Josh Calver discusses how he designed his music magazine to challenge conventions of existing music magazines. He took inspiration from magazines like MixMag but aimed to provide more background on artists. His front cover uses a black and white image with red text to stand out. The contents page advertises a free download and shows the DJ's perspective. His two-page article features an unedited photo and white text on a black background. After feedback, he improved the layout and included another artist's story. Throughout the process, he learned skills using Photoshop, Publisher and online tutorials to edit images and design pages professionally.

1. Josh Calver

2. Question 1- in what ways do your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
When it came to creating my magazine, I took a lot of my inspiration from the hit music
magazine “MixMag”. My reasons for choosing this particular one over all the others is because
it has hit all the criteria of a successful music magazine. With the main image of my front
cover, I want to create a similar representation of the artist that MixMag present with this
edition featuring David Guetta. I decided to take this technique off this magazine as well as
“Tilllate” and “DJ” as I feel it creates a serious mood to the magazine despite its creative and fun
nature. With the colour scheme, I decided to go for black/white because throughout my
research I don’t think I saw more than 3 magazine covers that had a black and white cover. The
red I have used is simply for the purpose of grabbing people’s attention. Because of this, I have
challenged the conventions of typical music magazine as maybe they might have tried to use a
black and white effect but it didn’t go but I feel mine has gone very well. The masthead of my
magazine is very unique is terms of style, usually with these types of magazines they will just
have text and not anything behind it, again I have decided to develop and challenge existing
conventions of music magazines but using a cubed sound wave behind my masthead with the
intention of adding a bit more excitement to the page. On the topic of masthead, the font I
have used is very stimulating, as it is called EL3CTRO I feel the lightning bolts and sparks
inside the text suit the theme very well. The layout of the sell-lines has been considered a few
times because I have quite a large image, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t covering the model
too much, because the headphones and facial expression are the most vital part of the image, I
didn’t want to have any text overlapping that part. I managed to fit all my sell-lines and smaller
logos onto the front cover and it doesn’t look cluttered or unorganised. The use of the red text
Is so that people’s eyes are directed onto that part of the text, for example in the sell line
“Latest Track Releases from, Freddie Le Grand, Avicii and Martin Garrix” the artists names are in
red and the first part is in black. I did this because people will see them names and be
attracted them to straight away, if people have a good knowledge on the dance/house music
genre they’ll know these artists are very popular at this point. With Props and Costume, I didn’t
want to go too over the top as Chris isn’t that sort of person; I went with a simple plain black t
shirt. However, I feel that the use of the headphone is the significant part of the picture, and it
creates a fantastic Mise En Scene, it portrays that he almost sees music as part of him, the
headphones symbolise the passion and effort he puts into his music and behind the photo
shoots and music releases, he’s still a teenager producing music in his bedroom at home. The
colour of the headphones directly stand out on the image to portray there is more to music
than what the eye sees.

3. The contents page of my magazine has also had inspiration from the likes of
MixMag and other music magazines. The general codes and conventions of music
magazines are conveyed on its contents page. The fonts on either side of my
page are slightly different. Most magazine will also advertise or promote
something and I have done exactly that, I have included a free download of Mark
Ronson’s brand new chart topper “Uptown Funk” Featuring Bruno Mars. I have
decided to go for an image that shows a view of DJ’ing and festivals from the DJ’s
perspective, giving off this impression that the magazine will go into more detail
about the artists and the real reasons behind them producing music. The
contents page gives us a clear insight to what will be inside the magazine and
who feature is the main article/s. The Mise En Scene of this page is to create a
sophisticated look to DJ Chris Watson. He doesn’t want people to think that he is
just a teenager creating music; he wants to build a career out of it and start some
serious business. DJ’s strive to create an amazing atmosphere in festivals and if
they have someone who can create a brilliant time for them, not act immature
and manage to keep a good quality business for them. In my research section,
with this genre of music magazines, most magazines do not really show the DJ,
they only show the crowd which I can understand if they are trying to relate to the
audience they are aiming at but as I said before my magazine focuses on
delivering a better insight to the DJ’s and artists, this image I have used is perfect
for just that. With the promotion of the new release chart topper “Uptown Funk”, I
thought I would make it much bigger than all the other text, this is because with
my target audience being teenagers and young adults, at this time it’s always
good to get freebees and if the user opens up the contents and sees straight
away “FREE DOWNLOAD” in bold red text, they are going to be very drawn to
buying it for that purpose.

4. The Two-Page spread I have created has attempted to challenge and
meet every part of a music magazine article. The article below is an
example I found earlier on in the coursework and I decided that this
would be the one I would compare, challenge and improve for my
coursework. With the main image, I wanted to defy all the images
that appear in feature articles within magazines. The majority of
them all are set up and edited to look bright and eccentric. My
picture is the complete opposite, there is no editing, and the picture
was taken while Chris was in the middle of explaining his equipment
set up. The Mise En Scene of most magazines will usually be bright
lights and all about showing the people having fun. However I have
challenged that in order to enhance my aim to show more the artists
background rather than just the basic articles and crowd
atmosphere. The colour scheme I have chosen, by the looks of it is
the direct opposite of typical magazines. They will usually have
white background where the black text is, I have changed the whole
background to one single image and used white text, I feel this
stands out much more and grabs the reader’s attention by a
significant amount. The structure of my article is 60% text and 40%
image. This doesn’t really challenge the conventions of everyday
magazines as the majority of them all have this layout. The
structure of the article will be set out on both page, this means that
small bits of the text and images will be on the split between the
pages but this isn’t an issue as the text is very clear and easy to
read. I have spoken about all the positives of my magazine article
but haven’t really mentioned the negatives. The one negative that I
found with my article that is quite big is the layout of it, the
example I have used to challenge has a brilliant layout where the
text and images are all spaced out and there is no clutter, although
there isn’t any clutter on mine, I still think the example looks much
better. I think the reason for this is because they have multiple
stories on one page and mine is all about Chris. I still feel that I
have created a great two page spread with a very positive image of
the artist.

5. After my peer feedback, the
majority of the comments of got
back about my double page spread
were fairly negative so I made a
drastic change to it. I changed the
background so it fit the theme of
black/white, got rid of the page
numbers because they were too big
and looked pointless. I included
one story about a similar artist
because I thought it needed
another image, but not of/about
Chris.

6. Question 2- how does your media product represent particular social groups?
A question you could ask yourself is ‘What is a social group?’ An answer you could get back
would be that Man is a social animal, hunting down the particular social groups to find them.
Social groups are a collection of people who are bought or taken into a social relationship with
others. This could be a sports team, a group of friends at school or a chess club. Social groups
and drawing in your target audience is an essential part of selling your magazine and getting it
out there. With my magazine and readership profile, the way it represents the targets the social
groups and audience I am trying to target shows them as Enthusiasts who see music as a key part
of their life. They spend most of their time being creative, listening to music while they are doing
so because they see it as inspiration and motivation for whatever they are doing. There is another
similar group that I was trying to represent which was ‘Savants’ these type of people revolve
everything in life around music, and by everything I mean literally everything. But I thought that
would be a bit extreme considering you wouldn’t base your life round the genre of music that my
magazine contains. Music does a lot of different things for people and it links in with Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs, by this I mean that music fulfils a variety of needs for these two target
groups e.g. Love/Belonging intertwines with family, friendships and love which is represented in
probably over 50% of 21st
century music. Esteem is another need of people and some music can
make people feel much better about themselves, music can introduce ‘Self-Actualisation’
because in can really motivate a person to do something. Music is the motivation for all artists;
every lyric will mean something to them regardless of how it sounds. I feel that my media
product represents these type of people because this music although is played in clubs and
parties, it brings joy and excitement to wherever it is played. The way the magazine is presented
with the bright colours and powerful meaning around DJ Chris Watson it shows a real insight to
how the House Music scene is ever-growing in our society.

7. Question 3- what kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
A media institution is an organisation that produces and/or distributes media products. This is a
way of getting your product out there onto the market. When it comes to distributing media, you
need to establish a difference to other companies; your image should be positive and unique with
a set of associations to put in the consumers mind. If you get within a power institution it is very
likely that your product will sell, it could also influence the attitudes, interests, beliefs and desires
of people on a worldwide scale. If I were to look for an institution to promote a magazine I would
chose a conglomerate institution; this is a large ‘parent’ company shall we say, which own a
variety of smaller ‘child’ companies. The reason why I would chose something like this
is because they could promote it across the board rather than just in one sector. A
good example of a conglomerate institution would be BAUER. BAUER is a European
media company founded in 1875 in Germany. The subsidiaries of BAUER include
popular magazines such as KERRANG, Q and BAZAAR. With lots of support behind
them with a strong portfolio of; over 600 magazines, 400 digital products and 50
radio and TV stations, there Is no doubt it will be a success. Choosing a organisation
that has lots of other different subsidiaries behind it that are in the same media
sector, it will not be difficult to promote it as they have already done so for such a
long period of time. However; through my research I found that an organisation such
as BAUER does not specialise or distribute House/Electric Music Magazines.
Nevertheless, because I have made a very strong magazine based product, I am confident that it
will fit in and sell well.

8. Question 4- who would be the audience for your
media product?
To define my selected target audience, I would say that I am looking for both
genders, all races and within the age category of about 15-25. They’re social
and economic status doesn’t matter because that should not define what a
person should read, listen or watch. I want this audience to read my
magazine and rather than just look for information on the artists’ tours,
festival appearances and album/song releases. I want a target audience that
takes an interest in the back story behind these artists. After looking through
lots of different music magazines, I found that they are looking for an
audience that can be attracted by free stuff, bright colours and a big image;
therefore I have done the same thing but also included the fundamentals of
an emotional story in it.

9. Question 5- how did you attract/address your
audience?
Attracting and addressing your target audience is a very important part of the
marketing campaign. First of all, I created a questionnaire to what sort of
things my audience wanted to see in the magazine. From the questionnaire
results I received I could tell they were a young audience in the 15-25
category, the most likely reason for them to even consider buying the
magazine is the content you can see on the first page, if it’s exciting and
stands out then they will consider buying it. Price is a big issue with the
people I questioned and I found that some will have no issue paying over £4
for a magazine but the majority would say that £3 is their maximum. The
content they most enjoy includes pictures and information; this is why I
decided to create a story that shows Chris is a different manor to other artists
in the same industry. The contents page also is a significant part for them so I
create an informative page containing the highlights of my magazine as well
as still showing Chris rather than another artist to keep with the Theme of ‘DJ
Chris Watson’. Freebies are also another thing that most people like and to
read a fantastic magazine with good content and get something for free as
well, you can’t really go wrong. A music download fits even better in with the
theme and it then promotes the artist who is ‘Mark Ronson’ and his new
release Uptown Funk Featuring Bruno Mars’.

10. Question 6- what have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
Initially, when it came to designing the first mock-up of my magazine, the software I used
included Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher.
These all had their challenges when editing photos and getting to my
final product. To begin with, I started using Publisher to design my first
‘sketch’ of my magazine; I thought this would be best because we had
the option to use Photoshop, Word or Publisher. The reason why I chose
publisher is because it made things much easier when it came to editing.
On the right, you can see my first attempt at creating a decent magazine
front cover. All the fonts that have been used were off Dafont.com
which was very handy when it came to the editing side and giving off the
professional look. I used Photoshop to crop out the background which
was originally his room but that obviously would look ridiculous on a
front cover so I had to use a background that would look right. As you
can see some of the text is red on my front cover, I didn’t have it like this
originally but I had to re-colour it using one of the features I found on
Microsoft Publisher. Once I completed my official photoshoot, I managed to pull some strings on
publisher and create a fantastic image that looks very professional. You can see this on the next
page;

11. I used online resources such as YouTube
to find a tutorial on how to change the
colour of selected areas of an image, this
meant I had to highlight the specific
area, add another layer and change the
Hue/Saturation of it. Because of finding
this feature I was able to change just the
headphones on the image making them
red. This gave the impression like
headphones had some significance to
them, plus it looked brilliant with my
theme of black and red text. The first
time I tried doing this I messed it up as I
selected the inside of the headphones
which meant I had a random red blob on
my screen so I had to completely re-do
the process.

12. With my other pieces such as the contents page and two-page spread, there was
much more time taken to get them right because from my research there are the
two main things that people look at to judge whether they will buy the magazine or
not. Not so much the double page spread but definitely the contents page. For my
contents, initially I went with a design that was very similar to my first design of my
double spread. I used images that were very colourful and were the complete
opposite of my front cover. After completing all three and realising how stupid it
looked, I tried changing the colour scheme using Publisher’s colour option which was
must faster than looking for a black/white image from the internet. On the right you
clearly see the major changes I made to my contents page and double-page spread. I
felt that the grey went so much better with my front cover and the layout looks a lot
more like how a music magazine would. With the images I used for my contents and
double page spread, getting them cropped out and placed in the perfect place was
so easy because on publisher you don’t need to change the ‘wrap’ of the images so
that it doesn’t mess up anything else on the page. There was one vital application
from Windows that made editing so much simpler and that was the snipping tool. I
was able to make things look clean and professional looking with it, especially for
getting fonts off Dafont.com. The justification of text was particularly important
when it came to editing the text on my double page spread because it had to look
professional and neat in order to give that magazine look. I used text boxes because
I felt that it was a wiser choice because I could put the text exactly where I wanted
to and if I had to drastically change the position of anything I wouldn’t have to
change the position or size of the text within the textbox. The ‘Re-Colour’ option on
publisher made the editing of my magazine a lot better because at the click of a
button it would be a different colour and match my colour scheme.

13. Question 7- looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The progression from my Preliminary task to my Main task in my opinion is excellent. In the preliminary task, my
skills were very limited towards editing on software such as Photoshop and publisher. However in the development
stage of my main task I took some time to research online how to complete certain tasks that made my product
great. I went from cropping out images just so that they look half decent on the cover to changing the colour of one
select thing on my image. Throughout all the research I learnt that the analysis of my products was one of the key
elements in my media coursework, I had to talk in depth about every aspect of it, especially in question 1. Initially, I
didn’t feel particularly confident when it came to the editing process as I only did something like this in Year 11 and
in my opinion the editing on them was not very strong.
Creating a blog is something that I have never done before either and personally; I thought that was quite fun
because it gave me an insight to all the bloggers that have already posted their coursework and I thought it was
brilliant that I got so much inspiration and ideas on how to structure my blog from them.
Within the research process, I learnt that you need to create a connection between the audience and magazine and if
you don t have that then it will not be a very successful magazine. With my magazine, like I have mentioned in
previous questions, I wanted to create a magazine with a stronger look into the ‘behind the scenes’ area of the
artists lives rather than just talking about when there next tour is. I gained this idea and knowledge from magazines
that I have found online such as MixMag, Tillate and DJ because they don’t have that type of detail within their
articles.
In my opinion, I feel that I have managed my coursework well and met every deadline that was set. I feel that
everything I have created and written is worth a good grade. Despite this section of my coursework is over, I will
continue to carry on regularly analysing magazines to see what changes over the next few years. I think I will also try
and make a blog for future school work because it makes it much easier to present work and show it to teachers and
peers. This has been a very fun piece of coursework as part of my AS-Level and I am glad I have taken it so seriously
and been very particular about how my final product would look.