The document describes the creation of a new music magazine, including a front cover, contents page, and double page spread using a minimum of 4 original images. The creator learned skills in using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, such as how to cut out images, use swatches to maintain color schemes, and add drop shadows. They also learned how to create a double page magazine spread compared to just a cover and contents page. Overall the creator felt they progressed in their skills and understanding of magazine design and production from the preliminary task to the completed product.

1. By Jake Wyatt

2. The Brief
The brief was to create a new music
magazine with a front cover, contents page
and double page spread. While also using a
minimum of 4 original images.

3. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
My house style
Magazine
is red and blue Magazine Cover
logo/
logo/
masthead lines
masthead
My magazine
follows
conventions by
using a dateline
Cover Main Cover Line
lines
Main
Breaking image
conventions
(Medium
with text on
face
shot)
Main image
(Medium Close
up)
Main Cover Line is
usually larger font size
than my main cover
line. This is shown by
the XXL magazine. Differently to my
magazine the XXL
magazine has a lot of free
space at the bottom so Barcode
Barcode
that the main focus is on
the image

4. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
Magazine
Magazine logo/ Differently to my
masthead is repeated on logo/
the contents page this is
magazine fails to use masthead
something which follows the contents page title
conventions
I have followed
magazine The
conventions by magazine
using the title also uses a
“contents” date line
I have kept the
use of red and
white for my This contents page lists
contents page fewer features than my
magazine I have used.
However it uses a greater
amount of anchors and
images.
List of
features
I have used anchors
related to the features
above them. The fact that I
have only used images for
I have once again used a
a few of the magazine This magazine has used a
date line to follow magazine
features shows them to be date line. however differently
conventions. the most important to my magazine it also has
features of the magazine. the title of the magazine.

5. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
I have used the
magazine logo/ I have also used a large image to
masthead once again on show the members of the band.
the double page spread The image is a medium long shot
in order to follow
conventions
I have challenged
The text that I have
conventions by having the
used for the
picture credit and by-line
headline of the
together, as oppose to having
article is uncommon
the by-line at the start of the
compared to the
article as is usually done
usual magazine
texts
I have used page
I have also used numbers to follow
a stand first magazine
following conventions
conventions
once again. I have used Pull I have continued the use I have challenged
quotes. This of the red and white media conventions
follows magazine colour scheme on my by using some slang
conventions double page spread also words in my articles
such as “yep” and
“haha”
Magazine
headline This magazine has
used a long shot as
the main image for
the double page
spread
Pull quote
This magazine has used page
numbers. however differently to
my magazine next to the page
number it also uses a date
line, while also having the title of
the magazine also

6. 2. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
The imagery used in my magazine represents the urban youth of society. This is
shown in my magazine through the use of a variety of young people wearing
urbanised clothing, representing what some people may stereotype as „hoodies‟. I
have also used text to relate to the urban youth with the main group featured in
the magazine being called „Street crew‟ once again relating to the streets and
urban areas.

7. 2. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Gender
In terms of gender my magazine uses both males and females. However the
magazine features predominantly males, in reflection I may have decided to
include more females in my magazine to cover both genders strongly.
Age
Everyone included in my magazine was between the age of 16 and 17. I used
these people as they usually enjoy Hip Hop music the most. I could have used
more people in my magazine who were in their 20s and 30s however older age
groups tend to have less interest in the Hip Hop genre.

8. 2. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
Ethnicity and race
All the people featured in my magazine were either white British or British from
Asian descent. Traditionally the vast majority of Hip Hop artists are black, by
using people of different race and ethnicity I have tried to show that there is a
broader range of artists. However on reflection it may have been a good idea to
feature some black Hip Hop artists in my magazine as they are more easily
recognised as Hip Hop artists.

9. 2. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
Social Class
The Hip Hop genre is usually associated with artists that come from a
humble background and the music is usually listened to by lower middle
class (C1) and the working class (C2 and D). Because of this I have
included people from lower middle class (C1) and the working class (C2
and D) in my magazine. As these are people from the social classes which
are traditionally involved in the Hip Hop genre and that the readers would
relate to easiest.

10. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
I have looked into many different media institutions that might distribute my magazine over the next few
slides are some of the media institutions I have looked into:
IPC Media is a British magazine and digital publisher. That
publishes magazines in many different areas such as sports and
leisure as well as TV entertainment and also music. In the music
sector that I am interested in some of the magazines it publishes
include:
NME
Uncut

11. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
Is a German owned media company that first started in Britain
during the 1980s. The publisher has magazines in various
different areas such as football, lifestyle, cars and music. Some
of the Music magazines they produce include.
Kerrang
MOJO

12. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
Dennis publishing is a British media publisher first founded in
1974. The company publishes over 30 magazines and mainly
operates within the UK. The magazine doesn‟t currently publish a
music magazine however it does have magazines in other areas
such as lifestyle, technology and cars. Some of its most famous
magazines include:
Auto Express
PC Pro

13. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
From the 3 main media publishers I have looked at the institution I have
decided I would prefer to distribute my magazine would be IPC. I have
chosen this institution because I felt it would be important to have an
institution with vast experience distributing my magazine. I have
therefore chosen IPC because differently to Dennis publishing the
company has experience in the music field, particularly with NME which
is a very long running magazine (over 60 years). The other institution I
looked at was Bauer, the company also has a great amount o
experience in the music field however I don‟t feel that there experience
is as great. In addition to that Bauer already produces a greater
amount of music magazines than IPC and may be unwilling to take on
any more.

14. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
The main audience for my magazine would be teenagers and young adults as
this is the group which are most likely to enjoy Hip Hop music.
In terms of the social class I feel that mainly lower middle class (C1) and the
working class (C2 and D) would be my target audience as a lot of Hip Hop artists
started from humble beginnings and their lyrics often relate to issues that
working class people would understand better than other social classes. Due to
this it is these groups that tend to take an interest in Hip Hop music the most and
who would therefore be my main audience.
All the Hip Hop artists below have often wrote lyrics relating to issues they had
growing up from humble beginnings and therefore relate easily to both
Teenagers and the working class.
Jay-Z Plan B Notorious B.I.G.

15. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
In the past their had been a lack of female artists, however in recent
years an increase of female Hip Hop artist has meant that there is more
interest in the genre from females. Because of this differently to in
previous years I would now consider my main target audience to be
both males and females.
Below are some of the famous females that have elevated interest in
the Hip Hop genre:
Nicki Minaj M.I.A. Beyonce

16. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
In terms of gender although most famous Hip Hop artists are black
there are now more people of other races involved in Hip Hop music
and therefore there is less of a specific ethnicity or race who would be
my target audience.
Eminem
Jay Sean

17. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
Over the next few slides I will look at how psychographic profiles can
help me to determine my audience.
Amaar Ahmed- (Aged 16)
Hobbies:
Interested in football, enjoys playing
computer games and watching films.
Favourite music artists:
Jay Z, Kanye West and Rakeem.
Social Class:
Amaars is working class his father works
locally at Land Rover and his mother doesn‟t
work.
Ethnicity:
Amaar is English from Pakistani origins. Both
his parents were born in England however
his grandparents were born in Pakistan.

18. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
Poonam Parmar (aged 17)
Hobbies:
Enjoys reading books, playing netball and
shopping.
Favourite music artists:
M.I.A., Nelly and Drake
Social Class:
Poonam is middle class as both her
parents work as teachers in secondary
school.
Ethnicity:
Poonam is English from Indian origins. Her
mother was born in England howver her
father was born in India, as were all her
grandparents.

19. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
Reece Williams (Aged 17)
Hobbies:
Reece enjoys Rugby, football and
computer games.
Favourite music artists:
Jay-Z, Dr Dre and Tupac.
Social Class:
Reece is middle class as his mother is a
school teacher and his father is an
engineer.
Ethnicity:
Reece is from a mixed British background.
himself and his parents were all born in
England, however his mom‟s parents were
born in Ireland and his dad‟s parents were
from Wales.

20. 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
The psychographic profiles I have created back up what I had previously said to do
with the audience of my magazine. Firstly all of the people I have created a profile on
are between the age of 16-17 fitting in with the teenagers and young adults category.
Secondly 2 of the 3 people are from working class backgrounds fitting in with my
expected audience. As well as this the fact that each person has a different ethnicity
and lists Hip Hop artists as being there favourite, also fits in with my idea that people
of all races and ethnicity can fit into my target audience.
Although all 3 people list different hobbies they all include a sport as being something
they are interested, this may provide a link between sport and the Hip Hop genre.
This is something which can be seen through Hip Hop artists themselves such as
Jay-Z who has shares in American basketball team the Brooklyn Nets. Although the 3
people share sport as a hobby the fact that they all have different hobbies in
everything else shows again the wide variety of people interested in the genre.
I feel that my psychographic profiling has been useful in terms of backing up my
previous ideas and providing me with other links between the Hip Hop genre and my
audience. I also feel it showcases the fact that anyone can enjoy Hip Hop music no
matter where they differ as people.

21. 5. How did you attract/address your
audience?
I have attracted my target audience of teenagers and young adults by
using people of that age group in my magazines pictures. I have also
attracted my audience by discussing things which I thought would appeal
to them such as fashion, festivals and interviews with Hip Hop artists. The
people I have used in my magazine are wearing fashionable and urban
clothing in order to relate to the target audience and the kind of clothing
they would wear. In addition to this there is a use of slang in the main
article on my double page spread in order for it to be easier for the target
audience to relate to.

22. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
The creation of my magazine was done through Adobe
Photoshop and InDesign. Over the next few slides I will look
into some of the things I have learnt about the programmes I
used in the creation of my magazine.

23. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use a lot of the features that are part of the
Adobe Photoshop toolbar. One of the main features that I learnt
how to was the Polygon lasso in order to do a cut out of an image.
By doing the cut out I was able to remove the shadow that was
present on the original image and make it more professional.
Before After

24. 6. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this product?
I created a cut out for the first time by using the
cloning stamp. I used this in order to remove the
shadow on the original image by replicating the
colour of a nearby area of that image.
I used the move tool throughout creating my front
cover in order to move things around and
experiment with layout of my front cover.

25. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
I learnt how to use the swatches in Photoshop to make sure that I saved
the colours that I had used in the magazine. This made it easier for me as
it meant that I could select these swatches for other parts of the magazine
in order to make sure I was using the right shades of certain colours and
therefore continuing the colour scheme throughout. For the front cover this
was important as I used different boxes and fonts in different places and
needed to insert the same shade of red from the swatches to maintain the
colour scheme.

26. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
I also used many of the tools from the toolbar in InDesign.
I learnt how to use the eyedropper tool so that I could
easily copy attributes from one thing to another. I did
this with text to copy the font type or colour from one
piece of text to another.
I also used the text tool often to write texts in
different areas of my contents page and double
page spread, I also used it when creating my article
and writing pull quotes.

27. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
I learnt how to drop shadow images and objects this was an important effect
for me to learn as I felt it was very eye catching and would improve the quality
of my magazine.

28. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
Some of the fonts which I used such came from Dafont.com this is an
online font website which I used in order to find some more unique fonts
than the ones which are available on InDesign and Photoshop.

29. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
The first main thing I have learnt when creating the full product would
be how to produce a double page spread. During the preliminary task
we didn‟t produce a double page spread and so this is an extra skill I
have learnt. Now that I now have experience with a double page
spread it means I am aware of how to create a magazine feature and
not just the front cover and contents page of a magazine. This is a
good thing to have learnt as with a feature you have to set it out
different to a magazines front cover and contents page, as well as this
you need to write an article so creating the double page spread has
enabled me to learn a lot.

30. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
I think I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task in terms of how to produce a
front cover. The front cover from my preliminary task used basic fonts, where as
my full product used a variety of different fonts and font sizes. I think this shows
that I have developed how to make the front cover of the magazine more clear
and eye catching to the reader. I also think I have developed a greater sense of
spacing, the front cover of my preliminary task magazine had a lot of empty space
particularly on the right hand side where as my front cover uses most of the space
available and doesn‟t have a lot of gaps. I think I have also developed my use of
imagery greatly, the image from my preliminary task is slightly to the right where
as the image from my preliminary task is centred better. I think all the things I
have learnt have helped me to create a more professional looking front cover.

31. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
I think I have also learnt a lot in terms of creating a contents page for a
magazine. Firstly I think I have learnt how to make the fonts used clearer, I think
the colours used are much easier to read in my main task than what they were
in the preliminary task. I have also realised that it‟s a good idea to list more
features which are in the magazine in order to attract the reader easier. Finally I
also think that I have used my images better on the main task than the
preliminary task as the images on the preliminary task look slightly stretched and
as if they should have been cropped better. I think all the things that I have
learnt have helped my to create a vastly improved and much more reader
friendly contents page.