1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

Although I didn't use a Music Magazine in order to advise myself on magazine design, I used one which follows all the typical conventions. I chose to adopt the ideas used on the cover of Fantastic Man for my own front cover.

Secondly for the Contents I used two different magazines in order to create my own Contents Page. I used both The FADER and Esquire. 

     

The Title of the Magazine

For the Masthead of my magazine I decided to use a clear and elegant font called 'Perpetua Tiling', making sure not only did my title stand out, but that it was easy to read instantly. It is a very similar font to the Cover of Fantastic Man, with pointed edges. Whilst it is also all in Capital Letters making it clear and again following another convention of an already existing magazine. Furthermore I felt the clean font gave a relaxed element to the somewhat punchy word "DECK". I chose to put the Masthead in Black, so it didn't clash with the Colour Cover Image and to maintain the clean feel of the magazine. Unlike on the Fantastic Man Cover where colour is used, with a black and white image, I simply alternated the convention. Although it might not stand out as much among other bolder/chunkier mastheads, I feel it's relaxed style will  make it clearer to read, as opposed to just standing out. 

Graphology/Page Layouts

I aimed to keep the Layout of my magazine simple, but effective, with the style of graphology being maintained consistently throughout my magazine, to create high levels of continuity following typical magazine conventions. I tried to ensure this by using the same font and colours throughout, ensuring consistency and making the magazine look professional. As with the Fonts and Colours I decided to use the same effects upon the images I used throughout, such as slightly increasing the brightness in order to provide a laid back feel to the images. I also added exposure to the images, enabling the hair to become more prominent, as well as Red lips and nails.Overall I wanted each page to follow the same conventions, unlike in some commercial magazines where each page is altered to suit the subject, which often leads to a loss of continuity. 

Therefore overall the layout used the typical conventions of magazines by keeping the same base font and editing images to suit the genre (e.g, Darkened Images for Rock). Whilst I attempted to keep my magazine simple but stylish, developing ideas from more simplistic music magazines, drfting away from the conventions of busy music magazines such as Kerrang. 

Firstly the Front Cover of my magazine is based on Fantastic Man, which I used as a model to design my Front Cover. 

The first thing I did was to position my masthead centrally at the top of my front cover and to use a classy, stylish and clean font. Making the magazine cover easy to read and clear to view. I chose to put it in black as I wanted to use a coloured image. This is the opposite to the David Beckham example, but the principle remains the same, as to not overload with the colour. Because this would make the cover over complicated and messy, losing the stylish feel. I believe this follows magazine conventions as it makes the masthead clear and promintent, but it's style doesn't detract from the more important cover image. 

The second thing I did was to place the image in the centre of the magazines cover and enclose it with a border. Although the border doesn't feature on my style model, I felt it looked good and also it fitted the 'do it yourself style' as it looked like a man made photo album/frame. I chose to have the image in colour, as I wanted it to stand out, which was important as it didn't fill the whole of the cover. Finally I enhanced the images brightness to make the red hair stand out, as well as the green watch and contrast between the white shirt and black camera. This technique of bordering the image moves away from typical magazines where the image would fill the whole of the Front Cover, with text overlapping. Or when an image would at least reach the pages margins. Therefore normal magazine conventions have been ignored to create a unique style, whereby giving my magazine an identity, providing it credibility. 

In addition I chose to put "DRONE PIXIES" underneath the picture and not over the top of it, as I wanted the picture not be encroached. I also wanted to use coloured text therefore it wouldn't be clear over the coloured image. This is why I haven't followed my inspiration, as on there it worked due to the black and white image. The reason I put the text in colour was because it wasn't as big as the masthead but I still wanted it to stand out. I chose the strong Red as it was the same colour as the varnish on the cover stars nails, so it created continuity. But also on the white background it isn't glaring and therefore can be read easily. I feel this works well. This is both conventional and not so. Often the main Cover Line, is placed upon the image to avoid confusion with other sections of text. However because of my tidier layout I didn't do this, creating a neater and less crowded cover. Although Having the main Cover Line at the bottom is not entirely new, having it more central would have been far more conventional, but I didn't want to detract from the image, or cause confusion with the Masthead, due to the difference in colour. 

I chose to put the other text body below the main text, as I felt this space could be used to success. I reverted to black text, as to not overkill with colour and being smaller it stood out so can be read easily in black. As well because the image is separate from the rest of the cover I was able to include more text in the other space than on normal magazines, without the cover looking crowded. I kept the text simple, just to the names of artists featured in the magazine, which are separated by full stops. Whilst I also put this text in two justified lines with the first slightly longer to make the magazine tidier and more professional, as well as centralising the texts, leaving even amounts of space at the end of each line. I put the text into Italics as well to differentiate it from the rest of the text. This kept it simple and minimalistic but I also felt was stylish. This positioning of text is not entirely conventional and doesn't feature on music magazines such as Kerrang, Q and NME, however similar ideas are used on Bullet and Huck, as well as Fantastic Man. Whereby text can be grouped together neatly, without proving to be heavy reading. Though by reverting back from the red to the black colour on the text I followed magazine conventions whereby the main Cover Line, maintains its own individual colour. 

I placed the barcode on the left hand side, rotated vertically length-ways as on my style model, feeling this made the most of the covers space outside the image. I then also rotated the price, issue number (these two were larger as they are more important and prominent to the magazines sale), web address, twitter name and  photography credits. I did this to effectively use the space and also as I felt it looked stylish, as well as being a technique which had worked well on my inspiration. Again this is both conventional on some magazines and not on others, as often the Barcode's position will be altered issue by issue to suit the rest of the Front Cover's Layout. Due to it not being a priority for the reader, but only a legal necessity. 

Secondly the Contents Page of my magazine is designed by using ideas and inspiartion from both esquire and The FADER.

Esquire

I used a couple of features from the contents page of Esquire in my own piece as I felt they fitted well and added to the aesthetics of my page, but didn't copy many conventional magazines. The first of these was to adopt the rotated contents feature on the right hand side of the contents page. I used this as I felt it added a different dimension to the contents page, and the different style set it apart from a more conventional Contents Page. Although many contents pages do have the word "Contents" reading vertically in order to get the reader to read downwards, aiding their own navigation of the page.

I also used the idea of adopting two colours in this section, using the black and the red, like the black and red used in esquire. I however used mine on the word "CONTENTS" unlike on the date as Esquire had. I also included more information, such as the issue number, website, Twitter name and photography details, all in order to add as much credibility to my magazine as possible. Like with Esquire I kept the font simple and clear to read, which is important as being rotated you wouldn't want to add another effect as this would over complicate the feature. Again these features are quite conventional  such as highlighting the word "CONTENTS", simply to make it stand out and make clear the subject of the page. Whilst the use of the colours Red, White and Black, is highly conventional, being the most commonly used colour pallet on magazines  due to their clear and contrasting effect when used together. 

The other feature I adopted was to position and style my image similarly as to esquire. I put the image to the left of the page, filling the majority of one half of the page. I felt this made the image prominent but not so much so that it dominated the page detracting from the text within the page. I also feel the image being placed here attracts attention first and then the text takes over, this way everything is focused on equally, so the audience misses nothing and their is no feature of the Contents Page that is unnoticed/useless. In some senses this in conventional as an image often takes prominence, however quite often in a Contents Page the text comes first due to it's importance in this section. Although I reversed this convention as it better suited my magazines layout. 

In addition I put the caption for the image half way up the image, as to not clash with the image, as opposed to the bottom left corner in Esquire. I did this as it suited my image as their was space in the image here and because it was clear her, not going unnoticed. As well I kept the same font to create continuity in my magazine, whilst used a black font continuing this, but also it stood out clearly but didn't detract attention from other more important features. Both of these are typical of all magazines, the use of a caption is simply a reader friendly device, whilst keeping the same font just continues the magazines continuity. 

The FADER

I again used two features from the Contents Page of The FADER in my own, as I felt they both suited the genre, as well as the minimalistic but stylish style that I wanted my magazine to convey. Firstly I admired the way the image on the Contents Page was in a black frame and would have used this feature, however it was too similar to my (Fantastic Man impression) Front Cover. It could be argued doing this would create continuity, but at the same time variety is needed and it would have looked desperately similar and devoid of ideas. Therefore I kept the idea of using a black frame, but only displayed half of the frame. Therefore resulting in continuity being restored, but a varied style was also offered. I also feel the frame offered minimalism but also kept the Contents Page structured, a bit like a border, making it clear and easy to navigate for the audience. Also the picture frame kept in with my Indie Genre. It also kept up with the 'do it yourself' Indie style, so suited my genre and didn't just look stylish otherwise it wouldn't have been included. Obviously this idea follows the conventions of The FADER, but the same can't be said for many other magazines. The image is normally separated by an alteration in colour, or even a change in background colour to back text on the Contents Page. 

Secondly I took the idea of having the main text body in columns as is done in The FADER Contents. I felt this made the page look organised and tidy. The columns also meant that no lines had to be included to divide sections of text, as were used on the Esquire contents. which could have made the contents page appear far more cluttered and busy. This would of removed the minimalistic feel of the magazine and the continuity would have been ruined. Furthermore I certain items of text in the contents, such as the page numbers and the headings in bold to make them stand out more. With the further explanation below without the bold effect. This is the same as in The FADER Contents and without changing colour yiu can still differentiate the different sections through the bold text. Unlike in Esquire when a colour change is used to do this. The only time I did use colour on the magazine contents text was to highlight "DRONE PIXIES" and "YASMIN". I did this as it continued on from the style on the front cover and was something I also did on the Double Page Spread in order to create continuity and identity. I also felt it was essential it stood out as it was the main article, which is why I also underlined the word "EXCLUSIVE" afterwards to further emphasise its importance. Again this follows the convetions of The FADER, but many music magazines just have one collum of text and the other text supports image(s) on the other half of the page. So from this respect I have challenged magazine conventions upon Contents Page's, by altering my page quite drastically in terms of it's layout. 

Finally the Double Page Spread of my magazine was not speifically based on any paerticular magazine, as the other elements have been. 

I used the same font for my headings on the Spread to continue this continuity and similarly used the red colour on "DRONE PIXES" to create continuity. I felt this created authenticity and made the magazine look professional rather than being mismatched, with sections looking out of place and not fitting the publication. The use of the same font throughout is conventional in many magazines, however on a lot of Double Page Spreads the font may be altered to suit the genre more specifically or even the artists own font/style. Whilst the continuation of the Red, White and Black fonts, is again following the conventional magazine Colour Pallet. However often colours are changed on Double Page Spreads, to represent the Genre/Artist, or to just emphasise the sections importance. Therefore for this I have challenged typical magazine conventions. 

In addition I just tried to keep the continuity going with the article, although I did change the font to create some differentiation and to make the text clear as it was quite small which was intentional considering it was an article. I also put a bold effect on the questions in the article to make them clear and to put more emphasis upon them, as I had done on the main text in the contents. Consequently I further established continuity. Meanwhile I enlarged quotes within my article to attract the reader and entice them to go into deeper reading. All of these graphological choices are very typical of magazines. Often fonts used for headings have to be altered as they aren't as clear when reduced in size for articles, whilst putting questions in bold makes the article much easier to read. Although in some magazines a change of colour is used for this, so here the convention has been slightly altered/developed. In addition the enlargement of quotes is very convetional in Double Page Spreads, as a way of drawing in the reader. I also changed the colours on these, as done in some magazines, but not others. Whilst often a quote may be used as the heading, however I chose not to do this and created my own Heading/Subheading. Therefore here I followed some conventions whilst others I didn't adopt, as using them all would over complicate a simplistic magazine. 

The final feature on the Double Page Spread is of course the Image. For this I decided it would cover half of the page, with the text on the other. Therefore neither element could detract or ruin the other. Meanwhile as it covers half the page, it means that when the pages are folded it is only the non-important arm in the image which is affected. Having the image placed in conjunction with the text like this is conventional and often forms the layouts of Double Page Spreads.

As well I increased both the brightness and the exposure of the Image, the result of this was a brighter m,ore relaxed feel to the magazine. Whilst it also enhanced the hair, which I felt was important due to the role that fashion and music have together in influencing society. This again is conventional in terms of editing the image, making it brighter especially so for this genre, to give off a relaxed vibe.

Costumes, props, iconography used to reflect genre

My chosen Genre was of Indie therefore with the target market being aged between 16-30, they would often  consider style over substance when buying a magazine, as well as any other product. Therefore I had to keep this in mind at all times when considering the above. Meanwhile with Indie being a unique Genre not many conventions were followed. 

Firstly it is worth noting that I kept the costume the same on my Cover Artist throughout in order to create continuity as much as anything, but to also maintain her own unique style. The shirt she is wearing is buttoned up to the top something commonly associated with the Indie Genre and a style of my target age group. Whilst the clear black buttons on the shirt clearly emphasise this, reflecting my genre. As well I kept the collar down on the shirt as I was going for a clean cut feel, often related to Indie so wanted to represent this accurately, as a collar up would lean more towards rock. Additionally the sleeves of the shirt feature a netted style, which adorns Aztec style patterns, something strongly associated with the Indie and a style many people of my target age group adopt. The design also makes the shirt more interesting and stylish, but it still looks neat, rather than over extravagant and flashy. The subdued feel fits the genre ideally I believe, as something too over the top would lean towards pop. Also the necklace gives the shirt a bit more emphasis, but again as it is silver and elegant, it doesn't appear to flashy or glary. Therefore representing the genre well, as it doesn't try to much to make an effort, but still has impact. Moving onto the facial makeup, I chose to keep this minamilistic fitting my magazines style, but also representing the genre. Too much makeup would make the artist appear cheap and more 'Poppy'. Whilst just the light makeup used suits the relaxed, chilled out genre. As for example dark eye makeup would lean towards Rock. My artist also wore red nail varnish, as not only did this follow the magazines colour pallet, but it was also punchy, without being garish or even too punk-like. The punchy element suits the stand out Indie genre, as willing to do something different, whilst still remaining cool and not seeming to show off. My cover artist is that she has a nose ring, which until recently would have been associated with Punk or Rock. However recently many people trying to attract the Indie tag have adopted this style and it has become quite popular. Here it does not appear Punky or Rocky and fits the genre ideally, again having that element of trying something different but remaining cool, stylish and understated. The last thing of note for my cover artist is that she has Dark Red hair which is dyed, although has the effect of being natural. Until recently dying your hair this colour would have been seen as uncool, although recently this has changed, especially in Indie groups. Also the effect of it being natural suits the trying something different element of Indie, but also maintains the effect of not seemingly trying hard, looking stylish, without showing off. As this would more that definetly push the genre over to Pop. 

Secondly the artist on my Contents Page has a much more subdued and relaxed style. Her dress is a rich dark purple, a colour very popular with Indie among both genders. So here the choice of colour represents the genre accurately, whilst yet again it is far from garish or flashy, maintaining the laid back feel. It to adorns mazy Aztec style patterns, which I have already explained is very popular among Indie followers. The dress also remains elegant, whilst functional with the sleeves, fitting the go out and get it feel created by the indie genre. It is neither low cut so remains classy and neat, further representing the genre ideally. Again with the makeup

Moving onto the facial makeup, I chose to keep this minamilistic fitting my magazines style, but also representing the genre. Too much makeup would make the artist appear cheap and more 'Poppy'. Whilst just the light makeup used suits the relaxed, laid back genre, further supported by the artists cool smile. As for example dark eye makeup would lean towards Rock. As well the artist is wearing light red lipstick, again not appearing majorly glary and exposing the lips to much, but maintaining a stylish vibe and neat style. The red also fits the magazines own color pallet, so yet more continuity. Finally the hair is both curly and free, representing the genre well. It looks effortless and again is dyed. However although it is dyed blonde it does not appear cheap and looks both stylish, whilst remaining laid back. The curly style also shows how the Indie  genre embraces many different styles of hair. 

Both of my artists are not conventional of many music magazines. they do not have make up caked on their faces, nor are they dressed extravgantly. However they are stylish and understated, suiting my genre and challenging typical magazine conventions.

No props are used on any of the images within my pubication for a number of reasons. First of all the use of an item such as a microphone can make the image look a big cliche and also gives the effect the photo was greatly staged. As well it makes the artist appear manafactured as if they are forced to hold a prop, whilst having my artists individual nature shine through better represents indie. Whilst if they appear manafactured this totally contradicts the unique 'Do it yourself' Indie genre. Furthermore with my photo's taken in a studio any props would make them appear even more staged. Also the use of a prop could have made the artist feel uncomfortable and therefore not at all suit the relaxed Indie Genre. 

It is not often props are used in music magazines, as it is made to be all about the artist, so here I have followed magazine conventions. If however I had done a rock magazine props would have been conventional such as a guitar, but with Indie this was not necessary.

Iconography is a diffiuclt one with the Indie genre, as Indie is all about being independent and doing it yourself. However if there is any icongraphy it is with my cover artist. Who with the dark red hair and subdued make up has similarities to Florence and the Machine. Especially in the two images below where florence is wearing simple, but stylish and elegant white tops. Also in the second image like my artist she is wearing a neat silver necklace. Although Florence is wearing more jewellery and eye makeup, some levels of Iconography are represented which is to be expected even in Indie, as some conventions have to be copied otherwise Indie would be impossible to define at all. However the diffentiations show how Indie is a genre that lets you be yourself, therefore explaining how Iconography enables Indie to be accurately represented in my magazine. 

In conventional music magazines Iconography is far more common, it is all about following the latest styles and who can be the same, if not better than so and so. However I went against this convention and went for limited Iconography, as Indie is about being yourself and Independence, therefore lots of Iconography would have contradicted this and lost my magazines audience. 

Camerawork and framing of images

All of the camera shots used in my magazine are straight on shots, with the cover artist being featured in two midshots and the contents image being a close up. I used a mid-shot on the Front Cover, as it fitted my layout well and I felt it was important to show as much of my artist as possible. This way it showed my magazine was both open and informative, subconsciously represented through the image. This in conventional as lots of magazines feature mid-shots on their covers, showing their openness. But some do use Close-ups, though I didn't feel it fitted my genre.  With the contents page I used a close up, to emphasise how this was the page to get stuck into and find out where to go. Also a smaller image was needed so the close up fitted ideally. This again is conventional as smaller images are used on Contents Pages. Finally for the Double Page Spread I used a slightly closer mid-shot, once again establsihing both the artists and the magazines openess with this being an interview. This is partly conventional, but normally a close up is used, to show the personal and close relationship between artist and reader a Double Page Spread offers. 

I framed the images on the Front Cover and the Contents Page to keep them ordered, something that is conventional for the contents page for certain, as these can often become cluttered and busy, therefore segregation is needed. Though for the cover this only matches the conventions of Fantastic Man, Bullet and Huck, therefore challenging typical magazine conventions. Meanwhile I chose not to frame my Double Page Spread Image as this would make the article seem closed and stand offish to the reader, whilst I wanted to create a relaxed open vibe. This matches the conventions of the majority of magazines whereby the image on the Double Page Spread is not framed. 

 

Colour scheme

I feel I can categorically say that the Colour Scheme is by far the most conventional element of my whole magazine. The use of Red, White and Black is the most commonly used colour scheme. The white and black offer the colours of traditional print, so give my magazine the clean cut feel (of Indie) whilst the red makes things stand out and is used for emphasis. Meanwhile if say yellow had been used with the other colours a Rock genre would be felt, whilst blue/pink could of created a Pop genre. Therefore by using the conventional colours it suited my Indie genre. The magazines below such as NME, Bullett and Q represent this how this neutral colour scheme is very conventional.