Magazine Production Evaluation

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

Front Cover

I have used three different font sizes to allow certain words, from my cover lines, to stand out more to the reader. I also have used a combination of bold and regular font styles to achieve this.

The masthead is large to attract my target audience. I have also added a drop shadow to help it stand out from the rest my magazine.

There is a clear colour scheme used on my front cover (red, white and black). I chose these colours as they’re appealing colours and help the copy stand out from both the background and the main image.

I placed the barcode into the bottom right corner after researching magazine music covers and this is a typical place for a barcode to be positioned.

I have also placed the date and price of my magazine in the barcode as this is a common convention of not just music magazines, but magazines in general.

I have used a flasher to draw the audiences attention to a competition in the issue of my magazine. The colour of the flasher is yellow, this breaks away from the colour scheme that I have followed, to help it stand out. I chose to incorporate a flasher on my front cover as it is a common convention of music magazines.

The selling line is positioned underneath the masthead as I chose to follow this typical convention. The font is small in a black font with a white stroke to allow it to stand out slightly from the rest of the front cover.

The main image is a medium-close-up shot. From my research a lot of magazines use this type of shot.

For the main cover line I have used three font sizes to maintain the professional look of my cover. From my research using various size fonts is a common convention.

I have used the typical convention of rules of thirds to position the copy and image on my cover correctly.

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

Contents Page

I have used the typical convention of the rules of thirds to create a professional layout for my contents page.

The colour scheme and house style from my front cover has continued onto the contents page. All successful magazines stick to this media convention.

My contents page also uses the common convention of including the masthead and date at the top of the contents page. I followed this convention to maintain a professional contents page.

I have challenged the convention of having ‘contents’ at the top of my page and opted to have ‘This Week’ instead as it helps make my magazine stand out from the crowd and is more suitable for my target audience.

I have used sub-headings to organise my contents page. From my research this is a common convention used by magazines from all genres.

I followed the convention of alternating the font sizes and style of the copy. I used various font sizes to allow certain things to stand out more and this is also why I chose to use lower case and uppercase styles.

At the bottom of my contents page I have a subscription promotion. I chose to include this on my contents page as it is a popular convention used by many magazines.

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

Double page spread

I have used to pull quotes from the article to draw in the reader in and prompt them to read on. This is common feature in magazines of all genres.

I also have used a drop capital at the beginning of my article as this convention helps maintain the professionalism of my media product.

As with my cover and contents, in my double page spread I have used rules of thirds to organise the layout of my double page spread.

I followed the typical convention of including the date, magazine name and page number at the bottom corner of the right hand page.

I chose to follow the convention of using a tag at the top corner of my page. This is a common way magazines allow readers to identify the artist/band that the article is about.

Most magazines have a page took up by a single photo, this is why I have also done this. The image I have used relates to my article as it shows the artist in the studio.

With my double page spread I have continued the house style and colour scheme seen in my front cover and contents page.