This document discusses a magazine created by Chloe King and how it compares to conventions of real magazines like Q, NME, and Kerrang!. The magazine aims to appeal to 16-25 year olds with photos of youthful artists. While adopting a modern style like NME, the masthead is designed similarly to Kerrang! but with a decayed font effect. Some conventions are challenged, like important plugs being distributed across the page rather than the left third. Overall, the magazine draws from real examples but also experiments with conventions.

1. 1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of a real media product?
CHLOE KING
12CK

2. Examples

3. My magazine

4. I have adopted a modern and sophisticated
style for my magazine, but still cool and
appealing to young people. This is very similar
to Q and NME, however more similar to NME
as Q tends to appear more mature.

5. As the target audience are 16-25 years
old, the magazine pictures youthful
artists. This is similar to all the
examples pictured above; however
their artists are a bit older than mine
(twenties to early thirties) but this is
to appeal more to the target
audience’s musical tastes rather than
giving them someone to aspire to be
like. As I am also trying to appeal to
both genders there is both a male and
female artist.

6. The masthead of my magazine is designed to be similar to Kerrang!’s, as Q
and NME have much shorter names so are able to fit in the top-left corner.
I stylised the font in a similar way, however it has a decayed effect rather
than shattered. It takes up the whole of the top section of the magazine.
Unlike Kerrang!, my magazine features a tagline in a similar, non-bold and
non-capitalised font just beneath the masthead, also in a dark blue colour
to fit the colour scheme. The masthead is partially covered by the artist’s
head, as it is conventional for most magazines, but is still identifiable and
clear as it isn’t a known magazine and needs to be read to know what it is
called.

7. Unlike the other magazines, mine has very few plugs. This is because I wanted the
important features, such as the main cover line, to stand out more. Unfortunately
this means that the plugs are very spaced out and makes the front cover look bare,
so to improve I should have thought about including a few more. A convention of
most magazines is that the plugs are situated so that they don’t overlap the artist;
however I have done so twice. ‘Competition’ overlaps as it is supposed to draw the
reader’s eye to it. It also does this by being a different colour to the rest of the plug
and being positioned near Oli’s face. ‘Robin returns’ also overlaps as it is in a box
with an image and is the next most important feature of the magazine, and only
cover’s Oli’s hand and part of the guitar which don’t necessarily need to be seen.
The image used for this is kept within a circle border, whilst NME use square, white
borders giving the visual effect similar to that of a printed photograph.

8. The banner on my magazine is situated at the bottom of the page,
much like Kerrang! and NME’s front covers. Like Kerrang!, the
banner is a dark colour from the colour scheme (red in their case,
dark blue in mine) and has white text. Their artists listed are
separated by stars, and mine by a ‘+’. My magazine defies the
convention by having the artist names of different sizes to signify
importance; however this looks messy and could have been done in
a better font.
The special content in my magazine is highlighted by being in a
circle and a different colour from the colour scheme. This differs
from Kerrang!, who use an image portraying their special feature
with the text. Mine could have been done in a better, more appealing
colour and made to stand out more, as currently it seems a bit dull
and not as professional as it could be.

9. In terms of layout, my magazine challenges
the conventions somewhat; on most
magazines, the important plugs are situated
in the left-third of the page whereas with my
magazine they are distributed across the
whole page, and the main cover line takes up
the centre of the page. However, the special
feature of the magazine is situated on the leftthird next to the artist’s head in order to catch
the reader’s attention more and increasing
buying appeal. The barcode is positioned in
the bottom-left corner, which is a typical
magazine convention as it is least noticeable
here. It is accompanied by the price, which is
in a small font so as not to affect the reader’s
decision to purchase the magazine.

10. The artist photo takes up most of the
page and is centred, much like Q and
Kerrang!. This is because the artist is
meant to be the centre of the reader’s
attention, to catch their interest. The
main cover line is across the body of
the artist so there is clear link between
the artist and the cover
line, with the name
outlined in pale blue and
n
in a larger font to
identify him easily. This
is done similarly on all
three of the examples.