Forms and Conventions Evaluation

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

Throughout my magazine I followed the forms and conventions of the magazines I had analysed including Q and NME. I found that the following magazines involved conventions of bar codes - which I created myself using Paint.Net, the date and magazine issue which are regularly printed on most magazine front covers, the colours used; I aimed to follow the same colour scheme of black, white and red in order to create cohesion and a tidy layout. The colour red is known to stimulate brain activity and catch the readers attention more so than other colours. Therefore i used this colour when necessary. Another form of convention which I followed are the puffs around the main image, I decided on a simplistic graphology as in Q magazine, which relies on one main image and a small number of puffs surrounding the image, as I believe this is a more professional approach rather than cluttering the magazine with unnecessary text and images. Whilst the contents page consists of puffs, images which are relevant to the front cover, usually dates and issue numbers, a magazine website and features within the magazine. I developed all of these conventions within my own house style to appeal to a specific target audience of alternative rock followers. For my double page spread I challenged the conventions of most magazine double page spread layouts which use a block text box and backdrops; and interpreted my own house style issuing a translucent text box, allowing my readers to see the image underneath. I believe this shows my own personal house style and makes my magazine seem more unique. I followed the normal conventions of most music magazines, including a heading, a lead, sometimes a drop capital to start the article off, a main image. I aimed to vary these conventions by changing the image to A3 size, this allowed me to use the layer tool on Photoshop to bring the text to the front. Not many magazines use only one main image, therefore I used this to my advantage to make my magazine seem more distinctive. But I followed the regular conventions, by applying page numbers along the bottom and following all the normal magazine conventions just inserting my own personal style.

I followed Q Magazine's simplistic graphology and applied it to my own product, as I believe this approach looks extremely professional.