Feedback on the front cover

"Looks sweet, i like the colour and the cover image looks awesome. Good job"
adam_454@live.co.uk

"Love the title, sounds realy original. looks like the type of magazine i would buy!"
emma_666@hotmail.com

"thoroughly pleased with this josh i would buy this magazine!"
miss_louise_666@hotmail.com

Q7

As i have explained in question 6 i was allready skilled in two of the three software formats used to create both preliminary and final tasks, Web 2.0 which is the blog, Photoshop for the Front page and photo editing and finaly Quark Xpress for the contents and double page spread.

I have used many magazine conventions and from using these it has helped make my magazine look more realistic and i have had feedback from friends which was positive about these looking realistic and makes it look like a proper music magazine.

It is crucial that drafts and preliminary tasks are made because you can see if they look realistic or not and how you would change them and keep what looks good about them. Also if you make a really good draft then all you need to do is tweak it to make it a final copy.

Finally I will talk about the importance of feedback. Feedback is good weather it is positive or negative because it lets you know what others think about your work and not just what you think and it is being seen from different observation points. Without the feedback from my friends and teachers I would possibly not done as well as would have.

Q6

The specific software I used to manipulate, change and tweak my pictures was Adobe Photoshop Elements, the software is easy to use but because of this it is pretty basic because I am used to using CS3 the majority of facilities are not available such as masking and using folders to group images. As I was used to Photoshop I took to the editing really easily and was also helping friends how to use it. It was manageable to edit the pictures but took more time that it normally would with CS3. The way to change the picture setting of a picture through layers is limited as well such as using soft colour and overlay so when changing colours I had to use the hue setting and then make the colour slightly transparent to around 90-95% so that the colour is not effected but not as strong.

The software used for the contents page and double page spread was Quark Xpress and I was not familiar with this software I took to it very easily and managed to get used to the tools such as import picture, cropping, creating pull quotes and using a background to the pull quote making it stand out by filling the in background of the text box. Also I used the image box and text box to import coloured backgrounds and putting them to the back so everything falls on top of that making it a background. Using drop letters as well worked well and I did this by highlighting the start letter, selecting style and then formatting and clicking on the drop letter box so the letter was made bigger at the bottom.

To process my work for others to see I used Web 2.o Blogs which is a personal website for my work for me to publish online so it can be looked at and I can access the text format from computer to computer at college and at home so I could keep posted the work. Blogging is ok but there is not many themes and time has to be taken to get a theme with appropriate pictures and where the work is placed on the screen without confusion takes some time but there are some good looking themes on the websites.

Q5

I used photoshop to manipulate and mediate my front cover and the reasons that it will attract the stereotypical rock/metal music fans

Q4

I created a readers profile to show what type of things they like such as motorbikes, iPhones, laptops and family guy. These are just a few examples I have taken out of the readers profile and I have asked people who I think would read this magazine if they like any of the objects on the readers profile and the majority like all of the items on their so I believe I have managed to attract the correct audience such as rock and metal music fans like to use Myspace and watch Family Guy and wear Atticus clothing and eat mars-bars and play on games consoles. The reason I picked these was through what other magazines of my genre relate to such as competitions to win guitars attract guitarists and rock and metal fans like guitars so will like the magazine.

Q3

As my magazine is a mainstream magazine I will be looking for a large company which owns other companies also knows as conglomerates like Bauer to distribute my magazine because they will have much more knowledge of the distribution process and as they are really successful and well known for their magazines they will be more successful in the sales of the magazines. I would also use cross media which is using another form of media to advertise my magazine and I would create a “TOXIK” website where fans can archive previous magazines, search for band tour dates. This magazine will be able to be bought singly as well as subscriptions which can be paid for monthly at a cheaper rate however on a contract or a one off lump sum and will be distributed to specific rock/metal music and clothing shops.

Q2

My music magazine represents a particular social group because I have used specific fonts which show rebellion and don’t follow a common trend of normal fonts which I believe will make my magazine more specific to the genre of rock. The colours I chose to use work well with the magazine name which is “TOXIK” and the colours I have decided to use are reds to show power and blood, greens to represent bio-hazards and radiation. The image of the iPod which represent the age of people who will be reading my magazine are around 16-35. Using images of guitars and saying up for grabs anchoring them means that the readers rather have interest with playing guitars or play them and want to win these guitars.

Q1

Using a combination of masthead work, cover images, text layout I created a realistic looking music magazine by having different sized fonts for more important text and selective colours to make these pieces of text stand out more. The cover images I have used give reference to my magazine genre because I have decided to use pictures which refer to metal/rock music such as guitars, iPods and Metallica. I used a special type of font for the title to make it look more graphic and textured so it will suit the name more rather than it being plane. Also using slanted images makes the cover look more out the ordanary and original like Kerrang! does.

Finished Double Page Spread

This lesson i want to upload my double page spread to my blog

This is the final version of my Double page spread finished using quark.

Final pictures for double page spread

I have used these different types of images because each one encodes a different story for instance the low angle camera shot makes him look aggressive big and mighty where as the high angle shot of the balancing guitar shows he's not dead serious and enjoys doing unordinary things and the two pictures where he is playing the guitar show his dedication to music and the large picture holding the guitar in the air is going to be used as a full page picture as it shows might, pride and power.