Thursday 10 April 2014

Evaluation Question 1 - FINAL

1. In what 

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

To ensure that my magazine reached it’s maximum potential, I went through a research stage which involved looking at a variety of different magazine styles, as well as past work by other students. By doing this I found that magazines that follow a similar structures and conventions are the most successful. This is due to the detailed understanding of which target market the magazine is aimed at. With such a detailed understanding, they can chose a cover model that perfectly suits their target market and know how they need to be represented. For my magazine I wanted to break the barrier of what is classed as traditional magazine layouts and styles to make it as unique as possible. However, On both my contents and double page spread, I used LOUD AND QUIET as a brief guideline. This would ensure that it would capture my chosen target audience. I emulated the bold masthead and the white border throughout all three aspects of my on magazine as. 

LOUD AND QUIET use the rule of thirds very effectively to present the magazine in a way it would stand out to on a shelf, and this is a technique that I wanted to adapt to my own design. I wanted The three main aspects of my cover to stand out-Masthead, image and content, each aspect crucial to my design. This is a very common convention used widely in the industry, along side the spiral effect which is generally used on images to ensure the main focal point of the photograph. However, I did not require the use of the spiral effect as the artistic elements of my cover image did enough to draw attention for not only those of my target audience, but other audiences as well, particularly if on a shelf with a variety of other magazines. In regards to colour, I also adapted the black and white house theme leaving just the central image to take focal point. By reducing the content of text on the page I was able to reduce the 'busyness' of the cover to increase the overall aesthetic. 

When it came to designing my magazine I kept in mind the main conventions to ensure that elements fitted within my genre, however ensuring the individuality was still noticeable through out the design and layout.

For my masthead, I challenged the conventions with regards to colour by using white, which is not known for being bold or to stand out. I used a 'revolution' font due to it's bold style, and I developed the boldness through the use of overlapping the fonts. I used an overlap effect for my masthead, to be different, which is initially what the term 'indie' represents. I believe along with the font, this enables it to stand out and capture my target audiences attention. I placed the masthead slightly lower than the top of the page, to ensure that my border was used to great effect, and framed the photo, to show off it's artistic features especially the eyes, as these attract the male gaze. I also decided to not have anything over lapping the masthead, only the border because this also develops the covers individuality if on a shelf in a shop with a wide variety of other magazines.

The graphological features of my magazine are purposely there to ensure that it is diverse, and looks particularly different in comparison to every other magazine on the market, regardless of my magazine not being the only indie one. I found inspiration sources from magazines such as LOUD AND QUIET and Clash, due to their exquisite and artistic ways of presenting images and text with the use of negative space. I, however decided to break the conventions of these magazines and didn't use the negative space effect to the extent to which I wished to, because i felt that the images I produced with the chalk effect were artistic enough to attract my target audience, as well as others. 

My favorite page with regards to the graphological features which I have presented is my cover, as I feel the 'revolution' font works when leaked into the border. I also like the sizing of my image, as it really presents the male gaze features which will attract my target audience, regardless of whether they follow indie music or not. This is also a house style which I have developed throughout the piece of work, as it links all pages together to show there is a connection. 

When using conventional features with regards to photography, I decided to think outside the box and use chalk to give off a unique effect which allows focus to be drawn to that solely, rather than relying on the masthead to grab attention. I believe that this was a way of developing my photography skills to which would make my images seem more professional when looked at by my target market. I followed the conventions of a 'perfect' photograph because my model looked into the camera in all of the photos that I used in my magazine. This is to capture the audiences attention. 

My magazine has challenged conventions to and extent, to ensure that it is diverse and individual. However I believe that I stuck by the most important ones, to ensure my magazine remained graphologically like a magazine. 





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