Final completed front cover

Final completed contents page

Final completed article (double page spread)

Final completed double page spread

Evaluation - Question 1B

When designing my magazine, I followed the conventions of a typical music magazine as I knew by doing this my magazine would be successful, by challenging the conventions you are taking a risk on whether your magazine will be successful.

Skyline - The skyline on my music magazine is 'Exclusive interview with Catalyst!' most music magazines have a skyline which is usually talking about what is going to be in the magazine. The skyline is always positioned at the top of the magazine, it adds structure to the magazine and overall gives information to the reader,

Masthead - The masthead on my magazine is 'Blitz!' in bold black on a red background, by having the bold black writing on top of a red background the masthead stands out from the rest of the magazine. Also, the black colour of Blitz represents the rock side of the genre and the red background represents the pop side of the genre.

Anchorage text - The anchorage text on my music magazine as "Vendetta's Billie Mason" and "Question & Answer Inside', anchorage text is used to lure the audience into buying the magazine, usually when choosing your anchorage text you use words like 'exclusive'. However by putting "Vendetta's Billie Mason' I am luring in fans of Vendetta as a band or Billie Mason as an artist. Also, by putting "Question & Answer Inside" this will make people want to buy the magazine to look at the questions that have been asked and the answers Billie Mason gives.

Sell lines - The sell lines in my magazine is linked in with my skyline, the word 'exclusive' would make people buy the magazine as they want to see what is exclusive about the interview with Catalyst, also the names of bands; Immersion, Vendetta, Catalyst and Insomnia are used as sell lines as by putting the names of bands on the magazine, you are straight away attracting the fans of these particular bands to buy your magazine.

Colour pallet - The colour pallet on my music magazine is black red and white, as my magazine is rock I thought it was important to get black as one of my main colours as black represents rock as a genre, however the white and red parts of the colour pallet highlight the pop side of the genre. By using bold colours like red and black, it will help people to be able to recognise my magazine easily e.g NME. The splash colour on my magazine is blue, a splash colour is a colour which is only on the magazine a bit, but it is still recognizable on the magazine.

Evaluation - Question 1A

In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When designing my magazine, I thought it was important that there was aspects of a music magazine like Kerrang within my magazine, all successful magazines follow the same conventions, they just have a different way of showing it. The typical conventions of a successful music magazine is a masthead, main image, anchorage text, strap line and colour pallet. Throughout the topic, I have been annotating many different music magazines, below is an image of a Kerrang magazine which I annotated earlier on in the course.

By annotating Kerrang, I was able to see what is expected of my rock magazine, as Kerrang is a successful rock magazine, by following the conventions of this magazine then my magazine may be able to follow in the footsteps of Kerrang.

Evaluation - Question 2C

A social group is a group of people who share specific interests/social relation through things such as music and fashion. Within society there is many different social groups, including Rock, Mods and Indie. When creating my music magazine I was mainly focusing on the rock social group, when thinking of rockers you think of dark clothes, long hair, dark make up and rock music. However, I didn't want my magazine to be dull and boring so I mixed in the genre of pop, by having elements of pop I was able to use more brighter colours in comparison to the dark colours you use to represent rock.

Below is a photo of Fall Out Boy, a rock band who may come under the Pop-Rock genre as throughout their career they have had many songs in the charts. However, each member of the band has a piece of dark clothing on, this representing the rock side of the band. Also, the fact that three out of the four members have dark beards while one has tattoos on his body, beards and tattoos may be seen as something which represents rock as a genre as within Rock there are many artists with tattoos and beards.

Evaluation - Question 2B

When designing my double page spread, I thought it was important to get some brighter colours in for the anchorage text and the border as I knew that the colours on my photo were very dark. Again, if I would have just used dark colours, I would have only been looking at the one social group, however by doing a sub genre it is important for me to look at both social groups within the pop rock genre.

As you can see from the photo, the clothes which are being worn are quite dark, also the make up the model is wearing is all dark and very 'Gothic'. As the colours on the photography was dark, I had to have bright colours surrounding the image. I used the red colour for the anchorage text and the border is a mix between blue and red, as throughout my music magazine, blue and red is the ongoing colour pallet.

Evaluation - Question 2A

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When creating my music magazine, I didn't just want one specific social group to read my magazine, this being the reason why I made the decision to do pop rock instead of just rock. The reason I chose to do pop rock rather than just rock is because pop rock would have a wider target audience as people who may not enjoy rock, may enjoy pop rock as it has elements of two different genres in it, by having a wider target audience I am increasing the amount of people who will buy my music magazine.

However, overall I would say my music magazine is more rock than pop, as when I first started creating my magazine it was going to be a magazine based purely on rock, however after getting feedback I thought it would be more suitable to do pop rock as by doing rock I was only really aiming my magazine at once social group.

If my magazine was just going to be targeted at 'rockers' then my whole magazine would have been dark colours, however the fact I am aiming my magazine at two separate social groups, I had to modify my colour pallet to be suitable for both groups. For the 'rockers' there is the dark border, with the byline and masthead font being black, whereas the background to the masthead is red and the sell lines being blue, this highlighting the 'pop' group.

Evaluation - Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After researching three big Media institutions, Bauer, Emap and IPC I have decided that the company I would use to distribute my media product would be Bauer. I have chose Bauer as this institution publishes Kerrang, which is the biggest Rock magazine in the market. As my magazine is also a rock magazine I see Bauer as a good opportunity to get my magazine distributed to masses of people.


Also, by working within the same company as Kerrang, I would be able to look at Kerrang and how it is published, to help my music magazine.

Furthermore, another reason why I would chose Bauer is because they work in countries all over the world whereas Emap and IPC are based specifically in certain countries. The fact that Bauer are worldwide would help my magazine to get noticed more and overall, sold more.



Not only does Bauer have a well known music magazine, within their 300 different magazines they also have successful magazines such as Heat, the celebrity gossip magazine and Match, which is a magazine all about football. By having a company like Bauer distributing my product, as it already has many successful magazines I would hope that my magazine could follow in the footsteps of magazines like Kerrang and be as successful as that is. When distributing your magazine, it is important to make sure that you have a big company distributing your magazine as this way you have a better chance of your magazine being a success, whereas having a smaller media company distributing your product, the chances of your magazine being successful are smaller.



Even though I think both Emap and IPC would be able to distribute my magazine well, overall I think Bauer would be the best media institution for my specific magazine.

Evaluation - Question 3 - Researching IPC

IPC Media Limited is a subsidiary of Time Inc; IPC is a consumer magazine and a digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million
copies a year.








IPC is split up into different divisions, each division having a different target audience:

'About us' - IPC Media
http://www.ipcmedia.com/about

Evaluation - Question 3 - Researching Emap

Emap International Limited (now known as Top Right Group) is a British media company who specialises in the production of business to business magazines and the organisation of business events and conferences. The company used to be part of FTSE 100 Index but is now owned by Apex and Guardian Media Group. Emap is an acronym, standing for East Midlands Allied Press.

Below is a link to the website where you can find out information about Emap:
http://www.emap.com/about-us

Evaluation - Question 3 - Researching Bauer

Bauer Media is a section of the Bauer Media Group which is the largest privately owned Publishing group within Europe. Bauer is a worldwide company with over 300 magazines in 15 different countries, as well as online, television and radio stations. The headquarters of Bauer is based in Hamburg, Germany. Even though
Bauer is based in Germany, the company serves USA, China, Russia along with Europe.

Bauer media joined the Bauer Media group in 2008 following acquisition of Emap plc's consumer and specialist magazines, radio, tv, online and digital businesses. Collectively, the group employs around 6,400 people.

Bauer publishes well known magazines within media such as Kerrang! the most famous rock magazine, Heat, the weekly celebrity gossip and Match, a magazine all about football.Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several popular music television channel, this includes:
-4Music
-The Box
-Kiss
-Magic
-Smash Hits

Below is some information about Bauer as a company:
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/about

Below is a video based around Bauer Media and the work they do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSEOZJQk6Q

Evaluation - Question 5 & 4

Contents pages are a key aspect of a music magazine as it tells the audience what will be in the magazine. Many buyers would decided if they were going to buy the magazine depending on the contents page, if the contents page doesn't contain a lot of information about what is in the magazine then people wont buy the magazine.

When designing my magazine, I thought it was key to show the audience that the magazine will be packed full of articles and competitions suitable for this genre. After doing some research and getting feedback I knew what fans of this genre would want to see on the contents page, with this information I created my contents page, the research and feedback completely changed my contents page as before this information it was very dull and boring but now I have the information it is full with detail.

As you can see I have kept the colour scheme of blue and red which runs throughout my magazine, also the grey background makes the writing stand out, which will attract the audience. Within my contents page there is information such as 'Upcoming gigs and concerts exclusive to Blitz!' and 'Blitz Festival 2013, BE THERE!'. Words such as exclusive and using exclamation marks attracts the audience as they will be drawn to that particular piece of information.

Also, by adding names of bands such as 'Insomnia' and 'Immersion', this will draw the fans of the particular bands into buying the magazines as they will want to see the 'band secrets', this again is attracting the target audience into buying the magazine.

Evaluation - Question 5 & 4

When taking my photography for my school magazine I purposely had the model looking directly at the camera, by doing this the audience will feel as if they are part of the magazine. This would attract the audience as having a famous singer looking directly down the camera would intrigue you into what will be in the magazine which will then lure you into buying the magazine.

As well as looking directly down the camera, the model has very Gothic make up on, this will address the target audience as within this genre this is what is expected for girls to look like, for example the use of dark make up and a pale face.

When creating a music magazine it is important to specifically address and attract the target audience as the audience are the people keeping the magazine going. By attracting the audience you are increasing the amount of sales you make, and selling your media product is key to any type of media.

Evaluation - Question 5 & 4

How did you attract/address your audience?
Who would be the audience for your media product?

The genre for my music magazine was Pop Rock, by having this as my genre the target audience is a lot wider as people who may not enjoy all rock may enjoy pop rock as it is a completely different style of music. However Pop Rock would still attract people who listen to 'heavier' rock.

When designing a music magazine, you always need to be thinking about the target audience and what will lure them into buying the magazine, as selling the magazine is the most important part. For example, the colour scheme of your magazine has to represent the genre of music you chose. Most heavy rock magazines would be very dark, however as my magazine is Pop Rock I have aspects of dark colouring but also have some brighter colours to highlight the pop side of the genre.

As you can see the border and masthead are black but the colours surrounding it are very bright colours, this representing the two sides of the genre.

Evaluation - Question 6C

When creating my music magazine I had to focus on my photography as on my school magazine my photography wasn't as good as it could be. To get my photography to a high level I had to use a camera, which highlights a use of technology when creating my music magazine. The camera played a big part in my magazine as photography is seen as a key aspect of any magazine. When taking my photos I had to carefully focus on the background and the light as by getting a plain background and good lighting the photography looks professional and effective. Below is two images of my final photography:

Evaluation - Question 6B

Throughout my music magazine, Paint was a key aspect to get my music magazine to where it was. For example cropping images so that they are suitable to go onto my music magazine. Also, every screen shot of my music magazine which has been placed on my blog has been print screened onto Paint and cropped so that it looks professional.

Without paint the screen shots of my music magazine would look like this:

However with the use of Paint I was able to make it looks a lot more professional by just showing the magazine:

Evaluation - Question 6A

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology has played a big part in the process of constructing my music magazine, everything on my magazine is as a result of technology. I have used websites such as www.dafont.com to get all of my fonts. By using this website I have learnt that if you put effort into finding a font it can improve the way your magazine looks, rather than using the default fonts which you get on publisher. As you can see from the image below there are many options of different fonts which makes it easier to find the right font for the genre of your magazine.

Evaluation - Question 7D

When creating a music magazine it is important to get all the conventions of a magazine onto the front cover. One key aspect of a successful magazine would be the sell lines around the photo which lure the audience into buying the magazine.

Even though I have got sell lines on my school magazine, I think that the sell lines are not successful in luring the audience into buying the magazine, also the font they are in along with the colour do not make them stand out when they should stand out to the audience.

However, on my music magazine I carefully thought about what my sell lines could be as I thought my sell lines on my school magazine were unsuccessful. Also I positioned my sell lines in a different way on my music magazine as by putting them layered over the photo the audience would be looking at the sell lines as they are positioned close to the images.

I think my music magazine's sell lines were more successful as I put 'question and answer inside' which will automatically lure people into buying the magazine as they will want to see the questions asked and answers given. Also by putting the name of a band on the front cover, fans of that particular band (Vendetta) would automatically be drawn to the magazine as this certain band have a feature within the magazine.

Evaluation - Question 7C

On my school magazine, my front cover does not look professional as the layering isn't done as well as it should be, also the colour pallet is not suitable for the genre and the masthead is not as good as it could be. On my school magazine front cover I don't have an issue number or date which is key on a front cover.

My school magazine front cover looks professional in comparison to my school magazine, I think this is down to keeping the font on the front cover the same, having a suitable colour pallet for the genre and target audience and by not overloading the front cover and having things spaced out I think a professional look has been achieved. Also, on my music magazine I have got the conventional aspects of a magazine which is an issue number, date and price, which my school magazine does not have.

Evaluation - Question 7B

My contents page in my opinion was the weakest part of my school magazine as it thoroughly lacked in detail and didn't have any images on it, contents pages are a key part of magazines as they tell the audience what will be in the magazine.

When working on my music magazine I concentrated a lot on my contents page as I knew my contents page in my school magazine was not as good as it could of been. For my music magazine, I added two images and a lot more text, I done this as when looking at a music magazine the contents page always has a lot of writing and has to be detailed, so I thought it was important to show this aspect of my music magazine. It is also important for the target audience to know what is going to be in the magazine, for example articles, posters and competitions.

As you can see from the image of my contents page, in comparison to my contents page on my school magazine I had a lot more detail and the colour scheme stands out a lot more. I think that my progression of my contents page is an aspect that stands out when looking at my preliminary and final task.

Evaluation - Question 7A

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In my school magazine, my photography I have on my front cover is blurred and out of focus, photography is a key concept of any magazine as in most cases the images take up a lot of space. The lighting on my school photos also makes the photo look unprofessional. Also, one of my photos which is of text books is very stretched, which again makes the photo look very blurry.

However, as my school magazine was a chance to get used to the style of magazine, the fact my photography wasn't as good as it could of been helped me to ensure that my photography for my music magazine was a lot better. For my music magazine I looked at the lighting and the background of my image to ensure the image looked as professional as it could. Overall I would say that my photography was one of the main aspects within my two magazines which improved the most.