1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Emily Kennedy
2. For my coursework task I produced a more alternative, hipster music magazine
similar to magazines such as Vice, Dazed, The Wire and Fucking Young. It features a
close up shot of a female model’s face for the central image on the cover. This is
similar to that of other music magazines such as Dazed and The Wire. I took this shot
in a club in Brighton, getting my model to pose flirtatiously at the camera. The flash
was the only light but it worked as the club was relatively dark. I thought about having
her hair slightly curly before we went out and asked her to wear red lipstick as it’s a
striking colour which would attract the audience’s attention. I chose to have her
stand in front of the gold glitter wall as I felt that this was a great background, fitting
in with the brand identity of my magazine which is to be unique and obscure. A glitter
background is ethereal and glitzy but goes against generic conventions of most
music magazines, such as Clash (which often features a plain background) and is
therefore obscure. With this shot I wanted to connote a sense of fun (with the glitter
background and flirtatious facial expression). I felt that this would appeal to both a
male and female target audience as my model is attractive and also a role model.
Clash - plain blue background
CUshot-mymag
CUshot-ClashCUshot-TheWire
CUshot-Dazed
3. Other generic conventions I have used in my magazine include those like; a large eye
catching masthead, a barcode, web address, a splash, articles trailed, a puff. I
adhered to the conventions here so that my audience would be familiar with my
product being a magazine and read it in a “preferred” way. This is taken from The
Cultural Studies Approach by Morley. Most music magazines will use the artists name
who is featured on the front cover which I have also done. I adhered to these
conventions in order to make the audience feel comfortable with my magazine as well
as trust my magazine as official. With the more fashion conscious magazines such as
Dazed the splash is mostly simplistic, with a bold font, often sans serif which creates
a clear style. I have replicated this in my own magazine. In order to do this, I decided
to use Digitek font for my splash which, although futuristic is also simplistic in its
design. The connotations with this font were futuristic which befits the splash “future
sound”, the simplicity is eye catching as it makes the font stand out against the busy
front cover. Using a stroke on the typography for “future sound” was a choice I made
basing it on “weird science” on the Grimes cover of Dazed. I felt this connoted
simplicity whilst making the font bolder and easier to read. I believe that this adds a
sense of refinement to the magazine therefore targeting a more mature audience,
which was my aim.
4. I have challenged some conventions of music magazines as I haven't used any studio
photos in my magazine, instead opting for posed shots in a variety of locations. I
decided to do this as in my audience feedback I was told that the images should be
interesting and therefore believed that non-studio photographs are less common and
more intriguing. I felt that this would help me create a unique brand identity, as non-
studio photos are rarely used in the magazines I researched (Dazed, The Wire etc). My
image manipulation is also not common to other magazines, for example I have used a
pixelate tool on one of my images, and colour splash for others. This was all done to be
in keeping with a more artistic, creative audience as images manipulated this way are
more visually interesting. These images are some of the main points that I use to try
and anchor my brand identity; of all the magazines I researched none of them use
these image manipulation techniques. I purposely chose to do this as it pushes the
boundaries of what is normal in magazines. This makes this idea fresh and appealing.
Another reason I chose to manipulate my images in an obscure way was to be
purposefully unpredictable, so as to pleasantly surprise my audience leaving them
expecting more obscure features. This is the theory of entropy which refers to
purposeful unpredictable elements in media products that go against the audience’s
expectations of that particular media product.
5. Many music magazines will focus on just one genre, e.g
Complex focuses on Hip-Hop and Q on alternative rock.
However, my magazine shall feature many different
genres of music as long as they're weird and wonderful. I
chose the hybrid approach as many people today have
eclectic music tastes, especially those with a passion for
music and creativity. Therefore I think that featuring
many genres would be beneficial to those in my audience
who enjoy a range of genres. Also it’s a lot easier to find
obscure music/lyrics/artists across a wide range of
genres, that is the reason I chose to do a hybrid approach.
6. Generic conventions I have followed within my
contents page include: large page numbers on
featured articles, 50:50 text to image ratio, a small
cover photo in the top corner (Dazed) with the stylist,
photographer and model’s names. I chose to adhere
to these conventions as both Dazed and other
magazines I researched are successful professional
magazines and this sense of structure obviously
works for them. It gives a sense of structure to my
magazine which shows organisation and therefore
an audience would recognise and trust my magazine
and its contents.
7. Another way I have challenged conventions is by using a textured masthead,
this is more obscure and alternative as not many magazines do this. I used a
step by step tutorial to manage this in Photoshop. I chose my textured
holographic snakeskin image, duplicated the layer so that I had a
background layer and Layer 1 that were the same (snakeskin image). I then
added a blank layer in between the two layers and filled it with white. I then
selected layer 1, set white as my foreground colour and typed “PEEL” in
Double Feature onto this layer. I then clicked the checkmark to accept the
text, positioning the text where I though was best. I then dragged this text
layer below Layer 1, so that it was in between Layer 1 and Layer 2. Selecting
Layer 1 again, I created a clipping mask from the Layer menu. That’s how I
created my Peel masthead. I also added a thick stroke weight on my
masthead in Photoshop to make it bold and graffiti like. Link to tutorial:
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/image-
in-text/
8. The masthead coincides with the brand identity as it's definitely
obscure and youthful, being fashionable whilst still being
alternative. There is also definite continuity of house style as I have
used the same slime font (Double Feature) for both the masthead
and contents title. Both the masthead and contents title are
holographic which is also in keeping with house style. In this
instance I have adhered to generic conventions of magazines as I
felt that creating a strong sense of brand identity and house style is
one of the most aspects of magazine design. An audience can
distinguish between different magazines from their house style and
brand identity, I felt it was best to follow the professional
magazines in this aspect so that my magazine would be recognised
and successful.
9. The mode of address within my magazine is mature yet
chatty, and informal yet not patronising. As my target
audience are from 18-25, an informal dumbed down
mode of address, seen in certain pop magazines that are
aimed at a younger audience, would not be desirable. I
chose to go with the same generic convention as Dazed
where the mode of address is informative as well as
being interactive. I feel that an audience of 18-25 would
appreciate this much more as they wouldn’t want to feel
unattached from the writer or the artist, but would still
like to be informed on things they deem important.
Examples of chatty/informal language:
Examples of informative language
All these examples use direct mode of address to attract the audience.
These examples tell the audience what’s coming up in the magazine and are therefore informative.
10. The reason behind choosing Double Feature font for my masthead was that it is
a dripping slime/horror style font and connotes the freakish obscure side of life
that I want to highlight in my magazine. It also compliments the title of my
magazine “PEEL” as this word could refer to many things; the peeling of the
magazine pages or perhaps connoting something more sinister. The font Digitek
was chosen to represent the futuristic sound of the artist featured on the cover.
Courier was used for most of the bulk of text as it’s easy to understand. The font
04b was used on the DPS as it connotes a boyish alternative gamer style which
is definitely the style of Harrison, my model, therefore it compliments him well.
It’s also striking and so would guide the audiences attention to the DPS. Using a
variety of fonts within a magazine is a generic convention of music magazines
so I decided to adhere to generic conventions in this case. Music magazines
often do this to create a distinctive hose style, which was why adhered o the
conventions, as well as keeping the audience interested with featuring a variety
of fonts.
