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

The masthead and title: The first part of my making process of the music magazine was to create the front cover. I have decided to start this page by

creating a masthead which includes the title of my magazine. Based on my research, I have came to conclusion that the masthead is one of the most important features that grabs the audience’s attention. Considering the codes and convections which I have researched on the existing magazines, I have came out with the title: “Pop Spark”.

According to my research, the masthead was usually placed in the middle and at the top of the magazine, therefore that was the reason of why I have located my masthead in a similar placed. Another fact, which I have noticed was that the masthead sometimes goes behind the main image or at front of it. I have noticed that the magazines that use the main image to partly cover the masthead are usually the well known magazines. That has influence me to keep my masthead partly covering the main image. I personally think that it looks better and makes the magazine more recognisable as the title can be easily read.

As you already know that my magazine title was inspired by a song, however I have also spend some time by looking at existing magazines in order to make suitable decisions regarding the colour, fonts, size and overall appearance. The first aspect which was considered when making the masthead and the titles was that I was planning the masthead to reflect the music genre of the magazine which is pop. I have also needed it to suit the audience. You can see that the title contains two different fonts where each one matches one gender. The reason for this was that my music magazine is aimed for both – male and female gender. As I have noticed when looking at some existing pop magazines, I have noticed that most of them are colourful, bright. Therefore I have made the modification to the title and added a red contour what suits the female gender where as the font colour of the title is black what is usually associated with men. That is how the title follows the codes and convections and suits the target audience. I didn’t want to make the masthead too colourful as the audience is older what would have caused the codes and convections to be considered, however the target audience to be ignored what would have been not appropriate as I think that the audience is also very important. Without the audience liking the magazine, no profit can be made of distribution what makes the magazine less successful.

Front cover imageThe images also play an important role in the music magazines as they are one of the main features which attract the audience. I think that the main image on the front cover was the most significant image as it takes the biggest part of the front cover and that is the first image which would be noticed by the audience. It might also contribute to the final decision of the client, whether the magazine would be afforded or not. When taking the photograph, I have considered my images plan and also the codes and conventions which I have found out during my research. I have noticed, that there are a lot of magazines which use medium close up photos or medium long shots. Therefore, considering this, I have decided to use medium close up. You can also see how the image was developed in order to make it more suitable for the front cover.

While, taking the picture, I think that most of the plan points were covered. The person looks straight at the lens of the camera. The image was also captured on the level of model’s face. The first idea that goes under my photo is that I have planned to present it in an appropriate way so it matches the pop music genre and the audience as well. Therefore, a young woman was my model which goes with the audience age range of 18+ years old. This person is also included on my contents page and on the double page spread as the main cover story is about here. The interview which is included on the double page spread included information about her. I have instructed my model to wear suitable clothing which could be associated with a modern pop star style. That means that the costume needed to follow current fashion trend. I have seen a lot of pop stars wearing a hat or other type of head cover and therefore I have decided to follow these codes and conventions and that is the reason why you can see the artist wearing a black hat on the image. I have particularly chosen black colour as it blends well with the black hair colour of my model. The main changes which I have applied to improve the picture included making the exposure higher as well as the brightness. Also, some contrast was increased in order to highlight the colours. That has resulted in the image being brighter what fits with the idea of pop music genre. Furthermore, I have changed the background colour for white, because the image was captured on the cream coloured background what didn’t looked well when considering the aesthetical aspects of the whole front cover. It also helped me to make the image stand out what would be eye – catching for the target audience.

Contents page images I knew that the main person that is featured by the magazine is the artist which I have

included on the front cover and therefore, I have decided to use a different picture of her on the contents page as well. That can be also used as a further promotion of the artist as the audience would be reminded about her on the front cover straight after the front cover. This image shows the woman form a music side as the acoustic guitar was used as the probe for this image. You can see, that she is leaning on the guitar and looks towards the camera (straight at the audience). My own interpretation of the image is that by leaning on the guitar, it shows how important music is in her life. It could emphasize the fact that she ‘leans’ her life on the music and that is her dreamed career.

There are also some other images which I have added in order to make the contents page stand out and successful. I have followed most of the codes and conventions techniques however, I have also relayed on my own creative as I wanted the whole magazine to be little bit more unique and different from others. Other images which I have included involved two young artists being presented as a duet on the image. The image emphasizes the fact that they are happy. It can inspire the youngest adults (around 18 years old) to never give up and try to get their desired achievements just like the young artists seen to do.

One of the other images, shows a stage with musicians during a concert. I didn’t plan to capture this photo, however, I have attended a concert just before I have started to make the contents page and I though that it would be a good idea to use it. All of these images support some of the features included on the front cover as well as on the contents page.

Font and Style When looking at the fonts used, we can see that there were few different fonts used, however the same ones were applied

on every page throughout the whole magazine. This helped me to keep the house style of the magazine and I have seen in in a lot of existing magazines where all of the pages had some elements in common what made it a one whole successful magazines. I have decided to follow this form and convention by applying it throughout my own magazine in my own style. You can see how it was done when looking at the images included on the next slide

As an example, you see that “Stencil” font was used on every page what creates a good house style.Furthermore, other font used to present the features on the front cover was also used on the contents page in order to present the full list of the content.

Furthermore, when looking at the colour scheme applied on the magazine, you can see that for example, red colour is used on every page however, in different style what also follows the forms and conventions as I found out during the research that some of the magazines use this idea as well. Therefore, the red colour is applied on different elements like background, font and other elements such as the line which underlines the word “Contents” on the contents page. Apart from red, black and white are also the colours present on every page what creates a good colour combination what can attract the audience.

Other techniques which I have used from existing magazines into my work to make it as professional as possible, was to include the logo (the title of the magazine) on other pages of the magazine. On the top left you can see how “Q” magazine used the logo from the front cover and applied on the contents page. This method was used in order to highlight the importance of the magazine.

You can see that I have applied similar technique by including the title of the magazine before the word “Contents” on the Contents page.