1. Name: Abigail Crewe
Candidate number :
Centre: 33435 Aquinas College

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

3. Women
Who shop at:
Who are educated
I aimed my
magazine
at..
Ages 16 - 20
Who like
indie music
Who go to festivals

4. My target audience for my media product would be people who are into indie music
as that is my genre. My demographic would be girls who are aged between 16 and
20 because I think that the things that my magazine include will be more towards the
young adults. Also, girls this age who like artists like Haim, Birdy or the Arctic Monkeys
and who are likely to go to festivals like Leeds. Also part of my target audience would
be people who shop at places like Zara, Topshop and River Island because I will
include vouchers for shopping sprees and money off, which will entice the audience
more.

5. Most of the ideas for what my target market would be, came from a questionnaire
which I conducted to find out what people like and don’t like…
I found that the majority of people like to shop at Topshop
and River Island, and to include vouchers from these
would be good considering they can be quite expensive
for a student.
Another thing I found, was that the most favoured genre
of music was Rock, however because Indie was tied in
second I thought it would be interesting to create an
Indie magazine instead.
Twitter and Facebook found to be the most popular

6. I feel that it and its audience will be like Q magazine, except maybe more
mainstream. It seems that at the moment, there are not many Indie music magazines
in the market and this gives perfect opportunity to create another one. Q is a very
popular magazine as well, so I feel that my magazine would too get a lot of readers.

7. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?

8. My media product presents particular social groups by my cover star –
I wanted my cover star to represent the ideal reader so that they could relate to
them and fit the genre of my magazine. I wanted the star to appeal to as many
consumers as possible so they must seem friendly and fun…
I chose a picture
where she is
giving direct eye
contact so that
she is connecting
with the reader,
and it makes her
seem more
friendly to the
reader.
She is wearing a
floral cardigan so
that she looks
innocent and
welcoming; by
dressing her in
neutral clothes it
gives off a more
relaxed vibe.

9. On my contents page, I wanted to include a picture that showed her personality
more. By including a picture where she is ruffling her hair up whilst looking at the
camera it is suggesting that she has a fun/ playful side. This may cause the
reader to be more interested in the article and so will want to have a read. The
fact that she is making eye contact, is again showing that she is connecting with
the reader and inviting them in.

10. As in the double page spread article it shows that my cover star is both the same
age and also the same gender as my audience it makes her more relatable.
Also she says in the interview that she likes Oasis and The Smiths, there is a high
chance that the readers will like these bands too and so they can again relate
and thus enjoy it more and have a higher chance of buying the magazine
again.

11. This magazine cover has similar
connotations to my Indie Wave front
cover.
She is too half turning round, which I
think brings a playfulness to it, but also
mystery because you can’t see all of
them. Adele is also making direct eye
contact with the camera and
therefore the reader. This is commonly
used in the media to draw the
audience in as it helps them connect.
However, the way that her hand is
positioned and nearly biting her finger
adds a more sexual look to it, where as
the picture I used is only slightly
suggestive with the expression she is
pulling. So, the reader might be a bit
suggestive themselves, or it will attract
the male readers.

12. What kind of media institution would
distribute your media product and why?

13. The publishes for my magazine will be Bauer Media Group.
This company also publish Q magazine, so I feel that the two
magazines could compliment each other well and could easily
gain each other new readers.
They also publish Kerrang! magazine which isn’t the same genre,
however if someone had a wide music taste then this would widen
the audience to people who didn’t have such a closed music
taste.

14. Indie Wave will be published once a month and will be just £2.50 for each issue.
Q costs £3.90, however I prefer to have it cheaper because I know that if people
are willing to spend £3.90, then they will obviously be more happy to pay £2.50.
I will include a lot of advertisement in my magazine as well which means that I
will get money off them, so it wont be bad to have it only cost that much.

15. My magazine will have numerous merchandise in order to widen the audience,
and also gain more money to produce the issues.
T-shirts
Mugs

16. Phone cases
Apps

17. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

18. For the front covers I noticed that it was
usually centred around a big image and then
everything else is fit to go with the image. As
normally these images are placed in the centre, I
wanted to make it a little bit different and see
what else I could do with the image so I placed
it to the right and had a picture of her with her
body turned away so that it entices the reader
because I think this makes it look more inviting
and enticing. I also think this would cause the
reader to be more intrigued to the double page
spread.

19. The images that I used for my contents page were
similar to the ones used in real ones to it looks more
authentic, and there is a picture of a gig which relates
to quite a few subjects on the contents page so it all
links in. I noticed that indie magazines often make
certain pictures black and white and so I did this also
because I think it gives it more of an indie style and
doesn’t make the magazine too bright or pop-like.

20. And then the photo I used for my double page
spread was one of Abi doing the peace sign and I
thought this gave it a more bubbly feel because she
looks like she is having a fun time which I think makes
the reader smile and have fun reading because
they connect with the artist.

21. I chose the colour scheme to be pastel colours which were: a light blue,
purple, yellow and grey. It seemed that these colours go really nicely together and
I thought that these were more indie colours as apposed to the red that seems to
be used in the usual music magazines. I didn’t use any red because I wanted mine
to stand out from the others so I was challenging the typical convention, but also I
found that the lighter colours made the product seem more professional. The
brighter colours are a lot happier and are nicer to look at in comparison so I think
this was a good choice, and it did mean that I could discover whether the red was
favoured. I also thought these colours had connotations of indie, calming and fun
so thought the people of that genre would automatically guess. My double page
spread was mainly the light blue because I didn’t want to overuse all of the colours
from the contents page.

22. My magazine name is Indie Wave and it seemed that most of
the original names for these magazines were initials like Q and NME, so here I
think I was developing it to see what could work. I came up with other ones but
this was the most suitable it seemed and the feedback that I got from others
proved this. As it was the first issue I wanted the logo to be quite big and
noticeable so that it would catch people’s eyes when walking past. I chose to
put it to the left of the page as the image was to the right and I didn’t want it to
look messy or too cramped. This also meant that I was able to have it bigger
without taking over the picture. I saw this placement on many other magazines
and thought it looked professional and so I used it too because I liked the way it
looked. I also placed it here on my contents page because this made it look
more neat and it would have looked strange had I just suddenly placed it on the
other page or the other side.

23. I noticed that they often do feature lists on the front cover of what’s
inside or what's new and I liked this idea so used it in my own work. I thought it
was nice to have it down at the bottom, because as well as not making it look
plain it just gives that little bit more information for the reader to purchase it. I
included things that I think would entice someone to buy it like competitions,
interviews and posters. Now I think these feature lists about competitions are
usually found in pop magazines but I knew that I could adapt it to the indie
genre by making it not jump out too much and having competitions for gigs
like Vampire Weekend etc. I also did a features list again on my contents
page but this with more information and page numbers. I made the font bold
so that it would strike out at you when you open the page and so the reader
will definitely not miss them.
Indie Wave
NME

24. It doesn’t seem that the usual indie music magazine has an editors note
but especially with mine being the very first issue, and because I think it’s a nice
touch, and I’ve always liked them I decided to challenge it and have one on my
contents page. I think that this just helps the reader get more of an incite but also it
means that the editor can keep them up to date and the reader might feel more
connected which is always a good thing because you always need to connect with
your reader. I think it also encourages them to write in because they know we’ll get
back to them.
By signing it, it
makes it more
personal

25. For my double page spread I chose to do a Q and A with Abi as she was the
cover star. I chose to do question and answer because I think this gets more to the point
and I didn’t want the first issue to be too much in case we weren’t going to get many
buyers. I titled it Free Spirit because that is the album that she is meant to be having out
next year and this seems to be what they do, they title it with something to do with them
but not just their name, sometimes a song which I think is a nice idea because it makes
the article more interesting.
I picked a font which
would suit the article and I
thought this font was the
best because I think that’s
quite indie style

26. How did you attract/address your
audience?

27. Logo
Mast head
Typography
Suitable
Image
Eye contact
Buttons
Date
Price
Clear colour
scheme
Features

28. To attract my audience, I made sure that the front cover was both appealing and
intriguing to the future readers. I made the logo fairly big so that it would stand out
to anybody walking by and made it clear so that people would be able to read it
and remember the name.
I included a free gift of free headphones so that it gives my magazine more worth.
Headphones seemed the most suitable as it’s a music magazine and this will then
encourage them to listen to more music.

29. I also included a # because this relates to Twitter and so it shows that
we are up to date with what’s happening, and they’ll be able to relate
to it too.
The colours are bright and calming colours so when someone walking
past would see them, they would be drawn to it.
I put the features in a different text so that it was clear that the features
and specials were more important.
The price is only £2.50, and I did this because the price of magazines
differ from £2 to £4 so I didn’t want to make it too expensive so that it
was harder to buy but as it’s only a monthly magazine it’s a lot easier to
save up.

30. By including a button like this it makes the reader
think that they are getting what they should for their
money and so will mean there’s a higher chance of
them buying it. They make them make it more
interesting because obviously it wont be the same
each month.
I used a picture where Abi was making eye contact
with the camera because I feel that this gives the
reader the feeling that they’re actually a part of it
and it’s as if Abi is inviting them in.

31. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this
product?

32. Adobe Photoshop was a huge help when I was editing the
photos for my magazine, and I have learnt many more
skills on how to use it, and now I am confident with it. I
have found that it can create a much better image and
can create good effects.

33. For the whole image I used hue/saturation so that it sharpened it and
made the picture stand out more, and her features.

34. I decided to make her lips darker so that they stood out more, and so
to do this I used the paint brush and lightly went over it in a colour
similar but darker.

35. The way the lights were positioned caused her skin to have a weird
effect and so I used the blemish tool to even it out.

36. I found out how to
use the blur tool
whilst doing this
project, and so I
used it for her hair
because when I
removed the
background it left
gaps and so I used
this to fill the gaps in,
but it meant that it
would look legit and
you wouldn’t be
able to tell.

37. Looking back at your preliminary task
(Aquinas college magazine), what do you
feel you have learnt in the progression to
the full product?

38. I feel that my work has progressed a fair bit over the course of these projects. I feel
that my computer skills have improved and I have learnt new skills that I can now
use easily.
I have also learnt about the important conventions of making a magazine which is
shown through my work.

39. My Practice Contents Page
I feel that this is quite plain in terms of colours because the colour scheme is just
black, white and red which aren’t exactly colours that pop out even though it was
suitable because of the Aquinas colours. It is missing some key conventions, for
example: page numbers, pull out quotes and good typography.

40. My Music Contents Page
The colour scheme for my final product is much more bright and stands out a lot
more. They are the colours with connotations with being happy and fun. I’ve
thought about the structure a lot more and included as many features and articles
as I could – I even gave captions for the features which fills up the page and makes
it look busy which is good for a reader. I’ve also included a lot more advertisement
in this: the website and the subscription notice which is good for business.