The magazine Aura challenges conventions of music magazine design in several ways. It uses a creative title that is not directly related to music unlike most titles. The font and thin linear masthead design is also unusual. The layout uses colorful and textured backgrounds with simplistic text, making it more artistic compared to basic monochrome designs of other magazines. Photograph framing includes uncommon shots like very long shots and tilted close-ups. While styling of musicians follows the indie genre convention, the overall artistic design presents the genre in a unique way compared to existing magazines.

1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
Kate Hurst

2. Name of the magazine
The title of ‘AURA’ is very different and compared to other music magazine names already on the market
which are less memorable and creative, such 'Sounds' and 'Melody Maker.' This is because ‘AURA’ is more
creative and unique like other titles on the market that are more memorable like 'Clash' and 'Mojo.'
However, the meaning of 'AURA' is a distinctive atmosphere or mood that is generated from a person,
thing or music so this means it is not a title purely related to music like 'Clash', 'Mojo’ and ‘Kerrange’ as
well as such 'Sounds' and 'Melody Maker. So this means I have developed this form of convention of
having a music magazine title purely related to music as an aura can be created from anything with a
sound. The font I used for my masthead of ‘AURA’ challenges the norms for music magazine titles, as
usually and commonly the font for magazine names are very basic and block like which ‘AURA’ is the
opposite as the lines for it are very thin and straight with adds an artistic element to the masthead which
fits in with my magazines art inspired design.

3. Graphology/Page layouts
The layout of my magazine is very different and unique compared to other magazines on the market, my
magazine is very art inspired in terms of the design of it such as the backgrounds and colours I have used
are very creative and innovated. For the design of ‘AURA’ I have used very textured and coloured
backgrounds with simplistic text over the top for every page of my magazine. The background images are
very creative as they are unusual textures and colours which adds an artistic design to my magazine as a
whole. This makes my magazine stand out and different as other music magazines already on the market
have very basic and monochrome designs so my magazine challenges this form of convention as my
magazine isn’t in a simple design style like other existing magazines are. This attracts the audience’s
attention as ‘AURA’ would be very colourful as well as having creative textured backgrounds so my
magazine would stand out more than existing magazines on a magazine stand.

4. Iconography used to reflect genre
My magazine uses a form of convention successfully as the styling and costumes of the artists and bands in my magazine
attract and appeal to my target audience. The target audience for ‘AURA’ are males and females in the age range 16-25 who
like reading about and listening to indie rock/pop music. Stereotypically people who listen these genera are fond of or have
adapted the ‘indie’ style of clothing to their everyday style choices. Stereotypically the males and females who are fond of this
style would wear ripped or distressed jeans, leather jackets, Doc Martens, studded embellishments, dark colours, band
merchandise and anything with creative and different patterns and textures. I know this style very well as myself and my
friends wear this style of clothing and are a part of this social and fashion style group. I dressed all my musicians for my
magazine in this style of clothing with a number of these fashion items so this appealed to my target audience as they could
relate to owning these clothing items and it also made it clear what style of music my magazine is about as the ‘indie’ style of
dress is extremely recognisable and associated to indie rock/pop music. This means I successfully used the convention of
dressing the musicians in the style of clothing that relates the most to the music genera of my magazine as the target
audience for a magazine would be more attracted to the magazine that displays their style of clothing as well as their style of
music. The styling of my musicians also make it clear what music genre the magazine is without the audience knowing what
it is about straight away.

5. Camerawork and framing of images
I challenged real magazine conventions as commonly on real magazines in the music market, the framing
of the images is either median close-up or a median shot, I challenged this as I took a greater variety of
shot types and angles which includes, median shot, medium close up, long shot, very long shot, big close-
up with a tilted angle, two-shot and a median side-angle long shot. This was successful as the framing
looked very stylised and artistic compared to other magazines on the market so this makes my magazine
stand out. It also adds to the artistic design of ‘AURA.’

6. Font and style of text within the magazine
I used the convention of having text in block like styled paragraphs effectively for my contents page and
my double page spread as it makes the text easier on the eye and easier to read as it looks neater and
clearer on the page. However, I have developed this convention for my contents page for the interview as I
used a separate paragraph for each question with the question title on the top row of each paragraph. This
is effective as it clearly makes the reader see the different questions on the page so it is easier to read and
follow. The coloured and textured background also contrasts against the minimalistic text style so this
adds a design element to the page.

7. Genre and how the magazine as a whole
suggests it‘Aura’ follows the convention of using styling of the indie rock/pop genera within photos in my magazine
however it challenges the convention of how my magazine presents the genera in the layout of my
magazine as the layout and design I have used is very artistic and different compared to what is already on
the market in terms of a music magazine. However, the artistic design and colours of the backgrounds and
images throughout ‘AURA’ still appeals to my target audience as stereotypically people who like the ‘indie’
style and indie rock/pop music, also have a taste for design and anything that is unique and doesn’t
conform to the norms. So, this means it appeals to the audience as they would appreciate that ‘AURA’