Exhibition & Evaluation

Evaluation

For my final major project, I wanted to achieve a 16-page magazine with adverts and social media pages. I was trying to send a message about the entertainment industry and create a magazine which is all inclusive to all the entertainment genres. My target audience is anyone interested in the entertainment industry of any age and the purpose of the magazine and social media pages was to inform and entertain the audience. The specialism I was trying to use was print Journalism and Social media in the sense that I wanted it to look like a popular and professional magazine. I progressed by researching about the codes and conventions of a magazine and analysed the front cover and contents page of a certain magazine and making comments about the design and why it looks like it would be a successful magazine. I have a passion for entertainment and want to be up to date with what is happening in the entertainment industry. However, I didn’t have much passion for this project because it was a very broad brief that we were given, and I felt like I had to rush my decision. If I were to think about another subject to make a magazine or a website about it would be something, I am more into something that I enjoy.

I have mainly done secondary research as one I have seen on the internet. I have researched about celebrity culture and the history of magazine publishing in one of the magazine distributors. Also, researching and learning about two successful magazine editors for Vogue and Marie Claire. I know that I was to do this project again I definitely need to research more about the target audience because I feel like that would help base my magazine and target my magazine to the right type of people it was intended for. I didn’t really take any inspiration from any magazines which I know for next time to do because it would have been good to analyse more than one front cover. This would have helped me because I would have been able to structure the front cover more. I believe I plan the product to a certain extent. I think that because I decided to change the magazine to an 8-page magazine it did mess up my plan, but I can always improve this because my time management needed improving.

My product was intended to be for everyone for any age who was interested in entertainment in general. I did not do much on demographic characteristics, but I figured that my magazine was made to inform and entertain people. If I had to put a specific age group, it would be for 14+ because I believe that you start really talking about this topic midway through secondary school. After I completed the product I showed it around to people and the majority did they say that it suited the age group.

The ways I attracted the audience was writing real stories about fake people. All to do with celebrity culture and how everyone wants to be one. I wrote about real life celebrity jobs like vloggers or bands. I think this strategy slightly worked due to the fact that I did find it hard to write the articles and make them seem lifelike. However, I looked at other interviews on different magazines and I had inspiration. I did try and represent the demographic and target audience in my product by writing about young adults.

When researching I started researching about the publishing industry and how that came to be what is today. Especially, with Bauer media and how they started in Germany, it shows me that they would be a dedicated publishing brand to work with and have them distribute the magazine and advertise the social media pages made with the magazine. I also researched what makes a good successful editor and I wrote about two successful magazine editors who I would love to work on the magazine, and they have been recognised for their services to journalism. The problems I faced was adding any of the information I researched to the product. I struggled to find how I can relate the work to the magazine but then how I solved by experimenting with colour schemes and showing what I think would happen if this magazine was real. When completing the research is made me think about how important it is to have a good and reputable publisher and distributor.

The product that I made matches the codes and conventions as it has the standard features as in a magazine but it challenges it because it has fewer features then it should. The way the contents page has been laid out suggests that it does challenge them because my contents page was not in a specific in order or structure. My double page spread was very conforming to the conventions because it has a specific order and layout. It definitely conforms to the Corse of the eye theory because the main image on the front cover being right in the middle of the page. Also, I challenged the codes and conventions by not having columns in the double page spread as it shows the magazine being unique and professional.

I didn’t really use much software programs. I used Photoshop and InDesign mostly to make the posters and the magazine. They were fairly easy to use due to the fact that I have previously used the programs in previous projects. I did have problems with placing images and changing computers with different servers. If I was set one computer and I changed the next day, they might be a different version of InDesign which makes things difficult because items wouldn’t load properly. I developed my skills by producing a magazine that I am proud of and learning new skills in Photoshop. I made a magazine for the last project and it allowed me to practice for this project and made me understand what I needed to do to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes as last time.

My product, in the end, didn’t really add up to my initial add up because I originally wanted to make a 16-page magazine. Time management is definitely something I need to work on if I attempt this project again. I started developing it as a flat plan and I had the template ready, but I just didn’t have enough time. I think that the design was a good design and I wanted to have the colour scheme and the layout was what I pictured it. I had a bit of trouble with the font and fitting everything on the page without trying to put the items outside of the margins but I was able to resize and replace everything so they were no negative spaces on the page