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

For the preliminary task i learnt how to use the basic skills in photoshop and indesign. By doing this it then had me set for making my media product so i had already got to grips with the software I just had to widen the things that i used within the software. I have learnt how to use different kind of technologies like InDesign and Photoshop in order to be able to create my media product.
From my preliminary task I learnt that you have to base everything around the audience that you are creating you're media product too. For my preliminary task i didn't carry out any research regarding the audience . However with my main task I carried out a wide range of research so I knew exactly what my target audience wanted to see in the media product that I was making.
   Before i started my music magazine i planned out how i wanted my magazine too look. The reason for this is so that i had it set what i was going to do and how it was going too look.Also by organising my self like this i will have done more planning that i did for my preliminary task therefore i should hopefully get a better grade as it is more thought out. Also even though the images used for my main task are not the best pictures ever i feel i have made an improvement in the pictures used. For my preliminary task I did not use photoshop to edit any of the images , where as in my main task I edited all of the images that I used. Another thing i feel I improved from my preliminary task to my main task is the actual writing that went into the double page spread of my magazine. I put thought into this writing and thought about how the people that would be reading it would interpret this writing.
For my music magazine i changed it a number of times as i went on but with my music magazine i did not change it once. The reason for this being that i analysed the music magazine more and thought about everything aspect of it .

   I feel as if i have made an massive improvement from my preliminary task. From the things i have learnt that have now contributed to my music magazine. However i still feel like i could improve my music magazine . For instance i could of made the photography of the pictures a bit better and maybe been more minuplated than they are. Also i could of done more research into other music magazines of the same genre so that way it would of been more easier for me to create my magazine.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1XPPsd9xF0
This is a youtube video of me which explains the things i have learnt.




















To edit and enhance the pictures that i was using for my music magazine i used photoshop. Photoshop is one of the top editing program. This is the first time that i had used photoshop so at first it was difficult to come to terms of how to use the program. One of the main tools that i used on photoshop was the pen tool which is used to cut around a picture and get rid of any things in and around that picture that you would no longer want to be in there. Also the crop tool came in good use when trying to get rid of empty space that i did not want to be in the photograph.

Using indesign was difficult at first as it was the first time i had used this program for anything. It was hard to know what to do at first when i was starting my magazine. When i came to terms with how to use indesign things became easier. The one thing that made an inpact on my double page spread was the text wrap. This made a good effect on my double page spread it gave the people that would be looking at my magazine more to look at and that would be what they looked at straight away. Also on indesign i learnt how to make different background colors for my magazine. Now i know how to use indesign i could design a magazine easily without needing any help or guidance on what to do. 


 Using the mac's was also difficult as this was the first time i had used mac machines. They are completely different to normal computers and work in a completely different way. The different programs on the mac were hard to use at first but when i got used to how it worked it was fine.

Using survey monkey was good as it was something that i had never used before. Also it was a good way to find out the different things that i needed to find out for the planning of my music magazine.

Using blogger was a different experience for me as it is something that i had never done before. It was an easy website to use and to get to terms with using. It is a good way to show your work.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience by first of all using a person on the front of the magazine that fit the target group of people that would be seen to buy this kind of magazine and also appear inside the magazine. Also i used people that are the same kind of age of people that would be buying the magazine. The reason why i did this is so that before they even buy the magazine and read it they feel some sort of connection with it . Also models that look the same as people who would be buying the magazine .The clothing that the model is wearing on the front cover of the magazine is clothing that the readers of the magazine would also be wearing , and that may be advertised inside of the magazine.I also made the publication an affordable price so that people that age who may not have a job will still be able to afford to buy the magazine. Also if people are out shopping and happen to have spare change on them this would be an convenient time to buy the publication. I have also included the chance to win things in the magazine as this may draw them in more. Also throughout my magazine i have used bright colours , as these colours are the typical colours you would expect to be inside an urban music publication.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be males and females but mainly aimed at males. They would be between the age of 16 and 25. They would be from working and middle class backrounds. They would also enjoy listening to R&B , Hip-Hop , Dancehall , Drum and Base and Dubstep.

This is an example of what a female audience may look like. Her name is Toni.She is currently at sixth form studying a levels film, english lang , psychology and drama. After her a levels she is hoping to go to university. She enjoys listening to r&b , hip-hop and dancehall , which would all be featured in my music magazine. She also enjoy's shopping , being with friends and partying. She lives in northampton and to earn her self some extra money she works in a hairdressers in the town centre . From this money she gets she spends it on the things she needs buying clothes, cinema , going out with friends. She shops at new look , river island , top shop , miss selfridges and primark.










This is an example of  what someone of my audience may look and be like. Hi name is Jake. He is currently studying music tech at college. He is very interested in music and likes to record his own music as well as listening to it . Hoping to go to University next year and study something to do with music as that is where his interests lie. He listens to all the types of music that would be featured in my music magazine . He lives in Northampton one day hoping to move to Nottingham.He shops in different kinds of shops like topman, money clothing , the styles of london and also varies different over online shops.

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

I have looked at several media institution's that could publish my magazine . There is a different range of institution's that i have looked at from Future Publishing to The National Magazine Company . I thought long and hard about the different institutions and which ones i think would be suitable for my product. I had to think about the different pro's and con's that there were in each different institution and which was right for my publication

The first institution that i decided to look at was ipc media. Ipc media was founded in 1963, they publish all sorts of different genre magazines. From home and life to photography. One of its most biggest selling publications is what's on tv - 120,918. The institution does not has not produced any music magazine's which is why i feel this institution would not be the right one to be producing my music magazine.

The second institution that i decided i would look at is Future PLC it was founded in 1985 by Chris Anderson. This institution produces a variety of different magazine's from games , film , music and cycling. Some of its biggest sellers are T3, Total film and guitar world. I have choose against using this institution the reason being that even though it does publish music magazines i do not think that it publishes the right magazines to be able to add my Urban music magazine to the list of magazine it produces. Also they mainly specialises in computer magazine's which is a completely different end of the chart to what my publication is. However they do produce some kinds of music magazines but they are rock and different kinds of genre magazine's that are different to mine. Which is why i cam to the conclusion that it would be inappropriate to use these as my music institution.

The institution that I decided i would use to publish my product is Bauer Media. Bauer Media started in 1875. They have published many successful  products from Kerrang and Q which are both well known music magazines. To Heat , Closer and Grazia which are also well known and popular women's magazines. Kerrang i UK's best selling weekly magazine selling 43,253. Along side with Q which is the UK's best selling monthly magazine selling 100,172. From these circulation figures along i can see that my magazine would benefit from being published with Bauer. A|so the other things that Bauer produced help to bring in my target audience. To concluded from looking at all of the other institution's i believe that this would be the best for my product to get the full reconsignment that it would need.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The stereotypical social group for an Urban music
magazine is a black young male . The model that is on the front of my magazine is a young mixed race male . In the picture he is smiling makes him come across as more approachable and well mannered . However as he fits in to the typical male that you would expect to be on the front cover of a Urban music magazine , some part of him appears and comes across as unapproachable. Also the clothing that he is wearing makes him become less approachable in the eyes of the media . As he is wearing dark colour's and his jacket that he is wearing is a hoddie. The connotations that could be said about him is that he is a typical black boy that may be involved in some kind of crime or bad behaviour. Also the name of my artist is very unusual and a name that you wouldn't really hear people use. This shows that the social groups that would be reading this article about this artist are unique and unusual and like these kind of things.

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

My music magazine was a Urban music magazine , in most Urban and Hip-Hop magazine's they use bold font's and bright colours. In order to keep this convention the same I decided to use bold fonts and colours like red and black that stand out to people that would be looking at the magazine. I did this in order that people that normally read these genre of magazines would notice that my magazine is of the same genre.

I have used the same two colours throughout my front cover and my contents page and kept all the fonts the same. The two colours that I have stuck too are red and black. On my double page spread I am going to add a different lighter colour so that I challenges the normal conventions of having the same colours all the way through which is what you would normally see in a Urban music magazine . The reason that I am going to do this is so that I can make my magazine unique and although it will look like a typical Urban music magazine it will have its only little twist to it .
On most magazine's there is a selling line 'UK's best selling urban music magazine' in a way i have chosen to develop this by not writing a selling line but instead a tag line which say 'the base to your urban music'. As the magazine is called Base it ties in well and i feel that it fits it perfectly . Also this may draw more people in to read the magazine.

Font's.

When coming to this choose of picking different font's , it was a hard thing to choose as the fonts that i chose had to be correct of my magazine. They also had to be the same kind of fonts that feature in other urban music magazines. I went through different processes to chose the fonts for my magazine.I feel the fonts that i  have chosen suitable ones for my magazine and for the genre that i have chosen.

This is the font that i have chosen to use for my front cover. It is a bold font and stands out if someone was to be looking on a shelf of magazines i feel this would be one of the magazines that would stand out.

Contents page analysis

This is my contents page on it there is a title which says contents page. There is also 3 other sub-titles which break the contents of the magazine down into 3 different categories. There is also a picture of the artist that features in the double page spread of the magazine. When I first did the contents page my aim was to keep it nice and simple and stick to the black and red and while colour scheme that I wanted to go for .

Front page analyis

This is a screen shot of my front cover . On it is a header which has the title of my magazine in it . It also has cover line's on it which are about thing's that are going to feature inside the magazine. It has the price of the magazine in the right had top corner . The bar code is in the bottom left hand corner . The title of the magazine is in the top corner on the left hand side because this would be the corner grabber. The part that people will see when the magazine is on the shelf , so if they see the title and the tag line that goes with the slogan it may draw them in to buying the magazine more. At first i thought that this image would be great for the front cover as it may not be the typical person that you would think would buy this kind of music magazine but it would draw other people that don't buy this magazine all the time to buy it . Then i realised that it would of been much better if i had of used a different picture as the picture that is on the front cover at the moment does not tell people that it is a music magazine . So if people was just too look at the picture and not the title and tag line , this could be a magazine about anything.

clipping paths

To make this clipping path i made the clipping path in photoshop using the tool that looks like a pen. Then once you have made the clipping path save it as a PSD. Then you have to place the image in in design . Then go to object -clipping path - options . This allows you to import the clipping path from photoshop to in design. Then you need to draw a text box . Change text wrap-wrap around bounding box. You can then change the distance between the text and the image.

All images taken for music magazine.

These are just a range of some of the different pictures i have decided to use inside my music magazine.

Contents page final.

This is my finished contents page i decided to add my logo too it and also added 2 pictures that relate to topics on the contents page. The finished version of my contents page is much better to how i first had designed it , there is much less empty space and things relate to each other to make it stand out better.

Overview of what will be included.

In my college magazine there will be different activity that students can get involved in an overview of the new college building and chances for students to win certain things.

Cover Final.

This is my front page i decided to change the picture on the front of it so that the person on the front related more to the genre of music. I feel now that i have changed it the picture it will attract more people to buy the magazine.

Fonts and Logo.

The fonts that i have chosen to use are simple and are stereotypical to the genre of music that i have chosen to target. The fonts are simple but make a good effect on the magazine.The logo of my magazine is simple and also reflects the colour scheme of my magazine. I have also used a slogan at the bottom of my logo the reason i have done this is so that when people look at the logo they also look at the slogan and it gets them thinking about the magazine and the different things inside the magazine.

Background colour on double page spread.

I decided that i wanted a background colour on my double page spread just so that there wasn't too much white space on it and so there was something else to draw the readers in. First of all i went with a teal colour but then after thinking about it i saw that it doesn't fit in with the colour scheme of my double page spread and the code of conventions of the urban music background. I then decided to change it to a red background so that it fitted in with the rest of my magazine and when i did i decided it looked much better.

Contents page

I have changed my contents page to how i first wanted to have it . When i first started to design my contents page was simple like this one. When i carried on designing it i thought that i should change it because although i wanted my magazine to stay simple being this simple would not be good and it wouldn't be the best that i could do or achieve. So i put some thought into it and thought about what other magazine contents pages looked like and how i really wanted mine too look . My contents page now looks like this. I feel that my magazine cover looks a lot better now and would also appeal to a wider range of people with it looking like this .

Contents page

Today i started on my contents page it is nearly finished i just need to add a few more bits of writing then add the pictures that i want on my page.

What i am going to achieve today.

Today i am going to try and achieve making my masthead and figuring out fonts and colours that i want to use on it . Also i am going to try and come up with some cover lines to go on the front cover.

Vibe magazine analysis

Vibe magazine has been running since 1993 it was launched by Quincy Jones. Vibes target audience is young urban followers of hip-hop music and culture. Vibe is known  for having various different urban music artists on its front cover. Some of whom are Lil Wayne ,50cent ,Snoop dogg , Janet Jackson and many others.
Vibe makes an effort to have models of all different ethnicities feature throughout its magazine. Also many famous artist that have clothing lines have their make of clothing appear in vibe magazine as a way of promotion.

The masthead of the magazine is placed on top of the picture of the artist T.I. The reason i feel this is done is so that you know what magazine you are looking at and also it will attract you to look at the artist on the front of the magazine. The masthead is in bold and is also in a bright red colour this is so that it stands out and people recognise it . Red is also a colour that is known to be used for urban music magazines.
The picture of the artist is placed right in the middle and all of the cover lines go around the picture . So that it shows that the picture has main priority. There is a clear colour code on the front cover which is black white and red. The picture even fits in with this colour code by only being in black and white. This also makes the magazine look more professional and thought out . The space of the magazine is used wisely . There is not that many cover lines on the magazine but the ones that are on there are useful , tell the reader a little bit about what to expect inside the magazine and tell us why the person who is on the cover is on the cover.

The picture is clearly the main attraction of the front over. Not only is it a well reconisable artist but the bright red heart that is placed on Kayne West gives the readers something to look at this would be an eye focus for the audience  The font for the masthead is bold and black . The way that it is arranged on the page is in a unusual way so that the magazine stands out to another magazine that would have the masthead in a normal simple way. Also behind the picture of the artist it has a bold , capitalised V . This is clearly the logo for the magazine vibe. The contents of the magazine is split up into two sections features and fashion. This way it is easy for readers to find exactly what they are looking for within the magazine. The colour scheme for this page is black and grey.

The colour theme of the double page spread is a clear blue , grey and red. The women on the magazine has a clear spot on the second half of the double page spread. Also there are pictures of her running across the first top third of the double page spread. The magazine has used the rule of thirds and all of its writing is kept in thirds. There is also writing that is pointed out to the other writing by being in bold being bigger and in a different colour this is so that the audience take notice to this part of the double page spread.

Target audience

My target audience is males and females but mainly targeted at males. These male and females will be in between 16 and 25. The target audience will be mainly of a working class they are also be likely to be of a black race.

The reason being for these different choices of my target audience is :
Age - In between these two ages people are just getting into the type of music that they enjoy listening too . Also it is a good age if they want to explore and change the different types of music that they are listening too. This gives urban music a chance to have more people listening and recognising that type of music.

Males & Females (mainly males)-The reason for this is because males would be more likely to listen to this type of music . Sometimes the lyrics that are in these songs are more related to males then they would be females. On the other hand some females enjoy listening to this type of music and they feel that they can relate to this.

Black race- The reason my magazine would be targeted at mainly a black race is because you would normally link the kind of urban music that would be in the magazine with this kind of culture. Also the main artist that would be featured in this magazine are mainly of this race and background which would automatically give people of the same race a link to the magazine.

Survey Results.

This is a pie chart of the question which genre of music do you listen to the most. From this it is clear that out of the people i asked most of them listen to r&b indie and pop music. It is good that i found out that r&b is in the top most listened to music as r&b would be one of the main genre's of music to feature in my magazine as i consider r&b to be urban music . R&B music would appeal to all of my target audience and maybe at the same time attract people that wouldn't normally listen to that genre of music.

This pie chart shows the different colors that people think should be seen in my magazine . People gave mainly gone with bright and dark colors. The reason why i think people have done this is because if you have bright colors on a magazine it would draw the reader into to wanting to buy the magazine and read on. From this information that i found out on my magazine i have used mainly bright colors so that i make sure i draw in the audience that i need and want to read my magazine.

This pie chart shows the artists that they would expect to see in my magazine going of the bases of the name of my magazine as they didn't know anything else about my magazine at the time of answering my survey . From this survey i have found out that they would expect to see artist like drake rhianna and male artists also . Which is why for my 2 page spread i have made it all about a new and upcoming male artist's that is like drake . So i combines the two main things that people expected to see in my magazine .

Ideas development.

The way i came up with my magazine title is by that the title that i have used is also a urban music TV program  that plays the latest in urban music . I thought that it would be a good idea to do this because people that watch this TV program will already be connected with the word base as a form of music information . So when they see the word base on top of a magazine it would make them want to pick it up and read it and see if it offers the same kind of information that they get from the TV program.

magazine cover.

This is a preview of what my front cover of my music magazine could look like . This is just a rough idea of what could be done . The reason i have set my draft of my front cover out this way is because i feel the way i have set it out would be good to draw in my target audience. Also the cover does not look to complicated which is something i feel is a good thing to have as people that will be reading this magazine would be more interested on what is actually inside the magazine then on the outside of it even though that would still be important to draw there attention to the magazine.

Audience research.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YXLQ8WB

I created my survey by thinking of 10 questions that i wanted to be in my survey. Chose what type of question i wanted it to be , then create my survey. The aim of doing this survey is to find out what types of things my target audience like and what they would expect to see in my magazine so i can make sure that i make my magazine the best it can be .