The student designed a music magazine as a solo project, focusing on the metal genre. The initial cover story about a breakup did not work, so they changed it to focus on a new band formed from remnants of the old one. Through revisions guided by feedback, the student modified colors, layouts, and content to create a magazine that would attract teenage fans of metal music. The student learned about using technology for editing photos, layouts, and publishing high-quality work professionally.

1. Project evaluation

2. Introduction During the course of the year, I have been designing the front cover, contents page and main article for a music magazine. This was a solo project so all my work is my own and I have designed everything from scratch myself.

3. My magazine is typical of a metal based genre. It is set out with dark colours such as black, red, purple and yellow. I originally decided to try and break the standard conventions by placing my title at the bottom of the page. This didn’t work as I was told that it looked like the name of my main feature article and did not look like a suitable title. I then moved my title to he top of my page and stuck to the typical convention. I originally made my article about the break up of my feature band ‘Dark Thoughts’ and placed the whole band on my cover as my front cover picture. It did not work with my article so I changed both to focus on the rise of a new band and took completely new photos of the two band members taking part in the interview. I changed my article as well, focusing lesson the break up of Dark Thoughts and more on the rise of Young Phoenix, the band formed by the last two members of Dark Thoughts. My article is different to the normal conventions where an article promotes new material and the band involved is on the rise not the fall. I have made my article about the fall of a very popular band and a new band taking its place from remnants of the old one. On the cover I added effects round the picture to make it stand out. I feel that making a change or adding something new to the genre is important. It adds variety and keeps interest in the product. From opinions of others, I have found out that my article is new and exciting and catches the eye of the audience. If a largely popular band breaks up, fans will want to know what happens next to the band members they have come to adore and love

4. This magazine has been aimed at a mainly teenage audience. When I created my magazine I wanted to design a product that would attract an audience that are particularly interested in the metal genre or enjoy heavy metal music. However it also has aspect of other music genres such as punk so it is possible that it may gather a larger audience. This product has the conventions of a typical metal magazine. I believe I have designed my magazine to be stereotypical of the genre with slight extras to appeal to other tastes

6. Q3.what kind of media instutution might distribute your media project- why? I believe my magazine would be bought by similar rock magazines such as Kerrang or NME. When I started my magazine for my coursework, I wanted to create it similar to these types of magazines and therefore already had an idea in mind as to what I wanted my magazine to look like. When I designed my contents page I designed it to stand out so that it will be easy to read, using blue for the page numbers so it is clear to find from the contents. For designing my main article, I originally blocked all my text up in one box as I had removed the guideline. I was advised to start again with the guidelines. I tried to base the layout of my article as similar to Kerrang as possible and was told to set the text out in columns. This is how the magazines set out articles so as to make it easier for people to read. Like Kerrang, my article is set out as an interview, introduction first, questions posted along with the answers after it. I feel it is very similar to magazines such as Kerrang in its layout, however I feel my magazine may be a little more colourful and may stand out a little more. Its style is new and I believe that it would be able to catch the attention of a lot of people interested in this type of magazine.

7. Kerrang style article Different- colourful contents page Yellows and reds- eye catching, liable to be a eye tuner

8. Q4. who would be the audince for your media project? I aimed my magazine to be aimed at an teen audience of around 14-21. this is my main audience appeal as it is stereotypical of people around this age, trying to stay in with the latest trends and styles. It is not aimed at a specific group of people as it can be read by anyone who find it interesting. Young cover stars- appealing to a young audience Modern bands- appealing to youth audience- modern music

9. Q5. how did you attract your audience? As I mentioned in previous analysis, I used Reds and yellows against a black background. This contrast makes the brighter colours stand out more and is likely to be more eye catching. A large Title with silvers and reds is likely to catch attention. I have added a exclamation mark to my title. This makes the magazine seem more exciting. The cover stars are stood in a powerful pose. I used this to emphasise the strength of the youth culture and give young people something to look up to and admire. I have designed my front cover to shout out the main article title. All text is in yellow to show minor topics but the main topic stands out as it it’s the only article written in red. This gives it an air of importance and any reader who notices it will be hooked in by the catchy wording and metaphorical terms- ‘Rise from the ashes’- gives an image to the reader

10. Colours stand out Strength to youth culture -powerful pose Exclamatory title- exciting Main article in different colour to rest of topics stands out as important- imagery- ‘rise from the ashes’ Catchy title

11. Q6. what have you learned about technologies from creating this product?

12. Technology has become an important part of society. We have become dependent on the internet and editing programmes to create our work to the perfection we aim to achieve. Technology is needed to edit photos, upload images and print off our work to the quality that magazines need. Without technology we could not get good quality photos or edit them to fit into the rest of the work on the page. It makes it easier to type out articles as it does not matter about handwriting and prevents messy work. This magazine would not have been possible to have been created all by hand as text would not be neat, catchy fonts would not be used and pictures could not be taken or edited. Technology allows us to expand past human limitations and enables us to achieve what was once deemed impossible. It allows us to quickly analyse similar products, in turn, also created by technology. It allows me to make quickly make several copies to be used as backup. I have been able to save my work to several sources, including my home computer, pen drive and college computers and I have needed cameras to take my pictures which then have been edited on special computer programmes. With the computer I have managed to create a surreal effect around my pictures, such as a glow or multiple blended colours. I have made many mistakes but I have been able to correct them at the push of a button, making it so I do not have to redo work all because of a single mistake.

13. Q7. looking back at my preliminary task, what have i learnt? I feel that, from my preliminary task to my final product. I should not rush my work. I feel I should take the time to make my work look as professional as possible. Rushing my work will lead to major mistakes and therefore significantly reduce my overall grade, if I take time I am more likely to create a better product. I feel that I need to take more time on my photos so as to catch the right angles and prevent any blur. The effort into my work will reflect how well I succeed. However I feel maybe I could have used more exciting fonts for my text as I was told my text was a bit plain.

14. Conculsion I feel that I have done well on this product. It looks professional and is eye catching. However I feel that I could have edited the photos a little more accurately as they look a bit rough round the edges and a bit patchy. Overall I think my product has been a success and I feel it would fit well with other magazines of its genre.