Evaluationof ‘TONE’ magazine

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

My front cover challenges conventions of other music magazine covers as my cover image is the image of Danielka’s face in a close up which takes up all the space. Other front covers may take a picture of the person in a medium shot and not many have close ups for the front cover. However, I have made sure that Danielka is looking at the camera to keep contact with the viewer as it draws them in. All professional magazines do this. I changed the colours on the image to make them stand out and give a red glow to it so that I could allow the sell lines to blend in. However, other music magazines tend not to do this. They often have white or black text no matter what colour the cover image is. This development into my front cover proved effective as it all blended together well and gave the magazine a certain style that makes it unique. Other magazines use their masthead as a way to be unique, whereas my masthead is simple but bold and clear. In this way I have challenged the form of my magazine. NME’s front cover is very busy with sell lines by the way they are able to fit around the cover image. However, I have only a few sell lines in the spaces they are able to fit. However, my main sell line is larger than the others just like NME’s with ‘Lily Allen Takes On The World’.

NME’s famous masthead, red and in the corner. Mine takes up the page and I’ve made it red to match the glow of the image. However, if the image was blue, I would of used a

blue masthead. So Tone’s masthead colour would always changed where

NME’s stays red.

Mid shot cover image on NME’s whereas I have used a close up

which is different to most music magazines.

Similar colours for sell lines but I have used these colours to match the cover image, whereas NME always use these colours.

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

The design and layout of my front cover, contents page and double page spread are all conventional and similar to real media products.

My contents page with the white background is similar to the style of Q’s contents pages. I have used the idea of one main image, and a small image, shapes behind text to make it stand out and the numbering of the contents is similar. However, I have challenged this kind of style too as I have used a decorative and unique font for my ‘Contents’ title. Whereas Q uses a simple and bold font throughout the page. However, I’ve challenged the convention of using small text for your contents. My font size is larger, similarly for the contents title, and I have other text such as ‘Win!’ and ‘Next Month’ which is bigger than all the other which Q doesn’t tend to do.Other contents pages such as NME use a lot of images on their contents page whereas I have used only two. In this sense my contents page could look quite plain but I’ve tried to improve this by adding brushes which print music notes and swirls. This adds something else to the background to keep it a bit busier.

Coloured shapes behind the text so it stands out

and highlights the section of the contents.

I have also split my contents page into

sections like Q.

One main image which takes up a lot of the page and

highlights the magazine’s main article. Also a smaller image at the bottom of the

page to add variety.

I’ve also used red as it’s a bold colour which stands out.

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

My double page spread sticks to conventions of having text on one page and an image on the other. They are also usually white too which I stuck to as it’s easier for the text as it makes it easy to read. I have used quite a big title for Danielka’s name as I liked this idea after seeing it on one of NME’s double page spreads. They made their quote from the interview their title whereas I kept her name as the title and made it a fun, decorative and eye catching font. Most magazines used a plain font on the double page spreads, an image, some text and a white background. I thought this was a bit dull so I challenged it and added brushes. I found a music brush which has musical notes and flicks. Adding these gave a good effect. I also did some colour changing to make the sky purple which I was told by a few people looks professional and effective. After doing this I decided to give the page a purple theme so it all blends together well and so the colours aren’t too plain. I like the way on my double page spread that the image isn’t square as I’ve removed the background from the edge of the swing. My text appears larger than other double page spreads which keep it small and fit more in. I think if I were to change anything about mine then I would have more text and make it smaller.

Image takes up a lot of the space. It also goes onto the other page and isn’t a square image. However, on the NME page there is no background other than white which can be quite boring and dull. Therefore I kept some of my background.

Decorative font to catch your eye and make the page fun. The difference in these two pages is mainly the amount of colour and decorations on the page.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main feature of my magazine is a young artist called Danielka. She is 18 years old and therefore people of that age group will be able to relate to her and will probably be the majority of her fan base.

For the front cover, I decided to go for a cover image that looked professional and serious, similar to all other front covers. I did this by showing her straight face, looking at the camera in a close up. She also has effective make up on such as the bold red lipstick. This makes the magazine look professional and it can be taken seriously.

In the media today, the way that celebrities are presented has an effect on their fans. For example, Miley Cyrus has gone from an innocent young star to a crazy music artist who isn’t afraid to act in certain ways. This has an influence on her fans or viewers of media products such as magazines, music and music videos because people tend to copy celebrities because they want their lifestyle and fame. Thinking of this, and how people could look up to Danielka as an idol, she has to be portrayed sensibly as to not give the wrong message. Therefore, her serious face on the front cover and double page spread make her look professional and sensible. It shows she isn’t trying too hard and giving the wrong message to fans who she knows will copy. On the contents page I’ve added an image of her with her tongue out, which shows another side of her personality. The way she is posing and holding a small piece of paper with her name on it could cause a ‘copy cat’ act where people do the same as to try and be like her. This also allows people to take her seriously, but not too seriously as she is still a young artist.

Sensible behaviour to give across a good message, compared to Miley Cyrus, who doesn’t care about the image that she represents. Although it helps her career, people copy her and look up to her.

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

A printing industry. For example, Bauer Media. Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group. It is headquartered in Germany. The group is a worldwide media empire which offers over 300 magazines in 15 countries. Some of their brands are Closer, Empire, Grazia, Heat, Kerrang!, Kiss, Q, BOX Television and many more. Kerrang! and Q are a few of the magazines that I got some of my inspiration and ideas from for Tone. For example, the style of my contents page is similar to Q’s with the coloured rectangles behind text and a couple of images only.Therefore if Bauer is interested in distributing this kind of style of magazine they may be interested in distributing mine. Also, as Bauer is worldwide and been around for a long time it can be relied upon as it should be professional and popular. My magazine could also be distributed online through digital distribution such as an e-book. This is because the option to read magazines, newspapers articles and books is now online too and people are more likely to choose this over going to the shop and buying a printed copy. However, according to some statistics from 2012, online reading isn’t as popular as printed reading yet, and so this may not be necessary. These statistics say that Kerrang! Magazine had 873,000 print readers and only 43,000 online readers in the space of a month. However, this still gives it more readers and therefore having an online version of the magazine can only benefit it. (Statistics from theguardian.com)

Who would be the audience of your media product?

The audience of my media product would obviously be fans of the magazine Tone from previous issues as I am issuing number 148. However, people who are interested in music magazines in general may pick it up and decide to give it a go.

For this specific issue, fans of the artist Danielka will be drawn to the magazine after seeing her on the front cover. Because of her age of 18, most of the fans will probably be around 15-21.

Also, teenagers of around the age 13-19 have the most disposable income to spend on magazines. Also, stereotypically this age group are probably more interested in buying a music magazine to find out about the latest music trends, etc. As well as having the time to read these magazines.

The sell line on the front cover advertising a competition may also attract an audience who are interested in the event they could win tickets for. Therefore they may buy the magazine just for this competition.

I think for this issue, as the artist is female, that mainly females will want to buy this product as they can relate to her and idolise her. However, if a guy liked the artists mentioned in the sell lines, they may be attracted to the magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract an audience that loves music, I used sell lines and my masthead. My magazine title of ‘Tone’ is a music related term and would stand out as a music magazine. By making my masthead bold and big this allows the title to be seen clearly. Also, the sell lines that talks about artist’s albums and music events that you can win tickets for would attract a music lover.

To attract an audience that loves Danielka, I used my cover image. By showing her in a close up this makes it hard not to notice the feature of the magazine and therefore fans will notice the magazine features her. This followed by the sell line that talks about an ‘exclusive’ interview with her attracts her fans as it would be exclusive to them if they bought the magazine, and they can’t read it anywhere else.

On the double page spread, the interview would attract the audience of her fans as she talks about herself personally and her music. Her answers would be relatable to the age group 13-19 who are more likely to buy the magazine due to their disposable income. The interview also isn’t too serious or formal and therefore wouldn’t bore this age group and would address more to them personally.

The eye line of Danielka on the cover image addresses the audiences as she is looking at you personally and you can’t escape her gaze. Other magazines would probably use large sell lines that take up the page but I’ve gone for a clear view of her eyes.

I’ve also made sure that the other features in the magazine are up to date and the latest music trends. Such as the sell line talking about new albums, I know that those artists have new albums out and therefore people will want to know about this new feature.

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

I have learnt how to use Photoshop CS6, the software I used to create the product. I also learnt how to use Blogger, where I created posts about my product as I made it. Also, I learnt there are websites such as dafont.com to download different fonts onto your computer to use on Photoshop and other software.

I have learnt how to use basic tools on Photoshop such as the magnetic lasso tool. I used this on my double page spread to remove half of the image’s background. This is a quick and effective way of doing this as long, as you are removing around straight edges, which I wouldn’t have thought of doing before. This new skill will come in useful when using Photoshop again.

Another useful tool I learnt about is the selective colour tool. Using this I managed to sort out the colours on the front colour to make them stand out, such as the lipstick. You can change the levels of the blue, greens or in my case the reds. I also learnt how to download picture brushes and use them. I just had to find music related brushes and then print them onto the page.

The clone tool is another handy tool where you can clone a section and draw it back on if you accidently remove a part of a background. This is also useful if you wanted to remove marks on someone’s face.

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

My skills in Photoshop have improved a lot since creating the college magazine. As I’ve had a lot more time to put into the music one, I’ve been able to explore with Photoshop and learn different ways of doing things. I think this shows when putting the two together.

There are parts of the background that I hadn’t removed properly in the college magazine front

cover. Also, looking at it I think the image could fill the page more and the text could be bigger. I like the

layout of the contents page though. However, comparing them to the music magazine there’s a lot

of difference and improvement.