The document describes the design choices made for the front cover and contents page of a magazine about chiptune music. Key conventions like the masthead, color schemes, and use of imagery are developed in angular, graphic styles that simultaneously follow and challenge typical magazine formats. The target audience of "nerds" interested in electronic music is represented in a cool, visually stimulating way that shifts from stereotypes. Inspiration came from studying the design of Slices magazine, and the learning process improved skills with tools like the pen tool and use of brushes in Photoshop.

1. D e c l aAnS C o nE nDo Il lA y
M

2. My front page could be described as following usual
conventions. One of these would be the masthead. It is
large, bold and orientated towards the top of the page
much like near enough every other front page of a
magazine. To develop this, however, I have tried to
integrate the masthead into the graphic design to
emphasise the correlation between the angular image
and the similarly angular font. Matching similar traits in
my magazine really was important to me because I felt
that symmetry makes the page feel altogether more
balanced. A lot of magazines use similar concepts to
make the magazine more aesthetically pleasing. One of
the main uses of balancing aspects of a page that
magazines often use is the point of a colour scheme.
As seen in the “NME” cover on the far right, the colour
scheme is mostly based around the colours of the
subject (Laura Marling) which is predominantly
grey, black and blue and so, therefore is the magazine
design. I have tried to base my colour scheme in the
same way by surrounding my subject with the colours he
is wearing. The green of his tee shirt echoes that of the
masthead background and the incentive box whilst the “In what ways does
grey of his jumper matches that of the background.
Obviously my subject would look bad without the blue
highlight due to the competing grey tones
your media product
however, because of the break in between the two
tones, they go quite well together. Of course, the blue
smoke is taken from the blue of the original picture
use, develop or
which then inspired the blue text.
The busy feel of the cover correlates with the challenge forms and
atmosphere created by the genre of the music that I
have addressed.
By developing usual conventions, I have unwittingly
conventions of real
seemed to challenge them. This is probably because
they are so extreme in how they have been developed
but overall, I feel that my cover is relevant to my target
media products?”
audience.

3. My contents page also develops usual conventions in a
similar way that my cover page does: that is that it also
challenges them simultaneously.
Much like the far right image from Vibe magazine, I like
the idea of the contents being a more subdued
contestant in the battle for dominance between the
cover and contents. It is because of this idea that I have
chosen to use a mostly monochrome colour scheme
whist retaining a flash of some emphasised colour (due
to the black and white of the rest of the page) so the
page still is exciting to look at. This colour is obviously
present in the masthead and the design behind it. I have
kept the colours similar to the cover page so the
magazine flows and feels connected. The image I have
used was taken at an odd angle and one corner was cut
off by the unusual crop which I thought was interesting. I
liked the way that this created an angular structure that
echoed that of the masthead design and the front cover.
I emphasised this convention by cutting out other parts
of the image and adding in fractured shapes that also
come into play on the design of my double page spread.
I have used a single, large image- as do most magazine “In what ways does
contents pages so that the viewer is not dazzled by a
confusing ensemble of pictures. After all, I have already
got the audiences attention by the front cover, there is
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no need for an “in your face” approach anymore. The
page is neutral so the viewer is able to simply explore
the image and text. Whereas in Vibe magazine’s page,
use, develop or
there is a high contrast between a white background and
black text, mine is a dark background and therefore a challenge forms and
white text colour to perform the same high contrast
concept only in reverse.
conventions of real
media products?”

4. My target audience is, to coin the stereotype: “nerds”.
This is a rather derogatory term for a specific group of
people who enjoy computers and other such hardware
and in some cases, the music that the machines can help
them to produce. As the term suggests, this genre of
music, and the people who like it often get a bad
reputation so I have tried to shift away from the “geeky”
stereotype and make the people look interesting and
cool without deducting the “nerd-roots” as it were.
There are still elements of the stereotype with the
electronic colours and angular designs but they are used
in a visually stimulating way. I feel that I have portrayed
my particular target audience in a good light, one that I
hope would be welcomed by that genre of person and
also as a whole by the rest of their peers.
“How does your
media product
represent particular
social groups?”

5. My main inspiration for both genre and the use of
graphic design mixed with photography stemmed from
Slices magazine. I really had to search to find a magazine
“What type of media
that covered the electronic music genre but it was
certainly worth the hunting. Putting my work next to
Slices , it is obvious how it has influenced me. For this
institution might
reason, I would aspire for my magazine to be distributed
by “electronic beats”- the same company that distribute distribute your media
Slices. I feel that my magazine would hold it’s own when
sold alongside Slices, this is because my magazine
targets a sub genre of electronic music rather than just
product and why?”
electronic music as a whole. For Chiptune fans, my
magazine would possibly be more sought after. The
places where my magazine would be available to buy
would be either online like Slices or in select shops that
my target audience are likely to visit. Comic
shops, computer shops, etc.

6. My intended audience is anybody who enjoys the genre
of music I am celebrating through my magazine, whether
they are Chiptune artists, builders of chiptune software
or hardware or just Chiptune fans. As simple as. I
intended my magazine to be made for those who would
wish to buy it and that could be anybody yet it is more
likely that those would want to read my magazine would
obviously be people who like the genre.
The targeted age ranges from around twelve years old to
possibly mid-twenties. I have targeted a young audience
because the magazine designs match the age range, as
do the models used alongside the designs. Because I
made the designs myself and I am within this age
range, I felt that it would make sense to target myself as
a consumer and my friends so they would be able to
accurately peer assess my work and so as to best
understand what I wanted to do.
“Who would be the
audience for your
media product?”

7. I first looked at a similar magazine in terms of the music it has chosen to base
“How did you
itself upon and focused on similar traits that I found to be effective within the
design work of Slices.
The thing that stood out to me was the mix of two medias, graphic design and
attract/address your
photography- more specifically, the use of angular shapes. It is this inspiration
that led me to take the first picture of inside a gymnasium. I liked the colours audience?”
and they correlated with my responses from my questionnaire. I also liked the
shape of the walls that were similar to the design above, left. After
development in Photoshop, I had made it into a more art like design than a
photograph.
I then correlated the colours of the background image with my model and then
the other aspects to the collaborate two. I added in an incentive that was still
relevant to the Chiptune genre to back up the eye catching colours and shapes.

8. “What have you
learnt about
I started off with a basic knowledge of Photoshop however, it was not nearly
enough (without development) to complete the outcome of this assignment
technologies from the
with. I developed my understanding of the pen tool, which I found to be very
useful to cut out objects with a very clean line that I would usually use a magic
wand tool for. I also realised that I can download brushes which really helped
process of
me to be creative with my designs and not limited to the default design options.
I used brushes to outline objects that would otherwise look stamped on to the constructing this
background (above, right) and to also use as shapes to give postures context.
(below, left) I will use these techniques that I have now learned in further
projects.
product?”

9. Placing my designs next to each other makes it obvious
that I have progressed substantially from my preliminary
task. I can use the pen tool a lot better, I have taken
better quality images and took into account postures of
subjects. I have been able to be more creative since
discovering brushes and utilised my newly learned eye
for composition. I have learned that a more subtle
approach is sometimes a lot better and produces a lot
more clean-looking results.
I feel that I have been taught and executed what is
needed to create a professional style magazine and I
have enjoyed doing so.
Dec.
“Looking back at your
preliminary
task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the
progression from it to
the full product?”