Advanced production log of progress

I have not posted anything on my blog for a while because i have been busy sorting out my UCAS form. However, i have continued working on my actual magazine.Over the last couple of weeks i have been working on my Front cover and my egg advert. My front cover is very nealry finished but i still have to change the font coulours. This is because although i had used the colour on the rim of the tea pot to show continuity,the colour blends into the back ground too much and makes it really hard to read.
I have my last photoshop lesson tomorow in which i will find out how to put the text behinde the top of the image because, at the momment the text is obscuring the images and you cannot tell what it is.
I have also been working on my Egg Advert i have been neatning up the images of the chickens.I have also tryed to give the chickens facial expressions in order to show that they are sad and then happy.Originally the layout of the advert had the text like in a fairey story.My reason for this was that it was suposed to be like the NSPCC stories where the audience hear stories of these abbandonend animals and then empthaise with them(in my case the Aduience will buy the lyons eggs).
However in the actual advert i am having to come up with another phrase that conveys the message, but it fewer words .This is because adverts do not have that much text in them,and the audiance wont stop to read the text.They need to be drawn in predomenetly by the images. This means that i have chosen to represent cruelty through images e.g the use of a giant foot stamping on the chickens,this again adds huomour to the advert.In regards ot the text used on the advert I am still trying to find a way of getting the message across in fewer words.
I have also put a hay background on the advert which has connatations of farms and rural settings which makes the link between the chickens and there normal sourroundings.This also has connatations of summer,much like my hole magazine in terms of the colours used,it has a very fresh summury feel to it.I am pleased with both pages so far but i need to work more on the text on both pages because i dont think the colours look right.I will also need to include an image of the egg box on the advert.

Log of production

On my contents page i had an image of a bottle of ketchup to link to the feature article 'there will always be a place in my kitchen for ketchup'. However i have decided to get rid of this image because i already have images of sweet and unhealthy foods on the contents page. For example the meringue. Because the ethos of my magazine is about having fun with food but also being about eating healthily. I feel that the ketchup has connotations of McDonald's ,fast food and unhealthy diets. This would therefore portray the wrong message to the audience.
Therefore i will replace the image with an image of Spaghetti ,which also makes a link to another feature article of my magazine called 'Spaghetti is spurring you on'. Also it is a more healthy food.

Log of production

Last week i took more pictures to go on my contents page. I photographed the bread, the messy meringue and the image of the bottle of ketchup.This means that i now have all of my images ready to use.During this week i have also has another photoshop lesson, which was helpful because i have discovered a way of putting the masthead in the background of the image, because at the moment the top of the image is obstructed by the masthead, it looks slightly messy.I have not yet done work to the final lay out of the pages because, i have not had time.

Log of production

Log of production

This week i have been working on the final images i will be using. I have been improving them on photo shop for example i cut around the image of the chicken more neatly. I have also taken the image of the bread that will go on final contents page, to replace the internet image i have on my mock up at the moment.
I have also had my second school photo shop lesson which has been helpful because, i have used that time to work on the images. I am pleased with the images that i have taken for my magzine because they all convey the idea of not being too perfectionist about cooking,they potray a very home made style of cooking which is what my magzine is about. I will have to mess around with the image on photoshop to make it lighter.

Second Mock up of Magazine

I have changed the background to white,however there is still to much text used.There is a second page to this advert but i have not been able to load it on to the blog.Again i will change the background colour because it looks too bland and does not help to catch the audiences eye.
This is the ingredients page for the chocolate cake. The changes i have made to this are that, i have made the background white, as opposed to the pink back ground i had before. Although the pink suggested fun,most contents pages do not have a bold block colour as the background to their contents page. Also i do not have a strong enough reason to break the conventions.I have made the font colour of the of the serving suggestions a darker brown. This is in the same font used for the titles of the sections. I have changed the Layout of the serving suggestions to make it look like an after thought written on by the chef,written in messy continuous prose. This again portrays the less pretentious attitude portrayed through my magazine.I have also changed the after thought about the icing to the same coulour as the masthead because again it keeps the continuity.The tag line has also been changed to a blue font to show continuity of coulours through out.





This is the second version of the contents page,this still does not have the real images on. This is because for the moment, i am focusing on the layout of the page and putting in place the features of a contents page as opposed to making to putting the correct images on and making them fit the page.This is because at the moment it does not really look like a contents page. I have also added more features of my magazine onto the contents page, e:g more recipes and feature articles that would appear in my magazine.I have changed the layout of the contents, so that the magazines contents is divided up into sub headings .This makes it easier for the audience to locate what they want in the magazine. This is a generic feature of any magazine.I have kept the font for the title of the ingredients page, the same as the font used for the original masthead and the original contents page. This is because it has connotations of being simple but elegant.Much like the food in my magazine.I have continued the element of humour by, using the tag line like the serving suggestions on a food Product 'Best read hot' and the phrase at the bottom of the contents page like a warning label on bottles.'warning may contain words'



This is the second mock up of the front cover with the my own image that i will be using.This has therefore set the colour pallet for my Magazine.i have also changed the font and colour for the Masthead because it is more in keeping with the colours used through out the magazine so it creates a sense of continuity through out.

Advanced production :first mock up of pages of magazine

This is the first ingredients page contents page) for the magazine. I am pleased with the font for 'Ingredients' because it matches the font used for the mast head on the front cover.I have used lots of literary devices for the titles of articles and the recipes that the magazine will list.I have also used the bright blue background to reinforce the element of fun throughout the magazine.These images are not the real images that i will be using but they represent the idea.





This is the first recipe page that i did i chose the fuchsia pink back ground colour because it is a vibrant colour which represents having fun with food.The font for 'Chocolaty goodness' and 'serving the cake' works well because it is almost as though the letters have been piped in with a piping bag as you would on a chocolate cake. the choice of font for the 'TOP SECRET' works well because it has connotations of being exactly that. The 'Serving suggestions' work well because it targets both people who are in denial about their healthiness, and people who see chocolate cake as something to be treasured. The tag line also represents the humorous side of my target audience.
This is the first mock up of the egg advert,the idea is that it is suppose to be like an advert for the NSPCC,whereby it tells the story of the deprived chickens who have lead such an awful life and desperately need the help of the customers, and that by using the fairy story type layout for the text the and the picture of the sad and happy chickens the audience are suppose to empathize with the chickens and buy Lyons eggs. The background colour is suppose to have connotations of hay and being on a farm.However it is suppose to be lighter then that but, it would not print out like that.






This is the first mock up the Front cover of my magazine ,which i produced on power point. However,this is not the real image i will be using. Therefore it does not reflect the colour scheme and feel of my magazine. This was just done as an experiment to test out the different fonts i could use and, the way I might lay out the Font cover.

Log of progress

After showing my ingredients page to my teacher he has suggested that i should look at lifestyle magazines to look at how they lay out their pages. He has also said that i need to vary the size of images used.For example give the largest image on the page to the most important feature article of the magazine, represented on the contents page.This is so that it draws the readers in.This is also important because ,there is a lot of blank space on the page at the moment which needs to be filled up.Because my magazine is weakly, in order to keep my readership, as well as serving its purpose,the magazine will have to be good value for money and blank spaces represent the idea that you are paying more for what you actually get.

Advanced production log of work

During the half term i did another version of my mock up, i worked on all four pages of my magazine. Looking at the advice that my teacher had given to me about the lay out of the pages in magazines.Lat week i worked on my front cover again because i had to change the text because it was to small.this presented a problem because i did the front cover on photoshop and saved it as a j.peg in order to bring it into school.
However this meant that i could not change what i had originally done so i had to go back into photoshop and change it. I also had a few problems when it came to printing it out because because it cut the top of the masthead and release date off.by re doing the mock up and using the real image for my front cover it allowed me to see that the image effects the hole feel of the magazine. I am happy with the front cover because it conveys the idea of being a bit quirky and having fun with food which is the basis of my magazine.

I also worked on my contents page(ingredients) I changed the lay out of my page and the font size. but i have not yet taken the real images that that will go on the contents page.

i also worked on my Egg advert,i have changed the lay out of the advert so that it is on a double spread because i wanted to make the image of the chicken sitting on the egg larger. i have also changed the back ground colour to white because because you don't see many adverts with a full background of color. also, by making the background colour white the images stand out more. As i did not do the mock up of the advert on photoshop, but powerpoint i was trying to find a way of blending the phtoshoped images, with the background on powerpoint.I did this by using the blend tool on the tool bar.This hides the boxses that are around the images,this means that they now look part of the advert as oppsed to being added on. I also need to cut out the images of the chickens more neatly on photopshop for the final copy.

I have also worked on my Recepie page i have chaned the background colour from pink to white because the bright pink is to strong that it detracts from the focus of the page which is the image of the choclate cake. i have also changed the font used for the section about serving suggestions to a small dark brown font(bush script std) undermeath the recepi to protray the idea that its an after thought.I also changed the coluor of the tag line to match the coulr of the plate which the cakes sit on.

Advanced production log of prgress

As i had already done a rough mock up in the summer holidays i was able to get feed back from my teachers as to how i should improve it.because at that stage it did not really look like a magazine,because i had not borrowed many of the conventions of magazines. Getting the input from the tachewrs was helpfull because, it meant i could move forward with the coursework thnking about how to improve it. During this week i have prodcued another mock up of the front cover of the magazine on photoshop.I have also taken the image of the chocloate cupcakes that will be on the front cover.This will be the same image used for my 'choclatey goodness recepie'i have chosen to use cupcakes as opposed to a hole cake (as i said i would in the first mock up) because its more cost effective for me and they are qucker to make, which is benfical to my target audiance who dont have a lot of time.Also this week. I am pleased with how the image of the chocloate cakes has turned out and it shows how by changing the image on the front cover,the tone of the hole magazine changes. I have been comming up with possible logos for my lyons eggs advert but i haven't decided on one yet because they all look to complicated and need to be simplfied.

Advanced prodcution Institutional research

The publishers that would publish my magazine would be BBC Magazines .This is because they also publish a range of Magazines For example the top gear magazine.This makes reference to an earlier post where i talked about the idea that top gear use humour to make the program and the subjects talked about,more interesting and inclusive for women who might see top gear as a stereotypical mans program. BBC Magazines also publishes GoodFood Magazine this was one of the Magazines i showed respondents as part of my Audience research.My results showed that my respondents preferred GoodFood Magazine and said that it inspired them to cook.Another Food Magazine that is published by BBC Magazines is Olive, this is the only other Food Magazine published by BBC magazines but again is quite pretentious with the use of the image of the mushrooms on the front cover and because the front cover has been divided up into blocks of colour it again makes the magazine seem less enticing .This shows that my Magazine would have a place in BBC Magazines because it is the only food Magazine that that is about having fun with food and not being afraid to try new dishes so their is no direct competition. However the magazines i .e OLIVE do talk about not needing to spend a lot of money to have good and nutritional food which is one of the points that i wanted to make in my Magazine.

BBC publications is also a suitable publisher for my Magazine because they 'provide a range of quality publications you can trust.Whether you are just browsing through this website or have a specific interest in mind you'll be rewarded with a range of magazines that will stimulate your mind and enrich your life in ways that only the BBC can.'(quote taken from the BBC Website) This shows that it would be good publisher for my Magazine because my magazine is about being a down to earth food magazine a 'Quality' Magazine which is what my target audience want.

In order for my Magazine to be Viable for BBC world they have to know that they are investing their money wisely, therefor they would have to know that their is market for the magazine.For example the TV show top gear, which has a TOP gear magazine which works because the program has already established an Audience, therefore there will be an audience for the top gear Magazine.

This is much the same for my Magazine in that there are already Magazines such as GoodFood Magazine which is a bit like my magazine in that it presents simple food.However it is still about cooking and represents the idea that you can cook.As my Magazine is about having fun with food it shows that there is a market for my magazine.

As Technology becomes more advanced and audiences want accessibility there has been a decrease in people actually going to the shops and purchasing a magazine because of the 'read green initiative' now consumers can simply look on the website of their magazine and read an electronic version of their Magazine from the comfort of their home.Added to the fact that this is free which makes it more appealing to the audience.This method of producing magazines is also much more environmentally friendly however the problem with this is that the magazines are free so the Magazine industries aren't making any money from the sales of magazines.

Another problem that faces the Magazine industry is, publishers and newsagents who supply magazines are no longer viable.This means that they are having to close down and larger companies like supermarkets are buying the magazines to sell in their stores, because they can buy the magazines more cheeply.This means that they are putting small businesses e.g newsagents out of business.

Advanced prdocution graphs

graphs to show the results of my audience research Questionnaires

This graph defines my target audience for my food magazine as being young adults with 46%.


The results showed that 54% of respondents would prefer sweet food and 46% of respondents prefer savory foods. This shows my target audience would want to see more sweet recepies within the magazine this is why i have chosen to include the recipe for my chocolate cake .





This graph shows that 60% of respondents eat pre prepared foods and only 12% said that they eat pre prepared foods because its a cheaper option then healthy foods.This shows that my target Audience would benefit from my magazine because its all about good honest food which you can cook yourself.

This Graph showed that 60% of respondents said that yes they do read more cookery books and 40% said that they read more magazines the cookery books.



This graph shows that 100 % of respondents say that imagery of food on the front cover does inspire them to cook. This is important because it shows that in order for my target Audience to buy my magazine, i will include appealing imagery.The main image on my front cover will be my chocolate cake because it represents having fun with food and it will attract my audience who prefer sweet foods.




This graph shows that 54% of respondents said that the title of the magazine was an important factor when choosing a magazine and 46% of respondents said that it was not an important factor.



This graph shows that 62% of respondents said that GoodFood(holiday cooking) would inspire them to cook and only 8% of respondents said that Waitrose FOOD magazine and vie pratique Gourmand would inspire them to cook.This shows that the type of food Magazine that i will be producing will use borrow some of the conventions of GoodFood Magazine.



This graph shows that the 38% of respondents choose Good Food(holiday cooking) as their favorite front cover and only 8 % of respondents said that Waitrose Food magazine was their favorite front cover.



This graph shows that the respondents thought that GoodFood (Holiday Cooking) would be the magazine which represents cooking that they cook or aspire to cook. Also that the magazines that people would aspire least to use the recipes from are Delicious, Good Food (Fresh and Seasonal) and Vie Pratique Gourmand.

Advanced production -Audience research results

Qualitative results

I handed out my Questionnaire to 13 people.My results show that the demographic of my target audience are young adults aged between 25-30 .my results show that 7 out of 13 respondents never prepare meals at home, 4 respondents prepared a meal at home twice a week and 2 respondents never prepare or cook meals at home. I asked the question 'which type of food do you prefer?'7 respondents answered said they preferred sweet food and 4 respondents said they preferred savory.I aked the question 'Have you read the dummies guide series'? 8 people said yes and 5 respondents said no. Next i asked 'Do you think the humorous element helps to encourage people to eat healthily'?. 8 people said Yes and 5 people said No.For question 8 'Do you find the dummies guide easy to follow?' 4 respondents said yes and 9 respondents said No they do not find the recipies easy to follow. 7 of my respondents said they followed measurements in cookery books and 6 respondents said they did not.I asked the respondents weather they read cookery books more then magazines 7 of my respondents said they do and 6 0f them said that they do not. Then i asked weather they had read an A.A Gill restaurant review 5 people said yes and 7 people said No Lastly i asked respondents weather or not they have dinner parties 4 respondents said yes and 9 respondents said No.Question 14 asked 'Do you eat Prepared foods e.g takeaways? 9 Respondents said yes because they have no time,4 respondents said because there is no washing up required and 2 respondents said that pre packed foods were cheaper.

Front cover Quantatative results

I got my respodants to answer a serise of questions basedo on the front covers of 5 cookery magazines the results were Goodfood: (holiday cooking) presents cooking which 7 of the respodents would inspire them to cook, 3 respondents said delicious 1 respodent said Waitrose FOOD magazine and 1 respondent said Vie pratique gourmand. I then asked 'which magazine presents cooking which you cook or aspire to be able to cook?' 7 respondents answerd (Goodfood holiday cooking) 2 resondents answered waitose FOOD magazine 1 respndent for Delicious.1 respodent for goodfood(fresh and seasonal) and one respondent answered vie pratique Gourmand. Next i asked which magazine do you think is the most expensive? 6 resondents said delicious, 4 respndents said waitorse fOOD magazine 1 respndent said goodfood(holiday cooking) 1 respodent said vie pratique gourmand and no respodents ticked Goodfood (fresh and seasonal). For question 5 i asked which one they thought the least expensive 11 respondents said Vie pratique gourmand and one respondent answerd both editions of goodfood Magazine. I then asked which was the respondents favourite front cover 5 respondents said good goodfood(fresh and seasonal), 2 resondents answered goodfood(holiday cooking) 2 respondents answerd vie pratique gourmand 3 respodents said delicious and 1 respodent said waitorse FOOD magazine. question 7. 13 respondents said that imagery of food on the front cover would inspire them to cook.Question 9 asked 'which magazine respondents thought looked the most pretentious'?. 11 respondents said waitrose FOOD magazine and 2 respondents said delicious. 7 respodents said that the title was an important factor when choosing a cookery magazine and 5 respondents said no it was not an important factor.

Advanced production -Audiance research results

An Example of My Questionnaire

Front Cover Analysis Questionnaire

1 Which magazine do you think has the highest production values (e.g. glossy paper etc)?

2 Based on the front cover alone, which magazine would inspire you to cook?

3 Which magazine presents cooking which you cook/would aspire to cook?

4 Which magazine do you think is the most expensive?

5 Which magazine do you think is the least expensive?

6 Which is your favorite front cover?

7 Does imagery or food on the front cover inspire you too cook? Yes □ No □

8 Do you buy a food magazine because it has well known chefs on it?

Yes □

No □

Sometimes □

9 Which magazine looks most pretentious? Why?

Good Food (Fresh and Seasonal) □

Vie Pratique Gourmand □

Good Food (Holiday Cooking) □

Waitrose FOOD magazine □

10 Is the title an important factor when choosing a food magazine? Yes □ No □

Magazine Questionnaire

1 How old are you? (Please circle the relevant age group)

18-24 25- 30 31-45 45+

2 What social economic group do you belong too?(Please circle the relevant group)

Student young adult middle aged over 50

3 What magazines do you read in your leisure time?

4 When do you prepare and cook meals at home? Every day □ twice a week □

Never □

5 Which type of food do you prefer? Savoury □ sweet □

6 Have you read the Dummies Guide series? Yes □ No □

7 Do you think that the humorous element helps to encourage people to eat healthily? Yes □ No □

8 Do you find the Dummies guide recipes easy to follow? Yes □ No □

9 Do you find the cooking and food advice in the dummies guide helpful? Yes □ No □

10 Do you follow measurements in cookery books? Yes □ No □

11 Do you read cookery magazines more then cookery books? Yes □No □

12 Have you read the A.A Gill restaurant review? If yes, what did you think of it?

13 Do you organise dinner parties? Yes □ No □

14 Do you eat pre-prepared food e.g. takeaways?

if yes why:

• More convenient □
• no washing-up required □
• pre-packed foods are a cheaper option than buying healthy food □

Product Research for Food Magazines

This magazine portrays an indulgent lifestyle through the food, the setting is more important than the food itself. Whereas the other magazine shows indulgent ingredients. This cover focuses on designer food and suggests that its readers are fashionable people.

The magazine has high production values, the cover is glossy and the peaches look perfect, almost unreal. This portrays the idea of luxurious foods that focus on the importance of their appearance.

Sans serif font used in different sizes and colours in this context looks contemporary, although it has overtones of something more traditional.

The word ‘perfect’ suggests that readers aspire to perfection in their cooking and are experienced cooks

Use of French makes the dessert sound pretentious, like a work of art rather then a pot of chocolate, portraying it as more luxurious and it may put people off because it sounds harder to make.

'My favorite childhood recepies' Represents the idea of reminiscing over childhood recipes the readers had. but also impressing friends at dinner parties now by producing these dishes.

The image of the cake looks more accessible in contrast to the close up of the peaches, because it has already been tasted, its not a masterpiece that is only to be looked at, the taste is very important.

The close up of the home baked style cake portrays indulgence in terms of taste. The image of the cake has connotations of cooking being cosy, warm and homely and not stressful

‘Easy food you’ll make all summer long’ portrays the idea that good food doesn't take hours to prepare.

By the use of the image of the three chefs with captions next to them it gives the magazine a more tabloid newspaper feel which is therefore less pretentious. By putting famous chefs on the front cover, the reader is given a sense that the recipes inside are going to be of a certain quality.

Both these images are taken from the Waitrose magazine. This also portrays cooking as an art form rather than a meal which could be made by anybody. This could put people off trying to put together these dishes. It conveys the idea that appearance is the most important thing.

The front cover of the Waitrose magazine doesn't present food as natural but as a carefully crafted design. Throughout the magazine there are images of nature illustrated by watercolours of fruit and vegetables. Again this reinforces the idea that food is an art form.

This montage of images suggests natural produce and the reference to the church suggests that the readership should worship the food. The images suggest good home cooked simple and tasty food. These pictures help to entice the readers into an indulgent and relaxed lifestyle. They bring a little part of the countryside to them when they are eating these products.

This is an image taken from GoodFood magazine. It represents the idea that tasty food does not necessarily mean food that is beautifully presented, but suggests that the simple things in life are sometimes better. This image presents eating as more of a sociable relaxed pastime.

In comparison to the Waitrose magazine which uses bland, minimal colours and a more sophisticated setting, GoodFood magazine uses stronger colours in a more rustic setting. Things like the pink icing on these cup cakes represent having fun with food and not being too precious.

This image gives the readers the confidence to cook, because its showing food that could have been produced by people who aren't chefs. This means, that readers can relate to it. Also any aspirations they may have to cook a dish can become achievable.

This is a front cover from a French food magazine bought in a low end supermarket which is the French equivalent of Sainsbury's. This magazine has low production values. The magazine is A5 and all the other magazines are on A4.

The magazine uses 4 close up shots of dishes on the front cover. In contrast GoodFood and Waitrose FOOD Illustrated use a mid shot and close up of one dish being displayed, with more information about the setting.

My target audience is only British not French people and the magazine would not be sold in France. But by comparing the English and French magazines you can see that both audiences see presentation of food as important. For example GoodFood and Vie Pratique Gourmand use depth of field to show that their audience want food that looks good and is easy to achieve. Vie Pratique Gourmand represents the idea that recipes should be light and in keeping with the Mediterranean diet whereas the British magazines focuses on hot large portions.

The review is taking a dig at the restaurant’s name and the fact that the restaurant is situated on the King’s Road, a road famous for wealthy people to shop and dine out and was full of Sloane Rangers.

AA Gill has used a five star rating system and given each rating a humorous meaning based on the theme of Sloane Rangers which he has used in the review.

AA Gill has picked on a news story in the past week about dog cloning which he criticises throughout the review. In fact most of the review is not about the restaurant at all. He makes fun of the strange names that people call their dogs and uses this as a way of making fun of the restaurant’s name and its clientele.

AA Gill also uses the fact that it is a Spanish restaurant to make fun of the Spanish. It is only in the last paragraph that he talks about the food, which he says is good value and he gives it three stars.