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

FRONT COVER

Research:

Initially I looked into the genre of alternative music magazine, I noticed some of these didn’t conform to the key conventions- masthead, main image, main features, taglines, plugs, key quotations, footer, a header, price, date, skyline and barcode. Therefore I decided to base my design’s around NME magazine designs, which incorporate the majority of these elements however not usually all the conventions. This would not include quotations, features, header or a skyline. Further more it would include a masthead, feature artists, a main headline, a plug, barcode, date and price.

FRONT COVER INSPERATION

I chose this as my model front cover, I liked the style that it had I also liked the placement of the information and I thought the colour scheme worked well. They seemed to use many of the conventions that are needed on a front cover of a magazine. I wasn’t to keen on the idea of a skyline so I didn’t add one onto my magazine, but everything else I liked so tried to use as many as the same conventions as I could that worked well.

MY FRONT COVER

My front cover has used conventional features such as a footer, a plug, the masthead, barcode and sell lines. Plugs usually introduce a promotional feature however mine simply announces awards to be won. This is a non conventional addition I made. On my front cover I have not used the conventions of a skyline, features and quotations from artists.

Main image

Plug

Barcode, date and price

Banner headline

Footer

Masthead

Plug

Sell Lines

Sell Lines

CONTENTS PAGE INSPERATION

My inspiration for my contents page is the NME “INSIDE THIS WEEK” page. This breaks the conventions as it doesn’t include one main image. It doesn’t include the artist on the front cover at all but on my contents page I challenged the use of the main image being on the contents page which I thought ended up working quite well. Also it doesn’t list everything that is in the magazine, only five or six features. It includes the date, images of the bands/artists, a subscription box and further information, a square box effect for each feature, the page numbers and quotes from the articles that the artist/band has said. It doesn’t include editors letters or the title of the magazine.

MY CONTENTS PAGE

My contents page uses the same concept of NME’s. Instead of using the term “INSIDE THIS WEEK”I have used my magazine name this challenges the normal magazine conventions. My contents page also challenges the conventions by not including a editors section and no main image. I have added the same amount of information about each band/artist that NME does as I think it is a reasonable amount of information. I have also added my own artist column which breaks the conventions as they would usually have page numbers but I like the simplicity without them.

Contents page masthead

Date

Images

Page Numbers

Feature explanations

Subscription box

Plug

MY DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

With my double page spread I didn’t have a inspiration to follow; I based it on my own thoughts of design. The conventions of a double page spread would be a main image, covering one whole page, a main title at the top of the page, the artists name, a drop cap at the start of the article, page numbers at the bottom of the page, the logo of the brand, a pull quotation, credits who wrote the piece and photo caption. I have made my double page spread in a very conventional way as I think this layout and all the conventions work well together, the only think I have done is not placed the page number at the bottom of the page and have placed them in the middle at each side.

Main image

Page numbers

Title

Article

Pull quote

Secondary image

Anchorage

Smaller secondary images

Side bar

Web link

Subheading

Sales

1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th Qtr

RESULTS

I asked 10 different people from the age range of 15 to 55 if they thought my magazine looked genuine due to the conventions of other magazines and if they believed mine challenges the conventions or is rather conventional.

Does my magazine follow the standard conventions of a music magazine?

Do you think my final design challenges of a magazine or obeys them?

YES

NO

DON'T KNOW

50%

30%

Sales

CHALLENGEOKAYDON’T KNOW

20%

60%

10%

30%

OVERALL

Overall I would suggest that my three final pages would all support would all follow the claim that I followed the conventions that go into a music magazine. I have usually included all the elements, however when I haven't included that it was usually down to how design looked without them. For example I felt like I didn’t need a skyline at the top of my front cover, as I already thought it had enough information on the front. The double page spread is although it appears to be unconventional, in actual fact the double page spread is rather conventional as it contains all of the main elements that a double page spread usually has. My design rarely challenges the conventions, however when I have challenged these conventions I believe I have made it look professional and realistic. I would suggest on the front cover that there should be more typography, possibly using a main quotation or including more artists as it seems fairly empty. On my contents page I would have included more images, possibly of other artist as many of my images are of Jake Bugg. And on my double page spread I would have add maybe some more pull quotes to break up the text and instead of having loads of smaller images I could have used one big main image on its own.