The document provides an evaluation by Jaimie Houston of their music magazine media product. It discusses how the magazine uses and develops conventions from other media products such as Guitar Magazine. Both magazines use headers, mastheads with distinctive fonts, cover stars, and footers. The evaluation also discusses how the magazine represents particular social groups like young guitarists of mixed gender and how a company like Bauer Media would be suited to distribute the product due to their experience in similar magazines.

1. Media AS music magazine evaluation.
 An evaluation by Jaimie Houston

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions in media products?
Both my magazine and “Guitar magazine feature
headers with incentives . In my magazine I show a
competition (a feature common in magazines) and one
of the main articles, a feature on the greatest guitarists
of all time. As a comparison, Guitar magazine features
examples of key articles included within much like my
own.
Both magazines feature a main masthead with a
distinctive font that lends some character and individuality
to the magazine. This of course has several purposes.
First of all is to separate that magazine from all the
competition. In my magazine I use a font that would most
My magazine. likely lend it’s self to a younger generation of readers, Guitar magazine.
while Guitar magazine features a font that looks like one
taken of a guitar from the sixties, perhaps done to appeal
to an older generation of guitarists.
I used a puff in order to act as both an incentive
(offering something for free is always works) I used a
contrasting colour that does not appear anywhere else
deliberately as this draws the eyes of the reader
A main feature of my magazine that is not present within the
Guitar magazine is the use of the column that is then used to
create an organised strip of key articles featured within. This
unique technique also features highly contrasting colours
(black, white and yellow) and unique fonts that highlight key
areas I.E main articles. The font choices and colour choices
have a bright outlook perhaps appealing to younger
generations.
Another two main key features that both products feature is
the use of both a cover star and a footer. In terms of cover
stars, my magazine features a woman holding a guitar that
fills the vast majority of the cover, “Guitar” however have a
guitar whose main body encompasses most of the cover.
Both of these covers have the dual purpose of highlighting
the genre and target audience and showing a related
picture to a key article.
Finally the footer on both is used to both highlight a key
article and often used to contain useful data such as issue
number and the barcode, Both magazines also use a
contrasting colour to the background. In both cases Red
and white to a blue background.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions in media products?
One major similarity between my contents
page and “Drummer magazine” is the use of
a coloured banner that highlights the function
of the page (contents).
Another feature is the re-use of the title of
the magazine near the top. This is done in
order to maintain the identity of the
magazine.
In addition, both magazines contain a
numbered list that lists in order the articles
featured, the numbers in particular are a
bright contrasting colours to the white
backgrounds they are on, in this case yellow
and orange. Another convention they both
share is the large picture to the right hand
side. Size is often connoted with
importance. Because of this the reader
immediately assumes this is related to the
feature article.
One other key feature both articles share is
the fact that there a large number of pictures
used to create a visual appeal and entice the
reader. A contrasting point however is the
colour schemes used. My magazine features
a black background upon which white text
boxes containing yellow writing are placed.
Drummer magazine on the other hand
features black text on a white background.
This change in colour scheme could very
easily be related to target audience (which I’ll
get onto later.)
Finally both share a date of release (in case
people want to get backdated issues ) and
similar style and angle of pictures (Medium
close up to a close up in my case) of the
instrument involved in the magazine (that’s
what the readers came for after all ) and
close ups of article stars or in my case the
editor. This is done in this way as a way of
allowing the allowing the reader to relate on

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions in media products?
In both my double page spread and
the one from guitarist magazine
they both share a main title or
headline on the top left, that
highlights the main purpose of the
article, (in mine the review and in
there’s the first play.) These are
both in a contrasting colour to the
background (in both cases white
and red to the black background)
Both our magazine double page
spreads feature a large picture that
dominates the majority of the left
side of the article. This convention
shows the size and importance of
the picture in relation to the article.
As a contrast my article has many
more pictures that the one use in
Guitarist magazine. My article
however uses the number of
pictures to tell a story that is unique
and the fact the pictures
themselves are made to look like
polaroid's from a camera adding a
sense of realism and relation to
reality. One convention my double
page spread features that the other
doesn’t is the use of a quote pulled
from the article itself.

5. How does your media represent particular social groups?
In terms of my magazine it obviously is related
to guitarists. This is obvious as the main theme
of the pictures included of guitarists. All people
in my magazines are young (aged around 18)
and are of mixed gender. This is due to the
information I gathered from my questionnaire. In
the results I found a 50-50 split in terms of
gender and the vast majority were aged
between 16-25. In addition all three of my
“characters” that are pictured within the
magazine are all white, this is not deliberately
designed to appeal to white people over other
ethnicities rather all participants available
happened to be white. This could however
cause it to be unappealing to other ethnicities if
it were an actual product. This product was
deliberately designed however to appeal to the
about seventeen and older crowd due the
style, age of the stars and the tone and style of
writing. Finally all of my “stars” are not
represented negatively (well unless you count
that guy going insane, but that was due to the
evil of that guitar.)

6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product
and why?
If I were seeking to get this magazine published I would seek the assistance and
economic input of Bauer media. The reason for this would be because Bauer media
has had experience publishing this type of magazine, (probably most well known of all
magazines in this genre, Kerrang magazine) they do however have a gap in there line
that my magazine fills. This would be both beneficial for both parties as they fill a gap
in their line and me as a business earns a profit.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
Bauer Media as a publisher has two predominant “music magazines” both of which
share some similarities to my product but also many, many differences. As stated
above my magazine fills a gap within their line. Both of these magazines cover quite a
similar audiences based upon appearances. They do not however account for the
young acoustic crowd. This is a great mistake of theirs as young people who are
learning guitar, most often learn on an acoustic.

7. What kind of media institution might distribute your product?-Continued.
 In terms of where it would be sold, it would be mainly sold in newsagents and stores
such as the CO-OP and supermarkets such as Asda predominately where other
magazines are sold as obviously as the market shows these are the best institutions to
sell magazines as they continue to be sold there even after years of business .
 In addition the magazine would also be sold in music stores. This is done so that a
potential reader buying a guitar would walk past the magazine in a store, realise it’s
great worth and buy it alongside the guitar. Further incentives would then keep that
reader coming back to buy the next issue.

8. Who would be the audience for your media product?
In my magazine the intentional audience is of course guitarists. In particular I focused on a
younger generation, featuring young cover stars, much like the people in the pictures
featured below. In addition the informal writing tone match my own and the target audience.
In particular things like the dress and hairstyle of the cover stars matches that of the target
audience again much like the people featured below, people like this tend to dress in loud
primary colours matching that of their own nature.
Now lets take “Guitar World” magazine. What do you notice immediately?
The cover stars are much, much older. The “Stars” of my magazine were
younger and this was for two specific reasons. 1:The available
participants to be photographed were pretty much all that age. 2:Many of
the specifically guitar magazines I researched and looked at over the
course of my design work are all of the older variety meaning that there is
in fact a gap in the market which if this was in fact a real pitch and
potential magazine, would be a great opportunity to expand the market
and net a profit. My designs would deliberately appeal to the younger
crowd as I personally feel they are under represented in this market.

9. How did you attract/address your audience?
A key attractant used in my magazine and
many if not all magazines is the use of
colour. My magazine features the primary
A major attractant I used was colours (red, blue, yellow) and black and
the use of incentives. The white. These colours immediately draw the
one on the header in eyes of the reader as they are highly
particular was an advert for a
contrasting colours. This itself is not an
electric guitar to win in a
incentive so much as a tool that is used to
competition, considering the
attract the reader so that the actual
target audience this is a
particularly apt prize that incentives will convince the reader to buy.
would be bound to attract
potential audience.
Another major tool used on my
This column is a major way of product was the use of the puff
attracting the audience with a large “FREE” in white text
advertising the main articles that contrasts highly to the green
with a bright yellow font that is and blue of the background. This
unique to the cover. Main is a great incentive used across
articles are highlighted many magazines and even
particularly ones that would be breakfast cereals as a way of
attractive to new readers like convincing potential readers to
the learning to play articles. purchase the magazine. The free
For the more “hard-core” item is also directly related to the
readers articles such as subject of the magazine. In this
reviews and comparisons case it’s a guitar string, an item
between guitars. that would be easily would be
able to be included in an actual
magazine and assuming it was
Another major main incentive is of good quality would attract
the large main articles such as potential readers
the “learn your first chords
here!” written in bright white.

10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Well to start with I did already have knowledge of Adobe Photoshop; I had used the program in the past and had a basic knowledge
of the program and its uses. My knowledge since this project has improved greatly.
Proper use of the custom shape tool: I already knew the shape tools and had in fact and used them quite extensively when I was
younger. My knowledge stopped however at the custom shape tool and its uses. Using this tool I was able to create useful shapes
that then were used to great effect in the whole piece. An example of this was the use of the curved
arrow shape in order to make the devil’s tail for the guitar on the double page spread.
(Custom
shapes)
(Right there )
Secondly I learned the advantages of using the “Blending options tool and using it to create strokes and drop shadows.
I then used these extensively throughout the piece:
(Like here)
(And there)
Using this tool I was able to improve the look of my text dramatically. This also makes the piece look more professional and
commercial as it conforms to many of the other magazines currently on sale. If I had to level one
criticism on my self however I would say I relied on strokes too much as I used it on all pages several times on each. I could
however have made more use of the drop shadow tool as I feel it was under used overall in the piece .

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product? –Continued.
I also made great use of the magic wand tool.
This was used primarily to remove the blue screen background I had in front of my “models” for use in the
magazine cover, contents and primarily for my double page spread which featured a total of eight pictures.
Finally in terms of photoshop another tool I made great use of and learned to use properly was the clone
stamp tool. This tool is used to copy one area which you can then draw onto another area. I used this to
great effect repairing clothing and in one particular case; I re-drew almost an entire carpet. These
problems most often arose after use of the magic wand which as it’s not perfect would often delete
parts of the picture I did not want deleted like the things I have mentioned above. So the tools were
often used in tandem.
Finally I learned how to use Quark from literally zero experience.
Quark I used for one thing and one thing only, the double page spread. I used this program to add the text
to my double page spread article. In particular I learned how to use the text tool in order to create columns
for the text, choosing colour, font and size. I then was able to then apply this to the article and finish it.

12. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product.
When I began this unit I had some experience in using photo shop but literally none
in the realms of designing covers. Starting off I used very basic skills and tools
(barely above the crop tool and paint bucket tool.) I did quickly learn of the stroke and
drop shadow tools for texts. I used these both liberally on the preliminary but quickly
realised this does not work as it makes the work look unprofessional. This was then
quickly (and in my opinion wisely) corrected and improved, these were then used to
a lesser degree in my main piece.
I also improved in my use of the camera work taking a greater variety of picture types
and zoom levels. Using this I was able to create a more professional look and allow
me to create different look to my magazine. This is particularly obvious in the
contents page where the fretboard is photographed in an extreme close up.
In addition I learned from scratch how to use utilities such as the site “Da font” in
order to create a defined identity in the magazine that makes it unique to this piece.
Finally I slowly over the course of the project learned appropriate colours to use that
would be suitable to the product. The scheme used for the preliminary task, while
taken from the Priestley website did not work as suitable colours, this was then
changed for my main project using highly contrasting and yet complimentary to each
other, such as the black and yellow.
Using what I have learnt I have managed to create a far better designed production
that is leaps and bounds beyond that of my preliminary task.