AS MEDIA STUDIES

FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO

RESEARCH & PLANNING

CENTRE NO: 11049

ST FRANCIS XAVIER COLLEGE

My name is: Alessandro

Candidate No:8047

Preliminary Project – Research & Planning

• How did you think about target audience? I knew what sort of audience my preliminary project was going to be, because college students are

from the age of 16 till around 19. So I was going to have to make a College magazine cover that caught the eye of a student studying in college. This meant that I would have to use interesting cover lines so that the student would want to pick the magazine up.

• How did awareness of that audience impact upon your visual design and choice of language?This gave me awareness that teenagers would want something that catches their eyes. For example,

if the colour scheme was boring and dull, they probably wouldn’t pick the magazine up. Also, if the choice of language was inappropriate for a teenager aged between 16~19 for example, If the magazine was very formal, it wouldn’t look interesting, so I’d have to use language that suits the way teenagers speak in todays society.

• What key points did you learn about Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in constructing your artefacts?

The key point I learnt about in Photoshop was that, when I was cropping my image with a lasso tool, it was important for me to ‘feather’ the image once I had finished cropping the picture so that the image didn’t look unprofessional. In InDesign, I learnt that it was important to name my layers when adding images, fonts, cover lines etc so that I knew which layer was which.

Preliminary Project• College Cover • College Contents

Reflections & Feedback• What would you do differently next time?Next time I would put more effort and thought when creating my magazine front cover and

contents page. My main icon needs improvement, I had too much dead space on the cover which made it look like more of a leaflet that a magazine, so I should add more cover lines, I could have put in more colours for my colour scheme and not have colours that clash and make it difficult for readers to see, and finally I should make my main cover line stand out, because this is what catches the readers attention.

• What kind of feedback did you get that might influence you?I got feedback on my magazine front cover that told me I should fill up the magazine so that it

looks packed with information and it makes the magazine more interesting, so I would put more cover lines and I would use a better colour scheme.

• What aspects of your understanding of Adobe Photoshop & InDesign do you need to improve?

For Photoshop, I think that I would need to improve my cropping skills and make sure I remember to feather my image after I crop so that the photo looks more professional. Also in InDesign, I think that I should be more familiar with all the buttons so that I can use it easily without being stuck on what to do.

The music genre of my music magazine is:

• Dance Music

• and my chosen title is Mega-Fone. I have chosen this name because to me, the name gives it away that it is a dance/clubbing magazine. Also the slang ‘Fone’ instead of ‘phone’ shows that it is targeted towards a young adult instead of those elder people.

So I researched this genre of music publication and studied:

• Model 1 • Model 2

What I learned from this was…..

• Cover DesignI learnt from both of these dance

magazines, that they are very colourful and they use very popular artists as their image to catch the eye of potential readers. The colour scheme they use is very co-ordinated and neat. All of the colours they use goes well with each other and the image looks very professional.

• Cover LinesThe cover lines are also very catchy.

They are very colourful and they make sure it doesn’t clash with the background so that it stands out to the customers. They advertise a competition to go on holiday which could straight away catch the eye of the reader and make them buy the magazine. Finally they fill up the front cover with lots of cover lines so that there isn’t any dead space and it looks ‘action packed’.

For my music magazine….

• Target Audience:My target audience will be for young adults who love to go clubbing and

dancing.

• Frequency: Monthly magazine

• Cover price: £4.00

• Publisher: Development Hell Ltd

• Unique Selling Point: A monthly Dance and Clubbing magazine for young adults who like to go clubbing and listen to Dance music.

This is the face of the magazine

• Front cover This is how it works•Image The shirt my main artist is wearing makes the image stand out a lot. This is good because my artist is the main thing in the magazine. I had to make him stand out a lot so that potential readers would know what to expect in the magazine.

•TextI think the way that I have laid out my cover lines are very neat. This makes it effective because it looks very professional. Also, I have filled my front cover with a lot of text and this makes it look like the magazine is action packed with a lot of stuff.

•Colour schemeThe colour scheme I have used for my magazine is very neat. I have used white, sky blue, dark blue and neon blue in my magazine

Here are the 3 original photographs I shot for the project……

I modified each photograph; here is the original next to the final version: • Raw 1 • Final 1

• Here is how I changed the photograph and why I have changed this photo by using the lasso tool and I have got rid of the background behind and kept the main

artist. Then I cropped out his legs because I only wanted his upper body to appear in my front cover of my magazine. Finally, I changed the background to a dark blue. This is because my main magazine colour was dark blue and this would have made the image fit in the magazine more and look professional.

Here are a couple of research models for my contents page…

This is my contents page

• Contents Page • These are key features…• PicturesThe photo’s I have used can be appealing because they look

professional. I have made my main artist very visible because it is the biggest photo in the image and it dominates the page. I think that the photo is very professional which makes the contents page even more realistic

• ColoursI have used quite a range of colours (Blue, Dark Blue, Black,

White, red, brown). This could make the magazine unattractive but I think I have placed them well which has kept the professional look of the contents page. The colours white, black and light blue are the most dominant colours and most of my dominant colours from the contents page have come from my front cover. The secondary colours (brown and red) have been used as page numbers on the images to match the artists clothing colour.

• Layout

How does the contents page link back to the cover page?

• I think that the contents page relates to my front cover because I have used the same colour scheme as my cover. I have also selected a few cover lines from my front cover and I have written a small description and the page numbers for each article.

Key points of contents page • How have you made the reader want to read on?

I think that my contents page would want to read on because I have put a page of the best clubs and a clubbing guide in Europe. This will make readers who are planning on going on holiday read this because they might want to see which clubs around are the best ones and which ones to avoid. I have also put a teaser for the next months issue and give readers a chance to win exciting prizes with competitions. Finally I have told the readers that there will be a freebie item in the next months issue, so they will want to check what it is, so they will read on.

• What determines the dominant stories?

I have made the dominant story stand out by making it the largest image on my contents page. This will automatically catch the eye of the reader than the other images. I’ve also made the brief description on my dominant story more bold, and a different font to the others to make it stand out more. This will tell the readers that the dominant story for this months issue will be the one that stands out the most.

How does the contents page flag up your double page spread?

Here’s an example of an inspiring double page spread…

This is why I think that double spread works

• I think that the double page spread that inspires me works for numerous reasons. Firstly, it has a very large a clear headline which gives a brief idea about the interview. Then, the interview is neatly structured into one page. Finally, the 2nd page is made into a poster-like image. The artist has been smacked onto the 2nd page which gives readers a proper image of how the artist looks.

This is my double-page spread

This is how my double page spread works

• I think that my double page spread works because I have used the same technique as the double page spread that inspired me has. I’ve altered a bit of the layout, as I put a quotation in the middle of the interview in a different colour which makes it stand out. I think the colour scheme I used is very neat and looks very professional.

This is how all three components are linked together….

• I believe that I have linked all 3 pieces of work together because front the start, I have made it clear who my main artist was and what the interview was going to be about. I have also used the same colour scheme throughout the project which gives it a very professional look to the whole magazine.

This is my re-drafted cover page

• Cover Page • Key modifications from feedback

• I got rid of the image on the top right hand corner because the magazine name was too small and it didn’t stand out. Now that I have got rid of the image, I was able to enlarge the title which now has made it very eye catching.

• I have added an extra cover line on the bottom left hand corner so that there isn’t any dead space.

• The barcode on the bottom right has been shifted a bit and also made a little smaller. Before it was too big and it was ruining the cover page’s image. Now that I have made the barcode smaller, it’s not too big that it’s ruining the cover page image-wise, but it’s not too small that you can’t see it.

This is my re-drafted contents page

This is my re-drafted double spread

Evaluation • You can find my blog here:

(URL) http://afurusawa.blogspot.co.uk/