"Finished" magazine

Evaluation activity 1

Upon completing my magazine I have evaluated it's design and and formatting against a pre-existing published magazine of the same genre and style. I have challenged many of the standard themes with my featured artist, I have challenged these conventions overall with by having my artist entirely fictional to the point when she is hand drawn in a gorillaz esque style and by having my artist as a female this challenges the male dominated genre as it is uncommon for there to be a female DJ or at least it not really heard of.

The masthead is clearly different to the image as the simple white font stands out against the background and the Image but unlike most mastheads this one has placed in the corner whilst most generic mastheads cover the top of the page. The simple formatting to the masthead clashes with the image and I have challenged this by creating my masthead with the same font style as other headers within the magazine and I have stretched the masthead accross the top of my front cover. This front cover features no 'cover lines' where as I have challenged this and have included various cover lines accross my page. The colour scheme is relevant to this style of magazine but as my target audience is almost entirely different I have reversed the colour schem and have used a blue and white colour scheme. The title of my magazine was decided after utting it to a vote, alongside the other possible titles, so besides 'Shutdown' their were 'Hex', 'Vinyl-Scratch' of 'Vinyl Countdown', the name Shutdown has priority as it is short but rememberable. For my front cover I have illustrated my DJ wearing a simple but raver costume with neon blue hair to match the electro/ rave genre, and to appeal to the iconography my DJ is posed behind a set of decks, she is stanced in a smug but almost mighty pose as DJ's are generally known to 'own' the club as they are always above the ravers whereas she could also be seen as aggressive as her agitated expression on the DPS shows. I have related every aspect of my magazine to it's rave/ Dubstep genre and I have done this by using neon colours and patterns whilst using appropriate language that applies to an easy going Indie scenster. All of the images that I have used apply to this genre aswell as they are either bright and energetic or monochrome with artistic effects. I have followed the generic music magazine conventions by having the name of the band written in the largest font across the page this is to demonstrate that the magazine has enough infamy for it to have a lesser font and that the name of the magazine shall catch the customers eye when it is stacked in a store. Unlike most music magazines I have challenged the pricing as commonly the price could go from three to even six pounds but I have chosen a more reasonable price one that even someone on a students salary could afford.

The date is placed in a less obvious position but at the same time the date has also been incorporated with the image, I have challenged this by keeping my date in a less obvious position.. The image is funky and cartoony and would appeal to the Indie scenster or a craft kid so this is why I have incorporated the cartoon design as my front cover and overall style of my magazine. I have used the pages Graphology but I have made slight alterations, for example my masthead goes accross the header and I have included cover lines.

Evaluation activity 2

As my magazine features various Dupstep/ rave artists and its bright vivid colours would appeal to the Ravers but with the whole hand drawn design theme this could ideally appeal to the craft kid group.

When placed side by side with a genuine anime Artist such as Miku Hatsune it is clear that I still have a long way to go before I reach that level of anime design, But when they are placed together my inspirations from her are more visible, for example; her proud pop star-like stance, the bright neon hair colours or the implementation of electronics on their costume and props. But on the other hand my DJ has major differences to Miku in other ways that just design e.g. my DJ is more mysterious as most of her face and skin is covered and my DJ appears more masculine whilst slouching and by wearing jeans instead of a dress.
As a character Miku Hatsune is represented as an upbeat and energetic character whilst my DJ 'Luna' is seen as easy going partyer with a laid back view on reality a typical raver. I have challenged the anime costume by creating my DJ with a more casual uniform as the more conventional artist like Miku are seen in bizzare and electronic apparel like her digital display across her armband.

I have incorporated a luminous and rainbow esque colour scheme to her design to recreate the bright neon element of a raver, I have also made her hair and accessories more vibrant and brighter to compliment the starry background and have made her goggles more effective by applying gradients and colour tints.

Evaluation activity 3

Upon researching into magazine publishers I have narrowed the variety down to Bauer Media Group the company behind publications such as Kerrang and Q. They are a multinational media company that publishes it's magazines in 15 countries worldwide. They are known across TV, radio and majorly in the magazine industry. because of they're infamy and already wide spectrum of titles I believe this is a prime reason to select them as the magazine publisher. For those of you who are new on the subject a publishing company is basically a company that manufactures and copyrights the magazine so it can be sold across the world. My magazine is collective to a wide amount of advertising to 'work off' the funding used to get the magazine published in the first place and would probably have to keep this as a source of income throughout the lifetime and career of the magazine. Appearence and target audience wise my magazine is simillar institutionally to Kerrang magazine which is also another publication by Bauer Media Group.

Evaluation activity 4

My primary audience for the magazine were members of either the indie scenesters or ravers groups, as both visually and content wise it is appealing to they're style. The nightlife neon theme is relevant to both genres as with the new genre Dubstep which is dominated by the two then this magazine is ideal for them. My target audience will be mainly teenagers within the age range of 15- 24/young adult. My target market would be interested in video games primarily the classics and platformers with a keen interest in the music from the games such as classical or synthesia. My target audience generally dresses in Goth burbary open tee shirts with often a comedic or cheap tee shirt worn underneath, ravers on the other hand enjoy simple brightly coloured v-neck shirts or baggy vests. They commonly wear jeans or different kinds of chinos mostly red or black, many ravers wear baggy commandos or trunks instead to keep cool whilst dancing. Footwear and accessories are universal amongst the two as they both enjoy converse shoes or plain trainers whilst wearing a variety of necklaces and wrist bands to accompany they're outfit.

Evaluation activity 5

Evaluation activity 6

Software wise I have used a wide spectrum of various websites and programmes to both complete my magazine and to increase it's publicity. By using the search engine on Google chrome I was able to research and compare my magazine amongst actual published magazines. I have recorded and posted everything that I have been doing throughout the course and shared this information onto Blogger, prior to the course I have never before used Blogger and had to quickly adapt to it's interface which is fairly simple and straightforward to grasp. I spread publicity and asked for feedback from friends and family via the Facebook sharing software and by doing this i was able to view criticisms to improve my magazine and with You Tube I was able to upload a fake advert with links to my magazine to create publicity witch I had created with Windows Movie Maker. By using the Animoto presentation program I was able to create presentations for the pitch and evaluation for my magazine to get my points across in a complex and professional design. Photohsop cs5 was the most useful and necessary element used for the magazine as its photo manipulation software enabled me to successfully create the illusion of a professional magazine, With the compatibillity with my drawing tablet I was able to re-draw the designs of my DJ and then apply the apropriate colour techniques to fully illustrate my artist.

My hardware is more artistically driven from the basic techniques of a pencil and paper and then using new technology to edit these designs onto Photoshop with a drawing tablet to create the illustrated designs. Halfway through the project my Toshiba satellite met with an unfortunate 'accident' which left me with my new acer laptop which ran faster with updated software, this enabled me to create better and neater designs for the magazine and finally the Panasonic lumix camera which I borrowed to photograph the two real life images used in the contents page.

Evaluation activity 7

As you can see looking back from the previous attempts at a magazine varying from disproportionate text to unfinished or over sized layouts that my progress has improved to a some-what purchase-able and shelf worthy standard through a series of trial and error and re-arranging to acquire a design that I am proud of. From the original preliminary magazine I have almost completely scrapped the idea of having a living model and have challenged the original magazine conventions by using an illustrated model which I hand drew with my drawing tablet. I have learned the full concepts and language used in the industry and have demonstrated this by getting a better understanding of the appropriate and necessary features of the genre by researching the industry and being taught the generic conventions in class and through personal research into magazine's of the same genre. With the elimination of the need for major camera work and being able to fully control every aspect of the images without the limitations of price and finding the props etc. meant that creating my photos to perfection was incredibly simple as in my image the costume, hair style, props and pose were perfect and complimented well with the magazine whilst the preliminary magazine had two monotonous photos which didn't contrast with the rest of the magazine. I believe that the element that shows how I have improved the most is the layout, mainly that my finished magazine has one for starters and with the use of columns everything is clearer and easier to read as everything is not scattered across the page in no specific order, the brief articles on the contents page are more detailed and have relevance to the genre and the accompanying images.

Freelance photography

To create an element of mixed design in my images I will use my iluustrations alongside photographs for a mixed media and to further improve the articles on the contents page.

I have began editing the most well posed and professional of the photos and began Photo-shopping them to incorporate into my contents page.

Fear and Loathing on a Friday morning

These took forever, I was literally up until 1 am this morning to apply the finishing touches
*note this is the biggest piece that I have ever made, I am proud :D

Again I like having a choice of vibrant or blended, so I edited the picture to appear as if it were a photograph.