The student created a music magazine called "Urbanised" to represent suburban youth culture influenced by hip hop and R&B. They developed the magazine's design based on real music magazines, including features like a front cover artist and sidebars. The front cover featured a black and white photo with red lips to look "edgy" and convey meanings related to the music industry. The contents page used an abstract photo of a model with headphones licking a flower to portray listening to music. A double page spread included various photos and questions/answers in red and black font to profile the front cover artist. The student believes media companies like "Vibe" and "XXL" would be interested given the magazine's target demographic

1. EVALUATION OF MY MAIN TASK My music magazine develops and changes forms and conventions of real music magazines as I have based my presentation and format of my magazine around the structure of real ones. In my analysis of magazines I did as part of my research, I used this knowledge to put forward as part of my design for my magazine. I developed this as I took the idea of having a main feature/artist as my front cover as the focus of the magazine, also developed the idea of having the cell lines down the sides of the page, as I thought it brought a sense of clarity and structure. However, I changed a few things; for example the majority of the music magazines analysed the Head mast was across the top of the page, whereas I decided to put mine down the side in order to make it look more abstract and edgy. In designing my front cover I photo shopped my picture in order to make it black and white, and I kept and emphasized the red lips on the model. I did this as I thought it created a very distinct appearance to the page which caught my eye straight away, the abstract sense of only the models lips being in color; not only makes the page look edgy, yet conveys a lot of meanings. Such as sensuality, lyrics, and rumors which are all a very big part of the music industry. The read head mast down the right hand side of the page was positioned there as I wanted it too look slightly different from the majority of magazines, I also wanted my main picture to be as clear as possible and I found that if the head mast was at the top of the page it would be taking away some focus. I used the color red for the font as if found this would be a good color balance to use as it matched the red lips, I also found that this emphasized the words as it stood out extremely from the black and white wash in the background. My main color balance for the font used was black and red as I found this worked well together, I used the red as a co ordinance for my main focus “LOLA”, I did not include the color red whilst talking about other people as I wanted to make a distinction between the cover line, and the cell lines. In comparison to the front cover I used a very vibrant picture in order to be portray my contents page. It is a very unusual and abstract picture, as the model is licking a flower, this is why I found it so appealing and interesting. The headphones on the model are very clear to the eye, therefore we can see a musical element in the picture, the fact that she is licking a flower could be representing the fact that whilst you are listening to music or even more so “LOLAs” music you find yourself in your own world, doing strange things. I also found the color balance very appealing as I edited this picture to emphasize the contrast between the lighting and the colors. I did not want to include a complex or “busy” background as I wanted to contrast from my front cover, therefore I left it white, I also found that the colors of the image were enough to attract the audiences eye. I also took the approach here, of sometimes less is more. My head mast here was also the same font as the front cover in order to clarify that they are from the same magazine, and it shows some sense of relationship between the two.

2. And as for my double page spread, here, I used a variety of different pictures In order to portray different scenarios and emotions to what the artist was feeling. I used red and black font in order to distinguish the difference between the questions and answers, I also did this as once again it co ordinated with the colour balance of the Front cover and Contents page. I structured this page so that there was a main image in the middle of the page, I did this in order to grab the audiences eye, as it will then draw them in to the story, and the rest of the pictures. I chose this picture as she is holding her headphones, to show that she is listening to music and is deeply involved in it, and she looks as if she is screaming the lyrics, this is a very strong image and portrays a sense of fun, and informality. I believe my music magazine represents the more materialistic, suburban culture, of a teenage social group influenced by the Hip Hop and R&B culture. I have portrayed this by the artists and stories which I have included in my cell lines as part of the magazine, I have also shown this by the mise-en-scene of my magazine; for example what my model is wearing, and the pose she is striking on the front cover which is a very influential and well known pose in the female Hip Hop culture. My title “Urbanised” also conveys a sense of the suburban lifestyle and the contents of what could be in this magazine, which the targeted social groups will automatically relate too. A media institution which may want to involve me in, would be institutions such as “Vibe” and “XXL” as I find these relate more to my product and the messages and images I am trying to portray. The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. I would attract my audience by the mise-en-scene and the contents of my magazine, the more appealing and intriguing the stories and offers are which are included in my magazine, the more likely I am to attract t my target market. For example in my magazine I have promoted exclusive tickets to see J cole, and this n itself will attract a large amount of my target market. From this task I have learned how to use photo shop in a more comfortable and experienced manner, and I have spent the majority of my time using power point. However I have also found that MAC’S are a lot more developed and easier to use and I found it a lot easier to edit and create my design‘s at home. However when I had to transfer my work to a PC I found that I had great difficulty to transfer them directly, therefore I had to proceed to do the rest of my work on PC’s.

3. Looking back at when I created my preliminary task, I think have developed and progressed my skills a lot as I have become more comfortable with designing using sights such as power point and photo shop. I also researched a lot more in the background and demands of what my target market appeal to, therefore I had a lot more knowledge and time in order for me to come up with a design and content for my magazine.