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

I have definitely learnt more about Fireworks than I knew already, for example I learnt how to change the exising colours of a photograph using the re-colour tool which i used to change the colour of a scalf to better suite the colour scheme of my magazine.

I also learnt a lot about magazine layouts and styles which helped alot when it came to designig my magazine front cover. I leant what colours go together and what font’s suit those colours and I also learnt that less is more. My research taught me more about music magazines and music genres.

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

As I only used Fireworks I learnt a lot of new things about the software. Although I already had a good knowledge of the software I did learn how to adjust picture brightness and contrast and how to edit pictures faster. I also have become faster at using Fireworks by becoming familiar with the shortcuts and tools which in the future should be very useful.

Unfortunately my front page became corrupted and i no longer had access to edit or even view my front page. This showed me that it is important to back up work even if you don't feel the need to. Luckily i had a print screen of my work and i had already showed my editing process so i used that in my blog.

Who would be the audience for my media product?

My audience would be people aged 15-25. Females more so then men because within the pop genre there are a lot of boy bands and male artists. Lower to middle class people. White people and Asian people. They should be interested in music, and probably be in education (school, college, university) The audience was good because i am part of the pop audience and i know what i would look for in a magazine. I also gave out questionnaires to people who fit my audience specification so that i could have a clearer view on what they want from a music magazine.

How did I attract or address my audience?

I attracted my audience by creating a vivid and bold front cover, the colour scheme consists of two main colours; red & black, this ensures that the design stands out amongst others. I aimed my magazine at people aged 15 - 25 so I had to keep the style young and up to date. I used simple colours and kept them bold and vibrant. In the end I used red as a main colour because it is very deep and stands out. I used simple modern fonts to make it easy to read and stylish. The language I used was informal so my target audience could relate to it more.

In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

My magazine contains many different elements. I used large simple font to catch the reader’s attention and to be easy to read. I also stuck to a simple colour scheme (red, white and black) to keep a constant theme. My layout was simple so it’s not overcrowded and keeps with my main theme of simplicity and bright colours. Also the language I used is informal to make my audience relate to it more. I looked at the “BLENDER” magazine and “NME” magazine for inspiration and I found that blender helped a lot when doing my front cover. 

This is one of the magazines I used. The simple black and white wrighting with a splash of colour was very eye catching so I thought I would use the same technique on my front cover. However I decided not to use a real picture on the front cover to attract my audience. I edited the image to make it more enticing to the reader and therefore lead to them buying the magazine. 

How did I attract or address my audience?

I attracted my audience by creating a vivid and bold front cover, the colour scheme consists of two main colours; red & black, this ensures that the design stands out amongst others. I settled on a colour scheme after viewing a range of music magazines. I used a simple layout to avoid cluttering the front page and i also used a hidden picture on the front to entice the coustomer.

Double page spread