Evaluation question 7

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

I think that the main progression I have made from my pre lim task to my finished music magazine would be my understanding of the layout and design including the conventions of magazines so that it appeals to my audience. Also I believe the development in my skills on certain software such as Photoshop has been very beneficial.
Firstly I having developed my technical skills using Photoshop going from a basic and very limited knowledge of how to use different elements such as cutting out Photo's and also editing them. My skills gradually progressed throughout the production of my magazine and  I feel when I produced my draft I had a much more understanding of the different tools that I could use which I felt helped me a lot not just with the look of the magazine but also with the time it took me to accomplish things for example I was able to cut out pictures in half the time. I also had a greater knowledge of editing pictures for example blemishing and adjusting brightness, therefore my pictures would look professional.


My understanding of the layout and design of magazine has also improved in the hip hop genre especially. This has mainly been gain during the research stage of my product where I would be finding new and interesting magazine designs all the time that I would take inspiration from. I think this was because I was learning how the magazine would appeal to my audience using the typical conventions of hip hop magazines. I saw that every thing on the page from the photo to the bar code was particularly place to make the magazine aesthetically pleasing. I particularly like complex magazine as they have inventive ways of designing front covers. I developed these further when designing as I used these conventions in my own design and saw how they worked. Also I realised that a lot of magazines go against the rule of thirds and golden spiral especially with hip hop magazines. 
Looking at my contents page development from my pre lim to final I feel shows this. My pre lim laced in design, layout and also text which I think was improved in my final contents page. The photographs are cut out better making a more professional look and work better on the page. The text shows exactly what to expect in each page making it easier for the reader to use. From putting my pre lim contents and my final contents next together you can see my development, particularly my understanding of a conventional contents page for a hip hop magazine as I feel this is the part I have learnt most about.   

Evaluation question 6

Question 6 on Prezi

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

My audience ranges from older teenagers, 18, to young adults around 25 so I have design my magazine in a way that will attract this age range to want to buy it. Also I am aiming my magazine at a predominately male audience and therefore looking to attract this gender to my more so than a female audience. I did this by featuring a male of a similar age to my audience on my cover, also using clothing, his pose and facial expression to appeal further. I chose to keep my colour scheme only 'male' which would be aesthetically pleasing for my audience. My magazine features mainly American artists which I think would appeal to my target audience as these are the top artist in the hip hop genre. Also having my own artist being British I think will appeal to my audience do to the fact I am aiming my magazine at a British market and therefore they will want to see and artist from their own country head lining a magazine over all the other artists. Another reason this would appeal to my audience is because they are more likely to see K.I.D live at a concert, compared to the chance of they seeing an American artists. 

The contents is designed with my audience in mind because they would understand the informal text used and also some of the short brief description related to the artists. I used this type of text to make my contents page as straight forward as possible and tried to keep the text for each section minimal and to the point. However I had to make sure that each section made the page sound interesting making my audience want to read it. I feel the picture would be attractive to them as is shows my artist but you cannot see his face and he is almost looking down at the text which creates a link between them. This makes focus on the text so they realise the interview and page number. Also it makes the main part of the magazine stand out which makes it important that the reader finds it. This includes a small insight into further detail about the interview interesting the reader further. Also I think the page number being placed behind the text makes the link stronger and look better. I made a clear divide between the features and fashion to make the contents easier to use. This would help my audience as they will be able to find what they are looking for.

The language I have used in my artist would appeal to my audience because of the interview style; the way my artist speak matches that of other hip hop artist and is what my audience would expect. Also they can relate to my artist through my interview as they are of a similar age. I also think the photograph on the double page spread would appeal to my audience due to the styling and pose of my artist. The cover line that reads 'nothing is ever what is seems, read between the lines' would appeal to my audience as I feel it is something they will have to think about even before they read the article and find out what it means. They will have to think about the text as in order it reads 'nothing read is ever between what it the lines seems' which will not make sense to them at first. I think this almost interactive part of my double page spread will interest the reader. The interview I think the fact that my interview focuses on music aside to other features such as fashion would attract my audience as they would be more interested to know the story behind the artist’s music up bringing which they would be able to relate to.

Overall, I think I have done a lot of things to attract my audience and interest them into buying my magazine. I believe I achieved this by focusing purely on my artist and how he has become the artist he has which I think will appeal to my audience when looking at my audience profile because they will be interested in getting to know my artist in more detail and feel they are getting an 'exclusive' insight into his life. My contents is focused on the artist they are popular and I know my audience would like and be interested in, therefore attracting them to buy the magazine.

Evaluation question 4

Evaluation question 3

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

I think the media institution that would be best suited to distibute my magazine would be Inter Media, a private equity investment fund focusing on the media industry across all platforms - television, radio, publishing, internet and marketing. The company also owns Vibe magazine. I think this because I feel Vibe is targeting the same social group to my magazine. They distribute their magazines through their on-line website which provides some articles from the magazine so the customer can get a feel for the content. The magazine also get distributed to thousands of shops ranging from corner shops to hyper markets. They influence their customers to buy through catchy deals. The company has large portfolio and their aim is to improve their assets and grow the business, so I feel this would be beneficial for my magazine. The company doe not currently have another music magazine to go along side their other extremely popular vibe magazine, meaning there is a lot of opportunity for my magazine to thrive along side vibe. Also because they are a company focused on growing they would be inclined to publish my magazine. Also they will already have the knowledge and experience from the success of vibe magazine, therefore they will be able to push my magazine to be just as bigger success.  

I could distribute the magazine in may different  ways such as posting the magazine for subscribers through and on-line buyers, on magazine stands in shops and also through apps and purchasing of hand held devices which are becoming more popular. All these way will make it more accessible, particularly as my target audience is an age group familiar with the technology. 
I would definitely have to  make the publication of the magazine weekly and with a fixed price, that could be reduced if the reader was to sign up to a subscription over a certain time period, probably being over 2 months. Also the price reduction would vary depending on the length of the subscription.   

Evaluation question 2

Question 2

Evaluation question 1

Question 1

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Evaluation draft question 7

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

I think that the main progression I have made from my pre lim task to my finished music magazine would be my understanding of the layout and design including the conventions of magazines so that it appeals to my audience. Also I believe the development in my skills on certain software such as Photoshop has been very beneficial.
Firstly I having developed my technical skills using Photoshop going from a basic and very limited knowledge of how to use different elements such as cutting out Photo's and also editing them. My skills gradually progressed throughout the production of my magazine and  I feel when I produced my draft I had a much more understanding of the different tools that I could use which I felt helped me a lot not just with the look of the magazine but also with the time it took me to accomplish things for example I was able to cut out pictures in half the time. I also had a greater knowledge of editing pictures for example blemishing and adjusting brightness, therefore my pictures would look professional.


My understanding of the layout and design of magazine has also improved in the hip hop genre especially. This has mainly been gain during the research stage of my product where I would be finding new and interesting magazine designs all the time that I would take inspiration from. I think this was because I was learning how the magazine would appeal to my audience using the typical conventions of hip hop magazines. I saw that every thing on the page from the photo to the bar code was particularly place to make the magazine aesthetically pleasing. I particularly like complex magazine as they have inventive ways of designing front covers. I developed these further when designing as I used these conventions in my own design and saw how they worked. Also I realised that a lot of magazines go against the rule of thirds and golden spiral especially with hip hop magazines. 
Looking at my contents page development from my pre lim to final I feel shows this. My pre lim laced in design, layout and also text which I think was improved in my final contents page. The photographs are cut out better making a more professional look and work better on the page. The text shows exactly what to expect in each page making it easier for the reader to use. From putting my pre lim contents and my final contents next together you can see my development, particularly my understanding of a conventional contents page for a hip hop magazine as I feel this is the part I have learnt most about.   

Evaluation draft question 6

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

Laptop/computer: I used a laptop and comuters at school for the use of photoshop to create my magazine. I did this during lesson time and also was able to do a lot of work at home on my laptop giving me much more time to complete my magazine.

Adobe Photoshop Elements: This editing software is what I used to create and edit my magazine. I was able to use this software at school and at home. This software allowed me to create the desired components on my magazine using layers that I built up over the a period of time. My skills on photoshop also built up over a period of time starting from my pre lim task.

Fuji film FinePix S9600 camera: This is the camera I used to take all of the photo's for my magazine. I had to adjust the setting on this camera to get the best quality images possible which I thought was important for my magazine. 

Microsoft word 2010: I used this to write up my double page spread interview. I felt this would increase the structure of my interview and also I would be able to see the number of words I had wrote and compare it to similar magazine. Microsoft word also has an automatic spell check to eliminate the chances of any spelling mistakes.

Scribd: This is an online publishing website we're I uploaded word documents and then embed them onto my blog.

Animoto: I used this video creator to make my magazine pitch. I found this effective as I could show the genre of my magazine and how I wanted to represent it also with the use of music, allowing me to put across my research and planning ideas efficiently.

Internet: I used the internet a lot in the research and planning stage of my magazine. I used Google to fined magazine cover, contents pages and double page spread as well as buying my own. 

Evaluation draft question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

My audience ranges from older teenagers, 18, to young adults around 25 so I have design my magazine in a way that will attract this age range to want to buy it. Also I am aiming my magazine at a predominately male audience and therefore looking to attract this gender to my more so than a female audience. I did this by featuring a male of a similar age to my audience on my cover, also using clothing, his pose and facial expression to appeal further. I chose to keep my colour scheme only 'male' which would be aesthetically pleasing for my audience. My magazine features mainly American artists which I think would appeal to my target audience as these are the top artist in the hip hop genre. Also having my own artist being British I think will appeal to my audience do to the fact I am aiming my magazine at a British market and therefore they will want to see and artist from their own country head lining a magazine over all the other artists. Another reason this would appeal to my audience is because they are more likely to see K.I.D live at a concert, compared to the chance of they seeing an American artists.

The contents is designed with my audience in mind because they would understand the informal text used and also some of the short brief description related to the artists. I used this type of text to make my contents page as straight forward as possible and tried to keep the text for each section minimal and to the point. However I had to make sure that each section made the page sound interesting making my audience want to read it. I feel the picture would be attractive to them as is shows my artist but you cannot see his face and he is almost looking down at the text which creates a link between them. This makes focus on the text so they realise the interview and page number. Also it makes the main part of the magazine stand out which makes it important that the reader finds it. This includes a small insight into further detail about the interview interesting the reader further. Also I think the page number being placed behind the text makes the link stronger and look better. I made a clear divide between the features and fashion to make the contents easier to use. This would help my audience as they will be able to find what they are looking for.

The language I have used in my artist would appeal to my audience because of the interview style; the way my artist speak matches that of other hip hop artist and is what my audience would expect. Also they can relate to my artist through my interview as they are of a similar age. I also think the photograph on the double page spread would appeal to my audience due to the styling and pose of my artist. The cover line that reads 'nothing is ever what is seems, read between the lines' would appeal to my audience as I feel it is something they will have to think about even before they read the article and find out what it means. They will have to think about the text as in order it reads 'nothing read is ever between what it the lines seems' which will not make sense to them at first. I think this almost interactive part of my double page spread will interest the reader. The interview I think the fact that my interview focuses on music aside to other features such as fashion would attract my audience as they would be more interested to know the story behind the artist’s music up bringing which they would be able to relate to.

Overall, I think I have done a lot of things to attract my audience and interest them into buying my magazine. I believe I achieved this by focusing purely on my artist and how he has become the artist he has which I think will appeal to my audience when looking at my audience profile because they will be interested in getting to know my artist in more detail and feel they are getting an 'exclusive' insight into his life. My contents is focused on the artist they are popular and I know my audience would like and be interested in, therefore attracting them to buy the magazine.

Evaluation draft question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

"Billy is 19 and lives in London. He has taken a gap year after his A-Levels and is working at a HMV music shop in the centre of the town. The shop stocks a whole range of music CD's. He had been going to the shop as a customer for several years before applying for a job there during his A-Levels. He has a particular interest in hip hop, including modern hip hop artists such as Kanye West. He also likes some dubstep artists like Skrillex and flux pavilion. Working in a music shop he sponged music knowledge in all genres, whether that be up and coming music or new album releases. He regularly goes to see his favourite artists when he can and takes inspiration from their styles. He likes meeting up with friends, and travels to see his old friends as much as possible. He is always on Facebook and twitter, where he also follows his favourite artists, He is able to keep up to date with the latest news and gigs. He attended V festival two years ago and is planning to go again with all of his college friends next year. His fashion reflects his style of music taste so he buys his clothes from shops such as Billionaire Boys Club and Stussy, however when working he wears a uniform given to him buy the shop manager which he customises to fit his style. He collects shoes such as Nike air Jordan's which he wears most days. He tends to buy a lot of music magazines such as complex and vibe wear he can also keep up to date with the music artists he likes. He usually pays around £3 for his magazines which he buy weekly and he think this is an acceptable price he is more than willing to pay for the content he revives, but he doesn't think he should pay any more than this for a weekly addition as the magazine contains around 60 pages per issue. However he would be prepared to pay more for a monthly magazine that contain more content being around 100 - 150 pages. He plans to go to university in London and to hopefully develop his interest in music studying media. He is also good friends with an up and coming artist in London and often goes to his concerts."

My target audience would want to buy my magazine because they want to keep up to date on all the latest news in the hip hop genre, from new releases to exclusive interviews. Artists varying between chart topping and up and coming. I will influence my audience to want to keep up to date by offering exclusive content that they can't get anywhere else. Showing these on the front cover will attract my target audience to my magazine without having to open the magazine first. I decide to use yellow on my front cover to make the text stand out over the red, I used this with the "exclusive" interview with my artist K.I.D to make it look important and 'one only' which influences the audience to look pick up the magazine and look inside. I made this text almost as big as my mast head to show its importance and also I placed it high in the page so it is viewable when staked on selling shelves.

Evaluation draft question 3

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

I think the media institution that would be best suited to distibute my magazine would be Inter Media, a private equity investment fund focusing on the media industry across all platforms - television, radio, publishing, internet and marketing. The company also owns Vibe magazine. I think this because I feel Vibe is targeting the same social group to my magazine. They distribute their magazines through their on-line website which provides some articles from the magazine so the customer can get a feel for the content. The magazine also get distributed to thousands of shops ranging from corner shops to hyper markets. They influence their customers to buy through catchy deals. The company has large portfolio and their aim is to improve their assets and grow the business, so I feel this would be beneficial for my magazine. The company doe not currently have another music magazine to go along side their other extremely popular vibe magazine, meaning there is a lot of opportunity for my magazine to thrive along side vibe. Also because they are a company focused on growing they would be inclined to publish my magazine. Also they will already have the knowledge and experience from the success of vibe magazine, therefore they will be able to push my magazine to be just as bigger success.  

I could distribute the magazine in may different  ways such as posting the magazine for subscribers through and on-line buyers, on magazine stands in shops and also through apps and purchasing of hand held devices which are becoming more popular. All these way will make it more accessible, particularly as my target audience is an age group familiar with the technology. 


I would definitely have to  make the publication of the magazine weekly and with a fixed price, that could be reduced if the reader was to sign up to a subscription over a certain time period, probably being over 2 months. Also the price reduction would vary depending on the length of the subscription.   

Evaluation draft question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the particular social group which could be classed as hiphop/modern hiphop. An I have designed my magazine to appeal to this social group and meat their needs. I based my magazine around the usual conventions of a hiphop magazine such as vide or complex to added the yellow to the red, white and black colour scheme on the front cover to ensure that it stands out on the shelves. I chose to use red, white and black as my colour scheme as it represent the sytle and genre I was aiming at and also follows the conventions of alot of other magazines of the same hiphop genre. I chose my cover artist because I thought that he would appeal to my target audience as a young solo artist. I think it was important that I took and chose the correct photo for my front cover as this is how my artist will be represented and the imaged needed to be powerful and clear image that showd atitued. For my photo's the costume was a key part in the front cover image and also the images throughout my magazine. The clothes needed to be streetwear brand that looked brand new similar to all magazine mine would be compared too. I tried to take images that represented poses and possitions that I had seen on magazine whilst in the research and planning stage of my mgazine which meant taking mid shots, close ups, low angle and high angle photo's to chose from. As my artist is new and up and coming I needed to make sure the front cover photo esspetially was power full and dominating over my particular social group.  

I think my contents page represents my particular social group primarily because of the text and photo. The textual layout was designed with informal text for my audience, this means that the audience will have an idea of the music featured in the magazine and understand the writing, also they will relate to the way my featured artists speak and the language they use. for example slang and play on word associated with the artists. The writing shows a small idea of what to expect on the linked page making it a simple easy to use contents page. I have done this to appeal to the target audience as I feel if I added lots of concentrated information with many sub heading then they would find it dis useful and be inclined not to use it. The picture on my contents page is again a male and appealing to a prominently male audience. My picture is of a 'mac miller' looking artist which would appeal to the social group and am aiming my magazine at.  The fact that most of the information on my contents page is about information and new about different hip hop artist which which would be popular within my social group, so they are more likely to buy the magazine so that they can read on.

My double page spread represent my artist and focuses on his life with a question and answer interview. I think the images shows him as a mysterious character as you can not see all his face, which adds the fact that he is a new artist. I think this would encourager my target social group to read the article because they would want to hear about new artist and listen to there music. Also the large text on the left hand page and draws the reader attention to the double page spread. It also gets them to interact with the page as they have to work out what it means. 

I think the fact that the artist is young and would actual fit into my social group allows the reader to relate to him and want to know about his life therefore they will want to read the article.  

Evaluation draft question 1

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

My particular sub-genre is hip-hop/modern hip-hop. Above is an example of a pre-existing music magazine which my magazine would be associated with and could be next to when being sold.

During the research stage of my magazine I looked at a wide range of music magazines that linked with my hip hop genre as well as magazines from previous students that achieved full marks. Also I decided to look at magazine from previous student that got a lower grade so that I could compare the two. From this research I could distinguish the difference from what I would need to consider achieving and high grade. Looking at magazines such as Vibe and Complex also help me see the usual convention you would find and those students that followed the usual conventions in the past were those that received the higher marks. The reason for this is that the companies who publish these magazines know exactly what the target audience want and what will influence them to buy their magazine. An important aspect is the cover artist and how they are represented.

Also I looked at how the golden spiral is used to draw your eye to the most attractive and aesthetically pleasing part of a photo. However this idea doesn't always work with magazine covers as their aim is to appeal to their target audience and sell as many magazines as possible, therefor they may not always use the usual conventions of a magazine if they think for example a mid-shot is not appropriate if they want to focus the main front cover image on the artist. For this they may use a close up.

Another convention that is sometimes heavily relied on is the rule of three, this involves breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. I have shown an example of this below. For my magazine this will also be the landscape, mise en scene, colour scheme and different fonts used. Conventions; most monthly magazines have 60-70 pages, the mast head usually cover the width of the page in the top third. Most magazine conventions depend on the target market of the magazine which could have an influence on The title of the magazine, graphology/page layouts, costumes, props, iconography used to reflect genre, camerawork, framing of images, article, header, font, style genre of the magazine cover, contents and dps, how my artist is represented and also colour scheme. These are the aspects I had to consider across the nine frames when making my magazine.

During the design and draft stage of my magazine I took srtongly into account these conventions because they are what attract the specific target audience and make them want to magazine which is key. I took most of my inspiration from complex magazine who have a lot of interesting design that maybe I wouldn't be able to replicate but of what I can take inspiration from to inmprove the quality of my magazine. These magazines were manley aimed at a male audience around 20-30 around the same as mine. The main convention that did'nt change thought the whole of similar magazine is a big, bold mast head, therefore I felt like this was the main convention I should stick too.

I think that my magzine title stands out but also would fit in with other similar magazines. It is simple and I think the word diamond creates a 'special' kind of feel. I chose to layer the mast head behind the artist to focus on the image. This is also a convention of most hip hop magazine, ' to focus on the artist'. However being a first addition I made sure the mast head was still easily readable so that people would know the name of the magazine. I chose to use red as my mast head colour to add to the colour scheme and differ it from the the usual black mast head.

The photographs were a keys part to my magazine and I found it difficult to get both a proffetional looking photo that portrayed my artist the way I wanted. When choosing my model I had a lot of criteria I had chosen upon, for example I wanted an male coloured as I felt this would appeal to my target market. Then I looked at artist similar to the artist I wanted to portray such as tyler and the creater and took inspiration from photography of them and how they act. I sore from this that the clothing style was key as well as for them to be photogenic. My model had short hair which was fine however I decided that he should wear a cap as this would appeal to my target audience and also most similar magazine also featured their model wear a hat on the front cover. I had to make sure that the hat did not contrast with the colour scheme. I kept the colour scheme of red, white and black in mind throughout all of my photo's as I felt getting this wrong could ruin my magazines look. The possible challenges I faced whilst trying to follow the conventions of a hip hop magazine were taking my photo's. For example to having the use of a professional studio meant that finding a suitable place to take the pictures was difficult. I had to find somewhere that had the cover lighting so the final picture wouldn't need much editing in terms of contrast and also somewhere that had a plain white background making the photo easy to cut out using Photoshop. I think this was important because most hip hop magazine have a plain white background on the front cover. However there are some hip hop magazine that have a natural background such as Zink magazine featuring Kid Cudi below. Looking at this I decided to take some photos keeping a natural background to see how they looked. However I felt that non of the photos fitted the magazine and I decided to keep a plain white background. 

The photographs I took varied from background to position and pose of the model so I had option to which one I would chose. Firstly I looked through and eliminated all the pictures that were blurry and pix-elated. I then apply the golden spiral rule to my pictures as well as the poses and most importantly facial expressions that worked well and would portray my artist the way I wanted. The picture I liked most were the ones were my model was looking away from the camera. L think these photo's gave my artist, being a new up and coming talent, an interesting person not giving to much away to the audience. Even though this may have gone against some of the conventions of a hip hop magazine I felt like this would be appropriate for a new artist. Also this type of image I found has been used on a lot of hip hop magazines and I feel works well.  


Over all I think that my magazine relies heavily on the use of conventions and developing these conventions around my product. I wouldn't say I have challenge the usually conventions in any way as I felt this wouldn't appeal to my target audience and may put them of buying my magazine over another.  

final double page spread

final contents page

final front cover

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