1. Media – Music Magazine Evaluation: Question 1 – In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? By Daniel O’Riordan.

6. In terms of social groups, I have decided to appeal mainly to the ‘Indie/Hipster’ groups, most of which are young people aged 14-21. They are the social group that are most likely to listen to the kind of music included within the magazine. I have done this by first including articles concerning bands that are popular in teen-culture today, such as the Arctic Monkeys, and Crystal Castles. I Have also included gig/event information, in order to further appeal to young people who are aiming to go to concerts/festivals. I have also included an image of smoking, which, although unhealthy, is still a popular convention of Indie culture. The glasses are also seen as a symbol of the social group, as it is a common stereotype throughout social media, e.g.. Facebook.

12. Firstly, in social media today, the ‘Indie Culture’ is mainly associated with the triangle, so I decided I’d use this shape in my masthead in order to immediately establish the target audience of my magazine. I have also included interviews with well known bands associated with the ‘Indie’ genre of music. Crystal Castles being a prime example. I have also included other aspects of ‘Indie Culture’ such as fashion and festivals. I have done this in order to appeal to people who may be less interested in music but are still gripped by the culture. I have also included a cigarette in the image, as although unhealthy, is still a large stereotype for Indie music listeners. As a final touch of my main image, I have used the infamous ‘thick-rimmed’ glasses look on my model. This is a huge stereotype of the indie genre, one which has been widely publicised by the internet. I decided to use this to widen the idea that my magazine is promoting the Indie Genre.

14. In terms of user-friendliness, both programmes, Photoshop and InDesign were incredibly easy to pick up and use efficiently, even though their initial appearance may have appeared complicated. Both had the necessary tools needed in order for me to complete my cover, contents and double page spread. I used a variety of tools for all of my pages, and it is the process in which I used these tools that will now be shown : Firstly, I started with a simple, black background. I then added my main image, (I’d edited it on a different programme prior to the creation process.) to the document, leaving space for the masthead. Unfortunately, one downside of Photoshop is the fact that there is no triangle tool. To get around this, I found that in the font ‘Wingdings 3’ a ‘p’ turns out to be a triangle.

15. For my contents, I decided to create a ‘block’ look, which is familiar in magazines such as NME. I did this in InDesign, by using boxes, two text boxes for page numbers and descriptions, as well as a thick, black drawn line in order to divide the numbers off. I created a subscription box for my contents page by first using a plain, white box, then adding text and lines to divide it up. I then added a small picture of my front cover, a feature common in all subscription boxes. I have also used the dividers method for my ‘Artist Of The Week’ section of my contents, which is shown in the image above.

16. I decided that in my double page spread I would add an ‘AVID Exclusive’ box in order to make the spread look more professional. I did this by first creating a simple box, and then adding a triangle and text, rotating them with the ‘rotate’ tool. For page numbers, I have followed through with my ‘triangle’ theme by using it in a page number. I simply did a white-on-black triangle text format for this, and placed it at the bottom right corner of the page. I have also use the wingdings technique in order to create the triangles.