Our final front cover & contents page design

Front cover

Contents Page

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

The new technologies I have used during the construction of this product are:

• SLR camera

This enabled us to take professional looking photo's for our front cover and our contents page. It meant that if we took a photo of a person dancing then it would capture the movement in mid-air. This added to the lively, energetic nature of the magazine. This was a specific effect in which I would not of been able to do with an average style camera. However, I did find some of the functions on the camera slightly confusing and frustrating, for example: How to turn the flash off.

• Adobe Photoshop

This function was really good for editing photos, especially the photo of the model on the front cover. We learnt how to airbrush photo's using the 'spot healing brush' and how to use the 'magic wand' tool in order to cut out the background of photo's. Also, it had an easy way of moving and rotating pictures. However, I found that some of the functions on photoshop were very hard to master - such as the layering orders of the page. I feel that I will be able to master photoshop with consistancy.

• QuarkExpress Passport

This was very good for designing the contents page but I found it very confusing. It was similar to photoshop, yet a lot of the tools were hidden and I found it took a long time to do the smallest action - such as moving a photo. I did however, like the way you could set a picture to the size of a picture box.

• Scanner

We used the scanner to scan in photo's to upload onto our blog. This was very frustrating because the scanner was extremely slow which meant we did not have that much time to continue to edit our contents page and front cover.

• The Internet - dafont.com

This was a really good website which enabled us to find the perfect style font for our magazine cover and contents page. As we needed a house theme, we only needed to find around four different styles of font for each of the conventions although the fonts could not be inserted straight into our photoshop design - which was very frustrating. They had to be opened before the application which meant the computer would sometimes freeze.

Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

We adressed and attracted our audience with the use of layout, colours, font, the model and the tag lines. The layout of the magazine cover and contents page was like a collage. We used photoshop to cut round one picture of a girl doing the splits and positioned it across various other photos we had taken to give a care-free collage feel. The different types of photos we had taken were of students who resembled individualists/hedonists. We wanted models with a unique look and the model on our front cover had a lot of peircings, colours in her hair and a very different sense of fashion. This would appeal to our audience because they would be able to relate to the model.

We took several photos of different models. My favourite is the photo of Jordan Edge. He is propped against a brick wall and laughing joyfully. This would appeal to the audiences' 'live life now' side due to his relaxed expression and carefree stance. Another photo I like is a photo of James Gregory doing a one-armed handstand. I caught the image in motion and it looks like a professional dance move due to that. This also gives the magazine a lively, energetic feel and the dance move makes the reader want to be able to dance.
The font was very scrawly and resembled graffiti slightly. There was an image which represented barbed wire running through the text with I felt added the the significance of the title 'Break' as though the text was 'breaking out'. This connotes a force of rebellion, the dancer can break out of the norm of dancing if they reader the magazine.

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

My partner and I decided that our magazine was for lively youths who are inspired by break dance and music of a similar style to break dance, such as hip hop or dance. Therefore, we concluded using the demographic scale that our audience is:

• Male or female - a unisex magazine
• In the social group they belong to - B/C
• It is a college magazine so therefore they are 16-19

In the psycho graphic scale we decided they were:

• Hedonists - 'to play, or enjoy life now'
• Individuals - have their own unique fashion sense and own sense of what they want from life.
• Aspirers - they aspire to dance

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

My magazine resembles a real magazine because of the different conventions my partner and I used. The different conventions we used were:

• A large masthead with the title in bold , quirky writing to grab the audiences' attention
• Several screamers and puffs across the magazine, such as 'the number one dance magazine!'
• A main sell which draws the reader in - a chance to win a trip to meet the number one dance choreographer.
• House colours - bright pinks and greens which fit with our ambition of creating a stylish, youthful dance magazine. The lively colours represent youth and fun.
• A model as the backdrop of the magazine who fits with the style of the cover. She looks very punky, unique and like she does a lot of dancing which fits with the magazine style.
• A subheading with the tagline 'Breaking the mould of dance...' with an elipses to draw the reader into buying the magazine.
• In the contents page, we kept the house theme of vibrant pink and green which represented youth due to their energetic colouring.