Evaluation

My magazine has a multi-platform presence. It is both as a physical product and also online.

I have incorporated some of the conventions used on the Total Guitar magazine front cover, such as the promotional badge to lure my target audience. I also took inspiration from the first Kerrang double page spread I deconstructed with the main image/images on the top half of the page, and the article on the bottom. For my contents page I took inspiration from the Q magazine contents page I deconstructed with the one main image and all the page references on the side. I also did product placement to compare my front cover to others of the same kind.

I believe my magazine has a very recognizable house style, I used the orange, white and black colour combination throughout my magazine. I have also used a variety of different but consistent fonts throughout my magazine that connote heavy metal. My logo is the devil horn hand sign which is the most symbolic representation of heavy metal, I have used this on my front, contents and double page spread pages.

My magazine represents the type of person be they in their teens or in the forties who really love their music and enjoy listening to it and rocking out on full blast.

 I believe I have come a long way since my pre-lim task. I have developed my skills in Photoshop extensively and have greatly furthered my knowledge in the media and what conventions are used to create a great music magazine. And of course it looks a lot better!

My questionnaire which I gave to people I would consider my target audience showed me the best and most popular bands that they wanted to see featured in my magazine. Out of a selection of possible names for my magazine, Riff came out on top, so I listened to them and made that the name of my magazine. The colour combination I used for my magazine was not originally on the questionnaire, I only really found out it looked good was when I begun experimenting in Photoshop. When my magazine was finished, I showed people from my target audience each page, this is what they said...

James Richardson: "Brilliant, love the flames, aesthetically pleasing, It's also visually engaging, you have kept to the house style well, good use of unique images."

James Osment: "Like the bright colours! If I saw it in a shop I'd be engaged to buy it."

For making my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop CS4, CS5 (trial) and CS1.
For recording my videos I used CamStudio, and Windows Movie Maker to edit and render them. I decided to do video blog updates because I find it much easier to speak than to write and I enjoyed incorporating my skills with certain software into my coursework.
 For my deconstructions and my photo shoots I used Microsoft Powerpoint to upload them onto Slideshare, then from there onto my blog.