Evaluation!

Evaluation

View more presentations from Samuel Knott.

Audience Feedback!

The audience feedback was generally good as the comments i received where positive. Overall i felt i had a lot more positives than negatives, however after contemplating the negative points i would change them. The positives where that everyone correctly understood the title and genre aswell as the fact they thought it was genuine and professional. The audience felt the layout of all threee pages was professional and good. The only pointers that where brought up was that some of the fonts could been better and maybe a few more colours included into the colour scheme.

1) What does the title suggest to you?

The comments made here were all positive as they recognised that the title was about hiphop and that it suggested the magazine would be about hip-hop music.

2) What genre/type of music does the magazine focus on and how do you know this? 

Every member of my audience feedback correctly realised that hip-hop was my genre and they generally recognised this through the images and the text on the front cover- " The title makes it obvious" & "The picture and the way the person was dressed instantly made me recognise the genre". 

3)What makes the pages look professional and what stops them from looking professional? 

Overall, the comments made here were positive such as "The layout, colours and font used make the magazine look professional". However, there was a criticism which was - "it doesn't say who the magazine is produced by". This could easily be changed so is not really a major problem.

4) How genuine does the front cover seem?

All of my audience members said that my front cover was either genuine or very genuine. There was no criticisms in this aspect. "It looks like a real magazine" & "Its genuine, it looks quite original".

5) Does the contents page simply inform or does it also manage to interest you in reading the rest of the magazine?

The comments made under this question where all of a positive nature. They all commented on how the layout and text on the contents page made them both interested to read on aswell as informing them of what is inside the magazine. Also someone commented saying that they wanted to read on because the unique style of the text and font. "It informs the reader what is in the magazine but also the page names attract the reader & make them want to read on" & "Interesting at the same time as professional". 

6) Does the article sound like a piece of journalism? If not what bits don't sound right?

The general comments made about this question where positive as every audience member said that my article was very good and professional aswell as authentic. " Yes, its very good. Authentic" & "Very realistic and relevant to the genre".

7) Does the article layout make you want to read it? If not why not? 

Overall the audience feedback received from this question was entirely positive as all ten of my audience members thought the layout was good and broken up well. "Yes, it is well structured and is very easy to read & follow" & "A typical magazine layout and easy to find the bits you want to individually read". 

Done!

I have now completed and printed off my final designs and article. I am now going to conduct my audience feedback sheets and then complete my evaluation. 

Final Product

Photos Uploaded!

I have uploaded my photos and added them onto the designs of my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have not had to make any changes to my font and text colour, however I have had to re-arrange a few pieces of text in order to make the magazine look more 'realistic'. I have added page numbers aswell as highlighting certain words also to make it look more authentic. I think i have stuck to my original principles and layout in which i had to. 

Progress

I am currently up to date with all my work as such. I have completed the designs of the front cover, contents page and double page using indesign. And the only thing i am missing now are my photographs which are going to be uploaded soon. I have stuck to my colour scheme of gold, white and blue and i have used the font i said i was going to use also. However, i have included a series of different fonts such as abuse in order to break the magazine up a bit!

Draft Front Cover!

Moodboards!

Feedback 23.03.09

Sam, please upload your mood board and sketches when complete. You should by now be working on page design and layout for your own project so get you photos asap then you can get working on this. Good to see you've used audience research to make some design decisions already.
(Mrs A)

Planning!

For my planning I will hopefully be conducting magazine front cover sketches, contents page sketches, my main article draft and a mood board.

However, I have already decided on several things such as my magazine title and my colours etc. For example, my chosen magazine title is HIPLIFE. and my colour scheme will be white and gold.  

Magazine Title and Colour Scheme Questionnaire!

At this current point, I am struggling to grasp the name of my magazine. I have created a tally chart with several names that I thought up of and I asked 20 people from my target audience 16-22 for their opinions. These are the results of my questionnaire :- 

+ Bustdown - two votes 

+ Ghetto Pass - two votes 

+ HIPLIFE. - FIVE VOTES 

+ Merk - one vote 

+ Kush - two votes 

+ Wordlife - three votes 

+ Hoodstar - four votes

+ Mainstream - one vote

Therefore due to the results of my questionnaire and as it is my personal favourite, I have decided on the title of HIPLIFE. for my music magazine.

I then conducted a further questionnaire to the same 20 individuals from my select target audience about a select colour scheme for my text/ fonts etc. The results of my colour scheme questionnaire are as follows :-

+ Red and Black - four votes 

+ Black and blue - one vote

+ GOLD AND WHITE - SIX VOTES

+ Black and White - one vote

+ Green and Yellow -  two votes

+ Blue and White - three votes 

+ Orange and Red - one vote

+ Pink and White - two votes

Due to the result of my questionnaire, I have chosen to use a colour scheme of Gold and White. However, this may change depending on the colours of my models clothing and the background of the photograph etc and i may chose to add another colour to the scheme such as blue..

Feedback 16.3.09

Sam,
Excellent prelim front cover! You also need to scan in your contents page and evaluate both. Then you ca start your planning for your project - sketches, mood boards, photos, fetaure article etc.
Mrs A

Contents Page

Evaluation

I am pleased with my contents page as it doesn't have too much going on in the page. I haven't used too many images on it and they are all relevant to the captions on the page for example- the image of St Mary's College is relevant as the preliminary magazine is about St Mary's College. There are also not too many captions and the overall balance of the page is quite good. 

However, I think the placement of the title on my contents page is not very thought out as it wouldn't be long enough to cover the space I have given it.  Also the placement of the' image of the teacher in profile' is very small and would overlap the title if i was to put it in. 

I would change those things that i have identified but I would generally keep the layout of my contents page similar to what it is now only editing the problems i have identified. I haven't learnt much from completing this task however i have learnt to think my layout through more carefully rather than just sticking images and titles in 'randoms' places etc. 

Preliminary Task

Evaluation

I am happy with my preliminary task, however i do feel there are some things i could improve on for example i could have used a different background for my photo as the brick wall is not really attractive. But by using this bland background it focuses centrally on the image bringing it to the readers attention . I like my use of colour as there aren't too many and they are the same colours as the St Mary's College badge, also by using a plain colour scheme it doesn't show 'too' much going on which doesn't distract the reader but focuses centrally on the text and image. I would change the boxes on the cover as some of them have a black underlining which makes them look misplaced from the cover. I would also have used not as many sub-stories as it does create the effect that too much is going on in the cover. I think the image i used was successful and was related to my main headline of 'AS Results Day' as the girl is holding her results and is pleased with them, and again like my colour scheme there isn't too much going on to distract the reader as it is a picture with just one person in it etc. 

However, if i was to do it again i would change the faults i have identified such as the underlining of the boxes and the background of my photograph. I would also make the page look less 'busy by reducing the amount of sub-stories on the page etc. On the other hand i would use a plain colour scheme again as it doesn't bring too much attention away from the image. From doing this preliminary task I have become more familiar with the programs used in creating my final music magazine such as photoshop and indesign, also I have learnt when taking an image the lighting of the photo can make a great difference to the overall product as a natural lit picture can create a 'glowing' affect however a dimly lit photo could create a negative image. 

Feedback 10.3.09

Sam, you are working well on this project and seem to be making steady progress. Continue on with this and see the comment i've put about your most recent blog entry. You need to upload a front cover and analyse how it is constructed - what are the typical conventions of a magazine front cover, contents page etc? See the notes on Moodle for assistance with this. Don't forget to do some audience research also to back up all you have said about the target audience.
You need to finish your prelim task by the end of the week also please and make sure it too is uploaded to the blog and evaluated. Your front page should be produced fully but the contents page is a sketch/mock up so can be scanned in whenever you've finished it. See Rachel if you need help with this.
Next week you must start detailed planning for your own magazizne so you need to focus on getting this research complete by friday.
(Mrs Abell)

Colours and text etc.

From the research I have done on hip-hop magazines such as hip-hip connection, XXX and Urban I have noticed that on their front covers they use dark colours such as black, grey, silver and gold but also occasionally use reds and whites. By using these 'masculine' colours, they attract male consumers and also create certain connotations such as strong and to some extent mysterious connotations as the blacks and reds are dark angry colours. The colours also reflect the style and fashion of readers as the clothing worn by a stereotypical hip-hop magazine reader don't tend to be bright colours but quite plain etc. For my magazine cover, i think i am going to use a mixture of both for example gold and white. 

On the front cover most of the top hip-hop magazines use a varied amount of text for example on the XXL magazine featuring 'Lil Wayne' they use a medium amount of text and they leave quite a bit of white space on the page however in the issue of URBAN featuring 'Nas' they use a lot of text to fill up the sides of the page in order to focus your attention on the central image.  Hip-hop magazines also use quite plain and bold fonts such as arial, times new roman and georgia. I would use strong, bold and angular fonts as they suggest masculinity where as if i was to use smooth curvy fonts this could create a feminine affect which would be appealing to a completely different audience than I plan to as I plan to appeal to a male audience. I have now chosen the font Angie's new font which i have downloaded from www.dafont.com 

Reader Profile! 3/3/09

A typical reader for this genre of magazine would be on average the age of 14-20 years old and they would most likely be male white or black. Their occupation would tend to be skilled or unskilled worker (social-economic groups C1,C2, D or E). Readers main interests in life would usually be their music, sports, and more casual activities etc. They usually tend to like gang related films (Get rich or Die trying/ Notorious/ 8 mile), aswell as teen movies and television programmes that also land in that genre aswell as regular TV programming etc. And based on the phoenix project, my readers would be enthusiasts or savants to the type of music.

A reader of this kind of genre of magazine would stereotypically be a student at either school, college or university with music tending to be on of their main priorities in life. They would tend to wear more casual clothing such as 'baggy' or loosely fitted clothing with high-topped trainers and a hooded jacket, maybe with jewellery on show. Using psychographic profiling, i have split an audience into four separate categories:

       + mainstreamers - persons whom like to fit into social groups etc

       + aspirers - these persons try to be something better than others 

       + reformers - set out to make the world a better place

       + individuals - tend to set out their own styles and listen to undiscovered artists rather           than mainstream artists for example Akon and Ludacris. 

I am aiming at mainstreamers, aspirers and individuals, this is because they are the people whom tend to read music magazines and listen to this percific genre of music generally. 

Blog Entry 1 - 3/3/2009

For my media studies coursework, i have chosen the music magazine option. This is because i feel it will work better for me as i would prefer to work on my own. But also as it is a big part of the overall grade, i would feel my grade was at risk by placing it in the hands of other students doing the opening sequence because if one person messes up we all would mess up. 

The genre of my music magazine will be hip-hop/rhythm and base (RnB).

I think my target audience will be male teenagers and students aged 16-22 as these usually are the consumers of this type of music. I know this as i consume this type of music myself, aswell as the fact i read these magazines therefore i have a relatively good idea in my judgement of age range. I know that my target audience is in the correct range as HIPHOP CONNECTION which is the UK's longest and top selling monthly hip-hop magazine has a very similar target audience. They use 'young black' slang in order to target their audience such as 'homey' and 'bro' etc.  A swell as things like interviews with teenagers on their opinions on the genre and certain artists etc. - if the magazine wasn't aimed at young adults aimed 16-22 they would interview a older or younger age group.

For my unique selling point (USP) i am thinking more along the lines of a percific genre of hip-hop/R'n'B such as old fashioned gangster music (NWA, Notorious BIG etc.) compared to more commercial market hip-hop/R'n'B market of today. However, if decide to do a more commercial line of magazine, i shall have to think of a different USP etc.

I think there are similar products available out there, however there aren't many of them so competition for my magazine would not be high. But the products that are already available in my genre of magazine are more a wide-range commercial artists such as Kanye west/ 50 cent etc. Where as if i my genre was gangster hip-hop or a different sub-genre of hip-hop/R'n'B, i would be aiming at lesser well known artists or even undiscovered artists. 

My magazine will be better than the ones already out there as it wont be based on a wider scale of artists but more a type of artist. 

My product would be successful because their aren't many magazines in this genre in this country and in my opinion hip-hop and R'n'B especially is one of the biggest types of music available to consumers. But it is not exploited to its full capability in this country therefore my magazine would be introduced into a gap in the market and hopefully successful.