In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?When designing my
magazine I looked at a range of indie/alternative existing
magazines, such as Loud and Quiet, Dazed and Confused, Clash, etc.
for inspiration and to see what was happening in current industry.
I took ideas from a combination of these popular and well known
magazines which each use, develop and challenge typical conventions
themselves, varying from issue to issue. I chose to adopt a variety
of ideas from the pre-existing magazines as they successfully and
effectively appealed to the target audience and represented the
indie genre clearly and consistently throughout the whole product.
Inspiration for the front cover page of my magazine came
predominantly from Fantastic Man along with the idea of creating
something which would stand out on the magazine shelves inside
stores through innovative styling but at the same time conforming
to the minimalistic style adopted by most magazines within this
genre.CONVENTIONS OF CONTENTSWhen producing my final version of the
contents page I based the design and layout around successful,
pre-existing magazines such as Clash and Fader, yet I decided to
develop ideas presented from these magazines and create a more
unique approach for the contents display; I used Faders idea to
feature chunks/blocks of text based on the main features within the
magazine as I felt this looked stylish and professional. I also
felt that it allow the reader/audience to gain a more detailed
insight into the pages and what to expect from the columns
displayed. In terms of the layout, again, I used ideas shown in
Fader, despite this being a hip-hop, RnB genre music magazine I
felt that it was still suitable to take and alter conventions from
as it appeared stylish and edgy which was something in intended to
achieve with my magazine. The straight columns ordering the
features appeared neat, minimalistic and professional and ensured
the reader was not overwhelmed at a glance of the page, also
ensuring that everything on the page was organised and neat. I then
adopted a similar style font to that used in Clash. I wanted to
achieve the stylish, vintage style appearance of the page overall
which I feel adds to the effectiveness of presenting my chosen
genre of indie clearly. I like the edgy feel that the Clash
contents page achieves and therefore wanted to create a page which
resembled this, which influenced me to use font style Orator on
Photoshop. As shown in Fader, I sized the titles of the feature
pages slightly larger (9) than the text which followed (7) as I
feel the title is the main piece of information which would grab
the attention of the audience and lead them to developing interest
and want to read the section of following text and find the page in
the magazine. Fader features a Soundcheck and On Location area on
their contents page inside every issue to ensure maintained
consistency; this is something which I decided to use as I feel
these subjects would be points of interest to the target audience
(16-24) and would be something which would encourage them to buy
the issue.
MASTHEADUsing font Tennessee SF to type the masthead Original in
size 88, I ensured that the front cover would make a statement on
the page and garb the attention of the public as they pass by the
magazine stands in stores and appears aesthetically pleasing to the
target audience, fitting in with the indie genre and overall design
of the front cover. The Tennessee SF font type appears vintage and
stylish, enabling the front cover to represent the indie genre
successfully and effectively. As well as this I had to ensure the
audience were able to clearly read the masthead without having to
look too closely to identify the magazine and strengthen branding
and recognition; this is something which is also considered with
real media products in industry as they need to ensure product
recognition to maintain sales, etc. The masthead featured on the
front cover is similar to that of Dazed and Confused, Loud and
Quiet and Clash music magazines in the sense that the lettering is
displayed in a basic font, capitals, bold and thick to ensure it
stands out on the page and makes a statement. I feel that by using
this convention of real media products I have allowed Original
magazine to create a sense of professional branding and the basic
style font of the masthead allows the main focus of the audience to
be kept on the image and the cover lines which would be the main
factors drawing attention to the product and encourage sales
through appearing aesthetically pleasing and interesting; as well
as this I feel that the cover of each issue of Original should
speak for itself and represent the indie genre clearly and
effectively, therefore it was important that the masthead did not
give much insight into the content of the magazine away, like on
many magazines in this industry such as: Loud and Quiet, Dazed and
Confused, i-D, etc. I do not feel that the audience should make
assumptions about the magazine itself based on just the masthead
and its design on the page. My thoughts when creating the masthead
were that I wanted something which would ensure original stood out
amongst other magazines on the store shelves through being large
and bold, but yet would not overwhelm the page in the eyes of the
audience. I decided on formatting the masthead text as black and
bold to allow the colours to contrast with the white background
colour of the page and ensure it was clearly readable. Due to being
centrally aligned on the page ( a convention taken on many
pre-existing magazines such as Clash, Loud and Quiet, Dazed and
Confused, etc.) my design appears neat, symmetrical and
aesthetically pleasing.
FRONT COVER PAGE LAYOUT AND CONVENTIONSIn terms of the front
cover layout, I used many conventions of fashion magazine,
Fantastic Man as I found this style effective at portraying a
sophisticated, stylish look which I intended to achieve with my
front cover. As I felt I was able to change the fashion orientation
of the magazine into a suited indie music genre through altering
wording etc. I employed conventions of this real media product
including: using of image and surrounding borderline of image,
bottom central cover line, placement of the barcode and issue date
and price, as well as bottom brief introductory text. Elaborating
on the upper left side of the page barcode placement being a
convention used by many real media products, it has been shown to
look effective on issues of Indie, Bullet, Clash, Dazed, etc.
GRAPHOLOGYI aimed to adopt the minimalistic approach on the front
cover as I did not want to overwhelm and deter the audience from
purchasing a copy. I felt that after looking at industry
pre-existing texts, a basic simple approach appealed more to the
indie target audience and looked more aesthetically pleasing.
Magazines including, Clash, Loud and quiet, i-D and many more have
chosen to adopt this minimal approach frequently, therefore showing
it is a successful and effective idea. Due to the basic cover
layout, as inspired by Fantastic Man, I feel the audience are as a
result more able to focus on the important pieces of information
displayed on the cover which would be enough to influence the
likelihood of a sale. I liked how the layout allows for continuity
on every page and can be adapted to suit any specific topic as it
is not suggestive and is not too complex to adjust to suit.The font
use predominantly on the front cover page (Orator Std) displaying
the band/artist features, profession of artist Jack Wolf and bottom
introductory information about the contents, is also featured as
the dominant style of text on both the contents and double page
spread. The maintained consistency makes the magazine seem well
constructed at an industry standard as it fits well together, each
page following onto the next with a continuous colour theme
throughout, creating a high level of continuity.On the front cover,
the font used stating the name of the featured cover artist is
Adobe Devanagari which is different to any other fonts featured
throughout the magazine; this could be considered as using
conventions of that used on Clash and Dazed and Confused as this
has been done by the brands multiple times on various issues where
the cover line(s) are shown to be formatted in a completely
different text. I feel this has allowed the name of the artist to
stand out on the cover and is likely to draw the attention of the
audience as they pass by due to not entirely fitting in with the
rest of the design. Although despite being a different font from
others used consistently throughout the magazine, I do not feel
this negatively affects the overall look of the magazine as I do
not think it appears out of place on the cover; everything works
well together, creating the intended image for the overall product
representing indie and classic style themes within the magazine.
The front cover features black colour filled boxes to allow the
band/artist features to stand out effectively; to ensure this was
kept consistent and fitting in with the design as a whole, I also
applied the use of the black filled box behind the singer text item
to ensure this text stood out to the audience and after it has
grabbed their attention, they would understand the purpose of the
magazine (music orientated) and those audience members who were
less aware of Jack Wolf as an artist would develop knowledge of his
profession to potentially want to purchase a copy of this issue and
read more about the featured artist. The boxes add to the dramatic
and edgy feel to the product and are a convention I used from real
media product, Spin music magazine as I came across the cover
featuring Lana Del Rey during the research and planning stages of
the task and felt I could interpret this idea and apply it onto the
cover of original. On both the contents page and double page spread
I created for the task I made sure of consistency of design and
branding through the use of page numbers and the name of the
magazine (Original) placed directly underneath the number; the font
size of this remained the same on every page it was featured size 6
as well as in font style. This was something I took from Dazed and
Confused as I liked the professionalism and strengthened branding
it creates- the audience is constantly reminded of the brand of the
magazine whilst reading as it is displayed centrally at the bottom
of every page to avoid distraction away from the content of the
magazine. To further the branding and consistency, I formatted the
left page of the double page spread in white to ensure the text was
clearly visible and contrasting with the black colour from the
image.
A variation of high and low language register is used
appropriate to engage the target audience who would be literate (as
they are interested in print media in the first place) and
intellectual as they are fans/listeners of indie music which often
has meaning behind the lyrics presenting a narrative and would
require thought to understand in many cases- there is usually a
need for understanding with this genre of music. This combination
of language registers is typical in many magazines of this type as
the readers would potentially be put off overly formal context as
they would want an easy, interesting read at the same time as not
insulting their intelligence and flowing nicely throughout. ARTIST
PROFILE/ IMAGE CONVENTIONSThe image featured on the front cover
uses conventions of real media products as the close up shot of the
artist is something which is commonly employed by most music
magazines in industry, such as Clash; this ensures the audience can
clearly identify the artist featured on the magazine, strengthening
the artist profile in an aim to encourage fans/ target audience to
develop and interest as a result and purchase a copy. The use of a
close up shot of a solo artist is used by pre-existing magazines in
industry including, Loud and quiet, Dazed and Confused, i-D, etc.
My artist, Jack Wolf, represents the indie genre effectively; I
aged the artist at 19 as this is a typical age for an artist in the
music industry creating clever and catchy songs to interest and
engage the target audience When creating the artist profile I used
information and appearance of real indie musicians of present
including Jamie T, Artic Monkeys, The 1975 and Tom Odell. In
relation to the mise en scene, I chose to keep the styling of the
artist on the front cover colourful and eccentric to some extent as
the floral shirt is bright and bold, whilst fitting in effectively
with the indie/alt genre of music. I based the colour scheme of
black, red and white around the colours of the artists shirt
displaying a level of consistency. I feel that this styling
conforms to the stereotypical image of indie artists and indie
followers as they are often seen to be wearing smart attire and
expressing personality through their choice of clothing.
Expressions and stance were very important during the photography
stages of the task to set mood, clearly present the indie genre and
allow the audience to understand an element of the males
personality through the images featured within the magazine. I used
a variety of shot types across the whole product as the cover
displays a close up image of the solo artist, contents page showing
two examples of medium close-up images and the double page spread
features a mid-shot and long-shot of Jack Wolf to effectively show
a level of skill which is something used within all magazines
within industry to prevent the magazine looking very similar on
each page I intended to create an engaging, appealing and
interesting product as a whole. My choice of a solo artist plays
well with the design of the front cover and is something adopted by
many magazines within industry including Dazed and Confused and
Clash magazine; this may be due to the fact that often more than
one person inside a shot has the potential to make the front cover
seem overcrowded and unappealing- simplicity is often chosen by
magazines in industry to effectively appeal to the audience. All
images used within the magazine are conventional for a typical
indie music magazine, and based on research conducted on style
models inside this genre, such as Clash and Loud and Quiet.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD CONVENTIONSMy main source of inspiration for
the design and layout of my double page spread came from King
Krules feature inside an episode of Clash. I found the unusual
structure of the right aligned text interesting and wanted to
replicate this idea to achieve a similar look of incredible style
and boldness. The page layout in general develops typical
conventions combined and presented in many pre-existing text as
pages of text are often shown to be in neat columns following a
left to right structure; this demonstrates the ways in which I have
developed conventions of real media products, although not entirely
as the idea was inspired by Clash who are known to be experimental
with placement of text, image and space on pages. The font used,
Orator Std, is simple and easily readable, yet it helps develop a
vintage appearance to the page which further defines the magazine
as indie. As I wanted to portray a level of skill within the
magazine I decided to feature an image on the double page spread
which was taken in an outside environment to create an urban, edgy
feel on the page; this idea came from the King Kruels double page
feature in Clash where the mise en scene presents a rough, urban
style outside setting with concrete and fences exposed. However it
could be said that the variety of mise en scene shown on images
within my magazine develops photography conventions of typical
indie music magazines in industry as often the featured artists are
captured inside a studio or with some sort of meaningful
background, whereas my choice to capture my artist In a rough
looking outside area was based around elements of creating drama
and adding to the stylishness. I also opted to filter images on
this page in black and white as I felt this achieved an edgy and
bold appearance and allowed the page to make a statement. The use
of monotone colours is used often in many real print media products
as the image is made to appear more glossy, vintage and stylish.
Styling of the artist for the image featured on the right page of
the double spread was largely influenced by research and planning
on indie bands: The xx and The 1975 as they adopt a minimalistic
style of clothing which I felt was effective as it does not give
anything away bout the artist or their style of music and creates a
sense of mystery and interest. The text on the double page spreads
reads as an interview of the artist; this is something used in
pre-existing texts such as Clash and Q magazine frequently as it is
known to be a point of interest for the audience and a chance for
them to gain more knowledge on the artists/celebrities they are
interested in. This allows an easy read as artist responses are
easy to follow and information is not too complex to consider,
encouraging the reader to read the entire interview.