evaluation part 2.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After establishing a TA I had to kind of mould my magazine around them. When doing this I found the research I had done on blumer and brown really helpful! I thought about what I would want people to use my magazine for. I decieded to focus a lot on Individual Psychology and the idea that you can build a sense of yourself from media texts. This didn't mean creating a group of clones but instead giving a variety of different insperations and people to aspire to.

As well as this I liked the idea of Diversion espacially because of the age of my TA. Being in sixth form myself I know sometimes you need to get away from work and have some down time. This would also hopefully be something my magazine could provide.

evaluation part 1.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

how does the cover do it?

By using a typical boy who I would class as part of my target market I have tried to appeal to both males and females. This is because Indie music is largely about the music rather than the apperance. So even though males may be able to relate to him and girls may draw a particular sexual appeal from him - which is found to be something that sells in the media - it shouldn't really matter because they would probably be paying more attention to the guitar.

I used bands that are well known in the Indie scene which those that maybe aren't that in to Indie music would probably recognise too. This presents the readers as current and up-to-date which is a part of Indie music because its only quite recently began to surface virally.

The fact that everything on the cover is to do with music also reinforces the fact that Indie is very much about the music. I say this because you see some music magazines that will advertise things about clothes on the cover, this isn't something that would represent my target market very well.

how does the contents do it?

The large image on the contents again features a guitar and so as I said before my readers would probably be more interested in that than who is actually in the photo. I used no other photos in my contents and laid the writing out clearly. This can represent the idea that my readers would be people that prefer things to be straight to the point. They'd rather be dancing at a festival that searching through a contents page to find the story/band they want.

how does the double page spread do it?

The main idea of my double page spread is to be a guide to festivals. This is something thats very big with Indie music as it suits it quite well. The tone of the article is very informal and jokey so to represent my readers as people that enjoy humour rather than hard hitting stories.

Th article also says a lot about alcohol because my target audience is primarily university age students who would be legal to drink. The amount wrote about alcohol would seem to represent them as quite rabid drinkers but for a festival, this is the norm.

The images I used in the montage on the left page are all one that seems quite fun and full of life - or as full of life a still image can be. This would be typically photos maybe found on my ta's facebook page or just on their home computer, memories from one of their many adventures.

why represent them in these ways?

I didn't really deciede how to represent this social group I just tried to follow the conventions of how they'd been betrayed to me before in the media. Throughout my magazine I wanted it to be familiar to then as though it had been shaped around them and their lifestyle. This was majorly done - as said in the video above - by representing them positively. Again because if I presented them in a negative way why would they want to buy my magazine?

the final products.

- There are around 5 different fonts I used on my cover. This is because some fonts I used - such as the ROB PARKER - I used to give the artists their own font. With the other sell lines I used identical or at least very similar fonts but put them in different colours to create distinctions on the page

- I tried to stick to a 3 colour, colour scheme and did with all of the text using only White, Navy and Yellow. My cover image I put in black and white to reach the vintage and timeless look that is very apparent in a look of Indie texts. I let the guitar colour appear through as I wanted to make it stand out and draw the readers attention to it to reinforce that its a music magazine

- The cover model isn't looking at the camera to appear less intimidating as Indie is quite a 'soft' genre.

- There's a burst in the top right corner saying 'new'. This isn't hugely noticeable but would just let people know its new so hopefully they would want to try it out.

- The only words on the page in yellow are 'Rob Parker', this is because he is the main artist article and so this needs to be largely promoted as it's what draws a lot of people to the magazine

- I used '50 best selling tracks of the month' as one of my most noticeable sell lines as its a curiosity statement and would make people wonder what the 50 tracks are.

- The main image on this page is the only one and is consistent with the cover image, this fits with the idea of formula which is part of the four f's. This just means that the articles and contents should be similar throughout and weekly/monthly.

- The orangey colour of the numbers are nearly matched to the coloured guitar in the picture. This presents the colour scheme of the page which is quite simple like the front cover is.

- I didn't put many items on my contents as I just wanted a few main things so people would go to look at these and find other things in the magazine.

- There's only 3 different fonts on this page for the title, numbers and written words. This helps to make the page look neat so it's easy to navigate.

- The main title is what you see first on the page and immediately tells you what the article is about. It's written in quite a messy young font. I also used little picture symbols in the top right corner to fill the white gap and also because it fitted well with the feel of the article.

- The writing is in three columns as this looked most conventional. I put a quote at the bottom of the middle column to split the text up.

- Under the heading there's a tagline reading 'how to survive the music, mud and mayhem'. This is the wording used on the cover again contributing to the formula of the magazine keeping with a consistent style.

- The photos are all tinted blue to make them seem more unified. It also dulls down some of the colour to give it a more mellow festival look. 

- Within the article there are sub-headings which separate the writing and allow people to read what they want to on the page. At the beginning of the article there's a section saying 'ingredients' with bullet points to introduce people to the article.

- There's a 'drinkaware' warning at the end of the article which was put in to contrast the amount of talk of alcohol in the article. I put this in because as a 'gatekeeper' I would control what people read in my magazine and although alcohol is fun they should know there can be dangers.

COVER DRAFTS

i created this draft of my cover but there was something that wasn't quite right so then i created all of these..

double page spread. 2nd draft.

front cover. 2nd draft.

my design philosophy.

My personal opinion of what looks good in  magazine is going to contribute significantly to what my coursework will look like. I also have to take inspiration from my music genre and obviously follow conventions of typical music magazines. I've decided to blog bout what kind of things i personally look for in a magazine along with those that you'd find in an indie magazine.
Retro vs Modern. As paradox as it sounds, I like both and I think the indie genre does too. The mix between retro looks along with modern music are what i perceive indie as. The look many indie artists have isn't the latest fashion trends but more vintage, timeless and preppy looks.
Use of Colour. I think black and white is good. Colour sometimes can make things look tacky in my eyes but then in some cases it can be really effective. When using colour I'd use very similar colours and try to avoid clashing ones. Indie magazines would also support this i think as they use quite neutral colours on the cover and throughout.
Minimal vs Cluttered design. I love minimal design. I think this may predominately be because when I've tried to experiment with  more cluttered design its never worked but still, I prefer minimal. I think it also things to be seen clearly and allows you to make important things more accessible for the eye.
Timeless vs Now. This is a big thing with indie. It is timeless. I believe that in however many years you could look back at an indie band and they would still look slightly conventional to the era. I really like this idea, just that whenever, wherever it would still be cool. That is if you think indie is cool in the first place.
Conventional vs Original. I prefer a mix of both. I think it's possible to be conventional with some original aspects, though you have to be able to get away with it. It has to be something subtle that's original but something that's still noticeable. The indie genre itself is original. It's whole purpose is to be independent and different. Saying this though, they do have some conventional idea's as there is no way to be completely original, its near impossible.