Evaluation

Audience Feedback
I asked some people from my target audience so assess my final product, and these are their responses:
"I really like this magazine. It looks like a typical Rave magazine, but
it also looks different from all the rest too. The colours are really bright and eye-catching, and the feature is very professional. However, I think the images could be better and the layout could be better thought-out."
Heather, aged 19

"Wow, that's colourful! You couldn't miss that a mile off! I love the title for the feature; what a great play on words! I also love the images; they are really well choreographed. I think there should be a wider range of images, but other than that, I think it looks amazing!"
Alex, aged 21

"I'm not really a fan of Rave music; I find it repetitive and annoying. But if I saw this on the shelf in Tesco's, it would definitely catch my attention. Having said that, I think that if I did this coursework, I would have researched more into the genre of Rave. I don’t' think this candidate has, and if she has, I don't think it shows very well; it seems just a bit stereotypical to me."
Tara, aged 17

"Because I am a Graphics student, I don't think this candidate has used Adobe InDesign to its full potential; there's a lot of cool tools that they could have used to make this magazine better. I understand that they had never used the program until now, but I think that they could have used some time after school to familiarise themselves with it. Having said that, I really do like the magazine they have made; I love the colour scheme (who knew that black, white, hot pink and lime green worked well together!) and the props and costume are awesome!"
Chris, aged 18

Similarity to Other Magazines
In terms of colour scheme, I think that using bright colours like green and pink against equally striking colours like black and white is very much like MixMag – they are known for their bright blue, purple and pink against white.
However, unlike the magazines I have researched, I have chosen to place the other bands featured in the magazine at the bottom of the front cover, whereas on DJ Magazine and MixMag, it has been placed in the bottom left corner so that when a magazine is stacked on a shelf, this is in full view, attracting the audience to buy it.

Representing the Target Market
I think that I have a represented the target market of my magazine quite well. I chose to use pink as well as green in my colour scheme so that it could appeal to the female market as well as the male market.
However, I feel that the main article appeals more to females rather than males, considering the fact that the cover star is a female and the article mentions her being a girl. This means that males might not be as interested in the magazine as females, but I feel that Rave is genre in which looks and gender do not matter to the audience; from what I gather, the actual music seems to be more important.

Existing Magazines
As I have mentioned in my research, both DJ Magazine and MixMag are very similar to the type of magazine I have made, but these magazines are more general than my magazine, and they tend to focus on different branches of the Rave genre so that they appeal to a greater audience. However, my magazine is a bit focused, which means that it will not have such a large audience.
I think that Development Hell would probably produce my magazine because it is similar to MixMag. They completely changed MixMag in 2005; they improved the production of it and made it less of a niche and more appealing to females and to a younger audience. I think that they would like the freshness and brightness of my magazine and would want to add it to their repertoire.

Audience
I decided that my audience would be both males and females ranging from the age of 16 – 25 who are interested in Rave/Disco music. I think that I have addressed this audience well by using colours that both genders would appreciate and by making my magazine look at youthful as possible without looking too youthful.
Also, I have tired to appeal to the age bracket by offering a free CD with the magazine. I decided to do this for two reasons; firstly, most of the people that would buy this sort of magazine would be students, so they would appreciate a free CD so they didn't have to download it off iTunes and spend money. Secondly, offering a free gift is a very good way of enticing people to buy any magazine, and seeing as Rave magazines tend to be more focused on the music than celebrities, I thought that a free CD would be a good idea.

What have I learnt?
From this project, I have learnt a lot more about Adobe programs. Before I started, I had only used Photoshop a few times and I have never even used InDesign before. However, now I feel like I can use both these programs by myself with some amount of confidence, which will help me in other projects I will do next year.
Also, I have learnt that with a project like this, time management is very important. Although there were some issues that occurred that were beyond my control like illness, I feel that my time could have been utilised much more efficiently in this project. If I were to make this magazine again, I would have used my spare time to make components at home and use my time at school to put them together on InDesign because this program was unavailable to home.

Preliminary Task
Compared to my preliminary task – which was to design a magazine for the school – my music magazine is a vast improvement. For my school magazine, I used Corel Paint Shop Pro X for everything, which is a very basic version of Adobe Photoshop. Using such an amateur program meant that the overall look of the magazine was not as good as it would have been if I had used the Adobe Package.
In addition, I feel that with my music magazine, I have considered the target audience more compared to my school magazine project. Before, I decided on things that I would want to see in a magazine, not what my target audience wanted. However, in this project, I have made sure that everything I did suited the target audience while still thinking about the aesthetics of the magazine.

Week Beginning 21st March 2010

I have not quite finished my contents page, but I think that if I stay behind after school sometime next week, I should have it finished. Overall, I think my magazine looks okay, but it's not as good as some of the others in the class, which is making me feel a little worried about my personal grade. However, I did manage to do most of by myself with little help from teachers and such, and I have learnt a great deal from doing it independantly.

Week Beginning 15th March 2010

I have now started my contents page. I made a title. I was originally going to go for a 'contents' title, but I thought that this didn't fit with the genre of the magazine, so I changed it to 'This Week...', which is a bit more grown up and suits the magazine better.
Next week, I aim to have most of the components made, but I don't know if this will be entirely possible, seeing as I have a lot of other work to do for my other subjects.

Week Beginning 8th March 2010

I have now completely finished my feature pages to a stanard that I am happy with. I had a bit of trouble with the title, meaning I had to do it again, which means that all I got to do in regards to the contents page was to draw a rough sketch of the layout on paper, but this means that I have a wekk to change my mind and play around witht he layout on paper before I start working on it next week.

Week Beginning 1st March 2010

I have nearly finished my feature. I have written the actual interview (which I did a long time ago), I have edited the pictures and I have assembled them on Adobe InDesign. All i have to do now is check that everything is of a good standard and make sure that my teacher agrees that it is suitable for the genre of magazine I have chosen to focus on.
Next week, I aim to completely finish my feautre pages and I aim to start my contents page. I don't expect to get much done next week, but even just making a rough sketch of the layout on paper will be enough for me to start the week after or in my spare time after school.

Week Beginning 22nd February 2010

It was impossible for me to access my coursework this week because it was Half Term and the school was closed. However, I have Adobe PhotoShop at home, so I was able to make some more components in my spare time. This means that hwne I return to school, I will be ready to start using Adobe InDesign and I will not have to waste valuable school time making components.

Week Beginning 8th February 2010

Unfortunately this week, I was held back by illness, so I wasn't able to attend school and therefore lost valuable time putting my front cover together. This now means that it is half-finished because although I have Photoshop CS3 at home, I do not have Adobe Indesign. Despite my ailment, I managed to get a head start on my feature page, which means that I will be able to finish m feature pages before the deadline and then I am able to go back to my front cover and improve it.
Regardless of the time I lost, I would have gone back to my front cover and improved it because I hope to gain more knowledge and experience of Indesign while I made the rest of my coursework.

Week Beginning 1st February 2010

I began to piece together my front cover this week, as I had all of the components made to a level in which I was happy with. This was quite a difficult task because I got a bit frustrated with Indesign, despite having numerous tutorials and looking on the Internet and asking friends for help, but I eventually got used to using the program and was able to put together my front cover.
I was a little distracted this week with my other subjects, so I didn't manage to do a lot at home in my own time. However next week, I aim to finish my front cover completely so I can start on my feature pages.

Week Beginning 25th January 2010

This week, I went to see the Adobe Indesign expert at school. Although I didn't manage to get any time to do any work in lesson time, I found his tutorial very useful and it has given the confidence to us Indesign on my own. Indesign is still a very complex program, but it is good to know that I can get help when I need it.
I managed to use Photoshop in my own time to catch up on the lesson time I missed when I was with the Indesign expert. I made the masking tape banner using a picture of masking tape that I took myself, and I made the circular Free CD motif. I don't know where I will place these on my front cover, but this is something that I can think about next week.

Week Beginning 18th January 2010

Once I had finished editing my pictures appropriately, I began to make the title of the magazine; Distortion. I wasted time trying to find the right font to use, and this slowed me down as I didn't get to do anything else. Because of this, my time management this week was not very good, but I will make sure that I catch up in my own time.
I decided to have a trial run on Adobe Indesign before I use it for my coursework, but I found it very difficult to use and very confusing. Next week, I will look in the Internet for help and tutorial videos to help me as well as improving my time management in order for me to reach the deadline.

Week Beginning 11th January 2010

This week, I began to edit my pictures on Adobe Photoshop CS3. I decided to use this program because I have some experience with using it when I make graphic art in my spare time, and I use it to add effects to my photography.
I plan to use Adobe Indesign to actually design my magazine, as it is a more professional program and will ensure that I get the best results.
So far, I have had no problems with both time management and the programs I have chosen to use, but I anticipate that I will have problems with Indesign, as it is a program that I have not used before.