In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product uses all conventions of those you would find on an average music magazine. On my double page spread however, I challenged the conventions due to changing the colour of the background which is usually just kept white. I did this to bring and incorporate individuality into the magazine, not just through the artists and bands featured but through the style and layout of the magazine its self, I believe this works and gives my magazine a very vintage look.

Examples of typical double page spreads:

I also noticed that on many of the double page spread, conventionally, a main feature image is placed on the left hand side. On my first attempt I did follow this in the same way:










however after careful thoughts and asking my peers, I decided it looked like it could have been two separate articles. This made me want to create a double page spread which was obvious to the eye, and that is my reason for the main image to be placed down the very center of the magazine leaving half the image on the left side and half on the right. This way both pages are clearly linked before any text is read.

I challenged the typical convention of  'pull quotes' as I didn't embed my pull quote within the text but placed it at the top of the left hand page.  The reason for this is that my text was only one column to a page due to then large image in the center which meant I didn't have much room to fit it in. With the text having to be larger in size to attract the audience I placed it at the top where it can clearly be seen instead of trying to squeeze it insignificantly in the column of text. I also believe this works to my advantage as it is the most engaging sentence in the first two pages of the article and because we read from top left to bottom right it should be the first thing the reader see's, engaging them to read on.


I think the conventions I used on my contents page are typical. I developed them slightly further by giving my layout a revamp. I didn't want my contents to look boring to read, I wanted there to be an exciting look to it with different pictures and sized writing incorporating a random looking layout. I was not intending for it to look messy as it has been well thought out however I did want it to look fun.

On my front cover I have used a close up shot of a female model and vinyl prop partially covering the face for my main image. I wanted to do this because I didn't want my magazine being hard to differentiate between when compared to a fashion magazine. So to really emphasize the fact it is an indie music magazine I thought adding the vinyl record would set it off perfectly. I have also found other various magazines which have used props and I believe it still contains a very professional look.

 

In terms of continuity I created a house style throughout my product; front cover; contents and double page spread.

I achieved this by repeating the use of the red colour used for the main features sell line, main features description, page number as well as for the main body of text on my double page spread. I also used the same font for 'THE MASTER', 'FREE POSTER INSIDE' and 'INSIDE THIS WEEK' my reasoning for this was to tie things together with the front cover and contents. I did not use this font for the text on my double page spread as it was very bold and dramatic where as I wanted it to look more conventional and be easier to read so I chose to use a vintage type font, to tie in with my indie theme, called 'courier new'. My front cover main image, main feature image on contents page and all images on double page spread are of the same artist (model) which can be clearly noticed as the same costume is worn. Although there are slight changes in some images where there is a use of props or clothing items are removed the style and person stays clearly the same. My strongest and main three colours used consistently throughout my product are the red, blue and white. I matched the background colour blue to the same of the models eyes, like so:

I did the same for the red matching it to the colours on the scarf worn by the artist/model and I then chose the white because it would stand out like the white in her eyes.

Whenever I displayed the masthead elsewhere such as the contents I kept the same font (only changing the colour to blue due the colour of the background being white) to prevent confusion in the consumer and because it is the conventionally correct thing to. If I was to change the font and colour it would no longer look as if it was representing the same magazine.