The document summarizes how the student's media product uses and is influenced by conventions from Kerrang magazine. The student refers to elements of Kerrang's layout, design choices and content organization when creating their magazine cover, masthead, sell lines, skyline, contents page and double page spread. The student aims to make their magazine look professional by replicating techniques from Kerrang, but also makes some original design decisions. Overall, the student feels their magazine resembles a real publication but could be improved with some additional images and design elements.

1. Evaluation Question1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. FRONT COVERMY MAGAZINE AND KERRANG! MAGAZINEI mainly referred to Kerrang magazine whilst I was creating my own magazine, in order to make decisions on elements such as layout, content and colour themes. This was very useful as it prompted ideas that made my magazine look a lot more effective and professional. I followed the colour theme of red, white and black as I believe the colours are very strong and appealing, and almost iconic of rock magazines. Instead of using banners for every sell line, I decided I wanted to have some sell lines without banners, surrounding the main image. I made this decision because I think sometimes too many banners can make the cover look to cluttered and take away the appeal of the image. Also, I wanted my magazine to look like value for money, and more sell lines was key to this.

3. FRONT COVERMASTHEADI really liked the fact that the Kerrang masthead looks distorted, because this suits the rock genre, however it is still bold and easy to read. I like the white font on a black background as this is very bold and doesn’t effect the rest of the colour theme choices; for example a bright red masthead may clash with the rest of the colour theme. After researching fonts, I really liked the font I chose – “Network Vampires”. I like how it has a stamp effect; it looks distorted and old, resembling the type of font on old journals. The font is very different from the fonts used on the rest of the sell lines and banners, ensuring that the reader knows for sure that RECKLESS is the title of the magazine. MAIN SELL LINEThe Kerrang sell line is very central on the page and the white font ensures it very much contrasts with the background. “BiffyClyro” is obviously the main part of the sell line, with a short description and quote above and below it. This gives the reader more information about the story, making them want to buy the magazine and read more about it. Due to the composition of my main image I couldn’t place the sell line in the middle of the page, it had to be positioned further down. However, in order to ensure that it stood out I positioned it on top of a banner, in a large red font. The size of the font is very large in comparison to the rest of the font on the page, which means it is very clearly the main sell line. In terms of the positioning of the banner I had tried having it higher and lower on the page, on an angle and not on an angle, however in the end the current position looked most effective. Having the sell line on an angle reflects the fact that the band, the Sparrows, are rocks most controversial band.

4. MAIN IMAGEI think the Kerrang main image looks very effective, as I discussed in my textual analysis, and I also like how the image fills the page from side to side. This makes the page look fuller and makes the reader properly look across the whole page. With my image, as I didn’t want to clutter the bottom of the page with sell lines and banners I had planned all along to have sell lines around the side of the image, however I do now think it might of looked more effective if I had used an image that filled the page from side to side. Despite this, I do believe my main image is very eye catching and interesting, and I personally believe it looks professional and resembles a real band photo. The female band member is at the top of the image, reinforcing the idea that she is at the top of the band hierarchy, however she is positioned at the back of the group which pushes them into the focus. This fits with the controversial idea of the band as it is going against the traditional idea of positioning the lead singer right in the front of the image. The band members looks full of attitude, looking confident and stylish. This would appeal to the teenage market, who aspire to be like their idols.

5. SKYLINESIn hindsight I prefer the Kerrang skyline as it looks more interesting and eye catching. I think the use of the red arrow on the right hand side makes it looks a lot more effective, and also all of the writing looks very bold and fills the space available effectively. If I was to repeat the whole process I would have used a bolder font, and also added an arrow effect like the Kerrang skyline. I like the general layout of my skyline, and I also like the font colours, I just think a bolder font would have looked a lot more effective. SELL LINESAs I said before, Kerrang magazine tends to clutter the sell lines into the bottom half of the page, which I think looks very eye catching but sometimes can be difficult to read and doesn’t particularly look like there is a lot of content in the magazine. It was because of this that I decided I wanted to have mainly sell lines without effects and banners in order to make the page look more organised. After I did this though, I thought that the page looked a bit boring and uninteresting, so I added some banners and shapes to some of the sell lines. I think this really helped to make the page look more interesting and professional. I also decided, after looking at Kerrang magazine, to add another image to the front cover. I included this with one of the sell lines, which comes in the form of a puff at the bottom of the page, and I think this was effective as the image filled up some of the dead space on the page and also makes the page look more professional.

6. CONTENTS PAGEI really like the Kerrang magazine contents pages as the table of contents looks very organised and full of information, however the large image at the top of the page ensures that it still looks interesting. Also, the clear by lines and page numbers allows the reader to find the article they want quickly. Overall I believe that my contents page does resemble the Kerrang contents page, and does look professional, however I think that the Kerrang contents page uses up the dead space more effectively.

7. IMAGESI liked the idea of using images at the top of the page and using the bottom of the page for the contents. I like my images, particularly the main image; it features the same band from the front cover at a different location, and I think it looks very professional. The two smaller images relate to two different pieces within the magazine, one of which relating to the double page spread. Similarly to the Kerrang contents page, I added a byline to each of the images which clearly gives a description and page number for the readers convenience. On reflection, my contents page could have benefitted from having images to break up the text in the bottom half of the page.

8. TABLE OF CONTENTSI really liked the sectioning of the Kerrang contents page as the sub headings are all very bold and follow the house style. I used this technique in my own contents page, and I think it created a very professional look. The page numbers are a different colour font, and the font in general is easy to read. This is important as it is easy for the reader to make sense of, meaning they can quickly find what they want to look for. I also created my own subscription box, as this is something that is found in most magazines. I created mock magazine covers so that it would look very professional, and reflect something of the standard of Kerrang magazine. If I’d of had the opportunity to create another draft of my products I would of added some small star shaped banners or possibly inserted an image within some of the text. Despite this though, I do think my contents page looks professional. I added a puff across the bottom of the page with the magazine address and contact information, and I think this really made a big difference and really added to the professional look.

9. DOUBLE PAGE SPREADOverall, I think the DPS was the hardest component of my production to create a very professional look. I really liked the results of my photoshoot, however I would of liked to have more images in a different location as well as the studio. The DPS more or less stuck to my originally planned layout, however after looking at existing magazines again I made slight adjustments. The main elements that made the biggest impact in terms of professionality were the small things like image captions, page numbers and the skyline.

10. IMAGESI really liked the images on this Kerrang double page spread in particular, however I planned for my images to be posed and in a photostudio. I followed through with the idea of having one main image on one page, with the article on the other. In my first draft of the DPS I had only the one image over the two pages, however I then inserted two smaller images from the photoshoot, similar to that of Kerrang. I think this made the DPS look a lot more effective, however it could have been more effective if I had images from a different location also.

11. I added the brush effects to my DPS as they fit with the topic of the article, and I think these brushes make the whole DPS look a lot more professional. After my first draft, I looked back at Kerrang double page spreads, and decided to add a separate box with more information about the band, Snakebite. I noticed that many professional magazines also do this, and I thought that it would make my DPS look a lot more effective, as at that stage I felt as though it was missing something. I inserted a few quotes throughout my article, with one quote in a large font on the main image. These quotes make the page more appealing and also breaks up the big block of text in the article.