In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

My media product uses various conventions of original magazines as well as challenging these as I adapted my magazine so that it appealed more to my target audience.

The title of the magazine -For the title of my magazine I didn’t get any inspiration of any original magazines. I came up with my magazine title because it relates to Electronic Dance Music in the fact that the songs are generally loud and the word relates to this sound volume, and the bass in the songs. I decided to spell it with a “z” instead of an “s” because it gives the word a unique edge and it will target my younger audience better as it makes the word sound cool and interesting. In the design of my title, I decided to use a fairly thick and bold font so that it stands out on the page. However, the title looks clean and professional which is my intention for the magazine. I added a slight piece of page furniture in “Issue 2” Jan 2016” as this added to the masthead and made the front cover look more professional and well designed.

Graphology/page layouts –The graphology of my front cover is very simple; I use one font in Xpress XF. I felt there wasn’t any need in using a different font as because of the variation in using capital letters and applying the bold text style to the writing it, they appear to be quite different on the page so there was some variety in how the text appeared on the page. I was still able to make different parts of the page stand out more than others because of this as well as manipulating text size, which is needed. This can be seen as unconventional, as typically a front cover would include different fonts. But I felt there was no need. For my cover line, DJ Greeno Exclusive, this isn’t your typical cover line as it makes the reader believe that the magazines all about him. Whereas it is not, it features a variety of elements within the Electronic Dance Music genre. I decided to have this as the cover line as it is the main story within the magazine and what the double page spread is based on. Therefore, the reader needed to be aware of this and that this should hopefully be eye catching for them as well as they are intrigued to see what he has to say in his interview. However, on the other hand, Mixmag and EDM weekly do have this type of cover line on their magazines also, which is another reason why I incorporated into mine also. It just isn’t typical to other genres of music. For the layout of the front cover, it was inspired by Mixmag. I felt the design looked very professional and neat and that was the intention of my magazine also. I wanted it to be professional while also being exciting for the reader. So I incorporated the style of having the boxes to have text in them as this complies with the “Z” design style of a front cover which I feel looks good. For my contents page, I again liked the way the mixmag magazine design the page. I incorporated this design into my own design. However, I developed the page into having the concept of having three images on the contents page. As I felt this made the page more engaging and interesting at first sight for the reader in having more graphical images to look rather than having one larger image and another image. However,

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

I did abide by the classical conventions of having a two column system within the contents page. Having images creating one column and another block of text to create the other. I felt this was the most professional and best looking way in creating the page. As I did try splitting the page into three columns and making the image slightly smaller and adding more text for the features section. But I felt this didn’t look quite as good as the classic two column design. For this page, I changed the font style for the masthead of the page to have a slight variety in fonts across the magazine; the font I picked was Century Gothic. This font looked cleaner and more professional for this page. I did keep the name of the magazine “Bangerz” the same as I felt there needed to be a consistency in the actual name of the magazine, but January 2016” and “Contents” were in Century Gothic as this looked better. This concept follows the stereotypical conventions of a magazine, in keeping the magazine name the same but changing other elements to have a variety. Which I agree with, and therefore applied to my own magazine. For my double page spread, I didn’t really follow a particular design, I just stuck by the general features that are applied to double page spreads e.g drop cap, pull quote, page furniture etc and implemented these into my design. I did abide by the convention of many magazines of having one half of the page being filled with a large image and the other half of the page being filled with the article. The article was based on an Exclusive interview as indicated by the cover line on the front page of the magazine. I would say that this isn’t a conventional way of designing the double page spread as typically they focus on a topic within the genre of music, whereas I have got an exclusive interview with a DJ start on mien which makes the magazine seem like it is one of the best within the genre as they are able to get interviews with big DJ stars. I also stuck to the stereotypical three column design for an article as this is the most professional and neat looking design I feel for an article and therefore I applied that. I decided to add another image into the article to make it more engaging. As the image links to the article and just makes the page stand out more to the reader. They see the image, become interested, get attracted to the drop cap and then begin reading the article. The font style throughout his double page has been kept consistent in Xpress XF. I felt through the use of the various colours and sizes with text being bold and not bold another font style wasn’t required as the page doesn’t look all the same and boring.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

Costumes, props, iconography used to reflect genre For the front cover, the model of the page is James Green (DJ Greeno). I tried different types of clothing to see which piece looked the most appropriate for my magazine. I chose to have him wearing a black silk jacket on the front cover. As the material appears to be quite expensive but not too expensive that the target audience can’t aspire to wear clothes like him. I also decided to have him wearing black shades along with black/blue beats ear phones (fit with the colour scheme). Through the use of this he appeared to look cool fitting the music genre. The beats headphones were used to make him look like a DJ. The fact that they are wireless as well makes him appear to be a cool DJ. This can be seen as being a conventional element of someone being a DJ, as other DJ magazines used shades and earphones which I though made the model look cool, so I wanted to implement that into my own design, as I wanted the same intention for my magazine. For the contents page, for the image representing page 62. I picked out clothing that fitted with the genre. The model on the left is wearing a pink crop top which is the common clothing for girls that go to music events/parties. For the model on the right, I chose this piece of clothing as it looks cool and fits with the Electronic Dance Music genre. Coupled with the fact that she is wearing bright lipstick and large earrings it makes her to appear to be at a party. For the model representing page 71 (SANG), I chose this top for him to wear as it is unique and stylish. This represents the audience research as it showed than many people within the genre also like to be unique. This element of clothing is and is not something everyone would wear on a daily basis. For the image representing page 84(DJ Greeno), I decided to make him wear a fashionable piece of clothing. Ralph Lauren being a recognisable brand for many people that

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

read the magazine. This gives the magazine a professional element which is what I wanted to achieve. I decided to change the props for this photo in using earphones instead of overhead ear phones. The reason behind this is because for the audience reading the magazine, it shows that they don’t have to go out and buy expensive beats headphones to be able to be a DJ and that a variety of equipment can be used. Allowing people to still aspire to be like him if they don’t have enough money. For my double page spread, I decided for him to wear the Ralph Lauren polo as I feel it looks neat and professional which fits the design of the magazine. It also portrays him to be a successful DJ if he has the money available to buy this clothing as well as the beats headphones. Showing that he is one of the best DJ’s in the world. For the image of SANG on the double page spread he is also wearing an inspirable brand in Palace. This jumper he is wearing looks very cool and fashionable, as well as the jumper being black and white fitting with the colour scheme on the page.

Genre and how the magazine cover, contents and spread suggest it –I feel my magazine design represents the Electronic Dance music genre very well. The magazine represents the genre well as the designs are bright and exciting which is what the genre is like. As this corresponds to bright colourful lighting within clubs. I have used colour effects on all of my pictures also to give them these exciting colours to them to represent the genre also. The colour scheme used of blue, white, yellow, purple and black for the majority of the magazine I feel looks exciting add professional in the way I have incorporated these colours. I decided to add the colour effect of pink on the contents page just to add to the eye catching nature of the page. But mainly through the types of clothing and props used in the magazine indicate that it is based on the Electronic Dance Music genre. As the pictures include beats, shades, and frames of dance moves portraying it to be in this genre.