Peer Evaluation of music magazine front cover.

I asked another student to evaluate my work to help me improve my final music magazine. My peer looked at both my music magazine front cover and contents page.

The first thing that was noticed was the masthead, ‘the’ and ‘tempa’ were two different fonts and colours, which made it less recognisable as the masthead, and to correct this I must change it to be the same, the ‘A’ in ‘tempa’ was spaced further away from the rest of the word.
The next problem that was indentified was the layer texts. Two layers were partly highlighted, when over lapped onto the main image on the front cover. This made the layers look out of place as the colour changed when on black. To correct this, I will have to either make the font smaller so that it does not overlap on to the picture or will have to change the layer effect.
Another thing noticed was the bar code. This was pushed far too down and into the special offer; this made my magazine look unprofessional. To improve this mistake, all I need to do is to push the bar code slightly up.

Once analysing my music magazine front cover, my peer then had a look at the contents page of this magazine. The first thing noticed was that by using both ‘The’ and ‘Contents’ did not look as good as it could, and so my peer advised me to use only ‘Contents’. However, this would create too much space around the word, and to improvise with this, I will have to add images related to music around the word ‘Contents’.
Another thing noticed was that the images used on the bottom of the page of two females were cornered off. This made the page look incomplete and to correct this I have to pull across the picture to join on to the offer.
I was also asked to change the exclusive offer of the trip. I will have to change this to ‘Win four free tickets to Egypt, read now!’ I was told to do this because by mentioning a family trip the reader could feel that the magazine might be based on family lifestyles, or family etc.
On my contents page I included headlines of stories that are going to be in my magazine cover. Here a couple of mistakes were noticed by my peer. ‘Jennifer Hudson’s shockin story after death of mother and brother’ and ‘Rihanna and Chris Brown wedding find out he full story’ these are obvious mistakes made that need to be corrected in my final music magazine.
To make my contents page look more sophisticated I had to change ‘Jade Goody, sleep and death’ to ‘Jade Goody: sleep and death’ by adding the colon, my contents page looks more confident and understood. However these headlines did not seem appropriate for a music magazine front cover so I had to change this, Instead of saying ‘Jade Goody Sleep and Death’ I used ‘Girls Aloud Perform at Jade Goody’s Wedding’.
I was also told to change ‘exclusive/jade Goody/pictures after death’ to ‘Exclusive/ Tribute to Jade Goody’

school magazine front cover

Double Page Spread

pictures used for the music magazine project

Evaluation for my school magazine product.

To create my school magazine front cover I first had to look at two other school magazine covers and analyse them. The two that I looked at were the ‘palmer post’, a newsletter for canon palmer catholic school and the other was ‘High Profile’ the school magazine for St Edwards School for girls.

To begin my own school magazine front cover I had to use the software Photoshop elements. This was suggested to us to use because it is the suitable software to create this type of project and it would be much easier to complete a magazine. To start off the project I used a digital camera to take my photos, and once done so, I used a USB connection wire to import these photos onto the computer so that I can use them. Once I had done this I had to crop around these pictures so that they can be fit to use on the covers or even on the contents page. When I had done this and added my pictures in the correct place on the cover, I then had to start adding my text. I used the text type tool to add my text and seeing that the apple imac computers have special features, I could move the text around the page how I wish without having to delete what I have done already. I then used the same tool to add other texts on other places on the cover. To add effects on these texts, there was a link ‘layer effects’ by pressing on this I could choose what I want my images to look like. This gave me other options like making the particular layer visible, not visible or transparent.
My media product challenges other real media products because I have decided to use more colours and out them together. As my media product is a designed for a school magazine, it is aimed at students and teachers or all ages

Evaluation for music magazine

Evaluation for music magazine product.

The task given to me was to create a magazine front cover, with a paper draft and computer draft, a contents age with a paper draft and computer draft and a double page spread also with a computer draft and paper draft. As my task was to create a magazine related to music, I had to research many different types of magazines such as kerrang, the source, remix and others, this had to be done so that I get an idea of how to lay out my own magazine cover and what type of stories and other information I should put on it.

My first task was to take the pictures that I had to insert on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. However, I could not get round to this, because the cameras were in use in the first couple of weeks, so I decided that I should start on my front cover so that I do not get left behind later on. The first thing I done was to think of a masthead and then create in using photo shop elements. To do this task I used an apple Mac computer, this was because a Mac offers features such as photo shop elements, and apple works and also makes it easier to insert an image into a different type of document by simply dropping the image to and from the desktop. The Mac includes the ‘move tool’ this lets you move around any layer you wish to around the page, it also lets you resize by just pulling on the sides. If used on a text, it is not necessary to modify the size, by pulling on the size this happens automatically. I then took the pictures that I needed. I first took pictures of instruments that I used on the bottom of the page; I then had to crop around these pictures so that I could fit them onto where I wish to place them. Once this was done, I made the circles, in which I used to write my exclusives and offers in. however I had to only put the edge of the circle on the page, this made it look professional, I got and idea of doing this when I was researching other music magazines. I then added text on the side of the cover, (inside stories); I used the layer effect link to add effects to this text/layer. This was used as a selling point of the magazine; eye-catching colours would attract more audience.

I then started taking pictures that I would include in my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I took these pictures using a digital camera, once taken I had to import them onto the Mac using a connection wire. As this was done, I opened these pictures in photo shop elements and then one by one I cropped around them so that the back ground of these pictures is gone and the picture has perfect fit on the page. I have also added pictures of myself on my product. Keeping in mind that the pictures need to be taken by me, I took the pictures by holding the camera at arms length away from the face. On the contents page there is an image of me, this image is in a circle shape. To do this I did not have to crop around the picture instead I had to use the circle shaped cropping tool and pulled it around my picture. I then dragged it across to the contents page using the move tool and resized it to fit the area.

My media product challenges the forms and conventions of real media products because I have added the conventions of a real media product such as offers and exclusives, the yellow banner on top the page etc. To represent the young and hip hop generation I have used bright and eye catching colours. I have also used the latest headlines in the media that youngsters are interested in. I attracted my audience by using an image of a much younger person to the aimed audience which is fourteen to eighteen year olds. By doing this they will become more attracted into finding out why such a young person is used on the cover. Media institutions such as the bigger and better know magazines such as bliss, kerrang; NME etc can be the appropriate institutions to distribute my media product. Through the process of the construction of the magazine cover I learnt how to use new software such as apple works and Photoshop elements. I also learnt how to use it features and now find it more understanding and find it easier, e.g. cropping. From the designing and creation of my preliminary task which was to create a magazine front cover and contents page for a school magazine, I have learnt that it is not as difficult to create a magazine. I also learnt that it is very important to have a steady hand so that it makes it much easier to crop and hold things to the correct position.

My media product is aimed at teenage girls and to show this I have used only girls in the magazine article (double page spread). Another way I have done this is by using colours that mostly attract girls, such as shades of pink, purple, red, and yellow. The main focus of my magazine is music, and to present a musical look I have used pictures of musical instruments such as the conga, trumpet and guitar on the cover. The stories that I have used on the cover also show its audience that it is a music magazine cover such as the headline of ‘Lil Wayne’ and ‘kid models used in music video’ however I have used other stories relating reality such as the heading on ‘Jade Goody’. My double page spread also includes a music related story.

I learnt that using too many different colours on a magazine cover will not look sophisticated, and that it is sensible and only smart to keep to a colour scheme. This way it will not only help to hold the entire magazine together, but the use of colour and where it is used will help to stand out the important areas. I also noticed that a font cannot be too big or too small, it is just sensible to use big fonts for the main stories, however, after evaluating my preliminary task I have realised the even the main story headlines need to have a certain size depending on the position of it on the page other wise it will look over done.

Once all parts of my magazine project were complete, I had to put up the entire project on to a BlogSpot so that my peers and other students can look and evaluate my work leaving comments on how to improve my work for the final copy.

Overall i feel much more confident using an apple Mac computer.

2nd Magazine Cover