This magazine uses conventions of real magazines but also challenges some. It follows a typical layout with masthead, coverlines, and photo but uses an unconventional two-sided coverline placement. The writing aims to make readers feel like they belong while challenging norms with taboo language. Punk influences like font and safety pins establish the brand identity while sticking to conventions helps avoid disorienting readers. Overall it balances familiarity and uniqueness to attract attention while still feeling authentic to its genre.

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

2. Layout
My magazine predominantly uses a conventional layout seen in other media
products.
I followed my skeleton layout design in which the front cover features the:
• Masthead at the top of the page to catch the attention of readers when
placed on a shelf and act as one of the first things they’ll be drawn to
• I positioned coverlines to the left and right of the page, which not all
magazines do –I did this to separate the right-sided coverlines relating to the
main image
• I only used one strapline at the top as most magazines do, but Kerrang uses
two to get more information on the page. I decided against
using Kerrang conventions because it would make the page
look too cluttered.
• I opted to put enough information on the front cover to attract
my readers, but not enough to bombard them with unecessary
things to distract them from the main feature on the cover.
• I included a circular insert to further attract readers to buy the
magazine; however I should have really informed my readers what they
could win e.g ‘WIN A GIBSON GUITAR’ to incorporate alliteration to

3. Main Photo
• I photographed my models at eye-level to directly address my
readers, in the way that the majority of magazine covers adopt.
• Moreover, by placing them onto a light-coloured background, they
are the main focus of the magazine, framed by the coverlines on
either side of them
• Most magazine covers do not have the title in full view as I have done
but have them hidden behind the main band featured on the cover. I
haven’t done this as, being the first issue, the name of the magazine
is quite important to establish the brand and authenticity with reader
• However, while this is something I could have experimented with
during the design process, I didn’t want to enlarge the main photo to
a larger extent that they would be unrealistically too big on the cover.
• Furthermore,I used the way that the band Paramore
have been previously photographed on front covers as a
template; I also placed the female lead singer of the
band in the middle of the two, without taking the focus
off of the other two members, to present them as a unit.

4. House Style
As a genre convention, magazine brands tend to have their own design that they
have to conform to as part of continuity
• I have employed a four-colour scheme of pink, yellow, black and white as a
continuity feature to not disorient my readers. However this proved particular
difficult during the construction process as I had to conform to my own design
conventions more so on the double-page spread.
• I used safety pins because I promised in my mission
statement to take my readers ‘on a journey to the golden
ages of punk’ in which safety pins was a convention made
by the Sex Pistols’ in their album artwork etc.
• I used the same Myriad Pro font throughout the worded body copy
features to upkeep continuity, as a magazine convention; usually the only
changes to this is to conform to a magazine theme on a certain issue or feature.
• In my initial ideas I had stated I wanted to use the ransom-note style font as
another convention of punk, so I used fontspace to generate the two particular
font styles I wanted to use to further establish the magazine’s punk-infused
identity.

5. Writing Style
• I wanted to give readers an insight into the lives of a band that had ‘made
it’ to exploit the Uses and Gratifications theory by Blumler and Katz
(1974), as my target audience could use the media text for suggestions on
personal identity and relationships.
• I used taboo language to make my readers feel like they belong and
alienate readers that do not belong to this particular ‘group’. I wanted to
reflect the style of language associated with the punk subculture without
over-doing it and put off my older demographic of readers.
• I portrayed them as passionate through the pull-quote magazine
convention; as people readers can relate to through portraying a band
who started from nothing by describing the garage and using technical
musical terms such as the name of the ‘Jackson King V’ guitar to further
alienate certain groups, but subsequently welcoming those from similar
readerships of magazines such as Kerrang!, Rock Sound and Metal
Hammer who use similar writing styles.

6. Overall
• I decided to predominantly stick to magazine genre conventions to not
disorientate readers from what they’re used to seeing on shelves; however I
wanted to make sure my new magazine would grab their attention, so made
use of my unique colour scheme to draw them in, as each cover would be
seen for one month at a time alongside all of the others.
• I wanted to use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954) to make my readers feel
as though they belonged to an exclusive ‘group’ through the house style
continuity to set it apart from other magazine.
• I placed coverlines on the left-side of the page because McKay (2000) suggests
to put the emphasis there ‘as this is the part that will show when the
magazine is on the average newsagent’s shelf’ and made sure they were large
enough to be legible from 2-3 metres away to grab readers’ attention.
• McKay (2000) also argues to make strong links to the contents page as
‘readers are irritated if the fascinating story heralded on the cover is
impossible to find in the contents list [especially so] if it is given a different
title in the contents list. I could have possibly improved this if I had changed
the font of ‘Stones of the Crown’ to the same one used on the front cover and
double-page spread.