Mia Wilson AS Media

1. In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real magazines?

My magazine uses and develops forms and conventions of a real magazine. The only way I can see it challenging it, would be the actual style of music I have represented on my magazine, but this doesn't effect the layout. I was willing to use Balearic beats/ Ibiza styled magazines to help with the develop and use form and conventions of real magazines.

While making Gecko, I was aiming for originality but also a professional, organised and realistic look, which played a huge role in my final magazine, thanks to inspiration from other magazines.
Pacha issue 52 has a similar look to Gecko. I loved the absence of complications, with the one font/ colour of white, keeping the magazine to look precise and iconic. I feel the white font really stood out from the background as the background was slightly on the dark scale. The cherry logo on the side of the title really gave the magazine a sweeter, iconic feel to it.

I developed this idea by having the title in the centre of the page, with a logo (of a gecko) present.
I learnt and loved the difference a logo can make to a magazine. It creates a bold, known statement.

I also had the name of the model at the bottom, in the second biggest font from the title, but not too big. I kept with the same style of having the same font and colour throughout the front cover, keeping it simple and organised. I kept the coverlines around the model which I felt conveyed a real magazine representation.

The reason for having my photograph of one model, was the obvious reason that she is a solo DJ, but I found that it created more of an impact on her, rather than having it spread out against a group. I also found that with the magazines I used for inspiration, they also had one main focus on the page which I liked as I found all the focus was on that one individual.

I gave my magazine an issue number of 1 of 6, as it was the first magazine being made of 6. My magazine is a summer edition magazine meaning its only made each month starting from May in the summer season as thats when this genre of magazine is at its highest with people/ the audience.

Some magazine inspirations kept theirs very minimalistic, containing a background with as little writing as possible, varying to a busy front cover. To compare my magazine to others like mine, I would say they both have a summer feel to them, with them being simplistic, but tasteful.
I used Ibiza magazines to help me capture the feel of what a magazine would look like from the balearic islands.

All the examples I have included I feel have similarities to my cover, with Pacha Giorgio Moroder being my main inspiration:

For my contents page, I found inspiration from the Kerrang! issue 1608 magazine:

2. How does your magazine represent a particular social group?

The song i used for the background of my video is a typical Balearic beat.

These are photos of how I feel describe my chosen social group. They are all young people, mixture of male and female. Wearing clothing for a warm climate such as Ibiza. They are all happy and cheerful, wearing a mixture of clothing such as beach wear, holiday wear and fun clothing. I identified this style with an image for my advert I made on my contents page. The image contains people exactly like this on a beach having a party and enjoying themselves.

4.Who would be the audience for your magazine?

My chosen target group are both genders, young and known as the 'Clubbing group".

This social group would be very happy people who enjoy dancing. People of this group would enjoy to go out and party/clubbing. This genre of music usually covers the charts during the summer and mostly every night that you would go out clubbing, because of the feeling it gives you when you listen to the music.

These people aren't very mainstream so they break the boundaries and refuse to conform.

This is why they would be adventurous, different and fun. Their clothing would all be different as they are all unique people who share a love for this style of music. But as my magazine is Ibiza based, the target audience would most likely wear shorts, tank tops, skirts, maxi dresses, bikinis/beach clothing etc. They also may like the hippy style clothing which is free and expressive as my target audience aren't mainstream and are adventurous.

My magazine represents this social group by the model. She is a young female who likes to create music and have a good time.

With income status, people who read this magazine would have to have some money, if its from savings for this holiday or just a part time job, as the magazine represents and advertises all these clubs and music in ibiza that people are going to pay to enter, let alone enter the island. Meaning that the audience would need to have a job or generous parents.
Also as the young people enjoy and want money, I thought the free ticket advert on the front of my magazine was a real catch as everyone likes free stuff and most young people want to be going out to party and club, so the fact that they could get tickets for free is a bonus.

Whilst researching my target audience, I decided to look at some videos of DJ's performing live and also the music playing in clubs, therefore I could get a glimpse of their audiences in the crowd.

Swedish House Mafia - Don't you worry child video, includes close ups of the audience at the festivals. These close ups show the audience to be young adults, looking the ages of 17-25. The audience are mostly young, fun and crazy. This is how I imagined my target audience being.

Regarding the clothing, everyone is wearing a variety of different clothes, some being merchandise.

Although, trying to find an age group for my audience, I considered the fact that it is a genre that flourished through the 1980's and a lot of the older age range would still listen to the songs that would of been released throughout the 80's and 90's and still to this day may listen to this genre. But highly doubting they would be going out to these parties to experience the music now.

Trying to target my audience for this genre took some thought and consideration because anyone who likes a good time and dancing would listen to this genre.
But the fact is people who like to go out and party would be the target audience for this, which would be the " Clubbing group" of ages 17-25 being my target audience.

Whilst on holiday in Ibiza in my previous years, as I was too young to go out clubbing, I still saw the type of people who were on there way to clubs to party, so from personal experience, these people around me were around the 17-30 age mark.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

Parent companies is a company that owns lots of different publications, e.g.:

Conde Nast owns Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Tatler, Vanity Fair.

Time Inc.'s magazines own NME, LOOK, IBI, NOW.

Bauer media's magazine owns heat, KERRANG! MCN.

For my parent company, I found it very hard to find the ideal one of a parent company that worked with Spanish music magazines, but I know that Kerrang! the magazine, is also published in Spain and Germany, whilst being a UK based magazine. This means that the parent company that distributes this magazine can distribute mine in Spain; Ibiza. As of myself being based in the UK, I thought this was a good parent company for me with the way I want my magazine to go.

The parent company is called Beuer media.

Beuer Media Group is a European-based media company, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany that manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world.

There are two music publications, Q and Kerrang!

Beuer Media Group have brands covering cars, photography, gardening, golf, fishing, music.
The themes vary dramatically meaning my magazine would fit in and most likely be welcomed.

Even though my Balearic beats magazine is aimed to be situated in Ibiza, Spain. People from around the world would most likely want to purchase my magazine to get to know about the party island and to see what upcoming events are worthy for a holiday out there, meaning my audience can be world wide, which this parent company would be perfect for.

This parent company could also make my magazine excel by popularising it through having a 'gecko' radio station or even a website.

I would want Beuer Media Group to distribute my magazine as I feel this would be the best parent company for my unique genre of music magazine. I also believe I
could help the company expand there collection of different magazines. They have similar genre of magazines to me such as Q and Kerrang! which is shown below:

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

While making my magazine, i have input a lot of previous experience that I've had with technology. The main technologies i used were photoshop, with a slight use of keynotes.

With editing my photos, i decided to work with photoshop as i felt this was the most professional software to use creating the best outcome.

For my front cover photograph, i first used the spot healing tool that is circled in the second image below to clear off the white writing on her top. From this i then edited the photo, increasing the brightness, contrast, vibrance and saturation creating the photo to look more enhanced. I had also used curve to make the effects all blend in together and create a little subtleness to the photo. After this step i then added a pacha logo and lowered the opacity to help it blend in on the top more.

With the editing of the photos, i kept the same principle of increasing the brightness, contrast, saturation and vibrance with the use of curve. I felt this would keep a good theme of the same colours throughout the magazine.

I had also made the page more wider to make it look more like a double page spread.
Trying to make the photo look as much as a double page spread photo, i went onto keynote and added a rectangle shape, made it thin; to resemble the line in the middle of a double page, and messed around with it to get it to look perfect such as lowering the opacity to help it blend in. What i did is shown below:

On the topic of opacity, i had decreased the opacity on the gecko logo, to help it blend in with the page rather than look out of place. I also used this technique with the writing on the double page spread. It helps it all fit in together. It may not look like a huge difference but it makes a huge difference.

On the contents page, i have also added a gecko, as i have with the front cover and double page spread, to help give significance to the logo and magazine.
With this gecko, i gave it colour for numerous reasons, one to bring a bit of colour to the page, and another to represent the gecko as it actually is;green.
The technique i used was the reflection tool, but only 50% as i wanted it to be tasteful, not too much. I feel this little edit gives so much more to the page. I had kept the opacity full to enhance the colour.

Finally with making my advert, i used the two technologies being photoshop and keynote.
The way i made this was first to edit the ibiza festival image. I enhanced all the colours to make the festival look as fun and vibrant as i could. With this image, i then went into photoshop and put it in the silhouette of the ibiza map. Doing this was a new challenge for me, but i was prepared to tackle and learn how to do it as i knew the outcome would be worth it.
On photoshop, i added a photo of the ibiza map and used the quick selection tool to select the whole of the island. I then deleted this selection creating a png background in the space left. From this i then added the image underneath and created the main image of my advert.
From this i then went into keynote and added the writing. I got inspiration from a real advert i saw for 'SPACE'.

Overall, i can see that magazine industries uses technology to make their magazines look at its best, by using really good/profesional softwares such as photoshop which i got to experience.
I learnt how many different techniques magazine editors use to make their final product great. It was an eye opener as i, myself had to do the same.
Since my preliminary task, i used many more techniques and used photoshop more. I feel these elements really made a difference.

7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full magazine?

Comparing my recent magazine work and my preliminary magazine, I can see that there is a huge difference in improvement. I have learnt more techniques and used them better in making my magazine 'Gecko', including the front page, contents page and double page spread.

Before having this blog, I had a twitter account with 50,000 followers with a theme.

I had to make sure my theme played a strong role, showing through my photos, and writing. This helped me create a nice view for the viewers of my blogger as I had previous experience how to impress/ satisfy my audience.

The photos and the writing were for a specific target audience who read my page, with the language choices being just right to be able to engage the readers and also having a bond with the audience, with them not just being an audience, but a friend.

This made me also understand that practically everything in the media industry has a target audience, with what you do, having your target audience always in mind.

When making my preliminary magazine, i learnt that colour was a key aspect in a good magazine, making the colours match and go well together. I also learnt how much of an impact a colour could make to writing, making the main cover line stand out from the rest of the coverlines without just the change of font size. I found the language i used such as rhetorical questions was a good technique to draw people to the magazine. The technique of having the model in front of the title appealed to me. I liked how professional it made the cover look straight away. With my photoshop skills, i already knew that i could create this look by one technique, it is called the spot healing brush tool. This tool corporates pixels from the background and replaces them over the place you want to take away. This placed the title behind the model.

If i could, i would go back to my preliminary task and change the style of font to a possible less bold feel, but other than that i am still pretty happy with how my first ever magazine turned out.

Making my preliminary magazine back in October 2015, I've found that i have excelled much more. I have learnt to do drafts and experiment with the final piece as there will always be something you can change to improve it. Since this task, i found that i was putting much more detail into my Gecko magazine, trying to make it perfect. I messed around with; the fonts for my title, what title i was going to name my magazine, using colour pallets from the front cover image to see if i would have liked them or if they would have gone well as any of the font colours on my cover.

Compared to my preliminary magazine, i feel i have put much more time and effort into this magazine, which has helped me realise how much of a different these two elements can make to something. I also tried perfecting the front cover by comparing it to other professional magazines to see if i had got the layout right. But i really wanted to write the key things on what was going to be in my magazine on the front page to really engage and make my target audience be drawn to my magazine. While shooting for my magazine, i had planned this shoot with makeup, scenery and who i wanted the model to be. The makeup i went for was a fun, going out in the evening, funky look to emphasise the night life. I took pictures of the model surrounded by palm trees which i felt helped capture a feel of ibiza, since i was in London to take the photos. As i have visited Ibiza my whole life, i felt that i was very confident with the genre of music i was looking into. I felt like this helped me a lot more with the information on what i was putting into my magazine and what key things are about the place.

I also knew i wanted to talk about a top female DJ, as it is stereotypical for men to only be DJ's, so i wanted my model to be a female. The model's beauty also captures the audiences eyes, making them read what the magazine is about. I feel that i was more prepared for the photoshoot rather than my photoshoot for my preliminary magazine as i didn't take a range of photographs to work with, but i did have my model; a student who goes to Hampstead school, pose with good scenery behind her which worked with the theme of my preliminary magazine. This also made me realise the life of magazine editing, over how prepared these editors are and how every choice they make, referring to where the image is and who the model is, are very necessary and are key things to the outcome of a magazine.

To create my magazine, for my preliminary magazine i used mostly keynote, with slight use of photoshop, but after this i realised to get better results, try to use more professional technology such as photoshop. I am very keen and confident with photoshop.I used this technology the most with my Gecko magazine. I've been using photoshop for the last 3 years so i feel I'm experienced with the software and able to use it confidently and in my stride.

While making my magazine, i got to capture the experience of real life magazine editing, with all the steps and techniques which was a new experience for me. I feel photoshop is very effective by using the spot remover tool for the title to be behind the model, using layers to experiment with the effects you gave the photo, and curves. I feel that photoshop is the most successful software to use as its the most professional one, giving a better outcome with every change you make rather than using a software such as powerpoint.

Being able to mess around with the lighting and contrast helped me emphasis the colours of her makeup and the green palm trees behind her. I had also used spot healing tool to take off the white print on her top originally, which i felt was representing a theme that i wasn't going for.

Whilst making this magazine, i did learn a few things. Firstly i learnt how important an editors letter really is. It changes the way you approach a magazine completely. The language the editors use in their letter is a make or break situation. If the letter is nice, making you feel warm and invited to the magazine by a friend rather than the editor, it makes you have a more happier approach when reading the magazine. My previous work i have done on analysing magazines had really helped me create a good magazine as i had learnt what was positive and good in a magazine, including a good editors letter. Finally i had previously heard of 'parent companies' but never really knew what it was. After the creation of Gecko, i had learnt how important parent companies are and how big and important they are. Parent companies are the owners of all these media companies, its in the name.

I feel like this creation of my magazine Gecko was a great experience which i have learnt so much about from real life media.