Evaulation of my College Magazine

Overall, my college magazine product was fun to make and gave me a greater insight on what to improve, and maybe some things I could change; prehaps a different layout.
The symbol of the greek letter "lambda" was a direct iconic reference to a best selling computer game (which used the same symbol). My magazine was based around the idea of science, and you can see most of the coverlines are associated with science and even the masthead is referencing to the same game I was mentioning (Half-Life).
My college magazine and contents may have only had one picture to work from, but I've learned to take more to add a more interesting feel to it, instead of one boring photograph.
My music magazine directly reflects what I've learned from my experiences making the college magazine. What makes a magazine good and what doesn't work, were especially important.
My conclusion is that although my college magazine did not share many features that my music magazine may have had, it still serves as a direct template to my mistakes and hopefully into making a better magazine for certain audiences.

Question 7-Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I know a great deal about photography, keep the target in sights, make sure your not taking a shot on front of the sun and make sure its behind you. Talking from a layout point of view, I think my old college magazine's layout is more smoother and neater, while the music magazine is all angled, more colourful and vibrent.
I mastered the technology of photoshop and the software, in order to appeal to a specific audience. My writting style also changes when I wrote in each magazine. Although I didn't have an interview page in my college magazine (it only had front page and contents), I had to come up with an interview with a character I created.
The layout of the font also changed from each project. The college magazine for instance was neat and
organized. My music magazine however is more angular and colourful. Photography was also improved from the orginal magazine. I went from straight on, eye-level shots, to more slightly higher level angle shots. Though a number of them are eye level shots but I took a lot more then a simple photo of one of my class mates. In turn the only subject would be me, through a series of subjective and object gazes, I created different shots, poses and wore different hats and a new costume.
When I began writing about the article inside, I tried to imagine what it would be like inside the interviewer's head. I wrote questions that related to the artists life, and what experiences he would have had in a music career. It was amazing I could come up with an interview because I had never played an instrament before or had any experience in the music industry.

A good masthead attract large amounts of teenage audience members who like the fonts. The main selling point is me, the model, and the main title. Because they are the largest images on the magazine. A good cover line, with another great attractive font, and the fact that is right next to the model. Nearly every magazine has a main model to attract the specific audience. I'm hoping to attract a female audience since their attracted to boy bands. For example McFly, as they attract a massive amount of girl fans. The coverlines are once again important in any magazine, and they link with similar magazines like mine. It attracts and informs my particular audience, and gives them a taster for whats inside.

Question 1-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of my music magazine is mix of all music forms, I don't think I could probably define my music magazine's genre. I suppose it could be pop music genre, no one on the market really has touched the type of genre. Pop was the breeding ground of future music in the 90s. Genres like metal, rock and classical litter the market, individuals which I formed together in my mag which is a mix.

My music magazine is called "Sound". I called it this because since magazine is a form of all music, I thought a word that best described music: sound itself; so I thought that was a good title.

The only images in my music magazine consist of me, costume was a sharp suit with cap or hat and the only person was me. No other people were included in my magazine. I used photoshop to crop out the image or logo on my cap and get rid of any spots on my face when the picture was taken. I suppose the costume fits in well with the whole 90s pop culture, although it could be just be used for attracting a female audience. However no props were used in any of the images. I didn't consider make-up for the photo shoot, because I wanted it to feel more natural.

My music magazine layout is different to other because it looks and feels much more vibrant and colourful. Where as other magazines are formal and have dull colours, my magazine is childish and informal. The cover line is in a cool font to display the main character's attitude and personality. To make it stand out from ordinary background, I made it yellow to draw the human eye to attention. The layout of written work is angled to give a extra interesting feel to the writing and I made the images angled as well.

The written content had to be made up in order to present a feel of realism. Because my alter ego "Justin Hawk" needed to have an interview, I presented him in a way that appealed to today's generation or mostly those from the 90s generation. I wrote an interview and let Justin Hawk explain a bit about the origins of the band he was with, the band members and himself and his likes and dislikes. The written content was in sans serif.

The contents page is vital to any success of a music magazine company. Mine is similar but different: again with the colours and layout. Some things remain the same, like the first letter being enlarged and certain coverlines enhanced to be bigger.

The title font of my music magazine was a font from a website called "Zombie Noize". I liked it because it looked punky and stylish. The style of my writing is angled in some places and coloured white when it was going over photos.