Evaluation

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

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

My product included different conventions of real media products by looking at aspects like mastheads and fonts from the work of other music magazines and developing them to fit the genre of my magazine.For example for my masthead on the front page I tried to establish the style from both Q and NME as they have there masthead placed in the left hand corner. With that the red and bold text of the masthead on both magazines didn’t appeal with the simplistic look I was going for with my magazine as it was too heavy and bright. As I continued with my research of popular music magazines I came across The Fly magazine where the masthead included a thinner text which stood out less yet was still the highlight of the page. I took the examples of all three magazines and combined all of the examples to create a masthead located on the top left corner of the page with a edgy and simplistic text. I made the name of my masthead one word as it is catchy and easy to remember, its not as unique as the names Q, NME or The Fly but is blunt about the genre of the magazine and what the magazine includes.

Front Cover - Masthead

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

• The Fly magazine uses a thinner font and a black coloured text, against the light coloured background the masthead is still prominent.

• The difference is that this masthead covers the whole width at the top of the page which could be because the masthead is two words instead of one.

• Also the text includes a mixture of upper case and lower case text that for a one word masthead like mine could make it less prominent and make it look more like a headline.

• The masthead on Q magazine is located on the left hand side of the page.

• The main image on the cover overlaps the masthead so the whole main image is visual but doesn’t degrade the prominence of the masthead.

• A difference is that the masthead has a square red banner and gives it a unique look other magazines don’t include.

• The masthead on NME magazine is located on the left hand of the page.

• The three letter masthead is in all capital letters and because it’s a shorter masthead makes it bolder and stand out.

• A difference is that NME’s masthead is in a very vibrant red. On one hand the red colour would be very prominent on any colour background but for my more simplistic looking magazine I don’t think the bright colour is relevant.

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

My magazine cover included different conventions of real media products by looking at aspects like mastheads and fonts from the work of other music magazines and developing them to fit the genre of my magazine. The different magazine’s I researched like Q, NME and The Fly all included some sort of banner of text along the top and bottom of the cover. For example NME and The Fly have banners located at the top of there covers just above the masthead, where as Q magazine have there banner located at the bottom of the cover in a white banner. Using a banner is a good way to include in more depth about some of the artists included within the magazine or like The Fly magazine just includes the issue number and date of release. For my magazine I wanted to make it look very simple and minimalistic so I used a transparent black banner so you are able to still see the bottom of the main image. By using the colour white for my text it connected with the white within the background of the image, so it doesn’t look out of place but in contrast with the faded black banner it still stands out.

Front Cover –

• Q magazine locates there banner at the bottom of the page.

• They use a bold and striking white banner to stand out against the dark tones in the main image.

• Q uses a mixture of black and gold text for the artists names, with also a red text for ‘plus’ to differentiate it from the band names as it’s a different topic.

• NME magazine locates there banner at the top of the page.

• They don’t include a coloured banner behind the text as the main image has dark tones and allows the white text to stand out prominently.

• NME uses a mixture of bold and regular font the identify the different artists. In my magazine I used the use of dashes to separate the different artists so the viewer has a clear understanding of the separate names in the banner.

• The Fly magazines banner is located at the top of the page.

• The text is placed like a banner but the spacing in-between words is large making it look less like a banner.

• Instead of the banner including the artists featured in the magazine, it includes the date of release, the issue number and also the price of the magazine which is ‘Free’.

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

My product included different conventions of real media products by looking at aspects like mastheads and headlines from the work of other music magazines and developing them to fit the genre of my magazine.For example for my headline I kept the context simple and used the name of the people on my front cover ‘Metric’ to simplify the content in my magazine and let the viewer know exactly what and who is on the front cover and also what is in the magazine.NME magazine doesn’t include the name of the subject on the front cover, maybe insinuating that the readers should know who the person on the cover is. Q Magazine and The Fly both include the names of the musician in the main article along the bottom of the cover, I tried to incorporate this composition of the text as it wont cover up any main aspects of the image and allows the headline to still be prominent above the image.

Front Cover – Headline

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

Contents Page – HeadlineMy product included different conventions of real media products by looking at aspects like mastheads and headlines from the work of other music magazines and developing them to fit the genre of my magazine.For example for my headline I kept the context simple using the word ‘contents’ it is a quick and informative way of showing the audience exactly what this page is.From analysing multiple magazines the magazine Q also used the title contents, in comparison with NME and The Fly Magazine, the use of the word contents for a headline made it a lot easier for me understand what the page was about. On the other hand NME’s use of the headline ‘Inside This Week’ is a simplified way of putting across that this is a contents page. In the end I chose to use the word contents as it is one word and easily presets the topic on the page.

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

Contents Page – Page Numbers Another aspect of real media products that I tried to develop is the use of page numbers on the contents page. Using page numbers is an easy way for the audience to look for specific pages and articles. From research The Fly magazine uses bold white numbers along side the text to show which page is which. Also NME magazine uses a thick red text for the numbers making them prominent and clear to the reader. To develop this onto my contents page I used the colour black for the page numbers to stand out from the white background.

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

Double Page Spread – Headline For my Double Page Spread one of the conventions I tried to challenge was the type of headline to used. Q magazine uses a very witty and bold statement headline which links in with the name of the band. Where as The Fly magazine simply uses the name of the band as a fast way of showing what the article is about. For my double page spread I used the name of the band ‘Metric’ to quickly put across the contents of this page. Underneath I also placed a quote from the article itself, giving the audience a glimpse into what the interview is about.

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

Double Page Spread – Layout From analysing multiple double page spreads the main aspect of the pages I was looking at was the layout of text. In all of the examples I looked at they followed a pattern of using 2 columns to separate the text and create an easier reading platform. With my double page spread the images took up nearly half of the page so I had to adapt my idea for a layout to one column per half page. If I was to include more columns on one page, I would have to use a smaller text therefore making it less readable for the viewer. I also made sure the text aligned neatly in the centre so the text could fit easier around the images giving more room for more text.