Evaluation

Final Edit Of Magzine Double Page Spread

Question one

Through looking and researching into existing websites and studying the conventions of web pages, I was able to put together a professional looking site that would compete with existing products.

I followed the conventions of websites carefully in order to make sure I was able to gain the best outcome as possible. I made my website using the site maker, Weebly. I believe that the basic conventions of websites are all visible within my work. I placed my logo at the top of my webpage that feeds back to my homepage and included a navigation bar just below. As no links were present on my site, the link styling convention didn't apply to me. All buttons seen on my site work and take readers to the appropriate pages. These are also all clearly named as well as everything else on the site such as the navigation bar and articles. A visual hierarchy is very clear on my page as the new and main article is not only presented bigger than anything else on the page but it's also been placed at the top of my page so it is clear to readers which is the most important thing upon the site. Gradually as you scroll down the homepage, icons and images become smaller and are all presented in the same or of similar sizing showing that these are of lower importance.

I also believe that my magazine pages fit in with other, existing regional magazines due to various other features. I have gained many ideas and points of inspiration from already successful regional magazines and believe that this is evident in my work. As well as looking into the common conventions within magazines, I also researched into how I could manipulate my work even further in order to replicate existing products. I looked into areas such as layout, content, colours, fonts and images and how regional magazines use them within thier products. The existing products inspired me and I was able to come up with inspiration for my own work from them such as the plain back grounds, simple layout, bold images and colour scheme, all of which are present and visible within my work.

I believe that many aspects of my work link it to previous, existing regional magazines. Magazines shown within my research, such as Dorset Life Magazine, have very simple layouts but filled with colour and images. This is something in which I felt I needed to create in my own work. I went on to include basic, white backgrounds, seen on my double page spread, block layouts and large, black and white fonts. I also thought carefully about my images and what I would need to include in them in order to portray the right messgages but not seem overbearing. I then used my knowledge of photography and applied the rule of thirds to my images in order to gain the most professional look as well as making them the right compositions to fit the design of both my magazines and ancillary texts.

What are the conventions of website pages?

• Logo placement (logo should always be at the top of the page)
• Main navigation
• Link styling
• Standard Icons
• Button Functionality
• Visual Hierarchy
• Clear naming

Final edit of Hyperlinked webpages

Evaluation

http://nottinghamshirelife.weebly.com/

Final Edit of Magazine Contents Page

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

What are the common coventions of a regional magazine?

When creating my ancillary texts, I carried out the same process. I looked at conventions of both magazines and websites and went on to display examples of both on my blog. I used these as a guide for creating my own products. I feel as if both ancillary texts reflect existing products and are close to authentic websites and billboards.

What are the conventions of a billboard advertisement?

Billboard advertisements are large outdoor structures that are mainly found near busy road sides.

Conventions of a billboard advertisement include:

• Logo
• Bright and attractive colour scheme
• dominant title
• clear and large images
• good layout
• date of release
• company logo
• easy to read font
• informative

Through researching existing products and looking into the various different codes and conventions I believe I have managed to create a professional looking advertisement. Various different conventions such as bold colour schemes, large title, logo, release date and bold writing are all visible and present on my own work allowing it to take a more professional form and look identical to existing billboard advertisements. I believe that my own work is suitable to stand and compete against exsiting products.

Most billboard advertisements are very bold and colourful, due to the nature and theme of my work it made it harder for me to create a genuine looking advertisement. I also had to think about how I was going to make my advertisement follow the theme of the rest of my magazine. I had to change and manipulate certain areas of my work in order to reach a professional outcome. I believe that I managed to carry my work out in a way to give me the best possible outcome. I changed areas such as the images, sizing and font in order for my billboard to not only fit my work but the conventions of billboard advertisements too.

During my research process, I looked at the common conventions found within regional magazines. I went on to look at existing magazines and how they use or manipulate the common conventions in their existing products. I gained ideas and inspiration from this process and incorporated these into my own work. I also looked into general conventions found in all magazines, these include features such as barcodes, release date, issue number and price. All of these feature on my work. I wanted to include these in order to my magazine seem as authentic as possible and replicate existing products. I worked these conventions into my front cover and I believe that it helped to dramatically improve the work and would stand out and compete with other existing magazines on the shelves.

Regional magazines carry the same, if not similar codes and conventions as other genres of magazines. These conventions include:

• Masthead (title of the magazine)
• Cover Stories - What the magazine will feature
• Barcode
• Advertisement
• A large background image that fills the majority of the front cover.

During my planning process, I also stated that I would use a colour scheme within my work that reflects the magazines content. I planned to use earthy colours such as greens, browns and blue’s in order to support the subjects of my pages. I have use this throughout my work and is evident in both my magazine and ancillary texts. Throughout my magazine, all of my original images have been used, these also feature on both of my ancillary texts. I also had a main set of images that support my main article that are the focus in all of my works. I believe that this has helped me massively when creating links between my main body of work and my ancillary texts as it clearly shows that the ancillary’s are related to the magazine. All of this has added together to create my theme. I believe that this has allowed me to create clear and strong links within my work. The strong theme is also effective as it creates great aesthetics and draws in readers.

Billboard Advertisement Final Edit

Question Two

Final Edit of Magazine Front Cover

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

From the beginning, I planned to have a set theme that would run throughout my work made up of these features. I have used various different fonts within my work but the font styles used have been carried through and used on both my magazine pages and ancillary texts. After choosing which fonts were suitable for my work I applied them but only in certain ways. I set one font aside for my headings, another for subheading and another for my main text body. This allowed me to keep a constant theme running throughout all my work and show links. I also created a logo for my work using font. I chose a special font for my magazines title, Nottinghamshire Life. I made this into a logo and applied it to the front cover of my magazine, the top of my website and my billboard advertisement. This clearly showed a strong link between all my works and gives audiences something to relate to when they see the logo as they will refer back to my magazine.

When carrying out the initial stages of making my magazine, I looked into how I could make links between my magazine pages and the ancillary texts in which support them. I researched into how other, existing magazines achieved this in order to give myself ideas on how I could create the links within my own work. I looked at how various different aspects could create the links, including fonts, colours, images and layout.

Question Four

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evidence of audience feedback

Example of completed survey

Based on a sample of fifteen

Various different media technologies were used in my research process in order to display the information in which I had discovered. I have used different sites in order to present my work in effective and dynamic ways. I have used Prezi during this process as I needed a way in which I could present a large group of information separately but grouped together under the same title. I chose to use Prezi as I felt that I could achieve this using the technology. I was able to present the information clearly and make it easy for others to understand my work and navigate through the different sections of analysis with ease. I used similar sites, such as PowToon for the same reasons. I believe that this worked well as I achieve what I was aiming for. I also had many difficulties when trying to research certain parts of my work. I really struggled when it came to finding existing products to analyse. I had to use Google effectively in order to filter different searches until I was able to find relevant examples.

question three

To evaluate my work I used Prezi to act as a base for my work. I used Prezi’s functions in order to put my evaluation together. I personalised my work by using their functions to change fonts, colours and images. I also used the up loader provided by the site to display images and videos. To gain audience feedback for my evaluation I used Survey Monkey as this allowed me to gain quick and clear feedback from my audience. I was able to set up questions online. I then used email to send out the questionnaire to my audience. I also used a Nikon D3100 in order to carry out interviews. I used the camera to record clips of my target audience being interviewed.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

A similar theme occurred when I gained audience feedback for my billboard. My target audience believed that the advertisement was professional and effective. They also stated that they would definitely buy and read the magazine after viewing the advert. They liked all aspects of the board. My billboard advertisement also went down well with people outside my target audience. They stated that the board was very appealing and would make them think twice about possibly reading the magazine.

The feedback towards my final edits was positive as most liked the way in which my work looked, as well as the subjects within the project. Most believed that the articles and content of the magazine was suitable for the genre of the magazine and the theme created through fonts, colours and images supported the magazine and the ancillary texts well. While most of the feedback was positive, there were still improvements pointed out by my audience. Some believed that the colour scheme used in my work was too dark and didn’t portray the right atmosphere. Others also pointed out that my magazine seem too up-market and would put off a large amount of readers. From my audience feedback, I have learned that even if I follow conventions and create my work in my highest possible standard, it will never appeal to everyone. Although some feedback was slightly negative and critical, I believe that my work appeals to the majority of my audience.

When creating my actual magazine pages, I wanted to make my work seem as authentic as possible so I aimed to create the highest quality images as possible to present in my project. I used a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera to take all of my original images. This allowed to me to create the desired effect. I used my knowledge of photography and using the camera to get the best images possible. I used various different settings on the camera including shutter speed and exposure to take my images. I went on to use Photoshop to edit my images before inserting them into my work. This allowed me to push my images even further. I used Photoshop’s basic adjustments in order to correct areas of my images and adjust colouring. I used adjustments such as levels, brightness, contrast, shadows and colour. I also used Photoshop to construct and edit my magazine pages. As I had never used Photoshop to edit magazine pages, I began using YouTube in order to research different techniques that I could carry out on my work. One of the techniques I found out was how I could use stamps on Photoshop to create interesting effects and patterns. I used this to create the trail of paw prints seen on my double page spread. To put together my magazine I used various different tools and editing techniques in order to create a professional looking magazine. I used the text tool throughout my work to apply the writing onto my pages as well as many others of the basic tools on Photoshop such as the selector, shape tool, paintbrush and eraser. These tools allowed me to be accurate and concise when editing my pages. I used the same process to edit my billboard advertisement.

To edit my hyperlinked web pages I constructed a website using Weebly. I had never used Weebly before so I used the internet and looked online at various tutorials and video clips in order to give me ideas and inspirations on how to use the software. I used the software’s tools in order to put together my work. I use features such as the image up loader to get my images onto the site. I also used the slideshow feature to create the montage of images that features on my second hyperlinked page.

Overall my magazine was very popular with my audience. My target audience for my work is aimed towards an ABC1 audience of both men and women but towards people of middle age and above. To gain audience feedback for my magazine I began by sending out questionnaires to not only my target audience but to others too including peers, teenagers and young adults, in order to see if my work would appeal to a wider audience. I also interviewed people being classed as my target audience to get their accurate opinion. My magazine was a huge hit with my target audience as they loved the way in which the work looked as they found the front cover very appealing and professional. My audience was asked a range of questions and the answers were very positive. The majority o the people that were asked said that they would not only read the magazine but would recommend it to a friend or family member. My target audience was also asked if there any obvious improvements that could be made to the work but there was no suggested improvements. The photography and images were highly praised. I also asked others, outside my target audience to see if my work would appeal to others. The majority of the feedback was positive but there are a significant amount of suggested improvements compared with those in which I interviewed within my target audience. Areas such as images and fonts were highly approved of but other aspects of the work such as the colour scheme and content weren’t so popular. Some questionnaires that were returned stated the colour scheme as being too dark and unappealing. It was stated that the colour scheme didn’t suit the magazine and should have been much lighter in colour. Others said that the content of the magazine wouldn’t have been suitable for them and they wouldn’t have been interested in reading the magazine. It was suggested that more articles should be included that will attract a larger audience. Although there were many improvements and suggestions, most people said that they would recommend the magazine but wouldn’t actually read it themselves.

After reviewing both my magazine and billboard, my audience and others were asked about my hyperlinked web pages. My website was a success with many people including those considered being outside my target audience. The pages were described as being clean, professional and well put together. No improvements were suggested for this ancillary text and seemed to be a hit with most people.