5) Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

From creating, and learning from my first 'School' magazine front cover, I feel that I have increased my technical ability, for example... using photoshop, as this software takes years to learn how to work properly! I did use photoshop for my preliminary task, however I was only 'blurring' and 'shadowing', whereas in my final product, I was creating background, (B&W stripes)and even learnt how to edit out objects that I did not want to be shown. I have also learnt so many new, technical words that I had not even known before, e.g. 'Drop Cap', which is used on the majority of magazines. By doing the preliminary task, before this major project gave me a head start in learning how to use the technical facilities that we had, and to gain a clearer idea of how magazine's are put together. It also helped me to always refer back to my target audience, and why my idea would attract to them.

4) In what ways does your media product, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Throughout my development of producing a 60's style magazine, I have always referred back to the rock magazine, "ROLLING STONE": a rock style 60's magazine. The magazine cover has inspired me with positioning the models on front cover, colour schemes and fonts. The magazine is a U.S based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks published by Jann. S. Wenner, and music critique, Ralph. J. Gleason. The audience for their magazine is 20 - 40 year olds who have an interest in Rock Music. I feel that my magazine would be a sister to the rolling stone due to the vintage layout, and interest in 'Rock Music', however my magazine would not include politics information, due to it's younger audience of age range 16-25.

3) What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Throughout my development, I have had to discover new technologies, and learn them quickly, to be able to make my final product of good quality. Learning new technologies was quite time consuming, as it was hard to get your head aroundusing new softwares in a short mount of time. This has enabled me to know how to use them, for future purposes.

Imac Computer

By having an Imac computer was a great advantage for me, as even though, it looks professional, and is practical to work on, the computer includes good quality software, for example... 'iphoto', which is a good software for editing images. The computer also includes 'pages', which is like an upgrade of word. This enabled me to be able to play around with fonts, making words closer together, to look like a real magazine sub heading.

Photo Shop

Photo shop, was very new to me at the time, when I came to editing my final images. This meant that this process was very time consuming, but definitely worth it! Using this new, modern software enabled me to be as creative as I wanted, for example, I used photo shop, when adding the black and white stripes in the background image used on my DPS.

When editing my pictures, a came across a new website, called 'Picnik'. I downloaded by photos for free, and this is where I mostly did my editing, as the site had a variety of different colours/textures/effects to chose from. The site, also had an effect that cut off photo corners, creating a curved edge effect, I used this a lot onmy images on my contents page.

Before I had started this product, I had not been familiar with 'Blogger'. I have learnt along the way, on how to add pictures, change font, etc... The only downfall that I have learnt is that it is on the internet, anyone can see your work, which at the beginning I was quite unsureabout, but now that I have developed and learnt I feel more confident with the site.

2) What kind of media institution might describe your media product and why?

Wenner Media is the publishing company of ‘Rolling Stone’, so I thought that I could possibly use there experience of distributing the sophisticated genre of magazine to my advantage. However because Wenner Media is producing the very successful ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine I don’t think it would take on board a rival to its own brand in ‘RUSH' is aimed towards the primarily same audience and would need its own freedom to grow into a global brand.

IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with their printed magazines they manage to reach to almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men (almost 26 million adults within the UK). The company publish ‘Uncut’ and ‘NME’, which are both music magazines targets at young adults. I feel that 'RUSH', would be able to fit in with it's busy/slightly rock styled layout or fonts, colours, etc.. however the unique theme of 60's/gothic, may be too unique for such a large company, needing magazines to really suit a specific audience.

1)Who would be the audience for your media product?

When I first began, thinking of magazine ideas, I spoke about my target audience, ranging ages from 16 - 25 years. I feel that since I have made the final product, the layout, and sophisticated design, of colours, fonts, and pictures, really suits the age range that I have suggested my audience would be.

Layout

The design of my front cover, Dps, and content page, have a very sophisticated/60's/gothic style, this was to match my theme. I feel that my chosen layout for my front cover and Dps, matches a lot of current music magazines, e.g. centre front image, masthead at the top, writing all around the image. However the layout for my contents page, was purely due to my creativity, however the 'scattered' effect of images on one side of the page is commonly used in magazines. When designing my pages, I always had my target audience in my head, as whatever I did had to attract to that age group. So I had to be carefully choosing a layout that would not bee too formal, and that would not be too childish.

Colours/Fonts

When choosing my fonts and colour scheme, I found very difficult as I wanted to match my theme of 60's, vintage effect, so I was planning in my head pale beige/orange colours, but I had to be very careful, as the colours needed to stand out, as it was a magazine, and has to attract buyers. I ended up using 'white' for a lot of the texts, as white goes with everything, and luckily stands out from most of the colours that I have used on my pages. After researching current magazines for a teens/young adults, I felt that fonts were hugely important for showing the theme, and attracting a specific type of audience, for example... I found a lot of 60's fonts, which I have used the front page, " 50 " To portray the gothic effect, I have used a font called, "cracked", which I have used on the name of the band, "Petals of the cellar" To contrast with these fonts, on the rest of the text, I have used traditional 'Arial' font.

Pictures

When I came to taking my photo shoot, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted and how I wanted the models to be placed. My models looked of the ages between 16-25, which is good as they can be looked up to, as role models for young girls ranging from this age group. The choice of clothing was my idea, of mixing modern day, high street fashion, which a 60's edge, this unique look, could be a new style that this age group would like to follow, as nowadays vintage clothing is coming back! I feel that it it very important to think about how you will structure the models to be in the image, to convey that they are a close, fun band, influencing young girls to want to be like them, which I have found through my research, a lot of music magazine try to pursue this effect on their audience.

Evaluation.

I will be discussing what I feel I have achieved throughout the development of this task, how much I have learnt through this process, and what I could have improved to have made my final piece even better!

Future of all online magazines: moving front covers.

Recently, Marie Claire has launched an app for the iPad, turning Watson's December covershoot for the American edition of the publication into a 'living' image.They have debuted an interactive issue for Apple’s iPad that features a moving cover, as well as video clips and outtakes exclusive to the tablet. The Marie Claire application is powered by Zinio and gives readers the option of purchasing a single issue or a yearly subscription. The application showcases fashion and beauty products, accessories and clothing.[With the living cover] we had to map it out and when you look at it, it’s like one of those really complicated scientific computer drawings,” said Joanna Coles, editor in chief of Marie Claire, New York. “It’s the first time that it’s been done and I’m so excited,we really wanted to put the magazine in 3-D."

Our society today no longer live in a world where television, video games, films, newspapers, radio, magazines, music exist separately, so the media industry are just developing and coming up with new ideas on how to merge media's together. As we are becoming an online digital environment, online magazines are becoming more popular as the months go by, media commentators predict that by 2020 only 10% of magazine reading will be from hard copies on paper. As new technologies launch, for example the 'Ipad 2', it is making the internet more assessable for the public to read, and look at online magazines.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1339398/All-magic-Emma-Watson-moving-magazine-cover-wouldnt-Hermione-pleased.html

So we now have 3D televisions, could we possibly start having 3D magazines in the upbringing future?

In the future, this would suit my magazine, as all through my development, I have spoken about different ways that the magazine can show the singers/bands personality through fonts, colours etc.. What would be even better is if there became sound, so you could actually hear what the band was playing on the front cover, making the public want to buy their album!

Is the 60's coming back?

Fashion
Spring 2011 Fashion Trends seem to be looking at combinations and contradictions with the 50’s and 60’s soft feminine flowing style and the 70’s bohemian and sophisticated glamour coming back to blend with biker chic and some elements of punk fashion.

NewTV program - Mad Men.

AMC took chance in by making Mad Men their network’s first ever – produced original dramatic television series. It’s the 1960’s and our particular group of Mad Men (a term that ad men coined for themselves during that time period in American culture), is at the fictional “Sterling-Cooper” advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City. Mad Men also proves to be maybe the most meticulously set-dressed and carefully wardrobed television series – ever. The set design and props attention to detail is remarkable. From the style of a glass used, to the design of an office desk, there’s not a single item that doesn’t look like it’s not from an original 60’s catalog. The clothing and style of Mad Men has inspired a revisited 60’s enthusiasm in fashion. The series complete obsession to authenticity is due to Matthew Weiner surrounding himself with the best support for “his” vision." Watching Mad Men makes me wonder about and question how cool the 60’s actually were. The decade was filled with rampant smoking and hard-alcohol consumption. Sexism and adultery seemed to go hand in hand. The civil rights movements were struggling as the Vietnam War was raging. If “not being equal” or “not being heard” were ever as scarily real or as dreadful a reality than during the deeply racial and homophobic landscape of the 1960’s – then I must have missed that chapter in class?"

NEW YORK -- If the '60s are making a modern-day comeback, it's thanks in large part to Janie Bryant, the costume designerbehind Mad Men.

60's influenced Band/Singers

Current, record selling icons in the music industry, 'Duffy', and 'TheLike', have really cracked the 60's style, which I personally feel brings a uniqueness/individual aspect to both artists. They obviously feel that the 60's era should be influenced in today's society.

So the mix between 60's/gothic fashion is coming back, new modernised 60's TV programs are coming back, current music artists are bringing the 60's back, so why can't we bring back a new 60's styled magazine in today's society?

Contents Page.

When designing my contents page, I decided that I didn't need, or want any inspiration from current magazines, as I wanted this page, to be unique, and match my gothic/60's theme. I used three of my own images, and two images off the internet to portray a male band, against my female band, as the magazine can be read by female and male readers. To me, pictures look boring and plain with pointed, straight edges, so I found a website, called 'Picnic'. This website enabled me to choose from a variety of shapes, for example, 'rounded corners'. To keep the 60's style, I found a new font called 'Backstage pass NF' which I used on the numbers on my content page. To keep with the gothic feel, I used almost 'chalked' lines to separate each description of what pages where inside. To create contrast, I used a duck egg blue colour, "THE JUNE RUSH", as it stood out from the dark grey/blacks, creating a vintage effect. The layout of the page, is quite structured, which contrasts with the front cover, as the cover is very busy, and crowded. I have placed a 'shadow' effect under each picture, to create a nice 3D effect, to make them stand out.

Double Page Spread.

My inspiration when creating my main image on the double page spread, was from the band, 'The Like', as I was researching their pictures as a band, and came across an image of all four band members, singer closest to the camera, guitarist and keyboardist side by side level higher than the singer, then drummer standing at the back. As black and white stripes are quite bold and have a slight 60's feel, I decided I wanted a black and white background behind the band, to create contrast to their faded coloured 60's outfits. This was very time consuming, as I had to outline really carefully on photo shop around the models, and input the black and white striped design, to be fitted behind them. When choosing my font, I really wanted a gothic font in a 60's colour as I wanted it to match my theme, so after downloading 60's font I came across, 'spicy retro' which I used on the speech, "HAVING A GANG DEFINITELY MAKES THE HARD TIMES EASIER". Originally I had the speech slightly overlapping the black and white stripes, but after the meeting with the print professionals, they suggested that I keep the speech on the white background, so that it stands out more, so after taking their advice and changed the font colour. After looking back at researched magazines, I found that most of them had two small separate paragraphs of font at the bottom of the page, with a 'Drop cap'. My beginning word is, 'C an' I used the same colour font for the large speech on the 'C' so that it looked colour coordinated.

Front cover.

Once I had edited and decided my final front cover image, I was then able to then start and experiment with colours and different fonts to match the theme, 60's/gothic. I first played around with bright bold colours for my masthead, 'RUSH', but my disadvantage was that the colours could not be too bright, e.g RED, as it would not match my theme, so I had difficulty in finding a colour that would stand out, but still look slightly old fashioned. The colour that I thought had worked the best, was a light grey/duck egg blue, as it contrasted with my dark font colours of my subheadings, to help make it stand out, as that is the purpose of a masthead. I also had to 'kerning', to be able to have letters closer together so that they fit more neatly. To help influence me, with choosing fonts and colours, I kept looking back and the 'rolling Stone' front cover that I came across in my research. As my theme includes a 60's look, I wanted to find a 60's font that I could use, So I found some free fonts that I could download onto the mac, for example...'Bobo Black', 'bumbazoid', 'spicy retro', 'smoke', 'prisma'. I had to be really careful when picking the colours for my front cover, as my main image has an orange tint, I had to find a colour that would contrast with it. After a lot of time experimenting I found that plain 'white' worked best as it was simple, bright and contrasted with my dark background colour. After looking back at real, professional music magazines, I found that the majority of the front covers were very crowed with information, and as I really liked the 'crowded' effect, I decided to to fill in space where there were large gaps, e.g. written on the 'strap line' "FREE INSIDE WOMEN IN MUSIC 70 PAGE SPECIAL", and the 'footer', "GIG TICKETS HALF PRICE!"

Improvements.

Print Professionals: Steve Priddell and Rowland Cowley

UWE Print and Design Division

1) Change the colour of the subheading, 'PETALS OF THE CELLAR', as the 'pale orange' gets lost as it is overpowered by the dark golden background colour. Suggested colour - white.

2) Move everything inwards, as in a real magazine, the side subheadings would not be shown as they are too close to the edge.

My Grids for my magazine.

Creating Grids.

The Designer’s Side

Web designers will tell you that regardless of how beautiful your site design may look as a jpg, the translation process from comp to browser will make or break your design’s success. For years, designers have relied on grid systems to create harmony and balance in their designs, and while they are invaluable and fairly easy to work with once set up, recreating that same structure in a browser is a challenge, especially when you factor in page rendering inconsistencies among browsers. That’s why aCSS framework like 960 Grid System is a godsend.960 Grid System provides designers with a variety of templates that are pre-sized and contain guides set up to either a 12-column or 16-column grid layout. These templates not only help speed up the preliminary steps of design but also easethe hand-off to the developer, as the framework provides consistencies between the comps and the code.Not every web designer is fluent in CSS, HTML, PHP or other programming languages, so we often rely on developers or frameworks to see us through the coding phase of a project. However with the 960 Grid System, the framework is so carefully constructed and documented that it empowers a designer to tackle the front-end development of a project, only requiring minimal understanding of mark-up languages. It also gives designerspeace of mind in knowing that the things we slave over, i.e. spacing and making sure everything lines up properly (imperative for a successful grid layout), are taken care of automatically via the framework.

This image, is similar to what the 960 grid system looks like....