R&B Magazine Evaluation

Anais Nzeza

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

he genre of my music magazine is R&B. To be able to create my own magazine, I looked at 2 different ‘VIBe’ magazines to support my ideas as they are also an R&B genre. These are the 2 magazines that appealed to me most on the left side due to composition and colour.

he mastheads in the example and in my magazine are in the same position, on the top of the page. This is to keep in line with the codes and conventions used in magazine layout. The reason why the masthead is at the top is to capture my intended audience as it is the first thing they will see. I have made my model to be in front of the masthead just like the ‘VIBe’ one to show the importance of the model, and to keep in place the conventional layout of magazines. Above the ‘VIBe’ mast head is the sell line. I have used a sell line too but I preferred to place it under my mast head. My sell line says “THE MAGAZINE WITH STYLE”. This represents that my magazine is full of the latest urban fashion and design which reflects my audience.

liked the idea of how the words touch each other closely in the ‘VIBe’ magazine for the main story, so I thought that I would use this example for my front cover. I wanted my main puff to be displayed diagonally across the image of the main focus so that the front cover doesn’t look so empty. Following the codes and conventions, I have written my main puff bigger than the other puffs on the left side of the cover just like in other magazines.

had typed into Google ‘magazine ‘barcode’ so that I could get a barcode for my magazine. I have used the example ‘VIBe’ magazine with the male artist, “Akon”, to make my barcode similar to the example. Just like the ‘VIBe’ example, I have put the web link and date of my magazine using the similar colours – I have put mine into two layers so that it was clear to read whereas the ‘VIBe’ magazine uses one layer. Above the barcode and the barcode itself, I have followed the code and conventions used in magazines and placed an issue number and sell price. The sell price is reasonable to suit my intended audience.

I have used the same headline from the other ‘VIBe’ magazine (with the female artist) to use as one of my headlines too because the words were attractive and suitable for my intended audience. I have made my text more bigger than the ‘VIBe’ one just so it fits my front cover well.

Following the codes and conventions, I have used the same positions of how the puff is positioned on the cover of the ‘VIBe’ magazine with the male artist. On the left side, there is the main text written in big, bold writing to show that it is related to the model. On the right side, there are two more topics written smaller. I focused on three colours just like the 2 ‘VIBe’ magazines so that the page doesn’t look too busy and so that it fits my age group and gender. I chose to have a smooth gradient background just like the other ‘VIBe’ magazine with the female artist. The only difference is that her background is in front of her face while I put my background behind my model to show a clear image of her as she is more important.

I have used a ¾ shot similar to the first ‘VIBe’ magazine example. I think this helps to show to my intended audience the characters of how the models are. I really like the idea of how I was able to use my model’s head shape to form the letter ‘A’ in my masthead ‘SWAGGA’ as at the same time she is in a good position on the cover.