2. In what way does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
One of the conventions I used in my music magazine was the use of the left third. In case
of the magazine being displayed horizontally on a shelf, I put the headline and masthead
on the left hand side. These are some of the most important things on the front cover so
putting them on the left third will help attract the target audience.
Another convention I used was a selling line along the top of my magazine. I felt this was
an important thing to include as it entices people to read and buy the magazine.
I chose not to have a menu strip on my magazine as I felt the over have enough
information on it already and I did not want to overwhelm the audience. The plug I used
was brightly coloured, advertising a free poster, this is something I wanted on the front
cover as catches the audiences eye. Other “buzz” words such as “exclusive” and “win”
are also coloured in bright yellow, making them stand out from the other text. This will
help influence the audiences decision in buying the magazine.
My music magazines front cover also has a centred image with the use of direct mode of
address. This is used commonly in magazines as the artist is looking directly down the
camera, it makes it feel more personal and helps create a relationship with the reader.
My style was intended to create a cult feel so I chose some moody shots and kept the
colour scheme quite dark but I thought it was important to add some more feminine
colours as I wanted to concentrate on some of the bigger female indie artists like
Florence, Haim and Paloma Faith.
3. Here you can see the similarities
between my magazine to a
issues of Q magazine. Both
headlines are on the left third.
The feature article photographs
are both medium shots. It differs
as Qs header is only in the top
left third where as mine starts in
the left third but carries on into
the centre
Another difference is that my
magazine cover has more dead
space that the Q cover which is
packed text. This is because I
did not want to overwhelm the
reader.
4. He
For my contents page I used the left hand
side for pages and there numbers. The
feature article that was advertised on the
front cover has the biggest picture with the
page number overlapping. My contents also
as a subscription box advertising how to
subscribe the magazine.
Subheadings to
make it easier for
the audience to find
what they are
looking for.
Date of when
the magazine
was published
Here I compared
mine and Qs
contents pages.
5. Front Cover Copy
Border / Divider Main Feature
(with inset pictures)
Pictorial
insets (of
highlights &
exclusives)
Page numbers
(with colours to
show kickers and
cover lines)
Section
Header
Dateline
Section
Headers
Subscription
box
Navigation
Panel (with
headers)
Section Banner
Captions
6. Double page
spread
For the house style
of my magazine, I
chose to use black,
purple and white. I
chose the black and
purple as they are
both dark colours
and I don’t think
bright colours would
have fit the genre. I
chose the white as I
stands out against
the black and purple.
My Double page spread is very simple with the interview on one side and the
photograph on the other. The only coloured font on the page is the pulled quote,
this is so it stand out and grabs the audiences attention. The page on the left
contains quite a lot of white space, this is something that adds impact to the page.
I chose not to have multiple photographs as I fell having one big was more
powerful.
