UNIT 21 MEDIA EVALUATION

Iona Spence-Dingle

APRIL 1, 2015

We were given the task of creating a final outcome based upon one of the aspects of media that we have studied during the course: video, print, photography, and advertising. I chose to explore the world of print-production, as I felt that this was my most successful unit, and the unit that I enjoyed most. I immediately knew that I wanted to create some sort of

woman’s interest publication, but with a unique twist. I wanted to combine a variety of topics into one magazine for young women, so firstly I brainstormed all sorts of ideas for different articles ranging from fashion, food, travel, beauty

and the arts.

In the beginning I intended on actually creating one or more sample articles from the magazine, however time restraints and difficulties in finding models made me decide to create a cover page, double page contents, and a mock-up advert

instead. In terms of research, I used the internet to find publications that I felt I could draw insperation from for my own magazine. I found that most ‘indie magazines’ focused a lot on the quality and asthetics of their artciles, instead of

printing a glossy ‘celebrity gossip’ magazine on a weekly or monthly basis, they tended to create a much more substantial publicaton four times a year. I decided to take this approach because I felt it would be more of a challenge to authentically

recreate, and I would prefer to focus on quality rather than quantity.

Here are some examples of magazines that I researched in preparation for creating my

own indie women’s interest magazine. I noticed that without exception the covers featured one single image that had some

relevance to the primary article in that issue. I wanted to adhere to this, but

instead of using the conventional A4 sized formant, I chose to create an A5 sized

magazine, so that it was more convenient for busy young women to store in their

bag, for example when commuting.

In terms of actually creating my magazine (cover page) the first step was creating a very basic mock-up of my cover in word. I used very simple shapes to block out how and where I would arrange everything on the page. When it came to creating the

actual cover I made quite a few changes, such as the colour scheme and placement of the articles. I felt the original colour scheme was too ‘twee’, and I had to change the layout slightly so that my main image wasn’t obscured by writing. However

overall I am pleased that I retained the basic format of my cover, as planned, because it allowed me to adhere to the conventional minimalist style of indie magazines. I also chose to put my cover

photograph in black and white to further channel the indie genre, but I didn’t Photoshop the image overly, because it was

important to me that the cover model looked naturally beautiful. I used the various fonts available on Phototshop on my cover, and ensured that most of text monopolised the left-

hand third of the page, as is the convention of the print industry. Finally, I included a barcode, date, issue no. and price on my

cover page, so that the final design appeared authentic.

I predominantly used my own imagery on my contents page, and entirely my own photography in the perfume advert. Again, I used

the Photoshop black and white filter a lot, but chose not to work too much on perfecting the photos, because I prefer to promote natural beauty and this also reflects the more indie vibe of my publication. I tried to make my articles as relevant as possible to my readership of young, successful women that are interested in a more alternative

lifestyle; I included features on vintage fashion, and the music festival Coachella. The sky-blue colour scheme underpins the entire double

page spread, as I felt that this shade fitted the spring/summer nature of this issue.

For the perfume advert, I did some brief research (below) of typical perfume adverts that often appear in women’s magazines, then tried

to recreate this is my own advert. I think that I effectively used the sheer fabric as a back-ground to the bottle, and the ‘Demeter’ logo in

the bottom right corner also makes the advert more authentic looking, however it would have been improved by featuring a model

in the advert, as seen in the real adverts below. Overall I am happy with the finished product, however I regret not having enough time and resources (models) to be able to undertake the challenge of creating some articles to feature in my mock-magazine. In my own opinion, and from peer feedback, the strengths of my magazine are its overall aesthetic appeal, and the way in which it is tailored to suit the specific target readership of successful young women who are interested in a more alternative lifestyle. I achieved this by experimenting with various different colour combinations, extensive research into the genre, and finally by employing a fairly minimalistic style. Many of the images I used I put in black and white so as to make them seen almost vintage, which fitted with my feature article of ‘Spring Summer Vintage Fashion Haul’. I think this worked well because my classmate, Tom, said ‘the choice of colour and images is just right and appeals to the target readership.’ Tom’s critique was that I could use some more creative type-faces, particularly in the contents page, so this is something that I will investigate in future projects.

From my own perspective, I improvement that I would make would be to use a wider range of images (that I had taken), so that I didn’t have to use any from the internet, however in this case it was impossible for me to take

Overall I am happy with the finished product, however I regret not having enough time and resources (models) to be able to undertake the challenge of creating some articles to feature in my mock-magazine. In my own opinion, and from peer feedback, the strengths of my magazine are its overall aesthetic appeal, and the way in which it is tailored to suit the specific target readership of successful young women who are interested in a more alternative lifestyle. I achieved this by experimenting with various different colour combinations, extensive research into the genre, and finally by employing a fairly minimalistic style. Many of the images I used I put in black and white so as to make them seen almost vintage, which fitted with my feature article of ‘Spring Summer Vintage Fashion Haul’. I think this worked well because my classmate, Tom, said ‘the choice of colour and images is just right and appeals to the target readership.’ Tom’s critique was that I could use some more creative type-faces, particularly in the contents page, so this is something that I will investigate in future projects.

From my own perspective, I improvement that I would make would be to use a wider range of images (that I had taken), so that I didn’t have to use any from the internet, however in this case it was impossible for me to take