This document provides information about Lucas Kirkland's music magazine project for his OCR Media Studies AS Level course. It includes details of Lucas' preliminary front cover design process, using various Photoshop tools, and receiving feedback from teachers. It also includes Lucas' research on established music magazines, including their target audiences, genres, and publishing companies. Lucas analyzed conventions of music magazine covers, such as layout, mastheads, and positioning of images. He also researched the target audiences and unique selling points of the magazines he reviewed.

1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Planning & Research
Name: Lucas Kirkland
Candidate Number: 1159
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Set Brief - Print
Music Magazine – Production
Preliminary Task Progression and
Planning & Research

2. Section 1) –
Preliminary Task

3. Front Cover

4. First off all I started out
with completely blank
canvas to create my page
I next added a gradient to
the background. I utilized
the gradient tool.
I added my masthead from
‘Dafont.com’ and the school
banner at the top to increase
brand identity I utilized the
text tool to
create the
masthead
The next step was to insert my
main image into the page. This
involved using the place tool
and the quick selection tool.
Quick
selection tool

5. The next
step was to
add the
cover lines
and the
headline.
Then the
barcode needed
to be
constructed by
using the
rectangle tool.
The final step was to
feature brand identity
featured and a
strapline. I have also
added in a triangle page
turner at the top right.
This utilized an array of
Photoshop features.
I utilized
the Layer
style
option
and
added a
stroke
effect

6. Final Design
From the feedback I
obtained by my teachers I
have been able to sign this
preliminary page off as
complete. The changes I
had to make were adding
a puff promotion and spot
healing my cover image.
Furthermore all my dead
space has been filled by
cover lines.

7. Preliminary Task Progression– Evidence
Contents Page
Step-by-step
I first
started
with a
blank
canvas.
I then Added a
gradient to the
background and
also imported St.
Andrews banner
to create ‘brand
Identity’
The next step
for me was to
add in my
editorial using
the text tool
and the pen
tool, to be able
to form my
editorial.
Adding in the
masthead to the
contents page was the
next step. I utilized the
text tool and my
chosen font style to
create this. Then I
placed my image into
the page and deleted
the background using
the selection tool.
The next process
for me was to
start adding in
the cover lines to
my page.
Furthermore I
utilized the oval
tool to be able to
create my puff
promotion

8. Adding in the text to the
cover lines was the next step
to completing my page.
Final Page
The final
stages to
my page
were to
add in my
page web
address
format.
Also
placing a
copy of my
front cover
reinforced
my
magazines
brand
identity.

9. Section 2) – Log Book

10. Music Magazine – Genre research
• Music magazines typically include the following features: Interviews,
Photo shoots, essays, concert information and the top music in the charts.
• The UK is home to many music magazines, NME has been leading sales
since 1952, selling 27,650 magazines in the UK
• In recent times technology has been taken over many industry’s. Music
magazine sales have gone down due to an increase in online websites
being used
• Magazine average circulation:
Kerrang: 37,603, down by 6.5 percent
Q: 58,980, down 8.7 percent
Mojo: 79,345 down 6.8 percent
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk

11. Established Magazine for my Research
The colour black is featured in certain areas throughout this magazine. It is
stereotypically a bold colour which fits in with the genre of the magazine. The
cover star here is Ed Sheeran, who has a bold and defining presence on stage
Lighting - the lighting professionally used on the cover star in this picture is
high key which pulls all the attention onto Ed.
Costume - The costume of the star is casual and laid back which fits within the
pop genre. Furthermore the star is pictured with a guitar. Which is often
related to the pop genre.
Layout - The layout of this magazine seems to have a traditional layout. The
text and conventions seem to wrap around the star which makes sheeran
stand out to the reader even more.
Font – Q magazine have used the same front across the whole page, which
keeps the page professional. The font is also clear and simple for the reader to
understand.
Masthead – Having the name of the magazine just as Q is simple yet affective
in engaging the audience. It is also the biggest letter on the page therefore
making it stand out.
Positioning – Ed Sheeran is positioned centrally and therefore is the focus of
attention on the page.

12. Target Audience –
The target audience for Q magazine can be denoted as teens who enjoy the rock and roll culture. 68.3% of
males read this magazine. The category of people would fall into the 15-25 demographic. The dominant
readership for the magazine is A,B and C1 because Q is released monthly for £3.99. People could find this price
expensive. The readership would not be specific to any ethnicity because Q pride themselves on not targeting
any ethnicity in particular and featuring artists of all ethnicity. (Hartley)
Readers of Q magazine may have a ‘personal relationship’ (Katz) with the magazines choice of celebrity, this is
because the magazine includes personal stories in which the reader can identify with. For example the verbal
code “Neil Young family” allows readers to compare themselves to their favorite stars. Readers may also
experience ‘Diversion’ (Katz) which may be because they see clothes in which they want to copy on their stars.
For example the front image pictures Ed Sheeran wearing a bomber jacket jacket, some audiences may feel the
desire to be like their idol and go out and buy the same outfit.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk
What is the USP of this magazine?
From researching the magazine Q, the USP of this media product is the fact
that Q is the only rock magazine which focuses on up and coming artists. This
can be seen on many of their front covers and their website. The USP of the
magazine I have analyzed is the puff promotion which promotes ‘50 greatest
albums of 2014.

13. Publisher research
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/q
Q Magazine is published by Bauer media , a company that is hugely successful
for producing magazines, digital products, radio and TV stations across the
world. The target audience is anyone who enjoys rock music. Readers fit into
the 15-24 age group and have enough money to buy the magazine monthly. Q
magazine has a circulation of 48,353 copies distributed in 2014. This
magazine has 339,000 readers.

14. Conventions of a Music Magazine
Denotation The magazine is called “Rolling Stone”. There is a medium-
long shot of the Rapper Eminem and he is dressed as he normally would
be and has a prop of a boom box to emphasis he is a rapper. From the
content on in the cover lines and the main article it is clear that the
magazine is targeted to 20-45 year old males. The masthead consist of 3
main colours and is in a conventional position. The magazine has 3 main
colours for its house style which are:- black, white and red It has a
Website address, price, issue number and a dateline in the top right
corner. It has cover lines going down the left hand side which bend
around the image and the main cover line at the bottom right which is on
top of the image. House Style The main colour scheme of the cover flows
the convention of having 3 main colours. For the this cover they used
black, white and red. The reason for this use of colour is that they are
good contrasting colours that stand out against each other and they work
well wit h the design of the cover. They have also used this colour scheme
as it matches the main colours most often used in the masthead. Two of
the three colours also go with what the main cover image is wearing. The
colour scheme is simplistic and mature which is what the target audience
want from this magazine. Target Audience The target audience for this
magazine in my opinion is 20-45 year old Males. I have drawn this
conclusion from the topics covered in the cover lines and from other
Rolling Stone Magazine covers. Firstly they cover political content with an
article on JFK by his brother which shows that the readers are mature
enough to care about the political scene. Secondly they have an article on
Eminem being reborn and this is to show to this age group a different
image as before Eminem was very “angry” and magazines are a good
way of changing image and this is clearly what Eminem is trying to do
with this article. Finally it has an article about “Gaga’s Hot Mess” which
shows the male audience as males tend to want to see attractive females
in their reading content.

15. Target Audience – Katz, Maslow, Hartley
The target audience for ‘Rolling stones’ magazine can be denoted as teens who enjoy the rock
culture. They fit into the 15-24 age gap. The dominant readership for the magazine can be
denoted as A,B and C1 because Rolling stones is released monthly. There have been a variety of
celebrities from musicians to politicians featured on the cover of rolling stone so the magazine is
not focusing on one specific ethnicity (Hartley). When looking at the example rolling stones
magazine on the previous slide readers could experience ‘Diversion’ (Katz) when taking further
reader into the cover star Eminem. Readers may want to dress the same as the artist or learn
(‘Surveilance’ – Katz) about him on a more personal level, which in turn could make the magazine
appeal to ‘social climbers’ (Maslow).
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, I feel that the USP is
the wide range of artists featured on the magazines front cover. The magazine
also is released monthly which is very popular with readers as then its not to
expensive to afford.

16. Publisher research
Wenner Media: Rolling Stone Magazine Wenner Media publish a few magazines. These are: Men’s Journal Us
Weekly Rolling Stone This is the American publisher.
The Rolling Stone magazine was founded in San Francisco in 1967 and covers music, liberal politics and popular
culture. It was co-founded by Jann Wenner and published by him through his publisher house Wenner Media.
The style of the magazine including the house style has mainly remained the same throughout its publication.
My magazine would benefit from Wenner Media publishing it because the publisher is extremely successful and
the Rolling Stone magazine is one of the most iconic magazines on the market. It is so popular that it has been
running for nearly fifty years. This clearly indicates that Wenner Media is certainly has the experience and
knowledge to publish my magazine. Rolling Stone has a unique house style. This means that the colour scheme
and design is the same for the magazine and website. It is a white background with black lines. The masthead is
in a red font known as “Royal Acidbath” which is outlined once by white and then black. The outlines give the
masthead/logo a distinctive look and very recognizable, it also allows for the text to be placed onto many
different colours and still be visible. "Rolling Stone is much more than a music magazine - it's about everything
that makes music matter, from the political to the personal to the profound. With wit, originality and flair,
Rolling Stone covers everything that's important to the leading thinkers among today's young adults.“ Matt
Coyte - Editor-in-Chief The majority of the readers are men which is 59.3% of the readership with the remaining
40.7% being women. Surprisingly, the most mode age of readers is 18-20 with 27.6% and the least popular age
limit is 55+ which only represents 11.9% of the magazine's readers. The median age of the readers is 34.2 years.