EvaluationIngeborg Aadland

In what way does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms conventions of real media products?

Front Cover

Layout

In general my front cover is more simple than the other magazines. I have less colours in my colour scheme, less cover lines and a calmer front page. My strapline is smaller and my fonts are less bold and “screaming”. My front cover will probably not grab your attention that easily as the other magazine covers. My colours are not as bright as the others. I did this because I find it more ecstatically pleasing. I do still have the main things, I have a large masthead in the upper left corner, a good looking model on the front, a large strapline with an artists name that attracts attention and several selling lines which also attracts attention. I think my magazine cover will attract the attention to my target audience.

Masthead

Here you can see that my masthead follows some of the conventions established from the other magazines, but also challenge them in some way.

The conventions my masthead follows is that it is placed in the upper left corner. This is the same for all the other magazines as well. Placing the masthead here makes it easier to spot and when you are looking at magazines. It easily draws your attention. Another convention I have followed is that it is placed inside a geometrical shape. You can see this in Spin and Q. This makes it easier to read and again draws your attention to it. I have decided to use white on a coloured background, the same as Spin and Q. This again makes it easy to read. Another convention I have followed is that I have a puff underneath the name of the magazine. Q has also included this.

Some things I have done differently than the real magazines is that I have decided to have a circular masthead instead of a square one. I did this because it is different and will make my magazine more recognisable. Even though it is similar to the other magazines, it is not exactly the same. You will remember it easier and it is more unique. I also decided to use blue instead of red which is a colour much used in the other magazines. This is because it matched better with the rest of my front cover, it was more aesthetically pleasing.

Selling Lines

Here you can see my selling lines and the real magazines selling lines. There are a few conventions I have followed and a few I have challenged.

Both Q and I have decided to use the selling lines together with a little information about what the articles actually are about, while Spin and NME have decided to just include the names of the artists. I decided to do as Q because I feel like you get more information and it might attract the audiences attention more. Also I have quite a simple front cover with not that many headlines and I felt like I had to include a bit more information to attract the audience.

I have decided to use a less bold font than the other magazines have. I have decided to do this because I did not want to take the attraction away from my strapline. I also thought this style fitted better together with the rest of my front cover.

Anchorage and Strapline

My Anchorage is aesthetically quite different from the other ones, but we do have many of the same elements included.

While the other ones are written in a large, bold font and in capital letters, mine is written in a more feminine font and not in capital letters. I was inspired to use this font by magazines such as Peppermint. You can see two examples of their Anchorages underneath. I thought this fit well because my target audience are female while in the other magazines have a mostly male target audience. The font I have used will attract a female audience more than the bold, capital letter fonts because it is “prettier”. It is more what stereotypical women likes.

The conventions I have followed is that I have the name of the artist the largest word on the whole front cover. This is seen in all the other magazines as well and will grab the attention to the audience and the fans of this artist. I have also decided to include a quote from the article, as my strapline, the same as Q have done. Including a quote will give the audience a preview of what the article is about. This might attract their attention and make them buy the magazine because they want to know the rest. It also makes the audience feel like they know some of the artists true feelings and will therefore make them feel privileged, like they know something other people don’t.

Splash Image

When I asked in my survey what my audience preferred, a splash image taken on location or in a studio, the majority said on location and that is why I took my splash image on location. Spin have also done this. This can make the audience feel like the artist is more like them, they are normal and not like the superstars that only takes pictures in studios. The audience can relate to them. This is reinforced by the way they dress. Both in my magazine, Spin and NME the people on the front cover are dressed in casual everyday clothing. My splash image does use the male gaze to attract audience, but not as much as other magazines might do. My model does show quite a lot of skin, but is still modest. This is the same as for NME, while in Q it seems like the model is not wearing a shirt at all. The hair of my model is blowing in the wind. This represents the stereotypical female which has long hair and is also used to attract attention in Q. This again attracts the male gaze. The male audience will find her attractive while the female audience can aspire to be like her.

Contents Page

Layout

My layout is not very conventional for a music magazine, but it still has some similarities to the other magazines. My contents page is really simple and that is the same for Spins contents page. We both have quite a lot of empty space on the page. The difference is that I have several images and they are quite colourful, while Spin only have one large image in black and white. My contents page includes several colourful pictures and black and white text. This is the same as NME have, but while I have loads of empty space, they have filled up the whole page. That is the main difference between my and the other magazines. They have filled up the page while I have empty spaces. I think my layout will attract my target audience because it is new, experimental, different and unique, just like the music they like. My target audience does also care about design and simple design is something that is popular now a days.

Headline

We all have quite simple headlines wit just a large headline in capital letters, mine being the most simple one. Both Spin and I have chosen a san-serif font, while NME and Q have a font with serif. I chose a san-serif font because it grabs your attention and it is easy to read. I think headlines are aesthetically pleasing when written with a san-serif. This also looks more simple and since the rest of my layout is really simple I thought this fit well. Both Spin, Q and I have decided to include the masthead or just the name of our magazine in our headline. I have min written just underneath the headline while Sin and Q have the whole masthead. This will make the reader aware which magazine they are reading and make them remember the name better. While NME have gone for a creative headline saying “inside this week”, both Q and I have decided to make it simple and just call it “contents”. This is easy for the reader to understand and doesn’t leave anyone confused.

Images

For my images I have used a variety of different camera angles and distances. My images are most similar to NMEs images. We both use our images as the only source of colour and we both have a great variety of shots. My shots are taken on location and not in a studio, this makes them more unique and different form other pictures. They do not just have a plane white background. This also makes the easier to relate to for my audience. My pictures have bright colours that grabs your attention. I decided to place my pictures inside triangles because this is something I have not seen in a music magazine before and it would therefore be new, unique and it would grab your attention. It makes my magazine stand out in the crowd and makes it different from all the rest which looks quite similar. I also think this looks aesthetically pleasing.

Page Numbers

I decided to place page numbers on top of the images. This makes it easy to find the article you want to read. Teenagers may be easier attracted to the pictures than to actually reading the whole text, they might look at a picture and see that it is an artist that they like and they want to read the article. Therefore it is good to have the page numbers on top of the picture because then they do not need to read through all the text to find the right article. NME and Q have done the same thing, while Spin have not because they do only have one picture on their contents page. I decided to use white because it is easy to read against the backgrounds . I used a simple san-serif font because this is easy to read and it gives it a clean, simple look. This is the same look on the rest of my magazine and I think therefore that it fits well. NME and Q used bolder fonts than me, but I decided to not do the same as them because I have been using thinner fonts in the rest of my magazine so I wanted to stick with that.

Double Page Spread

Layout

My layout is similar to the others in some ways, but then it is also different in other ways. Firstly we all have one large photo as our main photo. What makes mine different is that it is a circular photo. I did this because it is different, unique and will grab your attention. The circular shape is reinforced with the blue and purple circles all over the page. Except Q, we all have our headline on the left page where you eye naturally looks first. Except Spin, we all have our main photo on the left page as well. While the others have their main photo covering a whole page I decided to only have it covering half a page. This is because I am also including several sub-images on the right page and I thought it might be a bit too much if I then had my main photo covering a whole page. I also have a simple design with loads of empty space throughout my whole magazine so I wanted to have that here as well. My layout does maybe look more “playful” and “childish” than the others layout, but this is ok because my target audience is younger than theirs. My blue and purple circles makes my layout more colourful and it will easier grab you attention.

Headline and Sub-Headline

While the other magazines have decided to have their headlines written in capital letters I have decided not to. It is still the largest text on the page and I think it attracts the attention I want, no matter if it is in capital letters or not.

I think mine, Spins and Qs headlines and sub-headlines are quite similar. We all have the large headline on top and then the sub-headline underneath. I think this is good composition which empathizes them both.

I decided to place a blue line between my headline and my sub-headline. This was to make them separate, and also to emphasize the headline a little. The colour will bring your attention to that part of the page and you will automatically read the headline. I decided to put my headline on the top of the left page because this is where I figured your eyes would first be drawn to and it would therefore get your attention.

Colour Scheme

The colour schemes used in these layouts are all different. I used a blue/purple-black/grey-white colour scheme. Spin have a black-white-grey colour scheme. NME a orange-black-white colour scheme and Q red-black-white. Except Spin, we all have black, white and then a popping, bright colour. This will then grab the attention from the reader. They will notice the page and be drawn to it and then start reading.

Main Image

The biggest difference between the others main image and mine is that mine is circular. I did this so it would be different, new and unique. It would be something my readers have not seen before and it will therefore grab their attention. My picture does use the male gaze, but not as much as Q’s picture which really focuses on this. Mine and Spins picture does focus on the male gaze at about the same level. We both use the element of hair blowing in the wind. Long hair is something that is associated with women and it will therefore attract men who think this is attractive and women who will aspire to be more like them. Both Spin and Q have decided to have their photos in black and white, while NME and I have decided to have them in colour. This makes it seem more casual and it is easier for the reader to relate to them. They feel like they are more like them and the picture does not seem that polished. This is reinforced by the fact that mine and NME’s are taken on location while Spin and Q’s are taken in a studio. It is also reinforced by their facial expressions. While Spin and Q’s models have a sensual facial expression which seems a bit unnatural, NME and mine have a more casual facial expression.

Sub-Image

The fact that I have several sub-images is something that is quite different form the others. It is only NME who have a sub-image, but I think this is partly because the other articles continues on the pages after and they might have more pictures there. I have included a couple of photos that looks like they are from a photo booth. This will show the artists fun side and the audience will feel like they are more like them. Even though she is famous she likes to have fun and pull funny faces. The other picture I have included is a more serious picture which then shows that even though she have fun she can be serious and focus on her music.