This document discusses how the media product utilizes and challenges conventions of real magazines. It describes using a masthead in the top-left corner inspired by Q and NME magazines in style and positioning. While most mastheads are colorful, this one is black-and-white to look professional and eye-catching without being distracting. The contents page header also follows conventions, using the masthead next to "Contents" and including the issue date. However, it challenges conventions by placing the date below in a black bar rather than above. The color scheme of black, white, and red draws from music magazines and emphasizes photos while allowing the text to stand out clearly.

1. Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
I used the convention of a masthead on my cover
page. Nearly all magazines utilise this convention.
I took inspiration for the style of my masthead
from the magazines Q and NME as they focus on
similar topics and target audiences and have a
similar style to my magazine. I incorporated a
sans-serif font similar to the NME masthead to
convey an eye-catching simplicity. The masthead
was positioned in the top-left corner of the cover
page, as it is in Q and NME. This consistent
positions helps the reader recognise the magazine
as they know where to look to find the masthead.
It also avoids being too in-your-face for the reader
by not taking up too much of the page, which it
might if it was placed in the centre. However my
masthead challenges the convention of colourful
mastheads by being entirely black-and-white. I
chose to do this as I wanted the masthead to look
professional and simplistic: eye-catching enough
to get readers’ attention but not colourful so that it
blends in with the page and matches the black-
and-white cover.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
For the contents page header, I again utilised
common conventions from other publications. I
used the common format of using the masthead
text without borders next to the “Contents” text,
which is used in both Q and Kerrang magazines.
This convention was used as it clearly presents to
the reader that this is the contents page using
textual imagery that they are familiar with (the
masthead font). The lack of border makes the font
look cleaner and blend in better with the page
while stile retaining recognisability. Another
convention I utilised was using the issue date in
the header. This informs the reader of the date of
the magazine and ensures they know they are up-
to-date. However, I also partially challenged this
convention. In Q magazine, the date is positioned
directly above the masthead, whereas in my
magazine, the date is positioned in a black bar that
stretches across the width of the page, below the
masthead. This separates the header from the
contents page distinctly and draws attention to the
date.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
I used a colour scheme of black, white, and red
in my production, which is seen in numerous
publications that focus on similar music. I
utilized these three colours most prominently
on my cover page. The black and white cover
picture creates a professional, iconic look. The
red adds flair and visual appeal to the cover,
preventing it from looking dreary or plain. This
convention is employed in some issues of NME
and Q: a greyscale image with red and
black/white text, to emphasise the picture. I
used contrasting text colours for heading and
subheadings to create visual appeal by using
red for the heading and white for the
subheading text. This is a convention visible in
the NME clipping on the right. This creates a
certain distinction between heading and
subheading. The use of the simple colour
scheme convention allows the reader to focus
on the textual content rather than be distracted
by the visual aspects of the magazine.