C13 Evaluation

FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO ... Evaluation ...

I have now made my music magazine MUSE. I have created using the programme photoshop and using my own photography a front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Here I am comparing my front cover to an existing top music magazine. Q is a magazine that I have already researched in great detail and I liked the way in which they presented their front covers. I have used arrows to explain feature on my front cover and have circled those that are also found on the front cover of Q magazine. The various similiarites show that my version of a music magazine is comaparable to that of the real thing.

Here I have images of my contents and page and double page spread shown next to images of those pages from existing music magazines. The double page spread looks professional and has many similarites to the real product. However I am not so happy with my contents page which looks a little amatuer. I would re-think the style of contents page if I was to repeat this activity and would also like to present my contents page over a double page spread like you would find in an ordinary music mag.

Here I have pin pointed various features of my magazine that I have used to attract my target audience. I have included image and caption. These regard various feature such as the artists used, free gifts and low prices.

I have decided that if I was to publish MUSE, then I would like BAUER to be the company I work alongside with. This is because they are successful dealing with magazines like my own and yet do offer any existing magazines that will cause a threat to the production of MUSE. I think that BAUER is a good strong choice of industry. I have also included the other music magazines that they have produced. I have not named them, I have simply posted their logos, these logos are well known and a vast majority of the public could guess the magazine from the logo itself. This shows how successfull BAUERS other magazines really are.

I have bullet pointed the main areas that concern my 15-25 year old target audience. I have also added various images of people who are that age to present a small audience profile.

I have learnt alot during the process of this portfolio including technical and personal development. I am proud of my achievments that I have worked reach. This task was not easy however I think that I tackled it with the right frame of mind and was open minded to learn new skills and to work my way through vast series of trial and error when trying new things.

I have been on a rollcoaster of a journey from when I made my front cover for my preliminary task to completing my final music magazine. The diffrence between the work I have made is very clear when comapring the two images. But the way in which I handled the tasks and used the software has changed immensly. I am now more confident and I am satisfied with usinf photoshop. I have come a long way and do not want stop this new learning curve.

To finish my conclusion I have simply analysed each page and given myself suggested improvements if I was to carry on with this task further. I think that it is important to realise that more potential can be made so that you progress with your knowledge. However to make most of the improvements I want to I will need to do a lot of learning from tutorials etc, as some of the technical aspects are very complex.

I am least happy with my contents page because I do not think that it looks professional. Although I am desperate to be able to create this element over a double page spred so that I have more space and opportunites. I think the main problem with this page is the lack of space, therefore the page looks very overcrowded.

I was very happy with my double page spread but it wasn't until I had finished my evaluation presentation that I realised I had forgotten to add page numbers. Although it seems a minor detail, the contents page would loose it's purpose if pade numbers were not inserted. This has shown me how easy it is to forget something so trival which yet could lead to a major problem. I understand now why it is so important in the real publishing industry to have proof readers and editors who look closely to ensure there are no mistakes printed in the final copies.

I concluded a few of the major points to end my evaluation. Throughout the slides there is number of yellow stars that indicate certain sections of my blog. This is to ensure that further expanded ideas and answers can be found easily through a simple directory.

Overall I have really enjoyed the task I was set and would love to do a similar challenge again soon. I have made myself proud in what I have learnt, this includes how much patience I have now tolerated myself to have! Especially when things do go wrong. I will leave this blog with all three images of my MUSE music magazine pages below.

Goodbye from me...

Karmann Damiral

new producer of MUSE.

Titles

I have given each one of posts a title so that I can refer to these in my presentation that shows my final evaluation.
There are three sections to my titles, A, B and C.

A = Early stages of research to magazines and audiences. This is just general research.

B = Topics relating to my preliminary task.

C = All relating to my final Task!

I hope that this will make referencing to certain points in my blog quick and easy to do!

C12 Double Page Spread

This is the my double page spread for my music magazine MUSE. The article is about the new high flying career of singer and song writer Lucy Day. I have written an interview based article so that it is easy to read and appeals to those who are interested in the artist as well as those who do not like reading long tedious scripts. I have added quotes from the interview to draw attention to the readers so that they read further. I have also added small images to attract the readers attention. Each individual image has been edited and airbrushed so that it looks more professional. Although I am not an expert, I think that I have pulled off the techniques wuite well.
As with all the images posted on my blog, just click the picture for a larger image.
I am glad my magazine is completed and I will look over all productions to make sure I finalise them to look professional.

C11 The magazine Industry

The magazine Industry!

The three of the biggest magazine and multi-media publishers include:

IPC

E-Map

Bauer

I need to research these companies in order to make a suggestion regarding whicj of these major companies I would like to publish my magazine, Muse.

IPC




http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I visited the IPC website to find out the relevent information. and with over 80 popular magazines and a specialist section called IPC Ingnite that already works with other music magazines it is a strong contender. I would be looking for a company that has experiance in publishing existing successful music magazines.

E-Map

http://www.emap.com/

I personally found the EMap website very confusing as it was not at all straight forward. This has made it hard for me to find out relevant information about music magazines they publish. For reason I am not going to consider this organsisation to publish my magazine as I want a compnay which is simplistic and successful and easy to use and access by my consumers.

Bauer



http://www.bauer.co.uk/


The first thing I noticed about the bauer website was that it was bright and colouful. It also had images of one of their successful existing magazines which is a promising sight, that they are advertising their publications from the first page.

This is the magazine advertised on the first page.

The website was very easy to use and I found a page showing all of the magazines that they publish.

These magazines include music magazines such as MOJO, FHM, KERRANG and Q. These are top leading magazines which shows that the company are successful in dealing with this genre.

Bauer is successful with 282 magazines in 15 countries with 6,600 employees worldwide and annual turnover of 1.79 billion Euro. I think that this could be the new contender for publishing my magazine!.

C10 Step by Step

Step by Step

This is an image that I would like to use in my double page spread.

As you can see the thread of the scarf can be visibly seen. This looks unprofessional and I aim to get rid of this using the spot healing tool.

This is the spot healing brush tool.

This images shows that the thread is no longer visible. I have not perfected the use of the skills just yet but I am pleased with my progress!

Happy Photoshopping!

C9 Tutorials

Tutorials

Again I have been busy watching tutorials posted on youtube (http://www.youtube.co.uk/) which have been teaching me the tricks of the trade of photoshop. Youtube is a great website for watching videos such as tutorials as many are professional and easy to follow. They are free of charge and you can pause and rewind as much as you need!. I thought I'd add a hyperlink showing just one of the more advanced tutorials I found on the video posting website!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kIkarvhoa8

This particular video demonstrates how to enhance an image to make a perfect eye. Although I my not need to do this myself, it does explain what certain tools are and shows me how to use them. There are very obscure and intricate videos including those on weight loss, air brushing and teeth whitening. These are all skills that if I was to make a real music magazine I would need to consider, as very rarely will a magazine publish an undited photograph!

The before and after...

C8 Contents Page

This is my first draft of my contents page. However I do think that it needs further work, but it is something I will be looking into and asking for various outside opionions. I think that to improve the look of my contents page I would like it to run over a double page spread. Although, I am proud of the skills and techniques I have used.

Again, for an enlarged image just click the above picture! :)