Evaluations

My front cover is very typical of standard pop magazine design. It features a simple masthead and and image of someone making eye contact. The mast head i was quite pleased with, it is not too similar to any existing pop music magazines yet it still maintains a "pop" feel. I followed and stuck to any rules that i could find from existing magazines. Pink or red always featured heavily in covers that i looked at ( see Cover Analysis blogs) and so i really wanted to make sure i had at least some pink on my cover. I think that the most likely publisher of my magazine would be IPCmedia as they have a very wide variety of magazines aimed at women but not at younger aged girl. I think as they don't currently have any publications of the same type as my magazine but many slightly similar they would be most likely to publish "PopMania". My magazine would be stocked in all newsagents and shops like Whsmiths, it is not particularly expensive and as there is a gap in the market at the moment for a music magazine aimed at 11-15 year old girls i think it would do well in these shops.
My product as i have mentioned would be aimed at 11-15 year old girls and i think this is reflected in my cover. The pink background and the font i have used for the main flashes would appeal strongly to my target audience. I tried to use phrases that would draw the attention of my target audience and used things like "hottest guys" and "new love!" which would appeal to them and make them want to read more. I also used words such as "exclusive" and "exciting" to make the audience think that this magazine has things that others don't and that this is the one they should be using. I tried to avoid using any complex lexis as typically my target audience prefers simple vocabulary. Its layout is simple and conforms to the general pop magazine rules, i tried to fit as many stories onto the front cover as i could to make it appear as if the magazine was packed full of stories.
I enjoyed using InDesign and Adobe Photoshop in the process of making my magazine. InDesign was fairly straightforward and easy to use yet there was many things that could be done with it. I had some difficulty in learning how to use all the different tools but once i had accomplished that it was easy to do most things that i wanted. Adobe Photoshop i had a few troubles with as there is such a wide range of things you can do with it, it can be hard to achieve even the simplest things. Using the Magnetic Lasso caused me a some problems but once i had learnt all the little tricks it became a lot easier. That said i did enjoy using Photoshop and although i feel i have only scratched the surface in terms of what can be done with it, i also feel i have learnt a lot and definitely have gained a firm grasp of the simple functions of it.
From the Preliminary task to the finished product i have definitely learned a lot. Compared to my Preliminary task my design skills have definitely got a lot better, as have my confidence with InDesign and Photoshop. In the preliminary task i was not aware of the amount of careful and meticulous planning that goes into making a magazine, and this was a thing that i learned progressively throughout the task. I think my understanding of how important the target audience is has definitely changed. I now know that appealing to your target audience is the most important thing when designing a magazine, and any decisions made must be made with that in mind.