My music magazine

Evaluation

media product use,

develop or challenge
forms and convention of
real media products?
First of all, I designed most of my magazine based on idea upon other magazines,
such as the examples pictured on my blog. First of all my front cover is designed to
stand out, but also look like other music magazines. I used the idea of putting
artists names around the side of the magazine from the front cover of NME with the
band Haim as the cover models. I used the cover lines to insinuate what might be
included inside the magazine, which is a regular technique by magazine editors to
get the audience their writing for to read whats inside. I used the same colour font
for the next rising artists as I did the artists on the front cover so the connection
points were clear that the artist(s) on the front cover were the ones who are referred
to as rising stars. The background used for the front cover is the same background
used throughout the contents page, along with the double page spread, giving the
magazine the same feeling throughout going along with the theme. I used a
different type of font for the cover lines than I did to the masthead, making the
masthead look powerful and bold, whereas the cover lines were important, but less
important. The cover image, the way it was laid out, was an idea I got from other
magazines. I didnt want the image to cover the entire page, I just wanted it to
cover some of the page, and therefore the image was placed in the top half of the
front cover so writing such as the masthead and cover lines can be seen.

Secondly, I designed some of my double page spread constructed from what I had
seen in other magazines such as the NME double page spread featuring Jake Bugg. From
my research, I have seen that usually, magazines would have the text and pictures
separate, with the text on one side and the picture on the other side. (One page
including text, the other including the picture expanded to fill the whole page). I didnt
use too many pictures of my band as I didnt want to flood the magazine with pictures of
just my band, to have pictures which varied from what other magazines have. The
background of my double page spread was slightly darker than my contents page and
cover page, making the text included on the double page stand out more because it was
white text and red text on a darkened black and white background. The size of the font
was fairly small to make the whole of the text fit; it then had to be decreased when I
added the two images and as well as making the text box longer and adding another
text box. This was useful because it had seemed to look more professionally made,
rather than amateur made. The type of font used for the interview was different to the
title on the double page spread, also the type of font used for the question differed to
the answers and the questions were red and the answers were white. I thought that
giving the questions and answers different colour fonts that it would be easier to view
and the reader would have an easier time differentiating between who is speaking. The
two images I used on my double page spread werent as big as other images I had seen
on other double page spreads, but they were a relatively good size to fit on the double
page spread because the text was still able to fit into the textbox.

I designed my contents page also with some ideas from other magazines
such as NME and other examples which are on my blog. However, I
didnt include too much text or images on the page to make it seem as if
it isnt overcrowded with too many things, relevant or irrelevant to
music. I got the idea of listing artists from an NME contents page, where
there were lists of artists, along with a few pictures of a band, which is
where I got the idea to include images of my band. I originally had one
image on the contents page, which was irrelevant to what was in the
magazine and on the contents page, I decided to remove this image
after realising it did not suit the appearance I was aiming for and also
because of how the text looked on it. However, after removing it, I
noticed that the main focus of the magazine was my band, leading me
to using other pictures of my band members to the contents page. I
made each picture of my band members parallel and lined them into a
row to make them look as if they were in a group photo, but with
different settings on each person. I thought this would be quite
different, because I hadnt seen this technique used in other magazines.
The font used matches the front cover, yellow and red, on the black and
white background. I used the list of artists to imply what can be
included inside the magazine, which is a regular technique featured in
magazines to reach a wider audience with a range of artists. This was a
successful idea because it wasnt unrelated to the magazine and
included other artists other than just my own. After seeing what my
contents page looked like finished, I didnt agree with the way the list of

How does your media product represent

particular social groups?

I feel that my magazine represents a particular social ground such as younger

people around the ages of 16-25, not specific to any gender, within the working class
and above and not specific to any race.
My magazine would be suitable for older teens and adults between the ages of 1625 because of the type of register I use within my magazine, it isnt the most formal
magazine, but it isnt the least formal, including for example, slang, abbreviated
words, or words that only younger teens would use and also because of the subject
contained within the magazine, which is bands, artists and most things related to
music, along the lines of a serious, but not too serious music magazine.
My magazine would be appropriate to both gender, male and female because it
isnt all about boys, or all about girls and the bands are favoured by the majority of
people and not just a large number of girls/boys. The pricing of the magazine would
be why it is for the working class and above, because its only priced 2, which isnt
very expensive. Its priced 2 because of the results of my survey showed me. Its
focus isnt hip-hop/rap, which is predominantly preferred younger black people and
my magazine will mainly be focusing on indie and the pop genres of music.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I intend to attract my audience, by the type of filters, font, colour, wording, and
layout of my magazine. First of all, I have researched the black and white filters that
I have used in my magazine and the majority of older teens prefer black and white to
any other filter, which would make them want to buy my magazine as they prefer
that specific filter. The font I used is an outgoing and bold font, cool and eyecatching, with colours that stand out rather than blend in, for that reason I believe
my audience would be attracted to my magazine for the genres that would be
comprised.

My magazine would be apt for older teens and adults within the ages of 16-25 for
the reason that of the type of register I use within my magazine, which isnt the most
formal magazine, though isnt the least formal, including for example, slang,
abbreviated words and because of the subject contained within the magazine, things
related to music. My magazine would be appropriate to both genders because it
isnt all about boys, or all about girls and the bands are favoured by the majority of
people and not just a large number of girls/boys. The layout of my magazine is not
to cramped or overcrowded, therefore more people would feel as if they arent being
bombarded with too much words or things that are unrelated to music.

What kind of media institution

might distribute your media
product and why?
I have done a fair amount of research on types of media corporations and institutes
for my own music magazine to find out which would be willing to publish my
magazine. I was firstly just looking at music magazine publishers as I would need a
publisher to publish my magazine, but I wasnt looking for genre specific publishers.
However, as I read on, on websites I understood that searching for genre specific
music magazine publishers would be simpler because publishers are precise with
what type of things they publish to their audience. The different genres that
publishers present to a certain audience, reflect what that audience prefers to see,
therefore a publisher would look at what type of genre my music magazine is and
what it offers to their audience. Below are some examples of what type of music
magazines and their genres certain publishers publish, including two US published
magazines, with two published magazines UK publishers.

IPC Media is a media company, which owns a large variety of magazines, including:
Now, TV Weekly and Country Life. With more than 60 media brands, IPC creates
content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets, and events. As
the UKs leading consumer magazine publisher, they engage with 26m UK adults almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. The award winning portfolio of
websites reaches over 25 million users globally every month.
(http://www.slideshare.net/nikkifrankel/music-magazine-publishers)
The New Musical Express, now known as NME, is a music magazine in the UK,
published weekly since March 1952 by IPC Media. It started as a music newspaper,
and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from
newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14
November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music
newspaper. NME have mainly been focused on Rock, Alternative and Indie music
throughout most of its time, but has been evolving based on the popular music of
the time.
(http://www.slideshare.net/nikkifrankel/music-magazine-publishers)

Magazine, Kerrang! was first published on 6 June 1981 by Bauer Media Group as a
one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word
that comes from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar,
Kerrang! was initially made to present the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and
the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000s it became the best-selling British music
newspaper.
(http://www.slideshare.net/nikkifrankel/music-magazine-publishers)

In 1967, Ralph J. Gleason Wenner founded Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. to

produce a new music magazine that would be called; Rolling Stone was founded in
San Francisco, California. Rolling Stone is a fortnightly magazine that focuses on
popular culture. The new publication relied heavily on volunteer labour, as well as
donated furniture and rent- free office space in the loft above its printing company. A
distinctive logo was designed by legendary psychedelic poster artist Rick Griffin. In
addition the company also operates websites for its magazines Mens Journal, Rolling
Stone, and US Weekly.
(http://www.slideshare.net/nikkifrankel/music-magazine-publishers)

Billboard is an American music magazine, headquartered in New York City, New

York and owned by Prometheus Global Media. It was first published on November 1,
1894, and is distinguished as being among the oldest trade magazines in the world.
The magazine originally focused on bill posting and outdoor amusements before
specialising in the music industry in the 1960s. The magazine began coverage of
motion pictures in 1909 and of radio in the 1920s. The first music connections were
the Billboard sheet music best sellers and top songs in vaudeville theatres charts,
published in 1913, but they were not yet regular charts. With the development of
the jukebox industry during the 1930s, The Billboard began publishing music charts.
Originally, there were only three genre-specific charts: Pop, Rhythm & Blues, and
Country & Western.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine))

I believe my music magazine would best be published from Prometheus Global

Media or IPC Media because these two media institutes both publish music
magazines which are a similar and related genre to my music magazine. For
example, my music magazine is an Indie/Pop music magazine and Prometheus
Global Media publish the Billboard magazine which focuses on the genre of Pop,
along with a few other genres and IPC Media publishes the music magazine named
NME, which with one of its main genre focuses of Indie. NME do the distribution of
their own magazine in stores themselves since 2002 but in 2009 they teamed up
with John Menzies so that they can distribute their magazine online as well as in
stores. I would prefer if my magazine were to be

In what ways have you

manipulated the images
included in your media
product?
The images used in my music magazine were all taken by me. Each picture is taken in a
different location except one.
The first picture that includes me and my two other band members, Jax and Phoenix (Luke
and Thapitha), is a combination of two pictures. First I took a picture with my model band
members, Luke and Thapitha, first one with them standing together, then a couple with them
gradually growing further apart. I thought that as Im the one taking the picture and Im also
apart of the band, Ill have to add myself into the picture for the front cover. Once I had taken
all the pictures, I had Thapitha take a photograph of me, with the initiative of just overlaying
the picture of myself with the picture of Luke and Thapitha.
I thought I could just overlay the picture of me and add it to the other picture with them,
however I couldnt because I didnt like the expression I had on my face, thus leading me to
editing the picture of me with another picture of me. The only reason I had the idea of editing
(cropping) the two pictures of myself is because in both pictures, I had been wearing near
enough the same attire, therefore it wouldnt look undesirable if I had cropped my face in the
picture in which I didnt like my expression and add my facial expression from the other picture.
The picture that I didnt like my facial expression was the only picture taken in the same
location because I was planning on having the same background for the front cover, the
second picture of me I had no intention of using until seeing the clothes I was wearing and
after noticing this I then changed each photos filter to black and white because the overall
imagery of the magazine is black and white to suit the background. Once filtering each photo,
I then began cropping, this I did on my mobile phone.

I used the application named 6tag for instagram to edit the pictures to create one picture. I
chose the pictures from my gallery and used the collage editing technique. Using this
editing technique, allows me to add two separate pictures to make one, or keep them
separate, but remaining them both in one frame. I changed the outer and inner boarder
around both images, this pushes them closer together to fill the whole frame, and look as one,
however I hadnt cropped the head off my shoulder yet, and I discovered I hadnt needed to.
The collage editing technique allows me to zoom and resize either image to exclude what I
chose to be excluded; in this case it would be my head in one image and my body in another.
I got each imaged aligned together to what was the closest they could be without looking
corrupt. After doing this, all I had left to do was save the image (one) that I had created and
add this image to the photo with Luke and Thapitha.
After successfully creating a new picture of myself, with a relatively reasonable facial
expression, I had to then edit the background of the new image I created to fit the photo with
Luke and Thapitha. I transferred the image to the computer and copied it into Adobe
Photoshop. I first attempted to edit it on InDesign; however Photoshop was more equipped to
editing pictures. What needed to be done was using a blurring tool to blur the background
which was in the picture and lighten the picture. Once I blurred the background of the image,
I then overlaid it on the picture of Luke and Thapitha, within the middle where there was a
space to be filled. At this point, I saw that the background in the picture with me was
considerably darker than the picture with Luke and Thapitha, I then had to crop myself out of
the image, just me, going around the outlines of my face and then cropping it and once it was
cropped I overlaid it within the other picture and finally the picture was successfully placed
and the front cover was looking like a successful front cover of a band.

The second picture included in my music magazine was a picture of a grand piano. For this
picture I didnt have much work to do. I took the picture at an uneasy angle and used
Microsoft Office Picture Manager to rotate the picture to create a steadier look to the image.
After rotating the image, I then added a black and white filter to the picture, thus suiting
the whole theme of my music magazine.
After adding the filter, I attempted to make the chipped keys on the piano look as if they
werent chipped. I attempted doing this using the application named Paint. However, it
seemed like a tiring and long task and I just left the image with the filter to make it look
natural, with the chipped keys being another adding effect on the magazine, a deeper
meaning behind it, which could be many things such as the little pieces of things that get to
use, the little things dont matter or that nothing is perfect, whichever an added effect is an
added effect giving the magazine more visual insight and depth than just what is on paper.
Now, I needed to add the image to my double page spread, allowing it to fit in with the
words. The I had to select the box in which the writing laid and expand it to allow the image
to fit into the double page spread, as well as writing, with the writing not going out of the
pages. Once expanding the textbox where the writing lay, I had to then resize the image
because I decided to add another picture in, rather than just having one and this having a
meaning behind it as well as a reflection of what is in the magazine.
There was enough space on the double page spread to add another image, without the
words falling out of the textbox, I would just have to add another textbox or the next page
and expand it too.

The third image I had taken previously, in Reigate. Knowing I had to take my own
original images for my magazine, when I visited Reigate, I took a picture of a tunnel
from directly in the middle of the tunnel as I was entering. I chose to use this image
as the new cover of my bands new album, explaining what the picture was depicting.
The picture was showing the beginning of a very long tunnel, showing many lights
leading straight down the middle to the end of the tunnel. Thus lead me to naming
the new album The Guiding Light. This, much like the image before, can also have
more then one meaning as people have more than one perception of things.
As all other pictures I added the black and white filter to this image and after that, I
added it to the double page spread. There wasnt much room left on the double
page spread for the image, which lead me to resizing the image and also decreasing
the font size, but the font was still readable because of the type of font I had chosen
to use. I integrated the images and text by using text wrap on Adobe InDesign,
allowing the words to fit around both images, rather than run over/behind/through, I
thought that the words going around the images would better presented.

The fourth image is of me, that I took at Brighton beach, the fifth image is of
Thapitha which I took in the school corridor, and the sixth image is of Luke, which I
took inside the drum room as he was drumming. Each picture I had individually,
added the black and white filter to, and inserted onto my contents page. I wanted to
add images of the band where they werent all in the same picture, but together in a
section, to give a view of how each member differ and what they are like in a
snapshot. For all three pictures to fit as I wanted them to, they all had to be resized
and slightly cropped. I wanted them all to be aligned with each other in a row,
showing they are a band, but individuals within a band and yet as individuals they
are fractions that make a whole.

The seventh picture included in my music magazine is a picture of a wall. This

picture was also taken previously, in Reigate. I liked the look of the wall and its
stature and theme, which suited the overall appearance of the magazine. It was a
black and white, tiled wall; however the black and white filter was still needed to
create a darker black and white theme. Once the black and white filter was added, I
inserted the picture onto my contents page on InDesign. I had already added three
other pictures onto the contents page, which look as if they are one picture and this
picture being added would be bigger than the other three. To make the picture
bigger, keep the writing and also the other pictures; I had to wrap the text to allow
the text to run over the image. However, this picture did not match the look I was
going for, seeming a bit too spontaneous and therefore lead me to removing the
picture from my contents page, also because the colour of the font didnt look
appealing on top of the image.

What have you learnt about technologies from

the process of constructing this product?

During the creation and development of my magazine, my knowledge of the

various technology and applications used to construct such products has been
expanded. At the start of this course I had no experience working with any type of
ICT, picture manipulation software programmes, for example Photoshop. I have
learnt many different image manipulation techniques using not only Adobe
Photoshop, but also Microsoft Words formatting options and using Adobe InDesign
and Microsoft Publisher for the creation of my magazine. Before this course had
begun, I had never imaged or attempted to create anything on Microsoft Publisher,
yet alone InDesign, therefore coming this far and being able to say that I alone have
created a magazine front cover, contents page and also a double page spread is an
enormous accomplishment and I am especially pleased with myself for the outcome
of my work.

What do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from your preliminary task to
the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I have also come a long way. My preliminary
task was clearly a mild taste of what I can achieve and it shows how I have
developed and improved on my computing skills. Reflecting on my preliminary task,
in comparison to my main task, I can now say that I have learnt in many ways how
to truly manipulate an image to its full extent, how to wrap image and text, the
different fonts, sizes and colours of font, the backgrounds that are available to use,
the filtration on pictures, the layout of a magazine, how to research specific subjects
and use research to produce my own product and also using the results from a
questionnaire to assist me with my task ahead. I can successfully say that now I
have reached the end of this course, I have learnt many things that can contribution
to future careers and other pathways in life.