Review and Feed back on Preliminary task

Once I had completed my school magazine cover I had a number of compliments as well as a number of different pieces of  constructive criticism; here is what my reviewers had to say about my design:

Christopher Sande said, "The Front cover is a good design I can see you have kept a consistent house style, I like how you have layered the text behind the head following typical conventions of school magazines; I also like the advertisement strip at the bottom of the design I see you have attempted to follow key conventions that magazines in general follow well done."

he went on to say "although I feel more information needs to be added to the design as a whole as I feel there is a lot of vacant space that could be used, also you need to bear in mind the quality of the image you are using has a large impact on the design as a whole."

he then said "As for the Contents page I can see why you have kept the design simple as most contents pages are very simplistic compared to the front cover as they have two separate objectives, but what doesn’t work in this part of the design is the colour scheme the Green doesn’t work and is a random choice of colour; to an extent it makes it look as if it’s not from the same magazine in future keep the simplicity in the design for a contents page but remember to follow the general colour scheme of the design as a whole but overall well done"

After I had listened to what my first reviewer had to say I went on to collect more reviews so I asked Mahdi Maah his views.

Mahdi Maah said, "looking at the design as a whole I personally don’t like the design and the reason why I say this is because the colour scheme in places is random and most magazine covers are uniform in terms of the colour scheme otherwise the layout and the use of key conventions such as the advertising strip at the bottom makes the design good, another thing to bear in mind Jerome is the use of font try experimenting with different font as it will give a different effect."

Taking what Mahdi Said into account I then asked a third reviewer

 Connor McCormack said, " I do think the design is good both front and back are both good but the colour scheme needs to be closer, because they look like two completely different pages from two completely different magazine but in future remember to keep a close scheme of colour and in closer relation from page to page and in future use the same ideas of having prizes featured and different adverts well done and this will be a good learning curve for you I can’t wait to see your next design"

Preliminary Task

This week I produced a front cover and contents page for a school magazine I will talk about the front cover first, initially I had done some research into the layout of school magazines and the key signifiers that make a school magazine different from other magazines.

From my research I found that school magazines have a very natural image displayed as the main image rather than having a studio image as you would see in a commercial magazine such as "Read Me" the use of lighting in school magazines is natural whereas commercial magazines use a mixture of high key lighting to give a professional appearance.

A school magazines also use high quality images but not in the same way other magazines do a school magazine will use a high quality photo so natural features where as other magazines use them to exaggerate features.

School magazines also tend to use an array of colours to keep the reader interested in the page as school magazines tend not to have too many interesting stories where as a women’s magazine will have a larger variety of interesting stories the reader is itching to read about.

the title of magazines tents to be partly hidden by the model in the main image and this is no exception when it comes to school magazines, in carrying out this preliminary task I have learnt and understood the different signifiers and key elements used in different magazines and school magazines in particular.

a school magazine has a wide spectrum for a target audience being a school magazine its natural target audience will be students and parents/cares but bear in mind the fact that parents are more than just parents they could be young older, upper or working class therefore the use of colour has to include a variety to not only engage parents but students as well.

The contents pages of school magazines tent to be more complex in layout which is why the layout of this page is vastly different to the front cover I created both the front cover and contents page in conjunction with each other and as I have stated before in doing so has widened my perspective of school magazines and magazines in general as a whole all aspects of the page are cleverly layer out to draw the readers eyes to different sections of the page.

In my case I have added the stripes to draw the reader’s eyes to the information on the contents page.
In conclusion I have enjoyed doing this task as I have learnt a lot form it and I will be producing more in the future one to improve my skills and overall knowledge and two, because I’ve enjoyed it.

Deadlines

MED 1 OCR     Coursework brief – Print                                               9/11/11

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Consider:

·         Research – what do you need to look at?  How will you identify the codes and conventions to follow – collect evidence

·         Authors of this magazine – who are they, how free are they, what is their agenda / purpose?

·         Audience for this magazine

·         Media Language – Title, images, text

·         Representation of the School, Students, staff, parents, community

·         Values and ideology associated with this magazine

Tasks:

Research: 14^th November –Blog deadline

1.    Collect some evidence of current school magazines

2.    Analyse how they construct meaning for their audience

3.    Establish a set of rules (codes and conventions they use) / guide to creating a effect school magazine

4.    Keep a record of your research

Planning: 21st November Blog Deadline

5.    Decide what type of school magazine you are going to design – what is the purpose of your magazine?

6.    Decide who is the audience (who is it aimed at?) – this will affect your design

7.    Draft sketch what you want on your front cover: colour, images, title, text, etc. – explain why (follow your rules)

8.    Draft ideal contents

9.    Keep a record of your planning

10. Present to class: 24^th November

Production:25^th Nov – 5th^th Dec  / Blog deadline: 4^th December

11.  Create your front cover and contents page

12. Record – as a diary / blog how you went about completing the task; discuss problems you encountered and how you dealt with them

Presentation 8^th   December 2011

13. Present your front page to peers / class for evaluation

14. Record the feedback given and how you could use it

15. Record what you have learnt about production, techniques and print media in this task

Assessment 12^th December 2011

16. Submit your products and records                                                               Due 12/12/11

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of four images per candidate.                                                                                                                 Due 11/02/12

Consider:

·         Research – what do you need to look at?  How will you identify the codes and conventions to follow – collect evidence?  What are the codes and conventions?

·         Authors of this magazine – who are they, how free are they, what is their agenda / purpose?

·         Audience for this magazine

·         Media Language – Title, images, text

·         Representation of the Industry, different social groups, audience, etc

·         Values and ideology associated with this magazine

You will need to keep your own record of the process you go through to create your products.  The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination of two or more, of the following:

• a presentation using slideshow software such as Powerpoint; a blog or website; a podcast; a DVD with ‘extras’.

Tasks:

Research: 10/11^th December to end of term

17. Collect some evidence of current music magazines: NME, Kerrang, Q

18. Analyse how they construct meaning for their audience – Front page, contents, double page spreads

19. Establish a set of rules (codes and conventions they use) / guide to creating a effective music magazine – for each page

20. Keep a record of your research

Planning: Xmas holidays, for presentation to class 9^th January 2012

21. Decide what type of music magazine you are going to design – what is the purpose of your magazine?

22. Decide who is the audience (who is it aimed at?) – this will affect your design

23. Draft sketch what you want on your front cover: colour, images, title, text, etc. – explain why (follow your rules)

24. Draft ideal contents

25. Photograph appropriate images for each page: stage a band / artist – consider locations, costume, props, makeup

26. Draft interview for double page spread – consider language used appropriate to genre and audience

27. Keep a record of your planning

Production: January 2012, for presentation 4/2/12

28.  Create your products using In Design

29. Record – as a diary / blog how you went about completing the task; discuss problems you encountered and how you dealt with them

30. Use an online production site to post your work and collect feedback

Presentation 4^th February 2012

31. Present your products to peers / class for evaluation

32. Record the feedback given and how you could use it

33. Record what you have learnt about production, techniques and print media in this task

Evaluation 20%

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:

34.  • In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

35.  • How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

37.  • Who would be the audience for your media product?

38.  • How did you attract/address your audience?

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

40.  • Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

41. Submit your products and records                                                               Due 11/2/12

Marking

The unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for the presentation of the planning and research; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation.

A                     B                     C                     D                     Eu

100–80            79–70              69–60              59–50              49–40 39–0

This is a magazine cover that i designed in order to get familiar with magazines designing

Media Studies Home work: magazine analysis

,

1) The Source is a music magazine which was first published in the United States in 1988, it specifically focuses on the style of Hip-Hop and R&B.
the Source also covers politics and culture It is the world's second longest running rap periodical, behind United Kingdoms-based publication Hip Hop Connections. The Source was originally founded as a newsletter and the current president of its publication is Jeremy and it was originally started by David Mays  and Jon Shecter.

2) the sole purpose of this magazine is to promote new and upcoming Hip hop and R&B artists and keep members of the general public up to date with their lives and their music, as you can see the front cover features an image of the new Rap sensation J-Cole.

3)This magazine is aimed generally at young people between the age of  16-25 as the source is a "source" of information that keeps people up to date with the latest Hip Hop and R&B music by New and established artists, it contains interviews with artist and also includes advertisment of products branded by artist and producers such as "Monsta Beats by Dre" which is an expensive pair of headphones that are extremely popular amongst young people.

4) the front cover of this magazine uses an image of the rap artist J. Cole, by featuring him on the front cover it helps attract his fans to pick up, look at and buy this magazine. because J.Cole is such a sensation in the Rap industry it makes people not only want to buy it but read on into the rest of the magazine the image of J.cole alone works as a large promotional selling point for the Source.
The colors used are natural colors the use of lime green with a darker green mixed with a combination of yellow across the page immediately draws your eye to this magazine making it stand out in comparison to others that may be on the same shelf as it in a store. The text is easy on the eyes and clearly legible by the use of simple text ranging in size, the background is an image of mettle store shutters with a green and orange gradiant overlay.
the very top of the page is plain white, bold text of different artists featured in the magazine where immediately bellow is the title of the magazine "The Source" then Central to the page is the image of J.Cole whos head is slightly covering the title but the title is still legible; this is a common feature in most magazines where the model is slightly overlapping the title it creates the effect that the model is more important than the title. but another common feature is to have sub-heading overlap the artist.
the color scheme of this magazine suggests that the main target audience is the young black male as the colors are similar to those of the Jamaican flag.

5) the contents page further exaggerates the fact that the target audiance is young black male as immediately the first thing the reader sees is the image of the young black women lying down on her back with her legs pointed in the air. The style of the text in the contents page is very different to the front cover, the idea of changing the font is a clever idea as it it a subtle method used to keep the reader interested.
The colour scheme has also changed to a much more simple palette of colors being black and grey although the colour scheme may be dull it is yet again another subtle method of engaging the target audience.
One of the topics mentioned in this magazine is "Fashion" which shows that the target audience isn't only the young black male but also the young black female.
The contents page can operate in two ways it could either increase the sales of this magazine as it appeals to a less specific audience therefore increase the number of issues sold or it could work in the opposite way where as a young black male will pick up this magazine flick through it read the heading on fashion and loose interest as young black men tend not to be interested in fashion.

6) the values being suggested to the audience by this magazine and its contents are, money and fame, cars and clothes, a luxurious life style that every young person would desire.

7) the magazine is effective at targeting its target audience because it uses key selling points e.g the large image of famous artist on each page, as well as using text that is simple, modern and easy to read the color scheme used also adds to this by using colors that are simplistic but at the same time relate to the target audience, on the front cover the green and yellow are tropical colors whilst the contents page is a dull black and grey but the combination of the two can be construed as elegant and classy which is only further exaggerated by the choice of model being used the model used as she appears to be upper class young black women posed in a way that makes her attractive to young black men and women. 

8) i have learned that magazines use an array of subtle features to attract its target audience, i have learned that every aspect and feature on each page is done on purpose the choice of text, headlines, color scheme and images used are all done to engage attract and entice its target audience to look and and even buy the magazine.

9) i can use this in my course work because i am now able to identify the different audiences that different magazines target
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