Evaluation Activity 1

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

Marakesh Jarvis

Cover/ TitleMy magazine was based around the genre of ‘indie-pop’. I wanted to capture the look of a stereotypical indie magazine, but mix that with the look that pop magazines own. Magazine like ‘Billboard’ that feature music that is top in the charts. This is why my magazine is monochrome with only the colours coming from parts of my band’s clothing and then use pops of colour with for example, in my title.

The main inspiration for my masthead came from the magazine ‘Little White Lies’. I copied the circle idea and this is one way my magazine uses forms and conventions from media products that already exist. I also took the idea of the barcode being in the circle, because I really liked the look of it and I felt my target audience would also find it inspiring and quirky.

A way I challenged the regular conventions was using the two circles. I liked the structure of this as I used a gradient effect. I thought this effect would capture the attention of the public.

My colour scheme was blue and I liked the look of these blue shades on the page. I thought this shade was the most attractive and also the most recognisable as lots of companies and institutions already use blue circles as logos to advertise their work. This will make my magazine more comforting to look at. The ‘Odeon’ company have a blue circle that represents their company and this is also where I took my inspiration from. For the font type I took inspiration from ‘Little White Lies’, ‘NME’ AND ‘Dazed and Confused’. You’d probably already have noticed the ‘N’ appears in both my magazine (‘New Tab’) and ‘NME’. I was aiming to go for a font similar because it is big and clear and stands out. If the title stands out then the magazine will be more eye catching then hopefully other magazines will look on the shelf.

The barcode in my mast head runs across the two circles rather than just the one, which differs from my inspiration of ‘Little White Lies’

Cover/ LayoutThe actual model for my cover takes a ‘Z’ model approach, rather than an ‘F’ or an ‘H’. This is because I tried to replicate a ‘standard’ layout of a magazine. The majority of magazines go for the ‘Z’ model because the eyes are trained to look over a cover of a magazine in that direction in their mind.

Just like the magazine ‘Little White Lies’ I kept all the relevant information inside the circle shape. Instead of ‘Truth and Movies’ I had the issue number and the month of release inside my ‘NEW TAB’ circle. I felt it allowed the photograph to be unique and stand out on its own too.

I also followed the idea of having the artists’ name as the only other piece of text on the cover. I felt this made the design simple and also gave credit to the artist in an attractive way. The text font I chose was clear and I made the word ‘AEONIAN’ very large in a white colour so it contrasted with the rest of the cover and stud out.

Cover/ PhotographyThis was the group photo of the band that I decided to use for my final cover of ‘NEW TAB’. I had taken lots of group photo test shots before deciding which one looked best. I tried different formations and positioning and felt this photo of the band represented a better look, because each member can be seen fully and clearly and the look of them together seems to fit well. I particularly wanted the whole band on the cover because they are my cover artist and I wasn’t a big fan of having two members simply on the cover to promote them. I tried this the first time I made the cover magazine in my draft and didn’t like it.

With girl bands and bands in general there is usually a certain formation the photographer follows when including them in a photoshoot. The staggering of people is common and with a band like the band I have included (who have a main singer etc.) will have the most recognisable to the public members at the front. Sometimes, for obvious reasons the smallest members are put at the front and this is the case with the majority of band photoshoots because then the positioning is easier to work with as all members of the band can be seen clearly.

I decided to opt for this mid-long shot I snapped of the girls.

I felt I challenged some status quos that other magazines follow as the photograph I chose in the end had been edited to my liking, in order to create a more indie vibe. I put a slight edit of ‘posterize’ on my photo to allow it to seem more faded than crystal clear.

With the camera work, I opted for my photos to be taken inn natural light away from the studio light and the studio location. I felt taking the photos in a natural light and in different location gave the band more personality. It added to the unique sense of style that runs throughout the indie genre of music and I felt the band suited the outdoor locations better, because it represented them as a natural, down to earth band. I felt the audience would relate better and it also challenges the studio light. The outdoor location photographs allows the magazine to stand out against other music magazines.

Bands in general have stereotypical photo poses and this is something I actually wanted to capture. I wanted to experience taking photographs of a band of 4, which is obviously a lot more difficult than just one singer striking a pose. One main artist may also have their own unique poses they perform. Sometimes photographers will purposely put a band in a ‘stereotypical band position’ in order to grab the reader’s attention, as that is what they recognise and are comfortable with at looking at.

Hinds were an example girl band of who I was inspiring to copy when taking snaps of my girls.

A band shot like this one above symbolises professionalism and seriousness in the business. I decided to go for a lot of group photos that showed staggering, as in lead singer positioned in the centre and guitarists behind with the drummer in the back. Also, this way it is easy to recognise members roles in the band. Not only will that, but fans and people who already know about the band relate to the shots when reading. This shot here is a standard ‘band in a line’ structure formation. I wanted at least one of these photos to appear in my magazine because it is a simple pose. The shot is a long shot so the girls can show their great styles and also I placed the girls wearing denim jackets beside the girls wearing the black jackets. I thought this was a smart move as not only does it show the girls and their differences in personalities but it allows the photograph to be eye-catching and it will seem set up. Again, professionalism for my magazine

The ‘canon’ effect.

I thought having a mixture of both serious looking photographs and photographs that resembled parts of the girls personalities would be good, because there is no fun in reading an article about a band if the photos that go alongside it are boring.

ContentsI used the October 2013 issue of CLASH as inspiration for my contents page. I liked the look of the separated sections and columns and figured this would be clear and easy to understand on the page. It is easy to locate things and the layout is extremely neat and tidy.

CLASHNEW TABSomething that I did to change this was obviously put my information on a white background and this was because I thought a running colour of white made the magazine seem new and clean. I liked the way the CLASH magazine had been done, however I wanted to include a difference in the way I used the font type.

This was the way my title of ‘CONTENTS’ looked on the page. There is a very faint blue line that runs across the bottom of the text and this is something I also

copied from CLASH, (as the rest of my sub headings have lines under them too). However, CLASH doesn’t appear to have a line running under their title of the

contents page, instead it has a bold straight line underneath the title with a bigger gap between the two items; so this is something I changed up a little in order to

create a unique look for my magazine.

Contents

Because my cover was a fairly simple design, I wanted to carry on with that representation by creating a simple design for my CONTENTS page. The structure of the CONTENTS page is organised and clean. I kept all the photos at the top of the page and all the text at the bottom half, so it is clear for my audience.

Just like this MOJO magazine, my magazine owns a simple layout. The photo owns its own spacing regarding the photos and the text and then the title. I wanted to keep the indie genre running throughout and this is why I opted for a simple design as many indie styled magazines have a clean layout. The thing that is slightly different with my own magazine is that the page number is on the left hand side of the page rather than the right hand side.

Contents / PhotosThe photographs that I chose for the this page of my magazine were inspired by the photoshoots I had looked at by the bands HAIM and HINDS. The individual close-up head shots of the girls were inspired by the individual shots of the band HAIM. I felt it gave more personality to the band and created a fun piece of media product for the audience to look at. Focusing in on each member was something I wanted to do, because it showed how they were down-to-earth, happy people. This represents the genre even more as they are an ‘indie-pop’ style girl band.

The group photos that surround the headshots are all taken against a graffiti wall. This location was one of my favourite locations to shot in, because I felt it represented the indie genre more than ever. I was firstly inspired by the photo I saw of HAIM on Pinterest, so decided to take my own cover band to a graffiti location to take some shots. The photos are very faded and have that ‘edgy’ effect on them, so they are more ‘indie looking’. I felt the audience would be attracted to these kind of photos too. The use of the 4 similar images being used in a cluster was something I thought of myself as I felt this staggering of them seemed unique and quirky.

Double Page SpreadWith my double page spread, I was inspired by lots of different things all together, meaning this page shares similarities with many other media products, yes, but challenges many products also.

The two pages do not merge as one, so basically I have two obvious separate pages an this is because I spilt my double page spread in half when editing on it in order to make it easier for me. So, my magazine doesn’t take the layout of the NICKI MINAJ example, but rather shares similarities with the layout of the DAVID BOWIE double page spread example. I feel that the layout that takes two separate pages almost, are a lot easier to read.

Instead of having a photo one side of the double page spread and having text on the other side I opted for having both on both sides. I felt this made things different and quirky. I wanted the audience to feel like they were experiencing something different. I also did this because there were a lot of things I wanted to include about the band, therefore it made the double page spread about them seem rather busy.

Double Page SpreadThe blocks of text and photos were inspired by the ‘NME’ magazine piece that HAIM did. Especially the quote that is in the centre of the article.

I decided to block some of my sub-headings on my double page spread in black boxes and this was inspired by the magazine ‘DAZED AND CONFUSED’. The first thing that appears at the top left hand corner of the page is ‘#INCOMING…’ and this it what I liked in the indie style magazine ‘DAZED and CONFUSED’.