In what

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

Cover

Starting with the cover of my product, its purpose is to draw the audience toward my magazine and bait them into reading further. In order to do this, I have both challenged and developed typical conventions found in other rock genre magazines. For instance, with my main image I used only two band members, this refutes typical convention which usually feature single artists or groups larger than 3 on the cover. By using only 2 people, my target audience, who also read other rock genre magazines, will be drawn in by the contrast of style in the main image. This leads to my likely biggest convention challenge; I did not use a direct mode of address in my main image. Usually a direct mode of address is used to draw in the audience utilizing aspects of eye contact, in my cover however, my artists are looking away from the camera. The reason I did this was to create a unique imagery in my cover, by challenging a core rock magazine convention the whole imagery of the cover would appear differently to others in a shop. This defining feature is what would grab the audiences’ attention and by the force behind the front covers function.

Another convention I have chosen to refute is the use of a skyline, my main image has a very bright lighting in it due to the increased contrast manipulation I did on the image, and this makes the image appear very spacious and open. Using both a skyline and footer line would defeat this aspect of the main image, taking focus away from the main image; as it would appear ensnared, due to the colour scheme that would demand it be a black skyline to fit in, and part of my appeal to my target audience lies in the appearance that this magazine is not tied down to the genre’s conventions and that magazine is unique, which is the magazine’s unique selling point, its uniqueness.

I did not refute all conventions though, doing that would make my magazine unrecognisable as a rock genre magazine to my audience, and so to maintain its identity as a rock magazine I stuck to and developed quite a few conventions. My layout was primarily based on my research of ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Rock Sound’s schemes. I placed my main cove line central in the magazine as ‘Rock Sound’ and ‘Kerrang!’ in order to aid its reader attention as a focal point of the cover. The features section on my cover was placed on the right-hand side of the cover, so it became a feature that the audience’s eyes would naturally fall to. Through my questionnaire I found that my audience were most focused on my articles and the bands themselves, and so placement of the sticker or ‘Free CD’ would be a waste of potential audience interest as it does not use the one of the most attractive features to the audience and present it to where the eyes naturally fall, maximizing attention on the feature of the magazine. The Quote used in my article was not a necessary convention however I included it in my product because it stirs interest in the main feature and also gives a slight indication of the mood of the magazine; using words such as “Finally” and “Found” act as buzzwords that make the article seem more exclusive, an aspect that my target audience likes. By using “We’ve” in the quote it also tricks the reader into believing that the magazine may be referring to the reader finding this magazine or the magazine creators finally finding an interesting new device/feature. Developing and adapting ideas from the classical magazine I analysed, I decided to place my “Free CD” advert in the lower left, this fits rock conventions that typically offer posters or merchandise while also making it stand out that it is a CD and not a poster like typical rock magazines will offer. I think this feature would prove effective because it refers to the main cover feature, is unique and interacts with the audience in a familiar format, making the Free CD unique, but familiar enough to the audience that they can easily accept this change in convention without being dissuaded.

The fonts I selected for my magazine are the strongest device I have used to create a rock genre feel to my cover. The font used in the masthead is very stereotypically rock affiliated. After looking through heavy and punk rock album covers this text format were the most prominent and so by using this font, that is familiar to the audience; it creates an affiliation between the magazine, rock and the audience’s personal tastes. The font is also essential in the generation and sustainment of my magazine’s house style; I have re-used these fonts throughout my other 2 constructs to ensure that they all have a certain aspect of imagery resemblance. With capitalisation of my text, I followed typical conventions of drop capping all band names, with the exception of “There And Back Again”, this was taken from my analysis of the ‘Metal Hammer’ cover analysis, where I found that have an irregularity in a format such as capitalising, makes the subject stand out much more and creates audience interest in the subject, this was the effect I aimed to create in replicating that.

The sticker was a feature used in the majority of music magazines I looked at, but not all. The colour of the sticker was dependent on the colour scheme of my cover and had to be one of the last parts of the cover I made. The bright colour contrasts the dark ambience on the rest of the font, however the orange is similar to that in the rest of my text making it appear relative to the page and not just an obscurity on the page as some music pages had done in the past. It was hard to create and the shading may look a bit unprofessional, however I think the curled sticker effect I have created makes it seem more realistic and gives more of a ‘fresh’ vibe that would appeal to my audience.

The barcode has been placed in its conventional location at the bottom right of the page; like rock magazine conventions it also has the price and issue number on it. Following the conventions is better with this because it is just practical, not many people pay attention to the barcode and so efforts to overcomplicate its appearance would be wasted, and it may just confuse the reader. In the bottom right, the reader will know what to expect, it’s easy to locate and it completes its function in this layout.

The social media links in the top right of the page are easy to locate, and I also used icons for the most well-known social media sights that my audience will be familiar with. I did this because it adds an element of freshness to the page and displays an understanding of the readers; this relationship appeals to my readers, as proved in my questionnaire.

I created a house style on my cover page that I tried to carry on throughout my construct. The basis of this house style was that the pages appear spacious, bright and have a consistent colour scheme and font. The colour scheme is orientated around the green and orange used in the picture. This came from the green from the clothing on the artist, and the orange is a complimentary colour that I thought would bring some vibrancy to the colour scheme. Readers are naturally drawn to bright colours and so the colour that complimented the darker green had to be fairly bright and positive, hence orange. The font has been recycled throughout my product in order to create the house style. This is often what other music magazines do and this convention allows familiarity to be formed throughout the product, it can even make articles that appear ‘Non-Rock’ related at first, become related to the genre. Some of the pictures in my contents may appear ‘Non-rock’ however using the font and editing the images to give them a darker demeanour has made them appear more relative to the genre.

Contents

In the contents page I had to maintain the house style I had set in my cover. This means I recycled the fonts used in my cover and kept a spacious appearance of the page. I did this by using a plain white background, however later into construction I realised the page looked spacious however bare. Typical conventions of contents usually have them packed with information or graphics to entice the reader. While I couldn’t meet this completely because it would change the house style; and so I added an outer glow to my images to make the page appear more busy and vibrant. This also allowed me to create a unique aspect to the page, the colour of the glow corresponds to whether the article is an exclusive or regular which reinforces my page design.

My layout of the contents page emphasises its purpose, to set out a list in a readable and easy-to navigate manner. The main layout feature I’ve used to create this is a convention not found commonly in rock magazines and usually only used in highly exclusive issues. I’ve split the exclusive content from the regular coverage, and further developed this by using the colour scheme of my cover page, green and orange, to further aid in distinguishing the two. This also makes the page more visually filling and colourful, while still appearing spacious. I decided to follow the strong magazine convention of presenting my article names in a list with the corresponding page number located next to it. This is so that the two can easily become associated and navigation to the page becomes an easier process.

Manipulation of the colour scheme to create an association is a technique that a couple of rock music magazines use in their best magazine editions. In mine I developed this rare convention and used the orange to differentiate the exclusive content from the regular (green). It’s a simple concept that is surprisingly not a convention in magazines. I also edited my 3 article pictures to better match the colour scheme , with a high contrast the orange tones stand out more on the ‘pg. 38 image’ and by reducing lighting and increasing the gamma the green is much more prominent in the ‘pg. 21’ image. In the 1st and 3rd picture I have my models standing with a direct mode of address to the audience. Seeing as I didn’t utilize the effects of direct mode of address its ability to draw in viewers on my cover; I can use it in my contents page, the 2nd most important page to be eye-catching in order to maximize the audience’s attention. Because I did not use any direct mode of address on my cover using it here will not appear repetitive or any less impactful than it may have been if this technique was also used on my cover. In the 2nd image I have used a long-wide shot, this contrasts the two surrounding mid-shot images. By creating contrast between the images, the images become more prominent. Another effect this has is that when the 2nd and 1st image are laid out like so, it is very easy to draw comparisons. One comparison that will inevitably jump to mind is the difference in the models size, this will draw more attention to the 1st image, the biggest story of the magazine and hopefully this would then lead to the audience finding an interest in it, the best article that has the highest chance of hooking them to the magazine.

My editor’s note is located in the top left corner much like Kerrang! Lay out their page. I decided this would be the better option than a separate page or column because a short introduction would be more appealing to my target audience. They like interaction with the magazine but due to the huge competitive market the readers have to pick from, it’s important to make the contents page exciting and placing the editor’s note helps do that. Due to a constraint of space, the note itself is not too big; however the function of the page takes priority in this layout. The graphic on the picture of the editor gives it a more natural ambience, like it was taken from a photo album. This is appealing because the editor should appear very approachable to the audience, who enjoy being close to the magazine creators.

In my contents list I have coloured bars separating the categories in the list. These fulfil 3 roles: They reinforce the colour scheme that differentiates the exclusive from the regular. They also draw attention to the categories of the list, aiding ease of reading. And finally they clarify the difference between the categories, this is essential because I have utilized a convention of only using band names as page titles, relying on the categories they are under to give context to the page. So by using the bars to clarify the categories, I do not need to have any more information next to my names, this means I can make the text reasonably big without having to sacrifice any other features of the page.

In the bottom right I have a small feature with some more teasing information on my cover CD, in this I give very brief information on the CD and have a big bold page number above the CD art. This is a convention not normally found in rock magazines; this was instead taken from one of the classical music magazines I analysed. I included this in my product because I think it was a great way of drawing attention to the magazine CD and giving the readers a preview of the writing style and format this magazine approaches its readers in, much like the editor’s note. It also fills space on the page quite well.

Double Page Spread

The double page spread had the layout most changed from my original 4 designs. After receiving feedback from my questionnaire and revaluating my designs myself this was the outcome. I merged the designs of two of my drafts and then adapted the placement of some text such as the quote in accordance to the lighting and colouring of the main image.

The main image took many attempts to create however the end results fit my design perfectly. It was focused on the band members, had an abandoned urban background and plenty of surrounding space in the image for text placement. The main image has specifically split the band members on each page. The reason for this is to make each seem unique and their own Individual whilst also being part of a team. It also highlights the fact that the group is comprised of only 2 members. The article itself is about their comeback, however in the story the biggest change to their music lies with holly (the girl) and so I made her the focus of the image, being much closer to the camera and slightly more focused in the shot than Scott. Like in my designs I made sure that the faces of the members are not obstructed by text of other graphics, this means I had to make some slight alterations to layout, such as the height of the article box on the page.

Because the main image is not monotone the introductive text was not easily readable; however after looking through some more double-page spreads I noticed that some had used a dim outer glow to create a more suited background colour to the text. Fitting the colour scheme of my page, I decided to use a white glow on the introduction and “exclusive feature” text in the top right.

The introduction is placed on the left page on its left side, this is so that after a glance of the page the readers will read this section first as they work their way through the page. I found with some double pages spread that the order to read the page could sometimes be misleading or complex; so by laying out the page in a typical English reading pattern this page should be easy to navigate.

The title of the page and the band name has been placed in the top left. This does however mean that part of the band name was cut off of the first page, as it goes onto the 2nd page there would be a small cave-in of the magazine in the centre of the page, for this reason I made sure to leave a space at this point, however with the fold-in the printed version of the magazine, the band name may appear un-evenly spaced. For the title I decided to recycle the font used on the cover, this is because the audience has already formed an association with that font and the band name, re-using it reinforces this association. Having more associations makes a subject more memorable and so using definitive fonts such as the ‘There and Back Again’ font will make the magazine itself more memorable even to those who have just glanced at the front page.

Unfortunately my colour scheme could not be carried onto this double-page design, on the day of the photo-shoot it was cloudy and wet and so I could not find any naturally orange tinted areas to fit with my exclusive colour scheme. I instead decided to move onto the other primary colour, the green. In my picture I manipulated the hue to bring out and exaggerate the green shades in the picture. I then decided to use the same green from my cover, as the colour for my quote text. Sticking to my designs I did however decide to keep the orange ‘Comeback’ sticker, which is in line with the colour categorisation set on the contents page. So when the reader turns to this page and sees the orange sticker they will recognize it is an exclusive feature. For the readers who may not pay attention to this categorisation, I have also placed some text in the top right of the page which can be expected on each double page spread, it depicts the band name and the type of feature.

In the bottom right of the text box I took inspiration from a rock magazine I looked at, (I did not analyse it, as I found it after the research deadline) where the Q&A section was very clearly presented, very spacious and easy to read. I took this idea and developed it to suit my audience further. My audience enjoy interactions with the band and the creators of the magazine, and so in my Q&A section I simply had our questions, ones that the fans would have wanted to know themselves, and gave pure quoted answers from the band. Next to the Q&A section I also placed a very friendly image that makes the band seem much more appealing and approachable. This is much more suited to the image the article depicts and after finishing the article I wish I had more time to redo my shoot and make Scott seem more positive in the picture because his moody demeanour in the main image kind of contradicts the article and image in the Q&A. This smiling could however also be perceived as an exclusive feature the magazine has to offer, looking past the image the band sets and looks into what they’re really like; given more time I would still retake the picture however as this effect would be even greater with it as a main image.

The article addresses its audience in a more friendly and informal way than most rock magazines would. Other rock magazines however try to appeal to a wider audience and so their speech patterns and mode of address to the readers

must be a neutral one that all their readers can appreciate. My magazine however is aimed at one particular group, who enjoy casual talk about the groups and knowing them on a personal basis rather than spending vast amounts of words on their finance. Interviews are the focal point of the articles; the articles practically should appear to write themselves as the information can be taken right from the group’s mouths. In my main article on the left page I have written in a format that appears as if I’m summing up the whole conversation between the interviewer and the group and then taking the more personal moments of the interview and quoting them.

must be a neutral one that all their readers can appreciate. My magazine however is aimed at one particular group, who enjoy casual talk about the groups and knowing them on a personal basis rather than spending vast amounts of words on their finance. Interviews are the focal point of the articles; the articles practically should appear to write themselves as the information can be taken right from the group’s mouths. In my main article on the left page I have written in a format that appears as if I’m summing up the whole conversation between the interviewer and the group and then taking the more personal moments of the interview and quoting them.