3. GENERIC CONVENTIONS EVALUATION GENERIC CONVENTIONS Many music magazines, and other magazines are effective because of the generic conventions that are featured throughout them. When an audience sees certain generic conventions it makes them feel more comfortable with the media, making the product more successful. An audience buying a magazine, will have certain ideas about what it should look like, whether the audience is media or socially grouped. We therefore decided to follow the generic conventions of titles, images and colour scheme, making the front covers of our magazines similar to those that are already in the market. We also chose to break some generic conventions, are magazines are much more styled to attract someone from a fashion background, rather than just music, as we wanted our magazine to edge slightly more to a female audience, who wanted more gossip and style relating to the music scene. This is why our magazines follow some generic conventions of fashion magazines, compared to just music magazines, the font for example is similar to that of vogue, as is the layout.

4. EVALUATION GENERIC CONVENTIONS Many of the conventions that I became familiar with I chose to recreate in my final media product… The recognisable font displaying the magazine name becomes iconic, and like many magazines, I chose to place the title in the top left hand corner to create a sense of familiarity. The large central photograph represents the main feature article on many front covers and it’s something that I chose to use also. The simple combination of a small selection of colours makes many music magazine front covers look very effective, I chose to use 3 main colours that I feel work well together.

5. EVALUATION REPRESENTATION REPRESENTATION I chose to represent the music stars in my magazines as young and stylish. The model in the main feature article, who is also on the front cover of the magazine, represents our target audience. She is female and within our target audience age group, making her appeal to the readers as they can relate to her. I presented her to be glamorous, whilst also trying to keep her style fitting to the music genre we chose; this slightly rock chick look, with a hint of fashion is portrayed by the clothes and make-up used in the photo shoots. The red and black colours are used in many music magazines, especially those with a rock/indie genre, which is why I chose clothes which were these colours, where as the red lipstick added a touch of allure to the photo shoot. I also wanted the article to reflect her as a down to earth and realistic person, so although she has been successful with her career she is still a normal person, making her easier to relate to for our target audience.

6. The font is quite feminine and with the use of colours that are typically feminine, it attracts our target audience. The pinks and purples are sophisticated but gender stereotypical. EVALUATION REPRESENTATION The font is also modern and easy to read, appealing to the younger generations. The photos of the ‘music star’ are fun, girly and glamorous, appealing to young females, who may aspire to be like her. The content of the article is a light-hearted interview, which would appeal to our younger target audience who The hint of red on the page also attracts the attention of males, as well as an attractive female that would appeal to that small proportion of our target audience. may not be attracted by a huge amount of text on the page, which is why the large photographs may appeal to them also.

7. EVALUATION IDENTIFICATION OF TARGET AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION OF TARGET AUDIENCE To identify our target audience we used Burton’s social and media grouping concepts. We looked at grouping our target audience for their social similarities such as age and gender, yet also for their music tastes. We decided the following after looking closely at Burton’s theory : Age: 16-24 year olds Gender: Unisex, leaning more towards female Class: ABC1 Location: Western These are the social groupings we chose, but we also decided our target audience would be grouped for the genre of music they listened to: Type of music: Rock/Indie We have also decided to aim our magazine towards the female social group, we plan to do this by including more gossip and female orientated articles that will attract females.

8. EVALUATION APPEALING TO MY TARGET AUDIENCE APPEALING TO MY TARGET AUDIENCE To appeal to my target audience of young females aged 16-24, we conducted interviews and collected information from questionnaires to give us an insight on what our target audience actually wanted in their media product. The results from the questionnaires about layout ideas, helped me to design my front cover and double page spread. When asked which magazine cover they preferred many people said they liked ‘Clash’ - so I used the same concept of 1 large image taking up the majority of the front page, with the title in the top in a bright bold colour. The results showed that many people found bigger images and less text appealing, which is what I tried to portray in my double page spread. The colour scheme that was most popular was black, white and red which I also used but added some variation to it, with a slightly more pink shade of red and a plum colour which appeal to my female target audience.

9. EVALUATION TECHNOLOGICAL SIDE TECHNOLOGICAL SIDE I used my Lumix DMC-FS30 digital camera to take the photographs that I used throughout my media product. I edited these photos on Photoshop, by slightly changing the contrast and brightness to create a professional appearance. To create the entire product I used mainly Photoshop, using different elements to add a variety of texts in different fonts, styles, colours and sizes, yet also to crop and resize various images. The photos that I took I also edited using Photoshop. The collage of Polaroid's used on my contents page was created on Photoshop, using a brush that I downloaded. I created the text on the contents page using Photoshop, which allowed me to use an appropriate font in different colours and sizes. I filled the Polaroid’s with the photos I took using the crop, cut and paste tools on Photoshop.

10. EVALUATION TECHNOLOGICAL SIDE TECHNOLOGICAL SIDE - making my contents page… STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 FINAL I used the copy, paste and rotate tools to create this layout of Polaroid's. The Polaroid's were created from a stamp I downloaded for Photoshop. I then used the text tool to create the information featured on the contents page, it allowed me to use the same font but in different colours and sizes. I then started to add photographs into the Polaroid's, using the copy, paste and crop tools. The next slide shows what I did exactly… After I finished filling every Polaroid with a photograph my contents page was finished!

11. EVALUATION TECHNOLOGICAL SIDE TECHNOLOGICAL SIDE - making my contents page… I copied and pasted the Polaroid into a blank file on Photoshop... I then pasted my photograph into the same file… I then shrank and rotated my photograph and moved the layer of the photograph underneath the layer which the Polaroid was on, so that I could see the outline of the Polaroid and what shape I needed to cut the Photograph in… I then cut around the photograph making it the shape I wanted, by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool. STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 These 4 steps led me to this photograph which I copied and pasted back into the contents page layout and moved into place in front of the Polaroid. STEP 5

12. FROM PRELIMINARY TO MAIN PRODUCT The preliminary task, showcased are basic skills using Photoshop, I feel I strongly improved with newly learnt skills on Photoshop to use on my main product. By creating a preliminary product it allowed me to see the different aspects of creating a magazine front cover, it also gave me the opportunity to see what my target audience wanted and to improve things to make it more appealing. I used different fonts, added more articles and improved the photography. The basic layout is very similar, we stuck with one model on the front page, with different sized text framing it. The font I chose to use on my front page is much more interesting, and appealing for my target audience, it is more feminine than the font used on my preliminary. EVALUATION FROM PRELIMINARY TO MAIN PRODUCT