1. MY MEDIA MUSIC MAGAZINE EVALUATION
These are the front covers of which inspired me when creating my own.
XXL NME
These magazines have a brilliant, calm and appealing colour scheme. The background of
each is in grey which is sparse in comparison to the central image. The colour red on each
helps to catch the eye and draw your attention to the mastheads and the main coverlines.
The names of the artists are in large font which draws our attention to the fact that they
are the main story that will feature in this magazine. The mode of address for the
celebrities on the front cover is direct, unlike my magazine front cover. I chose to deviate
away from the direct mode of address to make my front cover have an element of enigma
(who is on the front cover) and secondly, make the potential reader pick up my
magazine. The positioning of the coverlines are all justified either to the right or left. This
helps the reader to focus on the central image.

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product challenges real media products in relation to design and attraction.
For example my masthead:
Instead of using the traditional red
on white or white on red, I chose
to challenge these conventions by
using white on black.
My masthead
The NME masthead
clearly stands because
of the use of 3 colours
the red, white and
black. The black is an
outer stroke and sets off
the other two colours.
The XXL masthead is
simple and effective
because of the use of
white on red.
My colour scheme challenges real magazines such as
this NME. For example, theirs is clearly vibrant with a
lot of bold coverlines, pictures in a box, the positioning
of each and the skyline makes this front cover quite
busy. Mine on the other hand is simple with a colour
scheme of grey, red, black and white and still succeeds
in drawing attention to it.
I chose these colours as they blend really well with
each other and succeed to represent the magazines
genre of hip-hop. This colour scheme has been used
on other magazines successfully. Another reason of
challenge is that unlike most magazines mine doesn’t
Magazine mastheads are usually partially covered to draw attention to the central
image and to keep the image in the foreground. This is what is seen on other
magazine front covers which are well established.

3. 2.How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
For the image of the front cover I have a
cut-out of a young male in urban
clothing as most people this magazine is
targeted towards people who would we
able to relate to the character on the
cover, therefore representing the youth
of hip hop as that is stereotypical of hip
hop. Also the central non direct outline
image continues to represent hip hop
almost showing a “too cool” approach.

4. 3. What kind of media institution may distribute your media &
why?
The media institution I chose was
IPC media as they generally
distribute successful music
magazines such as NME and Uncut.
I believe going would this
institution would greatly benefit my
media product as this company are
already such a success as an
individual also with the music
magazines that they already
distribute, this institute could
represent my product perfectly
bringing all attention needed.
Also as IPC represent music
magazines this company should
represent mine greatly, especially
as they don’t represent any
magazines of the same genre of
mine, this would be a great
opportunity for this institute,
making them put in double the
effort to get an understanding of
this genre.

5. 4. Who would be the target audience for your media product?
The target audience for my media
product is in-between the ages of
teenagers up until the ages of young
adults (16 – 25) as they are the ages
of which may mostly enjoy hip hop,
even though there would be the
general selection of adults interested.
Another audience may be people with
a general music interest, as my media
product is very informative for the
genre, anybody who doesn’t know
anything about the genre could learn a
lot by purchasing my media product.
The last general audience of
which would be the most
obvious is of course the raw hip
hop lovers, anybody looking to
keep up with their favourite
artists of the genre, or anybody
interested in the subject looking
to see who’s new to the scene.
The media product will be
suitable for teenagers and above
considering that is the target
audience for this product.
This is represented by having a
urban youthful male on the front
cover of the magazine yet having
a sophisticated layout
The set list is a sophisticated way
for the mature audience to keep
up with their favourite artists of
the genre.

6. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
By putting a youthful
urban looking male on
the front cover is an easy
attraction to the target
audience, not to
mention the
sophisticated layout and
colour scheme to keep a
sense of maturity used
to attract the older
audience.
The young character on the
front of cover is in a direct
mode of address, even
though it is not obvious, it
sends a sense of cool out to
the audience, almost like the
character is “too cool” to look
towards the audience.
As well the character is just
an outline, creating a sense
of mystery, attracting the
audience to open the
product and see if they can
find out who the main man
is on the front cover.
The use of the colour
red can attract both
sexes as it is a unisex
attracting colour, I
have used the colour
read in oppose to the
simplistic white, black
and grey to stand out
and direct the eyes all
across the pages.

7. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
With the rule of thirds that I have learnt
along the way of producing this media
product, I have successfully been able to
create a product which attracts and easily
directs the eyes across all of the pages I
have created .
Meanwhile I have successfully learnt how
to use Photoshop and all of its tools in a
completely more advanced way, my skill
has greatly increased in graphical design
alongside the ability to construct and
deconstruct magazines, adverts, posters
etc.

8. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to the full product?
Here is my final task above my preliminary task, it is clear
that there has been a great progression in skill and general
magazine knowledge, as you can see I have maintained the
playfulness and colour scheme throughout tasks as I
believe both look simple and effective, smooth and easy
on the eyes.
However I did put a greater designed image on the final
task in comparison to the preliminary, fitting more of the
character to the either tasks objective, there is a lot more
going on in the final task as well as everything being a lot
more well placed in order for the viewer to have a
comfortable read instead of being confused and not know
where to start.
It is evident there is a big progression between the
preliminary and the final task it is obvious that the
audience will be more attracted to the final.