2. • Before using Photoshop I practised making a school magazine on publisher so I would have
a brief idea about magazines . I researched a wide range of magazines till I came across the
VIBE magazine. I wanted my magazine to be simple similar to the VIBE magazine house
style. I took most of my ideas from the VIBE magazine, because I wanted my magazine to
follow the codes and conventions of the VIBE magazine as it is simple and straightforward .
Kept the masthead white as I felt it
looked simple
Positioned my model in the middle of the
page. When researching other magazines
I realised images on the front cover were
placed in the middle and the writing on
the sides. I wanted to follow this style and
make my magazine look like the others.
3. • I plan on creating a magazine that’s fun to read and specialises in the genres of R&B and
Hip hop. My magazine will cost £2.50 which I believe is affordable for teenagers to
purchase as my magazine will be aimed at teenagers.
• Target audience of my magazine will be teenagers and young adults who are aged between
17-19 and like to listen to hip-hop and R&B. My magazine will be targeted at male or
female.
• My magazine will be similar to the ‘Vibe’ magazine such as the house style of the magazine
will be similar.
• My images will relate to the magazine articles and my model will not be wearing
expensive, flashy clothes as I want teenagers to feel involved as if they are reading about
someone that is just like them.
• The style of my magazine is going to be informal and straight forward. I aim for my
magazine to be fun to read.
• Many magazines have the genre of hip-hop and R&B for adults but I wanted to create a
magazine for young adults which would relate to them.
4. • My inspiration for my front page was the ‘Vibe’ magazine. I liked the way the front page
was set out on the Vibe magazine and how the colours were bold, dark and contrasted
with one another. The front cover of the ‘Vibe’ magazine instantly caught my eye and
looked very simple so I decided to use similar colours and laid out my front page similar to
the ‘Vibe’ magazine.
• Images used in the ‘Vibe’ magazine of women are either classy or laid back such as the
Janet Jackson and Beyonce magazine bellow. I wanted to create my model to look laid back
like Janet Jackson wearing simple clothes so that it would relate to my target audience as
they are young adults and teenagers .
• The writing on the Vibe magazine is normally bold and normally have 3 tones of colours
which contrast each other so I decided to use white, purple and blue as my font colours
and kept my font bold.
5. • This image is of my final magazine front cover. I used colours such as white, black, blues and purple with a tint of yellow on the
bottom scheme to attract readers. It is bold and easy to read. My masthead is stretched across the magazine and is placed on the
top of the page which means my magazine will be positioned in the front of a pile in a shop.
• I used a simple banner at the top without a box around it as I saw the Vibe magazine uses this type of style. I kept it in a white font
as I thought it went well with my simple, bold, white masthead.
• The headlines are bold and really show up from the purple background . The background looks different and challenges form and
conventions ; as not many magazines use such dark, Bright colours for backgrounds.
• The main sell covers big and bold also in a white italic font . I used a vertical stretch to make the
letters look longer as most magazines use this technique.
• In the centre bottom of the magazine I used a white and yellow font
which adds detail to the magazine and tells you who the model in the
image is. Most magazine who feature a new artist on the front page
include detail on who the artist is so I also used this technique .
• I placed my image behind the masthead whereas the Vibe magazine
places the image in front of the magazine. I have placed my masthead in front
as it is new and not many people know about the magazine whereas the
Vibe magazine is well known. Also I believe the masthead looks bold and
catchy and stands out more in front of the image.
6. • To get a brief design idea for my contents page I decided to look to the ‘Q magazine’ as the design and style of the
magazine is what I was looking for in my contents page.
• The first thing that attracts your attention is the big images , numbers and the logo. This makes the contents page
to look eye catching and straight forward to see and read and it is not packed full of writing. I used bold fonts
with colours such as blue, purple and white which relate to my front page cover of my magazine as the colours
once again are restricted to the 3 main colours. This keeps my magazine consistent throughout and makes my
magazine look professional.
• The contents page of the Q magazine has two main images one which is stretched down to the page and one
which is a rectangle shape. This suggests to me I should use the same sort of format.
I felt to keep the columns on my contents page on the right hand side as it was more
comfortable for me personally to read.
• The images are numbered in a bold format. This is effective as it is straight forward
and helps the reader turn to the page to access more information without going
through all the pages in the magazine. I used this technique as my magazine is aimed
to look simple and easy to read.
7. • I used two images on my contents page. The first is of a new artist called Sarah who has just
joined the music and modelling industry by winning the x-factor. The second image is of a girl
who wants to be just like Sarah as she is her inspiration and is trying to work hard to sing and be
just like her. The image is smaller than the larger image as the main story in the article focuses on
the main artist Sarah.
• Under each image on the left hand side I have included a page number and a very short piece of
description so that the reader can easily access the page and read on in detail.
• I got the idea of putting a black box around the title ‘Contents’ from the
Kerrang magazine as it made the title stand out more. The vibe magazine also
inspired me to split my letters up in the title. I did this to make my contents page
look different to the rest of the magazines but similar
to the Vibe magazine.
8. • When researching on feature pages I noticed a big
image was placed on one side of the feature page
with an article on one side and the article was laid
out in columns. The image took up half of the page
and the title of the article was big and bold.
• The first feature page stands out as the title has a
black box around it and catches your attention
instantly. However the colours are very dull and I
think the title takes over a lot of space. I would
prefer my feature page to have colours to keep my
magazine consistent throughout the front page,
contents page and feature page.
• The second magazine is very effective, I like the use
of the black, pink and white colours which stand
out against the black background. I also like the
size of the title and the different font styles.
However the image takes up a lot of the space and
the article seems squeezed to one side.
• For my magazine, I have decided to keep the
colours the same as my front cover and contents
page to keep my magazine looking consistent. I
have considered using one image cropped and
placed on the right hand side like the first feature
page above. I will keep my text small like the
magazine feature pages do.
9. • My feature page has a white background, has the same colours I used in my front cover, contents page
such as blue, purple and yellow. This instantly draws the eye in to the purple banner amongst the sides, the
bold dark blue title and the quotes which are in yellow.
• The image on the right hand side of the page is of the vocalist . The colour of the text matches the clothes
she is wearing.
• I used a bold text with the font type of italic coloured in yellow. This is a quote from the article itself. I also
used another bold, italic quote in black on the right hand side above the vocalist. This draws audiences
attention to read on more.
• The feature is laid out in columns across the page as I
wanted to go against the codes and conventions.
I decided to do an interview and not an article because
by looking at my research I found out that teenagers
preferred to read interviews which came directly
from the vocalist.
• I put a purple banner at the top and bottom of the
feature page to make the feature page stand out as I
wanted to keep my background white and simple to go
with the white background of the contents page.
The purple colour refers back to the front page cover
of my magazine.
10. • I've learnt a variety of new skills whilst experimenting and taking photographs.
• Conception - I made sure my image was suitable and went well with my magazine. I
planned out how I wanted my photos to be and what I wanted my model to wear. This
helped me to take images I was willing for.
• Mise en scene – I decided not to use props or background imagery as I wanted the focus to
be on just my model. My media product also represents young people as the images of the
models throughout the magazine is young so this social group will find the model/artist
more engaging if it is based on younger artists.
• Angles – I took a high angle shot of my model in one of the image as I wanted to create the
effect of her still being a normal teenager and people still look down to her for more.
• Framing and composition - I took over 50 shots and ended up using only four. This helped
me to pick the best image for my magazine out of the 50 shots I took. I used the crop tool
in Photoshop to crop out the background and used the blur tool to smooth the edges of my
images after I had cropped them.
• Shot distance – I placed the camera above the model and zoomed the camera towards her
face to take a close up shot for my contents page.
11.
12. • During the process of making my product I have used Adobe Photoshop which I have learnt to do
a lot of stuff on it.
• At the beginning I had no idea on how to use Photoshop as I had not tutorials lessons about it.
Playing around and making a draft copy of my magazine rapidly gave me knowledge and skill on
how to use the software. As my knowledge and skills by playing around with Photoshop enhanced
my final magazine front cover started to look better and professional. However I also used
publisher before I started to produce my magazine to produce a school magazines so that I had an
idea of how magazines were laid out.
• The digital camera which I had used was handy and helpful as it allowed me to lighten the image if
the model was standing in a dark place, also the digital camera would display the image and it
would enable me to see how the image turned out like.
• However publisher was easier to use than Photoshop as I discovered so many
different types of tools on Photoshop which you cold use such as the lasso tool,
clamp tool etc. In addition, I learnt how to use different layers which allowed me
to place text and images perfectly and pick a majority of fonts that would look
right for my product.
13. • I made an online questionnaire and posted it on social networking websites such as
Facebook and twitter to get feedback from a number amount of people. The six questions
were:
2. What Age
3. Gender
4. Genre
5. How often people buy magazines
6. How much do you pay?
7. If you saw a magazine in a shop what would convince you to buy it
Here are my results
1. Age
15. • How often people buy magazines
• How much do you pay?
16. • If you saw a magazine in a shop what would convince you to buy it
17. • My target audience is 16-20 year olds.
• My magazine attracts my target audience as I have bright, bold colours and big lettering
which is what the audience will be looking for and the images are big and eye catching. I
also attract my target audience by including free x-factor tickets and a free CD in my
magazine
• My magazine uses a tone that almost feels as if the magazine is talking to the audience,
asking them questions itself. Most magazines use a formal tone but my magazine is aimed
at teenagers and young adults so I kept my magazine informal.
• My magazine includes latest gossip on celebrities that the target audience will be
interested in and would make them more likely to buy the magazine.
18. • Urban Vibes uses the forms and conventions of real music magazines as it informs readers
on gigs, music chart, interviews, celebrity gossip and latest news.
• My magazine challenges the forms and conventions of magazines today such as the ‘Vibe’
magazine as the Vibe magazine generally use one image on the front cover which is placed
in the centre of the front cover with a simple banner and writing goes down along the sides
of the image. My front cover includes a banner and an image which is placed in the centre
of the front page with writing goes down on the sides. My masthead is stretched across the
top of the cover which means my magazine should be placed at the front of the stack in a
shop.
I have used only 4 colours in my magazine such as white, purple, blue and yellow
throughout
as many magazines use only a few amount of colours in magazines to keep it looking
professional.
19. • My magazine represents people who like to read about celebrity gossip, who like to catch
up on latest interviews and music. My magazine also represents people who want to read a
fun, informal magazine who enjoy R&B and Hip-hop. The music magazine is not of one
genre it has a combination of R&B and Hip hop artists so all social groups can be mixed.
The purpose of my magazine is to keep teenagers entertained and informed on R&B and
Hop-hop artists and latest music.
20. • The media institution that might distribute my media product will be Bauer Media. If my magazine was to
be published by Bauer Media it would ensure that my magazine was seen as having a really high standard,
as Bauer Media has a great reputation for the magazine it publishes.
• Bauer Media reaches over 19 000 000 UK adults across multiple media products. These are the media
magazines that they produce in the UK: Heat, Graziar, FHM, Empire, Q and many more.
• Also Bauer magazine do subscription where my magazine does it too. Bauer media also produce
Kiss 100 FM and this radio plays a lot off R&B music. So Bauer Media are all ready specialist in
R&B.
• Because they are no R&B/Hip-hop magazine that they produce, I think that they
will distribute my magazine because, my magazine comes out monthly and Bauer
Media produce monthly magazines. Also because the R&B/Hip-hop music industry
is very big they will make a lot of money because teenagers love R&B/Hip-hop.
21. • The skills I have learnt since the beginning have improved dramatically whilst preparing my
preliminary task and making my music magazine. My ability to use Photoshop has
increased and I now can edit images and put together a front cover, contents page and
double page spread without difficulties.
• In Photoshop I have learnt how to crop images and use the blur tool. I have also learnt
how to put the image behind or in front of the masthead. I used these techniques on my
images for my music magazine.
• I have learnt how to place, text and images onto my pages and use different colours, font
styles and a variety of other techniques. Learning these skills gave me the confidence to
produce my final music magazine.
22. By looking at my preliminary task and my media production I can see I have learnt a lot of new skills and
techniques. I have learnt how to cut out the background from the images by using the lasso tool on Photoshop
and that all magazines articles are in columns. I have also learnt how to make my magazine look more professional
by using blending options on the Photoshop cs4. The colours on my preliminary task are not very appealing than
on my media production, this tells me I have also learnt how to contrast colours together to make magazines look
more professional and realistic. Lastly I have learnt how to relate my product to a specific target audience. I also
know what forms and convention to use when attracting a certain target audience.
