Coursework review Q7

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

After completing my final magazine I looked back at my first preliminary task which was the school magazine cover, after reviewing the two I have seen how much I have progressed and learnt about the design and production of a magazine cover. 

The main stand out thing is the backgrounds and how much more natural the photo looks in my final piece, this is mainly because I chose a backdrop that would suit my magazine where as in my preliminary task I had a background that did not suit the magazine and so I had to create one on photoshop, this in turn caused the magazine to look tacky, I am glad this was rectified in my final piece.

Secondly in my final piece I had a close up low shot of my artist on the cover where as in the preliminary I had only used a mid shot which shows my progression with experimenting shot types and framing the picture. A mid shot is the most common shot used as it is typically how photos are taken. The variety in shot adds a sense of power to the artist which is a general theme in the Grime genre.

Thirdly, I feel as though the fonts selected in my final piece worked well with each other whilst maintaining originality where as in my preliminary task the fonts look extremely generic and out of place.

Finally, the attention to detail was vastly improved as I added all the little extras to my final piece including the issue number and positioned everything correctly where as very little attention to detail was put into the first one which caused things such as the bad cut out of the photo to occur.

Coursework review Q6

What have you learnt about technologies from constructing this product?

As well as the equipment shown in the photo I have used various programs on my Macbook to achieve my finished product these are as follows:

- Photoshop: Through using photoshop I created my magazine, I used a variety of tools but the main tools I used that were vital in the creation of my magazine were the resizing tool as it allowed me to change the size of things to a perfect height and width whilst also keeping the proportions the same. Secondly, I used the text tool a lot to create headings and mastheads that make up the majority of my magazine. Thirdly, I used the eraser tool which allowed me to have the masthead appear to be in between the artist and the background which was an effective technique.

- Microsoft Word: I used Microsoft word to create my article in a program that would help check my spelling and grammar whilst I write, by doing this on word instead of in photoshop I was able to write a much better article than if I had used other programs.

- Google Drive: Google drive was used to upload and store photos I took across my many photo shoots, it was good as it could be uploaded too and accessed from multiple platforms allowing me to work from multiple places.

- Dafont: I used dafont to get more interesting fonts that better suit my magazine than were available on the photoshop app, by doing this I improved the overall aesthetic look of my magazine.

Coursework review Q5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Magazine shots

Unfortunately due to my hard drive crashing in my laptop I lost many of the photos from my photo shoots, however the following photos were the ones I managed to hold onto. These were not used due to being out of focus.

Magazine mock up stages

Test photos

Magazine mock up

Analysis of an institution

International publishing company

IPC media is one of the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. IPC groups its magazines under five different categories: Womens weekly, leisure and specialist, men's lifestyle and entertainment, women's lifestyle and home interests, and television. They own music magazines 'NME' and 'Guitar and Bass'

IPC would be a suitable institution to publish my magazine as they are based in the United Kingdom, they also work in the music magazine industry already. The 'NME' magazine is similar in terms of the genres of music it promotes to what I plan to make my magazine into. Therefore the institution would already have experience working with magazines similar to my own which would allow them to adapt current knowledge to fit my magazine and would also be confident taking on my magazine and ensuring it becomes a success.

Using IPC would be more beneficial than using other institutions such as 'Bauer Media Group' which are a large German publishing company based in Hamburg which operates in 15 countries worldwide as although it is a music magazine that publishes 'Q', 'MOJO' and 'Kerrang' it is based in a different company and would not be suitable for a small start up magazine based in the UK.