Product Research-Images from my Magazines

Here are some images I have taken from XXL, hip hop weekly and top shop magazines. I have chosen these images as they appeals to what I would like my magazine to be like.

This image is taken from my Hip Hop Weekly magazine and its an image of a double page spread, I like this image because it has a close up picture of the celebrity (Alicia Keys) on the left hand side with big bold white title overlapping over her on the bottom, and then it has the interview on the right with some other pictures, which in case would be pictures of my model if I was to imitate it. However I do not like the colours as they are very dark.

This is another image taken from my XXL magazine of a double page spread which is quite similar to the image above, but has a medium close up of the celebrity (Lecrae). What I like about this image is that it’s in black and white, I will be probably sticking with the same colour scheme which was black, white and red, I also like the fact the quote is largely set on the side of the right page.

 

This is an image that I have taken from the top shop magazine of their contents page, i liked it because it uses images and numbers in the right hand side to make it visually attractive and on the left hand side it has the subtitles and beneath has some description. They’ve balanced the use of images and the text to the same extent, which is useful, and easily readable.

This is another image taken from one of my magazines which is also quite similar to the first two front covers; I like the idea of having an image on one side of the page and the interview on the other side.

Self Evaluation

This is how I feel about my first attempt, I will be using this sheet to improve my final magazine

Feedback Of My First Attempt

This is the feedback sheet my teacher gave me for my first attempt; this is what I need to do:

Audience Feedback

Planning

I like the typography research as it shows us the ideas that you may want to follow in your final magazine product.

I like your music magazine analysis presentation because you have extended your answers where as some others have just labelled elements of the magazine, this shows your understanding of why a magazine would design their magazine the way they did.

I like how you have uploaded your questionnaire on the presentation hosting website as it looks professional on your blog, however you should have your questionnaire and your questionnaire analysis on separate blog posts because it will be easier to see what you will learn from the results on your questionnaire.

Construction

I like the presentation of your photoshoot but it would be better if you took/ included all of the images you took because then we can see what pictures you used and what you haven’t used and it also helps us see your ideas and conventions. I like slide 5 of your photoshoot presentation because we can see the idea you took from the image featured in the real magazine which shows us the ideas behind your research.

I like your double page spread. I like it because of the layout of the images on the right page and the article on the left. I like the big quote featured in your double page spread also some of the text in the article cannot be seen because of the quote so this will have to be changed.

I also really like your masthead because of the headphones over the ‘o’ which fits in with the genre of music.

Evaluation

For the questions in your evaluation you should evaluate and extend the questions more so we understand more about your ideas. For example, with question 7 how did you improve overall in the main task compared to the prelim task.

Feedback by Shannen

Evaluation of First Attempt at Foundation Portfolio Coursework

Planning

I have been told for my main task I have collected useful images in my Pinterest. I have also made useful notes on my XXL and Hip Hop Weekly Magazine, as I have referred closely to artists, fashion and advertising.
Also I have been told that my mood board has shown awareness of the lives of my audience. However my collection of layout features hasn’t been linked to my planning.
Also my questionnaire asks useful questions, however my evaluation lacks comments on what I have learned from it.
For improvements on my second attempt I could add more detail on my questionnaire evaluation and comment and write about what I have learned from my questionnaire.
Also I am going to be relating my questionnaire and evaluation to my music magazine to show that I have done that because my questionnaire said that and therefore I could refer it to my evaluation.
I will also be adding more magazines for annotation for different types of genres, such as Classical music and Pop music, to show that I have a clear understanding of other genres apart from my Hip-Hop genre.

Construction

I have also been told that I am competent in using particular ICT skills in various software, and not just using Photoshop and InDesign, but also using Gimp and Portrait Professional 11, my own softwares out of college.
I was also told that i have been cropping my images well, and my pictures were taken well, too, as they were neither blurry nor dodgy.

However my for my final piece I have left a lot of dead space on the front cover and on my double page spread.
For improvements I will be showing more print screens of my work, to show my work before and after, and general improvements. I will also be covering the dead space with more cover lines and more pictures. I will also be presenting more and different pictures of my photoshoots.
For my mood board I will be adding more images and more different types of fonts my genre.
I have been told that the three colours that I have used matched well, as I only used three different types of colours; red, white and black, I will be sticking with these colours because they are similar to my XXL magazine.
I will also get more models for my photoshoots, and that are suitable for my genre; Hip-Hop.

Evaluation
For my evaluation I was told that I am lacking knowledge about the XXL Media Kit, and my evaluation was too general. However I was also told that I have made a link between the front cover of my XXL magazine and my own which illustrated what I was aiming for. I have also explained my choices of models in relation to my genre in detail, which is showing understanding of conventions.


Therefore for improvements I will be focusing on my media kit a lot, to show understanding about it.