This document discusses how the media producer's magazine product uses and develops conventions from real magazines. The producer researched magazines like Mixmag and Vibe to gather ideas for layouts. Elements copied from Mixmag include a large rectangular cover image, contents listing with date and title in the same place, and double page spreads with one large image and columns of text. Elements developed from Vibe include a simple masthead, highlighted cover lines, centrally placed cover image and title, and split contents title stacked on top of each other. The producer challenged conventions by placing the main cover line in the center rather than right. Overall, the producer aimed to make the magazine look professional by copying proven layout techniques from

1. Evaluation Question 5 - In What Way Does Your
Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms
and Conventions of Real Media Products

2. • When creating my magazine I wanted to ensure that It looked as similar to
a real magazine as possible and I decided to do this in different ways.
When creating my magazine I always had my research in mind as I knew
that the magazines that I researched, eg mixmag and vibe were
professionally created, so to make sure that my magazine also looked
professional I ensured that I used methods that both these magazines
used. To gather ideas I went to different shops around town and as well as
this I browsed the internet to find a range of different magazines for my
research. After finding magazines that were similar to my genre I analysed
three contents pages, three front covers and three double page spreads so
that I knew how to create mine.

4. • The previous slide showed my contents page next to one of the mixmag
contents that I analysed during my research. As you can see they both look
similar in a few ways, yet different enough to be unique and not just a
copy of another magazine. When looking at the mixmag contents there
are certain aspects that I liked and decided that I wanted to include when
creating my own. Firstly you can see that the mixmag contents has a large
main picture that Is in a rectangle shape, I like the style of the mixmag
contents and thought that this looked professional so I decided to use of
my artists in a similar style image, the difference in my image is that the
background is plain white whereas the mixmag image has other people in
the background. I also decided to include the free CD playlist at the
bottom of the contents like the mixmag contents as it gives the reader
something else to read rather than just what is going to be in the
magazine. I also decided to put the title of the contents and the date in
the same place as mixmag as I thought this looked really professional.

6. • The previous slide shows one of the vibe front covers that I have researched, I
researched VIBE magazine as it is a similar genre to the magazine that I am making
so I have tried to base my ideas for my front cover on the VIBE front cover. Firstly
my masthead is similar to the Vibe magazine in the way that they are both simple
fonts but look professional. On the vibe front cover you can also see that some of
the cover lines are highlighted in a different colour than the text so that it stands
out. I thought that this looked professional so as you can see on my magazine I
have also done something similar so that my magazines. At the top of my
magazine above my masthead I have included a list of possible artists that may be
included in the magazine and this is something that Vibe also does to draw readers
in. Also other aspects of the Vibe front cover that I liked and decided to use on my
magazine is the position of the barcode as well as the colours. Vibe on this front
covers uses white and yellow and I thought that these colours stood out so I
decided to use the colour scheme of white, black and yellow. One way that my
magazine challenges the conventions of real magazines is the position of the main
cover line, as you can see my main cover line is in the middle of my front cover
whereas the Vibe one is more on the right, this is because I think that my main
cover line will look more professional in the centre due to the fact that my main
image is also centred.

8. • Another contents page that I have looked at for research and I have used when designing my magazine is
the Vibe contents. I think that the vibe contents is unique so I thought I would try to create my magazine
in a similar way with changes to make it unique to my magazine. I decided to place the image in the same
place as I thought that this looks professional on the vibe magazine. The main aspect of the vibe magazine
that I liked and decided to create in a similar way Is that way the contents title is set out. As you can see it
is split into three sections and then placed on top of each other, I thought that this was unique so you can
see on my contents page that I have done the title of the contents page in a similar way however with the
text highlighted to follow the house style of my magazine. Vibe also uses the word features before listing
what is in the magazine and I thought that this was different from other magazines as it is in a different
font from the other text on the page.

11. • The two slides above show my double page spread and one of the
mixmag double page spreads that I have used for my research so
gain ideas for my own so that I could make it look as much like a
real magazine as possible. Firstly on aspect of the mixmag double
page spread that I liked was the fact that one image took up the
whole right page with a small bit of text as I thought this looked
good. Mixmag on the left double page spread uses three columns
and I decided that in my magazine double page spread I would also
do the same. The mixmag double page spread however has a shape
above the columns of text and although this looks good I decided to
have a title so that the readers would what the text on the page
would be about. On the top of the mixmag double page spread
there is a rectangle shape across both pages with a colour gradient,
I used a similar shape on my double page spread however I changed
the colour gradient to follow the house style of my magazine.