Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 I have made a big progression from my preliminary task, this is because when I first started to generate my first magazine in Photoshop I was inexperienced and I didn't really have an idea how to use the controls, and also I was unable really to grasp how to edit the different layers and make them go where I want them to go. I have also gained a better understanding of where my magazine would fit into a certain target market, which I feel as though with my preliminary task I was unsure who would really be attracted to my magazine because I didn't really cater it for a college audience. 

My knowledge of how to use the program Photoshop CS6 and also CC (for use at home) has really developed and with the help of the grid and also being able to zoom in and out of the magazine, I have really been able to get a professional look to my magazine which I can be proud of and be sure that in a retail environment this magazine would in fact sell rather well. I also feel like I was able to develop my critical eye from the preliminary to the final product because of the fact that when I look back onto my prelim I see that some of the text is not exactly in the centre and it does not look professional enough. For example the text directly underneath the masthead is slightly off centre, whereas now I have been able to see if I stand back from the piece where all of the off-centre components and layers are and rectify them easily to achieve a more thought through and professional finish to my magazine. Also after continually editing and developing my magazine for many weeks I have been able to pick up basic editing techniques that when I was doing my prelim I would have been stuck in how to move a layer. An example of this which I have quickly learnt through this task is how to move a picture from a new tab in Photoshop to the actual tab in which my work was on; this sounds like a very easy task however with certain pictures (especially JPEGs) they are locked onto the background of the new tab. This was a problem for me in the preliminary task because whilst trying to find an appropriate bar code, whenever I had found one that I wanted to incorporate onto my magazine it was locked onto the other tab. To rectify this you simply have to right click on the layer itself and click 'layer from background'. This is something that I wouldn't have known before and with this knowledge I was able to complete my final magazine with ease because I knew exactly how to incorporate pictures into my magazine.

I also feel as though I have developed a keen understanding in how the actual process of generating magazines works and I feel as though I have gained a certain respect for the magazine editors that do this kind of task in their everyday life. I have gained an understanding, through extensive research, how magazines attract their audience and how they layout their magazines in order to gain a certain audience to be attracted to their publication, and how they presented the type of genre that they were writing about. Also after the preliminary task I have been able to realise that getting feedback from peers on my magazine (in the first draft) has been very helpful as it has helped me to see exactly what I need to do to develop my magazine and create a more professional finish to the final piece. These improvements that I then made were very drastic when looking at my first draft compared to my final draft; however when looking at my preliminary compared to my final draft you can plainly see that this understanding that I have gained has been very vast and extensive because comparing the two, especially considering they have almost the same style of layout, you can see that everything just looks more put together and thought through. Also the photography that I have done for my final magazine is a lot more developed and distinguished in comparison to the prelim task. This is because the prelim task was done in a matter of days, no general thought or consideration was really put into it. By that I mean, the photographs were taken in minutes and the general layout of the magazine was not as thought through and developed as I have done for my final magazine. This was because of the fact that I was not taking precise measurements and making sure everything was in its place, I was purely concentrating on the fact that I wanted it to look as conceivable as possible for a school magazine and with the minimal skills that I had had at this point this was something that was not necessarily achieved in a professional way. Whereas in comparison to my final magazine, you can see that I have spent more time looking at how I want everything to be placed and I have used measurements (using the grid) to make sure that everything is to my standard of work. When looking at the two comparisons of the prelim and my final magazine, you can really see a level of difference in the quality of the front cover and contents pages. 

With the front cover of my prelim I had quite a dull and poorly lit main image, which I thought with the whole colour scheme of my work it really dragged down the vitality and fun nature that would be expected of a school magazine. Also I hadn't really taken into consideration the modelling choice; such as the clothing, look and style of my model. Whereas when looking at my final piece I had told my models exactly what they should be wearing and told them exactly how to stand and pose for my magazine. This helps with the appeal and standard of my magazine because it looks like the type of magazine expected for my target market, a more upper class and stylish indie magazine. I feel as though this is clear in the finish of my product, whereas compared to my prelim even though I had still strategically placed everything on the canvas, it was a piece that was unsure of it's target market and it was lost in the limbo of not really knowing what it wanted to be. I think research has a lot to do with this vast improvement, also the practice that I have had in between doing both the tasks was really useful and with the building of my knowledge for my first draft I was then able to use those skills that I have already learnt and generate something that was both different from my prelim and my first draft. 

Also then looking at my contents page for both my preliminary and final design, you can see the level of development I have had whilst going along this process. The level of improvement has increased dramatically and I have noticed that the placing of the text and all of the other components such as the pictures and placing of additional information has been more stripped back going into my final design and I have compacted everything so that it doesn't look overly forced together and I hope that with the addition of separation lines between the text that I have been able to add definition to a page that I was unsure of how I wanted to look and work out in the first place. Compared to my prelim, it is plain to see that the ease and development I have experienced in this whole process has allowed me to be able to generate something I am really proud of and something that I am able to say that it looks really professional and up to a standard that I would expect to find in a retail shop.

One thing I cannot take into comparison however is the fact that I have not done a double page spread for my preliminary which was part of the brief not to do that, however I have have also learnt a lot of skills just going from my first draft of the DPS to the final piece. I developed so many skills, such as the layout of the text and how to place the pictures on the page. Granted, I did not change a lot of aspects of my design from my first draft to my final one however there were tiny movements and photo changes that I needed to make to bring up the quality and believablity of the magazine. Such as the addition and movement of the separation line at the bottom of the page with the title of my magazine in one corner and the page number in the next. This required a lot of careful and strategic movements to achieve the best placement on the page. This progression however from the first draft to the final was due to the help and research that I had done to achieve my final piece, for example I had had feedback from my teacher and my peers as to how I needed to change the design and what I needed to do to make it more accessible to my target market. I hope that I have been able to challenge the normal conventions for a traditional indie/alternative magazine, especially considering the layout and style of my magazine throughout all areas. It is completely different in many aspects to what I would normally expect to see on a music magazine however I feel as though this is irrelevant because I think on a shelf this would go in the magazine's favour and make it appear as a more credible and professional looking magazine.

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have used many different and new technologies whilst creating my coursework, I have had to use these whilst generating my coursework because that is what it is based on, the use and skills of these certain technologies. I feel as though that throughout this process that I have learnt a lot about how to use new software that I wasn't sure how to use before. This is also something I will remember for the future because programs like Photoshop would be useful for careers in the future, especially considering if I go for a more creative career because it is a good program to know the fundamental basics of because it is so useful in producing images.

Computer: This is something that I have used throughout the whole process, it has allowed me to use all of the software that I have needed to generate my magazine and also to do my research and planning on. I have used both the school computers and also my own computer, both supporting Windows 7 on them. I have mainly used my home laptop, this is because I felt more comfortable and at ease with it because it was natural to me. However I predominantly used the computers at school for my blog work because I felt as though this was important to do at school because most of my time at home was taken up producing and developing my magazine. However I think I managed my time wisely because I have manged to keep up with both my blog work and my magazine.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended/Adobe Photoshop CC: This is the software I have used to create my magazine, I have used both CS6 Extended and CC forms of Photoshop. The CC version is what I used at home because it is part of the Creative Cloud program that Adobe has and luckily you can get a free trial of this and I took advantage of that. Luckily as well both of these versions work well with each other and everything that I had done at home was easily transferable onto the school computers. I was incredibly inexperienced with Photoshop at the beginning of the coursework however with steady practise and development I was able to develop my skills to produce a magazine that I am proud of.

Mircosoft Word: I used this program to help me write my article for my magazine. This was helpful due to the fact that I was able to track how many words I was using and also to correct any spelling mistakes that I accidentally put in. I have used this program many times so it wasn't alien to me at all, I could easily write the article then transfer that to Photoshop using the copy and paste tool.

Blogger: I have used Blogger since the beginning of the course because I have used it to document my learning and research throughout the whole time. This has been a helpful resource for me because I have been able to go back and see what I have done previously to help me later on when I am looking at what decisions I made at the beginning of the coursework. This has been a helpful tool in helping me present my work because you are able to adjust the layout and style to fit your needs and I have found that I have been able to present my work in an effective way that looks professional.

Animoto: I have used this software earlier on the the process, this was to create a pitch to help present my idea. I had never used Animoto before this coursework task however I found it very easy and useful to use because I felt like I was able to establish my ideas earlier on in a very original and stylish way. It has given a great visual representation to the product and has helped me communicate my ideas in a easy fashion.

Flickr: I used Flickr to upload the pictures I had taken, this was a helpful program to use because it allowed me to easily access the pictures I had taken at school and download them at home to use in Photoshop CC on my own laptop. I was also then able to put the pictures onto my blog which then my peers were able to see and judge how well I had taken the pictures.

Slide Share: I used slide share quite a lot throughout my research and planning process of my magazine. I used this to firstly showcase my analysis of magazine covers, contents, and DPS. Then I also used it for future powerpoints as well that I had created to easily show what I had written and to also present it in a aesthetically pleasing way.

Camera (Nikon D3200): This was the school's DLSR camera that I had the opportunity to use in order to capture my images for my magazine. I had a few issues with this purely for the fact that I am very new to this technology and I was nervous around a piece of kit that I did not own because I didn't want to damage it in any way. Consequently I feel as though in my first photoshoot the images weren't as great as the second because I was a complete novice to the gear. However I soon picked up the technology and a few of the main features of it, therefore being able to produce better quality images for my magazine.

Lighting: For my final photoshoot I was using three soft lighting boxes. This was used to create a very dramatic lighting effect which I wanted to create, however even though the shadow on images isn't that fantastic when looking at the quality of images, although I wanted a slight shadow on my images because I thought that this style really fitted into the way my magazine was laid out. These help to just create professional and high quality images that would be expected in a up market magazine.

Internet: (Mainly Google) I used the internet throughout the whole of my coursework process. This is a crucial part of this because of the fact that without this I would have been unable to research anything for my blog. This has also helped me to find images of inspiration and find ideas for what I want to achieve out of the process.

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

The main way that I attracted my audience was through the main front cover, I did this by having a strong central image on the front surrounded by a white border. I wanted to keep things on the cover fairly simple because if it is over complicated too much then basically you are just putting the magazine in a bad light because of the fact that you would have a reputation for creating a magazine that has become too busy and lost, therefore losing the main target audience. I don't feel like this was a conventional image to use because of the fact that it wasn't really that colourful and bright. Also I have basically used an almost long shot on the cover because of the fact that there is a border around my models in the main central image. 
I feel as though I have done my job in creating a magazine that is something that would spark interest in the media text/magazine community. This is because with the front cover and the placement of all the text it appears to be a magazine that really stands it's own ground and has developed itself as a credible competition for the more high end magazines, such as Clash, Dazed and Confused and Wonderland. I think another thing that has really helped me establish this magazine and make it more attractive to my audience is due to the name I have given it, Iconoclast, I am really pleased with this name because I honestly think that it has enabled me to think of certain personalities that this magazine would have in society. I felt then after that, that my magazine would have a very rebellious nature to it because of the name's meaning. This then gave me ideas of what my audience would want to see then and I was able to work like that then. Building up from the name to create something which has bite in the society that it is selling itself into.
The appeal of 'The Psychedelic Issue' as well is something that I did to attract my audience. I feel as though this adds a certain mystery to my magazine because the audience will be asking themselves why it would be a psychedelic issue and what would be included in that to make it this a special and different issue. This is a reference to i-D magazine because they do this on all of their issues (as would I) and I think that it just adds something else to the magazine that adds the curiosity and takes it away from being a magazine for the 'mainstream' audience and more a magazine for the 'niche' audience.  
I have not really included major cover lines on my magazine at all, except for the three main cover lines on top of the main image, this is because I wanted the attention to all be focused on the image and the masthead because they are the components of the magazine that really showcase the magazine the best and allow the reader to be fully immersed in their understanding of the magazine and what it is about.

The way I have addressed the audience within my magazine really fits the indie/alternative genre as well. Usually in many magazines based on this genre, I have found that they tend to use very humorous and witty language, usually faced with profanities as well which is a common occurrence in many music magazines nowadays anyway! I have taken on board this way of speaking and communicating myself and just kept my language fairly simple, however I have still catered it for a more 'intellectual audience' because I have still tried to use a more eloquent language which I hope would showcase the humorous yet sophisticated style of my magazine.  

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The main audience for my magazine would be both male and female between the ages 16 - 26 who have a keen interest in being original and unique, within a society that is struggling to keep the idea of the 'underground' and 'unique' music society a personal thing compared to the mainstream 'pop culture'. My audience would also be interested in new major films and also the new indie films on the market. You mostly find that many people who like indie/alternative music are also interested in films and film culture as well. However I do understand that this is still a very niche market and I also would expect that many people interested in fashion and style as well would be interested in my magazine because I would include new and exciting fashions on the artists that are gracing the cover of my magazine. My magazine would be a monthly magazine at the price of £3.50, I feel as though this is a very reasonable price for a monthly magazine so I would be able to reach a possible wider audience because teenagers (who perhaps don't have masses of money to be spending on expensive magazines each month) will have more of an opportunity to buy this magazine which if they did it would mean that I would be able to develop the magazine more and create a credible title that would interest and engage my chosen readership. The audience that I am trying to reach would really be the type of people to set themselves apart and and not conform to what society tells them to be. I feel as though this is apparent in my double page spread mainly, because the layout of the page is very unique and not something that I myself have seen in all of the research I have done. The only comparison I can make is Clash magazine who also layout their magazine in a very unusual and unique way; the audience that follows Clash magazine would probably be the one that I would expect to follow mine as well because of the fact that I have tried to use some of their techniques in my magazine, I have not blatantly copied anything out of the magazine but what I have done is to try and take some of their ideas and twist them into my own style and my own brief for my magazine. I would say that the main bands and artists that my readership would listen to would be: Slow Club, Warpaint, Yuck, Miles Kane, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, etc. I have listed an extensive list on the front cover of my magazine which also show you what type of music that my audience would be listening to. I am also focusing on film and fashion as well in my magazine, although these are definitely smaller aspects in my magazine because I do want the majority of the attention to be focused on music. I think this would appeal to an audience that is still interested in the film and fashion industry however the reason that they have bought this magazine is so they can read up on the music industry and they want that focus to be on that particular area. I feel as though that the general layout and design of the front cover, contents and double page spread really represents and showcases the indie/alternative market really well because they have unusual images on them (inspired by the likes of Rankin) and the layout and font is very different that you would expect to find in a 'mainstream' indie and alternative magazine (such as NME). I have tried to stay outside the comfort zone with the design of my magazine and I would hope that my intended audience would appreciate and understand why the magazine is laid out the way it is. I have also included the tagline of 'the psychedelic issue' on my front cover. I feel as though that this is something that my audience would be interested in because of the fact that it really draws your attention as to what is on the inside of the magazine, this would attract my audience because they would be curious and the mystery of what is underneath the cover would be really effective in making people pick up my title.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of distribution company that I would want my magazine to be published by come to quite a lot of options. I have found due to extensive research a number of distribution companies that I feel as though they would be able to distribute my magazine to it's full potential and give it the stand in the magazine community so it has it's own personality. 
The main companies that I have found that would be the best for distributing my magazine would be either: Waddell Media, COMAG Specialist or Bauer Media. These three groups would be beneficial to the growth of my magazine because they all represent magazines that are very up and coming and still in a underground 'niche' market.
However out of these companies the one that strikes the most resonance with me would have to be COMAG Specialist. This is part of the COMAG Distribution company (which is owned by two major magazine publishers, Conde Nast and The National Magazine Company) and COMAG Specialist is the side of the company that pushes new and exciting titles for unique audiences to read. I have found on the COMAG website that it says about itself,

"COMAG Specialist believes that specialist and time-sensitive magazines and newspapers deserve a flexible and creative approach to finding their market, whether the title is specialist in terms of its content, readership or circulation size."

COMAG Specialist also publishes some of the magazines that I have took the most inspiration from, titles such as Clash Magazine and The Wire. Both of these magazines have really influenced the style of my own creation. COMAG as a company has had many years of experience to help it really establish its readership and they have discovered how to reach the intended audience for each magazine.  COMAG Specialist has been going since 1990 and the whole company has been in action since 1977. So they have definitely had experience in reaching the four quadrants and this appeals to me because I do want a very diverse audience for my magazine because I feel as though it is stylistic enough for the older audience, yet it still has playful writing and interesting articles for the younger audience. I like to hope that with this experience that COMAG Specialist would know which audience directly to aim it to and would place it in shops that would allow said audience to get the chance to pick it up.

This institution has already established itself in the media text market, therefore I feel as though even if they already have a number of 'alternative' magazines in their portfolio I still feel that they would utilise that audience that they already have for those publications and transfer that knowledge to my magazine and give it the best possible chance for it's growth.

I am pricing my magazine at £3.50, which is considerably of higher price than other popular music magazines. However I am essentially just taking my price off magazines such as Clash (they price their magazine at £3.99) because they are a good indication of what my target market would pay for a upmarket magazine. COMAG Specialist publish Clash so they now exactly how to get a readership for these good quality magazines. Having it at such a high price as well would give it the credibility that the content inside this magazine would be the best it can be because the money would be going on the development of the magazine from the future issues. I would also include product placement in my magazine, such as the type of adverts that are including in Clash magazine (new albums that are being released and advertisements for films that are coming out - this would be something that I would include in my magazine because I would have a small film/culture section). I would have fashion adverts as well for brands that are of a similar style to my design of the magazine and also the artists included in it. I would include brands such as Pretty Green, Topshop, Urban Outfitters and Vintage stores such as Farah Vintage. Using these types of product placements would allow my target audience to be drawn into my magazine because they are based on things that my market is interested in. Also hopefully COMAG Specialist would be aware of this and they would be used to this style of advertisement and that they would be more willing to being publishing my magazine.

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout the whole process of doing this coursework, I have discovered that one of the most important tasks was the decision of my models on the front of the magazine because this was going to be the image that draws my audience into the magazine itself and if I had made a bad decision on the models themselves then I would have been stuck for the rest of my magazine because of the fact that I had chosen badly in how to represent my whole magazine. Also with the help of the audience research and profile, I was able to generate a steady fan base and credible musicians that were at the heart of this magazine. The artist I have created for my magazine is very similar to the ones that I have researched in the planning for my coursework, for example I have stuck with the idea of keeping my artist along the same lines as Slow Club as I find their persona and style is something that is not commonly seen on the indie/alternative market. Most of the pictures and articles I have found from this band were mainly represented with black and white images like the only above however I had also found just normal, slick pictures with full colour. This was important to me to find this because then I was able to look at how the certain photographers had represented the artist and because they were always represented in different ways, it meant I felt as though I had more freedom to create my own style of artist and put my own spin on them depending on what type of photography I took. After doing audience research as well, on UK Tribes, I was able to indicate that my main target market was both 'Indie Scenesters' and also 'Young Alts', this was crucial in helping me decide what direction I wanted to take with both my artist and my magazine. 

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have an artist that incorporated both a male and a female, both with quirky style that would attract my slightly 'out there' audience, this was important for me because I wanted to be able to reach both a male and female audience and having both of them there meant that I was able to showcase suitable role models for my appropriate market to look upon (my target market was between the ages 16-26, which means that I had to have an artist basically in between those set ages so that they appealed to both ends of the audience spectrum). I also felt as though that I knew that my models had to have strong, bold looks so they stood out from a line up. I felt my final choice in my models was a good decision because I feel as though they have strong, captivating looks that almost really stare at you and mesmerise you in what they have to say. I know that my teacher was unsure about my models, especially my male option, however I still think it was the right decision to go for because they both have quirky looks that are slightly different to the norm and I think it works well because it challenges the way magazines are usually made and what is normally incorporated onto them.

The way that I have chosen to represent my artist, especially considering how most magazines normally do, is very different. I have kept the image on the cover very moody and dark, for this I have taken inspiration from one of the photographers I have been looking at, Rankin. His work is often very unique and also (like I have done for the front cover - using the black and white effect) he is very imaginative in what he has gotten his models to do for him; even though I have not gone that far into the poses, as I just wanted it to be a simple image with them not doing anything special, just them looking into the camera and captivating the audience. 

Styles like this where the colour has been taken out and you are left with this stark photograph that looks almost bare in its nature however when looking more deeply into the image you are able to see many layers of depth in the model, and just see them for what they are. Themselves. This whole process was challenging my chosen social groups, however because of the fact that they are both groups that like to see change and not be a part of the mainstream system that I thought that this style of image and models was a good yet risky option to take because of the fact that this style of music magazine is very rarely seen on the retail shelves.

I had dressed my models very casually, keeping them in vintage shirts and black skinny jeans. This represents my chosen social group very well because of the fact that more and more people especially of my age (16-17) are getting into vintage clothing and in this case for my artist they were both wearing older shirts that happened to clash quite a bit when put together. However this was something that I liked because of the fact that it showed the difference in personalities between the two people included in my band. All of their outfits were strategically put together to make sure that they catered for the more obscure audience and the simplicity of their clothing as well as the humbleness that it shows (due to my male model's checked shirt - it is very 'english countryside-esque').

Also the general style of my product put together (front cover, contents, and DPS) represents my chosen social group rather well, this is because it doesn't conform to the conventions of normal indie/alternative magazines such as NME. It has it's own ground, it's own footing which is enabling my magazine to stand quite independently compared to other magazines of the same genre. The magazines I am taking the most inspiration from and style would have to be either Clash or The Wire though. This is because they are not afraid to step outside of the box with their originality. Also after reading some of their articles, I discovered that they also use a very original and playful writing style which I tried to emulate in my own magazine. This is a similarity in my magazine compared to the others, however when looking at the front cover and contents page for my magazine I have realised that I haven't really copied or altered a style from a certain magazine at all to create my own. The magazines I have taken slight hints and inspiration from were from lifestyle magazines more than anything, such as Oh Comely and The Gentlewoman. Both of these magazines have borders around their central images in the middle and this is something I have definitely taken into consideration when producing my magazine. However one thing I have learnt from doing this though is that because I am taking inspiration from lifestyle magazines I am lowering what would normally my target market, however this is why I have done this. By being brave and transferring ideas and layouts from non-music magazines I have been able to create a new style of music magazine which the market was probably calling out for.

Overall, I feel as though I have represented my particular social group in a very new and enigmatic style which hasn't really been seen on any indie/alternative magazines in the past. I hope that there is a market and a calling for my magazine because I feel as though it has its place in society and I would like very much to know whether this magazine would in fact make it to the shelves of retail stores.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I feel as though my media product has gone against 'normal' conventions, this is because I have included fonts and styles that are not commonly seen in music magazines that are traditionally on the market today. The font I used for the masthead of my magazine was called 'Never Let Go' from 1001Fonts.com; this was a font that I think was more inspired by the likes of Oh Comely magazine which is a lifestyle magazine that includes both this kind of layout and also this style of font. I have never seen a indie/alternative magazine on the retail market that uses a 'swirly' font on the cover. I have seen throughout my research that they traditionally use a thick, bold font on the masthead to really get across the dramatic nature of indie and alternative music and the boldness of the music that they are representing. What I wanted to do however was to push those conventions and do something that I certainly haven't seen on the market before. This choice of doing a more 'swirly' font on the cover was a creative decision by me as I was not really inspired by anything (I had used a bolder font on my first draft) and I just thought that with the new pictures I had taken that this style of font was the best decision I could make because of the fact that both the image and the font really compliment each other and they both represent the individuality of the genre very well. Also I feel as though this font fits in well with the black and white theme of the image on the cover as they are both quite serious and 'stylistic' and that is what I wanted to accomplish with my magazine. 

Also the actual name of my magazine, 'Iconoclast', is very different to anything that I have seen on the market and I am very pleased with the originality of the name as I feel as though it speaks to my market because of the rebellious nature behind the word. Even though it is quite a long name for a magazine, it is not that short or catchy such as Clash; however I am in this case taking inspiration from Dazed and Confused and Wonderland magazine because they also have reasonably long names for their magazines and they look at pretty much the same things as my magazine does so they are pretty much on par with one another. However in saying this I find that my magazine name is still catchy and memorable for readers to purchase it again.

The layout of my magazine is something that I really payed attention to the most. I have a very critical eye on my work and I was able to criticise my work to the point that I can see every flaw with it and I was aware of how I was styling my magazine. I tried to keep the layout fairly minimalistic because when looking at magazines such as Clash and The Wire, I found that they didn't really exaggerate the layout too much and I feel as though this is something that I have done to conform to conventions of real magazine publications. I thought that by just keeping everything very simple and just using three fonts as well throughout the magazine has helped to really make sure that this magazine is exactly what I wanted, a magazine that is stylish and upmarket whilst keeping a very quirky and imaginative tone to it. I hope that by deciding to do this and not have the layout and background as busy as magazines such as NME that I have been able to make myself and my magazine come across as credible and influential members of the magazine community.

Next the use of costumes and camera work has also been something that I am looking at because I feel as though they are good representations of how well the magazine fits into society because of the fact that within my target market I have seen many images and clothing styles that really do represent what I am trying to get across. In magazines such as Clash I have seen many inspirational images (with both clothing and camera work) that have given me ideas of how I want my final magazine to turn out. Also a major part of my inspiration has been Rankin, the photographer, his images that he has produced have given me ideas of how to reach my audience. His pictures as well are very different and unique and I have took this into consideration and have known that my audience would appreciate good quality and quirky images. When looking into which magazines I found the most inspirational  I was looking at mainly Clash and The Wire, both of these magazines were able to showcase their diversity with images and their different styles of images (especially Clash) and this inspired me. However that is not something I really incorporated into my own magazine because I wanted all the images to be very similar, just including different poses and styles within the magazine.

Another thing I had incorporated into my magazine was i-D Magazine's tagline "The.........Issue" because I felt as though this was a really interesting feature to include because it really adds a mystery and just 'something else' to the page. I included the tagline on my magazine 'The Psychedelic Issue', this is because I though that it really showed the readership what my magazine was about and what would be covered in the magazine. I am a big fan of psychedelia as it is so if I was catering my magazine to myself then it would really intrigue me and make me buy the magazine.

Another convention I decided to challenge was having different artists on my contents page. I kept it the same all the way through. This again was a creative decision that I decided to make because of the fact I thought that the images that I had chosen and taken were images that I was really proud of and I wanted to showcase that photography, as well as showcasing the artist that I was promoting. In my magazine they were a new band that were getting a lot of public attention, or at least starting to. Therefore I wanted to show them off and use them in all aspects of my magazine because of the fact that they were integral to the main story in my magazine.  

Final Magazine:

This is final magazine cover that I have made. I have changed so many aspects of this design as you can see. For example, I have cropped the picture (and it is also a new picture that I took from my second photoshoot) and I have also made it black and white because I thought it worked better on this cover than if it were a full colour picture. This is just personal choice for me and I only did this because of creative preference. However I think this works because it allows the reader's attention to be drawn in to this duo and the distraction of the colours are not there and you can just focus and appreciate what is there in front of you. I have also changed the font and where the text is set. Such as I have changed where I put 'The Psychedelic Issue' text (I have also changed it from 'unique' to 'psychedelic' now which I thought looked a lot better)and I have moved it from underneath the masthead to underneath the picture because I feel as though now I have a border around the picture that this looks better and everything looks like it belongs where it is. Also I have moved the barcode and the writing that accompanies it, this is mainly because of the addition of the border and I felt as though this was more subtle than if I had left it in the bottom right hand corner. I have also moved the text that goes next to it slightly more central and I have placed that underneath the picture because of the fact that I wanted it to be noticeable but without anyone really noticing it completely. It needs to be there but not in a obvious way. I have changed all of the font as well, using 'Never Let Go' and 'Quicksand' from 1001 Fonts. I feel as though these fonts fit better with my magazine because of the fact that they are more in keeping with the style of magazines that I most admire and I feel as though both of these fonts work very well together. I prefer working with just two fonts rather than three because of the fact that it looks neater and more put together like I wanted it to in the first place.

My contents page has changed a lot since my first draft. I feel as though I have developed more skills and understanding in how magazines are put together and also I feel as though that my magazine looks cleaner and more sophisticated. Everything is connected in my magazine now. As you can see now, I have developed the whole contents page and changed the font, the layout, the picture, and I have also added more writing to the page with the addition of the contributors and also who works at the magazine. I feel as though the addition of these extra features have enabled me to achieve a more precise and professional finish to my magazine which I have been striving for since I had completed my draft task. I also like the addition of the lines onto the page rather than leaving everything in the free space. It adds structure and centres everything on the page. Overall for this page I am very pleased with the outcome of this because of the fact that I feel as though it looks like an actual magazine and I would probably expect to this in one of the magazines that I am interested in.

This is my double page spread, I am very pleased with this. I didn't have to change a lot to achieve this outcome. I didn't really change the layout at all, just changing the margin in the middle of the page to make sure that if in a real magazine that the writing or the pictures wouldn't be overlapping the crease in the middle.I have changed the font on all of my pages, this is because I felt as though they weren't really what I wanted or expected my magazine to be like. I am more pleased with these font choices because of the fact that they are more subtle and more in keeping with how I expected my magazine to be in the first place. I am also more impressed with the outcome of my images as well because I feel as though that I had got the hang of the lighting and how to generally take pictures to achieve a crisper look and finish to my magazine. I have also changed the separation line of my page number to the bottom rather than the top; I prefer this look because I feel like it makes the page look cleaner and simpler. Rather than everything being squashed on the page together therefore making it look messy. 

Editing Pictures for my Magazine:

Here I have edited pictures for my magazine, the one on the left is the original picture I have taken. As you can see the crease in the corner of the screen is not something I really want to be seen on the cover of my magazine because it would distract the reader and probably put them off the magazine as a whole because it would look as though it isn't really cared about as much because the work would look more just thrown together. That is not the style of my magazine because I want it to be perfect and show off the style and genre of the magazine by showing class and showing the simplicity and sophistication that these artist exude. I have also made this picture black and white because I felt as though this was a different look than to my draft magazine, it was something that I was incredibly proud of and I hope that this picture enhances the look of my front cover.

Targets for the Week Commencing: 10/03/2014

For this week I am planning on finishing my magazine ready to hand in on Friday, I have pretty much finished by this point and I just have a few tweaks and layout movements to do just to finish anything off. I am pleased with my final design because it is exactly what I wanted to make. The only thing I am struggling with now is the contents page still because I want it to look as realistic as it can possibly be and that is very tricky to achieve because it can easily look fake and too simple. I am continuing to look at my magazine even though it is finished however I just want to make sure that everything is perfect and up to my standards, which unfortunately are quite high, although this gives me an advantage because that means I can look at things more critically and with an analytical eye which allows me to see where I have gone wrong or where things just don't work or look right in the style and genre of my magazine. 
Another thing I am concentrating on doing this week would be the remaining blog work that I need to do because I have been concentrating on my draft for a while I have not really as much effort into my blog work and I am going to rectify that this week because I still have so much to add and develop for my magazine before the deadline.
I don't have to add a lot of features to my magazine now but I still want to tweak a few more things before I have to hand it in on Friday.

Plan for Week Commencing: 03/03/2014

For this week what I am planning to achieve is to be continuing with my final design for my magazine, after taking my pictures again on Friday I feel more confident that I have found the right pictures for my magazine, that both fit the style of my magazine and also they look reasonably professional as well. I am excited to get my magazine finished now because it is coming along well and it will be nice to feel the satisfaction when it is finally finished. Also what I am going to do is to pick out which photos I am going to use on which page because I am going to change all the photos that I currently have on my magazine for the ones that I took on Friday because they look way more how I want my magazine to look, and the style I am also trying to replicate within the magazine industry. I am trying to make sure I am not changing too much of my magazine because I was generally pleased with how my draft turned out last time. However in saying that, I am changing my contents page completely and that page will definitely be done by the end of the week so that I have got all the major changes out of the way so I can concentrate on the smaller and less noticeable changes within my magazine. I am also going to look more closely at more magazines that inspire me because I think it's important to keep finding images and designs that are inspiring because it gives me more ideas that are crucial to achieving the best finish on my own design.