IvanaCicic's media product uses conventions from real existing magazines like NME to attract its target audience of 16-25 year olds interested in indie/rock music. The product challenges some conventions by using a unique masthead, "Crowd", that represents fans at live shows. While using stereotypical photos of young artists smoking and conventions like consistent fonts, the product also develops its own conventions like including top news stories and excluding a band index.

1. IvanaCicic Media Evaluation

3. My magazine challenges the conventions of real existing media products, as the name of the title actually represents and stands for something- a crowd at a live music show; as Indie/Rock music focuses more on live shows to feel the music. And the angled ‘D’ emphasizes the individuality of Indie/Rock music; depicting it stands out from the crowd. Another interpretation is that it symbolizes a person ‘moshing’ at a gig.

4. The colour scheme is another convention I used from looking at other examples of magazines. The colour scheme is usually kept consistent, using three colours. I decided to use black, red and blue. I related the red and blue to the Union Jack flag and the ethnicity of the artist; British. So I thought this was a bit of a twist and allowed me to develop uniqueness to some extent.

5. The photos on the side challenge real products and contrasts the NME magazine on the next page as that magazine cover is a special edition. It looks smooth and sleek with no images apart from the main artist with the headline. I thought I would add two more simple photos for an insight of what will be featured inside and to create a bit of edginess and exclusiveness. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

7. Another form of a real media product I used was the gradient background from the NME magazine. I thought this convention was very clever as it looks good and makes the text simpler to read.

8. Most of the cover uses existing conventions in Indie/Rock magazines as I intended to attract the right audience. Usually a magazine’s font is consistent throughout the cover and magazine for a sophisticated approach and so I chose to do the same. I used two fonts; Impact to highlight the main headline and Arial for a little more information. NME Magazine I used for Ideas on how to attract the right readers

10. The photo is aligned almost in the centre of the page with the latest news underneath. Indie/Rock magazines such as Kerrang usually include several photos, with page numbers and what is featured. I wanted to challenge and develop a different convention and include top news; like a fashion magazine would feature.

11. My media product again uses the convention of the bigger font for headings such as ‘news, features’ and then smaller font for the actual features. This gives it a professional look and again makes it very easily accessible, being positioned on the right hand side.

13. I added a quote to highlight an important factor, as this is used in every magazine to draw the readers into finding out more and reading the entire article.

15. I used this photo as it appears Rock ‘N’ Roll with the fur , cigarette and red lipstick. Also laid back pose. I used this photo as the model is posing with a microphone. The photo is bold and pretty much represents the importance of music as there is not much there. Here I have shown the original photos I had taken and the photos after manipulating on Photoshop. The editing really gives the photo a professional look as I made the contrast higher and the photo brighter. This really gave it a studio professional look. I also used the healing brush to smooth out the models’ face and the spot healing brush to remove a spot. For the first cover photo I also used the magic lasso tool to cut out the model alone.

17. I have priced it cheaply and it comes out every monthbecause my target audience is young and in education (ABC1), so they would not have a high income.

18. The dominant representation of Indie/Rock is gig obsessed, alcohol, vintage clothes and passion for instruments.

19. My target audience would be 16-25 year olds- teens and young adults, as they are easily attracted by bold colours, large rebellious photos, bold text and headlines.

20. My target audience would constantly have their iPod's in , attend gigs regularly, enjoy fashion/latest trend pages and going to vintage shops.

21. I think my media product also represents young people as the model/artist on the cover is young and so this social group would find the articles and magazine more appealing if it is based on younger artists.

22. The model on the cover wears fur and smokes a cigarette. This is evidently what teenagers do and the fur just shows that Indie/Rock readers are stylish and clothes obsessed opposing to R&B music being obsessed with body image. I chose to show some more skin though as I wanted to challenge the media product and depict more uniqueness and attract both genders. As girls care about their bodies, and boys love to see a beautiful woman showing some skin.

23. I chose the colour scheme to compliment the photo and add some less obvious information about the artist. She is British and so I chose to use red and blue- Union Jack colours. Indie/Rock is also quite fashionable with the Union Jack printed on clothes. This represents social groups in the UK who again are clothes obsessed.

26. I attracted my readers through the masthead as it was catchy yet had a unique meaning behind it. ‘Crowd’ in fact symbolizes a crowd at a live music show as Indie/Rock is more concentrated on experiencing the live music rather than listening to music on your iPod. The angled ‘D’ also embodied that Indie/Rock is different from other music genres, and so this different convention could attract a whole new audience.

27. The use of simple headlines attracted a younger audience as they read a magazine for relaxation and pleasure, not a complex vocabulary intended for the audience to acknowledge more information or news to what is going on in the world right now.

28. I decided to include a way that can attract many readers. ‘Free posters’ this is almost bribing the readers to purchase a copy in return for posters. Picture a bedroom with posters surrounding it; who does the room belong to? A teenager of course.

29. I also featured a banner at the bottom containing new artists. This is a simple yet effective way of reaching out to my target audience. Teenagers and young people enjoy trying and experiencing new things , especially hearing the latest music- being up to date and cool.

30. Headlines such as ‘Kings of Leon exclusive single’ is bound to attract readers as it is exclusive and again these readers are music obsessed fans who want to find out as much as possible.

32. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I feel like I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task, I only used Publisher for this task and as I was progressing my full product I realised all the technologies and new things I had learnt whilst creating the product made a dramatic difference to the appearance and quality. In the school newsletter, the vocabulary had to be more formal as students, teachers and parents/carers would have been reading it. However as I knew who my target audience were for my Indie/Rock magazine- teenagers and young adults I chose to use a less formal tone as this would appeal to the target audience. I developed this knowledge throughout the whole process and made a lot of progress. I have learnt how to use Photoshop to improve my work and set it to a excellent standard and I am very happy with my full product. I have definitely learnt how to appeal a specific product to a precise audience. I now know what forms and conventions to use in order to attract the correct audience. In the school newsletter, the articles had to consist of school issues and news to appeal to a wider range of audience. However the Indie/Rock magazine has an intended audience with a specific age range.