This document summarizes Jacob Crompton's media studies portfolio project creating a magazine cover, contents page, and double page spread for a new rock music magazine. The summary includes: 1) The target audience for the magazine is 16-24 year old males, similar to existing rock magazines like Kerrang!. 2) The magazine cover, contents page, and double page spread use conventions from real rock magazines including large mastheads, prominent cover stars, and pull quotes while experimenting with unconventional color schemes and layouts. 3) Technologies learned include using Photoshop tools like the color replacement tool and layer masks to manipulate images as well as InDesign for magazine design.

1. Name: Jacob Crompton
Candidate Number: 2247
Centre: 33435 Aquinas College
AS Media Studies
OCR G321: Foundation Portfolio
Create the front cover, contents and double page
spread for a new music magazine

2. Question 1: Who would
be the audience for
your media product?

3. People who listen to
Live in
I aimed my magazine at
Go to concerts
Influenced
16-24 year olds
Males

4. I think my magazine would be similar to Kerrang! and
their target audience. I also think that many rock
magazines focus on the older rock artists instead of
present rock artists.

5. This issue of Kerrang tends to
use dark masculine colours to
attract their target audience.
However, dark colours may
not be based on gender but
could be related to the genre,
for example, dark colours
would be conventional in the
rock genre.

6. Primary Audience
The primary audience for my
magazine would mainly be
males as the rock genre is
considered quite masculine.
Although the magazine could
appeal to females, I think the
design and colour scheme of
the magazine would be more
aimed to a male audience, so I
would consider females a
secondary audience. The age
range for my primary audience
would be teenagers to young
adults as I believe they would
be the main ages that listen to
the current popular rock bands.

7. Similar Products
An example of products
similar to my own in the
market at the moment
would be Kerrang &
Rocksound. This is
because these two
magazines tend to cover
popular modern day rock
bands.

8. Question 2: How does your
media product represent
particular social groups?

9. My star represents a stereotypical fan
of rock, with the use of mise en
scene. Her costume connotes a
dark side and could be considered
rebellious This is stereotypical as
the rock genre is associated with
various dark themes such as death
& anarchy.

10. To gain an idea of a rock artists
appearance & performance,
I have taken a rock artist,
Matt Tuck, and seen how he
dresses in his performances.

12. Majority/all wearing denim or
leather
Matt Tuck tends to wear dark colours
like blacks and greys which can
often be associated with themes like
death & darkness that are often
associated with the rock genre. He
wears denim & leather clothing
which are often worn by metal
artists. Another common part of
appearance with rock artists is long
hair, this is because rock stars
would often ‘head bang’ during
performances and longer hair would
look better.

13. In the photographs of my star, I tried to make sure she would be
relatable for the readers. She is the same age as my ideal reader
and dresses the same in some of the photos. The mise en scene
of my star represents a rebellious young female who has a dark
and light side.

14. Question 3: What kind of
media institution might
distribute your
product?

15. I’d choose Bauer Media Group to
distribute my magazine as I believe
Kerrang & Distortion would be able
to mix well covering the variations
of rock.
Bauer currently produce Kerrang! one
of the worlds largest rock music
magazine. Kerrang! Also has its own
website, radio station & TV channel in
which they show music videos of rock
bands voted by the public via text
messaging.

16. Distortion would be a weekly magazine
priced at £2. This is a similar price
and release as Kerrang! but is
cheaper than Kerrang!
There will be a balanced mixture
between articles and
advertisements in the magazine.

17. Bauer Media Group’s Kerrang! website

18. A news letter, a way that readers can be
informed of the latest information either
daily, weekly, etc.
Radio station, TV channel & Podcasts allow
for increase in gaining a wider audience and
sell more.
Provide tickets and possibly clothing
for rock bands.
A way to increase brand
loyalty and is considered
as a gift from the
publishers for continuing
to purchase the magazine

19. Question 4: In what ways
does your media product
use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of
real media products.

20. I think my media product uses forms and conventions of real media products as it
is quite similar to media products based in the same genre, rock.
My front cover is a large masthead at the top of the page with a large image of
the band/artist that the main article is focused on to tell the reader who my
magazine is mainly focusing on this week.
I decided to have my cover star look towards the camera as this could be as if
they are giving direct attention to the reader. This could also act as a unique
selling point as the particular band or artist may have many fans willing to buy the
magazine. I also added various other bands that are featured in the magazine
either on the right side of the magazine or at the bottom, these bands could also
attract more readers.

21. I decided to add possible prizes and free items such as
posters & competitions they can enter like many music
magazines do on each of their covers, this could also be
used as a unique way to grab the readers attention. The
competition prizes and free items tend to be related to the
genre i.e. win tickets to see Green Day live, free amazing
rock posters.
I added a quote from the cover star onto the cover that
would be in part of the interview, giving an insight of what
the artist may say about the topic.

22. Here are a few other magazine covers I based my media product off.
Use of Free item &
competition prize
Direct attention
Artist/band
name in large
text, brief stand
first
Other featured
bands at side
or bottom

23. The contents page for my media product also uses various
conventions of rock magazines. I decided to use a large
picture of my cover star again in my contents page to keep
showing who the main focus is on this week. I also added in
various other photos near the cover star to attract the reader
to the other main articles as well. For each of the articles
with pictures, I added the band/artist title, a brief about what
the article is about & the page number.
For my contents page title, I decided to use the same style of
text for my media product title as well as a similar style text
for ‘contents’. This is an unconventional style of placement
as most titles tend to be at the top of the page or possibly not
added as it may take up too much space. I decided to do this
to separate the main stories (the top half) from the other
stories (bottom half) and draw more attention to the top
articles.
My Contents page is mainly
based on this Kerrang
contents page as it has a
unique layout compared to
other rock contents pages.

24. For my magazine arrangement of articles, I decided to
keep with the conventional layout with, Features, News,
Live Reviews, Competitions, Upcoming Gigs & Posters.
Other magazines may decide to have more or less
articles.
I decided to add brief insiders of articles in the Features,
News & Concert reviews sections as the reader may be
more interested in knowing what they talk about or why
they are in the article. I also added what the prize is for
this week in the Competitions part, it is conventional to
list the whole prize or the main part of the prize during
the contents section.
This contents page
is quite
unconventional and
decides to have all
text in similar size,
colour & style
instead of using
variation to draw
readers to certain
articles. They still
use pictures to
possibly emphasise
the importance of
some articles.
I used a variation of colours on the contents page to
make it look interesting but still kept with dark versions of
the colours as the rock genre tends to be related to dark
topics such as death.
Rocksound use their
contents page mainly for
the features. This could be
due to draw more attention
to these articles instead of
the common articles i.e.
Competitions

25. Here are some other contents pages I looked at to base my contents page off.
Both of these use
their cover star as
the main
background.
The right contents
page only lists the
main features in
the magazine and
one large image of
the cover star, this
is unconventional
as they tend to list
more articles as
well as have more
images.
The left contents
page tends to
follow the more
conventional layout
of a contents page,
having lots of
articles as well as
various images but
don’t use variation
to draw attention to
specific articles.

26. For my double page spread, I mainly decided to keep the layout of the page as an interview between
the artist and the interviewer as well as a few pull-out quotes from the article as a conventional double
page spread technique.
I decided to have the title of the interview as the artists name to show the reader who is currently being
interviewed, I also added a large pull-out quote from the article beneath the title to give a rough idea
about the questions that are asked in the interview. Some double page spread interviews with rock
artists tend to use a pull-out quote from the interview as the title in large text to instantly give an idea to
the reader what the article is about and only add the band/artist name in the stand first. I decided to put
the artists name above the pull-out quote to show the reader immediately who the interview/article is
about.
Double page spreads from Kerrang!

27. The colour scheme for my double page spread is mainly dark tinted colours. I used a black
background with a dark red and a grey/blue, this was mainly to show a difference between the
back and forth questions between the interviewer and artist instead of using conventional
methods of using Q & A or separating the two with paragraphs.
I have also used these colours because a majority of songs in the rock genre tend to be about
quite dark and depressing topic and the colours could connote dark thoughts i.e. red
represents blood. This is an unconventional method as most double page spreads tend to use
colours to attract readers to the page by using a majority of black & white on the page so the
colour would stand out to the reader.

28. For my artists image, I decided to place it on the
right side of the page in the upper corner. This is
due to there being a lot of empty space on the
right side of the page and it is best to be able to
see the artist clearly without most of the text
covering them up. This is using conventional
methods of real life media products as most
double page spreads tend to show the
artist/band so the readers can see who the
interview is about.

30. When planning my cover, I researched
into various real life media products to
see various codes & conventions they
used to attract their audience.

31. Using this example from Kerrang!, I noticed
that they used a range of colours to make
sure the page didn’t look bland as well as
making certain key points i.e. bands names
or strap lines (Plus, Free, Win, etc.) stand
out from the rest of the page.
I also noticed that the cover star, as
well as their band or own name, are the
largest and most noticeable items on
the cover. The star also tends to be
super imposed over the magazine title
to connote they are more important
than the magazine.

32. These are two
magazine covers
both from
Kerrang! and has
the same band as
the cover star.
The difference
between colours
could be due to
the fact My
Chemical
Romance were
classified as an
‘Emo’ band and
their songs were
considered dark,
where as the
latest songs from
My Chemical
Romance are less
depressing and
focus on less dark
topics.
Looking into more covers, I noticed that
the font colour tends to change through
out. Most of the colours used tend to be
a mix of bright colours like vibrant pinks
& blues, where as others may use a
darker mix of colours. This could
connote to the reader that the cover
band/artist is dark and depressing or
happy and joyful.

33. Masthead
Unique Selling
Point
Buttons
Colour
Scheme
Features
Eye Contact
Fonts
Extra Images
Strapline

34. AGE:
The target audience is around 1624 year olds. This is within the
cover stars age range so the
audience can relate to her and the
issues within the magazine.
GENRE:
The genre is rock/metal. This is
portrayed through the cover star’s
expression and pose. Also, the
names of other artists in this genre
are labelled on the strap line.

35. A button placed to the side so the readers
would see it. The blue/gray of the button
stands out on the dark background of the
magazine and is eye-catching.
The masthead is large and bright to
be eye-catching and stand out to the
audience but I have allowed the cover
star to slightly cover the title, this is to
imply the star is bigger than the
magazine.
This could draw readers in as it is
the best rock magazine that you will
manage to find. This is towards the
top of the page and made bright so
it could stand out to the reader.

36. Other artists on the
cover can show & attract
the audience the other
artists the magazine has
to offer.

37. Article sections such as
‘Features’ and ‘News’ have a
large text title as well as a
colour that will stand out on
the page so the reader
doesn’t get lost.
Pictures emphasise the importance
of the main articles and could gain
more attention than the other
articles.
Offers, competitions and free
products can increase the
brand loyalty as they can be
considered as gifts from the
publishers for buying the
magazine.

38. Repetitive colour scheme of dark red, black and white.
Black and dark red connote dark themes such as blood and death,
commonly associated with the rock genre and also considered masculine
colours which suits my audience.

39. Question 6: What have you
learnt about technologies
from the process of
constructing this product?

40. I believe I have learnt a lot about
the technology I used in this
project as I was able to
experiment and test certain tools
to see the effect on the photo.

41. For my cover photo, I believe most of the photo was okay as it already
shows a quite rebellious theme, the only problem was the colour of
my cover star. As I wanted to keep a dark theme with my rock
magazine, I went into Photoshop and used the colour replacement
tool. With this, I managed to make the star darker in order to suit with
the rest of the photo.

42. The next step was to create the cover for my magazine. For this, I used
various design ideas to create an interesting looking cover for a magazine as
well as looking at various covers from magazines such as Rocksound &
Kerrang!

43. I first started by creating my masthead. I used a large white text font so the
masthead would stand out on the page. I then used warp text to manipulate
the masthead to look slightly curved, I would have used more to make the
masthead look more distorted but the text would look odd and take up a lot
of space.
I also added a layer mask to my masthead. This
was so I could remove parts of my masthead that
the cover star was behind to make my cover star
look super imposed and more important than the
magazine.

44. After creating my
masthead, I continued
adding other designs to my
magazine.
I first started at the bottom of the page by adding a strapline. Looking at other rock
magazines, the strapline tends to use bright colours so it can stand out from the
page, it also has a large plus sign next to it to show the reader other bands & artists
that are featured in the magazine. I started off by placing a rectangle at the bottom
of the page and a circle on the left side of the page. I then moved the circle to fit with
the rectangle and removed the curved edges on the left and bottom sides.
I used a large solid black box to make
my centre text stand out from the rest of
the page. I used this for other items that
can draw the audience in i.e. free
posters, competitions etc.

45. Question 7: Looking back at
your preliminary task
(Aquinas College
magazine), what do you feel
you have learnt in the
progression to the full
product?

46. Looking back at my Aquinas College magazine work, I
believe I have improved in several ways over the
course.

47. My first magazine cover is less
detailed and bland. There is little
mixture of colour as I tried to stick
with using Aquinas colours. The
cover design is quite plain as I use
little ways to draw the reader to
certain eye-catching features.
Examples of how
Kerrang! draw the
readers attention

48. My final music magazine cover is an
improvement as I have experimented
more with a mixture of colours but also
considering colours associated with the
rock genre (dark colours). My design
has also improved as I have made the
layout more eye-catching for key
articles i.e. Large pull out text/more
design showing what the main article is
about.
Magazines show
other band/artist
names to offer
other artists
featured in the
article to attract
the reader, they
could also include
a brief about their
article.

49. In my Aquinas College contents page, I
tried to use a wider range of colour
variation instead of just red and black
like my cover. I also tried to use
spacing between all the text on the
page instead of making the page seem
claustrophobic.
The amount of space
used in contents
pages can vary.

50. Main focus in issue
Used to separate the page
In my contents page, I tried to show a
division between the main stories and
the remaining other articles. To do this,
I placed my title in the centre to act as
a barrier between the two areas. I also
tried to use separate colouring on
either side to have a variation of
colours (blue on the lower half, red on
the upper half).
Kerrang! put two other featured articles
with the main article to attract the readers
to other stories featured in the magazine.