My magazine cover uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real magazine covers in several ways. It uses conventions such as including a masthead, cover images and lines. However, it challenges conventions by having the masthead on the left instead of centered, and placing non-typical elements like the barcode on the top right. The contents page also challenges conventions by using two columns instead of one and excluding a letter from the editor. The double page spread challenges conventions by not featuring the main cover story, and using atypical design elements like a gradient background.

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

2. Masthead
Cover Image
Cover lines
My cover page uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of magazines in different ways.
It develops and uses the typical conventions by including the key concepts of the Pop genre such as:
 Blocks of colour behind text in order to make titles stand out
 Barcodes, prices and issue numbers
 Bright, bold fonts for cover lines and the masthead
 Bottom bar (I also included a top bar, as many other magazines do)
 Contrasting background, text and images
 Interesting cover lines to evoke interest
 Colour theme to create a house style (three colour theme)

3. In what way does your
magazine cover develop
and/or use conventions of real
magazine covers?
My magazine uses conventions of magazines in the way that both mastheads are left aligned and slightly
overlapping the main image to give the magazine’s title dominance and importance in the cover page- this is
useful for advertising and marketing as the more obvious a title is, the more familiar and popular it becomes
and the more people buy the product.
In my magazine and others of the same genre, most cover lines have a block of contrasting colour behind the
text in order to make it stand out on the page and therefore catch the eye of the audience. I also used thick bold
fonts especially for part of my masthead and my main article cover line ‘Nicki Minaj’ as these are the most
important pieces of text on my cover and I wanted them to stand out- similar fonts are used to create this effect
in many similar style magazines (e.g. We Love Pop).
I have also stuck to a three colour theme (pink, blue and white) predominantly as I noticed that other
magazines do this often. (for example, We Love Pop used pink, black and white on the issue above). I found
that this created a unique house style for my magazine which would become familiar to my target audience
when my magazine was marketed and advertised. The colours blue pink and white developed the conventions
of other pop magazines aimed at younger girls as colour themes are created in response to the target audience
of the magazine- you would not see Kerrang or NME using these three colours. The light colours create a very
feminine, girly mood which helps my target audience to recognise that this magazine is targeted at them.

4. My magazine cover challenges conventions of real magazines
In what way does your
in a couple of ways. When creating my cover page, I thought magazine cover
that it was important to challenge typical conventions so that
a magazine has it’s own unique style and look although I challenge conventions of
also considered that if I was to take it to an extreme and
change too many conventions, my magazine would become real magazine covers?
unprofessional looking and wouldn't look like a real
magazine therefore I had to be careful not to cross the line
between unique and unrecognisable.
My magazine challenges the conventions of other Pop
magazines in the way that my masthead is left aligned
whereas usually mastheads are central on the cover. This is
not only unique to my magazine though, We Love Pop (a
magazine of the same genre) also challenges this convention.
I think this creates a modern look and makes the title stand
out more than if it was in the middle. The slight overlapping
of the title over the main image also gives the magazine’s
title dominance and importance in the cover page- this is
useful for advertising and marketing as the more obvious a
title is, the more familiar and popular it becomes and the
more people buy the product.
I also challenged the conventions by placing the barcode,
issue date and price on the right hand side at the top. Again,
my magazine is not the first to do this, but it goes against the
majority. I did this to utilise space and to make the
magazine look neat and tidy.
Having my tagline above the title on the top bar challenges
the conventions also, as taglines usually appear below the
title.

5. How does your masthead develop,
use or challenge the typical
conventions of a masthead?
As I said previously, my masthead challenges the
conventions of a typical masthead as it is positioned
in the left corner of my cover page, not spread across
one line in the top centre as most are.
It also challenges the conventions as it uses two fonts
whereas most mastheads only use one. I wanted my
masthead to act as more of a logo than others do
therefore I wanted it to be interesting to look at- I
think including a sparkle, a stave & music notes and a
lollipop swirl for the dot above the ‘i’ created this
well. I believe this created the start of a mise en
scene – a girly, floaty, relaxed feminine pop
magazine.
The colours are a product of my three colour theme
(blue pink and white). The black stave and notes
challenges the house style colours but makes the title
stand out more than the other titles.

6. How does your contents page
develop, use or challenge the
typical conventions of a masthead?
My contents page challenges the conventions of a typical contents page as
it has two columns of the page numbers and articles whereas most music
magazines only have one. I also included sketchy style arrows and
lollipops (which emphasise the title and theme) to create a hand finished,
personalised look to the magazine which is not a typical convention. My
contents page also challenges the conventions as it doesn’t include a letter
from the editor as a lot of magazines do. I didn’t include this purposely as
I felt that my audience wouldn’t appreciate reading lengthy text from the
editor, whereas other magazines include this as they have a different
audience who would like to read it. I also developed the conventions by
continuing the house style and colour theme- I included the title, tag line
on the top bar and the colour theme.
My contents page does follow and use the conventions of other Pop
magazine contents pages as it includes the page numbers and an
interesting cover line for each article. Words such as “New”, “Exclusive”
and “X-Rated” are eye catching and appeal to my audience.
I also included an advertisement for subscribing to the magazine which I
think looks professional and fits in nicely. This develops the idea of
subscribing to magazines which would appeal to the people in my
audience who prefer to subscribe. Offering a lowered price also attracts
younger audiences who don’t have a lot of money to spend and therefore
their parents like the idea of a bargain and saving money overall.

7. How does your double page spread
challenge the typical conventions of a
double page spread?
My double page spread challenges the conventions of typical double page
spreads as it is not taken from the magazines main cover page article- the
Nicki Minaj interview. I felt that creating the ‘Tours of the month’ page
would allow me to show my creativity in other areas as I had already spent
a lot of time and effort on the photo shoot and article ideas for the cover
shoot (Nicki Minaj interview) and wanted to direct my attention to
another area and idea of/for the magazine.
My questionnaire results showed a strong interest in the top tours and
therefore I thought this would be a great idea which, again, challenges
typical conventions as most magazines have an interview as their main
article.
Although, in a way, the article follows the conventions as
many magazines use tours as article ideas but I have
developed and challenged these ideas as I have added images
taken from the individual tours which most magazines don’t
do.
I challenged the conventions in the way that I didn’t carry the colour
theme through completely (as mentioned in blog post “Creating my double
page spread”) which I think this worked greatly to my advantage as it
made the page much more eye catching and it stood out from the contents
and cover page. I also challenged the conventions by including a gradient
background as I haven’t seen this on many magazines before.

8. How does your double page spread
develop or use the typical conventions
of a double page spread?
My double page spread follows the conventions of other
double page spreads as it includes quite a lot of text- it is an
in depth article. It also includes images which I arranged in a
collage style to again emphasise the hand finished look
(similar to the arrows on the contents page).
It follows the conventions by including key information such
as tour dates and prices for tickets which is a help for younger
teens who may need their parents to help out with buying
tickets if they intend to go and see the artists.
The text columns and layout follows a typical double page
spread as the columns are equal and therefore easy to read.
The page follows conventions in the way that the page has a
theme- I split each tour up and added a colour theme – red
and blue for Jessie J and light blue, yellow and pink for Katy
Perry. These matched the logos for the artists and helps the
audience to recognise the artists.