1. CONVENTIONS (EVAL Q1)
In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
(i.e. of music magazines)
3. During the research stage we looked at a wide variety of music magazines, as well as work of students
from previous years. Looking at these, the more successful magazines, or those that got the highest
marks were those that followed conventions of magazines or with backed up evidence and examples
went against those conventions. The reason for this is that the people who produce the magazines
know exactly what will make their target audience buy the magazine. They know what kind of model is
needed on the cover and how they need to be represented to what social groups and target audience.
After looking at the golden spiral concept, we can also see magazines are designed to draw your eye to
the most aesthetically pleasing part of the page. This would usually be the mast head top left of the
page (e.g. NME Magazine or Q) of a key part of the image. However, some magazines do challenge
these conventions, they do this because they know it will appeal to an audience. An example of this
would be Homme magazine or gentle woman placing there masthead at the top centre of the page and
including a black and white central image, this not as ‘appealing’ as a NME magazine with coloured mast
head or large image. Other conventions rely heavily on the rule of three, the way the page is divided
portrait and landscape, the colour scheme, and the different fonts used. The masthead nearly always
goes across the top of the page, either starting from the left or centre. Most magazines have at least 60
pages, and divide their contents pages into easier to find categories (for example reviews, new music
etc.) and feature a relative amount of images. Other conventions, such as the colours used relies heavily
on the genre of the magazine most commonly black, white and red, and the audience in which they are
appealing to such a males or females. Again certain magazines can go against these conventions the
colour scheme may not be the usual three colours and instead may be just black and white (e.g.
Homme, Dapper Dan). These unconventional magazines may also have a larger page count to the
normal conventional magazine magazines such as PORT and Clash have significantly more pages. Again
differential to conventional magazines the contents pages may not include images (e.g. Loud and Quiet
& Monocle) or may include images but not in a vast amount or in the usual boxed format (e.g. CLASH).
4. When it came to the designing the magazine, I took strongly into account these conventions, and convention
oppositions purely because in some cases the conventions made the product appear to be a magazine but also
going against the convention allowed me to create an alternative product different to anything else. I took a lot
of inspiration from Loud & Quiet, CLASH and The FLY as these are the magazines that most interest me and I
read on a regular basis. Another key factor for me when choosing these ‘zines was the intended target
audience. The audience I wanted to aim my final product at included individuals similar to myself. This
therefore meant that if I produced a product I would buy, it has worked well. My masthead is conventional of
real magazine as it is the largest text on the page, is bold, clear to read and stands out. This ‘The Sonorist’
masthead is also positioned in the top centre of the page, which again follows convention (e.g. Homme, Loud
and Quiet, Clash, The Fly). I feel using the polka dot themed bold font for the masthead, found on
www.dafont.com, matched the alternative genre as it is different to the normal. This would not be used before
on another magazine and the whole theory behind a new font every week is unique and quirky, this again
matching my alternative genre. This font and name combined indicates sophistication.
Sophistication is also a theme I wanted to portray. My choice of name was hard to come across after searching
through the thesaurus I trawled through my music library looking at band names, names of records and names
of songs to use as inspiration, this came up dry. Instead I looked at websites and blogs which I use on a regular
basis and based it around a fashion blog named ‘The Statorolist’ www.thestatorolist.com . I placed my
masthead above the photograph as I felt it was more readable and would stand out. The placement of my
masthead is unconventional as usually they would be seen under or over the main image (e.g. Kerrang,NME).
Black & White were the main parts to my colour scheme and I felt that if i was using a white background, black
text would make it look basic, simplistic, minimal and overlay like an old fashioned gentleman's newspaper.
Again this is against magazine conventions as three main colours are usually used
5. The graphology of the pages is possibly the part of my magazine in which I have
focused the most of my time on. The reason for this that I feel a minimalistic style
article can sometimes look bare and sparse. Personally I wanted to create a simple,
minimalistic contents and double page spread that stayed with my black and white
colour scheme while also appealing aesthetically to the reader and encouraging the
audience to read. I felt that although a lot of writing will be on the page if it is laid out
nicely and cleverly the audience will not mind reading it. I think the layout is
particularly successful on the contents page I have produced as I really feel it appears
professional, includes a lot of detail for example subscriptions and sections off the
pages well. These elements follow conventions which would be seen in most
magazines. The inspiration was taken from Loud and Quiet & CLASH especially as these
are of the same genre to what I wanted to make. I analysed three contents pages in
total and used the best elements from each. The layout consists of a title area, in space
named ‘Sonorist contents January’. Below this are two columns. One of these columns
included with a selection of images, subscription details, details of the magazine as a
brand and photography details. The overall aim was to create a detailed contents with
clear page numbers, clear and clever titles and short description of the article while
still keeping a minimalistic look and same colour panel as on the front page.
6. The photographs were also a key part to the magazine and possibly the most difficult part to use the conventions as
the photographs on real magazines have been taken by a professional photographer, so reaching that level as an
amateur who has never took photos like this is very hard. This meant making the shots as easy as possibly and
getting the subject as relevant to my genre as possible. When choosing a model I already had some criteria I had
decided upon, for example I wanted to use a male who appeared to be older than a teen, I did this because I felt
most artists within my chosen are older men or women, not kids. I then looked at the older male artists in my genre
as well as other males on fashion websites and took inspiration of style, clothing. facial hair, hair etc. The clothing
and the styling of the model was the key part, as well as the need for them to be photogenic but fit with my genre
and not look fake, artists in my genre tend to look rough or uncool. My model had long hair and stubble, I found
this perfect as it made the model appear older and suited my genre as it is not uncommon for long haired males to
grace the covers of magazines like Loud and Quiet, CLASH, NME and The FLY. Examples of these artists include
Justin Young from The Vaccines, Miles Kane and Dinosaur Jnr. The clothes were very casual as I wanted to represent
the artist as a rough up and coming musician rather than a well off, well established fashion icon. I did match the
clothes to some of the styles I had seen on older male artists I had looked at artists like Graham Coxon, Alex James,
James Murphy, Pete Doherty and Terry Hall. I also kept the colour scheme of black and white in mind, choosing
neutral colours or a patterned knitted jumper. I think the setting of a studio worked well as it kept the image simple
and clean. I would say this follows and breaks conventions. It follows conventions as front cover shots are usually
taken in a studio however images in the contents and on the DPS are usually taken at a realistic setting. The
photographs I took were widely varied so when it came to choosing the best ones I could have a vast amount of
choices. After taking the photos I looked at which ones captured the golden spiral rule and the angles and overall
feel which applied best to my genre, as well as the poses that worked well. I obviously decided not to include
images that where blurred or un photogenic. The shot I personally found most effective for the front cover was the
ones when George (the model) was giving eye contact; I felt it made him more interesting and the eye contact with
the audience would intrigue and entice. Using a nimage with eye contact is conventional. This convention proved to
be necessary as with my draft I found that no eye contact meant less connection to the reader on their first
impression. I found that the images with no eye contact worked better on the DPS as they where intriguing and
would make the reader stop on that page if flicking through.
7. Overall, my media product heavily relies on the use and development of a small
amount of conventions from real magazines but also challenges a lot conventions at
the same time. I feel challenging conventions allows my magazine to be unique and
alternative. Ultimately my magazine will stand out from others.
