This document discusses the challenges in designing different elements of a music magazine for R&B female artists. For the front cover, the designer used black, white and a light pink to represent powerful yet soft women in the genre. The title "The Hype" suggests an authoritative source for R&B news. The contents page was difficult to design to balance edginess with broad appeal. The designer limited colors and emphasized black and white for a classier look. The double page spreads easily showcase artists with one side their public persona and the other more personal through an interview format divided into columns for readability. Pull quotes highlight important parts of the story.

1. MEDIA QUESTION 1:
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?
By Rag’e Ali

2. INTRO TO FRONT COVER
 I feel my music magazine challenges the forms and
conventions of the R&B Industry. This is because I
feel I’ve made a magazine that represents an
aspect of the genre that is essential but not
celebrated enough – the female half of the genre.
As shown in my front page I have decided to use
black white and pink. The pink I have chosen is
also a lighter shade of pink. I think this does fit
within the theme of powerful classy women that
often don’t show that softer side to their audience. It
also isn’t too contrasting against the white and the
black that it suggests a “loud” genre.

3. On the front page I have “The”
smaller than “Hype”. I have placed
“the” in the top left hand corner and
Front Cover The purpose of a
having the prize is to
give the audience a
spread the word “Hype” across the sense of satisfaction –
top of the page. I think the title “The that they got more with
Hype” is a good title that fits within their money.
the genre – it suggests a source of
all R&B genre which would entice
audiences into buying my
magazine . The picture I have used is of a
black female model. I think was
an effective choice because the
genres of R&B are dominated by
The sell lines form black males and females –
an outline around therefore meeting the
the picture. I think conventions.
this creates a neater
page. With the cell
lines I think they all
reinforce the theme
of women – with
artists such as
“Lauryn Hill” on the
I think having the title
page . “Ladies Special Edition” is
effective because
otherwise it wouldn’t fit the
typical male dominated
look of a music magazine.
The purpose of the
bar code is for
institutional reasons
.This is so that the
institution are able to
receive the money
used to purchase On the other side of the page, we see a quote that has been pulled out from I.M.A.N’s article –
the product. “Regenerating the game”. This sell line is effective because most R&B / Hip Hop artists refer to the
music industry as a “game” and I thought that it would be language that my demographic would be
more familiar with.

4. REAL EXAMPLE OF FRONT COVER

5. INTRO TO CONTENTS PAGE
 I felt my contents page was the most challenging to
produce. One reason why I felt this was especially hard
to produce was because I wanted to challenge the forms
and conventions of the R&B / Hip Hop by having more
content on the contents page. The contents page on
Vibe had a picture of Kanye West which distracted from
the contents page as a whole. The picture of Kanye did
however provide inspiration for my contents page –
because I decided to use a black and white magazine.
Another reason why I felt a contents page was
especially hard to make because it was hard to strike a
balance between a contents page which was edgy and
could possibly sell underground and a contents page
which commercially appeals to a mass 17-23 audience
(ABC1 Category).

6. CONTENTS PAGE I think that the way the word “Contents” is
presented is not typical of the codes and
The page numbers help with the conventions of a R&B music magazine –
organisation of the page and also because they usually pile the letters on top
when flicking through the magazine, each other. However my reason for not doing
the consumer knows which page to this is because I do not believe that it would
turn to – e.g. Know which page to look effective on my page.
turn the to see the double page
spread on the artist on the front
cover.
I think that having an
editor’s note was The last reason why I
effective because it’s think the reason why the
more welcoming to content page was
the reader. especially hard to make
was because I wanted to
use different colours on
my magazine – different
shades of pink. However
I overcame this by
limiting the colours and
emphasising the use of
The social media logos black and white, therefore
are at the bottom of the making the magazine
page. They stand out look classier.
against the page. This
shows the integration of
new media with my
magazine – which would
connect to my audience
because there are the I think that the different fonts and the amount of text that was on the
main demographic that content page made the contents page look less professional – also did
use social media not meet the forms and conventions of the genre. Because most of the
networks. text is quite short and punchy in order to not intimidate the reader.

7. REAL EXAMPLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

8. INTRO TO DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS
 I think the construction of the double page spreads
was the easiest out of all the pages in the
magazine. The double page spreads have the job
of making the artist the main topic. What my double
page spread tried to convey a split persona of my
artist – one side would be the performer that the
audience are familiar with. The other side a more
vulnerable, toned down side that her fans do not
get to see, thus deciding to portray it in the article.
The article took on a interview format.

9. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD (1) This is what the artists’ logo
On my double page spread I put the title of “Brand New for
– which is another subtle
2013” at the top. I have done this because I have made this
way of introducing the article
competition which compares the best up and coming artists –
which “I.M.AN” has won.
The image presents
the first side of my
artist that the reader
may feel that they
can recognize –
The purpose of an
which I feel is an
intro paragraph is to
effective way to start
introduce the article.
the article.
My intro paragraph is
a short paragraph
outlining the context
of the article and also
gives an introduction
to the article. This is
effective because
mine meets that of
industry standard .
The rest of the interview is spaced out into columns. This is so that the text does not seem intimidating to the reader and also makes the text look
shorter. The text is also colour coded to indicate whether the interviewer was talking or whether I.M.A.N. was. This is also to make the page look
more organized and look less intimidated. This is what the industry magazines – such as vibe – do in their double page spreads. I think this makes
my magazine successful because my meeting industry standard it makes my magazine look more professional .

10. Here is a more visual representation of the split
persona- which I again think is effective because it
shows something that the audience are not used –
Uses and Gratifications Theory, the idea that we
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD (2) consume music magazines because for escapism
and entertainment.
The purpose of a
pull out quote is to
emphasise a quote
that grabs the
reader’s attention. I
feel that this quote
does it effectively –
giving the award
prestige.
I wanted to do something that summarises
the article so I decided to make a timeline
The text is once again put into columns to seem less of her life in music. And a fact file about
intimidating to the reader and make the text look like there is her – which enhanced the personal tone.
of it.

11. REAL EXAMPLE OF DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD