1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP AND
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL
PRODUCTS?
By Shivani Panchal
2. ■ My media product which is a (Indie) music magazine uses the codes and the conventions because in my
indie magazine I used the same house style throughout the magazine. This means that I kept the same
font, colours that I have used on the front cover on the contents page and the double page spread
consistently.
3. ■ Additionally, I didn’t break any codes and convention that make up the magazine, if I had it will look like a
mess, confusing the reader as to the content of the magazine whether it appeals to them or not. In order to
make my magazine more professional I stuck to the same codes and conventions that are on a normal
music magazine. For example, on the front cover there is always a main image of the feature artist that will
appear on the double page spread.
Examples of codes and conventions in a music magazine:
MASTHEAD BARCODE STRAPLINES
4. My magazine
The main image will
also have direct
address, looking
straight at the
audience.
Additionally, I have also
challenged the codes and
conventions of a music
magazine. For example, I
have placed the barcode
in a different position,
which is normally placed
on the bottom left of the
page.
However, in my
magazine have placed
the barcode on the top
left of the page,
underneath the
masthead. If I had placed
the barcode right in the
middle of the page it
would have been
inappropriate. This is
mainly because the main
image will be on the
middle of the page thus
covering it.
5. • I have kept the same house style of the magazine, which is called Nostalgia, throughout the magazine. The
colours are pink, black, white and blue. I have made MISS KAVIA a different font from my straplines heads
to show the importance of the feature artist. Additionally, this will draw attention of the reader to read the
magazine. On various places around the main image I have included straplines and headlines to entice the
reader like ‘Aquilo After the hack we have the secrets on what happened on the day’ or ‘Real reason why
Mumford sons went on a ‘3 months’ Sabbatical last year’ and also I have included drop capitals to make
the first word of each word stand out more than the rest.
6. • One of the main magazine that helped me to influence this idea is called ‘CLASH’ and this helped
me to create the
layout of the
magazine. For
example, I
copied the main
layout of the
magazine such
as where the
masthead,
barcode and
also the feature
artist name will
be. However, to
make it my own
work I used a
different font for
the masthead
and the feature
artist.
7. • On my contents page in the nostalgia magazine I also used another magazine’s contents page (Q
magazine) to help
me develop my
ideas for
designing the
contents page. By
doing this I was
able to layout the
page to make the
contexts page
clearer.
Lastly on my
double page
spread I did not
require much
inspiration from
other magazines
for the layout.
This was quite
simply rearranging
the image and text
until it fit together
including the pull
quotes around the
page.
