This document summarizes how the author's media product uses conventions from real music magazines. The author chose a font and title similar to existing magazines to grab readers' attention. Images and text are arranged on the front cover and contents page like magazines such as Loud&Quiet and Clash to emphasize artists and guide readers. Model costumes and a city background on the cover aim to attract the target audience of "New Casuals." The double page spread adopts a typical magazine format with one page for a photo and another for text in columns, interviewing a band member.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)
My magazine title ‘Re-Wired’ uses the font ‘Dolce Vita’ that I downloaded from
the website ‘www.dafont.com’. This font was good for my magazine masthead as
it is bold and stands out to grab the attention of the reader. This style of text is seen
and used in the majority of music magazines, as they want to achieve the same
eye-catching magazine. I chose the magazine title ‘Re-Wired’ as it is similar to the
music magazine title ‘Wire’, also it appeals to my target audience as Kasabian
have a song called ‘Re-Wired’.
The front cover is very simple; I have used ‘Neou’ on my front cover using the
different styles the font provides. I have used larger text, which is bolder for my
band name, to make sure the band is known before the audience read the magazine.
I have used different coloured fonts on my magazine but kept the monochrome
style by using white text and coloured background and black text on white
background to make the text revealing on a contradicting colour. I used black text
for the price and issue, to make sure the audience can see how much the magazine
will be before buying. I also used different artists featuring in the magazine, these
are important for my magazine, as it is what will grab the audience’s attention, as
they will want to see their favoured artists. I used the white text on the cover line,
as it needed to stand out on a dark background; this is also the key topic/article in
my magazine.
The white background is the most dominant colour to make the text more visible
and stand out for the customers to notice the magazine. The sizing of my text
depends on the importance, for example my masthead is the biggest text, as it will
attract the customers to buy the magazine. The cover line is the second largest text
as this will be the second text the customers will look for after noticing the
magazine title/masthead. The layout and structure of my magazine was based
around ‘Loud&Quiet’ magazine as this follows the simplistic style that I was going
for. This was the magazine and structure I was going for at the start, although I

2. gave my own perspective. I developed my own ideas after inserting a barcode and
price which the ‘Loud&Quiet’ magazine does not follow as they gave their
magazine out for free. I followed the usual convention of music magazines with
my masthead being the main focus and largest part of the magazine and placing it
on the top of the page as the main focus. I also wanted my magazine to be simple
and basic with not much on the page, similar to ‘Clash’ or ‘Fantastic Man’.
The costumes and iconography I used will attract my target audience. This is
because my target audience is ‘New Casuals’ so to fit their preferences I have my
models wearing typical ‘casual’ clothing with brands such as Fred Perry, Pretty
Green, and Ellesse. I found this from Clash magazine as they use fashion to style
their magazine to fit and suit their target audience. My two models on the cover
can be seen wearing Ellesse and Pretty Green to fit the style of my magazine. In
the image I have used in my magazine, the models have city building in the
background making the magazine seem street to attract different target audiences.
My models were styled in multiple different outfits to find the one that fit the
audience the best. To ensure my magazine kept the fashion side, I ensured that my
models were dressed appropriately for them to feature in my magazine. I am using
the conventions of real media products as my artists fit the magazine style and
genre of Indie, with the certain target audience. My models do not look out of
place and they fit the genre of my magazine in my cover, contents and double page
continuing the monotone layout throughout.

3. On my contents page, I continued the greyscale scheme with one image in colour. I
did this as the two either side of the middle picture were black and white so this
emphasised the colour of the trainers in the image. This is similar to the ideas of
Loud&Quiet as although they use black and white, they use coloured images to
add emphasis to the pictures and their detail. My contents page has a clear layout
from the top left of the page, to the bottom left. There are images down the right
side of the page leaving the text isolate along the left, this structure is similar to
Clash magazine as they have a simple contents layout which is effective as it still
includes the key details of the content of the music magazine. The contents page
has significance as this is the page that the reader will visit to find the parts of the
magazine they wish to read.
For my double page spread, I have adopted the structure of many magazines by
having a page dedicated to a photo and one with text. The text follows the typical
magazine structure of the use of columns to split the text apart, they fit across the
page enforcing image text cohesion. The image I used was of one of my models, I
chose to only use one as the article is very much interacting with one band
member, with the image being the band member spoken to. I wanted to follow this
structure of double page spread as it is very effective with the drop capital to start
off the article. The article mainly focuses on interacting with the band and
questioning them about their career. I have questioned them as an interview would
but I have adopted a story-like structure to my writing to make the audience feel
involved and can relate to it.