This document provides details of a student's media studies portfolio project to design a college magazine. It includes research on target audiences, inspiration from sample magazine covers and contents pages, and the design of an original magazine cover, contents page, and double-page interview spread. The student received feedback and refined the designs, improving the prominence of the magazine title on the cover and balancing the layouts. Overall, the document outlines the process taken to conceptualize, design, receive feedback on, and refine the key components of a sample college magazine.

1. AS MEDIA STUDIES
FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO
RESEARCH & PLANNING
CENTRE NO: 11049
ST FRANCIS XAVIER COLLEGE

2. My name is: Alessandro
Candidate No:8047

3. Preliminary Project – Research & Planning
• How did you think about target audience?
I knew what sort of audience my preliminary project was going to be, because college students
are from the age of 16 till around 19. So I was going to have to make a College magazine
cover that caught the eye of a student studying in college. This meant that I would have to
use interesting cover lines so that the student would want to pick the magazine up.
• How did awareness of that audience impact upon your visual design and choice of
language?
This gave me awareness that teenagers would want something that catches their eyes. For
example, if the colour scheme was boring and dull, they probably wouldn’t pick the magazine
up. Also, if the choice of language was inappropriate for a teenager aged between 16~19 for
example, If the magazine was very formal, it wouldn’t look interesting, so I’d have to use
language that suits the way teenagers speak in todays society.
• What key points did you learn about Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in constructing your
artefacts?
The key point I learnt about in Photoshop was that, when I was cropping my image with a lasso
tool, it was important for me to ‘feather’ the image once I had finished cropping the picture
so that the image didn’t look unprofessional. In InDesign, I learnt that it was important to
name my layers when adding images, fonts, cover lines etc so that I knew which layer was
which.

4. Preliminary Project
• College Cover • College Contents

5. Reflections & Feedback
• What would you do differently next time?
Next time I would put more effort and thought when creating my magazine front cover and
contents page. My main icon needs improvement, I had too much dead space on the cover
which made it look like more of a leaflet that a magazine, so I should add more cover lines, I
could have put in more colours for my colour scheme and not have colours that clash and
make it difficult for readers to see, and finally I should make my main cover line stand out,
because this is what catches the readers attention.
• What kind of feedback did you get that might influence you?
I got feedback on my magazine front cover that told me I should fill up the magazine so that it
looks packed with information and it makes the magazine more interesting, so I would put
more cover lines and I would use a better colour scheme.
• What aspects of your understanding of Adobe Photoshop & InDesign do you need to
improve?
For Photoshop, I think that I would need to improve my cropping skills and make sure I
remember to feather my image after I crop so that the photo looks more professional. Also in
InDesign, I think that I should be more familiar with all the buttons so that I can use it easily
without being stuck on what to do.

6. The music genre of my music magazine is:
• Dance Music
• and my chosen title is Mega-Fone. I have chosen this name
because to me, the name gives it away that it is a dance/clubbing
magazine. Also the slang ‘Fone’ instead of ‘phone’ shows that it is
targeted towards a young adult instead of those elder people.

7. So I researched this genre of music publication
and studied:
• Model 1 • Model 2

8. What I learned from this was…..
• Cover Design • Cover Lines
I learnt from both of these dance The cover lines are also very catchy.
magazines, that they are very They are very colourful and they
colourful and they use very make sure it doesn’t clash with
popular artists as their image to the background so that it stands
catch the eye of potential out to the customers. They
readers. The colour scheme they advertise a competition to go on
use is very co-ordinated and neat. holiday which could straight away
All of the colours they use goes catch the eye of the reader and
well with each other and the make them buy the magazine.
Finally they fill up the front cover
image looks very professional.
with lots of cover lines so that
there isn’t any dead space and it
looks ‘action packed’.

9. For my music magazine….
• Target Audience:
My target audience will be for young adults who love to go clubbing and
dancing.
• Frequency: Monthly magazine
• Cover price: £4.00
• Publisher: Development Hell Ltd
• Unique Selling Point: A monthly Dance and Clubbing magazine
for young adults who like to go clubbing and listen to Dance music.

10. This is the face of the magazine
• Front cover This is how it works
•Image
The shirt my main artist is wearing makes the image stand out a lot. This is good
because my artist is the main thing in the magazine. I had to make him stand out a lot
so that potential readers would know what to expect in the magazine.
•Text
I think the way that I have laid out my cover lines are very neat. This makes it
effective because it looks very professional. Also, I have filled my front cover with a
lot of text and this makes it look like the magazine is action packed with a lot of stuff.
•Colour scheme
The colour scheme I have used for my magazine is very neat. I have used white, sky
blue, dark blue and neon blue in my magazine

11. Here are the 3 original photographs I
shot for the project……

12. I modified each photograph; here is
the original next to the final version:
• Raw 1 • Final 1
• Here is how I changed the photograph and why
I have changed this photo by using the lasso tool and I have got rid of the background behind and kept the main
artist. Then I cropped out his legs because I only wanted his upper body to appear in my front cover of my
magazine. Finally, I changed the background to a dark blue. This is because my main magazine colour was dark
blue and this would have made the image fit in the magazine more and look professional.

13. Here are a couple of research models for
my contents page…

14. This is my contents page
• Contents Page • These are key features…
• Pictures
The photo’s I have used can be appealing because they look
professional. I have made my main artist very visible
because it is the biggest photo in the image and it
dominates the page. I think that the photo is very
professional which makes the contents page even more
realistic
• Colours
I have used quite a range of colours (Blue, Dark Blue, Black,
White, red, brown). This could make the magazine
unattractive but I think I have placed them well which
has kept the professional look of the contents page. The
colours white, black and light blue are the most
dominant colours and most of my dominant colours
from the contents page have come from my front cover.
The secondary colours (brown and red) have been used
as page numbers on the images to match the artists
clothing colour.
• Layout

15. How does the contents page link back to
the cover page?
• I think that the contents page relates to my
front cover because I have used the same
colour scheme as my cover. I have also
selected a few cover lines from my front cover
and I have written a small description and the
page numbers for each article.

16. Key points of contents page
• How have you made the reader want to read on?
I think that my contents page would want to read on because I have put a page of the best clubs and a clubbing
guide in Europe. This will make readers who are planning on going on holiday read this because they might
want to see which clubs around are the best ones and which ones to avoid. I have also put a teaser for the
next months issue and give readers a chance to win exciting prizes with competitions. Finally I have told
the readers that there will be a freebie item in the next months issue, so they will want to check what it is,
so they will read on.
• What determines the dominant stories?
I have made the dominant story stand out by making it the largest image on my contents page. This will
automatically catch the eye of the reader than the other images. I’ve also made the brief description on
my dominant story more bold, and a different font to the others to make it stand out more. This will tell
the readers that the dominant story for this months issue will be the one that stands out the most.

17. How does the contents page flag up your
double page spread?

18. Here’s an example of an inspiring double
page spread…

19. This is why I think that double spread
works
• I think that the double page spread that inspires me works for
numerous reasons. Firstly, it has a very large a clear headline
which gives a brief idea about the interview. Then, the
interview is neatly structured into one page. Finally, the 2nd
page is made into a poster-like image. The artist has been
smacked onto the 2nd page which gives readers a proper
image of how the artist looks.

20. This is my double-page spread

21. This is how my double page spread works
• I think that my double page spread works
because I have used the same technique as
the double page spread that inspired me has.
I’ve altered a bit of the layout, as I put a
quotation in the middle of the interview in a
different colour which makes it stand out. I
think the colour scheme I used is very neat
and looks very professional.

22. This is how all three components are
linked together….
• I believe that I have linked all 3 pieces of work
together because front the start, I have made
it clear who my main artist was and what the
interview was going to be about. I have also
used the same colour scheme throughout the
project which gives it a very professional look
to the whole magazine.

23. This is my re-drafted cover page
• Cover Page • Key modifications from
feedback
• I got rid of the image on the top right hand corner
because the magazine name was too small and it didn’t
stand out. Now that I have got rid of the image, I was
able to enlarge the title which now has made it very eye
catching.
• I have added an extra cover line on the bottom left
hand corner so that there isn’t any dead space.
• The barcode on the bottom right has been shifted a bit
and also made a little smaller. Before it was too big and
it was ruining the cover page’s image. Now that I have
made the barcode smaller, it’s not too big that it’s
ruining the cover page image-wise, but it’s not too small
that you can’t see it.

24. This is my re-drafted contents page

25. This is my re-drafted double spread

26. Evaluation
• You can find my blog here:
(URL) http://afurusawa.blogspot.co.uk/