The document discusses how the author's media product follows and challenges conventions of real magazines. The logo follows conventions by using the attention-grabbing color red and a short title like other magazines. The front cover image connects with readers through eye contact and a plain background, following conventions, but challenges them through its editing style. The double-page spread keeps to typical magazine column sizes but challenges conventions with a patterned background. The contents page layout takes inspiration from other magazines in including a large image and subscription box. A consistent house style of red, white and black is kept throughout to follow magazine conventions of having a recognizable theme.

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

2. Masthead
I feel that my logo does follow certain conventions of magazines I have researched. For example, I used the
colour red in my logo, similar to NME’s logo as they used red and with Mojo’s logo. Throughout my research I
found red to be a very popular colour with magazines, mainly because it’s eye catching and therefore extracts
the reader; I highlighted the “A” in “ALT” to extract the reader. Also, by using the colour red it presents the
magazine to be gender neutral, and so does the font. A number of magazines have quite short titles so the
magazine is recognisable and the name isn’t hard to forget (for example NME), this is something I wanted to
follow as I wanted my title to be snappy and short. I also have a tagline to inform the reader about the
magazine; this is something a lot of magazines do as well for example Mojo with “The music magazine”. Overall,
I think my logo design is effective as it is simple but easily recognisable due to the block “A”. Additionally, I
think my logo follows the conventions of magazines due to it having a tagline, simple colours and fonts.

3. Images
In terms of front cover images I feel that my magazine follows the conventions of magazines as I got my model to
look directly at the camera, that way they’re connecting with the readers and catching their eye. I also used a
white background, this is so the reader wasn’t distracted and so they focused on the artist and the text on the
page. There are some shadows on the model’s face, however this only adds realism to the shoot and doesn’t make
the image look over edited (this is seen in NME). Additionally, for the frontcover shot I chose a medium close up,
as seen in NME, to create a connection with the audience. In conclusion, I do feel that my front cover image
follows the conventions of magazines due to the eye contact, plain background and the closeness of the shot.
However, I do think that the way I edited this image challenges conventions as I think that this type of editing isn’t
seen as much as the crisp edited images in a number of magazines. Additionally, I do feel that I challenged the
conventions with the choice of clothing because hoodies are stereotypically associated with hip hop music but I do
think they overlap into indie/alternative music sometimes.

4. Magazine layout
With my double page spread I don’t think I challenged conventions of magazines as I stuck to stereotypical column
size for a magazine (as seen in FOAM) because I think if you didn’t keep to that size it wouldn’t look like a
magazine. Also, I had a large title informing the reader who the artist was and I added pull quotes and I also had a
small extra title “top 50 new artists for 2016” to inform the reader further about the artist and why we interviewed
them without actually having to read the article. I took inspiration from the magazine FOAM (right) for the title of
the artist having one letter which has a pattern inside (the A in Lukas and the O in the celestial body). However, I
do think I challenged conventions by having a pattern in the background on the right page of the double page spread
because I have not seen a lot of magazines with a pattern in the background, they mainly have props, large text or a
large image filling the page.

5. Magazine layout
For my contents page I didn’t take inspiration from a magazine for the layout of the articles but it still follows
conventions. For example, I had a large image above the articles to make it look more visual and this is seen in Q
magazine (right), this is to make the reader more interested in the magazine without actually reading what the
magazine has to offer. Additionally, I included a box in the bottom right corner to advertise subscribing to the
magazine, this is seen in a lot of magazines and the example that I’ve got is from NME. I added this as I thought it
would make the contents page look more realistic, therefore it follows the conventions of magazines.

6. House style
My house style is seen throughout my magazine; red, white and black. By keeping to a house style I am following
conventions of magazines because without a house style I think magazines would look messy and unprofessional.
For example, Q magazine keeps to a white and red scheme throughout all of their magazines, this also allows the
readers to identify the magazine. Additionally, I edited all my images the same, therefore I am keeping to a
theme with my images. I didn’t want to edit my images all differently as I don’t think that would look
professional.