The document describes a student's media magazine project. It includes details on the design and layout choices made for the magazine's cover, contents page, and a double page article spread. Feedback was gathered from the target audience which identified strengths like the professional look achieved through design conventions, and weaknesses such as some inconsistency between pages. The target audience responded positively to the clean and simple layouts while also providing suggestions for additional design elements.

1. Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My magazine includes many conventional features such as a masthead across the top center
of the page reading ‘Conform’, a barcode at the bottom right hand side of the page, a
website and an issue date. Cover lines are located at both the right and left hand side of
the page, and my image centered in the middle of the page.
I chose to use the black font on the white background in
order to help the magazine to stand out thus attracting
viewers if the magazine was placed on a shelf. I used a
variety of fonts to make the front cover look more diverse
and interesting. The text on the cover lines is a blue/purple
color designed to make the page look slightly more colorful.
The typical colors used for a music magazine are red, blue
and black, although the main colors I’ve used are white and
black, I have used red and blue on the page so readers can
identify it as a music magazine.
This front cover wasn’t inspired by any other magazines it
was a totally original idea. This goes with the indie theme
of the magazine in order to help it stand out, as people
reading this magazine are people that like to stand out and
be different.
I have followed the key convention of
keeping the ‘Contents’ located at the
top of the contents page. Also, on a
contents page there is often numbers in
front of letters, in a bold font, I have
done this as well in order to keep the
page numbers easy to navigate. I have
also put the main heading of the page
next to the number in a bold font, the
same size as the number, with a
subheading in a smaller font beneath the
heading, which too is a key convention,
one that I haven’t broken away from.
The images one the right hand side vary
to the front cover in order to
demonstrate more interesting stories
within the text. The text on a contents
page is often in columns which I have
incorporated into this contents page
sticking with the conventions.
The color scheme however does differ to the one on the cover page, thus
demonstrating diversity.
I was inspired by Q magazines contents page as I liked the sophisticated elements of the layout and I
also admired the color scheme, therefore my contents page wasn’t as original as my front cover. I put
a large image of a band in order to fill a large space and make sure the reader isn’t overwhelmed by
writing. Readers also like looking at these images on contents pages in order to see what lies ahead,
encouraging the reader to read on. The three images I have used all have color differences to show
diversity throughout the magazine. There is a website link in the top left hand corner which will
appeal to young audiences because it shows the magazine is keeping up to date with technology.

2. The only convention I really followed when it came to the
double page spread was placing the image to the left of the
text. The title is bold however its not placed in the center of
the page because I thought this looked more original. I haven’t
used any large text to show what’s in the article because I
wanted to heighten the level of mystery. I also used two
different color texts to show a difference in who’s speaking
between the interviewer and the interviewee. The different
colors were also used to attract the readers attention. The red
font is a typical music magazine color thus maintaining the
theme. There is usually a lot of writing on a double page
spread which I did here and there is also columns used which I
also used as I made two columns.
I did some research and asked several people that I know that enjoy indie music if they
liked the simplistic layout or if they would prefer something more complex, and they all
agreed that the simplistic layout makes it look more sophisticated which they liked and has
an almost quirky yet warm effect. They also liked how the photo used was in black and
white, giving an almost vintage effect.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine was aimed at teenagers aged 16-19 for a number of reasons. Firstly,
the genre of my magazine is alternative/indie, which is the age group that mostly like
this kind of music. Secondly, with this age group a certain level of sophistication is
required however nothing too formal is expected. My magazine represents this in a
number of ways, firstly, the model on the front is a 17 year old girl, therefore the
people looking to buy the magazine will recognize the age group of the model, and
as it is a girl on the front cover this will appeal less to males looking to read a music
magazine. Secondly, the costuming I have used on the model is relative to the genre
as alternative/indie people will admire the dark eye make up and skinny jeans. The
props such as the acoustic guitar will also appeal to this audience as this is an
instrument used to make indie music and something a lot of indie people play.
The title font suggests a quirkiness about the magazine as it is unusual which
should attract readers into alternative music as they’re usually looking for
something ‘different’. Most music magazines are full of the color red and blue
however my front cover is mainly white which should also attract these readers for
the same reason, this will be seen as something unusual.
My front cover is black and white as well as my double page spread, which should
be appealing to these readers as when I researched this social group I found out
that they would find this simplicity and vintage effect appealing.
Although I used a girl as my front cover, she looks a little masculine, therefore the
magazine could also be attractive to a male audience. The color schemes are aso
fairly dark which also appeals to males.
Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?

3. In my opinion I think that IPC MEDIA would
benefit from selling my magazine because the
only other music magazine they sell is NME
therefore it would be beneficial to sell more of
a diversity of music magazines. It would give
them the chance to expand their clientele.
Also I think there is a place in the market for my magazine because there
aren’t many other magazine focusing mainly on indie music which is a big
interest of people aged 16-19. Also there is not a lot on the website aimed
for teenagers therefore it would attract business to IPC media as it would be
targeting a larger audience.
I think my product should also be sold at big brand shops such as WHSmith
because this is a well known shop that teenagers would shop in to get
stationary products. Also newsagents near train stations would benefit from
selling this product because many students on there way to school would
stop off in news agents.
Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My intended audience is both male and female due to the fact there is a mix of music
bands on the front cover appealing to both audiences. The color scheme is black and
white, which doesn’t rule out either audience so the magazine is unisex in this sense.
However the magazine will most probably be more appealing to the female audience
due to the female on the front cover and the fact there’s gossip pages, which are
typically catch females attention. Although there’s a female on the front cover, she
looks looks slightly masculine, therefore this is still appealing to male audiences.
Overall my magazine would appeal to people such as Daniella,Daniella is a 17 year
old girl that loves indie music and indie culture. In her free time she jams with her
friends as she plays acoustic guitar, and also goes to gigs most Fridays. She loves
finding out about new bands that most people haven’t heard of because she finds
them more authentic and raw, especially to see at gigs. Her mates have similar
interests so they’re always in competition with each other to find new bands. Daniella
is a big fan of Vampire Weekend and The Vaccines who she saw playing at festivals
on several occasions last year. Despite the fact she loves seeing big bands play and
loves her music, she doesn’t want to play professionally because she would never
want to think of music as a job, just a hobby. She has a job at the Vans store at the
weekend when she’s not attending college, therefore she would find conform
affordable at only £2.80 per issue.
‘Conform’ also presents teenagers/ young adults in a positive light as it highlights
those that have made a success of their life and doesn’t promote artists that are into
heavy drinking or drug abuse, or violence. The magazine would therefore be
appealing to those people that are aspiring musicians as it gives people inspiration to
see people that have made a success of themselves.
Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?
*answer placed on a powerpoint
Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?

4. This task has given me the opportunity to expand my knowledge on
how to use programs more effectively and other technological devices.
PROGRAMS:
In order to make my magazine pages look
as professional as possible I had to use an
adobe program called photoshop. This
gave me the opportunity to edit photo’s,
create new backgrounds, experiment with
different colors in order to form
mastheads and edit my magazine to suit
the desirable genre.
By using photoshop it made my magazine
making a lot more simple as the website
was easy to navigate once I learnt how to
use.
I also was given the opportunity to use the Canon Eos 600D
which originally I was apprehensive about as I had never used
one before however once I got used to it, I was able to produce
some good quality pictures.
In order to upload all my work I had to use blogger which originally
was a hard website to navigate however once I got used to uploading files it
became less complicated. Blogger gave me an opportunity to treat my work
like a diary allowing me to see how my work was progressing every time I
uploaded an improved version.
To conclude, as I was forced out of my comfort zone and had to use ICT
skills I ended up becoming much more confident ,and eventually improving. I also
became much more independent.
Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?
As preparation for making this magazine we had to create a
school magazine. This helped a lot with the process of planning our
music magazine because we then understood the type of work that
goes into something and also the amount of organization and time
management needed. For example, with the school magazine we also
had to sort out props, costumes, make up, people to take photos of,
where to take them, how to use photoshop and how to use the cameras

5. and blogger. This really helped us with the later task of making the
music magazine because by then we were already comfortable with
using the technology and understood how the system worked.
When it came to the music magazine I used class time to plan the
location, the model, the costume, the pose and the layout of my
magazine. When it came to taking the photos my organization came in
handy helping everything to run smoothly, the way I had planned.
To conclude I feel from the preliminary task I learnt a lot as it
helped me with technical skills and organizational skills, which helped
the music magazine run really smoothly.
Q8. Evaluate how successful your product is with your target
audience using audience feedback.
I asked about 15 people aged 17-18 about my magazine
which was really helpful because I got a lot of feedback.
Strengths of my cover:
Many people said the black text on white was really effective
in the sense it helped make the magazine stand out. There were
many compliments on how different the magazine looked and
several people liked the text above the writing as they said it made
the cover look more professional. They also said they admired
how it could appeal to boys and girls and some people liked the
fact there is not an overload on color.
Weaknesses of the cover:
Although some people liked the color scheme, some people would have
preferred more color. Some people also said the barcode may have looked better
in a different position. There were also mixed reviews on the color of the writing
on the left and right.
Strengths of the contents page:
The contents page mainly got good reviews as people liked the image
effects as one’s sepia and ones black and white. People also liked the diversity of
colors on the page, and the text and image layout as it looks professional. People
also admired the fact its easy to navigate
Weaknesses of the contents page:
Some people didn’t like the fact that the contents page didn’t go well with
the cover page because it seemed relatively inconsistent,
Strengths of the Double Page Spread:
Most people liked the simplicity of the double page spread because
its plain yet it looks professional. People also commented on the fact the
black and white picture looks very vintage yet clear. They also liked the
different color texts as it breaks the text up a bit.

6. Weaknesses of the Double Page Spread:
Some people thought the double page spread looked to simple and
could have done with more text around the image.