Foundation portfolio evaluation

Editor's Notes

• #3 My magazine follows some typical conventions of a music magazine but also challenges some forms of the conventions of real media products.Similarly my masthead design is large and bold like on the other existing products, however I challenged the convention of a typical music magazine of this genre by making the my masthead text black rather than colour and giving an outline of colour behind it to make it stand out more.The artist image is in the centre of the page, but doesn’t fill the page as it does in the existing products.Cover line is over my main image drawing the attention of the reader and making the writing more visible as seen in the existing products.My magazine front cover is crowded with a lot going on which is conventional of this music genre in a magazine.The colours are bold and bright which is a convention of Electro, Techno genre.I used an incentive in one of the fallow week areas in my magazine which is conventional of most existing music magazines.
• #4 My magazine uses all and more conventions of some existing media products.
• #5 My contents page challenges the conventions of a typical music magazine, you can see the contrast between the two pages as my magazine is electro&techno and NME is alternative rock. The colours of my magazine are very vivid and bold which enhances that the magazine is and electro techno magazine which contrasts to the more general colours used in NME. There are more effects used on my contents page which reveals its originality.
• #6 Both double page spreads include a main image and article however in my magazine it is across the whole page, in most existing products the image is on the right hand side and the information or interview is on the left. In the existing product here the image is on the left. The magazines are similar as they both challenge the conventions of a music magazine. I used white writing so the reader can easily read the magazine. I also used the bright green to keep consistency with the rest of the magazine and bright colours are conventional of the electro techno genre.
• #7 The target audience for my media product is males and females interested in Electro and Techno music aged 16-25.
• #8 I researchedBoyzNoize records as they distribute the most music similar to my magazine however they don’t have a magazine distributer.Bauer Media wouldn’t be a suitable institution to distribute my media product as it distributes a lot of mainstream well known music.IPC would be a good distributor for my magazine for the fact that it usually deals with less mainstream, more unknown music. As TechnoElectro music is a double genre it isn’t very well known and should be distributed to a more alternative audience which I believe IPC would do succesfully.
• #9 The social group my music magazine targets are males and females aged mainly between 16-25 who are interested in electro or techno music.Most DJ’s and electro techno artists I researched performances and gigs were over 18 which helped me guideline my target audience.My market research helped me as I didn’t use techno and electro as an option for favourite music however I used other as an option to see who listened to electro and techno music independently as it isn't a major genre in the music industry.I found out about a smaller target audience I could represent my media product to through forums on electro and techno websites.Most people who did the survey were students which resulted in me finding out that students have little money to spare on necessities such as a music magazine therefore it would have to be lower costing magazine.Also most people in the survey were interested in the incentives you receive with the magazine such as free posters etc... I then made it a priority to add something free when purchasing the magazine.
• #10 Through my survey the results indicate that the majority of people I asked what attracts them to buy a magazine chose the cover star, therefore I made the image large and put it in the centre of the page to attract the reader.The price of the magazine was not a main attraction to the people who took the survey, I chose to make my price a medium size so it wasn’t the audiences initially sighting but they could still find it easily.The masthead is the first thing the reader usually looks at in a magazine therefore I made my masthead large bright and bold. My mast head Tectro reflects its music effectively, as the genre is techno and electro I used a play on words and interlocked the two names to tectro which clearly suggests the genre to the audience straight away. This basically attracts the audience who listen to this genre of music as they know primarily what type of music is being represented in my magazine.Also to attract the audience I used a consistent house style on both my front cover and contents page as this made my magazine look more professional.
• #11 By learning different functions on Photoshop I was able to cut around my image with a magnetic lasso tool.I also changed the colour contrast and brightness of my image.
• #12 I have learnt how to take a photo using the Guttenberg Concept which is also known as The rule of thirds.
• #13 From constructing my media product I have also learnt how to upload work in to slide share and then embed the code so that the work can be seen on Blogger.I have learnt how to make an account on Blogger and use it without any difficulty.
• #14 I feel by learning new techniques on photo shop my final product looks a lot more professional than my preliminary task.I thought the change from the original image to the final image on my final product was a lot more successful than on my preliminary task image.I also believe the layout of my final product was more successful than my Eccles College magazine as I used more valid information in the area and spaced out the cover lines and incentives more effectively.I could improve my final product by making the main image bigger as the audience may be more attracted to the magazine.
• #15 Another improvement could be to space out my contents page as I did on my Eccles magazine layout as it looks more proficient and is easier to read.