Student Magazine and Student Magazine

Preliminary ExerciseThis was a task we did before we started making our music magazines. It allowed us to try out ideas we had for our magazine and see what went well and what didn’t. As well as this, it meant that we could experiment and get used to different types of software that may be useful when constructing our music magazines.

I thought that this task was a very useful thing to do as it gave me new ideas and I was able to look back at this piece of work when constructing my music magazine and maybe take ideas that I had forgotten about and introduce it with my other pieces of work.

However, at some points it was hard not to just copy this piece of work or elements with in it as for me if I have a piece of work in front of me I find like even if I am not realising it, the work I produce comes out looking a lot like the other piece of work.

Overall I am proud of the student magazine that I produced, even though there were quite a few things wrong with it as I looked back after producing my music magazine. As you will be able to see in the next few slides, there are many improvements that I could have made to make it better.

Front cover- Student magazine• I both like and dislike the picture on this front

cover. I like how the girls look like the are engaging and they look like they are students and this fits in with the genre of the magazine. However, I think it would have been more affective if you could actually see their faces more and with direct mode of address to include the audience more. And also think it would have been better if it was a closer image.

• The heading on the magazine doesn’t look professional and I don’t believe it is large enough that I catches your eye. If you compare it to the rest of the font on the page it doesn’t really look any different and it is meant to be the biggest thing on the front cover.

• The font looks quite childish in a way. It doesn’t look very professional. Also, the fact that some of the text is outlined in blue doesn’t look very professional in my opinion, although it does make them stand out more, but it takes away from the heading.

… Continued • The page looks quite bare, it has large gapes

where there is not writing or anything. A reason for this is that it would go into the image which wouldn’t be very good. It just doesn’t look very evenly spread out.

• “Different theme everyday” goes onto the models hair a bit to much I think, as well as “Get involved..”. This goes into the model on the right to much and the text book.

• Not all of the writing is capitalized which I think looks a little odd looking back at it.

• I like the colours used though. It has a contrast between the different colours, like it has a light green and then a darker colour of purple. I also believe the black works well as it makes the text seem more important and stand out.

• You also can’t tell what the main story is. It doesn’t stand out and it should be clear and large.

Contents page- Student magazine• It doesn’t actually say contents on the page

which is a convention of a contents page. It doesn’t clearly seem like a contents page in my opinion.

• Heading isn’t big enough. • I like how the writing is set out on the page and

how there is a large heading for each section making it clear and east to see.

• I don’t think that the title of each feature is easy to distinguish from the rest of the information. It should be more bolded and easier to see as it just looks the same.

• Part of the ‘plus’ at the bottom of the page is cut off and this shouldn’t happen as it may lead to less legible text.

• I think that the two top imagines (shown by the boxes) should be the same size and split down the middles as it looks a little odd and off balance.

Hardest things to overcome• When producing the magazines I found it quite

annoying as I didn’t have all of the software I needed at home. For example, I didn’t have Photoshop so I wasn’t able to edit the pictures for the magazine at home. This meant that I had to put off doing some of it meaning that I didn’t completely stick to the time I had planned as it took longer.

• Trying to find fonts and colours that didn’t make the magazine look childish was an issue I had to overcome.

How I progressedWhen looking at both of the magazines, I think that I did the font and heading better in my student magazines. As you can see below, the country pop one looks a lot more professional and suited to it’s genre than enterprise note does. The spacing on enterprise note is less accurate and some letter are higher or lower than others. Both the colour and the font goes well together for country pop and it looks less childish and more like one you would find on a real published music magazine.

… Continued My photography definitely improved from the student magazine. As you can see below, they backgrounds are very different. The picture of the student magazine has a less relevant and attractive background with just a grey fence and is very plain. But if you look at the music magazine one it is much more appealing. I didn’t do much editing on the student magazine picture at all, but for the music magazine picture I changed the contrast and colour and made the models stand out more from the background and used more of my skills to make it more attractive and different. As well as this, the use of direct mode of address with the models looking at you for the music magazine makes the audience more engaged instead of just looking at the models engaging like it is for the student magazine.

… Continued Another progression that you can see is the layout of the magazine. As you can see below, there is a lot more space between the model and the text for the music magazine. This is a good thing as it doesn’t cut into the model or the image like the student magazine picture does.

On the student magazine front cover there are many things that have been left off such as a barcode, competitions, taglines and buzz words . On my music magazine I have included all of these things to make sure that it is appealing and is a success.

What I have learnt from the coursework

• From carrying out this coursework I have developed my skills with using technical programs and software. Before I started, I couldn’t use Photoshop and I have developed my skills and I can now use many of the tools confidently. I had also never used audacity to edit voice clips and I have improved my skills when using simple software such as paint, word and PowerPoint.

• I have also developed my photography skills and different types of shots.

• I have learnt many different codes and conventions from this coursework. I have learnt how to set up a music magazine and can apply all of these code and conventions to magazines. I am able to spot these codes and conventions when looking at other magazines and can explain them in detail.