The document discusses how the magazine cover and contents page were designed to follow conventions from real music magazines like NME and Clash, while also attempting to challenge some conventions. Key points include using a model giving a rude gesture on the cover to portray rebellion as seen in NME covers, using a three-color scheme for continuity, and placing the masthead and cover lines over the model in standard locations but trying different masthead arrangements. Images and quotes from featured artists are used on the contents page along with a mix of shots following magazine conventions.

1. Ways which my magazine uses, challenges or develops conventions and forms of real media magazines/products

2. Most of my inspiration for this magazine has come from NME’s special edition covers. Here you can see that I have used the common convention of making the model’s head in the top third of the magazine. This enables potential readers to see who they will be reading about when the magazine is on the shelf. The conventional model for a magazine usually has a blank expression and is looking directly into the camera. I have followed this convention as I believe it creates a relationship with the reader and gives the cover a greater impact than if the model was looking away.The model shows an element of being rebellious in the NME magazine by smoking whilst in a photo shoot, so I decided to carry this through into the design of my magazine cover by making the model give a rude gesture towards the reader. This sense of rebellion is intriguing to the audience who I am aiming at (unisex aged 15-25). I also looked into more NME covers that used this type of image on their front covers and found this one of Jarvis Cocker:I thought that this image had a lot of impact, therefore I thought it was a good idea to copy this and use intertextuality within my magazine. Although Jarvis Cocker has his lip curled, I think that the model on my magazine has the same effect and I feel that the hand signal used nicely links in with the cover line of “I Do What The F*** I Want” as they both show rebellion and link together to make the readership very intrigued as to what may be inside my magazine. I also designed the vest top of the model to ensure I got exactly what I wanted with my image. I designed this motif:using Photoshop elements 9.0 and then had it professionally printed by a t-shirt printing company. I believe this adds intrigue to the subject’s personality and makes the magazine more appealing to the indie genre. Finally, I ensured that the nails of the model and the motif on the vest top were exactly the same colour, this shows continuity and is used on the NME cover with Laura Marling’s mug.

3. I was looking at mastheads of the magazines I took inspiration from and noticed that they all looks very similar. They all have a large, bold heading that covers the top third of the front cover or the image fills up the area that the masthead does not cover. For example, NME:The NME masthead only covers the left half of the upper third of the magazine, however, they cover up the right third with the top of the model or the image they are using. On the other hand, CLASH magazine use a lot of room up with the masthead, covering the whole width of the magazine cover, and using the whole top third with it too:What I could not see anybody doing was different arrangements of mastheads, so I came up with some ideas to see if I could challenge some generic conventions of music magazines. I looked at placing the name of the magazine over a few lines so that it could act as a logo for the magazine, for example:I also looked at placing the masthead over three lines tosee if it could take up more room on the top third of the magazine so that it would conventions similar to NME. For example: However, after asking people from my target market group what they thought of my masthead design, they did not think that it looked like it said Output. Obviously, this was anissue, so I decided that this was not a convention I should be trying to challenge. I did decide to follow CLASH magazine’s idea of taking up the whole width of the magazine in the upper third of the cover, however, I did not take up the whole top third, as I did not find it aesthetically pleasing. There was too much going on with a masthead of such size. I said in my pitch that I wanted my magazine to be simplistic, so by reducing the size of the masthead to that of CLASH, I think it gives my magazine a reasonably sized masthead. I also looked into the colour of the masthead and saw that in the NME magazines I was taking inspiration from coloured their masthead the same colour as some of the cover lines, which were the same colour as a focused part of the image. I loved the idea of this continuity, so I used this in my magazine. An example of NME using this convention is on the BiffyClyro special edition cover: This use of the same colour also emphasises the coloured part of the image and is very aesthetic. I asked people my target market group and they said that they would be more attracted to this type of magazine as the one colour stands out to them.

4. The main cover line is of a font size that is slightly smaller than the masthead, but large enough to grab the reader’s attention. I have laid the main cover line over the image as I saw it on an NME special edition cover of Rihanna:I thought that by doing this I was not leaving the imagecompletely plain, but not covering up all the space possible as I still wanted to keep my magazine simplistic. The colour of“Laura” in the main cover line is the same colour as her top, I did this as many other magazines abide a colour scheme of only three colours, I ensured that I did this as it is a very generic convention and also keeps my magazine to its purple, white and black colour scheme. I wanted to have this colour scheme as it gives my magazine a sense of identity and shows continuity and professional qualities.By using an offensive term for the main cover line, I not only thought it would show a rebellious side to attract my target market group but also thought that it would help my magazine fit into the “indie” genre of music as NME use this very often, here are a few examples:I decided that the use of a swear word in the main cover line intrigues the reader to the page in which they feature, which is the idea of the front cover, so I used this convention.Again, the continuity of colour is used in my main cover line, the purple in the cover line is the same as the masthead, which is the same as the motif on the vest top which is the same colour as the nails of the model. This is purposely done to abide colour schemes, show continuity, intrigue the reader and for aesthetic purposes.The image I have used is a mid-shot. The reasons why I have chosen this type of shot is because it is the most commonly used type of shot from my inspirational magazines. This shot also, according to the male gaze theory is a “practical” gaze, showing that the model is concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, her mouth is closed, her eyes are object-directed, and has a slight frown. I applied the male gaze theory to give the model a blank expression to emphasise her carefree attitude. I believe that by having this portrayed in the image, it helps the magazine fit into the indie genre.I also looked into the theory of the golden spiral and applied it to the front cover of my final magazine :As you can see it is not a perfect fit, but it is pretty close. The idea of a golden spiral is that your eye is drawn to the centre of the image and the golden spiral is said to be the path of your eye.Finally, I used a very generic convention of stating a list of bands that this issue of magazine will include,I took the inspiration for my “The State Of Music Today” mainly from NME’s special edition covers but also from CLASH magazine:

5. On my contents page, I used a convention of taking up the left third of the page with a list of what is going to happen throughout the magazine. I took the inspiration for this from Kerrang! Magazine. Kerrang! Magazine gave their right third column a ragged, ripped effect, however, I wanted my magazine to be simplistic, yet informative and still aesthetic to the reader. I used their convention of placing the front cover at the top of this column and also I thought that the white writing on black background looked very eye catching – it also abided my colour scheme of three colours: purple, white and black. The idea of keeping the black, white and purple colour scheme through the front cover, contents page and double page spread is to show continuity and show that the magazine is special as we have a new star within it. It also gives the magazine a sense of identity.Also, I looked at NME’s contents cover and saw that they used a lot of images on one particular issue and loved the layout of it. So I followed the irregular convention of using more images than writing. Here is the example of NME’s contents:By using this irregular convention it is less daunting to look at and will hold a reader’s attention for longer. Italso shows that this magazine is unisex and does contain some males too.On my contents page I decided to use a wide range of different camera shots. I used a long shot, a mediumclose up and also a cut in shot of the subject’s legs. My reasoning for the shot of the subject’s body from thehead downwards is because I saw the following image on the internet: and thought that it would make the ideal album cover for an artist of the up and coming Indie genre. I used graffiti art on my magazine contents page as it is ahuge up and coming type of art and is starting to be more widely respected.Finally, you can see that I also used a convention that I took inspiration from NME of using an intriguing quote from the page in which the artist is featuring on and then describing what else you may expect to find on the page they feature on. The page number which they appear on is then displayed within the image on the contents page.

6. On my double page spread, I looked into how NME structures their interview pages. I saw that a main convention they used was to take up one whole page with an image of the band – the band are usually looking into the camera. An example is:I edited the picture of the subject on mymagazine so that the double page spread has more impact on the reader and if the they are flicking through the magazine, I believe that this would catch their eye and intrigue them with such a pose. The male gaze theory suggests that the model is giving a seductive look, this is where the model looks: indifferent, self-sufficient, arrogant, slightly insolent, haughty, aloof, confident, reserved; full lips slightly parted, and obtrusive hair. The eyes usually look the reader in the eye, as perhaps the woman regards herself in the mirror. The shot has a little more length than a mid shot, so shows variety from the contents page and front cover.I also looked into another convention that is not regularly used, but I deemed it appropriate for my magazine and this is thequotation from the interview written by the side of the subject. I made sure the colour in the quotation was the same as the colour from the front cover and the contents page. This purple, black and white theme runs throughout my magazine to show continuity and gives my magazine a professional finish. As you may have well noticed, the colour of the model’s nails and the colour of the motif on their vest top is all the same shade of purple.I looked into other conventions of double page spreads and saw that a commonly used convention is a play on words for the masthead of the double page spread. I decided to follow this convention; the name of the subject’s album is “The Red Knee Monster”, so I named the masthead “Are You Red-y?” – I thought that this would create a sense of anticipation as to what this artist may be like in the interview.In my interview I used several conventions, not just inspired from NME, but widely used conventions that you would expect to find in most magazines. The first convention is a small, introductory paragraph to tell you what to expect within the article followed by a large, capital “L” to start the whole interview off. I have seen this done in many magazines, some examples of where this convention is used are: Another convention I used was to split the text into three columns as this is the most commonly used number of columns in the magazines I have taken my inspiration from. The text is then split up by some quotes that are randomly pulled out of the text. These quotes are usually some of the best in the article so that the reader has to read what the interviewer has asked in order to receive such a response. An example of this is: Also, I thought that the text looked a little plain by itself so I used the motif from the subject’s vest top and faded it, to give it extra impact. The final convention I used on this page was only using one page number, despite the article being a double page spread. This allows more room for text and is more aesthetic to the reader.