Question 1:In what ways does your product

use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation of my Music Magazine

I feel that my Music Magazine’s Masthead is very typical of that of the famous Rolling Stone publication. This is due to the fact that the ‘synergy’ is almost identical – using a bold red font and adding a white ‘stroke’ to the font to add depth – however, mine is produced oppositely. The ‘banner’ is also similar – a large Masthead including a small date in white.

Similarly; I have also included a bold heading running along the bottom of the publication that indicates the name of the ‘Cover Star’.

Another feature of the Rolling Stone’s Cover that I believe my Music Magazine has adopted is that of using different sized fonts – in both capital and lower-case – to present the text running along the sides of the Front Cover to introduce the contents of the Magazine and draw in the reader.

This is my Masthead that I feel is a good comparison to that of the Rolling Stones. This is due to its use of colour. I believe that in order to make the Masthead more like the Rolling Stones’ one would be to change the font and make the letters ‘tighter’ together.

Both cover images used in the magazines share many similarities; but I also feel that my use of Black and White Photography and the Background enables a ‘challenge’ of the typical magazine publication conventions.I have used a Close-up Portrait image of my ‘cover star’ as did Rolling Stone which when adding in the fact that both subjects are looking directly into the camera; helps to draw in the possible reader as it will seem as if they are looking at them.

Also featured on my Cover that is not on the Rolling Stone cover is my Plug which enables the reader to ‘WIN WITH ICON!’

Unintentionally, I feel as if my Magazine Cover does actually represent many of the ‘typical’ forms and conventions of a Rolling Stone Cover – due to all the comparisons shown in the annotations.However; in addition to the many similarities; I also feel as if I have attempted to somewhat challenge the stereotypical conventions of Music Magazines. When researching into music magazine covers; I found that the majority (if not all) music magazine covers featured a colour image against a white background – and if the white background wasn’t present, it was a complete close-up of the cover star with no apparent background showing.To enable my magazine to not conform to the stereotype, I chose to use a very powerful black and white image that I truly believe relates well to my chosen synergy, name of publication and overall theme of the magazine. I have used a running colour scheme of Black, White and Red throughout my magazine as I feel this is very chic and stylish, making my publication appear professional and to draw in the target market. I am pleased that my magazine is not a complete replica of any of the mainstream, popular magazines out there at the moment as I feel that this will enable it to sell well as it has become differentiated from the typical conventions we usually see.In order to develop my magazine further to make it more ‘unique’ I think I would need to work on using a different Masthead colour so as not to make it so similar to the masthead of the Rolling Stone publication.

This is a Double Page Contents Page featured in Q magazine that I looked into when making my Contents page. I feel that there are a few similar elements present in both my Contents Page and in the one from a Q publication, including the fact that I have used a wide variety of

imagery with the page numbers featured layered over the top of the picture to demonstrate to the reader where to find the people/person in the image.I have also used a very similar colour scheme with my Contents Page (Black, White and Red) which actually was unintentional. The main difference is the fact that I have used a whole page featuring just one image with text layered over to represent the cover star and the article to follow.

As previously explained, my Contents Page contains the first page of the spread featured as just one image of the ‘cover star’ and text layered over the top to initially introduce the Contents Page and also the cover stars featured article.Another difference between my contents and that of Q’s contents is the fact that I have used two different contents page lists to add interest. I started off with “featured’ articles, which is a collection of the articles relating to all the images present.Furthermore, I have used a ‘plug’ in my contents page which is a “WIN WITH ICON!” feature (that’s also shown on the contents page) to again, help to entice a reader.

For the production of my Contents Page I feel that I have very obviously challenged the typical conforms of a Music Magazine Contents Page. I have displayed this ‘challenge’ to the conventions of the already established magazines by my use of Photography in the Spread.I am especially pleased with my use of the one page centered around the one image of the ‘cover star’ as I feel that it demonstrates my use of photography skill and is very relevant to the spread. The chosen image could not of been more ideal for the purpose, this is due the fact that along the right hand side of the image there is only black ‘space’ where I could very easily and neatly add Headings, Subheadings and nested text to present the subject of the picture and the spread to the reader. For the second page of the spread I chose to keep it fairly simple so as not to deter the focus away from imagery – however looking back now; I feel as though I would like to add more colour and ‘play’ around with the compositions of the featured images.I have taken inspiration from the Q magazine Contents page and I believe that having not researched into the typical music magazines currently on the market, then I would of struggled to produce my contents page to the standard I feel I have achieved.

This is a Double Page Spread Article from an NME publication that I feel best represents my cover.I have chosen this spread to analyze alongside my finished article because when researching in past NME spreads, I realised that typically, NME and other popular music magazine publications, tend to produce their articles with the imagery either covering the whole spread or at least ¾ of the

spread so that it seems to ‘spread’ across the majority of the two pages. However, this article (and mine) have both gone against the stereotypically article and just used the image on the left hand side of the article with the Heading or Title layered on top of the image. I have also placed a smaller image that relates to my written article in the bottom right hand corner, which is also shown here in the NME article spread.

By producing this Double Page Spread article in InDesign to the theme I chose, I feel as if I have diversified my magazine away from the typical conforms and conventions of the Music Magazines produced today.I feel that throughout my magazine I have managed to ‘challenge’ the stereotypical conventions of the

magazine industry. I feel that by using Black and White Photography and using a theme of Black, White and Red throughout my magazine publication; I have therefore been able to create a very unique music magazine that I believe doesn’t conform to the typical conventions, though I have also many elements that have been heavily inspired by the work of NME, Rolling Stone and Q.