The document describes the design and conventions used in the student's media magazine project called "Mainstream". It is aimed at teenage males and follows conventions of indie music magazines. Key aspects include using dark colors with brighter text, retro fonts, and casual photos of solo artists to convey an indie feel. Feedback from a focus group praised the color scheme and composition. The student learned publishing skills from creating the magazine and how to effectively represent target audiences.

1. Oli Searle

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products? For example the main
image on my front cover is
a lone guitarist, it looks
 My magazine ‘Mainstream’ follows the typical very much like an action
shot, but the clothes and
conventions of an Indie genre magazine. It includes his body language suggest
various reviews on recent performances and exclusive a relaxed feel to his
interviews with new ‘up and coming’ stars. playing.
 It contains a range of rather dark colours which are
complimented well with the brighter colours for text.
 The font styles I used to support this colour scheme were
stereotypically ‘retro’ and original.
 The composition of my images also help to add to the
indie genre, as the artists look carefree, also the various
poses help to bring across the indie feel.

3. Video: Font Styles of Contents
 They were too small, hard to read
 My focus group believed that the fonts lacked house
style
 Needs more stylish fonts all the way through, font
styles changed and got less effective on the contents.

4.  My magazine is very similar to these
three, as I’ve tried to use the dark
colours and contrast with the lighter
colours like in NME, bright red on the
darker black.
 Also I’ve kept the image typical to the
genre but with only a single artist
holding an instrument like in
Kerrang! Where they have the lone
guitarist as the main image.
 I’ve tried to keep the font style
original but also clear, like on the
cover of Q where they’ve used a
variety of fonts but they’re all clear
and seem to go well together

5. Video: Conventions of Front Page
 My focus group said that the colours were well thought
out
 The composition of the photo was well planned as the
colour schemes matched nicely.
 This helped to create a house style, as the magazines
colours went well with the image colours.

6. Video: Layout Of Double Page
Spread
 My focus group said questioned whether the layout
was effective.
 Aidan believed that it would be better to have the
image spread across both pages with the text beneath.
 As this would have created a better double page spread
format.

7. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
I included an image of a
 My magazine is aimed at teenage males, this young aspiring artist on
seemed like a logical route to go down, as many the front of mine to act
of the conventional magazines I looked at had as inspiration to the
more of a male theme to them. males but also as an
incentive for female
 Also the teenagers are more likely to want to pick teenagers to want to
up a magazine a read it on the move as it tends to buy it to read about the
be more informal than a newspaper. male.
NME and Q have used
the female on their
front covers to help
draw in the male
readers, as they’ll want
to know more about
the attractive young
females on the front of
the magazines

8. Images
 These are the various images used. They
help to entice the teenage audience as they
include the young lads, performing and
posing with various instruments.
 The composition of each photo was well
planned so they stayed true to the genre and
they would fit the style of the magazine
suitably.

9.  After looking into various magazines and who
produce them, and comparing them with my
magazine. I’d think either the Bauer Media
Group as they already distribute very successful
music magazines of Indie genre Q Magazine
and also Kerrang!
 I think my magazine would fit in well with these
magazines as they have similar conventions
 For example Mainstream has the same sort of
layout as Q magazine, with the coverlines
placed around the main image, that fills the
center of the front cover.
What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?

10. Who would be the audience for
your media product?
 My magazine ‘Mainstream’
is aimed at a variety of
different target audiences. As
I have tried to make it appeal
to both genders, specifically
of around 15 to 19 year olds.
Mainly because, from my
surveys, they are more likely
to go out and buy a magazine
and read it than someone of
Stereotypical teenagers that I
a much older age. would aim my magazine at.

11. The on the
The mass of double page
How did you attract/address
‘bubbly, exci spread the
ting’ text was ‘easy
coverlines to see’ and
adds to the the colour
appeal of the scheme was
magazine ‘effective’
 Well from my audience research, I was able to get a basic idea of
what sort of things to include, layout to use, and colours and
fonts to include.
your audience?
 For example I was able to find out from my focus group that the
colours I used were good, as they said it was ‘easy to see’ the
coverlines.
 Also the fonts I used were ‘exciting’ and has a ‘bubbly’ feel to
it, so they worked well with the colour scheme to make an
overall attractive appear for the magazine.
 However, they all agreed that the magazine was more of an
indie-rock theme to it due to the appearance being more
masculine with the darkness of the font and colours.

12. Video: Double Page Spread Colour
Scheme
 My focus group believed that the colour scheme used
on the double page spread was very good.
 It was a good bold colour choice
 However they thought that the contents page should
also have been red to keep the house style going as the
double page spread and contents page didn’t look as
though they were from the same magazine.

13. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this
product?
 Throughout the production of ‘Mainstream’ I have used a
variety of technology to aid me, like digital
cameras, video camera, paint and Microsoft publisher.
 I was able to develop my skills by using new technologies
like Microsoft publisher, I was able to get a better
understanding of how best to film and capture images by
using the digital and video cameras. Also I was able to use
my knowledge of paint to help me increase the quality of
the images and suit them to the genre.

14. Digital Camera & Video Camera
 I used the digital camera to take the photo’s for my
magazine, I was able to experiment with them, by
taking various shots at different angles and zoom.
 I used a video camera to film my focus group for my
evaluation. They were able to give me constructive
feedback with out me having to write down key points
or for them to be limited by a questionnaire. I was able
to film them for around 8 minutes and they were able
to provide various criticisms and improvements that I
was able to take down in video format for future
reference.

15. Paint & Publisher
 My editing software was paint, purely because photoshop
was too confusing for me. This limited me in some
ways, however I feel did the best I could with the software I
had available. The photo’s therefore had to be perfect and
in need of only slight adjustments.
 Finally, my key piece of technology were Microsoft
Publisher as without this my magazine would not have
been able to be put together easily, and it would not have
come out as being quite effective as it has. I had no
previous experience with publisher before however after
practicing with the preliminary task, I feel that my skills
had improved vastly and this benefitted me in the main
production.

16. Technology
Publisher was the main tool I used, as this
was where I created the magazine. I was
able to put the text, images, layout and
everything together to create the final
piece.
I used paint to editing the
original images. Adding
effects was done in publisher
but various photo edits were
administered in paint.

17. What do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from your preliminary
product to the full product?
 I feel that I have improved massively since my preliminary
task, as it was my first experience with publisher and I wasn’t
very good. However my main task I’ve been able to use the skills
picked up for the preliminary task to aid me in the production of
my magazine.
 I feel that the overall appearance of the magazine looks a lot
more professional, as before it was too ordered and plain whereas
now its scattered, interesting and a lot more appealing to a
younger audience.
 Also I looked into the colour scheme a lot more, as my
preliminary task the colours were quite plain and simple, I only
really used blue, just changed the tone, so it looked too plain and
simple. Whereas in my final task I tried to use darker colours but
then have the bright vibrant colours over the top to make them
stand out more to the audience.

18. Progression from Preliminary to
Final Product
The difference in
texts and images

19. Preliminary Task

20. Finished Music Magazine

21. Front
Cover

22. Contents
Page

23. Double Page Spread