SophieRadfordsASMedia

My Journey- Semiotics Evaluation (question 7)

Semiotics

Before i started media i had never heard of the words semiotics or indexical signs or symbolic signs!
Throughout his course i now know what they all mean:

Signs:

Something that we give meaning, these can be words, pictures, colours, signs, body language, clothes and so on.

For example, bling, jewellery, smart suits tend to connote the R&B genre.
However, these signs mean a variety of things and are polysemous.

Sign Composition:

The signifier- gold and black to signify wealth. Watch - again to signify success and wealth.

Signifier- DENOTATIONS male model in a smart suit, wearing the watch and smart suit
Signified- CONNOTATION - successful young businessman.

Iconic signs

signs that resemble what they signify: the HR logo for the main feature - connotations of royalty.

Indexical signs

Signs that are in some way connected to an image they represent but are not directly linked. All of the signs i chose worked together to create meaning for my audience.

Symbolic signs

Signs that have no direct link to what they represent. They depend on life experiences or culture.

The signs in my magazine reflect the western culture and therefore would appeal to a wide readership in Europe and USA.

My Journey- Evaluation (question 7)

At the start of my media course, we were asked to create a magazine using the knowledge of Adobe we had picked up throughout secondary school. We had to create a college magazine, we had to come up with the masthead ourselves, the name the font, the images, the stories inside, the colour schemes, our target audience, font sizes and where to place texts.

I personally knew nothing about age ranges for magazines and what each age range specified or what fonts represent certain types of genres and what font sizes to use and how to edit images or how to pose and dress and take professional photos and set up photo shoots. I also knew nothing about backgrounds, representations, and all the features that are included in the making of magazines, such as pugs, puffs, banners, stickers, connotations, denotations, semiotics, codes and conventions, audiences, institutions, and every single little detail of a magazine. I had never noticed any of this before.

The images above are images of my very first magazine that i had ever created. The masthead is plain, boring, basic, no detail, nothing to it, nothing that will stand out and catch the audiences attention, I even placed it on top of my image! My image is plain, i had an attempt at editing it, and she went all red! There is no pose, no expression, no representation of college, lighting is terrible, the background is awful. The costume and makeup has nothing to it. The fonts of the masthead and inside stories are not a college font, they don't match, theyre placed in positions where they shouldnt be, they over lap the image.

The only thing i did do right was taking the image as a mid shot.

After a lot of practise with Adobe Elements 11, doing target audience surveys, doing lots of research and trying out various different options for every little thing i now have improved on creating magazines. I have taken proper photos in proper photo shoots, i have added costumes to my models, makeup, back grounds. I edited them on Adobe, changing hair colours, getting rid of red eyes, sharpening eyes, using the spot healing brush to get rid of any marks on the models such as freckles, spots, marks, scars, bruises and any faulty marks i could find, i edited skin tones getting rid of red cheeks, i used the levels to help me sort out lighting, i used layer masks to help get rid of shadows and cut away from backgrounds. With Adobe i created backgrounds using radiants, i created pugs, puffs, banners, cut aways. With my masthead i used an image of bling and managed to put it inside the font to represent R&B. Also on the masthead i managed to use embossing around the edge of the font and changed the colour of the embossed area, i added outlines and colours and fonts to all represent R&B. I managed to place text above and under images, banner son top of the background. I coloured all of Lish Evans hair to make it a funky, bright, bold, statement ginger instead of plain black that would of blended into the background.
Using target audiences i researched what age range my target audience would be and what they wanted to see on my magazine and what theyw oudl be attracted to to make them purchase my magazine.

Adobe Elements 11- Evaluation (question 6)

On Adobe Elements 11, I also learnt how to edit pictures. On the image above, i have screen shot myself sharpening the eye on the image to make it stand out more and look more focused. To do this you go onto the tool bar to your left, and click the image of a rain drop, at the bottom should come the grey bar with brush sizes, sharpening tool, blur tool and sizes. You click the triangle which is the sharpening tool, go over the area you want to sharpen, click and sharpen your chosen area. Sharpen too much however, your image won't look as effective.

Adobe Elements 11- Evaluation (question 6)

With Adobe Elements 11, one of things i learnt how to do is to shape text around an image or sticker as in the picture above. I had the write out all my text in text boxes, add in my image, place it where I wanted it to be placed, and just by using the space key on my keyboard and the back key and adding in a few more letters I managed to add the image into the text. It did take me some times to do but the result I got afterwards was very effective and looked professional and classy which is the look I wanted to go for with my magazine.