Media course work

1. Magazine Write UP
By Amber Barnett

2. Q1.
How have I
used/developed/challenged the
forms and conventions of a music
magazine?
Looking at the magazine cover we created and at the
magazine cover I based mine off, I’m comparing the
conventions that make up the music magazine.

3. While it’s important to make your magazine to stand
out against the other magazines, it’s also important to
make sure you don’t challenge too may conventions (as
these are what MAKES UP a music magazine)
Not challenging too many conventions just makes the
ones you did change stand out that much more as it
isn’t what the reader is used to.

4. The cover image for my music
magazine was my friend in a similar
pose to that of the pose Taylor swift
was in on the cover of the magazine I
was taking inspiration off. (has her
hands on her hips to give off a “sassy”
impression) My model is looking
directly at the camera so that when
you look at the front cover the person
on the cover is making eye contact
with the reader.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My cover-cover image)

5. Most mast heads that are on the front of music magazines that I’ve been looking at have some sort of graphic
incorporated into the title of the magazine, For example this is the magazine that I was lightly basing mine from:
I decided to just use a simplistic font instead of using one that had some sort of design. I chose to do this, as I thought it
suited my magazine a lot better, as mast heads with graphics in them tend to have the letters much thicker, which
would look out of place on my magazine as it would draw too much attention away from the sub headings. I like that I
did this because it challenges the normal conventions for a magazine which makes mine sand out slightly against the
others.
Another norm I challenged that you don’t see on a lot of magazines is that my cover image of my model overlapped
with the Mast head, even though this also happened with the magazine I got inspiration from, you don’t see it on my
magazines and it’s a good way to make my magazine stand out.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My cover- Mast head)

6. The color scheme of the music
magazine that I based mine off stuck to
darker tones, such as dark blue, black
and grey etc, leaving a lot of white
space around it. I chose to use colors
that contrast and stand out against
each other (being on opposite sides of
the color wheel) and chose dark blue
and orange, I didn’t base the color
scheme too much off my inspiration
because I didn’t want them to look too
similar, and also because although it
looked very clean and well put
together, It was harder to make certain
messages stand out completely when
all the text was in darker shades.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My cover-color scheme)

7. My inspiration magazine cover had very dark
colors and as a consequence the key words in
the selling lines don’t really stand out very well
against the rest of the text, so in my one I used
the color orange to highlight key words in the
text, because the main color on my cover is
blue, and blue is opposite to orange on the
color wheel which means they compliment and
stand out against each other.
Also, for my selling lines I highlighted key
words that would grab my audiences attention,
for example, because my target audience is
teenage girls I included a selling line which says
“26 ways to get HIM to like you”, this would
grab my audiences attention as this sort of
selling line would appeal to teenage girls as
they are often interested in boys.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My cover- selling line)

8. For my cover lines I tried to use titles that
would grab my readers attention, I wouldn’t
say I challenged many conventions in this
respect of my magazine cover, ( I didn’t use
any swear words/ slang words etc)
I made one of the head lines “TWITTER
TAKEOVER” as a lot of teenagers are on social
media and might be interested in the article
since that’s it revolves around, so this would
appeal to my target audience.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My cover-cover lines)

9. For my contents page I used the same colour scheme as my
magazine cover to keep the same theme going throughout the
whole magazine, which brought the whole magazine together.
One convention I challenged was I used a border around my
entire contents page which isn’t what a lot of them have as it
takes up a lot of room, but since this is what they did on the
contents page I was basing mine off (which worked really well
and looks really good) I decided to do it myself, the border itself
is made up of slanted shapes and gives a very modern look which
I think looks well considering it’s a pop magazine.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My contents page)

10. For my article, I decided to change the colour scheme a little bit and
chose to make it a little bit simpler and try to make my model the
centre of the entire page, to do this I made the background simple
and white, and the text font basic and easy to read in basic black.
But to not make my article to boring and not eye catching I made
the image I used extremely dramatic (with the pose of my model
and the clothes she wore) to draw all the attention immediately to
the model.
How have I used/developed/challenged the forms and
conventions of a music magazine?
(My Article)