Main Task - Questionnaire Result Charts

Having gathered the results for my questionnaires some time ago, I have finally completed the conversion of these results into pie-charts, which can be seen in the image attatched to this post.

I chose to only convert certain question results into pie-charts; these results being those which had the greatest impact on my own creation. I have only created charts for questions 1, 2, 5 and 8, as these question results would have the greatest effect on my own choices in designing my Main Task pieces.

Question 7's results were equally important; however this question was one which required a written response from the individual.

In response to the question 'What do you typically expect to see on the front of a music magazine?' the general answer from my test audience was that they expected to see;

• An image of the band who is the main feature of the issue


• Advertisments for upcoming tours/events


• Titles of Articles fetured inside the magazine

I will use the information I have acquired through my questionnaire about the expected conventions of music magazines, to influence my own decisions as I progress through the main task.

Preliminary Task - Contents Page

This is the mock-up of the contents page for the preliminary task, which I have labelled and annotated, making notes of and explaining the choices in my design, the ideology behind these choices and any reccurring elements I have included, and why I have included them.

Now that this has been completed, I have finished the work for my Preliminary task.

Preliminary Task - Cover

This is the final design for the front cover of the Preliminary Task.

After studying the school logos, colour schemes and font choices in their typical publications, I decided on a matching colour-scheme for my own magazine cover, as I felt that linking to the school's own designs through things such as images and colour-schemes would create an overall more proffessional looking design.

I used the ideology of the school as an institution of work and learning, by introducing several elements to the design - the first being the 'specialist sciene college' title, which is commonly advertised on school documents, the second being the photograph of a student (taken as a medium close-up), showing them working in a classroom setting, and the third being the thought-bubble, which offers tips and advice on how to revise.

Preliminary Task Research

I intend to complete two analysis of school magazines/newsletters in order to complete my own magazine design as part of the preliminary task, which is now well underway.

This is the first of these two analysis, focussing on a more newletter-orientated text, as these seem to be the typical style of most school publications, including what we know as 'School Magazines' (though there are some exceptions).

In this case in particular, the target audience was quite clear and had a considerable impact of the design of the newsletter, especially when considering the graphology of the front page, and so it was something I made a note of in my analysis.

Main Task Research Continued

Whilst I am waiting for the School Magazine for the preliminary task to be scanned onto the school computers so that I may complete my write-up of the analysis, and am still converting my questionnaire results into pie-charts to be featured in the blog, I have completed yet another analysis of a music magazine, Metal Hammer.

This magazine is of a similar genre to 'Kerrang', and I chose to analyse it so that I could take note of similar trends between the two, and also because Rock/Metal magazines were the most popular genre according to my questionnaire results, and so will likely be the genre of magazine I will aim to create.

Whilst I did notice some similarities between Metal Hammer and Kerrang, such as the featuring of band names to entice the audience (who are assumed to be fans of these bands), there were several differences, such as the lack of advertisment of concerts and events, as well as no offers of free merchandise/goods.

Main Task Research

As the prelimary task is now underway (I have completed an analysis of a school magazine, though haven't written it up on a computer, and will attempt to do so soon), I have begun to research and analyse magazine articles for my main task while I am still organising my questionnaire results into pie-charts to be placed on the blog.

I have completed one of these analysis, as can be seen in this post; I was sure to take into consideration the expected audience of the magazine, the genre of music upon which it focussed, and the methods used to convince the reader to purchase it.