The student analyzed several rock magazines to inform the design of their own magazine. They used a dark color scheme and bold masthead like rock magazines. Fonts and headlines were styled similarly to draw attention. While the student kept the contents page simple against conventions, they included repeated elements like issue numbers found on covers. The double page spread featured an article and outdoor band photo, matching conventions from analyzed magazines. The student drew from real magazines to both conform to and experiment with genre conventions in their own media product.

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

2. Before I started my construction of my magazine I did a
lot of research such as similar text analysis, subject
matter research, codes and conventions and target
audience research to help me produce my magazine. In
my STA’s I looked at many magazines such as rolling
stones and vibe. This helped me learn about the layout,
features, symbols and signs that are on every magazine.
It showed me that I must include a pug, masthead,
straplines, headlines, barcode, issue number, price, and
a main image. I noticed from my research into rock
magazines they consist of a dark colour scheme so
therefore in my magazine I used this convention if a
rock magazine and used a pink, black and white colour
scheme. I used a big and bold masthead because the
majority of magazines normally have this feature on the
top of the magazines.

3. From my STA’s I noticed that on the front covers of magazines there are a wide range of fonts in different
shapes and sizes, and so therefore I developed a pattern of different fonts on the cover so that other
headlines stick out from the less important ones. This is very similar to real media products as I got this idea
from them. From looking at codes and conventions I found that the pugs are often quite bright, however I
considered this when designing mine but bright colours didn’t look right on my front cover so therefore I
kept it black but had the writing stand out from the black background by making bright white. This is
different from real media as they normally stand out a bit more than mine but I made sure I postponed it at
the top where it can still be seen. The barcode, issue number and price are legal requirements on all
magazines so to make mine look professional I included this in my magazine nearly all magazines have
these features, and to make sure I used my research from my codes conventions and STAs.

4. I made sure my main image is the biggest feature on the cover because it highlights the bands importance
to the magazine. When researching further into my target audience research I asked my interviewee what
type of picture to use for my main image which is why I chose to use a band instead of a solo artist as in my
STA’s I found that in most rock magazines the majority of the artists are in a band. I dressed my models in
all black as most rock artists wear all black and this colour is often associated with rock, this is similar to
most rock magazines and their main images. When looking at contents pages I found that in the ‘rolling
stones’ magazine they are quite simple and plain however in most rock magazines like ‘NME’ ‘KEERANG’
they are quite filled up in every corner.

5. For my product I went against this convention and kept it
simple. I used one picture; I also added another pug in the
contents page as this is quite common in real media products.
My contents page is similar and different to the real media
texts as it has a range of different features such as; I repeated
the issue number at the top and next to it added the date, from
my similar text analysis I found that these features are usually
only on the front cover, however I liked the look of it on my
contents. For my double page spread, I had help from my
subject matter research; I looked at the way rock artist’s talk,
and their body language which helped me write my article as I
noticed they are quite calm in the way they talk i.e. Arctic
Monkey’s interview showed me they swear quite a lot so I used
some swear words in my article. This is similar to all rock
magazines as the rock artists talk the same as each other. The
reason I chose to do an article was because I found that from
my STA’s most double page spreads consists of articles so I
decided to write on for my rock band

6. MY MAIN
TASK
I took into consideration the setting of
my image, it is on a roof top outside I
done this because in my STA’s I found
that most double page spread pictures
on a rock magazine are outside and
goes across the whole double page
spread, this is similar to many other
rock magazines as their main image is
outside in a dark place.

7. I took into consideration the setting of my image, it is on a roof top
outside I done this because in my STA’s I found that most double
page spread pictures on a rock magazine are outside and goes across
the whole double page spread, this is similar to many other rock
magazines as their main image is outside in a dark place.
This was my
inspiration for my
photo shoot, as I
liked the scenery