1. Media Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop, and challenge the
codes and conventions of real media products?
2. Firstly let's start with the front cover. I feel as if my front cover does follow a lot of codes and
conventions of magazines. The most vital feature of the front cover is the masthead which all
magazines have, let alone just music magazines.
The main front cover model image is also present, which a lot of magazines have, but there may
be an anomaly out there somewhere. The image is a medium shot which is the type of shot
which is usually used for the main front cover image for the majority of magazines out there, but
my research has shown that there can be multiple main image models, but the more there are,
the less of them is shown. There is also a cover line related to the main front cover model which
is a convention in every magazine.
Sometimes, depending on the type of magazine (music, gossip, fashion etc), there may be a
splash or a picture boost. Originally I was thinking that I may be using one of these as I have
included them in my front cover layout sketch. However, I have used a type of substitute to make
up for the lack of picture boost in the final piece. As you can see in the bottom right corner, I
have a smaller, full body shot of another model. This does actually follow some codes and
conventions as there are a few music magazines that feature smaller sized models on the some
corner or side of the cover, but usually acting as a picture boost or perhaps placed to act as filler,
but they're usually transparent (removed background) like the one on my front cover, so that the main background isn't
interrupted and can keep the overall cover visually pleasing.
I have also followed more codes and conventions such as including a skyline which exaggerates the magazine's reputation but
skylines are not featured in every magazine. I also have more minor but still necessary features such as the magazine's price and
the magazine's barcode, although usually the barcode is in the bottom right corner, but mine is in the bottom left.
Overall, I think that my front cover hasn't really tried to challenge any codes and conventions of front covers and I feel that this is
ironic since the ideologies about rock music is focused heavily on standing out in society, and I do not think that this magazines
stands out overall compared to other magazines, but I am definitely pleased with the end result.
3. In comparison to these two magazine front covers, my magazine
stands out very much because it is so different from these two. One
of the things I immediately noticed is that the size of the cover lines
and articles are much smaller on these magazines than they are on
my front cover. I think I was too focused on trying to fill up as much
space as possible on my front cover but even then, if we apply the
rule of thirds, the bottom of my front cover still looks quite empty.
My colours are also quite bland compared to these two magazines
and really undermines the rock-element of my magazine, but I feel
that I still managed to use colour sufficiently enough for my front
cover to make it work, although there is a lot less red than there is
on these two examples but I still used the colour red for my text just
like the Mixmag magazine, and it also helped that red just so
happened to be the only colour that stood out from the background
colour of my front cover. Mixmag also does the same thing with
having a darkly coloured model to blend in with the background. If I
had the editing skills, I would have liked to the same thing and it
could have actually made it easier to work with colours in the end.
Another difference between the my front cover and these
two examples is that the front cover model/artist's name is
written in the middle of the cover. In the case of Kerrang, this was acceptable due to the unique front cover image and the shape
of the image, which has significantly affected the rest of the cover's layout. Mixmag was able to get away with it due to the free
CD they have attached to the front cover, which already takes up a large amount of the page and allows the designer to get away
with having minimal contents in that corner.
4. This edition of Mixmag would be a much better magazine
to make a comparison with as the layouts are quite
similar, but there are noticeable differences.
I've already mentioned about the rule of thirds and how I
failed to take it into account which has left my front cover
looking a bit empty, but then I would also have to defend
myself at how the colours of my front cover are a lot
more different and a lot harder to work with, which
meant that it would be much harder to maximize the
amount of space to fill up.
One slight detail that my front cover manages to replicate
with this edition of Mixmag is that they both use the
same font throughout the entire cover. At first, I was
slightly worried as other magazines used different fonts
on their front covers, but Mixmag has put me to rest.
Furthermore, it was still difficult to find any other nice
fonts to work with other than 'Impact'.
Once again, the barcode of the actual real magazine is in the bottom right corner, but has an object acting as filler space in the
left corner. This is also true for the previous two front covers looked at, where they had filled up the left corner with images or
an actual physical object (CD). I inverted that convention in my front cover, where instead I had filled up the bottom right corner
instead and had placed the barcode in the bottom left.
One other convention that can be seen shared with these two magazines is the skyline being placed right at the top of the cover.
Most magazines such as this edition of Mixmag have a single line skyline, but mine extended to two lines. I could have made the
font smaller to fit it all into one line but there would still be a bigger gap between the skyline and masthead.
5. Next to evaluate is the contents page. I am feeling average about my contents page but I feel
that it is underwhelming. Most contents pages don't usually feature a large number of
different colours, which is why I tried to limit my contents page to only four colours. This
example supports my point as it features only uses the
colours black, white, red, and yellow. Other colours are
from images so I'm not going to count them, but this
leads to my next point in that I think I didn't have
enough imagery in my contents page. Originally I was
going to include at least three images but since the
image I decided to go with was so large, it significantly
changed my initial layout.
Looking at Kerrang's content page, they were able to fit large lists into
their contents page but this could mostly due to the miniscule font. I
would have liked to do the same thing but my font was already too
small. Perhaps if I had wrote less text explanation for each feature, I
could have fit more in the end, but my layout is significantly different
from Kerrang's anyway.
I did manage to create some similarities between the two contents
pages though. The biggest and most noticeable similarity is the
semicircle in the top right corners of the pages.
I really liked the semicircle so I decided to create one myself and I feel that it makes my contents page
slightly visually pleasing. The second similarity which is also a convention as it has been used in other
contents pages as well, is the colour rectangular backgrounds for the section titles (e.g. "features",
"albums", "gig guide" etc). Since my paper was black (still also a convention used in some magazines), I
had to invert the colours.
The placement of the date and edition is different from Kerrang's, but I do not feel that it's challenging
the convention as multiple magazines have done a similar thing regarding the placement of their date.
6. I would like to say that my contents page is closer to this
one. The layout is somewhat similar in a way with the
organised column of contents, but mine splits off onto the
other half of the page.
These two contents pages also only have one image on
them but the difference between them is the size of the
image. The image of Adam Lambert takes up the majority of
the page, whereas my image only takes up a portion of the
page. If I had gone for a different idea, I might have been
able to recreate the image or do a full body shot of my
model, but I'm still feeling alright with my contents page.
Even if I could do the full shot, my semicircle would still be
in the way.
On the right is a double page spread contents page. The reason I
included it is because of the black background/white text combo
being used to support my choices in colour scheme. This double
page spread also uses even larger pictures than mine.
Overall, I think my contents page has followed the codes and
conventions but obviously s
7. Finally we're onto the double page spread. Overall I quite like my
double page spread (DPS), but there is one major thing that I'm
not happy about. The far left side of the DPS bothers me. I tried
to follow the code and convention of mentioning the band's
name on an article about them, in this case 'Son & Heir' for my
made up band for the magazine. However, with my limited
editing techniques and short amount of time, I panicked and
tried to make the band name as visible as possible (sometimes
less is better, especially in this case I believe) mostly to try and
make it act as filler.
Apart from that, I'm actually quite pleased with this. I followed
the code and convention of using drop caps at the start of the
text. I used columns for the text on the left page and bunched it
all into one big paragraph on the right page, which I doubt is a
code and convention. Usually, most DPSpreads would use either
columns or just bunch it all up everywhere, rather than using both.
The main image is in black and white and bleeds goes extends onto both pages rather than just one. It's not a written rule that
DPSpreads have to use images that extend onto both sides of the spread, but I wanted mine to do that. The image is also in black
and white which I wouldn't say is a code and convention, but it is a technique I have seen in multiple magazines. However, the
magazines I have seen this in are quite retro-based magazines which would explain their choice in colour. Even despite this, I do
not feel that this is challenging any code and convention, but it would actually be more appropriate given the genre of music the
magazine "specialises" in, which is rock. This means that colours such as black and grey go well here, and I've used those colours
to an immediately noticeable extent.
8. These two DPS were my inspiration for my own DPS. I feel that I have somewhat managed to imitate their layouts but I have
made some unnecessary changes and have not made some necessary changes. For example, the far left side bar on my double
page spread is unnecessary, but I kept it to act as filler. I know if I removed it, I would just have a large empty gap that I would not
be able to fill up with content.
On the far right of the second picture is a large section which is what I tried to replicate in my DPS. Although, the colour in the
real magazines is black and has a pattern on it, whilst mine is just plain grey with differently coloured text. 7
The Kerrang magazine on the left actually has a picture collage on their main image, and I would have liked to do something like
that but I didn't have enough models or enough time for it.
Overall, I feel that my magazine has tried to stick to codes and conventions of music magazines, but in the end might have
challenged them to an extent. The biggest thing that sticks out for me the most in my magazines is the difference in item
placement (placement of images, text etc).
