1. 
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media used cover lines on my front page
I have products?
because they pull the reader’s interest
in, making them more likely to buy the
magazine. Similarly to my style model I
packed a list of bands on to the left hand
side, as increasing the number of bands
on it makes it more likely a potential
buyer will see a band they like and want
to read about.
This is the most dominant picture on
the page which uses the conventions
of a real music magazine because it
showcases the musician who will
feature inside it, making it persuading
to fans of the band to buy and read
the magazine.
I have made the headline the most eye
catching writing on the page by using
contrasting colours to make it pop out
more. As well as this, I put it on a bright
red background and made it central so
that your eyes are drawn to it most as
this is the main feature in the magazine
and should therefore have the most
attention. This is a common convention
among music magazines.
I have used a colour scheme that is
typical for music magazines, especially
in the rock genre to use. This consists of
red, yellow, blue, black and white. As
well as this, I have used the yellow for
pull features such as “plus” and the
banner along the top. This technique is
often used in music magazines because
yellow is an attention grabbing colour.

2. The mast head is used to interest the
audience, as well as for recognition
purposes. Effective headlines use a
suitable font which is why I chose the
bold, messy looking writing because it
easily fit in with the rock genre. As well
as this the masthead is like the
magazine’s logo, and using it at the top
of the page where it’s noticeable makes it
more identifiable to it’s audience.
Freebies are used as an extra incentive
to buy the magazine. For example, if
someone is unsure whether or not to
buy it, offering them free content can be
used as a persuasive device and
increase sales.

3. In my contents page I used a tile effect
for the photos so that I could display a
range of bands to be in the magazine.
This is quite rare in music magazines
however this was in my opinion one
of the most effective contents pages I
found during research of my style
model so I decided to use this. I think
that by putting more than just one
main picture on the contents page it
illustrates what will be in the
magazine better and shows the reader
what will be inside without them
having to read all the writing on the
page, which makes it more effective
and clear.
I put headers throughout the contents
page so that it increases the
organisation of it. As well as this it
allows the reader to navigate the page
with ease which is why it’s quite a
commonly used convention in music
magazines.
I put a picture of the editor on the
contents page along with a
comment from them. I think this
is a useful feature because it gives
the reader a small insight as to
what went on during the
production of a magazine and the
people behind it.

4. I used a colour scheme of black, red and
white as it is a simplified version of the
colour scheme on the front page.
Having three colours allowed me to
almost colour code the page, for
example the titles/headers are in
red, the writing is in black and
borders/backgrounds are in white. This
adds to the organisation of the page
which is crucial on a contents page, as
they have to clearly display what the
contents are and where they are
without any confusion. I think using a
pattern or scheme with the colours adds
to the effectiveness of the page greatly.
As in my style model, I bolded the
important parts of the contents such as
the name of the bands that feature in
it. This makes the band name stand
out more than the rest of the writing
which is an important feature to have.
As well as this it means that less room
is taken up compared to having the
band name on a separate line and the
description below it, which allowed
me to add more content to the page. A
lot of music magazines don’t conform
to this style however I think it was
effective and useful in terms of the
purpose of the page.

5. The typography is one of the most important features on
the page. The title has to be big and bold to grab the
reader’s attention which was why I used the same font
as my magazine’s masthead, as it is not only noticeable
but adds a sense of continuity throughout the magazine.
Next, I changed the colour, size and thickness of the
main body text to indicate different sections of the
writing. For example, I made the introduction bigger
and red to show that it isn’t part of the main interview
and differentiate from the rest of the text. I didn’t the
same with the ending of the article too. I put the
names/initial of the and members in a bolder font to
separate it from the rest of the text, which makes it
clearer to the reader it isn’t part of or a continued
response. Finally I made the pull quote much larger than
the rest of the text and red so that it contrasts with the
rest of the writing a lot more.
I used a pull quote which is conventionally used
to gain the reader’s interest in the article. I made
it larger than the rest of the text and put it on a
red background. By doing this I’ve made it much
more noticeable and therefore it works better in
terms of its purpose.

6. For the colour scheme I used black, red and white which are
also used throughout the rest of the publication. I chose
these colours because they’re simplistic, and overloading it
with too many colours would not only make it look
unsophisticated but as shown in my style models, it
wouldn’t fit with the conventions of the genre. As red is the
brightest colour out of these three I used it for the pull
quotes since these are meant to attract attention to the
article. I put the writing in black because it makes it look
professional and is also easy to read.
The photo I used is fairly basic, which I thought
worked well because while it still grabs your
attention due to its size, it doesn’t distract the
reader from the main article. I found that most
rock music magazines use this approach when
choosing a photo for the double page spread.
Although my style model didn’t, I used a direct
mode of address for my photo because I think
this makes it more engaging and personalised
for the reader and I think establishing a
relationship between the reader and magazine
is important because it makes them more likely
to buy the magazine more than once.

7. During my research I found that magazines
tend to have a repeated house style going
throughout the publication. This mainly
features colours and fonts, so I decided to
do the same thing on my magazine.
I used black, white and red as my three main colours for
my magazine. I chose these because they’re all quite
contrasting and are also commonly used by music
magazines in the rock genre. Other colours I used were
blue and yellow. The yellow was used for flashes on the
front cover as it’s attention grabbing making them more
persuasive/noticeable. I used the blue as a secondary
decorative colour on the front page. This made it more
interesting as using black instead would have made it
look too plain, and red and white were already being
used in high amounts so continuing to use them would
reduce the effectiveness of the front page.
I used a few variations of the same font throughout
my magazine. All the writing other than the
masthead and headlines are done in the front
“DejaVu Sans”, however I changed the spacing,
thickness and vertical scale of the writing depending
on how noticeable it had to be, making it more
suited to its purpose. The masthead is in the font
“All Ages” from fontspace.com. I thought this font
worked well because it’s bold but has a messy kind
of look that is often seen in the rock genre. I used
this font again for the title in my double page spread
because it suited the needs whilst also bringing a
sense of familiarity to the reader since they will
recognise the writing.