Conventions of a magazine

Current top Dance music artists

iTunes Dance music singles chart

There are nine different artists currently in the top 10 in the singles chart on iTunes; Avicii, Fuse ODG, Matrix & Futurebound, Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Calvin Harris & Alesso, Clean Bandit, Breach and Storm Queen. Avicii currently has two singles in the top 10; Hey Brother at number one and Wake Me Up at number eight. His track "Wake Me Up" has broken the one million sales mark to become one of only 150 singles to break a million. This track was also the fastest selling track of 2013 with 267,000 copies sold in only its first week. This is a huge achievement for Avicii considering Snow Patrol's power ballad "Chasing Cars" reached one million sales seven years after it was released. The only other tracks to reach one million sales in 2013 were Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky".

Martin Garrix's track "Animals" has been a huge hit having been released in November and went straight to number one. It is still in the charts at number three on iTunes as of the 14th of January 2014.

Breach's tracks "Jack" and "Everything you ever had" have both peaked at number nine in the charts. "Jack" was a hit summer track which was released on 12th July 2013 and peaked at number four in the UK Dance chart. "Everything you ever had" was released on 18th November 2013 and peaked at number two in the UK Dance chart.

Storm Queen's track "Look Right Through" was released on 3rd November 2013 and went straight to number one seemingly out of nowhere. Although, this only happened because Storm Queen's original version was remixed by Mark Kinchen and vocals were added by Damon C. Scott.

AS G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

In this coursework unit you produce two print artefacts from a set brief. This process involves progression from a pre-production, preliminary exercise to a more fully realised piece. This unit is internally assessed and externally moderated.

The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess your ability:

• to plan and construct print products using appropriate technical and creative skills
• to assess your application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work, showing how meanings and responses are created.
• to assess your ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.

The unit requires you to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving you the opportunity for development of skills in these technologies.

Evaluation

Before I began designing my front cover, I researched a range of existing magazines. This was very helpful because it gave me an idea for a design and I could see how the different conventions were laid out. It also showed me what I needed to do to make it look as professional as possible.

I took a long shot of a student and zoomed in to make it look like a mid-shot. I used a mid-shot so the student fills more of the frame and you can see the top of the glass behind him. I decided to have a border around the cover because it makes it look more professional so you can read the skyline and promotional banner better because the colours contrast. For the text I added black drop shadows because it makes it look 3d and not bland. This also makes it look more professional.

I have successfully included all the conventions of a magazine cover; Masthead, skyline, promotional banner, sell lines, picture, date, issue number, price and barcode. This gives it a greater sense of realism and professionalism.

I am happy with my front cover because I believe it looks reasonably professional and I have included all of the conventions. Also I have demonstrated a good grasp of Photoshop by using drop shadows, transform tools, rectangle and circular shapes etc.

Contents mock up

Final front cover

Unused Images

Front cover mock-up

Spider Diagram

Mood Board