First Evaluation Question

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

My media product, a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread, mainly uses the conventions of real media product by following the lead of other music magazines that are already established. However, my media product does challenge and develop some conventions to make the magazine stand out from the crowd. The reason my music magazine uses typical conventions is because I want my product to be familiar in the market, having features that the audience will be familiar with. If there are too many differences or challenges in conventions then it may scare the audience away for being too different.

I have used the convention of a pug on the front cover of my music magazine. However I have developed this convention by making it appear to be 3D. The actual image is from the internet, of which I cut out and cropped on photoshop, but the pink and yellow information box within it I created myself. The image already looked 3D, but by the use of dropping shadows around the outside of the info box, made it appear to be embossed within the pug. My design develops the theme of a pug because many other magazines have pugs that are 2D, often a single colour and plain font. Where as I have developed mine to be 3D and very colourful with the background of the pug being the Union Flag. This makes it stand out much more, grabbing the reader's attention, which is the purpose of a pug.

I haven't challenged the convention of having my masthead/brand logo in the top left hand corner of the page because I feel that it would be an inappropriate change that could potentially turn audiences away. This is because the masthead is conventionally positioned to start on the first third of a magazine, due to the fact that that is the part which is shown when they are stacked on a shelf. Pretty much every magazine out there will show part of their masthead in this space, so that they can be easily identified in a shop. Brand identification is crucial to magazines, and I wouldn't want to jeopardize this by placing my masthead in a peculiar position on the front page.

Also I challenged the convention of writing directly onto the page, which is typically used in most magazines. I decided to challenge this convention because I didn't like the appearance of raw text over a background. The leading magazines are able to get this to work, however I got no such luck. All of my font clashed with the background and it became very hard to read, as well as being a strain on the eyes. Therefore I had to think of an idea that would let the reader easily read the text as well as looking smart and fit in throughout my music magazine. This idea was to put a backing image behind mostly all the text in my media product. Therefore I challenged the typical conventions of music magazines by placing torn lined paper behind the text in my media product. It turned out to work brilliantly and really fitted in with the punk rock genre I was aiming to achieve. I developed this convention by putting the torn paper on each of my pages to make sure it linked the pages together and gave the magazine a flowing feel to it. This torn paper became a theme, and it was used in a lot of places on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. On the front cover I put the lined paper behind all of the writing that needed to stand out, for example the headlines and sub-stories that needed to stand out from the background. On the contents page I placed the backing paper behind the list of contents, this wasn't to make the writing stand out, it was purely to develop the theme further. This linked the contents page to the front cover. On the double page spread I used the paper behind the article and page titles, this was for making it stand out from the background. However it was a subtle reference and link back to the front cover.

I have used the convention of a barcode on my magazine. I followed this convention because barcodes are necessary on the front cover of magazine as they contain the information needed when are being scanned for purchase. I also followed the typical convention of placing it in the bottom right hand corner of the page, this didn't obstruct any other feature on my front cover. I didn't challenge this convention because it wasn't a necessary change that could have been done. If most magazines have their barcodes in that position, then I will follow in their lead so I don't cause any confusion when the magazine is getting scanned. It makes purchasing process quicker and looks good in the location I have placed it.