Task 7 - Media Producers/Directors (individual)

The purpose of this task was to gain a better knowledge of how key people in the magazine industry work. From our research into photographers and magazine editors we were able to gain a much more comprehensive understanding of what we wanted to include in our magazine and it gave us the opportunity to take inspiration from existing magazines and real life examples and implement aspects of their ideas into our own designs. 

Lucy's Blog: http://lucyswallowa2coursework.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/task-7-media-producersdirectors.html
Teddy's Blog: https://a2mediastudiesteddy.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/task-7-media-producersdirectors.html

TASK 6 - Audience Consumption (individual)

The idea of this task was to identify how and why people consume magazines, this was a great exercise as it gave us an insight into the magazine industry and also gave us the opportunity to get an idea of what our audience wants from us. 

below you can find a link to our 2 blogs: 

Lucy's Blog: http://lucyswallowa2coursework.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/task-6-audience-consumption.html 

Teddy's Blog: https://a2mediastudiesteddy.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/task-6-media-consumption.html 

Task 5 - MEGA RESEARCH / ANALYSIS (Individual)

This task was a task which encompasses everything that our magazine should include. It allows us to look at magazines which already exist in an attempt to identify what we should create. Through dissecting each magazine it has allowed us to identify what our magazines must include to live up to the standard of existing magazines. 

Lucy's Blog: http://lucyswallowa2coursework.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/task-5-mega-research.html

Teddy's Blog: https://a2mediastudiesteddy.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/task-5-mega-research-analysis.html

Task 4 : Analysis of other students' work

In order to gain a better understanding of what was expected from us we decided that it would be essential to look at other examples of student work. This was a great activity to do as it allowed us to see what we liked in other peoples work and also what we did not like so that we could use certain aspects we liked and avoid others which we disliked. This was a task which really gave us a guideline of what we had to create.

Task 3 : Branding

In this task we had to decide how to brand our own magazine. as one can imagine this is quite a difficult and complex task as it sets out who our magazine shall be marketed towards, its place in the market and it's purpose. In this task we had to look at how existing magazines create a brand and use that to formulate our own ideas of how our magazine should look.

Click the link below to view our presentation about branding:
http://www.emaze.com/@AOOIIZOCC/blank

After creating this branding powerpoint and a lot of deliberation, we realised we wanted to go for a slightly different concept due to the fact we felt it did not fit our target audience and thus we have tweaked a few aspects of our design. This new, revamped branding consists of a black and red colour scheme (still keeping to the 'London' look) opposed to the originally proposed 'underground map' idea. We both felt that it looked overall too childish and thus we have made the decision to go for a much more stripped back simple design as from our understanding it appeal to the audience much more so than the original idea. This is because it is our belief that the young adult prefers a much more sleek, clean look. In contrast we felt our original idea was a tad dated and therefore would appeal to a potential reader. 

Task 2: History of Ancillary Tasks (Individual)

In order to become better acquainted and gain a further understanding of our ancillary tasks (being websites and billboards) we decided that we would investigate a bit more into the history and uses of our chosen tasks. This activity allowed us to become aware of real life examples of our chosen tasks in the magazine industry and how to achieve the same in our own work. From doing this we were able to identify some of the key features, codes and conventions of both websites and billboards. Through doing this it really will aided us with the production of our websites and billboards. 

Below you can find 2 individual links to our personal blogging websites: 

Lucy's blog: http://lucyswallowa2coursework.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/task-2-history-of-ancillary-tasks.html

Teddy's Blog: https://a2mediastudiesteddy.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/task-2-history-of-ancillary-task-1-and-2.html

Task 1 : History of Magazines (Regional)

To see the history of Regional magazines follow the link below: 

History of regional magazines timeline | Timetoast timelines

From this task we have learnt that magazines have developed a lot over their history from the beginning of time when they were thin and flimsy to nowadays when digital copies are available to read on your tablet. This change highlights the fact that we have to create a magazine which is both unique from competitors and also modern and relevant so that people will be interested.

Furthermore, we have also learnt that fashion, events, celebrities, and places of interest are what we should focus on as they are what a reader would expect a regional magazine to feature. Our magazine must be current and relevant to the times in order for it to be successful with out target market of young adults and young professionals.