By James Borland

EVALUATION FOR MY MUSIC MAGAZINE QUESTION 1.)

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS? SIMILARITIES-COVER

Masthead

Main Image

Direct Address

Cover lines

Barcode/Edition

Puff

Main Cover line

Colour scheme

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS? DIFFERENCES-COVER

This issue of Q included a grab quote.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS?

The main differences between my cover and the Q cover is that they feature a pull quote with their main cover line. I didn’t do this on my cover as I thought it would cover even more of the photo and distract from the more important parts such as the main image and main cover line. I follow the rule of thirds to show what is important on my cover. I also have a large masthead like Q does but I do not cover mine at all as this is the first issue of my magazine so it has no brand recognition whereas Q is a popular indie-rock magazine and is well known by fans of that genre. I made sure to use direct address as this interests the audience and was used in the examples I looked at, being Q and some NME issues.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS? SIMILARITIES-CONTENTS

Masthead

Anchorage

Secondary Images

Cover lines

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS?

My contents page featured no big differences as I followed codes and conventions and kept it like magazines that I had analysed like this issue of Q. I made sure to feature secondary images which would link to the cover lines I had mentioned. I did this by using anchorage to show exactly which image refers to which page. My contents page is similar as it features things all contents pages include. The cover lines are labelled with page numbers and also all of my pictures are anchored to an article in the magazine. The main difference is Q features one main image whereas I feature multiple secondary images to give a wide range of artists. This is the first issue of my magazine whereas Q has been going for a long time and has an audience, this meant I did not do everything the way they did as I am trying to create an audience. I feature the magazines whereas Q does not. This is because I am trying to build some brand recognition.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS? SIMILARITIES-DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Drop Cap

Stand first

Byline

Headline

Picture credit

Pictures

Picture caption

Byline

Picture credit

Headline

Image

Picture caption

Stand first

Drop Cap: N/A

Pictures

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF MEDIA PRODUCTS? I follow the conventions of a Double Page Spread especially in my genre. I followed examples like NME and Q so overall I have followed conventions of media products. I kept my main image on just one of the pages, as my examples did to keep my overall clean style and design. I wanted to keep the style clean and straight as I was trying to appeal to a slightly older audience so I did not want to play down to them. I didn’t want to distract the reader too much so I kept the colours the same as before with just three colours, red, white and black. This gives my magazine a more mature style as it is not too in your face. I featured my masthead quite large whereas Q magazine does not. This is because they already have an audience whereas this is my first issue of my magazine. My image featured direct address which was also used for three of the band members on the Q magazine double page spread.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MY FINAL COVER AND MY DRAFTS.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MY FINAL COVER AND MY DRAFTS.

My draft and my final design ended up being quite different, this is because I became more confident with Photoshop which allowed me to make better designs then I could when I made my student magazine. My cover features the same colour scheme and a very similar layout however I included two models on my cover as I had learnt how to remove the background which allowed me to make them large and keep them together, to give me more space to use on my cover. This is similar to my contents where I also used the same colour scheme and a kind of similar layout but in the end more was different with the contents. I got rid of the editors note from my contents as I did not need to cover and white space as I had now added the social media accounts which I thought would be more important for a first issue of a magazine. I also had more images on my final design. Also, with my double page spread I kept the same colour scheme and a similar layout but I did change the layout partially. Whilst making my drafts I did not have as much knowledge about articles for the double page spread. Once I wrote my article I realised that this would take up most of the right page of my double page spread. The left page I kept almost exactly the same as my draft as I had based it off examples I had already seen. Overall I stuck to the basics of my draft but tried to use more advanced skills to make my final design look better and how I would really like it.