In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge
forms and conventions
of real media products?
DESIGNING MY MAGAZINE When designing my magazine I had to
consider the codes and conventions of other magazine in my chosen
genre, but also of magazines in general. After researching
magazines such as KERRANG! Q! and NME, I decided to focus mainly on
NME as I felt it was the most appropriate for what I had in mind,
although I did really like the layout style of Q
magazine-especially the contents page.
NME magazine in particular was similar to my magazine, but I
feel that mine covered the whole gender audience, as I feel that
NME is some times more gender bias for boys. With NME I felt that
their contents page was crammed with information and with their
basic colour scheme it sometimes didnt emphasise the different
stories-therefore I tried to adapt this into my work with the block
colours and strokes.
The photography techniques of NME were also very interesting.
They always featured artists that are popular and well known. As
for the pose/angle theyre very varied, for example the majority of
cover photos are just artists face, or a mid-body shot-usually not
with a prop(instrument) which supported my idea of using just a
head shot. I feel that this makes the audience focus more on the
artist themselves. I like the idea of using just a headshot because
it made it much less cluttered and more professional rather than a
mediocre pose with a guitar.
INSPIRATION-OTHER MAGAZINES
I used a colour that was bold and would create a contrast but
look professional. Its not only eyecatching but it fits in with the
image because of the natural colours the artist is wearing. Overall
I feel its very eyecatching, but its also easy on the eye and it is
not TOO in your faceHere is an example from NME. I loved the big
bold text and how the colour scheme is only 2 colours but works
well the colour of the artists hair. Furthermore I like that this
is a headshot, because it really focuses on the artist and other
backgrounds are distracting around it. Although I used a similar
style, I used a wider range of colours for my colour scheme as I
thought the range of colours are much more eye catching and
appealing than just the strict black and white scheme on the NME
magazine example, as I feel texts and colours are major selling
points of the magazine.. As for the photograph, after researching
and looking through a lot of examples I found that the headshot was
the most used on NME. I adapted this into my work, because I feel
it's much more eyecatching and adds a personal tone to it-like the
artist is looking out at the buyer. Again I thought carefully about
the clothes he wore and I feel through the his clothes I have
portrayed the 'indie' look, which I think will attract both genders
as it will attract boys for sort of 'fashion tips' and girls
because of the 'heart throb' factor.
Overall I feel the layout of my magazine fits the style and the
genre that I aimed for and has a real quirky look and feel. I think
that my magazine reaches out well to my target audience, both
genders and all the stories are appropriate and appealing for both
genders such as in the category of the types of stories included. I
took inspiration from NME, Q and KERRANG mostly as they are very
well known and popular.
Here is my magazine article/double page spread. Again with
everything else I did a lot of research into contents pages and
what I had to do to make it stand out. I needed to make my pages
look cool and original, matching the scheme of my contents and
front cover and the 'indie' genre. Not only this, I had to make it
appealing to both genders and with an appropriate story. When
researching I found that usually on the left there was a big
picture of the artist, sometimes left blank or
summarising/highlighting the story. I then adapted this into my
work as its a real convention of a music magazine. therefore will
attract in the audience and also looks professional. The photograph
I used gave it a nice edge, especially with the use of the guitar
as often, some double page spreads dont include props, just posing
or a close up of the artist/band-the photograph aswell also shows
off my photography skills with the use of depth of field. Also, the
image on the right, I decided to take a risk by replacing the usual
text or image of the artist with an album cover as you dont see
this usually-again I took the photograph and edited it myself on
photoshop. As for the font I kept it simple and consistent
throughout the whole spread as I felt this kept it looking much
neater and more professional. When deciding what style of article
to do I reseached a lot by reading magazines and seeing which
captured my attention the most-so I decided to do an interview as
it's interesting getting to know the artist and its a really big
eye catcher for fans as they want to read about him.
With my contents page, I used my college magazine and the
feedback I got to help produce my music magazine, which came in
handy and worked well. I took inspiration from both NME and Q!
Magazine as I felt that these were the 2 magazines that really
stood out for me as they use a variation of sizes in the
photographs which I think is an important factor because thats what
really catches the audiences eyes. So I decided to adapt this into
my work, making there be a large, centre photo that would really
attract the audience into looking at it-especially with the use of
the fish eye as it gives off a cool vibe. When looking at Q ,
although I know its a highly successful magazine there was a
variation of fonts used and I didn't really like this factor
because I think it looked a little messy, so I decided to keep mine
all the same font to keep it looking more professional. My aim of
my page was to keep it looking minimalistic but crammed with
imformation but so its not too busy. From taking inspriration from
Q and NME I think I did this well, espeshially with the use of the
colour scheme and the bold block titles which gives it a different
look making it more eyecatching. The topics on my page were mainly
based upon ideas from research and other magazines, such as
album/artist reviews, quizes/competitions etc.
From NMEs old layout I really liked the bar of artists down to
side-so without totally plagiarising I adapted my own style and
applied my theme of colours of the red, as I felt this was more
eyecatching and lively than the black and white. Furthermore I
added more categories in, such as 'FESTIVAL GUIDE' as this topic
came up as favourable in my market research questionnaire
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