AS MEDIA STUDIES

FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO

RESEARCH & PLANNING

CENTRE NO: 11049

ST FRANCIS XAVIER COLLEGE

My name is:David Eshun

Candidate No:30027150

Preliminary Project• College Cover • College Contents

Preliminary Project – Research & Planning

How did you think about target audience? I thought about the target audience by the images, style of

text and layout I used. How did awareness of that audience impact upon your visual

design and choice of language? I used colours and images that suited to the target audience by using models from similar age groups as the target audience and the text was bright colours. I used the layout of professional magazines as the basis of my student magazine layout. I did research by getting examples of the front cover and contents page of student magazines from the internet.

What key points did you learn about Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in constructing your artefacts? I learnt about editing images by cutting out the background and feathering it.

Reflections & Feedback• What would you do differently next time? I would

work on colour and text.• What kind of feedback did you get that might

influence you? I needed to keep the colours of the text simple but have more of a variety of the text and size. I would keep the editing of images by cutting out the background and feathering the image.

• What aspects of your understanding of Adobe Photoshop & InDesign do you need to improve? I needed to learn how to use InDesign as I didn't know how to import images.

The music genre of my music magazine is:

• Hip Hop.

• I decided to name my magazine Urban Beats because Hip Hop artists are usually from urban backgrounds and so are the audiences who listen to Hip Hop.

So I researched this genre of music publication and studied:

Model 1• Model 2

Cover DesignI learnt that there are certain layouts needed to make the cover page look like a magazine. I needed to put 3 columns in which there is a main image, cover lines etc.

Cover LinesThe cover lines needed to be interesting to attract the readers. Also the cover lines need to be on the side columns as that is the layout for a magazine.

How did you think about target audience? There are a lot of genres in music, so I thought about the genre I would base my magazine on and research about the audience that listen to the genre of music.

How did awareness of that audience impact upon your visual design and choice of language? I used images of the models in clothing that the target audience or the artist from the music genre would dress as. I spoke in casual language as the target audience are normally young and tend to prefer casual language but kept it professional by using formal language also.

What key points did you learn about Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in constructing your artefacts? I learnt about editing images by cutting out the background and feathering it.

For my music magazine….

Target Audience: The target audience is young teens.

Frequency: Every 2 weeksCover price: £1.95Unique Selling Point: The information in the magazine

always has the freshest news.

Here are the 4 original photographs I shot for the project……

This is the face of the magazine

• Front cover This is how it works

I modified each photograph; here is the original next to the final version:

• Raw 1 • Final 1

I airbrushed the image so it looks more professional. I also cropped out the background slightly so the model looks larger and the focus is more on him.

And the second one: • Raw 2 • Final 2

I cropped out the border to make the image smaller so the focus is just on the image shown. A thicker border makes the cover page look like a poster instead of a magazine.

And the third one:

• Raw 3 • Final 3

I cropped out the border line so that the magazine looks more like a magazine than a poster.

And the last one: • Raw 4 • Final 4

I cropped out the background, moved the image to the left column of the screen and airbrushed the image.

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

This is my contents page

• These are key features…

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

The contents page links to my cover page. The coverlines on the cover page are included in the contents page. The models on the cover page are also on the contents page. The main colours are on both the pages to show simlarity. The date and masthead on the cover page is on the contents page also.

Key points of contents page I made the reader want to read on by making

a featured section to make the articles seem important. The images and words are linked as the image is off what the text says. The important stories have larger images to what correlates to the text. This shows importance. Also the important stories are written under subheading that states features. The information is all on the left column on the page and all the images and text are lined up to each other.

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

The colours on the contents page and double page spread are both the same/similar. The double page spread is talked about in the contents page by using it as a featured topic in the magazine. An image of the same music artist is on both the double page spread and contents page.

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

This is why I think that double spread works

I think it works because it links to the contents page using colour, text, style of writing, images etc. It also works because it follows the codes and conventions of a music magazine double page spread; large image, quote, stand-first and by-lines.

Double-page spread

This is how my double page spread works

It follows codes and conventions of a double page spread. The main image is on the left of the double page where there is a quote and by-line. On the right page, the text is written in columns and has a standfirst.

This is how all three components are linked together….

This is my re-drafted cover page

• Cover Page • Key modifications from feedback

This is my re-drafted contents page

• Cover Page • Key modifications from feedback

This is my re-drafted double spread

• Double spread

Key modifications to double spread from feedback

Evaluation • You can find my blog here:

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