1) In
what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Whilst I was planning the design of my music
magazine, I researched different existing music magazines which I could use for
inspiration to help me with my project. I looked at conventional magazines in
the indie genre mostly but did look at other music magazines from different
genres such as FADER from the Hip-Hop genre. Although I didn’t use them as
inspiration, I looked at other music magazines such as NME, XXL, Billboard,
Clash and DIY. After analysing other conventional music magazines, I had a
rough idea for what I wanted to do for my music magazine. I liked the idea of
the layers being so that the writing is behind the picture to create an effect
to show that the artists on the front cover of the music magazine is more
important than the title of the magazine and is the centre of attention for the
customers who wish to look through the magazine. With the image being over the
title of the magazine, it shows that the band or artists are the centre of
attention on the music magazine. Examples of music magazines which use this
effect are some of Billboards magazines, some of NME’s magazines, VIBE
magazines, some of Q’s magazines and also some of DIY’s magazines.
When making my second music magazine front cover, I
tried to use a music magazine’s layout to help my music magazine to look more
professional compared to my first finished draft attempt which didn’t look
professional as I didn’t use an existing music magazine to help me to use as
inspiration. However, for my second finished draft attempt, I used FADER’s
music magazine layout as inspiration for the front cover. My front cover
consists of similarities to FADER’s as I used massive their ideas such as the
layering of the title, the positioning of the barcode, the writing which
consists of what is featured in the magazine in the same position and colour, a
border around the front cover is the same and also the issue and price of the
magazine in the same position. Although I used these aspects of FADER music
magazines, I developed it using different fonts and also, I underlined the title
to make it stand out more. In addition, I used different shots compared to
FADER on the front cover image as I did a medium shot with my band where their
legs are cut off on the image. My mast head is in a simplistic font to make it
easy to read for any customers which are interested in buying my music
magazine. I used the font style of the music magazine, DIY, with the simplicity
as I personally believe that the simplistic font works better than a complex
font. After receiving my feedback on my music magazine first draft, I realised
that the font for the mast head didn’t work very well which encouraged me to
change it to a basic font which is easy to read.
When deciding on what image to use for my music
magazine, I was looking at other music magazines for inspiration and was
persuaded to do the shot distance that I did because of some of the music
magazines from VIBE but as I had 2 band members I my band, I had to include
both members on the front cover of my music magazine.
Whilst I was making my double page spread, I used
inspiration from other music magazines to have an idea on how to present my magazine. For the image on my double page
spread, I took inspiration from DIY’s music magazine for the colour palette
colours which are seen as eye catching and stand out significantly more over than
other colours within a colour palette. In addition, the image of my double page
spread was seen as “fun” whilst they were in a photoshoot in other existing
music magazines which made me decide to use a photo of my band members having
“fun” to make the double page spread of my music magazine interesting and different
which would keep the readers encouraged to continue to read. My magazine had an
image of the 2 band members with a stall pretending to ride it like a
skateboard. The writing on the other side of the page consists of the interview
which was taken place before the photoshoot. In order to improve my magazine to
make it look more professional, I made the margins of my double page spread the
same width along with the width of the text boxes as all conventional magazines
do so. I used a simplistic font to make it easy to read but underlined the
title making the font bigger to separate it from the text from the interview to
make it easier to read for the reader. I developed my double page spread from
my first draft attempt as I took on board the advice which I was given to make
it look more professional. DIY’s magazine was used as inspiration. The version
of DIY’s music magazine which I used as inspiration was when Rat Boy, an indie
artist, was featured in the magazine. On the double page spread which I used as
inspiration, Rat Boy was not taking the photoshoot seriously from the reader’s
perspective. Looking at my first draft attempt, I didn’t use any music
magazines for inspiration which is why it doesn’t look professional. If I was
to have used an existing music magazine for inspiration, my first draft attempt
may have looked more appealing but also more professional to the customers who
may purchase my magazine. Although the double page spread looks as if the band
members are having “fun” and aren’t taking the interview as seriously as the
interviewers may want them to be. Also, with the margins of my magazine not
being equal on both sides and in the middle but also the text boxes with
writing aren’t the same widths, it makes the magazine an unconventional music
magazine which isn’t what I would want as my research was for it to be a
conventional magazine.
For my contents page, I used inspiration from other
music magazines such as DIY, FADER and NME. My contents page consists of a
large mast head across the top of the page to allow the readers to know that it
is the contents page but also includes the page numbers and what is consisted
on those pages. In addition, within my music magazine, all the artists featured
in it are within the same genre so that customers know when it comes to
purchasing the magazine what is in it and will recognise the names of the
artists. In the bottom right corner of my contents page is several pictures of
the band, Collided, to encourage the readers to turn to this page to read about
the band. I got this idea from DIY’s music magazine but they used different
coloured borders on the pictures which I tried but believe it didn’t look as
good as they do now with them all in black. Other music magazines which I
looked at for inspiration and ideas was the FADER music magazines as the layout
for them I thought was good and looked neat but also professional as they
categorized the titles to in to
different categories depending on what consists with in the magazine. An
example would be the cover which covers what is featured on the front cover of
the magazine, the music section which featured the artists names but also the
regulars which consisted of things which are featured on most music magazines
from FADER.
