Evaluation Question 1 - Draft

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.