Iona Spence-Dingle created a mock women's interest magazine as the final outcome for her media studies course. She researched existing "indie magazines" as inspiration. Iona developed a concept for a magazine targeting young, successful women interested in alternative lifestyles. Due to time constraints, she created a cover page, contents page, and perfume advertisement instead of sample articles. Iona incorporated minimalist designs and black and white photos to achieve an indie magazine aesthetic. Overall she was pleased with the finished product but wished she had more time and resources to include sample articles.

1. UNIT 21 MEDIA EVALUATION
Iona Spence-Dingle
APRIL 1, 2015
MEDIA BTEC

2. We were giventhe taskof creatinga final outcome based upon one of the aspects of media that we have studied during
the course:video,print,photography, andadvertising.Ichose to explore the world of print-production, as I felt that this
was mymost successful unit, and the unit that I enjoyed most. I immediately knew that I wanted to create some sort of
woman’s interest publication, but with a unique twist. I wanted to combine a variety of topics into one magazine for
youngwomen,sofirstly I brainstormed all sorts of ideas for different articles ranging from fashion, food, travel, beauty
and the arts.
In the beginningIintendedonactuallycreatingone ormore sample articles from the magazine, however time restraints
and difficulties in finding models made me decide to create a cover page, double page contents, and a mock-up advert
instead.Intermsof research,I usedthe internettofind publications that I felt I could draw insperation from for my own
magazine. I found that most ‘indie magazines’ focused a lot on the quality and asthetics of their artciles, instead of
printingaglossy‘celebritygossip’magazineonaweeklyormonthlybasis,theytendedto create a much more substantial
publicatonfourtimesayear.I decidedtotake thisapproachbecause I feltitwouldbe more of a challenge toauthentically
recreate, and I would prefer to focus on quality rather than quantity.
Here are some examplesof magazines that
I researchedinpreparationfor creating my
own indie women’s interest magazine. I
noticed that without exception the covers
featured one single image that had some
relevance to the primary article in that
issue. I wanted to adhere to this, but
instead of using the conventional A4 sized
formant, I chose to create an A5 sized
magazine, so that it was more convenient
for busy young women to store in their
bag, for example when commuting.

3. In termsof actually creating my magazine (cover page) the first
step was creating a very basic mock-up of my cover in word. I
used very simple shapes to block out how and where I would
arrange everything on the page. When it came to creating the
actual cover I made quite a few changes, such as the colour
scheme and placement of the articles. I felt the original colour
scheme was too ‘twee’, and I had to change the layout slightly
so that my main image wasn’t obscured by writing. However
overall Iam pleasedthatIretainedthe basicformatof mycover,
as planned, because it allowed me to adhere to the
conventional minimaliststyle of indie magazines. I also chose to
put my cover photograph in black and white to further channel
the indie genre, but I didn’t Photoshop the image overly,
because it was important to me that the cover model looked
naturally beautiful. I used the various fonts available on
Phototshop on my cover, and ensured that most of text
monopolised the left-hand third of the page, as is the
convention of the print industry. Finally, I included a barcode,
date, issue no. and price on my cover page, so that the final
design appeared authentic.

4. I predominantly used my own imagery on my contents page, and
entirely my own photography in the perfume advert. Again, I used
the Photoshopblackandwhite filter a lot, but chose not to work too
much onperfecting the photos, because I prefer to promote natural
beautyandthisalso reflectsthe more indie vibe of my publication. I
triedto make myarticles as relevant as possible to my readership of
young, successful women that are interested in a more alternative
lifestyle;Iincludedfeaturesonvintage fashion,andthe musicfestival
Coachella.The sky-blue colour scheme underpins the entire double
page spread,as I feltthatthisshade fittedthe spring/summer nature
of this issue.
For the perfume advert, I did some brief research (below) of typical
perfume advertsthatoftenappearinwomen’smagazines,thentried
to recreate this is my own advert. I think that I effectively used the
sheerfabricas a back-groundtothe bottle,andthe ‘Demeter’logoin
the bottom right corner also makes the advert more authentic
looking,howeveritwouldhave beenimproved by featuring a model
in the advert, as seen in the real adverts below.

5. Overall Iam happywiththe finishedproduct,howeverIregretnothavingenoughtime andresources(models) tobe
able to undertake the challenge of creatingsome articlestofeature inmymock-magazine. Inmyownopinion,and
frompeerfeedback,the strengthsof mymagazine are itsoverall aestheticappeal,andthe wayinwhichit istailored
to suitthe specifictargetreadershipof successful youngwomenwhoare interestedinamore alternative lifestyle.I
achievedthisbyexperimentingwithvariousdifferentcolourcombinations,extensive researchintothe genre,and
finallybyemployingafairlyminimalisticstyle.Manyof the imagesIusedI putin blackand white soas to make them
seenalmostvintage,whichfittedwithmyfeaturearticle of ‘SpringSummerVintage FashionHaul’.Ithinkthisworked
well because myclassmate,Tom,said‘the choice of colourandimagesisjustrightand appealstothe target
readership.’Tom’scritique wasthatI coulduse some more creative type-faces,particularlyinthe contentspage,so
thisissomethingthatI will investigateinfuture projects.
From myown perspective,IimprovementthatIwouldmake wouldbe touse a widerrange of images(thatI had
taken),sothat I didn’thave touse any fromthe internet,howeverinthiscase itwas impossible forme totake
photographsof a musicfestival orBrazil,althoughIcouldachieve similarimagesbyundertakingsome ambitious
photo-shoots.Time managementwasalsosomethingIstruggledwithinthisproject,sointhe future Iintendtostick
to my productionschedulealotmore strictlyso thatI don’tfall behind,andare able to produce more workina
restrictedtime frame.
I would like to
experiment with
some different and
more interesting
typefacesto improve
the overall look of
the page.
In the future I will
use purelymyown
photographs and
not rely on images
from the internet.
I am pleasedwith the articles that
I chose to feature because I think
there is a wide selection and they
all seem to appeal to my target
readership by focusing primarily
on fashion, beauty, lifestyle and
travel.
I like the overall look and feel of the photos
that I didtake, because the models I used felt
comfortable andrelaxed,andIthinkthis came
across in the photos. I am also pleased that I
gave the photos a vintage quality by putting
them in black and white.