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

FRONT COVER

For my front cover I took inspiration from three popular indie rock magazines – ‘NME’, ‘Clash’ and ‘Rock Sound’. I found these designs eye catching when I was researching typical magazines of this genre, therefore I wanted to use some of their design features on my own front cover. My original decision to choose the indie genre was because it is alternative but still mainstream enough to interest a wide range of people as these professional magazines clearly demonstrate. The decision to name my magazine ‘Amplified’ originated from the intention of wanting to shout out about new music that may not be mainstream and in the charts and therefore making people more aware of the genre by ‘amplifying’ through the media form of a magazine. After research I decided to price my magazine at £2.20 which I felt was a fair price and was typical of most music magazines as they are usually in the £2.00 region.

From previous research I discovered that the conventional norms of front covers are to have a masthead which is memorable and snappy in a bold font which dominates the rest of the front cover , drawing your attention to it immediately. I have adopted this idea on my own front cover as the masthead is large, in a dark font and grabs the audience’s attention as it is such a contrast against the white background and the other bright colours on the cover. The fact that it looks slightly eroded represents the indie genre of music inside. Another convention of front covers is a large and dominant image of the band which takes up the majority of space on the cover and tells the reader that the band is the main cover article inside this magazine. I have achieved this as the photograph is immediately eye catching because the band members are looking directly at the camera and this causes the target audience to feel a connection with them. Another convention that I have noticed on front covers is to have straplines which include extra information about other features included inside the magazine. I have used this on my own front cover by including bands which have new music released which entices the audience to find out more and buy the magazine. The fact that I have used a vibrant blue also makes it stand out and causes the text to be clearer due to the contrast in colours. The colour scheme is a very important aspect of my magazine design as I wanted it to enable a contrast between the dark image and masthead and therefore highlight the text. I have used bright and eye catching colours such as yellow, blue, red and white which were also used on the ‘NME’ front cover and I have adopted the combination of yellow and white used for the main coverline. Colour scheme also helps to make the magazine identifiable as to which genre it attracts and in the case of my front cover I think it is clearly recognised as an indie/ rock magazine.

Another convention that I recognised on many music magazine front covers including ‘Clash’ was the use of cartoon type images such as this sound wave: I used this feature on my own front cover as I think it adds a certain interest to the magazine as well as attracting the reader’s eye to certain areas or text. In this case it attracts attention to the masthead which is positive as one of the conventions of front covers is a dominating masthead which is eye catching. The tape recorder represents an alternative and retro style of magazine and music.I had a clear idea of the mise en scene that would be appropriate after researching indie magazines. Most bands or artists look very serious and intense and I reflected this in on my front cover. Also the dark black clothes represent the ‘moody’ band members. I think that the mise on scene is consistent throughout my designs.In terms of text on the front cover, I followed the conventions of making the main coverline of ‘AJA’ larger than all the other coverlines as the they are the main selling point of the magazine. This is a feature used commonly as it tells the reader what the magazine is going to be mostly about. I also used phrases such as ‘Top 10 Must Have Downloads’ as I had seen a similar coverline on the ‘Clash’ front cover. I used exclamation and question marks as they give the magazine some energy and coverlines with question marks intrigue the reader as they want to know the answer and therefore buy the magazine. The text is lined up apart from the main coverlines as it is slightly more into the centre so that it is more noticeable. This is challenging the conventions as the text is usually either in the centre or down the side. It is also conventional to include a date, price and bar code which I did.

CONTENTS PAGE

In relation to the contents page, there are many conventions which are commonly used in rock/indie magazines. Once again, the masthead is usually strong and bold as it immediately identifies the function of the page and informs the reader as to what they are looking at. For my design, I used a font which once again represented the alternative genre of music inside as it is slightly eroded and looks like a mug shot. The contrast between the black and white colour scheme of the masthead is eye catching and it immediately grabs your attention because it is dominating and overpowering which is a convention of music magazine contents pages. I ensured the image of the main featured band ‘AJA’ was largest as they are the reason that most people will purchase the magazine. It is conventional to use a different picture of the band so that it adds interest. Underneath I added a picture of ‘Leonna Mulraney’ which is slightly smaller as I did not want it to distract from the main feature. I ensured that the page numbers appeared before the text as this a convention of contents pages. I also used a different colour so that they stand out and break away from the text. However, the colour scheme fits in with the front cover and the double page spread so that the magazine has a theme and it looks uniformed. I have carried many of the colours such as the bright yellow through to the contents page and I made the subtitles capital letters so that they are clear and stand out. I

also noticed that there is usually text underneath the features to explain what they are about and I made this white so that it fits in with the theme of the masthead and also contrasts and stands out. I placed page numbers over the images as this is a conventional feature of contents pages. However, I decided to break the conventions slightly by giving them a black background so that they blended in. This once again carries the contrasting theme of the contents page and the magazine as a whole because of the white against the black. This makes it clear and therefore the reader can easily find out which page the band/ artist will be on. The size of the page number on the main ‘AJA’ image is slightly bigger because they are the main feature.

The ‘Q’ contents page inspired me to have the subtitles ‘Features’ and ‘Every Week’ which split the magazine into sections so that it is clear for the reader to navigate where certain articles are. ‘Features’ includes articles which are exclusive to this issue – such as an interview with a band, whilst ‘Every Month’ includes competitions, mail and other features which are always inside the magazine. I also included a ‘Reviews’ and ‘Plus’ section. The ‘Reviews’ sections conventionally gives the opinion on newly released media such as songs and albums. However, I have also included reviews of ‘the best concerts of 2010’ as I feel this would appeal to my target audience. The ‘Plus’ section entices the reader with posters and free tickets to see MGMT. From my research, I noticed that a lot of magazines gave away prizes and I thought that by offering the chance to win tickets to a well known, popular band which is in the indie genre of music it would be another way to attract the target audience as is the aim of most conventional magazines. A contrast from the conventions is the choice to include a guitar in the picture of ‘AJA’ as not many bands are photographed holding instruments e.g. in ‘Q’. However, for my contents page I think it works as it fits in with the indie/ rock genre of music and suggests that the band play their own instruments.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Finally I will be identifying how my double page spread conforms or challenges the conventions of magazine design. I kept the same colour scheme as I wanted my designs to be uniformed and fit together as one. I think the colour scheme emphasises the magazines individuality and identity. I used the same ‘AJA’ font as I wanted it to be recognisable as their logo as I have the reoccurring feature in my magazine designs of having an eroded masthead. This is conventional to the indie genre as I noticed that many mastheads have the same effect to give the magazine more depth. The image of ‘AJA’ takes up one page as this is conventional of most double page spreads, for example ‘NME’. I used the bright purple to highlight certain features such as the circle which includes the controversial quote and also certain words like ‘Amplified’ and ‘AJA’. I noticed this was a common feature in nearly all of the double page spreads I researched as it helps to make it stand out and catch the reader’s eye. I used bold, black quotation marks to surround the quote and carried the bright yellow colour through as I feel it creates a contrast as the two colours , purple and yellow slightly clash. Therefore, I am challenging the forms as they would not normally be put together in a colour scheme. I conformed to the conventions by doing an interview with the band. Once again, I used purple to highlight when the band members were speaking to show their importance as they are the main selling point of the magazine . This challenges example double page spreads like ‘NME’ to the right as they have simply used black text for the interview part and it looks unclear and could put a reader off.

I have placed a purple rectangle in the top left hand corner which says ‘Exclusive Interview’ in capital letters . I found this was a convention of double page spreads as it makes sure that the page has importance as it is the main feature and that it is identified to the reader. I used a controversial quote as they are conventionally used to add interest and makes the reader want to read more to find out it’s context and what was actually said during the interview. It is highlighted in colour against a relatively dark background so that it stands out and is eye catching, therefore attracting the audience to the feature. Another convention which I have noticed in double page spreads is that underneath the bold masthead there is usually an introductory paragraph before the interview which explains where it is being held, how the interviewer is feeling and what the band were like when they met them. I ensured that the text was split into two columns as this is a norm for most double page spreads as you can see on the article on ‘The Teenagers’ for ‘NME’. This is done so that the reader is not put off by huge chunks of text. Language is also very important. If the magazine is aimed at teenagers there is conventionally more slang used so that it interests them and draws them into the article. I also noticed that features which are more controversial such as drug abuse and rehab intrigue the reader as they are non politically correct and therefore create more of an interest and encourage people to buy the magazine. I have done this in my design by talking about band arguments, drugs, rehab , controversy with a new record label and dealing with the media. Therefore I have conformed to this convention. Finally I added the name of the person who conducted the interview and the date on which it took place.