Peer Assessment- of my flatplans

I have recieved feedback from four of my peers in my class based on my initial flat plans that i drew based on what i wanted my magazine to look like. The feedback that i was given shows that there are many improvements that i can do to help me get up to mark band 4 which will boost up my grade to the highest possible.
My peers said that my front cover needs to be improved by making my main image larger and the benefits of this will be that i will have less white on my front cover although they said that this will allow it to look 'fresh', i also got advised to add another image onto my front cover and this is to allow me to have four images in my magazine and this will allow me to test my camera angles and this image will be of a different person by having the image on the front cover it allows the readers to get a more broad understanding of the genre of my magazine. I need to make it more clear on my front cover of what my colour scheme is as i have more colour on it that i initially thought also by having a different colour scheme it could allow the readers to think that they were reading a different magazine.
The contents page has a good layout but i have been advised to give a little more room for the image as it will show that the image is just as important as the text as one of the pages will be about the image also this will break up the page.
The only criticism i have been given about my DPS is that i need to include some colour for the background as the pages i have created have all had a white background and by adding colour it will give the magazine abit of flavour, the colour i am thinking of using is a grey/blaxk background and the reason for this is that it will give the artist attitude and will show the reader that i can do more than one style.
To get my work upto mark band 4 A/B i will need to make it more clear what my genre is and in this case it is 'general' i can make it more obvious by adding certain colours, different font type or even a different pose/make up for the model's. I will also need to make sure that i am sticking to the same page layout when i am including columns as i need to keep it similar so that it follows the house style and so it looks professional, the sizes of my fonts need to be the same in some cases and this is always going to be the case for my masthead as this is what determines my magazine as it shows that its a different magazine. I also will need to make sure that i am using layering correctly on my front cover as i will need to make sure that the image is large but has sell lines that slightly go over it so that the text can be seen. I need to make sure that i include a variety of camera shots/angles and by doing this it will show that i am capable of photography.

Flatplans

this is the magazine front cover that i have designed for my magazine. the reasons that i have chosen within my front cover are as follows: for instance i had to take into account the genre of my magazine and i had to make sure that each feature/prop/costume/makeup and colours fit in with my magazine genre. the reason why i chose this pose was because i have looked into magazines and this is a common pose and is a one that is recommended in this industry as it could draw in the readers and catch their attention and keep them intrigued. my colour scheme as you can tell from the fonts etc is red and black and these colours and non gender specific and red is a common colour is magazines but black isn't so it looks different and this is my aim as i want it to be different to other magazines. i put in each feature of the expected magazine such as barcodes so that the item can be bought, sell lines, main image, masthead, banners and skylines.

before designing my contents page i looked into magazines that were already out so i knew what it needed to look like however i needed to make sure that it wasn't going to be the same so i had to use ideas of my own. i decided to use a three column contents page and the reason for this is because i think that it looks more professional and there aren't many magazines which follow this layout in their contents so this will make me different. i have decided to use an image on my magazine contents page and to make it look different i decided that i was going to use a album front cover and this will show that i have thought about other things and could show that i have thought about the production process as well, i have still used the same colour scheme and this will make sure  that the readers know that they are still reading the same image. i have decided to write a small paragraph which takes up 2 columns up in my contents page and this will show the readers an insight into the bands profile.

 this is the DPS that i have designed for my magazine and i have decided to use a different model who i think will portray the role perfectly due to her appearance. as shown on my DPS  

Primary Audience Research

I conducted some primary research in order to:

• • find out what appeals to my target audience
  • to discover and flaws or potential improvements that could be made to my magazine genre
  • to identify any gaps in the market and place a refreshing new twist on the genre

the three images above are the ones that i got my peers to analyse through primary research and this is how i conducted my research. 

these are the questions that i asked:

what do you think is the target audience?

which gender would you think this magazine is applied to and why?

what do you like/dislike about the logo?

what do you think about the contents layout?

what about the colours on the DPS

does the DPS match the artists style?

looking at the front cover what would you say the genre was?

from this video produced by a peer it shows that they have looked at my magazine products and have analysed them well as it she has a clear idea that this magazine is aimed at people in their 20's and is not gender specific. this video also shows me that she thinks it is vital to have a lot of information on the contents page as it is 'handy' for the audience. this research shows that she understands the importance of having a consistant colour scheme throughout and this is what i aim to have in mine.

this peer had another perceptive of the age range for this magazine and this shows that it could be aimed at anyone if two people of the same age don't think the target audience is for the same. also mentioned is how the layout is very sharp and 'clean' and this shows that it is important if many people are picking up on it as it is vital in the magazine industry to have good quality features. this peer like the one previous thinks that the logo is simple and professional and this is another feature that i hope to incorporate into my research.

this peer mentioned that she would think it was a split between both genders and this shows that the magazine will maximise in profit as it is not gender specific, the logo said was very bland as it is standard regular everyday font as there are only 2 colours incorporated in and this has shown me that i will need to have a stand out logo that makes my magazine stand out from the crowd.this peer has mentioned that the DPS is matched to the initial impression of the artist as it shows that she doesn't fit in with the regular image of a pop star as this shows that she is edgy and shows that the magazine isn't afraid to take risks with their chosen artist.

this peer has mentioned what the genre of the magazine and has mentioned that he thinks it is 'main stream' the reason that he could of said this is because this is the main type of music in the industry at the moment and the cover of the magazine could also be representing this.

Below is a list of stylistic decisions that i will make for my project following my audience feedback.....

from my audience research there are a few things that i need to incorporate into my project and these things could be to: 

• have a consistant colour scheme
• have a colourful logo so that it stands out from the others.
• make sure that it is clear who the target audience is for instance age and gender wise. 
• make sure the artists are all of the same genre that i choose.
• stick to a certain number of colours for font.

Research into a potential target audience - secondary

Q magazine:

Reader profile: this is an image of q magazines reader profile from the bauermedia website with the statistics being present. Q magazine is the UK’s biggest selling music magazine. The magazine has no specific genre type so is just classed as ‘general’ this shows that it isn’t just aimed at one type of music as the likes of Kerrang and NME. Q doesn’t just have a magazine it also has a radio station, magazine, online and TV this allows its audience to be able to listen at all times during the day no matter what they are doing. On the http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/ website it says what the percentage of male to female readers are and it shows that 75% are male and 25% are female. There is no specific age group that are attracted to this magazine as there are many attributes that attract different age categories for instance the magazine has been about for a while so attracts older generation as they are still up to date with the music industries artists and the younger generation because they are into music artists that feature on the front covers. The social-economic grade for this magazine as said on the bauer media website is ABC1 and this means: a= upper middle class, B= middle class, C1=lower middle class, by including this on the website it shows that they are aiming their products at these people in these social-economic classes.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Kerrang/
kerrang magazine:

Reader profile: this is an image of kerrang magazines reader profile from the bauermedia website with the statistics being present. Kerrang doesn’t just have a magazine it also has a radio station, magazine, online and TV this allows its audience to be able to listen at all times during the day no matter what they are doing. On the website it says that their audience is both male and female and mainly full of youngsters who are interested in the magazine as it has their best interests at heart. There is no specific age group that are attracted to this magazine as there are many attributes that attract different age categories for instance the magazine has been about for a while so attracts older generation as they are still up to date with the music industries artists and the younger generation because they are into music artists that feature on the front covers. The social-economic grade for this magazine is not mentioned on the bauermedia website but i should imagine that it is aimed at all social classes whether it be A,B,C1,C2 or D

Research Into Institutions That Distribute Similar Products.

Media powerpoint

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Textual Analysis

PRINT brief:

prelim task =cover+contents page of a college magazine
+
main task= cover+contents page + double spread (DPS) of a new music magazine

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images per candidate.