The document is a student's portfolio for a media studies foundation course. It includes reflections on a preliminary magazine project where the student aimed to design a music magazine targeted at 16-19 year olds. It also outlines research conducted on magazine design elements and provides examples of the student's magazine contents page and double-page spread layouts. The portfolio demonstrates the design process and reflects on areas for further improvement.

1. A S M E D IA
S T U D IE S
FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO
RESEARCH & PLANNING
CENTRE NO: 11049
ST FRANCIS XAVIER COLLEGE

2. My name is: Janet Lunkuse
Candidate No:2360

3. P r e lim in a r y P r o je c t – R e s e a r c h
& P la n n in g
Bearing in mind that my magazine is for SFX, I took into account
that my target audience must be students from the age of
16-19.
My awareness of the audience had an impact upon my visual
design and choice of language. This is because I was able to use
colloquial language, in which they are familiar with and use
brighter fonts to attract them.
In Adobe Photoshop I learnt how to airbrush images. I done this
my using the “blur” tool in which it softened hard edges and
reduced the detail in my images. Using grids and frames in
InDesign was very useful in helping construct my artefact. This
is because it helped me place the text and images correctly
when making my contents page.

4. Preliminary Project
College cover College contents

5. Reflections & Feedback
If I could change one thing about the way I made my magazine, I
would have studied my target audience in more depth. I
would have also made the quality of the magazine better.
This is because I believe that if I focused more on my
construction, I would of had a much more successful
outcome. Furthermore, whilst making my magazine I didn’t
take advantage of using the grids. This showed a lot in the
outcome of my magazine. Next time I would focus more using
grids to make my magazine cover more presentable.
I need to improve on many aspects of Adobe Photoshop &
InDesign for me to have a successful magazine. Even though
I've used Adobe Photoshop, I'm not 100% confident in using
all the tools. InDesign on the other hand is a completely new
software for me and I need a lot of practice with using it.

6. The music genre of my music magazine is:
• Grime. It is a genre of music that emerged from
East London which has been developing in
London's underground since 2002. This type of
music is usually targeted for young people.
• The chosen title for my magazine is
KABOOM.This because it sound young, urban
and hip. It also seems like a colloquial term
therefore the target audience can relate to it.

7. So I researched this genre of music publication
and studied:
• Model 1-RWD magazine • Model 2-XXL magazine

8. What I learned from this was…..
• Cover Design • Cover Lines
From the cover design, I learned about the I learned that the size of cover lines are
placements of each element for the front important and significant. The main
page. For example, I understood the cover line should generally be of a
importance of placing the cover lines larger font size than the other cover
around the main image and the lines. Moreover, the cover lines
importance of making the masthead should act as a teaser to the target
visible. From the cover design, I learnt that readership. It should entice them into
it is more attractive and professional to buying the product and making them
keep to one colour scheme than to use a want to read more. Furthermore, I
variety of different colours. Furthermore, I learnt that it isn't attractive to use
learned that having the angle of gaze is more than one font for each cover
important on the main image. For line. It is best to keep to one or two
example, if the angle of gaze is directed at fonts on the cover page to avoid
the lens of the camera it will attract a making the product looking tacky.
customer.

9. For my music magazine….
Target Audience: My target audience is young teenagers from the
ages 15 +. They should preferably be from an urban area and in a
working class family or they should understand the urban lifestyle.
Frequency: The frequency of my magazine should be weekly, this is
because it is common to have new artists in the grime genre which
should be recognised in the magazine.
Cover price: I want the price of magazine to be £1.50. This is because
it is an affordable price for the audience.
•Publisher: I want Bauer media to publish my magazine. This is
because it is a successful distributing company and their company has
huge international success.
•Unique Selling Point: The unique selling point of my magazine will be
its realism. The magazine won’t look commercialised, it would focus
mainly on he music and not the artists.

10. This is the face of the magazine
• Front cover • This is how it works
I ensured that the colour scheme replicated
the colours of the London streets. These
colours included black ,yellow and red. I
placed all the cover lines around the
main image in order for it too be visible.
I included a competition on the front page to
entice the target readership and I used
large fonts to make it easier for them to
read.

11. Here are the 4 original photographs I
shot for the project……

12. I modified each photograph; here is the original next to
the final version:
This image looks
more sharpened.
Here is how I changed the photograph and why:
I used the sharpen effect from the filter column in Adobe Photoshop. This
made the image look more high quality and defined. I modified it because I
wanted the image to look realistic and magazine worthy.

13. And the second one:
• Final 2
Here is how I changed the photograph and why:
On Adobe InDesign, I didn’t airbrush the image or anything, I just right clicked
the image and changed its display performance to high quality display. I
decided not to use airbrush because I didn’t want the image to give a false
portrayal of the people in the image. The high quality display performance
made the image look professional and better.

14. And the third one:
• Raw 3 • Final 3
• Here is how I changed the photograph and why
• I changed the colour of the image into black and white. I used this by
using the stylize tool on AdobePhotoShop

15. And the last one:
• Final 4
• Raw 4
• I took out the background of the photograph so I could combine it
with a different image. I used the lasso, polygonal lasso and
magnetic lasso tool to help me remove the background neatly
without affecting the image.

16. Here are a couple of research models for
my contents page…

17. This is my contents page
• These are key features…
I have included two columns in my contents
page. One was used for images and the
other is for text. The column featuring the
images where unique because the shape
of the images was a original design by me.
Furthermore, I’ve featured numbers on
each image to signify what page number
the rest of the story could be found on.
The column including the text was
separated into miniature subheadings.
This made it easier for the reader to find
the article they want to read first.
Moreover, I added a little description
along with the article title. This was to
give a bit more information about the
article about to be read.
Another key feature I included on my contents
page was my subscription box. This allows
the reader to subscribe to my magazine
and find out more about the magazine .

18. How does the contents page link back to
the cover page?
The contents page links back to the
front cover successfully because of
the colour scheme .I decided to use
the same colour scheme from the
front cover in order for the reader to
recognise that it’s a contents page.
Furthermore, I’ve included the logo
of the magazine on the top left of
the contents page to emphasise
again that it is a content page. .

19. Key points of contents page
• To make my reader want to read on, I’ve added a little bit of subscription
along with the contents list. This is because it adds a bit more detail to
what the article is going to include. Furthermore I’ve included items such
as the Twitter and Facebook icon which implies that the magazine is in
with the current popular social network sites.
• There is no distinctive link between the images and words on the
contents page. However the images on the page are accompanied with
numbers which indicate what page number the article is on.
• The images on the contents page determine the dominant stories of the
magazine. This is because the images are the main focus point on the
page because of its distinctive design.
• I’ve gone about ordering the information on the page in a basic design.
The text is on the right column of the page and the images are on the left.

20. How does the contents page flag up your
double page spread?
The contents page has featured an
image of the star which links to the
double page spread in the column of
important articles. It’s one of the first
images and it is placed at the top of the
page which implies that it is a major
article .My contents page flags up my
double page spread because it has
giving it a number indicating what page
it is on.
This is an
example of
how my
contents
page has
flagged up
my double
page spread

21. Here’s an example of an inspiring double
page spread…

22. This is why I think that double spread
works
• That double page spread works because it is unique and different. The majority of
double page spreads consists of more than one image and they have smaller
headlines. This on the other hand, only has one enlarged image of the celebrity
and a large pull out quote which acts as the title. The image and the title take up
the majority of the page. This makes it successful because this double page spread
could be used as a poster. The actual article isn't the main feature point of the
double page spread. Yet again this makes it successful because it makes the page
more fun to look at. The article is separated into small short paragraphs which
make it easier for the reader.

23. This is my double-page spread

24. This is how my double page spread works
I featured the headline on the top left of
the double page. This is because there
was plenty of extra space here. Putting the
headline here made it easier for me to
adjust the size of it without affecting the
article. I made it this big so it can look like
graffiti on a wall. This was successful
because I was able to find graffiti style font
and coincidently, the background of my
main image is of a brick wall.
My article is separated into
four columns. Because it is
an interview, I’ve used the
colours red and black to
indicate to readers what is
the questions and what is
the answers. I’ve also used
the colour red for my pull out
quotes to make them stand
out. Putting my article into
four columns has made it
easier for the main image to
be visible.

25. This is how all three components are
linked together….

26. Evaluation
• You can find my blog here:
(URL) http://janette-marvelousmedia.blogspot.co.uk/
And
You can find my evaluation with responses to the 7 questions
here:
(URL) http://janette-marvelousmedia.blogspot.co.uk/