This document discusses the conventions used in the design of a music magazine front cover created by Eleanor Richards for a media coursework evaluation. It explains several common conventions used that develop or challenge real music magazine formats, including using a masthead in the top left corner in a bold font, including a memorable slogan underneath, featuring key artists in an orange and black banner at the bottom, employing a three color scheme of black, white and orange, and adding a puff advertising a free CD and including a barcode on the front cover. The document analyzes how these conventions were used and their purpose in making the magazine recognizable and appealing to audiences.

1. Media Coursework;
Evaluation
Eleanor Richards

2. Q1. In what ways does my media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
My music magazine front cover uses a
conventional masthead placed in the top
left hand corner of the front cover. This is a
common convention that the majority of
music magazines use, as seen on these
magazines to the left. I chose to have my
masthead in a large, bold, dark font in
order for it to stand out amongst the rest
of the text on my front cover. I did this in
hope that my masthead would be
recognisable to readers and stand out
compared to other magazines.

3. Q1. My magazine also includes the
slogan “The home of dance”
placed underneath my masthead.
I chose to include a slogan in
order to entice my readers and
persuade them to read my
magazine. It is simple and
memorable which is key as it will
make my magazine easily
recognisable. I placed it directly
underneath my masthead so that
it is immediately read at first
glance of the magazine. I
underlined my slogan in the
bright orange colour that features
on my front cover to emphasise it
and make it stand out on the
page. Many other popular music
magazines also do this to make
their magazine recognisable and
grab their audiences attention.
Another convention I included was a
banner at the bottom of my front cover
that stated the key artists featuring in my
magazine. I did this so that it catches
peoples attention and gives them a brief
overview of the content of my magazine
and hopefully entice people to buy it. The
text is coloured both orange and black to
fit in with my colour scheme and
continued with the same font as used
previous as it is quite a bold font and the
letters are all capitalised which emphasises
it more.

4. Q1.
I used a combination of black, white an
orange as my colour scheme throughout
my magazine. I chose these colours as
they work well together and the black and
white makes the orange stand out even
more. It gives the magazine a vibrant and
funky effect which suits the genre of my
magazine well. The colours also work well
as the costume of my models in the image
are black/white with a hint of orange/red.
Most magazines do generally stick to a
colour scheme of 3 colours and
continuously use them for each issue. This
helps to make the magazine recognisable,
unique and stand out amongst other
magazines on the shelf. Q Magazine always
use a colour scheme of red/white/ black to
suit their sophisticated and mature style of
magazine.

5. Q1.
• I used a puff on my magazine cover as seen
here. This is a common convention used by
many music magazines to attract readers and
persuade them to buy the magazine. Its an
incentive to buy the magazine as not only to
you get the magazine but also a free mix CD
too. I chose to put the text on a black
background to make it easy to spot and I used
a circular background to differentiate it from
the other text on the page.
• My magazine includes the common convention
of a barcode situated on the front cover. All of
the real music magazines like Q Magazine,
Kerrang and Mix Mag contain a barcode.