AS MEDIA STUDIES

FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO

RESEARCH & PLANNING

CENTRE NO: 11049

ST FRANCIS XAVIER COLLEGE

My name is: Elizabeth Adeoye

Candidate No: 2794

Preliminary Project – Research & Planning

• How did you think about target audience?I looked at the age group in which I can most relate to.

• How did awareness of that audience impact upon your visual design and choice of language?

I was familiar with the way in which that target audience spoke, I aimed at being able to connect with them on their level.

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

I learnt how to crop an image, how to create grids and margins on the contents page.

Preliminary Project

• College Cover • College Contents

Reflections & Feedback

• What would you do differently next time?I will look at different magazines, a wider range, and see how they differ from each other.

• What kind of feedback did you get that might influence you?

The fact my front cover was very boring and bland. It didn’t also challenge any typical codes and conventions.

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

How to distort an image and how to airbrush an image using photoshop.

The music genre of my music magazine is:• Genre I have chosen R&B genre.

• and my chosen title is “The Rhythm” because “rhythm” represents the “R” in R&B. I have decided to use this title because when I first thought of this name it gave a soothing effect. I though that this will best suit my music genre.

So I researched this genre of music publication and studied:

• Model 1 • Model 2

What I learned from this was…..• Cover DesignThrough the cover design I learnt that VIBE music

magazine had a house style which consisted of, a main image placed centre, it used three columns. The main image is always placed in the foreground whilst the title “VIBE” is placed in the background. The cover design is very simple, which doesn’t create a traffic effect to the front cover. The barcode is always placed on the right.

• Cover Lines“VIBE” music magazine always placed their cover

lines either on the left or the right of the front cover. The main image was made to be the main attraction of the front cover. This is because the main image was always of a well known celebrity. It also used different fronts, the names of the celebrities was always place in larger font compared to the other articles on the front cover. The front cover also used one font, which is also used across all of VIBE music magazine creating a house style. VIBE music magazine sticks to simple colours for its cover lines. Again creating a house style..

For my music magazine….• Target Audience:My chosen target audience, will be females, between the ages of 17 and 28. I have chosen this target

audience because I feel I can relate to them the most, and through my observation I found that females were most likely to read R&B magazines.

• Frequency:Every month

• Cover price: £2.50, I have chosen this price because it is not too expensive for the students, nor is it too cheap that

no profit can be made. It would be easily accessible to all of our target audience.

• Publisher:Elicit Publishing Company

• Unique Selling Point:My magazine will be different to other R&B magazines on the top shelf because it will consist of all the gossip, fashion

and latest music R&B can offer. It will be different because not only will it inform the target audience about the R&B magazine, it will also relate to them on a personal level creating an intimate relationship with audience and the magazine.

This is the face of the magazine• Front cover

• This is how it worksI have decided to borrow some ideas from the

original VIBE magazine that I looked at. I decided to align all of my text to the left, and place my barcode of the right. I decided to place the main image on the left, I used a piano as a prop in this magazine, because it is commonly used the R&B genre. In addition I didn’t choose to use any straplines because I didn’t want to overcrowd my front cover. I also decided to stick to 3 colours, black, red and navy blue because I didn’t want the front cover to look over crowded, and I wanted it to catch the target audiences attention without looking to busy. I choose the colour red because it was alarming and bold. It represents the passion and soul which is paired with R&B.

Here are the 4 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 whyI used a website called picnik.com to crop, blur and brighten the picture. I blurred the of the piano, and made

the woman the main focus of the picture. I also airbrushed the image to make it more flawless and to remove any blemishes in the image. In the raw image a chair can be seen, I cropped the image to remove the chair.

And the second one: • Raw 2 • Final 2

• Here is how I changed the photograph and whyI changed this photograph by simply placing it into Photoshop, so that the image will not distort, the image

required little airbrushing I just simply added a little bit of airbrushing using the airbrushing tool on Photoshop again to remove any blemishes in the picture.

And the third one: • Raw 3 • Final 3

• Here is how I changed the photograph and whyI brightened the picture again using picnik.com, the image was rather dark due to bad lighting so I decided to

brighten it using the brightening tool on the website. I also airbrushed this image after I brightened it again to remove any blemishes. Also I used a blurring tool to blur the image of the microphone bringing the woman again into focus. I did this because I thought she should be main attention the magazine. I added an effect which made the image appear in an orange colour, I personally liked this effect because made the image glow.

And the last one: • Raw 4 • Final 4

• Here is how I changed the photograph and whyI changed the photograph by airbrushing the image first of all, again to remove any blemishes in the image, the

image was very dark in the raw image so I decided to brighten it up using a brightening tool on Picnik.com. I added colour to the image of the girl, and strop the rest of the piano from its colour. I liked the effect this made on the image, it made the image pop.

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

This is my contents page

• Contents Page • These are key features…• Use of different font

sizes • The use of images • The use of colour

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

• My contents page and cover page are linked together through the use of similar font sizes and colours and also similar fonts.

Key points of contents page • How have you made the reader want to read on?I have made the reader want to read on through my editors talk, it creates a bond and an insight into the

magazine, enticing the reader to read on.

• What are the links between images and words?The images, creating a visual interpretation of the words.

• What determines the dominant stories?The dominant stories in the magazine are placed in larger text in comparison with the rest

of the articles and information.

• How have you gone about ordering the information on the page?

On my contents page, I aligned all my articles on the left, and the editors talk and images on the right.

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

• I featured the story on the contents page, in larger font size. Therefore bringing it to the readers attention

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

This is why I think that double spread works

• I think this double page spread works because the colours represent the genre. It uses simple colours such as black, red and white. The images also represent the genre. The text is displayed around the image, therefore breaking the typical codes and conventions for a music magazine.

This is my double-page spread

This is how my double page spread works

• It works by simply displaying the text around the image. It uses simple colours such as re, black, blue and pink, which are colours featured on both my front cover and my contents page.

This is how all three components are linked together….

• They all use the same colours. I decided to do this, to heavily link them all together. Both the front cover and the contents page feature the same articles.

This is my re-drafted cover page• Cover Page • Key modifications from

feedbackI aligned all the text to the

left. I added colour the colour

blue to the word ‘PLUS’ to make the front cover more eye catching.

This is my re-drafted contents page

• Cover Page • Key modifications from feedback

I changed the colour of the numbers, to make them stand out.

I used a different font for the editors talk so that it will be a personal message to the reader.

This is my re-drafted double spread• Double spread

Key modifications to double spread from feedback

• I removed the white background from behind the text the text, from feedback it made the page look messy and as though it wasn’t well thought out at all. So I decided to now have anything on the background of the text.

Evaluation • You can find my blog here:

(URL)And You can find my evaluation with responses to the 7 questions

here:(URL)

NB. Make sure you have completed slides 11-15 with downloads of the minimum 4 original images before thinking this is finished. Then erase this reminder.