The document summarizes a student's media project creating a music magazine. The student used conventions from real music magazines like NME in their magazine's design but also challenged some conventions. They included a front cover, contents page, and double page interview spread that drew inspiration from NME in terms of layout, images, and use of color while also making some unique design choices. The magazine's target audience is described as males and females aged 15-25 interested in indie music.

1. Media Evaluation Georgia Ioannou

2. My Final Magazine Front Cover, Contents & Double Page Spread

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I think my media product has used a lot of stereotypical conventions, as well challenging some of the typical conventions. First, I used the common conventions of the masthead at the very top of the front cover that is centred. I chose to call my magazine ‘UPFRONT’ as it relates to the audience being upfront at a gig/concert. The barcode, date, and price are placed in the bottom left hand corner, which makes it clearly visible for the intended audience to see. I have placed the main cover line centre of the model to draw the readers attention and to show that it is the main focus of the magazine. I chose to add a button which advertises a free posters and a banner advertising a free give away. Both of these features both link with what my intended audience wanted from a music magazine. I have also chosen to have one full length image of the artist being shown on the front cover, which acted as the main focal point of the magazine. However I challenged some of the typical conventions by not including things such as a strapline or added any other pictures of other artists/bands featured in the magazine. Which music magazines commonly do. Most of my inspiration was drawn from a number of NME covers, the simplicity is something I have taken and incorporated into my text. The indie scene is notable for its unusual and different dress sense, and this can be reflected with the presentation of the magazine and the artists included inside, predominantly the one featuring Paul Weller on the cover. Although I have not chosen to use the same style of model for my magazine as NME. I have still tried to stick with the layout and limited use of colours, making it simplistic .

4. Most of my inspiration for my contents page came from the older styles of NME. I have chosen to follow their conventions of using one main image of an article featured in the magazine. This attracts readers who prefer things to be more visual with less text. The main picture I have used is very simple yet affective, it doesn’t give too much away about the article, making readers want to carry on reading. I chose not to write a short summary of the article underneath the main image, as I thought by doing this it may put readers off buying the magazine, as it could give away too much about what is included on the double page spread. I instead chose to write a short summary for one of the other images, therefore challenging forms and conventions of a real media product. I have made the page numbers bold making them stand out, so it easy for readers to navigate around the page, and kept within the colour scheme used on the front cover and double page spread. Although I chose to follow conventions of a real media product, I have also challenged it by not choosing to have a band index as shown on the NME contents page. I have incorporated the same colours from my front cover onto my contents page, and will continue to do so on my double page spread. This creates a sense of shared identity and it links all the pages together. I have listed the contents of what is inside the magazine down the right hand side of the picture, underneath sub headings placed on a block of colour. This makes it clearer to read and understand, and I found this was common in most if not all the NME magazines I looked at. I have put a subscription feature at the bottom of the page with an image of the front cover, that shows that relationship between the two. This is commonly used and can be seen on music magazine contents pages.

5. I decided on using a main image instead of a few smaller ones which is also common in music magazines, because I wanted the readers to be fully focussed on the artist and her interview, and being able to connect with her without being distracted by a busy background or an instrument, instead of being confused by lots of little pictures scattered around the page. This could give the impression that the artist is more focused about having that connection with her fans, than she is about her music. I have stereotypically written my interview in columns and have started the text of with a drop cap. Again, along with my front cover and contents page I took most of my influence from NME magazine, as I found from looking at various other music magazines NME had more simplistic double page spreads, in appearance. Throughout my magazine I have used images where my model has got direct eye contact with the camera, this ensures that the reader always has a connection with the magazine and feels that they can relate to the articles in it. For my article I have stereotypically followed the conventions of a double page spread that you would find in a music magazine. I chose to do an interview with the cover artist, and I have stuck to the convention of placing one main image on a the page, covering a large proportion of it. And then put the interview on the opposite page, and used alternating colours for the questions and answers, which you would commonly find in such magazines. I have chosen to use a simple heading of just ‘Melissa East’ for my article, which I decided on placing in the top left hand corner. Like the subheadings on the contents page I have used a coloured block to put the heading on. This connotes the simplicity of the magazine . I have added a quote, that is the same colour as the article questions and the block of colour that the heading is on. This is so everything ties in together, and links with the colour scheme throughout the magazine. I have used the same colours and fonts, throughout my magazine showing I am keeping the same house style. This helps keep it looking professional and sleek throughout.