Question 1 ~ In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A convention is a traditional way of laying out a magazine; an example is the placement of the masthead. It is most commonly always in the top left hand corner of the front cover and made bold to stand out from all of the other features on the magazine cover. I laid my title out in a similar way, along the very top of the page, I decided to name my magazine freshh as it is a new and current magazine with the use of the double ‘h’ on the end it makes the ‘shh’ this is implying that it is filled with the secrets in the music business. The colours and outlining of the mast head makes this obvious and there is a clear divide to where it shows the separate word within. The contrast of bright and dark colours fits in with the colour and style of the magazine and appeals to my target audience. The name is unique and makes it stick in your head, so it will be recognisable.

I have taken a mid-shot image with three people in the frame. The photograph is messing around and silly showing that this magazine is fun and upbeat opposed to being dull and serious. The content of the image is relative to my magazine and reflects what the magazine is for and who it is aimed at. The image has been turned into black and white and this reflects the colours that can be found on the cover itself. Black and white are the main colours reflecting the photo with the added colour of pink to make it stand out more and not all blend together. Although black and white are considered as dark and cold colours, the way that they have been combined with the warmness that the pink brings warms it up and gives an inviting feel. I have made sure that all of the cover lined on the cover stand out and are clearly visible, if they were hard to make out I added a stroke to outline them and make sure that the reader was able to clearly see them. For the main cover lines I have used www.DaFont.com to choose a font that most suited what the purpose was. For the exclusive and the cover line that was about the feature article I used a font that reflected the name of the band. As the band is called ‘Daisy Duke’s’ I chose a font that incorporated in a flower. The cover lines circle the edges of the magazine to go around the image and also reflecting the conventional way that magazines are typically laid out.

The costumes and props are casual and stylish items. I wanted the clothing to be relatable to the audience and reflect what they would typically wear; this is why I went with a casual style, as costume is the easiest way to communicate with the audience. The various costumes that can be seen within my magazine reflect this throughout, attracting an audience to the relatable magazine that they would buy. I didn’t use any props in the front cover ad I felt that there wasn’t a need for any, however in the photographs on my feature article there is a few that do. This is still showing the fun and youthful nature, showing the band playing and messing around, just having a good time. This is the message that I wanted my product to show, that youth is all about being free and having fun.

For my double page spread/Feature article I chose to stick with the main colours that are on my front cover. I used the pink to highlight areas of the article and especially bordering the pictures to make them stand out and separate them from the main interview. I also took the font from the front cover that said ‘Daisy Duke’s’ this liked the exclusive feature to the article itself. I also added another font that I found on www.DaFont.com to the word ‘Dreams’ I used this as it reflected the word, it has the appearance of clouds and has a dream like feel. I chose to change the font of these two as they are the main part of information on the page and you can clearly see what the page is related to. As this is an interview I included the questions and changed the colour of the text to show that the questions and responses are separate. I used lots of different images to the feature article to show them over a period of time. As the article is about following them on tour I decided that a timeline of different photographs would back it up and show the readers that they are easy to relate to. The amount of images that are presented on the page is un-conventional showing the originality and freshness of this magazine. I chose to display the images in this way as they surround the text, drawing in the viewer’s eye and making their attention focus on the article. I have separated my text into columns for the ease of the reader. This makes it easier to follow and gives a flow to the page, also making it look neater and organised. The language that has been used in this interview is informal as it uses slang, showing that it is a convosation between the interviewer and the band.

My contents page also uses the same colours, as I carry them on throughout the whole of the magazine to give a flow to it. I used one image on my contents page as a main image; this was to avoid making it look too busy and messy. The text wraps around the image, with the page numbers larger than the text, making it clear the page that it will direct them too.  For the main articles in the magazine I added hearts around the page number to highlight that these are the pages that are most exclusive.  I added patterns to this page to fill the page and make it look more expressive and show that this won’t be a usual boring magazine. I have made the layout clear and spaced out to make it easy for the reader to direct themselves through the pages and find exactly what they want to read. Below each page number I have also added subheadings and also a sentence to describe briefly what is on each of the pages to again make the reader navigate through with ease. I chose to stick to the conventional layout of a typical contents page.