader can see that the article is about them. It also means that you can see the body language and facial expression. For the photo my cover stars are straight faced and have there fists clenched. I have done this because it links to the iconography being no no nonsense people. Another thing I have done which is similar to NME is a quote from the article that is made bigger. I have chosen to do this because it breaks up the text so it's easier to read. I have also used

 secondary image like one of the examples of NME, this is to have something else for the reader to look at and also adds to the topics that will be talked about in the article.

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product.

For all of my publications I used Photoshop.

One thing that I had to do whilst doing my front cover was to decide what colour to have my main headline, for this I had to look at different shades until I chose the colour I wanted. I did this by using colour libraries then looking through the different shades until i found the right colour. In the end I chose red with a black outline.

 On my double page spread one of the most important things was to make sure that my article was positioned properly. I did this by making sure that all the text boxes were the same size by using the move tool. I then had to position it so that all three text boxes were in the same postition. Then I put the text in. One thing that I had to make sure of was that the words were not seperated. Something else I did with the text is when I put who was talking, I changed the colour of the text to either pink or blue. I changed the colour by using the colour option in the top bar.

Although I did not use this in my final publication, one thing that i experimented with cropping out the background. The way that I did this was I used the magic wand tool and the magic eraser to get rid of big parts of the background. Then to smooth round the edges I used the eraser tool and zoomed in the picture so that I could make the edges smoother.