Evaluation - Forms and Conventions

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.