Dear Moderator,

This is my AS Media Blog, I have made a music magazine, please find it below.
If you click on September 2011 it will take you to the beginning of my research and planning posts you can view this here
My Evaluation starts on Thursday 9th of February you can view this here

Hope you enjoy.
Abbie Dutton-Guiver.

Thursday, 9 February 2012

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

Front Cover. 
Use (Red)
My masthead is directly influenced by the Q masthead, instead of it being the name of the magazine in a banner format, it's in a square with one large letter. Obviously the name of my magazine is longer than Q so I suppose I also developed the idea so I had one large letter and then the name is up the side. Another thing I have taken from this, is the medium close-up on the front and both have a similar nonchalant expression. I have used similar fonts to Q, I use a block font I downloaded from dafont.com for all my stories and then for my masthead I used a classic Sans Serif font, Times New Roman for my masthead and small bits of font. I have also used similar colours, black, white and red but I made my red a little deeper so it was more of a indie vibe. 

Develop (Blue) 
I have used the same idea of the stories being around the face in columns on the cover but I have just made them on one side of my artist and instead of fitting them around the artists face I have kept them  structured so they overlap the photo. Another thing I used but developed was the idea of making the artists story the main feature by enlarging the text and placing it over the photo. I used the large artist name and the block font for the name and then I have used a phrase or quote underneath the name 'BEADY EYE KICK OFF' compared to '"MUSIC IS LIFE"' but then I also added a small heading above it to make it seem more exclusive 'First Real Interview' and then I added a small banner along the bottom to add some more information which I have seen on Q covers before just not this one.

Challenge (Green)
The main thing I have challenged on my cover is that I used a female artist because in my audience research they said that they wanted to see more female artists and when looking at Q covers, it was just predominantly males on the covers and I didn't really like any of the female covers. I also challenged small things like moving the barcode but they are small things that would change for most issues to fit the cover anyway.

___________________________________________________________________________________
Contents Page. 
Use (Red)
I have used an extremely similar layout on this one by splitting them up into a 'Features' section and then a 'Review' section, also my 'Regular' section is the same as their 'Every Month' section I just changed the name to fit. I have used the same layout so I have one column on the left side and then a large photo and a smaller photo on the page and my 'ARTIST SPECIAL' is placed in a box and highlighted just like the 'OASIS SPECIAL' is on their page. I have also used the idea, that I have placed a small box on the photo to link it into the page and also prioritize that story.

Develop (Blue)
I have developed quite a few ideas on this page, I have used the banner at the top but I have changed it to fit the housestyle of my magazine with the lines and classic sans serif font so I still used a banner at the top but just fitted to it to my style. I also used the idea of small banners for my headings but instead of placing them inside a banner like Q does, I again fitted it to my theme, by just using a line underneath the heading in the red colour that I use which is similar to the red that Q use. I have also used a photo in my review section and like Q have done by including the reviewer, I have but I also included the artist in it.

Challenge (Green) 
Again the only thing I have challenged on this page is the fact I have used a female solo artist compared to the male band they used in Q because in my audience research I found that my audience would be more interested in female artists and also I decided that it would be better to feature solo artists as so many indie bands are always on the cover.  

___________________________________________________________________________________


Double Page Spread. 
Use (Red)
I have used a similar layout in the pages, by having a full page photo and then a three column layout for my interview and they also used the same question and answer format for the interview, I used the same idea of making the question bold and then the answer in normal font so the audience can differentiate between the two. Also I have used the standard three column layout for the structure of the interview.I have also used a female artist like the other magazine did.

Develop (Blue)
Ideas that I have developed in this double-page-spread by using a banner at the top of the page but instead of using a banner that stretches across the top of the page like the magazine has, I just placed the title of the page in the corner and placed my signature line underneath so it fits with the house style. I also used the idea of having the artist's name and a small introductory paragraph above the interview but I changed it so that it was lower on the page and the name and font was bigger than on the original magazine. I also included a 'words and pictures by' line which is similar to the one used on the other magazine.

Challenge (Green)
I have challenged quite a few things on this page for example the photo, I have used a completely different shot type and gone for a close up instead and I then made it black and white and made the image a lot softer and the reason I did this was because I had seen an image like this in another magazine but I could not find that interview in a picture and I also think that this black and white softer image works better with the page and style of the interview. I then added a few extra bits onto the page like a quote on top of the picture which I used just to break up the picture and I also included a small album picture and info on where to buy it because I had seen that sort of thing before and thought it looked quite effective and used space well.

No comments:

Post a Comment