FINAL WORK

Dear Moderator

Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading all about my coursework; everything relating to it is labelled underneath 'foundation portfolio'. Here is all of my research, planning, preliminary work and final pieces that I have worked hard on and learnt a lot about in the past few months. Thankyou for looking!
Marianne Haynes.

Preliminary Front Cover & Contents

Evaluation Task 1

In my magazine, The Beat, I incorporate several generic conventions of other magazines; namely ones that I styled my own magazine on. Firstly I made my ident simple, bold and straightforward like the NME ident. I downloaded a font named Clubland from www.dafont.com and put the words “The” and “Beat” in separate boxes. I rotated the first word so it went up the side of the second and made both words large and noticeable. The font was also in the style of disco lights which added to the musical feel of the title which suited the genre of magazine.
Secondly I kept to a three colour palette. Whereas most magazines choose black, white and red I opted instead for black, white, and turquoise as these are all gender neutral and keep the page looking simple yet effective. However, for Zoe’s name on the double page spread I incorporated a purple for her name to make the feature on her look more feminine.
I kept the font scheme simplistic with 2 different fonts on the front cover; however I break this rule for the contents page and double page spread by incorporating another font for page numbers, date of release and name of bands featured. By using a small variation of font style and size I manage to break up the pages and make them interesting whilst keeping it simple and easy to read – my pages aren’t too busy.

Evaluation Task 2

Here is the model on my front cover and the singer Laura-Mary Carter. I partly based Zoe's character on Laura-Mary as they are of similar height and age. Although Laura-Mary is brunette and Zoe blonde the style is similar and they pose in almost the same way - they look bored but are pouting slightly and look very posed and almost stiff. This fits with the genre of music that they play. (Indie, Folk-rock).

In my photographs Zoe is dressed in a dark dress with a large, flowery statement necklace. Laura also wears a dress; however it is more visible in the photograph. They both wear similar makeup; dark around the eyes with brighter pink lipstick and cheeks. Their eyebrows are defined and their faces are pale. This style of makeup is also typical for the genre I am aiming for within my magazine.

Despite my magazine being gender neutral; I am representing girls and women aged 16-25 with the cover photograph. This issue could draw more females in as Zoe could be an icon for the feminine half of my target audience - the men might not read a magazine that has a woman on the cover. This is one drawback of the artist I have chosen.

Evaluation Task 3

Evaluation Task 3

For task 3 I had intended to commentate on my magazine via voiceover but as I didn't have the technology to make this possible I decided instead to post the script of what I had planned to say.

Evaluation Task 4

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

My target audience is teenagers aged 16-25 with an interest in Indie, Rock and Brit-pop music, vintage, books and fashion. I connect with this audience in a number of ways, named in Task 5. If you click on the photograph above, you can see the profile of The Beat's readers.

My media product represents my target audience, teenagers aged 16-25 from a working class background, namely students. I represented this audience primarily through my gender neutral font, topics and colour palette. The photos throughout my magazine are of teenagers dressed in Indie clothing which means that my target audience can associate with these bands.

Evaluation Task 5

Above you can see a movie I have created on Sony Vegas. It consists of annotations around the 3 pages of my final work and tells you how I have attracted and addressed my audience. The one thing I haven’t written on the movie is the unique selling point, or USP, of my magazine. The Beat focuses greatly on new and different music – my artist, Zoe Paterson, is portrayed as a folk rock singer from Sweden who uses her acoustic guitar and violin when creating music. There are also articles in my contents about the reunion of several Brit-Pop bands. Although my magazine does concentrate on Rock and Indie, I believe the unique selling point is my mention of folk and Brit-Pop throughout.

Evaluation Task 6

I often used my Blackberry to write notes, blog, or send emails back and forth to myself when working. It was useful for when I was away from a computer so that I could still work.


I used this Canon Powershot SX120 for the majority of my photography as it takes sharp, bright photos without the flash. I could change the settings so that I focused solely on what I wanted to - the background isn't important.

As I was taking many outdoor shots for a folky look I used a Gorillapod rather than a conventional tripod. This is because I can attach it to anything I need to (I.e. Trees, fences) in order to get the perfect angle which I might not achieve otherwise.


Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS. I used this for some of the indoor shots as it can take more and focuses more easily than the Powershot. It also takes better indoor photographs.

I used my computer most when creating my magazine.

Throughout creating The Beat magazine I have used my computer to research and learn a lot about photoshop and other software. I used a program called Polaroid 0.9 6R0 to give the photographs on my double page spread a sepia tone and to make them look like polaroids; giving them an old fashioned, folky feel. This kept with the theme of my double page spread and magazine.

I learnt a lot about using photoshop as I practiced between my preliminary task and final piece. I learnt how to better cut pictures out; rather than solely using magnetic lasso I chose instead to use the pen tool, eraser and smudge tool to give the photos a professional, smooth look.

I found the smudge tool the most useful as when used correctly it helped to smooth the edges of my photographs without having to feather them. This made the edges softer and made my photos blend in with the pages. I also increased the contrast a little on most of my photographs to make them look more colourful and professional. Adding a glow around my titles and front photograph made my photos look more natural on the page; they do not look stuck on.

I also used scribd to share my double page essay draft and audience feedback. This made my work look more professional on my blog and showed my technical knowledge. I also used slideshare to share my pitch and ideas with my peers. This helped as a slideshow is more interesting to look at than an essay or pictures - by sharing using slideshare I will have kept my audience engaged.

Evaluation Task 7

If you click on the image you can see I have used split screen to show my preliminary work against my final piece. I have also included annotations on the differences. Here is what I have learnt in the progression between these pieces.

In the progression between my preliminary task and final product I have learnt a great deal about photoshop, other software, and the way that magazines fit together and need a cohesive style. Looking back on my task I can see the help that my planning and research contributed. By reading other magazines and examining and imitating their style I learnt how to make my work look professional and slick. I learnt a lot about layers of font and photographs, the use of straplines, and fonts that look professional in a magazine.

Creating my moodboards was also another task that contributed greatly to the planning process. It helped me to develop a clear idea of the genre I was targeting and the photography that I would need to set up. It also helped me to realise how I should represent my artist as acting within the interview.

On my final piece everything fits together neatly unlike my preliminary task where the words look like they don’t belong there. On the contents page of my preliminary I put thick coloured lines around the photographs which looks childish and unprofessional; in my final piece I imitated the technique of cosmopolitan magazine and used no border; this looks more slick and professional.

Front Cover

I have started creating my final front cover.
I am still debating whether to have the photo in colour or greyscale so here it is in both so you can help me decide!