My media product uses and develops conventions of real music magazines. I looked to VIBE magazine as inspiration for its urban style and inclusion of music, fashion, and celebrity topics. While drawing from VIBE's overall layout and photography techniques, I modified the content and presentation to better suit a female audience. For example, my magazine cover features a glamorous female model in a statement pose to appeal to women. The interior article layout similarly draws from conventions of magazines like Cosmopolitan while adding a unique graphic pattern to maintain an urban feel. Overall, the magazine develops conventions by adapting successful aspects of other publications to a new target demographic.

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

2. Designing my magazine
• When designing my magazine I had to take into consideration the codes and conventions of
other magazines from my chosen or similar genres, and magazines in general. I looked in
particular at other RnB/Pop music magazines, and especially at one called VIBE. VIBE
magazine is a highly successful RnB mag which I feel has a cool and urban style. It includes
artists that I would use, designs I feel are appropriate and effective, and also has add-in
topics such as fashion (which I chose I was going to add to my magazine) so it fit really well
as something I could use for inspiration.
• VIBE magazine in particular was significantly similar to my magazine, but mine covered a
more female audience (as I felt this is what the industry was lacking). I felt the layout of the
magazine pages worked well, they were quite minimalistic on some, yet crammed pack with
words and detail in others. Although I liked the individual pages as they were, I felt they didn’t
work together that well. For these reasons I decided to go not fully minimalist, and not fully
crammed, and met some where in the middle as I had an example of how well it would work
(or an example of what wouldn’t work).
• The photography techniques of VIBE were also very interesting. They showed the models
(who were always artists, and mainly well known and popular ones) as many things, such as
cool, edgy, unique to attractive, sexy and fashionable. I took multiple photos, some with
musical props and some without and I have to say I preferred the photos without them. I was
glad when I noticed how in VIBE photographs the artists hardly, if ever, actually had a piece
of music apparatus or equipment like microphones or a guitar for instance (which supported
my idea). I feel this is not only so there is a soul focus on the artist them selves, but also
because in this particular genre the artists themselves very rarely play the instruments
themselves and often use sounds made in a studio, DJ’s or pre recorded tracks. For this
reason having musical props were not as necessary. I liked this set up also because it meant
a less cluttered page, and gave more ground for variations of poses and stances etc.

3. Other Music Magazines
• Here are some music magazines that match my magazine
genre (Rnb/Pop/HipHop).

4. Here is an example of a
I used a colour which VIBE magazine cover
was bold and attractive with Chris Brown. I loved
to my audience (red) the way the contents of
which connotes passion, the magazine were in list
relating to my readers form down the side of
love for music. Plus the the page, and felt it
colour is quite strong worked well and looked
and bold, which means it attractive too. The
is not only eye catching colours on the page
but fits in with the image were consistent (with
of the model and the fact white and green) and
that she looks mirrored this with the
independent and fierce. I black and red. I used the
took into consideration large mast head, but
other ideas too, such as rather than having it
how the colour fit in with beneath the image, I
the styling and worked had it on top so it was
well with the leopard easier to read to passers
print. by, and just felt it looked
better.
• Although I used a similar style I used a more glamorous theme, which relates and is more appealing to females. The
model is in a statement position, and is placed in a central position. This is because it is important for the text to now
over power the image, and for it to still stand out and catch the eyes of the audience. Plus, the cover is one of the
major selling points of the magazine, and with this model (who so to speak is actually a celebrity guest to the mag) it
would be a mistake to cover her up. I feel I made the person in my image look fierce, and fashionable. Female
buyers will be attracted to this as they may aspire to be that way, with confidence and style. The fashion on the
image may also draw in readers – leopard print is very popular this season, therefore it will call out to those who see
it.
• Overall, I feel the layout of my magazine fits the style and genre of music I was going for, and has an urban and cool
feel about it. My magazine is modelled off not only music magazines, but magazines for females such as
cosmopolitan and company as this was the target audience I was going for, and the magazines in question are well
known and popular for women and girls. However I did use the influence of VIBE magazine which is a well known
R&B and hip-hop magazine, but includes gadgets, fashion and style too.

5. • Here is my magazine article/double page spread. I needed to make sure that the pages looked cool and fresh, and
matched the urban feel of my magazine. Not only this, but I had to ensure it appealed to females too, which I
addressed with interesting colours and a variety of fonts. The graphic pattern reflected my ideas, and gives it a modern
and funky style. I particularly like the first page, with the bold cursive font standing out to readers and in a way
reflecting the artist. I thought that placing the photograph on top of the writing gave an individual edge to the page and
the variation of photography and poses of the model showed off my camera skills. I felt that the images had to reflect
females interests, such as fashion as well as music, hence my use of in style ideas (block colour and printed patterns).
As my artists does not actually play any instruments herself when performing, due to the style of music, I chose not to
add any music apparatus in the photographs. The simple font in the actual article is the same text as the cover, and
some parts of the contents page. I felt this was important as there was a hint of consistency in the design and kept it
looking neater and more professional.
• When designing this article I took a look at other magazines articles such as cosmopolitan/company, VIBE and Vanity
Fair When looking at these articles I noticed that they all had a pretty consistent theme, with the large title with the
persons name or topic idea, then an image of the person/topic too. Further more the writing lay out was generally in
the three-column set up (which I took on board). I feel my article met the general conventions of magazine articles in
the genre of music and attraction to females, and in my opinion it worked well.

6. • With my contents page, I tried to use my college magazine contents page as a model as I felt it was effective, but I
wanted to make it look more professional. To do this I added bands of colour, and blocked the images together. Not
only did this look neater and more organised, it made it easier to read and understand. I kept the general colour
consistency going throughout the pages, so felt it was important to carry it onto the contents page. I looked at
different magazine covers to see what they included. When looking at cosmopolitan there was variations of text, font,
titles, colours and images. Although I know this is a highly successful magazine I did feel that this page in particular
was a little messy, and had a bit too much going on. I looked further into the idea and saw that vibe had an extremely
different style all together. Rather then having lots of photographs on different topics the page generally consisted of
one large modelled photograph which was used as a background. Other than that, the page was rather minimalist
with a consistent colour used throughout and no other major aspects. I thought this worked very well and looked
appealing, but didn’t think it would work well for my magazine.
• I decided to merge them both together, I used four photographs which were blocked together, and then listed the
page numbers below these. My aim was to keep the page not busy and not minimalistic, but a place in between. The
colours behind the titles kept the theme going from my cover page, as did the text which I also used on the front. I
used the page number box idea from my college magazine but felt it was unnecessary to use the multiple colours.
And finally, the topics on my page were based upon ideas from other magazines too, such as VIBE with its bits of
fashion and life stories of celebrities.