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Production Report Section one ??? Brief and research For this project my task was to create a few pages of a new magazine aimed at teenagers aged 13-19 years old, of either or both sexes. I needed to include a front page and a double page spread, with at least 3 original images. To begin with I researched the forms and conventions of magazines in the media. I found out a lot about the layout of the magazines, for example, a lot of magazines all have the same basic layout, which is often repeated throughout all major genres of magazines.
After researching the forms and conventions of magazines in general, I then went on to research other details of magazines that would influence my decisions later on in the planning stage. I began by brainstorming a large list of all the genres available to the public at the moment, which was narrowed to the ones suitable for my market. This gave me a list of approximately eight genres, including fashion and gaming. I next began research with the public to discover a little more about my target audience, for example, what it is they expect from a magazine and what it is that draws their attention towards them.
I started with a questionnaire, and made sure it was only handed to people within the age group specified in the brief, to ensure my results were as relevant and accurate as possible. I decided to aim my magazine at girls and base it on fashion/style and gossip, so I did some further research into this. I also collected together some magazine covers and analysed and evaluated them to help me to come up with an idea for my magazine.
Finally, I completed other research work, including mind maps and tallies of ideas which I felt needed to be chosen by the audience, to come up with the magazine which I felt was the most suitable and could be the most successful with my audience. Overall, the research I conducted was very useful and had very strong influences to every decision I made. During this process of research I found out a lot about my target audience and what it is they really expect from a fashion and gossip magazine.
For example, the best aspects to attract a reader to a magazine include; bright colours, bold writing, big images, catchy headlines, and possibly a freebie. I also found that fashion and gossip magazines usually include practically the same subjects throughout their magazines, including the same headlines, for example, fashion, men, sex, health, dieting etc. This shows me that these are all very good selling points to a magazine and are clearly subjects that are of high interest to the reader, otherwise these magazines would not be as successful as they currently are.
Finally, I discovered that magazines aimed at this age group tend to be more mature and of older subjects, e. g. sex. This is because the lower end of the age scale (13 year olds) try to look and feel older and be more mature, looking up to the older teenagers around them. Most of what I have found that audience expects will be shown on the front cover to the magazine as this is the main thing that draws a reader’s attention to a magazine. Section 2 ??? Planning
The planning process of my magazine was a fairly long one and took a lot of time, as I had to construct it ensuring that along the way I was sticking to my brief and it was appropriate for the target audience. My planning process began with conducting a focus group, in which I gathered together a group of people and we talked and wrote about a variety of magazines, and the features about them which we felt made them successful. These focus groups were very useful to me when I was coming up with the initial ideas for my magazine.
This is because it gave me a starting point to begin designing the cover etc, and allowed me develop into something better and create a magazine which was entirely my own, but influenced by other magazines, for example Vogue. For a deeper insight into who my target audience really are, and what it is they are interested in, I created a reader’s lifestyle. This is a small paragraph of writing explaining who the typical reader of the magazine is, what it is they often like to do, and who they hang out with etc. This was helpful as it guided me in the direction of what to include in the magazine.
For the planning process I also created a variety of mind maps when I was brainstorming ideas. These were some of the most useful parts of the research to me as it allowed me to quickly jot down any ideas I had on paper, so I was not to forget them or I could join ideas together to make developments. I created mind maps when I was researching other magazines, when I was coming up with my own initial ideas, when I held my first focus group etc. After doing some of my initial drafts and some of my original ideas I did some more focus groups and collected some surveys.
These were just for me to create work and have people from the audience (my target market) to decide on what it is that they really like and what would attract them to the magazine. These focus groups and surveys in fact affected quite a lot of my original decisions and changed them to what it is that the market would like. I did this as it shows me that this is what would be popular and successful with 13-19 year old girls. For example, I was going to choose what cover I wanted, but instead I did a survey and a different cover was chose.
I used this one as it has already proved to be successful with the market and therefore still will be in the final production. The drafting of ideas contributed to my planning as well. These were ideas I had that were quickly sketched out on paper, for example of the magazine covers. These enabled me to have a rough idea of the type of magazine that I wanted and the type of look it would have that would attract my target audience. Once I had come up with the planning I had to organise my time effectively so as I was able to get everything done in time, and I could keep track of everything.
To keep my organisation of time I created a production log. This was a small notebook in which I wrote down the dates of every time I did some of the magazine work. Underneath the date I jotted down what work I had done, how far I had got with it and what I had to complete next time and set myself some work to do. This assured me that every thing would be done, giving me a little time to spare to check things over. Section 3 ??? Construction My production would be very successful and popular with the market in the final production.
I think this because I feel that my magazine has a distinctive appearance and fills a gap in the market, by using cross-genre. I did this buy doing research of genres, and finding that two of the most popular with my audience are both gossip and fashion/style magazines. So I have decided to create a magazine which is using a lot of aspects from both these genres of magazines, to create something that will bring in the readers of both these types of genres, making the magazine audience a lot wider, as they can get the same amount of information from just the one magazine rather than going out and buying two.
From the cover Rumour looks like an ordinary fashion magazine, but some of the headlines and very small aspects have been changed to suit the gossip genre. Considering the cover is very fashion orientated, I decided that the contents of the magazine would be more related to the gossip side of the genre. There are various forms and conventions of both fashion and gossip magazines which I have tried to include as many of in my magazine design. Some examples of these include; -The subjects covered ??? when researched I found that gossip and fashion magazines only tend to cover stories about either men/sex, celebrities, dieting, health or fashion.
Because of this I have chosen to include all this on my cover to draw in the reader. I have done this because if already successful magazines use these then they must have proved popular with the market and this is the type of thing they want and expect from a magazine. -Images ??? usually only one large image on the front of fashion and style magazines, however, quite a few on gossip magazines. My cover resembles more of a fashion magazine, so I have used one large image, anchored by the headline. -Logo and magazine name ??? big, bold logo at the top of the front page usually followed with a slogan underneath.
My magazine name is ‘Rumour’ and my slogan is ‘Rumour has it…’ I have decided the logo will be shown on the bottom corner of every page in the magazine for a more professional look. I have shown this by using it in the bottom left hand corner of my double page spread. It looks eye catching and interesting as it breaks up the border. I tried to use a variety of fonts, font settings, sizes and colours throughout the pages I created. This was achieved well on the front cover and the double-page spread.
On the front cover there were three or four fonts used and they were also in a variety of colours, sizes and settings, making them stand out from the rest of the page. The double-page spread included a wide range of fonts, colours and sizes on the title alone, creating a very catchy and bright page. However, I also encountered some problems when making this production. These problems include careless use of a memory stick and having the right programs installed. Firstly, I had begun making my magazine cover and had done a fair amount of the written work.
When it came to saving all of this onto my USB key, the files were copied from the computer over. However the stick was removed too early from the computer and everything was deleted. This was a major setback to begin my work on the magazine. I found that there was no ways of recovering this work, so it all had to be redone. The second problem I encountered was the programs that were available to me and the school. I found that once a lot of the work had been done and I came to completing some of it at home, that the right programs weren’t available and I was held back from doing work until they were available to me.
I overcame this by getting the appropriate software I need to do the work at home. To target my audience with this magazine and ensure that it is suitable for them and would be popular, I did a lot of research. Including work such as, questionnaires, focus groups, surveys, researching existing magazines etc. These showed me what it is that attract my audience to the magazine and the type of aspects and qualities they expect from one. Although the magazine looks as though it is aimed at teenagers a little older than 13, this is, in fact, the targeted age range.
I found that a lot of teenage girls that are from the lower end of the age scale try to act a lot more mature and they try to act like their older. This could perhaps be an incentive for them to buy the magazine. Section 4 ??? Evaluation My magazine fulfilled all of the expectations I had for it, including the brand values, editorial, and the reader’s lifestyle. My brand values for the project were sassy, bold, modern and passionate. I feel with the design I created it sticks to each of these aspects that I originally came up with.
The reader’s lifestyle and the editorial are small paragraphs of writing which describe the magazine and the reader of the magazine in detail. While designing the magazine I kept referring back to these, to ensure it stuck to each point mentioned, to make my magazine appropriate for the target audience. I really liked my final design for my magazine and I feel that it would be very successful and popular within the sales world today. My favourite part of the magazine was the front cover. I particularly like this piece because I feel I spent the most time on it and think it looks the most professional, out of all the designed pieces.
I spent the majority of my designing time on this page as I think it was one of the most important pages in influencing the target market into buying the magazine. This is because it is the first page they see, and will be the one including everything they want and expect from a magazine. To make this design look professional and specifically aimed at my audience, I created a lot of developments to come up with my final page which I was happy with. I feel that these development processes were what made my magazine cover look good overall.
I really liked the colour scheme used within my cover, with the background image matching the colour of the logo and some of the text writing. I also particularly liked the headlines used on the cover, that anchor image. After researching what it is that audiences what and expect to read in a magazine, I came up with my headlines. They included subjects such as fashion, sex, beauty, celebrities and freebies. These have all been topics proven to be successful with my target market. However, there were still some things that I think should be improved on the cover.
In particular I think the main image needs to be changed a little, because as the face is so high up a lot of it is covered by the magazine logo and magazine slogan. The image could have possibly been altered to fit the cover better and could have maybe overlapped some of the logo to show more of the image. The advert made was good as the image on the black background stands out really well and draws attention into the page. The slogan is also very simple, as not to draw away too much interest from the main focus of the advert, although the slogan is effective and relates well to the image.
The bottom image of the hair dye boxes are clearly shown on the page and contrast well against the background to stand out. I feel that the advert is successful aimed at the target market of girls aged 13-19 years old, as hair products are something they’re highly interested in. My advert design could also however use some improvements. These include developments such as using a little more text so there isn’t quite as much blank space. I also think that as it was an original image, it didn’t look very professional and lowered the quality of the advert.
I should have taken more time out to plan the original images and what it was I was doing for them so they had a more professional look to them, to improve the overall appearance of the advert. I really liked my double page spread I made. I feel it was targeted really well at my chosen audience of 13-19 year old girls, as this is the type of topics they are typically interested in. For example, make-up and beauty tips. I made the text in this piece quite informal and casual, to seem more friendly and cheery to the reader and it also makes it a lot easier for them to relate to.
My favourite part of the spread was the title. I did some research into the types of fonts etc used within existing magazines, and found that different fonts, sizes and colours are often used throughout. I tried to incorporate this into my design, and I feel that I accomplished this quite well. I used 4 different fonts and sizes which relate back to the words they’re spelling. For example, ‘Rumour’ was in the logo, ‘biggest’ was in a large and bold font, ‘guide to’ was in a fairly small and plain text, and ‘ultimate beauty’ was in a pink and girly font with hearts around.
This was the main part to the title and had to be the main part to stand out, which is why it is in a much brighter colour, a bigger size, and a more complex font. There are some developments that need to be done on the double page spread design. For example, I feel that the main paragraphs of texts, the font could have possibly been made smaller and fit more on, as most existing spreads have a lot of writing all over the page, and my design looks quite plain.
I also think that the images could have been placed and used better to look more professional, as the section about eye make-up has pictures behind the writing which makes the text difficult to read. If I was to do this spread again, I would have organised the page better and come up with a better layout. Overall I really like the pages I designed for my magazine, but there are some things that I would prefer to be improved. Generally I think I needed better organisational skills to come up with the designs that I particularly wanted.