BLOG [ PRELIMINARY & MUSIC MAG]

Evaluation

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

The background of my front cover is mixed with colours of green and white, green being my main background colour and white used as a foreground colour. The gradient tool on Photoshop helped me to interweave both colours together. This method contrasts with other gospel magazines as they either use one solid colour or a set image for their background colour. As well as having a bright, big and bold image on the front cover, the use of the background colours also focuses the mind of the readers attracting them to all the detailed information on the front cover.

In the choice of my colour scheme I challenged conventions of real media products. From previous experience of constructing a magazine from my preliminary task, I decided to use various types of attractive colours and not strictly plain white and black, although I wanted it to be a classy and simple front cover. I realised with that idea, it would lack attention from readers.

My central image is of a young black female being in her late teens. The central image of my front cover may possibly illustrate other young female ladies in their late teens, who desire to look glamorous and stand out from others. This is when my storyline appeals to readers ‘CECELIA – The “Angel” you never knew!’ which they can find out more by  purchasing the magazine. My model and storyline fits the conventions of the genre of my magazine, as it illustrates a ‘Rags to Riches’ theme which readers are able to associate themselves with and identify themselves.

     

Finally, I created other approaches to my magazine. I created a small banner at the bottom to list other artists, motivational speakers and other elements that will be featured in the magazine, interviews etc. Additionally, I made a banner for the top of the front cover which is very rare on a magazine front cover but I wanted to highlight the point that it was the ‘UK’s TOP GOSPEL MAGAZINE.’ The use of the listed discount clothing as well enhances targeted audience.

The following edition of Gospel today magazine similarly can be compared to that of my front cover. Although it has two images as a central image and colour scheme of pale pink and white, it has a lot of text and a bold masthead signifying the specific genre of the magazine that it is. The layout of this front cover certainly attracts the attention of readers as well as targeted audience as the image and colour scheme all correspond together.

As previously mentioned before, the model used for my front cover represents other young female ladies who acquire the same attributes who possibly as well desire to blossom and shine. The smile on her face shows a strong woman of faith because of her belief and the ‘Gospel’ that she lives by. Similar to the views of Janice Winship, she said that women are positioned to accentuate sexual allure in a way that would appeal to men. I did not want to portray this especially since it was a Gospel magazine, having a female on the front cover was not to sexually attract male readers.

My final contents page shows a similar continuity of colour scheme from my front cover, regardless of not picking the same colours that I used for my contents page. My use of green, black and pale pink was to follow the same mellow theme of the front cover. With existing media products, there is continuity between the pages of the front cover and the contents. In my own construction of my music magazine I took this into consideration.

The form of my contents contains a small amount of text, five listed features of my magazine and a stated cover story. This challenges the conventions of having even more and endless amounts of lists on the contents. In this way, it appears unusual however different which can raise awareness for my targeted audience.

Through various researches of other media products, I realised that there was a common convention in all, which was the use of having a list of contact information for readers such as the telephone number and email. So I followed this idea as well to make my magazine more formal having contact details already on the first page that they will notice. I placed this in a black text box at the side of the page to be noticeable. I also added a picture of my editor at the top of the page, which I found conventional in a small amount of other magazines.

My chosen photos for the contents page I would say are relevant to the genre of my magazine. The photos show young people, smiling and in a happy mood. Whereas for example a magazine such as ‘ZOO’ known as the ‘Lads’ magazine it reveals pictures of topless females and in this way it follows the convention of its genre. The magazine overall features females, sports, news etc.

The images used for my contents page, show the different shot angles which I found challenging as in my own research. I found it quite rare of a media product showing different shot angles in its contents page.  The male and female photos I used are to represent my targeted audience to emphasise and appeal to them as readers.

My listed features such as ‘LIFETSYLE...LISTINGS...’ enable readers to be involved in the magazine and attract them. My cover story also intrigues readers, as they are generally interested in interviews with established artists. My choice of contents page is similar to other existing media products as it offers what readers want.

With my main article, using Photoshop I played around with what colours to use as my background. Throughout my decision I had to keep in mind that my genre was a gospel form and the colours I picked had to reflect this and with feedback from peers that looked at my previous article, they suggested that the colours I used did not work too well and that I should consider using a greyish and white gradient or a light blue to signify a holy purpose. I researched Karl Borgrgrafe who carried out tests to see which colours worked best together, colours that were most legible and colours that were least legible and among his chosen colours there was white on green which I considered for my background. Additionally with conventions, my main photo is the largest on one page which is evident in other existing products such as Gospel Link 360, as well as this I included quotes from my interviewer, I previously had two sets of quotes on my main image, after discussion with a friend he told me not to put my quotes across the whole body but rather at the bottom, which I took into consideration. Another point was that the letter that I started with on my article had to be big, as Chris Frost says you should emphasise your intro type. Having the page number, name of Magazine and issue date reinforced the publication of the magazine and having columns made my magazine to be more formal, all of those enabled my magazine to look professional. Unlike most existing media products, I found it rare for editors to state who wrote the article so I decided to mention the name of the journalist that wrote my article to develop the form of real media products. My style of font and text I used was to be similar to my front cover, simple and easy to read for my target audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As previously mentioned before, the model used for my front cover represents other young female ladies who acquire the same attributes who possibly as well desire to blossom and shine. The smile on her face shows a strong woman of faith because of her belief and the ‘Gospel’ that she lives by.

Similar to the views of Janice Winship, she said that women are positioned to accentuate sexual allure in a way that would appeal to men. I did not want to portray this especially since it was a Gospel magazine, having a female on the front cover was not to sexually attract male readers.

Even though my front cover shows a image of a female, it still targets male readers by the use of 6 listed other names on the front cover illustrating how broad the magazine is and it focuses on other people as well (John Walter’s, Kenny Sage, Joanna..) male readers will be interested by names of the same gender and so they are able to look for people that will motivate them in their own lives.

As mentioned before, the use of my chosen images represent my targeted audience, males and females aged between sixteen and late twenties. This however, engages readers and they are able to associate themselves more with something that they are able to relate to. This could be reaching towards young artists as well who desire to have an established career and magazines like this are able to encourage them

I have chosen to compare this picture of Lexi from Encore with the main image from my double page spread to explain how my magazine represents a particular social group.

The postures of both female are similar however different, they both have their arms to the side. As well as this, they both have focused eyes towards the camera but Cecelia as a mid shot whilst Lexis has a long shot image. Additionally, the image of Lexis shows a serious straight face while the image of Cecelia has a friendly smile. Both females have similar costumes, they are both wearing dresses with long earrings, different hairstyles, a ponytail and a short hair. The background of both images are similar each have different coloured gradient instead of just one plain colour that runs throughout. The elements of these photos reflect to the people in my chosen target audience, as it shows that anybody can look like this, there is nothing extreme about these people. It also reflects the age group of my target audience.

The image of Cecelia in my double page spread article represents how females should be, confident which we can see especially by the way she directly stares into the camera. The subheading underneath her name illustrates how she breaks away from the stereotyping she dealt with from a young age, more information is told in the article, where she talks about her experiences and her work.

 Additionally, I had friends that helped me and gave me their opinions at each stage of my production. I thought it would be a good idea to record a video of one of my friends asking for her opinions about what she thought of my front cover. She spoke about my masthead, colours and the layout of my front cover. Especially as she fitted in my targeted audience, it helped me even more to know what I needed to do to address my particular social group.

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

My magazine could be distributed in various places, mostly off licences, newsagents but as well as this it can be purchased in youth centres and churches where my main targeted audience would be associated at. A supermarket store like Sainsbury which sells magazines of different genre including lifestyle magazines and films can be another institution where my magazine can be purchased.

Since my magazine is of a music genre, it can be sold in music stores as well for instance ZAVVI and HMV. The publishing company that owns a magazine can be another institution where it can be sold via website for instance IPC or Time Warner, a global leader in media and entertainment with business in television networks, filmed entertainment and publishing.

Since I have constructed a music magazine aimed at older teens 16-20+, from researching this institution I realised there is a gap in the market for my specific product. It will be a wonderful experience for this institution to consider publishing music magazines. This will bring in new customers into their market, which will be beneficial for their company as it would be making them more diverse. Additionally, the publishing segment of NEWS COOPERATION has just included four new brands in the UK.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience of my magazine are both males and females who are between the ages sixteen up to late twenties. People in the working class category such as C1, C2 and D are part of my potential audience who would be interested in gospel music.

 This is an example of my audience. His name is Emmanuel and he loves listening to gospel music and reads a lot about motivational speakers to heed for advice. Currently an A level student studying maths, English language and economics and when he finishes, he will be going to university. As well as being a student he helps out in his local youth centre and in his church, interacting with other teens and older people. He has a part time job at mothercare, saving his earnings from this job as well as spending a little amount on himself to purchase clothes, music and magazines. One day he hopes to be a maths lecturer at a university.

As his talents, he shares his wonderful gifted voice with young people in his church and conducts a choir which he has been doing for the past 2 years and is now 20years old.

During his free time he goes to concerts and festivals or either socialsing on facebook and looking at other musical artists.Due to his busy schedule he rarely watches TV but he makes an effort to catch up on soaps such as eastenders thorugh lifetsyle magazines and soap magazines. As well as this he purchases music magazines especially of gosepl genres and is intrigued with artists such as Kirk Frankiln and many other gospel artists.

                                

How did you attract/address your audience?

By using bright big and bold images of a young female of roughly the same age as my targeted audience, I hoped to engage readers to purchase my magazine. My use of different bright colours on my fonts and texts is so that it can be appealing. With this it makes my magazine attractive and colourful enhancing readers to ‘grab’ a copy. Discount on clothing and the £2.00 price for the magazine is to make it more desirable for my potential readers, the price being affordable especially for young students.

Throughout the construction of my contents page I addressed my peers and also people that I knew who fit in as my target audience, asking their opinions about what they thought about my contents page and front cover, the link between both.

The similarities of my colour scheme running through my front cover to the contents page engages readers and instils them to be focus. Due to my young target audience, my listed features were to reflect this so that readers will be able to relate. The ‘normal’ dressing of the people in my contents page emphasises on attracting the specific audience, persuading readers to purchase the magazine. The bold text that I used was to make it easier to read especially the colour black.

The bold orange text of ‘CONTENTS’ emphasises that it is a contents page and stands out to  readers before reading any other text around it. The text ‘JESUS IS MY LOGO’ is a common phrase used around people that fit in my genre, this reiterates that it is a gospel magazine. Placing the text in the ‘O’ of the contents is a technique I decided to use as I found it appealing for readers. My listed contents is specific and convenient for readers, as most younger readers especially a few that are part of my age group fear reading a huge amount of text being place on a page, as they may find it less appealing.

Similar to real magazines, there is an editorial used to excite readers as they are able to know what will be next for the next issue of the magazine, this creates a relationship between readers and the editor. However, I only placed a picture of the editor to excite readers that there will be

an editorial following.

Arrangement of four images was purposely done by me, two at the top and two at the bottom. Each both contain a picture of a male and female this was to increase interest and to have effect on readers. So that they are able to know it is targeting both genders of readers that are interested.

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

Using Photoshop various times, made me understand how to use the tools and knowing how to edit pictures more and have a better knowledge of the tools. The polygonal lasso tool was very helpful as it helped me to erase the background of my image, taking parts I did not want and the gradient tool helped me to choose the two colours that I wanted for my background and merge them together.

Additionally, indesign was a great help for when constructing my front cover. The use of creating layers for example when applying a text to the page i had to create a layer each time, this came around useful because when i wanted to edit the text all i had to do was click on that specific layer. At first, on Indesign when i would place an image i never did right click and ‘fit to screen’ or format to ‘high quality display’ but then i realised it had an effect when i did do it. Ever since then, once I place an image in Indesign I always ‘fit t screen’ and change to ‘high quality display’

 

As well as using the college computer during and after school hours. I used my ACER laptop as well to gather information for my contents page such as the pictures I used.

Using windows live hotmail, I saved the pictures that I needed to use for my contents page so that when I came into college I was able to open them up through my email. This was more convenient than having UBS’s as it was spreading viruses’ around the computers in college so therefore using the hotmail to save work was an easier and safer way.

I used my SONY 12.2 megapixel camera to take most of my pictures that I used. It was a great advantage for me to have my own personal camera with such good quality as I was able to take pictures anywhere that I wanted. I learnt to use Photoshop whilst creating the background colour and editing the pictures for my front cover.

After doing this, I moved onto using Indesign in the final construction for the contents page, placing everything I done on Photoshop into Indesign. Doing this has become much easier then when I firstly started when constructing my preliminary task.

After using these technologies various times I have now become more confident in using them.

Using Photoshop, it was quite difficult for me as I carefully wanted to erase all the additional parts of my image and it was not as easy as I thought. I did so by using the polygonal tool and the quick selection tool.

I saved a copy of my background colour so that I maintained the same shade of the colours that I used. It was then easy when using Indesign as all I had to do was click file then place any image that I wanted.

                                               

                

 

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

After the construction of my prelimiary task, I have made more use of the tools availabe. I have learnt that by researching other magazines and looking at their layout it was useful to me to be able to challenge their own conventions.

Spending more time using Indesign and Photoshop enabled me to like I mentioned before to understand it more especially the tools and  it was more easier. I found it very interesting as I realised there was lots to do as to how to make a front cover professional . Using Photoshop and indesign has enabled me to fill up spaces that I have either by text or pictures. This technique is appealing to readers and potential customers.

Regardless of not making a double page spread for my school magazine, overall I learnt a lot using Photoshop and Indesign especially the shortcut keys for example when enlarging any image it was easy to use the ctrl button + T , I became very fond of using this way. Comparing to the way I constructed my school magazine in Photoshop and Indesign , i can honestly say that I have learnt to use layers more effectively and wisely instead of placing everything all on one layer which later on creates chaos.








RESEARCHING AND PLANNING PRESENTATION

 

GOSPEL TWIST BLOG

I used two models of Gospel Link 360 Magazine to help in my own production of my Gospel magazine. I originally was researching on Gospel Today Magazine, a gospel magazine that runs in USA but I felt the need to research magazines that currently run in the UK as I would be able to purchase a copy and have a more in depth understanding of the magazine with a hard copy, so I paid a £10 subscription for a whole year of Gospel Link 360 as it is a free magazine but covers postage and packaging expenses.  This shows a good use of media convergence, a magaizne having its own website. Targeted audience are able to view videos, subsribe for monthly magazines and many more.My media product represents all social groups such as working class and middle class, it targets young youthful individuals from the age of 16 to late 20s that have interests in gospel music, gospel artists such as Kirk Franklin, UK artist Faith Child etc and generally readers that urge for more insight into gospel media. It represents my particular social groups by the use of its exclusive artists- new and current artists, music news, CD reviews and much more. 

Churches, gospel events/programmes, shop-keepers, supermarkets will be institutions that distribute my media magazine, Churches will be a good place to distribute my magazine because there will lie my main target audience that will be interested.

I currently use my models of other gospel magazines to help give me an insight of how to develop my media product. The use of layout and fonts help me to decide on what I should do with my media magazine, the types of images either close up or a long shot image are beneficial for me. I’m using a close- up image that can be compared to one of my model, which helps to focus on the aim of the magazine and what it is offering to its readers, headlines stories of a gospel artist.

I’m targeting my media product to young individuals and those inclined to having an interest to gospel music. Therefore, I’m trying to use young artists, teasers, catchy head line stories that do not have to be about gossip but still have interest to younger readers.

Most gospel artists are young people, so I’m using them as inspiration to what I can offer for my young readers. Competitions, interesting storylines are also going be laid on my front cover to appeal my targeted audience.

Continuing with my production of my music magazine, I was unable to find my actual copy of my magazine that I had created so under a short pressure of time I had to produce a new front cover all over again this week. Luckily, while I was getting feedback from other people there was a lot of criticisms compared to my second front cover that I had to re-do. The first front cover I had created was less creative and did not have an approach of a music magazine but an approach looking more like a poster. I originally planned all of my magazine cover in Photoshop intending to copy elements I did to Indesign, which I struggled with so probably was the reason to the copy of the magazine I had created to have disappeared. Following that week I received my copy of Gospel Link 360 which I subscribed for, it gave me more incentive and more depth of how creative I can be to create my own media product.

I decided to have heavenly colours that would run throughout the magazine and empathises on my genre therefore being gospel. So I used a grey and white background that could compliment with my main image similar to gospel magazines such as gospel link that focuses on the background to link with their main image. This makes it plain and simple however still attractive.

I challenged conventions of other real media products regarding my colour scheme. My main use of white and black colours, it focuses on the calm setting of a gospel scene. Black I used for my masthead and for the story headline of my chosen main image, white was used for my catchy storylines and topics that will be highlighted in the contents of the magazine. These stood out and achieved my aim of making my media product still interesting.

My main image being a young, late teen female. It interests my intended audience as the main image is not too flashy but subtle which emphasises on the genre of the magazine, I purposely intended to use one image to have a more focused effect for my audience.

I created a small banner at the bottom of the cover to list other features of the magazine such as artists and speakers, which draws attention to the audience as they have more understanding of the magazine especially with the help of my chosen bold colours, green, blue and yellow. I listed topics that will be covered in the magazine ‘Faith, Health & Love’ this encourages readers to purchase so they are able to found out more. Finally I would agree that my magazine having a one central figure and average content listed engages my targeted audience as they focus on the main aspects of the magazine.

Firstly, using Indesign was quite tricky however when I spent more time understanding all the tools, constructing my magazine was then easier for me. I have learnt to blend in my image more with my background, ways of feathering and using the lasso tool on Photoshop. As well as this, I have learnt to make different types of backgrounds which I also did such as using a diffuse glow and mosaic tile background to play around with.

Comparing my actual music magazine to my preliminary task, I have learnt to make more use of creativity and wider use of tools that are on Indesign and Photoshop. I’ve learnt to use all my spaces I have available and not making my magazine to look plain and unattractive.

Week 14

For the planning of my gospel magazine contents page I researched and looked at similarities between magazines of other genres contents page. Most magazines had a use of an editorial on their contents page while a majority of others had a layout of what their magazine would contain instead of an editorial.

I decided to plan with the idea to have an editorial on my contents page. So I found 3 images that I was going to use and I edited them in Photoshop where I either, cropped the image or cut the background out of the picture.

The most difficult part was trying to deicide on what colour I was going to us my background, viewing other magazine contents page they usually only had one colour that was bright and stood out. So I done the same and picked a baby blue colour to make it attractive and bright. When constructing my contents page on indesign I used the effects tool for the background colour so it was not plain.

As my magazine is aimed towards young people, male and female. I wanted to highlight that point across so I tried to use a variety of colours.

A bit of my main inspiration was from Disorder magazine, so I captured my eyes on the main tools that were used such as the layout of their images, the text and what it brought to my mind. This week , not a lot of effort was put into the construction of my media magazine but I tried to make use of the tools of Photoshop and indesign as much as possible.

Week 15

Compared to the last construction of my media magazine, there is huge difference. I decided that the contents page was too simple and not as attractive as I expected it to be.  In the development of my contents page post production I created my background colour on Photoshop as I felt that there was more tools available on Photoshop, I also wanted to lay text on my background colour so it could be seen behind the text. I used the opacity tool and reduced it to 20% so it was visible but light. The big ‘S’ covers the ‘S’ in gospel and ‘S’ in twist, which I though was very attractive and made the contents page more interesting. These ideas were influenced by me researching and looking at other magazines such as Gospel Link, Disorder & Vibe. Instead of just researching on gospel magazines, I was encouraged to view magazines of other genres to have a wider range of options and bringing them together.

After constructing my contents page on Photoshop I saved the image then placed it on a layer on indesign. When I done this, I copied the layout of my previous contents page and started again developing the contents page. Instead of the idea to have an editorial, I changed the idea to have a list of what the magazine was offering to the targeted audience. More writing on the page made it informative and attractive as readers want to know what the contents of the magazine are. I changed the layout of the pictures and placed them all one side of the magazine and changed the headline ‘contents’ to the right hand side , so when readers turned the page the first thing they will read is the CONTENTS. The main colour I used were, green, black and white I felt was a good combination and covered a variety of things. I wanted to have a link throughout the whole contents page, so with reference to the black background against the CONTENTS and the green text CONTENTS, I wanted to carry that through the whole page.

The red writing was to identify the numbers of the page, so I kept that consistent, the green writing was more information on what the black headline above was about. For example SPOT LIGHT – Time with Celie.

The little icons, were ideas I got from another magazine, I constructed it on Photoshop using shapes, drew a circle then used rectangles to draw a cross to emphasise on it being a ‘gospel’ magazine. It covered any additions of what the magazine was offering.

Overall , the technologies provided has made the development of constructing quite difficult because of creating ideas was quite complicated but it was useful because once you made an error you could start again and come across something new.

From the development of my preliminary task, I have learnt how to make more use of the tools available, to be creative and expand more and make use of space. Regard to my contents page, I tried very much to use all the space on the page to make it more appealing.

The characteristics of my particular genre and the elements I chose are for my magazine, so that it can be associated with similar genres, bringing expectations to the viewing process. In the construction of my double page spread I got further inspiration from magazines such as MORE and LOOK I thought it would be interesting to feed some information off from lifestyles magazines as they mostly had interviews with celebrities than articles. Even though i was not constructing a fashion magazine which most lifetsyle magazines paid attention towards, researching these magazines were still helpful to gain ideas for my double page spread. Most magazines had interviews that spoke about the ‘rise & fall’ of celebrities , this intrests readers as they are known to enjoy peeping

into the lives of celebrities and wanting to know them inside and out. Similarly, in order to maintain the attention of my audiences I wrote an interview that reflected to the storyline on my front cover ‘ Cecelia – The “ Angel you never knew!”. The interview speaks about the upbringing of her life and how she got into the music industry and what her main purpose is that keeps her driving forwward.

Whilst constructing my double page spread, I wanted to emphasis more on my targeted social groups. The interview covered basically the life of a young girl ‘Rags to Riches’ who brought herself up from the rough areas of the streets to the mass media of the city. As my targeted social group is of a young background, I carried on leading the format of my magazine to reflect this, from the young girl displayed on the front cover to the interview on the double page spread. The social group I intended to represent was those of a young background that lived in the rough areas, who had aspirations and dreams, young talented people who either spent their time at home and socially sing with friends at the cafe

As well as this the front cover of my media product presenting an aspirational young lady gives the average reader to aspire to buying the magazine. To maintain this perception, my interview as well had to be up to this standard.  Stories that young people of today’s society would be able to relate to would keep my chosen audience willing to continue to read on. I wanted to draw across the ideology of my magazine; a young girl’s experience that could relate to other younger readers , so it can still inspire them. As one of the theorist John Berger said there are three types of readers, preferred readers, negotiated readers and oppositional readers. I wanted to target those that are preferred reads as they are straight to the point and know what they want.

I created my double page spread using Photoshop and Indesign, it was rather difficult integrating and extracting the formats off Photoshop and putting them into Indesign but I pulled through and was able to successfully produce my Gospel magazine double page spread. My double page spread is about ‘Cecelia - The “Angel” you never knew’, my article is related to this central figure form my initial front cover. I wrote my interview on Microsoft Word, based on the storyline that I gave on my front cover. As most magazines do, when interviewing a celebrity, musician, artist, the interview is mostly based on their life, how they grew up and how they got themselves into the spotlight.

Getting more confident to using Photoshop, it was becoming easier using the tools and understanding how everything operates. For Photoshop I used it to crop my main image that I laid on my background, I used the polygonal tool to extract the additional pieces of my image that I did not want to use. Before I edited my image I opened a new file and used the rectangular marquee tool to go over the white paper and then chose my background colour, or any other colour I wished to use. I preferred not to have just one colour set for my background but a mix that contains white. Similarly, because my genre is a Gospel, white signifies purity I wanted to have colours that connotated and denoted this. Therefore I used a pale orange colour and placed it as a background colour then chose the colour white as my foreground colour. Using Photoshop I used the gradient tool which integrated the colours together. There were a few difficulties doing this as it did not change when I intended it to, so I had to right click the layer I was using and click on rasterize layer in order to make any changes.

After doing this, I used the polygonal tool and went around the image neatly to the areas I did not want then deleted them. When I finally done this, I saved it and place it on Indesign to finally start off my double page spread, I enlarged the image to overlap the entire two pages. I wanted to place the image of the girl from the front cover with somebody else to show the editor that interviewed ‘Cecelia’, as most magazines as well have images that show the magazines editor / writer with the person that they interviewed. This was an idea that I took into account while constructing the 2 page article from another peer as my initial idea varied from this.

To make the text easy to read, and eligible I decided to place a white rectangular box behind the text and used a black coloured font. I intended to have one page of my spread just for the text then my second spread to contain text and other images.

Using Microsoft PowerPoint, I edited my three additional images. I did not want my images to be plain or to not have any significance. Therefore on PowerPoint I formatted my pictures and changed the boarders of my images. After inserting my text, and everything else I realised that it still looked empty, so I decided to include quotes form the article to fill in any dead space. In this, I think my spread develops forms of real media products.

As my written article aimed to inspire other young people that aspired to be artists or musicians, I decided to maintain this perception. I thought of a motto or an inspirational word that a reader could carry along with them ; Nothing is impossible , the word itself says “I’m possible” this emphasises more on the genre of the my magazine; Gospel to reach out to others and pass on motivational messages.

I preferred the idea of maintaining the colour scheme of my double page spread and front cover, being pure and connotating on the genre ; Gospel . As well for my mast head I used the colour white, different from my front cover where I used black.

With other magazines a majority of the time there is an indication as to who wrote the article, which I thought to do as well. Mentioning the name of the person who wrote the article seemed more professional.

PRELIMINARY TASK

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and image manipulation software 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. Also candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to show their grasp of DTP.

I decided to make a college magazine as I felt it would enable me to be more creative and expand on the technical things of media. At first, I was quite intimidated when looking at my peers and the work that they produced, because I do not have any experience in media and Photoshop so I found it more difficult to work and produce quality standard of work.                                                   

There was a few difficulties while I was producing my preliminary front cover and contents college magazine, when trying to save a document on Photoshop you were unable to open the file again which lead to restarting and producing another front cover, another alternative was to save my file on my usb unfortunately due to lack of space on Photoshop on my pc I was unable to do so. Although I am currently in the process of having personal use of Photoshop to learn and understand more.                          

Before I started the planning of my front cover, I drew a draft of how I wanted it to appear as it motivated me more to engage myself with how to use Photoshop. I was able to annotate my draft with notes of what I would use, colours, texts, before I went ahead to the pc.

I focused more on the planning of the front cover than the contents page , while planning my college magazine I found it quite complex of how the magazine would have been constructed so I researched into looking at my actual college magazine and other past students college magazine to help me with an insight of what I can produce. I wanted my college magazine to not only be a college newsletter but an interactive magazine that appealed to students , as a student I felt I would have more experience into what I could write .

The masthead ‘Inspiration’ came to me when I was searching of a logo for my magazine , I suggested Inspiration because I feel students should be inspired to work hard and achieve goals , articles in the college magazine would have reflected upon this. The storylines I picked for the front cover came from ideas that related to what the college were currently doing , for instance the talent show that was going to take place ‘Take The Stage 2010’.

The major difficulties I faced was when I produced my front cover , I was troubled by how to cut the background of my picture out , looking at the main image it is still ridged around the edges which shows lack of photo editing . When I was transferring my picture to my A4 paper, it changed from a coloured picture to a black and white picture. After asking for help, nobody understood the reason for this so I had to copy and paste my picture. Regarding my front cover I could of added more detail and more attractive for readers. On the other hand , I consider my contents page to be better than my front cover , the use of the background engages me with the different colours used , which I found researching green backgrounds that would of suited my front cover . Unfortunately my terrible use of fonts makes it difficult to read and understand, so I will take this into consideration for my next magazine. As it is very important to have clear fonts for a clear understanding of the magazine.