1. Question 1
I would say my media product challenges more than develops typical media products. In my product
research I learnt that most magazines use typical features and techniques to create a professional
and quality look to the product. After looking at the techniques used I also researched into how they
are planned and what photography techniques are used to create an effective looking product.
Firstly we took photos for our front cover of the magazine. While taking the photos we kept in mind
rule of thirds. This helps us to fill all areas of the magazine front cover and not leave blank spaces.
Also we tried to make them look as professional as possible so we used a white background in a
photography studio and a semi pro camera. This gave us good quality photos which is important
when trying to achieve a professional look.
After the photos were taken we did the layout to the front cover, double page spread and the
contents page. When doing research on magazine layouts I noticed that there are 3 primary colours
which usually mach the image. Mostly making the layout consisted of making the blank areas fuller
and making it looks formal but professional.
Certain features like image manipulation also created a good quality look to my photos which I think
develops typical media products as nearly all images for magazine front covers are manipulated in
some way. Also I chose to set my layout of the double page spread as most magazines are which is
the picture to the far right and the text on the other side.
I chose to do this layout because it looked professional and of good quality. My contents page
challenges typical media products as the layout is not similar to most. I made the layout different
because i wanted it to be unique and confident.
Over all i would say picking of the key parts that made a magazine look professionally done is what i
did mostly so that i could add my own touch to the magazine but also keep it looking like one you
would actually buy. I feel this worked well with all 3 of my pieces as they are professional looking
and unique.
Question 2
My media product represents a certain social group and age through use of images, colours and text.
The audience I am trying to appeal to is the younger generation and clubbers, as they are the type of
people to buy a magazine which involves there kind of music. The colours I used are very specific to
the clubbers scene. The colours i used for the front cover is white , blue and black, These colours all
illustrate the kind of dance music vibe and would attract people of that nature which I think makes it
very effective.
From researching different magazines i learned that certain features attract different types of groups
and social classes. For example the karrange magazine, the mast head is almost like shattered glass
and very jagged letters. This would symbolise vandalism and rebelliousness which would most likely
attract teenagers and people who like rock bands and heavy metal. Most defiantly aimed at a neash
audience.

2. Although a different magazine line Q has a mast head that in a small square and is done by very
simplistic font. Also the colours are more mature and formal. This magazine maybe aimed at an
elder generation or more of a mainstream audience rather than rebellious teens.
So, on my magazine I decided to make certain features to attract a specific group of people and age,
but no any gender inpaticular. Firstly I researched magazines that were aimed at the clubbing kind of
social group as that is what my magazine will be about. One magazine I looked at was mixmag. This
magazine was most interesting as it was very different from all the others in colour schemes and
layout.
On my media product I based it a lot around mixmag, he heading I made is bold and all in capitals
this makes it stand out and represents the group in comparison. The colour scheme used was very
mysterious and bright. The image used was very direct and matched the background to make it look
interesting which betrays that certain social media group as vibrant and exciting.
Question 3
After researching into both the major publishing houses in the UK and looking at what particular
types of brands they publish I feel that bauermedia would most likely distribute my magazine. This is
because after looking at their profiles and what brands are in which I couldn’t see any either one
that was similar to mine.
So looking at the types of brands they published I realised hat Bauer produce more mainstream
Bands like Q magazine. I want my magazine to be mainstream because of the wider audience that
Would be attracted to read it.
Question 4
The audience for my media product would most likely be people aged 18-25 as they are mostly likely
to be going into clubs and listening to this type of music. I did market research by making a question
air and asking certain questions about product quality and what types of magazines do people
mostly like.
From the questionnaire I found out that people most likely to listen to my magazine are people who
are earning an average some of money and who are in college. Also from looking at the charts I got
the sense that when the weather is warm this particular type of music is listened to more. Giving the
magazine a wider range of audience.
Question 5
My target audience is 18-25, especially the younger generation. The way I’m going to attract this
audience is through different features on my media product and colours and text styles. Firstly i
looked at a similar magazine to mine which is mixmag. I noticed on mixmag that it was significantly
different to other magazines.
One way of attracting my audience is the way the front cover page is lay out. I set it out to look
professional but also interesting and vibrant. To do this i had to use colours that would emphasize
each other for example white text on a black background. I feel this worked well and also did the
other colours as they all blended in with the image of the front cover to.

3. Another way to attract the audience is with the actual image itself. Firstly i had to make it as though
the image is looking directly at you, for direct contact. Then i could manipulate the image to bring
out more of the brighter colours and edit certain areas to make it look perfect which would depict
the magazine as perfect, bright and vibrant.
Furthermore are the cover lines and the sub headings. I made the cover line as noticeable as
possible so you automatically know who the person on the front cover is and why they are on the
magazine which would make the audience want to read more if it is a particular artist belonging to
that music section.
The cover lines had to be eye catching as well but not so much to draw the attention from the mast
head. The cover lines go next to the image but also fit the shape of it as though it is formed around
it. This makes it more interesting looks a lot more professional rather than putting the text over the
image. It also makes the image look more important and significant to the front cover.
Lastly is the mast head, I wanted it to be big and bold and in the centre of the top of the page. I felt
that this would attract this audience type as it represents there music which is also bold and vibrant.
This was achieved quite successfully as the text style looked interesting but didn’t clash with the rest
of the front cover.
Question 6
While making this media product I learnt a lot of techniques from different software’s and how
simple manipulations and adjustments can change the way a product looks significantly. Firstly the
main software I used was Photoshop. On Photoshop i was able to create designs for my media
product and slowly put them into development by adding text and images and adjusting certain
features.
One of the main features about Photoshop is the manipulation of an image. The images for the
media product obviously had to look professional so being able to change the contrast and lighting
and cutting out backgrounds added to the professional look. Furthermore you can also crop and
resize images to fit your lay outs perfectly, and bringing out certain colours in an image can help
your colour scheme blend more equally.
A limitation of Photoshop would be that you have to be experienced to use it professionally and to
get the best out come from a project. Certain areas were hard to do such as background cropping
and contrast changing as it is key to get the levels right or the image can look fake or to washed out.
Being experienced at the software would defiantly help as there are many tools which are used for
many different things but using them right to make quality looking photos is challenging in its self.
I feel over all I was successful in Photoshop and produced a good front cover but the contents pager
and double page spread didn’t look as professional or as well done yet also due to lack of experience
on the software. Although the techniques i learnt helped me produce quality images of a
professional standard
Moving on, we also used a high quality camera because it was important to have good quality
images. On my questionnaire i asked if good quality images mattered a lot to people and nearly 90%

4. said yes. So it was key for us to make sure we had a studio background and a good camera to take
the photos. A limitation of using a professional camera is that we are not photographers. This meant
that although the images was of good quality we had to research into band photos and front cover
images so we knew how to pose and were to stand in a band photo.
Technological convergence played a big part in putting the product together, as many of the things
we needed like cameras on our phones or easy access to web 2.o allowed us to do more research
and acquire knowledge of certain techniques used to make our media product look professional.
Also it allowed us to edit things very easily. Also we could present our work in many different ways
such as prezi and blogger. Prezi is a interesting way of presenting work because of the main feature
used which is zooming in and out of places. Blogger is a more interesting way of putting all our work
in one place to be viewed as it we can edit it to be how we want it to and also make it look even
more professional more planned.
Question 7
Looking back at the preliminary task I feel I learnt a great deal in the progression from it to the full
project. One of the main things I learnt is basic knowledge in Photoshop. Being able to use certain
tools and to understand how most of them work helped me out in a great deal as I was able to
experiment and test different things to see whether they worked or not.
This was useful as it gave me time to practise and try to achieve the best possible outcome I could.
Also the way we had to select a certain colour scheme were the colours didn’t clash helped me
understand that the layout and overall design of a magazine is complicated and takes research into
developing one.
Another main thing learnt was how to manipulate images. This was one of the most important
things for making the college magazine look professional. It also gave me the skills to understand
what certain tools can do such as colour changer and background editor.
Other tools like contrast and filters helped make the image look that little bit more quality and
professional. Also being able to bring out certain colours in an image helped make the image fit into
the front cover well and blend in with the colour scheme well.
Furthermore another feature that helped us design our final product was the rule of thirds. After
experimenting this while taking images for our college magazine we got used to taking pictures in a
certain wait to get the most professional look we could. I feel I progressed through out my use of
Photoshop as i got used to the tools and became more experienced in terms of lay out and colours
and placement of text, images and mast heads.