Final Design of Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread

Question 1: Evaluation

In what ways do your publications use forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 2: Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 3: Evaluation

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

Question 4: Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 5: Evaluation

How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 6: Evaluation

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

Question 7: Evaluation

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

Audience Feedback

I have also used Facebook to gain some extra audience feedback. I created a new photo album and added the images of each production. I then posted these, and asked my friends to give me feedback on my work, and to tell me what they liked or disliked.

This showed me some of the changed that my audience thought I should make.
For example a common idea was the change in font size and colours, especially on the front cover. This was mainly concerning the cover lines which were too small, not bold enough and could have been made to stand out more if a colour was changed. This was also the same for the contents page, I was told that if the listed content was in capitals it would look more appealing and would also be easier to read.
      Another comment that was given was about the guy on the front 'Jake', a participant said that his hair looked 'blocky'. this appears to be a major thing as it was mentioned a lot in the results of my Audience Feedback Questionnaire.

Additional Images

Due to necessary changes, I had to take new photos. This included doing a whole new photo shoot for the main image on my front cover.

These are the ones I had to choose from:

First Drafts of Cover, Contents and DPS

These are screenshots of my first draft of each production:

After analysing my project, I came to the conclusion that I need to do thorough work and make a vast amount of changes. To make these changes beneficial, I went over my codes and conventions of a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.

      The changes I will make on my front cover are as follows. I am going to do a whole new photoshoot for my front cover image, this is mainly because the band member I have used is too young and therefore will not match my target audience. However, I would like to take a similar shot because I think the angle of the image and the fact it is an action shot suits the genre of my magazine. Moreover, I am going to change my cover lines. My reasoning for this is largely because of the bands I have used, for example 'The Wanted', this band type does not follow the genre of music I have selected for my magazine. To add emphasis to the title of my magazine, I am going to make the title larger and also make my positioning statement smaller. The position of my barcode follows the codes and conventions of a magazine, however it is currently a bit too small, so I am also going to slightly enlargen that. The last change I am going to make is to the main coverline, inevitably this will change when I change my front cover image, however I am going to make sure that the main cover line stands out the most. to do this I will make the coverlines smaller and move them further up and have my new coverline horizontally, just below the middle in a larger and bolder text.
      To make my contents page more suitable I am going to rearrange my layout, take more pictures to link to stories but also changes the stories I have included. I am going to use three colums as opposed to two, because I feel this is more suited to a magazine. It will also allow me to include more content. I am also going to decrease the size of the text I have used because it takes up too much room and also size 11 pt font is one of many codes and conventions of a music magazine. therefore by decreasing the font I have used, I will then be following the codes and conventions.
      Lastly, I am going to wirte a biographical piece for my double page spread instead of the current story I have. I am also going to use a more creative image. I will change the size of my font front 13pt to10.5pt as Arial is smaller on screen. Moreover, I will change the headline and it's position because the headline I have currently got is the same as the on the cover and the contents.