Evaluation - question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
 
My media product uses the different conventions as they should be used. I have tried to add as many in the magazine as possible especially in the contents page and front cover.
The front cover has many unique selling points such as communicating to the audience about new albums, interviews and photo shoots. Which is what people want to read and I know this from my audience research.

I developed a house style which was red, black, white and yellow which I know is the most popular of colours  for this type of indie magazine as the colours complement each other and stand out. This house style is constant throughout the magazine and you can see that it works very well together.  I have chosen these colours because they work well on magazines such as Q and NME and these where the inspiration that I based my magazine on.  I focused my magazine on this genre of music and type of magazine because I knew people that have the look to fit that type of magazine and It is the only one I read myself.


The masthead on the magazine shows what type of magazine it is by the dark colours and the glow of the yellow behind it.  I believe that it looks professional and smart and would be easily recognized.  I believe that the masthead is as important as the main picture on the front cover because it is the first thing that people notice and they know how good the magazine will be by looking at it. Mastheads will also always be at the top of the page and to the left  and so here I have followed the conventions of a real media product.

The graphic features I have used is a small picture in the top right  corner which creates an effect that is has been dropped just into the magazine. This complements the magazines genera as it is messy and not really organised but still effective just like some of the artists that the magazine features. There is also a small picture in the bottom left which is telling the reader that there is a photo shoot. I have put this on the front because readers want to see pictures of their most loved artist. What is on the front cover is what I believe audiences want to see on them and in them.
Also used on my front cover is a flash. This almost looks like a sticker and it sounds exciting and stands out to inform the reader that their is a shocking new album about to be released.
I believe my house style and conventions of the music magazine meet those expected of a magazine of this genre.

The contents page is also following conventions and styles of this type of music magazine and again I believe that I have done it pretty well and I think this is the best out of the contents, double page spread and front cover. There is a lot of the conventions being used here and it looks professional.  It has hardly any white space and it works well that way. There is a lot of information and all of them are numbered . Details are given and the photos are great! Everything also stands out.  Here the house style is carried on as the colours here are the same as the font cover and as the double page spread. 

Using white writing on the red background with a glow makes it eye catching and stands out. Also there isn't much yellow on the page which helps a lot as them things stand out a lot more.
 Instead of writing 'page 12' I have just wrote the page number so that the page can be located easier and it saves a lot of space.

The main picture is big enough so that it can be easily seen and with the complimenting pictures below it and some text make the whole thing fit together. Even though their is a lot going on here it does work well enough to hopefully get me the best mark I can.  I have also included a gig photo of the arctic monkeys which makes the contents a bit more exciting because it is live.

Here the house style has been consistent and It shows through as the magazine looks professional.

 The double page spread does have a lot of white space but not to much I have made sure that Liam's guitar is off the edge of the page for some effect and then added some smaller shots at the bottom to show some fun into the magazine. We can see from this that Liam's code fits well with the magazine and the boy on the front cover also has a jacket like this. They are the targeted age that the magazine is targeted at so they would be who would be buying it.

I have laid this out the way I have so that it separates the page and so that attention can be focused on different parts separately. I have stuck to some conventions here them being the quotation being out of the text and the drop capital letter. I have also added a stand which is a introduction to the celebrity before the main article. This would tell reader that did not know the artist what the article is about before they read it . I have followed the convention that the image is always on the left ( usually).

Here also the double page spread is following the same colours and house style as the other pages. It has the page numbers that are the same as the contents page.

The banner across the top right which states what magazine it is so that the reader still knows and what page they are on is also on that. I have also added another perk of stating some live tours that he might be doing, I found this a good thing to put on just to give it something extra.

As well as the quote being out of the text on the left there is also a quote out in the centre of the text to catch the audiences attention.

Over all 3 parts of my music magazine I believe that I have taken the typical conventions of a music magazine and adapted it to make something quite good. I like what I have done and I believe I have reflected this type of music well and artists. Everything is consistent and looks fine and I also believe that the article is also interesting.


This is question 1 answered. I also believe that I don't really have dead space on my magazine.
 

About a similar magazine, some of this however related to my own.