Evaluation Draft Question 1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?
During the research stage we looked at a wide variety of music magazines, as well as work of students from previous years. Looking at these, the more successful magazines, or those that got the highest marks were those that followed conventions of magazines. The reason for this is that the people who produce the magazines know exactly what will make their target audience buy the magazine. They know what kind of cover star is needed; and how they need to be represented. After looking at the golden spiral concept, we can also see magazines are designed to draw your eye to the most aesthetically pleasing part of the page. However, some magazines do challenge these conventions, but generally because they know it will appeal to an audience; for example, they could produce a particularly artistic photograph that although doesn't match the conventional mid shot would still sell the magazine. This is also true in the case of controversial magazine covers, such as ones featuring nudity or distasteful aspects. 
Other conventions rely heavily on the rule of three; the way the page is divided portrait and landscape, the colour scheme, and the different fonts used. The masthead always goes across the top of the page, either starting from the left or centre. Most magazines have at least 60 pages, and section their contents pages into easier to find categories and feature a relative amount of images. Other conventions, such as the colours used relies heavily on the genre of the magazine, and the audience in which they are appealing to such a male or female.


When it came to the designing the magazine, I took strongly into account these conventions, purely because they have proved to make the magazines pleasing for the audience they are designed for. I took a lot of inspiration from NME and Q magazine as these are the magazines that most interest me, and I would be included in my target audience, of older teenagers and people in their early twenties, slightly more aimed at a female perspective, despite these magazine possibly being more aimed at men. 
My masthead is conventional of real magazines; it is the largest text on the page and is bold and clear to read, as well as eye catching, It is also positioned in the top left, which again follows convention. I feel using the font 'Haettenscheiller' for the masthead matched the genre and its simple and straight to the point; which is what I wanted to convey about my magazine. My choice of the title I think also reflects the magazine, a convention seen particularly in fashion magazines as well as music magazines, such as Vogue or Elle. I layered the masthead behind the photograph as I felt it was still readable and that having it above would take some focus away from the image, developing the idea from inspiration taken from other magazines that also do this, such as NME, which often partially cover the masthead. Black was part of my colour scheme and I felt that if i was using a white background, such a stark contrast would be most effective for the masthead in terms of making it stand out on a magazine shelf.


The graphology of the pages is possibly the part of my magazine in which I have focused most on following conventions of music magazines. The reason for this is simply because these magazines have been edited and tested to make the most appealing layout for the reader in a way in which they will find most enjoyable and pleasing to look at and read; so following this layout would be most beneficial in the designing of my magazine as I know that the layout will work successfully. I think the layout is particularly successful on the contents page I have produced as I really felt I achieved what could be called a professional look to the page. The inspiration was taken from NME and Q especially as these are of the same genre as well as the contents pages I analysed and therefore had the most knowledge of how to achieve. The layout consists of a title area, carrying over the masthead and a page title of 'contents'. Below this are three columns (following the rule of three) with a selection of images and  a detailed contents, with clear page numbers and titles for each page listed. This is followed by a brief description, all of these following the colour and font schemes carried over from the front cover. The images fall the to the right hand side of the page, with some layering, as I found the pages with images grouped together the most effective on a contents page; seeing these pictures as you open the magazine would immediately draw your eye to these features, so I can encourage the reader to take an interest in these features by matching them with a relevant image.

The photographs were also a key part to the magazine and possibly the hardest part to use the conventions as the photographs on real magazines have been taken by a professional photographer, so reaching that level as an amateur in this respect is difficult. This meant making the shots as easy as possibly and getting the subject as relevant to my genre as possible. When choosing a model I already had some criteria I had decided upon, for example I wanted to use a girl as I wanted to appeal to a female audience as well as male.  Then I looked at the young female artists in my genre and took inspiration from the photographs of them as this is a similar representation of how I planned to represent my artist. The clothing and the styling of the model was the key part, as well as the need for them to be photogenically and aesthetically pleasing. My model had short hair, which was fine, however I thought it would fit my genre if she had long hair as many of the female artists had long, imperfect, wavy hair; so we used extensions to achieve this. The hat was both a style and practical choice, it made the hair more look realistic as the models own and it matched the colour scheme and fitted the genre. I kept make up fairly simple, as I feel indie isn't a genre in which startling make up is necessary. The clothes again were fairly casual as I wanted to represent the artist as a musician rather than a  fashion icon. However I did match the clothes to some of the styles I had seen on female artists I had looked at such as Ladyhawke. I also kept the colour scheme of black, white and red in mind, choosing neutral greys and blacks or a checkered red shirt as I often found on magazines that the colour scheme and the predominant colours in the photograph coordinated. I think the setting of the brick wall is effective as it makes her a little more interesting than just being in a studio. This possibly challenges the conventions of magazines as I would say the majority of photo shoots are conducted in a studio. However, and particularly with the indie genre, some artists are pictured in a more realistic setting, possibly to reflect the nature of the music and how it is more 'natural' sounding. I feel that for my particular photo it makes the artist more accessible to the reader and easier to relate to which was my aim. I took some photos with an acoustic guitar as I felt this represented the artist and her music well, however none of the photos I felt fitted in with the magazine and so they weren't included. I also found that not many artists include their instruments in their photo shoot, very often it is just them alone. This can be because they don't play or are the singer in a band, but even those who do rarely feature with their instrument I found, so I didn't feel it was something I needed to include, just an option. 


The photographs I took were widely varied so when it came to choosing the best ones I could  have options. After taking the photos I looked at which ones captured the golden spiral rule and the angles which applied best to my genre, as well as the poses that worked well. The shots I personally found most effective were the ones where Izzy (model) wasn't giving eye contact; I felt it made her more interesting and that the photos worked well. However, it would go against convention to use a photo with no eye contact on the cover. This convention proved to be necessary as with my mock ups I found that no eye contact meant less connection to the reader on their first impression. However I found it worked well on the double page spread when their was more text to accompany the photo. 


I used one of the, if not the most conventional colour scheme for a music magazine as it fitted my genre and the style of my magazine well. The colours reflect not only the genre but all the artists in the genre I feel. 


Overall, my media product heavily relies on the use and development of conventions in real magazines. I haven't particularly challenged the conventions as I felt this would simply make the magazine appeal to my target audience less.