In what
ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Front
Cover
For the
front cover of my magazine, I wanted a professional and authoritative look that
would make the readers trust what they are reading and remind them that the magazine
is focused on journalism and putting across the news and information that they
want to know but, also appear quite fun and light hearted at the same time to
appeal to its younger readership which I feel it does do by not ‘speaking down’
to its readers and referring to them almost like a friend. This is similar to
the NME which was big inspiration when creating my magazine.
My masthead
was drawn by hand at first but when I uploaded it onto Photoshop, I felt the
look wasn’t as professional as I wanted it to be so by using the line tool and ‘warping’
it into shape made an almost Vogue-style title which I liked as it contrasted
with the plan for the rest of page, being covered with ripped paper and made to
look quite edgy and stylish. Although I could have kept with the original black
lettering, I added a simple bevel to add height to the cover and make it stand
out from the rest of lettering as well adding a small white gradient in the
corner of the letters to act as a spotlight and to fit in with the music theme.
The original idea for the word ‘Amps’ was to have 2 messages in the masthead as
I wanted it to represent the alternative, guitar-based music that the magazine
is promoting as well as showing the readers new acts by amplifying them out to
the public so they would gain popularity and fans. This idea I think works well
as I’ve stuck to the genre of music as well as including bands and artists
which many people may not have heard of.
For my dateline, I wanted to keep this
quite simple and out of the way from the main image which I have tried to do by
placing it very near to the barcode at the bottom left hand corner with the
price also at the side. The font is in keep with the rest of the magazine so it
fits in and the black contrasts with the white lined ripped paper behind it so
the readers can easily see what issue it is.
The photo
was taken as a medium close up so I could fit in the writing at the side as
well as leaving enough white space to fit in with magazines design. A close up would have been too harsh for the
design as it wouldn’t have left enough space and there would not have been the
contrast in colour which I wanted. The model is looking directly into the camera
to capture the audiences’ attention and make it look like they are appealing
directly at them to look at the magazine and the expression on the model isn’t
too serious and the little smile makes her look approachable and friendly which
is more likely to appeal to a broader audience rather than a negative, closed
off expression.
Although on
my front cover the costumes and props aren’t really highlighted, the Jack
Daniels jumper still works well for the colours as the black and white both
contrast easily, making it easier to pick a colour that would stand out for the
banner. I kept to a black banner as it looks quite stylish and sophisticated and
makes the magazine look more connected as a whole product. The grey top which
is just showing to the right of her neck also works well with the colour scheme
as it fits in with the black and white. Being an alternative magazine, the
darker clothing is more suited and the audience are more likely to connect with
the image.
Being the
front cover, I didn’t want to bulk up the page with too much as writing as the
contents page already included a lot of information so the cover line was kept
quite simple to reflect this. Also, only using the band’s name as a cover line
makes it easier for the reader to see it from distance. This is also helped by
being a bold, black font which I downloaded from Dafont.com and looks very
powerful and dominant on the page which further makes the magazine come across
as a darker, alternative style as a pop magazine isn’t likely to have this
style of writing. The other writing on the page is of a similar style to keep
up with the magazines image but it is a little smaller so ‘The Brontides’ is
seen as the cover line, connecting the image on the front to the content. The
small description of the article is in red to bring colour to the page as it
has quite a monochrome palette but the red lettering still fits in because it
is used in the dominant font which is used throughout the magazine.
The layout
for the front cover is quite traditional of a magazine and is a little similar
to the NME style of covers although it is a lot more simplified and spaced out
with not as much content bunched together. The use of the white space makes the
magazine look more presentable and mature to a magazine that has loads of
writing and pictures on the front which is likely to appeal to an older
audience as well as the younger audience. It is also more likely to appeal to a
more middle class market from the appearance alike Clash magazine which
features a lot of white space and keeps writing to a minimum.
Contents
Page
For the
heading, I kept it very similar to the masthead to bring the contents and front
cover pages together and produce a house style for my magazine which I feel
works well for my genre of magazine as many of its ‘competitors’ on the market have
a very distinctive house style which sets itself out from the magazines. The
images used also fit in with the cover as they are all connected in theme. The
picture of the model is connecting to both the front cover and the article and
the picture of the stones is the album cover on the band’s latest album, which is
mentioned in the interview. The picture on the guitar also links as it is a
prize that can be won by the readers and is advertised as being signed by the
band. By using a collection of images, I feel it makes the magazine look more realistic
and authentic as well as looking more interesting that one image like the front
cover and the bright photos fir in with the simple colour palette. For the
background of the guitar, I repeated pictures of the guitar and reduced the opacity
to make it look more visually pleasing.
The layout
of the contents page is quite similar to magazines such as Q and NME but by
using simplified colours and its house style, sets it apart from its rivals.
The writing is in a font of Orator Std and is the same as the front cover and
the main article so the reader can see that the font is an important part of
the style of the magazine, being a modern looking typeface. The contents page
itself is separated into sections to make it easier to read as there is a lot
of writing together in a small space on the page to show the readers as much as
I could what contents is featured in my magazine. This is an idea I got from
NME as they separate the categories in a similar way. The white writing is still
connected the page as I wanted to look like the red has almost been stamped on and
give it a unique style instead of a boring title.
The subscription
box is quite small as I wanted loads of attention to be focused on the writing
but for this I used a different font to show that it isn’t a part of the
content and to also bring some attention to away from the writing. I used a reflective
effect on the ‘Subscribe’ title as the white stands out effectively against the
blue and makes it look more unusual from a normal subscription box.
Article
For my main
image, I used one of the photographs of my model and repeated it by cutting
around it using the lasso tool and changing the opacity of each image to make
it look like she is moving while the white background fits in with the rest of
the white background and makes it look more professional and put together which
is the look I was aiming for. The heading and subheading also following the layer-up
effect by having a blue 2013 to highlight the new year and new year of music
that the magazine will be reporting on as well as a starting point in the history
of the band, being the first exclusive interview from them in my magazine.
The
simple black writing keeps the page quite stylish while the blue writing in the
article helps the reader know who is talking and breaks up the black and white
which can look a little boring if they are the only colours used. This look is
similar to Dazed and Confused magazine which appeals to a young, middle class audience
who are interested in music, fashion and politics who are likely to be interested
in the same activities and hobbies as my audience although my magazine is aimed
a more working-class market.
The pull
quote uses the 2 most dominant tones, black and white and reverses them to
creating a contrasting area which is made to grab the reader’s attention and is
placed near to centre to persuade the reader to read around the quote and
achieve some understanding of what’s going on. The sidebar at the bottom right
hand side is a list of tour dates to further sell the bands image as young
readers interested in this gene of music are normally attendees of gigs and
festivals and by using the same typography and picture as used on the bands
album cover ties in the information and promotes the bands image as a
collection rather than separate pieces of data.
