2. Before creating my magazine I had done in depth research of articles and layouts. This is evident from my research folder.
While I was analysing/researching articles (Reviews, Interviews, Feature articles and editors letters) I was taking plenty of
notes which would help me to write up my final articles. These notes consisted of conventions of each article and how it
links to the genre. Also if there is a constant common flow throughout the magazines. I kept in mind to identify the
content of each article, the layout and design. When analysing the content I made sure to identify if the text was official
or unofficial, primary or secondary, attributable or confidential.
Beforehand of starting the creative side I made a rough layout of my feature article pages adding grids and guides. When
I actually started to create the article on here there were certain things I changed in terms of the layout.
I created a plan before writing my articles up, this enabled me to have a rough guide of what I would write about in each
paragraph. However before doing my interview and writing it up, as a class we got the chance to have a practice
interview this helped me a lot because it gave me a tester of how to carry out an interview linking each question well.
For layouts I mainly looked though the NME magazine because it’s the same genre as my magazine Spectrum. Although
ideas in the NME magazine helped me enormously there were a few things that I chose to not make similar in my
magazine, for example the use of loads of colours. My magazine is an indie rock magazine which has a consistent flow of
a black and white theme and minimum colour.
Beforehand of starting the
creative side I made a rough
layout of my feature article pages
adding grids and guides. When I
actually started to create the
article on here there were certain
things I changed in terms of the
layout.
3. This magazine unit was combined with 4 teachers therefore time management was slightly difficult; I couldn’t give
each the same amount of time because of the different amounts of work load. However I did prioritise my time for
each in different ways, for example, I would plan to research on reviews in the lesson and attempt to finish this, if I
didn’t complete it then I would carry this on at home ensuring that piece of work is done and to great standard.
Whatever I planned and wrote down to get done in that day I was determined to get it done.
During my production I did review my work from time and time again, for example I wrote up my reviews and placed
them onto InDesign to finish my production however, there was quite a few gaps which needed filling up therefore I
wrote up an additional capsule review first on Microsoft word then pasted onto InDesign making sure I didn’t make any
text errors. After I had produced my magazine pages on InDesign I then again pasted all my texts into Microsoft Word
and proof read. If there was an area I was seriously stuck on I asked for assistance however I tried my upmost best to
come out with the solution and/or answer myself.
I would rate the use of the layout and design of making my magazine on InDesign a 9 out of 10 as I was able to use
many different tools with no difficulty to make my final product. I helped out my classmates that needed help also
which made me feel even more confident with myself. To create my magazine, I used Adobe InDesign – a programme
used by professional’s to construct music magazines (even the likes of NME, a well-established and popular magazine,
use this programme). I had never used this programme before, and so I found initially difficult to get to grips with.
However, once I got into it, I learnt a lot about how to professionally layout my magazine. I believe that this programme
was perfect for creating a music magazine, as any other software, such as Microsoft Publisher, would not have allowed
my work to look as professional as the final product was with InDesign. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to create
my magazine with ease. I found this programme quite easy to use, and through using this for my project I have learnt a
lot about how magazines are made.
4. In the process of creating my
magazine I did make a few
errors on the software however
I overcame them.
This is an example where the
text was flowing around
everywhere because the text
boxes weren’t linked. I then
learnt how to link text boxes
I would rate my creative abilities 8 out of 10 as it made me get in touch with my creative skills and my
photography and art skills and ideas. I asked my family and friends for advice on how well they think
my magazine is, and I got positive responses which made me pleased. My intentions was to present a
professional, well and neat magazine I feel like I have met that requirement however for the large
image I used on my feature article, the image was taken on a RAW format which enabled the image to
stay high quality but I then edited it and made a mistake by saving it as a jpeg not being able to go back
to my original file. When placing this image to InDesign it showed up as slightly fuzzy.
5. The language for my magazine is appropriate for my audience with an average age of 24. The language is formal how
its meant to be written in a magazine however to make it more interesting to read I made it slightly chatty to just do
the reader doesn’t get bored and it gets differentiated from a newspaper article. The use of a black and white theme
with minimum colour is effective because it allows the images to stand out. If there were a mix-up of colours it would
just make the magazine look messy or even “kiddish” which I didn’t want because one of my aims was to make the
target audience of my magazine obvious.
I have learnt many different skills in this assignment, such as improving the way I write articles and how articles are
written and the right style for each specific articles such as a feature, an interview and a review, how you have to
write this articles in a third person. In my feature I had to do research on the history of rock and indie rock music,
which made me more confident on my research with primary and secondary research. I have developed my skills
more in using InDesign. The improvements I could make are making my editor’s letter more colourful by adding an
image as it looks to empty with no images. Another change would be to make the pull quotes on my feature article
smaller and adding more text in as this area is large and is taking up a lot of space.
