Daniel Lawrence created a music magazine called "Riff" for his AS Media Studies course. Over the course of several months, he designed preliminary pages including a front cover and contents page to practice layout and editing skills in Photoshop. He also created a double page spread with an interview, using consistent fonts, images, and color schemes. Finally, Daniel evaluated his magazine pages and felt he gained new skills in using Photoshop and magazine design conventions.

1. Schedule:
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio
in Media Studies
St Paul’s Catholic College
Candidate Name: Daniel Lawrence
Candidate Number: 6675

2. Schedule
Week Beginning Work Completed
9th September Introduction to the AS Media Studies course, also created my own personal
WordPress account. Created a very simple page so that I can build on it over
time.
23rd September Began to look at different theories such as Maslow, Hartley and Katz. I am
starting to relate this to the music magazine that I am creating I have chose
to base it off which is Rolling Stone and karrang
30th September I have created a questionnaire that I can hand out to my target audience 15-
20 year olds to get a better understanding of what they would like to see
within my magazine.
7th October I completed my hand drawn drafts for my school magazine (preliminary
task). I also continued with my preliminary task working in Photoshop on my
front cover and also my contents page. I made sure that I had added
important codes and conventions, in order to make my magazine look
presentable.
14th October I am about half way through completing my preliminary task I only have a
few corrections to make sure that the magazine is presentable and contains
the appropriate code and conventions. I had ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale) all the
typical conventions of the contents. For example I made sure that the
masthead is visible and also that it used the same font and also the colour
scheme that I used for my front cover.

3. Week beginning Work Completed
21st October I made the corrections that I needed to do on my contents page. I have also gone over
my front cover and contents page to make sure I am completely done with my
preliminary task. I found this task was a good way to improve on my Photoshop/editing
skills as I haven't used a software like this before. After completing this preliminary task
I feel more confident with Photoshop and I feel these new skills will help me produce a
better music magazine.
4th November I have started to think about some ideas for my music magazine such as names and I
have come up with a few different names such as Riff, Chord and Pick etc.. I also looked
into other rock magazines to get some inspiration so I looked at successful rock
magazines such as Rolling Stones and karrang.
18th November After finally going with the name ‘Riff’ I placed it onto the front cover and throughout
the rest of my music magazine. I have also placed my edited main image. I got rid of
the back ground, changed the exposure and tried out different editing techniques such
as saturation and contrast. As I was editing and making my magazine I learnt different
types of shortcuts which made it easier and quicker to do things. I have now added all
they finishing touches to my front cover. I am moving onto my contents page. I have
copied my masthead to ‘repeat’.
16th December I have moved around with they layout of the contents page so that I can make room for
all of the necessary conventions that I need to include whilst using my magazine’s of
inspiration (Kerrang and Rolling Stone).
Christmas Holiday

4. Week beginning Work Completed
13th January I have finally added all of the text onto my contents page, and made sure that I didn't’t
have any spelling mistakes To make it look more professional I edited the background
of the images. I also added my signature and social networking logos and links to the
page to create a personal relationship (Katz) with the readers who have purchased the
magazine. During this week I have completed my contents page and have made a start
on the double page spread.
10th February I have laid out guidelines to make it easier on myself so that I knew where to put
conventions, texts and the image. I made sure that I used the same masthead to
‘repeat’. I typed up my interview and proof read it to make sure I had no spelling
mistakes. While I was writing I was making sure that the language I was used would
help connect with the readers. I added a edited image of the interviewee (Chase
Armitage) to show who is being interviewed.
24th February I have almost finished my double page spread, I have picked the same font that was
used throughout my magazine to remain consistent. I have also made sure that I have
kept to the colour scheme
10th March I have finally finished all of my pages for my music magazine and have moved onto my
evaluation of my magazine pages. I have learnt many new skills using Photoshop and I
overall feel more confident using the software