In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

QUESTION ONE

COVER MAGAZINE

MASTHEAD

This is the name of the magazine and is almost always displayed at the top.

The masthead must be large and bold because it’s usually one of the first

things the reader sees. As you can see in my magazine the masthead is

across the top of the magazine and partly behind the main image. The font

itself is different from the rest of the cover, this is done because it’s a brand

itself and doesn’t change throughout the issues.

This is a very popular convention that I have followed its used to illustrate how

well know it is that there isn't a need to show the whole masthead.

COVER LINES

The cover lines are bold as this is used to

draw the reader into opening the

magazine and investigating more about

the story.

The cover lines are positioned on the right

hand side of the cover as so it doesn’t

overlap too much with the main image as

it may be hard for the reader to read. The use of different colour and size

fonts showing emphasis and attracts

the reader’s mind into wanting to read

them.

As can notice the cover lines have been

right aliened giving the magazine the

more of a professional look.

MAIN IMAGE

This is one of the most important

forms of a magazine as it is the main

attraction the catches the reader's

attention before they look at the text.

As seen the image used is

conventional, as it is a close up making

it the magazine more complete,

instead of the image being lost in

white space which makes the reader

feel a bit detached from the magazine.

The image is placed in the centre of

the magazine making the magazine

feel more professional.

Eye contact is made so that the reader

feels that the magazine is targeted for

them.

Plus there isn’t any cover lines

overlapping the face as this would

seem very ammeter and ruin the

cover

HEADLINE AND SUUBHEADING

The headline is often the name of the model/artist on the front cover. It displayed

in large fonts so that that the reader quickly recognises who the main attraction of

the magazine will focused on.

The use of different colour and background can make the headline more

recognisable and stand out more.

The subheading is used to aid the heading and appeal the reader into reading more

about the artists, as seen I have used a quote to do so. This type of convention isn't

often used but I think is quite effective when used right.

CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE COVER

SELLING LINE

STRAPLINE

PRICE, BARCODE

AND DATE

It provides information and allows the

reader to purchase the magazine. It

is often placed at the bottom which is

also a convention used by most

magazine, as it doesn't draw

attention to reader because it

does not link to the actually

magazine.This strapline is used to inform the reader of

extra information that couldn't be placed on

the front cover, so it is often placed at the

bottom of the magazine.

This is often position above the masthead

to illustrate the importance of the magazine.

Like the strapline it follows the house colours

and is quite small, allowing it to not drawing

that much attention then the masthead and

cover lines.

CONTENTS PAGE

FEATURES

The features column as seen uses different sized fonts and colours to show

how to categorised. The main categories are highlighted in red, following

the house style and making it easier for the reader to find a specific aspect

of the magazine their looking for. Underneath the categories are featured

stories which relate category and as seen its bold so that its clear and is as

a mini-heading for stories; underneath that is information describing a bit

about the story.

On the left side is the page numbers which is an essential form as it

informs the reader where specifically they have to navigate to, to find a

certain article page.

In the contents page I only used three columns which is a reasonable

amount, making sure that there isn’t too much going on and making it look

formal.

IMAGES AND EDITOR’S LETTER

I have included an image of the artist from the magazine

cover emphasising that he is the main attraction of the

magazine and in doing so the reader feels compelled to read

the article page about the artist. As seen he doesn’t make

eye contact towards the image, as he seems to be dancing

to music; this than makes the reader more bubblier and

more of life. As a result the image is different from the cover

as though the reader experiences a different aspect of the

artist.

The second image used features a new face so that the

reader gets a visual image of the people they are reading.

As seen “Devon Blue” makes eye contact towards the

camera as if looking at the reader.

The editor’s letter’s image is of the editor and with of the

artists behind the photo-shoot, which gives off a fun vibe

and forms more understandable relationship between the

reader and the magazine

The editor’s letter gets the reader involved with

the magazine and informs them about the

cover story and other article pages. As seen

the editors signature is added at the end,

makes the statement feel more personal to

the reader.

TITLE

The title is clear and easy to read, this is because the colour of the font is black and

is on a white background making the title pop out. Underneath the title is a series of

lines, this is used for design purpose and makes it look better and gives a off a vibe

a professionalism.

Just right below is the number of the issue so that the reader can keep up to date

with the magazines and collect them if they desire. Plus it informs them when the

magazine was published. As notice they are portionally small as this doesn’t really

play a key role in the magazine.

ARTICLE

CERTAIN ASPECTS OF ARTICLES

QUOTE DROP CAP TOPIC OF DISCUSSION FOOTER

Pull in quote is

featured to make the

reader have a better

understanding of the

story and makes the

feel in the centre of

the knowledge. It

follows the house

style of the colour red

and makes it stand

out on the page.

The article as seen has three columns which is full of informational text about the artist who

is the main attraction of the article. By having three columns it makes it look less like a long

essay which has text from end to end.

Drop cap which is used

to emphasis a new

chapter or a different

section in the column.

The drop cap can off

hooks the reader into

reading the article, as it

big and bold so the

reader may be curious.

Where famous artist are

interviewed every issue. This is

why it is positioned at the top of

the magazine article, so it is the

first thing the reader reads and as

a result it may compel them to

read on further and try find out

why this specific artist is exciting”.

Even though the font size is small

and goes against convection it s

still effective because the font

type is different from the rest of

the article.

This is an essential form as it

allows the reader to navigate

through the magazine

quickly and just flick through

by just viewing the bottom

the pages. The logo on the

right lets the reader know

which magazine they are

reading and makes the

become familiar with it. The

data lets them know they

have the right issue and isn't

a past issue or so.

COLUMNS

MAIN IMAGE

The use of grayscale makes the image look older and

more retro, which fits with the my magazine’s target

audience who are the ages of 18- 40.

His facia expression is quite captivating by the way he

makes eye contact with the camera and how he partly

opens his mouth in a enticing way. Which draws

attention to the reader and get a deeper understanding

of the artist visually. By having one page dedicated to

the image of the artist it allows the reader to see the

characteristics of the artist and therefore make him

more recognisable which is important as he is an

upcoming artist

TITLE

As seen the headline is positioned at the top of the article page, the name

of the artist featured. The colour red makes it stand out from the rest of

the article.

The headline is quite simple and unique compared to most article pages

where its usually large and across the double. This does challenge the

convention in the sense that most headlines should stand out and must be

the first thing the reader sees. However I think the article title gives the

reader the vibe that this is special because of its simplicity and size.

FORMS

I have taken all the images myself, as magazine are printed

onto paper this means that I haven't used any animation or

video clips.

The colour scheme of the article uses four main colours, red,

black, blue and white and you can see it throughout the

magazine. It’s simple forms such as this that make magazines

so well known and successful.

I have only used four different types of fonts throughout the

magazine to keep it consistent and simple in order not to

confuse the reader. The fonts I have used have been century

Gothic, Impact, Roman Times and Homoarakhan.

DEVELOPED IDEAS

DEVELOPED IDEAS

The headline is from a Q magazine

featuring “Elbow”, as you can see it

has a nice blue background and the

text(Impact) is big and bold. I have

done a simpler job in the sense of

using the same/similar font and using

blue background. However I decided to

make the text white instead of black

as it would stand out more.

I liked the way Q magazine

presented their cover lines by the

use of different sized font and

colour. Plus also having bars

underneath it and on top

separating it from other cover

lines. So I took the idea and

applied my own colour making it

suit to my house style more such

as having the main cover line in

blue and bars in red.

One of the convention that I challenged is by having the red border around

magazine cover which is quite unusually as it isn't used in music magazine. I

got the idea from the “Times magazine”. However I st i l l think it ’s a ef fective

convection as it makes the magazine pop out and make it stand out more(

as seen my the image below) and I think it should be used more .

Background colour of my contents page which was completely black which

from a cer tain perspective my have thought it was a rock magazine because

dark colour aren't of ten used as background pages. I obviously did it on

purpose so that when the reader opened the magazine and saw the that

contents page was dif ferent i t would grab their attention as it wasn’t

unexpected.

CHALLENGING CONVENTIONS