Final Pieces!

Below you will find my final pieces for my foundation portfolio. I have taken comments and advice from peers to improve my magazine. This is what I ended up with:

My peers views!

Film on the 15th November 2011:
Below you will find a video of one of my peers describing the advantages and disadvantages of my magazine. I then took some of advice and appiled it to my magazine:

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

Looking back I feel I have learnt a lot about the technologies, my preliminary task wasn’t up to scratch and could have done with more work. I’ve tried to change that in my full product, by spending a greater deal of time and editing and changing items, making sure the little details are just right.

I also really feel that my organizational skills have been greatly improved, I made sure all deadlines were met and kept to my own personally schedule which could ensure success in A2. I feel I didn’t keep to a schedule during my preliminary task and that’s what let me down there. 

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

I haven’t learnt a huge amount about different types of technologies but however I do feel that my skills in Adobe Photoshop have become more advanced and I am now able to create a range of items without a problem.

I also feel my skills in Adobe illustrator and fireworks have vastly improved, which before I feel they were limited and weren’t up to the scratch they should have been.  My blogging skills were not existent before this project but now I feel comfortable in what I am doing and will happily blog every day.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to attract my audience by using attractive, eye catching images that would draw the target audience’s attention towards the magazine. I did this is many other ways, such as using glaze theory and reception theory, I believe that the way the text is written gives off a welcoming and relaxing feeling towards the audience. I also used models that were of the age I was trying to attract. I made sure that I used as many codes and conventions as possible for my music magazine. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The ideal audience for my magazine would be 20s onwards, but unfortunately it will more likely be late 30s early 40s and onwards. This is due to the fact that Jazz is quite an old Genre, starting in the very early 1900s. The mainstream popularity of Jazz was from the 1920s to the 1960s, but the popularity in Jazz started to decline. However research has showed that interest has started to grow.     

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

I would like to believe that my magazine has the ability to be sold in all well-known retail stores. But more realistically, it will more and likely be:

• An instrument store
• Jazz related shops
• Even advertisements on websites relating to my chosen genre. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I try to represent particular social groups by using icons and features that would be recognisable in a Jazz type Genre magazine.  Such as colours, instruments and writing styles, which were then all incorporated into my magazine.

I gathered opinions from different people to find out their thoughts and a feeling on my magazine, to see if they believed it matches up to my target genre. I feel that the use of the writing styles, colour and pictures helps attract my target audience.

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

I feel that my media product, that being a music magazine has the conventions and traits of a real magazine. I have tried to make it fit the genre type as best as I can, I looked at several different magazines of that type, you could say using some of them as Templates to base mine on. 

I’ve added as many conventions as possible to my magazine, such as:

• Plus lines
• Main Image
• Eye catching heading

Final Development/ Improvements!

By using feedback and research I feel that the magazine has reached the highest standard possible. Compared to the last version I believe the magazine has improved greatly, more codes and conventions have been added to all three pages so that they resemble the real thing. I am very pleased with the out come of my music magazine, I feel I have worked hard integrating feedback and research into my work.

As you can see below my front cover has changed from what it previously looked like. I removed one lure because I felt it didn’t fit in with what I was trying to create; I also felt it was cluttering up the page.  

I tried to reduce the amount of different fonts were used, so that the page wasn’t too busy, it kept it simple but at the same time eye catching.

 

I felt that my contents page was lacking lures and conventions. I went back and added more conventions to make my page more attractive and appealing. The new page has more going on; I’ve added more article page numbers and colour, so now it isn’t as dull.



Development!

Below you will find the first draft of the main task. It is made up of three pages, a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread. I feel all three could do with some work, the double page spread more than others. However I believe the magazine has reached the type of design idea that matches the targeted genre.

Drafts

We were asked using our research as a template to create draft ideas for our main magazine. Below you will find links to several draft ideas of what my magazine might look like. I have tried to include as many codes and conventions as possible, to name a few, a main image, plus line, catch line and three main colours.

Front Cover!                Contents Page!                  Double Page Spread!

Research into Music Magazines

The main task was to create a music magazine of any genre of my choice. First of all I need to carry out research into different types of music magazines, to find out the codes and conventions I needed to use for my magazine. Below you will find a link taking you to different types of magazines I researched.

Research for Front Covers!                    Research for Contents Page!           

                       

                              Research for Dobule Page spreads!

Final Version of Preliminary Magazine

Below you will find my final design for my front cover and contents page school magazine. I feel the colour scheme, pictures and text all represent my school well, and I also believe they attract the student audience well while at the same time following the codes and conventions of a school magazine.

                  

Preliminary Drafts/ Development

Below you will find a link taking you to some rough design ideas. I feel all of the designs have the basic codes and conventions needed for a School Magazine, but however some have more than others and would work better with the style of my school, these will be highlighted in the link.

Front Cover Draft Idea!                                    Contents Page Idea!

Preliminary task

For the preliminary task we had to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. We had to research different types of school magazines and pick a topic that would best suit the school.

 

Below I have attached my preliminary presentation, which shows my target audience, research and results from a questionnaire. There is also a link to more in dept research.

Preliminary Presentation                       Research!

Brief: Purpose of this Blog!

The purpose of this blog is to show the development process of my foundation portfolio work. Slowly my research, designs and the development process of my main task will be posted on to this blog.

Nearing the end of this task I will present my final versions, evaluating my work effort, the process of designing and creating my main task in power point form. Which I will post on here at a later date.    

29/09/2011: Foundation Portfolio

Welcome!
This blog is for my Foundation Portfolio.
In this task I will be creating a music magazine.