AS Media Foundation Portfolio

The brief for my main task of my AS Media Foundation Portfolio was to create the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine. To achieve this I decided to focus on the front cover of the magazine first and then had to research and analyse existing music magazines and discover their codes and conventions. This was achieved by looking at three different existing magazines in print from different institutions with different target groups. These were NME, Kerrang and Rolling Stone. From these magazine splashes I found that despite each being a different genre they all adhered to the usual conventions of music magazines. This came in the form of sell lines distributed across the splash with artist’s names within them, a main image to represent the artist being featured and the institution of the magazine as well as a large easily distinguishable and recognisable masthead. I used these within my own product with the rounded, block, electrical font and lightening bolt in red and yellow as my masthead which connoted electricity and energy which reflected my institutions name, ‘’High Voltage’’ (which 100% of my feedback says relates directly to a music genre) as well as having a listing of sell lines down the left third which means that in a retail situation the potential reader could see the contents of the magazine at a glance and by having the artists names there it will spark a fans interest by seeing the names and attract my audience into consuming my product.

However, I have also challenged the conventions of the usual rock genre magazine in the sense that looking across the real media publications of rock magazines I have found that they are significantly male dominated in the sense of their readership and also the featured bands. Within my magazine I decided to challenge the ideology of the typical stereotype of a male orientated magazine by making my main article be focussed upon a fictitious all-female rock group under the guise of ‘’Taboo.’’

I then moved onto researching and analysing a contents page of an existing institution’s product which is in print which was Kerrang. The main thing I noticed from their contents page was the overall layout of having pictures dominating the main area but with the full contents list down the right hand side. This influenced my initial decision on the layout of my own contents page in which I used the same ideology for the layout. I was also influenced by the theme of the images on their page which all seemed to have white borders and from a quick glance they resemble Polaroid camera images. This was another convention which I adapted into my own contents page.

Next I analysed a double page spread from an existing institution. From this I learned that the connotations of a double page article was to have one large image at the head of the text and a large heading of the featured artists name. I then noticed the subheading of something relating directly to the article. The text was then laid out appropriately beneath that in columns. From this I used the ideology of the strong main image at the head of the article which is in close proximity to the heading and subheading.

The social groups I have reflected the ideology of through my magazine are that of my chosen readership of young socialites. This is done by keeping a very young vibe with the colour scheme of red, yellow and black with white, green and purple accents for the overall magazine which 100% of my audience, who fed back through my polls, decided was representative of my magazine as a whole. It also represents the younger generation through the use of relevant and upcoming bands on the sell lines instead of, for example, 70’s and 80’s bands. I also represent the female gender. The use of the female main artist represents them as strong and equal to men which have so often been overlooked in rock music magazines.

The institution I would choose to publish my magazine is IPC media for the simple fact that they sell a wide variety of magazines to a wide spectrum of customers all over the UK which would mean that my magazine would have a greater opportunity to build a strong and large audience. IPC media is also the institution whom publishes NME which is a very recognised brand which is fits in with my genre of magazine which means that being linked by association to this brand could boost my own magazines reputation.

My target audience for my magazine is young socialites whom are heavily interested in music. My main group I targeted was the 13-18 age groups which 80% of the feedback on my poll said my magazine represented. To do this I first had to address their wants and needs which were to have an up-to-date and weekly magazine with all the popular new bands in with plenty of advertising for gigs and albums. They also needed a magazine which not only had the content they wanted but also a reasonable price as in the 13-18 age bracket money is an issue and not many students can afford to pay more than a couple of pounds a week for a magazine. The monetary side of their needs was catered for in my use of a cover price of £2.50. Their want for relevant artists and plenty of gigs was demonstrated on my contents page where I reserve seven pages for live reviews of gigs in England by popular bands that week and I have allocated a further seven for gigs which are upcoming in recent weeks which could perhaps inform fans of the featured bands about these tours so they consume and invest in that area of music too.

Through constructing this product I learnt about using Photoshop effectively. This came from cropping and lassoing the original picture for my front cover. This was done by using the lasso tool to delete the originally white background from behind my three models and insert a purely black on to fit it in with the background of the splash. However, I found that whilst using Photoshop’s magnetic lasso tool, which attaches itself to the edges of an image automatically, it tended to cut off parts of the hair of my models or parts of their arm. This was corrected by using the automatic lasso tool which meant I was in control of where the cuts would happen which ensured that my models now stayed intact. I also used an image editing program downloaded and provided free of charge by Google, called Picassa, which aided me with the contents page and cropping and fitting the pictures into white frames which makes them appear to be old-style Polaroid cameras pictures which are lying scattered down one side of the page. To create the text and logo for the masthead I used a font generator online which meant I could gain a custom font other than the usual ones from a publisher programme which helped to give my magazine some real stand-out identity. The logo which I created is one which can easily be differentiated from other magazines.

To keep my products (splash, contents and double page spreads) feeling as though it is all directly related to one institution and had one particular style I carried several design features throughout. The splash used bold red and yellow font in a stencilled style for the sell lines which I directly related to the contents page by using the same font and colourings for the heading of the page, and this directly related to the double page spread in the stencilled font used for the heading of the bands name as well as the red and yellow text style being used for the main body of the article. I also carried through the initial colour scheme of black backgrounds with mainly red and yellow text with white accents throughout the three items. In addition, I used the iconography of the lightening bolt through the three pieces playing up its connotations to the name of the institution; ‘High Voltage.’ I also created an identity for my fictional artist by carrying the green and purple logo and the font used for the acts name from the splash and onto the double page spread to create a continuous identity for the band. The use of having both subheadings (both the one on the front cover and the one on the double page spread) in the same font and colour also helps to continue the identity of the band.

When gaining audience feedback for my magazine I found that when asked what I could change for my magazine in order to improve it the main this which could be done better is the original images I took. For this I could have used a better camera to ensure the quality and focus of the image was of a better standard. I also think that the images lack iconography which relates them to the music genre. To improve my representation of a music act, and if I redid my main task, I would make better use of the mise-en-scene to make the focus of the magazine more apparent. This could be done by adding musical instruments into the images such as having a drum kit in the background or having one of my models holding or posing near microphones or guitars. The iconography of this would make the aims, genre, purpose and target audience of my magazine more apparent which in turn could make my product more effective in the sense that it could attract a wider, and larger, audience into consuming my product.

During the progression from my preliminary task of the college magazine to my main product of the music magazine I think the biggest difference which can be seen to have progressed is the overall standard of my product. The preliminary task had little to no editing done with the image whereas I feel the overall presentation of my music magazine is a lot stronger than my college magazine. I have also developed within my written analysis and research and planning stages with me going into more depth and using more appropriate terminology when talking about the products.