eval

1. Evaluation of my music magazine
PRESTIGE
Amber Davies

3. Q1. In what way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

4. I researched R&B magazine’s to get a feel for the
conventions I needed to include.
I researched other covers and I found VIBE
magazine covers as well as JALOUSE’s Rhianna
cover which inspired me.
Conventions for a music magazine cover consisted of
a Masthead, Cover-lines, a date, an issue number, a
price, a sub-heading, headline, barcode, selling line
and the cover image which is usually one big
photograph. I chose the photo where my model had a
serious straight face and pose with one had in the
pocket to show attitude like it shows on the examples
of other R&B covers.
And for the contents I found three of VIBE’s for
examples. The conventions for a contents page
included page listings, the title ‘contents’, category
titles such as ‘features’, a page number, another big
photograph, date, issue number, photo, and graphics.

5. Cover conventions Masthead
Sparkly text and bold font with a
crown on the ‘i’ because R&B
artists often think they are royal.
Also, the name of my magazine
‘Prestige’ is a very suitable word
and meaning in this genre
which I’m very happy with.
Date
The date sits under the
masthead which is quite
conventional, however I have
changed the date to a
modernized R&B style by
putting ‘2K16’.
Selling line
My selling line relates to the
genre and follows conventions
by being above the masthead at
the top of the page.
Cover-lines
My cover-lines are right
aligned with larger font
as the names of important
stories in my magazine with
a little insight underneath.
Price
The price isn’t usually so visual
and placed where I have put it
however I wanted it to look like a
good deal to make customers
want to read it.
Cover photo
The cover photo follows
conventions by being straight in
the middle of the page with a mid
shot photo in focus and with eye
contact from the artist to make
the audience feel closer to the
model and like they are going to
find out personal details due to
feeling comfortable. Also, the
artist is dressed to suit the genre
which is appropriate and
following conventions.
Headline,
Sub-heading
The headline follows
conventions being center
aligned and at the bottom of the
page with the main artist/story
and an eye catching sub
heading on.
At the very bottom of the page is
featured spoilers sometimes
conventional, its not always there
but I think it’s a good asset as it lets
the audience know what things there
is inside of what they want to read
about. Also, the barcode I have is
essential in order to purchase but I
have gone against conventions by it
being vertical.

6. Cover-lines
I used the most suitable popular artists I could think of for
my cover-line stories. Therefore, I used Nikki Minaj’s
NOTORIOUS K.I.N.G line from this VIBE magazine.
Also, I used Drake and Rihanna, THE REAL STORY, as I for
one know that everyone is always wondering what is
happening between them so I thought that would be a real
interesting eye-catching intriguing story line.
Where I got the idea of a
crown from.
I got the idea from VIBE’s magazine on
Nicki Minaj introducing the image of
royalty mainly by the crown accessory. I
turned the crown into my icon which I put
on top of the ‘I’ in PRESTIGE, the name
of my magazine. I felt it was important to
include this graphic and sense of royalty
to project the culture of my genre R&B.

7. Cover forms
Colours- The whole colour scheme on my front cover synergises
throughout my magazine. The colours consist of red, burgundy, gold,
black and white (royal conventional R&B colours).
Images-I took a number of photographs of my model with a variety of
lighting and poses. Then I went onto the software Photoshop and edited
them to put onto my cover conventionally in the center of the page in-front
of the title covering part of it up. I used three of the other photos from the
shoot for my contents and article.
Text-I used a range of sizes for my text on my cover with the larger and
bolder parts being the ones I want to stand out the most, for example the
title ‘Prestige’. The larger text is the main events and intentionally the
most eye-catching focus and cover-lines with the smaller insight
underneath going into that little bit more detail.
Font- My font is suitable for R&B throughout my magazine and on the
cover with the most thought going into the title which I feel is bold,
colourful, simple but interesting due to the sparkling background in it and
graphic of a crown on top of the ‘I’.

8. Relating mine to a real magazine cover
This is a real magazine cover which has a big masthead of one single word
summarizing the genre like mine does with the word PRESTIGE.
A selling line above the masthead consisting of other R&B artists but mine has
different artists.
Furthermore, a photograph of the artist in the center of the page from the bottom,
covering part of the masthead by putting the artist in-front looking straight ahead
with eye contact and a serious look for the audience with jewelry. Finally, a suitable
colour scheme similar to mine with red and black except from mine has other royal
colours such as burgundy, gold and yellow as well.
I took the crown idea from this cover of Nicki Minaj which gave me the idea to link
R&B with royalty so I downloaded it and photoshopped it onto the top of the ‘I’ in my
magazine’s name as a graphic.
I like the black and white plain colour scheme with one
other colour being orange. I also like the layout and
simplicity.
From Jalouse’s magazine on Rihanna, I was mainly influenced by this one for
the structure, pose with one arm across the chest and snapback hat and black
and red colour scheme which I developed with a few more colours.

9. Page numbers
are how you
navigate so it’s
essential to
have them.
My contents

10. Contents forms
Colours- I have picked the colour scheme of a white background,
black bold title and black text in general apart from the gold page
numbers and category names and the bright red article names and
artists to attract the audiences eyes to the most important engaging
things. Furthermore, to keep the synergy I added the last colour of
burgundy dots also to help separate the page listings. Also, these royal
colours produce the respected vibe which R&B fans are used to.
Images- I followed contents conventions and have a large photograph
of the main artist of this issue on the left hand side to produce more
engagement as she is all over the magazine with her conventional R&B
clothes/ accessories on to promote the genre. I have good lighting and
a clear and detailed image. It’s a mid shot which is conventional.
Text-The text I used relates mostly to the front cover’s cover-lines and
because people who generally read this sort of magazine tend to like
linking images to text and finding out as much information out about the
story as they can and find shortened to simplify it, making it easy and
clear to read.

11. Real R&B Contents pages
These examples of contents pages are where I got some of my ideas from.
Also, like all three examples here, my contents page has the categories such as ‘features’ in it
with underlying page numbers to navigate with next to the article headlines or page titles of
artists which follows conventions.
My font size, colours and type of font styles are similar to the 50 CENT magazine in particular,
as my one which shows my forms are conventional.
All of our contents pages have the date, magazine name and issue numbers and colour
schemes on the contents page as well which shows I follow conventions.
These are all excellent magazine covers and mine is similar to them as they were my biggest
influences and I know that VIBE is successful.

12. Article

13. Article conventions
I aimed for my article layout to be very structured and accurate but also have a interesting simple twist to it. I related
my article / got my inspiration for it from a magazine article on Rihanna, which had a question and answer article
with quotes in. My magazine article follows the conventions of a title, a sub-heading, images, questions, quotes, a
page number and the same colour scheme and artist representing my magazine.
Questions and answers
Containing quotes, question numbers, questions.
Title
My title goes across the top with a sub-heading underneath all associated to my main story following
conventions.
Images
Photographs I took myself in the photo-shoot of my model artist displayed on both sides of the double page
from different angles which isn’t very conventional but is unique and works well for my magazine.
Page number, magazine name and issue number
All conventional, small in gold at the bottom left of the page.

14. Article forms
My article forms are similar to the ones in my cover and contents page. By doing this the colour scheme and forms I
have chosen to use throughout can appeal and give the same eye catching fonts to the correct audience to appeal to
them.
Text
The main thing for this page is the text as its an article which is more writing to read about the story or information
rather than being so visual therefore, I chose a really clear easy to read font on a white background. The text size for
the page varies with the head-title being the largest as it’s the first thing I want to be noticed on the page which is
conventional. And the question numbers being relatively bigger than the question then the answers as the smallest. The
text includes the suitable language and type of questions and answers for the R&B genre. Finally, its set out in columns
starting from the left hand page left aligned traditionally.
Images
Usually one main image is conventional for a music magazine article however I think where I used two it worked well.
The images are placed on the far left and the far right with the text positioned around the photos to be interesting. I
also have a few more photos of my artist as I thought it was nice insight and variety and it fills more space to keep it
busy.

15. Relating mine to a real article
I got my inspiration for my article from this article on Nikki Minaj who is a R&B/ Hip-hop/ Rap very well known
artist. This inspired me to structure my article as a question and answer structure as I realised it was the easiest
to get all the information I wanted my readers to find out about my newly found artist. I used the same big
numbers of each question in a different colour to my question and smaller answers as well. Mine has two images
rather than one but its of the same artist and easy for the eyes to see. Both our titles are the biggest text on the
page as it’s the most eye catching thing you should first see on the page and I got the idea to use the suitable
language from this article so I have the same conventions all over apart from the image.

16. Challenging conventions
The factors which make up my cover, contents and article pages are made to mostly follow conventions of other R&B
styled music magazines. This includes following the prestige, respectful, full of attitude, fun and happy royally treated
vibe you tend to find in this genre. However, some aspects of my magazine have challenged conventions of a music
magazine.
For example:
• The portrait barcode on the cover isn’t very conventional but looked better on my magazine.
• The price isn’t usually so big and standing out but the audience for this genre are looking for bargains, deals and
offers and opportunities to read a magazine interesting to them and their culture.
• There is not usually a background pattern like mine filling the Masthead but mine does because I think it makes it
stand out even more particularly as an R&B genre magazine.
• My contents only has one column when usually there is two or three however I think it works because some R&B
magazines have only one column.
• My article has multiple photographs on whereas usually its one only big one however as its about getting to know
my artist it fits well in this case.

17. Existing magazine conventions
I based my magazine on a variation of already existing R&B magazines. The main one I used was VIBE and I did this
because it used the conventions for the genre I needed for my magazine so I knew I would attract the correct same
audience if my magazine was similar following the same conventions.
Vibe feature a range of artists throughout their magazines and follow a colour scheme suitable to make the genre
interesting, fun and colourful to a point with vibrant golden colours.
Here are some examples of their magazines I based mine on: