Evaluation

1. Evaluation Bradley Simpkins

2. Forms and Conventions Taken from Other Products • I had taken a fair bit of reference from other magazines when designing my front cover and double page spread. My Contents page on the other hand I just made without really any references. • One thing I kept in to consideration that I noticed a lot of magazines did that are in the media today is to keep the main features of the features photograph visible, no text should be covering areas such as the face of a model. In doing so I distributed all of the text around the model I used without covering his head at all. This gave room for text yet kept the feature photograph visible for all viewers. • For all the text used throughout really all of my magazine parts I made sure that the text did not blend with whatever was behind it. For example if red text is used and put on a red background, it is not visible. To counteract this I made sure all colours were the opposite to what was behind it and if not that then outlined all of the text (especially on my front cover). This idea really came from just common sense more so than examining other magazines, but I guess hints of colour schemes and backgrounds did arise from looking at others. • The photographs I ended up using were all planned before hand, as I knew that I needed a decent photograph that would have something in it that was featured but still gave room for text. The front cover I knew I wanted a medium close-up of a male so I did and positioned the text around his coat (or shoulders and upper arms). The contents page I wanted little of the photograph to be visible as I wanted the contents to stand out a lot and be really bold and large on the page, consequently I took an unplanned picture of the model stood under a graphitised sign post where there left a lot of room above his head for contents boxes/text. Lastly there was the double page spread where I actually used a tripod to take a photograph of myself and because I knew that one page would be the photo and the other text I did not worry about trying to give room for text and so took a close-up of my face. • There were various techniques that I saw were used on magazines such as NME where they would create the plugs and other parts of the cover with text that had a boxed background which would not blend with the text. This gave it a nice effect and as a result on my contents page I did a similar sort of thing in placing white text in teal boxes.

3. Magazine Social Group Representations • In regard to making my magazine look specific to a group or genre I believe that I did not do this very well because throughout my magazine the different parts (Front Cover, Contents, Double Page Spread) have a different type of theme to one another. And even then some are just easily recognisable and most likely seen as simply music rather than being seen as specific genres – the appearance is too generalised. If it were to be alternative the model should have been wearing a certain type of clothing, something unique and different to the norm and if it were heavy metal, for example, they could have worn a lot of black and dressed almost crazily. • The cover, like I said before, ended up not being specific enough in terms of portraying a certain genre, it was too generic and viewers could probably only see it as music rather than a genre due to what he was wearing, the shot and surroundings. Although regardless of this I was still very happy with the photo I took because it was useful with the spacing of text, so putting aside the representations it was decent. • With the contents page it just looks very much like an urban themed magazine or, to be more specific, a skateboard magazine. This was not intended but I had already shot the pictures and didn’t have time to go out and take more, and I didn’t really consider that I needed a great deal of space for the text as I later wanted it to be extremely bold and placed within very filling boxes, consequently I ended up using a photograph which was not even intended to be in the magazine at all, but it gave me the space I needed and so I sacrificed the theme for practicality for placing of text. But the end result still looks good in regard to other factors. • Lastly I had created the double page spread which in its final form looks quite sophisticated, it just had a very classical yet slick feel to it. This was the part I was definitely most impressed with – it stuck to a black and white colour scheme with a hint of red which gave it a very nice professional feel. Yet, at the same time, I kept it very simple looking and as a result it would seem it ended up being presented as a classical or maybe modern jazz.

4. Media Institutions And Distribution • If a company were to distribute my magazine obviously they would have to be a music magazine based company and not really any other. The music magazine institution is rather quite dominant in the magazine institution, especially specific music magazine companies such as NME. • If my magazine were to be a specific company rather than limited simply to a music magazine I would say it would definitely be an indie or alternative magazine (what I originally intended). But to name a specific company it would have to be along the lines of being NME or something of a similar stature. • Companies that contribute to stocking music magazines would pick my magazine as mine has the same general style that all of the group of magazines own. This would include plugs piled up against one another but still keeping a general distance around the main part of the featured photograph. There are a few other factors but below you can see there are a few similarities. My Cover NME’s Cover

5. Audience • The audience would more than likely be of really any age but in terms of music lovers, I believe it would be seen and bought by those who listen to rock, alternative and other similar genres. I do not believe other genre followers would pick up a copy of magazine and take interest. Of course I am trying to get as much people to buy it as possible as the more that do end up buying it the more money I or the company distributing will receive. But I am in fact only looking at getting this magazine out and seen or recognised by those of a specific genre – that genre being alternative and at a stretch rock but not as much.

6. Magazine Attractions • Throughout my magazine I have done a lot of different things to ensure that I get the biggest attraction possible. Through the course of the magazine the theme changes a lot, as I have previously explained, but they are all quite eye catching. • On the front cover I have used a shot which would probably be deemed as a medium close-up, this gave me room to place text and other additions on top and around the photograph where it would not be obscuring the face (main part of the photograph). This allowed me to place all of the needed plugs and sell lines around the photograph which would allow readers and passer bys to be able to see what is included within. Then I had the title of the magazine, Reckoner, which was, in my opinion, a good name to have used in the end (I actually named it after a song by the band Radiohead), this text was larger than the rest and stood out over the rest of the remaining text on the page, viewers would be able to recognise the logo fairly easy if magazines were to be mass produced and further issues were made. I think the main drawing point to the cover is definitely, as I have said many of a time, is the photograph and just simply the face, I added a slight effect on it and edited it a little, not so much it looked unreal but just enough to make certain features stand out like the eyes which are brighter than normal. A colour correction was also used – it gave the photo a green tint which made it look a little different to others and definitely more eye catching even if maybe a little dark. • The contents page didn’t really have much to it but to be honest the main attraction is the front cover of course as it is the first thing the viewer will notice and see if the magazine were to be placed on to a shelf within a store. Regardless the contents page I just simply tried to make look as bold as possible, especially with the text and the boxes they were placed within. Other than this there really was not much more to it, I guess the photograph had a nice look to it in terms of the model looking upwards to where the text and main focus of the page is while also having it placed either side of him – it all fits nicely; slots in almost. • As for the double page spread it really doesn’t stand out much, there is not a whole great deal to attract but after looking at it for a while and looking over it, it is nice to admire. It is peaceful if you can put a part of a magazine in to words, the black and white probably tributes to this the most along with the vague hints of red and slick layout.

7. Technology/Programs • The main aspect when creating and actually producing work is to stick to the deadlines and a strict regime, when doing all of mine I didn’t really follow any time plan or such and work came in at random times or bursts even. Consequently I was left short of time for certain pieces of work and some work was really high quality while others were left in quite a bad state. So in future I will have to create a time plan and use my time effectively in the time I have allocated to myself; I believe this will definitely help with work flow. • During the creation of all the three parts of my magazine I used various programs but the main one which I tended to use a great deal was Photoshop. Photoshop was the main program that nearly all of my magazine parts revolved around and were put together with. During my first few weeks of using the program I was just really trying to figure out how to work it and testing with excess photos I had from shoots I had done in the past. So I was mostly working out how to place and rearrange text, layering, blemish fixing, colour correct, resize etc. Basically all of the skills I would need to know when it came to making my magazine parts. After a short while I was familiar with the program and began to edit my front cover, although, I had over 60 layers and they were not named properly or placed in folders (which I later realised you were able to do), this left me with a very messy set of layers which were extremely hard to navigate. But on the contents page and my double page spread I learnt from my mistakes and named/foldered the layers appropriately. Overall Photoshop was the origin of my work and allowed me to complete everything to the standard it is now and I would gladly use it again. • I occasionally used PicMonkey from home because I did not own Photoshop (at the time, I later bought it), this website essentially allowed myself to make quick blemish fixes, but were not very effective and just blurred where I had applied the fix. It also had various other setting where I was able to change the shadows and brightness, contrast etc. Which was in fact helpful, but obviously it didn’t compare to Photoshop by the time I had learnt how to use it effectively. The main issue with the website was just that a lot of features were exclusive to premium members only which just left me being unable to a lot of edits. Consequently I went on to scrap using the website completely and just solely worked with Photoshop.

8. Learning Over Progression • Over the time of using different programs and technologies while also researching current magazines I have come to learn about all of the different requirement you must meet when designing a magazine whether it be music themed or not. • The picture to the right was a preliminary task which I did – the task was to create a magazine cover, it didn’t really need to contain anything specific, just make a general sort of cover even if the text is irrelevant. This was just to get a feel for how to make a magazine cover properly to be quite honest. • To the right is a photo which I didn’t take, it is a photograph of myself but I did not take it, something in which I learnt that I could not do as it needed to be my own photo work. Additionally my editing was terrible and you can see that it is over exaggerated and appears to be overly unrealistic which is something I never did again. I changed my skin tone to a really orange colour – I went overboard with the tanning. I edited the eyes to an electronic blue which looks extremely silly and again, unrealistic. To sum up, the photo was a big disaster for anyone in the industry. Something which I took in to consideration and set out to never do again, I think I succeeded in this regard.