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1960's 70's and 80's subcultures were a big influence on social groups, mod being one for example. Someones taste in music meant they dressed in a certain way and hung out in certain places. Mod was one of the subcultures which became popular in the 1960's. Although nowadays there isn't as big of a influence by Mod as they used to be, I believe there is a big enough audience for my publication.

My media product represents a very particular social group. They are a young group of female and males (20-25 years old) who are either studying in university or in their first time full job. Whatever they are doing it involves being creative. Their main creative interest is music. They attend many music events most weekends ,especially mod themed, which is where they meet people and socialise. My audience group social calendar also is full in the day with visits to cafes for coffee and Panini's inbetween work breaks and after uni lectures. Their social group is a large one which is made up of female and males who are all very individual.

One thing that individualises them as a person is clothes. They have a keen interest in fashion and are inspired by street style trends and enjoy shopping both in store and online regularly. They have wide range of clothing which vary from highstreet to vintage. Common items found in their wardrobes are well-wore levis and baggy vintage shirts.

My social group have a relaxed outlook on life. They are enjoying their young lifestyle which is full of creative work and socialising. They might be involved in relationships with people with common interests as them by their main priority is going out with friends.

As a young group of people they are fully involved in the use of technology. They use it as a creative platform to discover mod events to attend and to communicate with friends. My audience update their social networks regularly, letting people know what coffee shop they are in or what new clothes they have brought.

Going back and comparing my preliminary task to my final pieces I can see a considerable amount of improvement made. I believe I have learnt in dept the skills needed to create a professional magazine cover, contents page and double page spread and have applied them successfully.

Our preliminary task given to us was we have to complete a magazine cover and a contents page for a school magazine. As I attend school I felt I had enough knowledge surrounding my subject to create a cover and contents page. Also being in that environment gave me the opportunity to take suitable photographs. However, as I learnt more and more about music magazines, this abled me to look back at my school magazine and spot what could be easily improved. This is because I have learnt many skills surrounding magazine production including editing and the conventions.

My two front covers:

What I believe the first obvious improvement is the main image. The school magazine has two students modeling the cover, although this is suitable and is a clear photograph I believe it isn't a strong enough. One model is looking away from the camera, showing the audience there is something more interesting going on. This takes the attention away from the magazine, making people not want to read it. However on my music magazine all models are using direct mode of address. This catches peoples eyes and really draws them in. Now the target market has noticed the magazine, this will lead them to take more notice of the magazine, hopefully they begin to read the taglines ect. This shows in the process I've learnt what makes a good photograph for a magazine.

I've also learnt how editing can enhance a image. On the school magazine, no editing was used on the image. Although there is good use of nature lighting for the magazine, I believe the background would be cropped out more, bringing in more attention onto the models. For my music magazine, i learnt editing skills such as layering images to create the perfect photograph. This skill allowed me to swap the face of one of my models in the band for her face in another image. I did this because her facial expression was stronger in an photograph however the other models looked the strongest here. The outcome was successful enough that I choose it for my magazine cover. I also added in coloring effects on the photograph to make it suitable for my genre of music. My research before in mod and music magazines allowed me learn what editing effects would make a suitable photograph for my genre. This was something I didn't even think about when I was creating my school magazine.

One of the main components of a magazine cover is the taglines. If these are appealing then more people will buy the magazine, Looking back at my school magazine, some of the tag lines were not readable. The colour of the fonts struggled to stand out against the background. Also the fonts chosen were not strong enough, they didn't look exciting and therefore people wouldn't bother reading them. In the progression of my music magazine I tried out many fonts before deciding which ones were successful. I believe all fonts used were bold and easily readable. They also suited my genre of mod and the colours chosen fitted in with the house style. These are all essential things I have learnt about magazine production.

I also believe the taglines themselves improved. On the music magazine, there were more rhetorical questions, this allowed the reader to become more involved as they were personally questioning the subject. This created a bond with the magazine which would lead more people into wanting to the buy the issue. The music magazine taglines were much more developed, making them much more interesting than the schools "exam top tips" for example.

I also learnt about the importance of creating logos and slogans for the magazine. All these elements the readers would become familiar and create a connection with. For example, if a reader know what the modernist logo looks like they will easily be able to find it in a store.

Two Contents Pages:

This progression has also taught me the elements needed to create a professional contents page. Looking back at my school magazine, the page was left with a lot of spare room which could be filled with photographs and information about the magazine. When the reader opens the magazine, this might be the next page they look at and so it needs to be just as exciting as the cover.

I've learnt to develop the features section by including captions. Giving that extra piece of information will make the reader want to read the feature even more. Also linking the photos with the page number makes it a more visibly exciting way to label them instead of just having one list.

Both covers and contents pages for both music and school magazine were created on Microsoft publisher. This shows how much I improved by learning all new skills around magazine production lead to creating a more professional, attractive magazine cover and contents page using the same program.

Double Page Spread:

I didn't create a double page spread for my preliminary task so I couldn't compare however I have never created a double page spread before so all skills I applied were learnt in the progress. Studying other magazines allowed me to discover conventions which would work for me. These included having bold quotes in between paragraphs as well as picking suitable fonts to make it a readable but exciting feature.