Main Task: Post Production Feedback

I spoke to a few people to gain some feedback on what they liked and didn't like about my magazine. This allowed me to see if I was able to fully attract my target audience and to find out if I was to do this task again , what changes I should make.

Front Cover Feedback
Strengths:
"I like the layout and compliment of colours"

Weaknesses:
"Maybe make it more colourful on the front page? So it is more attractive and so it suits the kpoppy theme"

Contents Page Feedback
Strengths:
"Everything is looking good, I really like the way how you layout the picture and text. "

Weakness:
"Right~ this could actually just be me, but I find this contents page a little bunched together, I don't know if it is because of the big pictures or the amount of writing, it just seems a little compact.

Double Page Spread Feedback:
Strengths:
“I like the layout and design”

Weakness:
 “I think a more exciting font for the quote maybe?”

Main Task: Evaluation Question 7

 From doing my preliminary task, I feel I have improved largely in creating a magazine. One thing which I feel I have improved considerably is the use of magazine conventions and Photoshop. Looking back to my college magazine, I can see that I did not add a large amount of creativity in the front cover as a whole. For example, my cover lines were dull, did not stand out very much, and were on top of the photo, which I realise, does not look really appealing.

However, creating a preliminary task was extremely useful when creating my music magazine. For example, tools which I used in the preliminary task were also used in my final product. Also from creating the preliminary task, I feel it has helped me to know how to attract my target audience and what to add or not add when creating my final product.

Also, when creating the preliminary task of the contents page, I had learnt how to use more space and colour, in my college magazine contents page, I did not use a large amount of space and colours, which made the product look boring and not very attractive. 

Main Task: Evaluation Question 6

Throughout the process of making my product, I have learnt many things about technology when creating my magazine. In the process of creating my magazine, I used the Canon EOS 400D to take my images in, however, as I have never used the camera before, I seemed to struggle as I found it difficult on focusing, due to this, the pictures I took were blurry, therefore, I had to retake the photos, so I switched to an original digital camera, which explains why my pictures may not be of the highest quality. 

 Another technology I used and have learnt many skills from is Adobe Photoshop CS5. I had already had some experience of using Photoshop Elements as I have the program at home and use it to edit photos. I found using Photoshop CS5 much more useful in manipulating my photos as there were more features compared to Photoshop Elements. 

 I used a variety of tools on Photoshop when creating my magazine products. One tool I used to manipulate my front cover image is the colour balance tool. This is because the photo I had taken was not colourful enough to suit my genre of K-Pop, so using this tool I changed the background squares from brown to red. 

From some of my drafts, I had realized that my cover lines were not bold enough and did not stand out. This is when I discovered the drop shadow in the blending options. Even though adding a drop shadow is a small detail, it had made a big difference.

A tool which I found extremely useful when making sure my contents page text were even was the grid tool. At first I did not know this tool was there, so when lining up the page numbers for my contents page, they were not necessarily straight. However, after using this tool, it has allowed me to make my page number more even.

Main Task: Evaluation Question 5

I believe I have my magazines fits and attract my target audience. Firstly, I think my front cover attracts my audience. One way in which I think I have attracted my audience is my selling line, “The one and only k-pop magazine in the UK”. For k-pop fans, which are my main target audience, it will attract them into wanting to buy my magazine as there is no other k-pop magazine available for them.  Another way in which I feel I have attracted by audience using my front cover is the model I have chosen, this is because I have chosen a model with a similar age to my audience meaning my audience can relate themselves with her. 

 Another way I have attracted my target audience is the free posters inside offer. Through my audience research, one of my questions were “Would you buy the magazine more if there were freebies such as posters inside the magazine?” many replied they would buy the magazine if there were free posters available.

Also I feel I have attracted my audience as I have used the font called Mtulb which the audience liked best for my masthead when conducting my audience research. This is important as if the audience did not like the look of the front cover masthead, they are less likely to buy the magazine, and I have also added bright colours to my masthead which is appealing to my audience when deciding whether or not to buy my magazine.

The cover lines I have used I feel have attracted my target audience. I include a range of cover lines such as Official Top 40 Songs of the month, as my target audience is teenagers; they are more likely to want to know the latest songs and to find out if their favourite song is in the top 40. Another cover line which I feel which attract my audience is k-pop stars in London 2012, as it is really rare for k-pop stars to come to London, adding a cover line as such will attract them into wanting to know what stars will be coming.

Another way I have attracted my audience is the use of colours. The colours I have chosen are red and yellow. From my audience research, I found out that bright colourful colours would attract them; therefore I feel that yellow and red would be suitable. The colours also stand out from the image I have used, which allows the cover lines to be read easily.  

I also feel that the price of my magazine will attract my audience, I have made a special offer for the first magazine of £2.99, from my audience research, I found out my audience are most likely to pay up to £3.00 for the magazine, so adding this offer would attract my audience into wanting to buy the magazine. 

Main Task: Evaluation Question 4

As shown in my audience research, my target audience for K-Star is targeted at teenagers ages 13 to 19.  This is because K-Pop has a large hip hop style to the music; my magazine fits and appeals to this particular target audience.

K-Pop is short for Korean Pop, meaning that the majority of the songs will be in Korea. In terms of ethnicity, even though K-Pop is in another language and is mainly known as an “Asian Thing”, K-Star is targeted to all races and gender. This is because it would allow magazine to be more reachable to any audience who may listen to K-Pop. I have done this as my magazine will contain latest k-pop stories from Korea which will be translated in English so that the audience will be able to read it.