2. Research and planning When making my rough cuts for my final design, I realized when completing my audience research that I’d made wrong decisions but could change them when I started production. Doing research such as the photo testing, photography research, font research, costume research and audience research helped me choose the best decisions for my target audience. Conducting more for my final products research benefitted my final products as it prepared me for construction. Whereas when making my rough cuts, no research was done apart from looking at the QE website therefore it makes my audience limited as I didn’t consider age ranges and stereotypes. By looking at professional magazines of a similar genre and aiming at a similar target audience to my magazine, it helped me finalize my intentions for my final products. Therefore when constructing my products I considered professional choices. From researching professional magazines of a similar genre to mine, I also learnt you can break conventions e.g. the three colour palette rule. I chose to have a house style of four colours like other magazines similar to my own (Kerrang and Rock Sound) so it connotes the music genre and appeals to my target audience.
3. Research and planning continued By completing my photography research and conducting photo testing it enabled me to have more experience when using a camera and editing photos on the program Photoshop. This prepared me for when I was taking my final photos for my products as I knew the style of professional photos that appealed to my target audience. Therefore they were at professional quality as I had studied positioning and the benefits of signifying my magazines genre. Furthermore when taking my final photos I knew how to make them appeal to my audience and then it benefitted my target audiences attraction to my magazine. My audience research benefitted me as it helped me get opinions from my target audience who could suggest what they liked and disliked about professional magazines of a similar genre to mine. This helped me understand what my target audience would want to see in a magazine similar to Kerrang and Rock Sound. I used my target audiences ideas and impressions from Kerrang and Rock Sound magazine for my own magazine, so that my magazine appealed to my audience appropriately.
7. Construction When you compare my prelim task to my final products, I have more features with more detail in my final products. The fonts of my final products are one of the main features that have improved from my prelim to suit the genre of my magazine and target audience. The font in my prelim task was a style, whereas I got my fonts for my final products from dafont.com where there is a wide selection to suit any genre. Having a detailed font, connotes the genre of my magazine and makes it stand out more and appeal to my target audience. I have included poster features on my front cover of my final product to make the page fuller and more exciting. Whereas on my prelim task, there are a lot of white spaces indicating a lack of professionalism and consideration. The splatter effects on my final products connote my magazines edginess. However, when designing my prelim I didn’t take into consideration the blank spaces I would have suggesting I have improved in consideration of the layout of my magazine. The bulky dividers on my prelim contents page don’t signify that I have used a professional program such as Photoshop as they look basic. Choosing to avoid ‘chunky’ dividers throughout my develop has made my magazine look sleek and realistic. Also by angling my sell lines and my main sell line from my final product made them noticeable and sleeker looking. Also by varying the colour of both of these features added them standing out and appeal more to my target audience.
8. Construction continued Angling my images for my front cover poster features signifies variation in the layout and makes my magazines front cover look attractive. In my prelim front cover, all the features are straight, basic and similar making it look unprofessional. Whereas by angling the features in connotes my magazines attitude and makes it appeal to readers and onlookers more. Although when creating my prelim I used both Photoshop and InDesign, which are the programs I have used for my final products, my final products signify my genre clearly and look professional. This suggests the extended research I completed for my final products benefitted my construction as it gave me knowledge in improving the layout of my magazine. Also, as I had already experienced making a magazine on both programs, it meant I had basic skills already and I improved them as I progressed through the production of my final product. This is shown in my work as the quality of my final products suggest more effort, time and consideration was taken into account when designing and developing my products.
