Evaluation Question 1 Draft

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

 The masthead of my magazine ‘CONFIDE’, was done using the font ‘impact’ which was already on the Photoshop software and is also available on other sources like Microsoft word. The font itself is quite tall and bold therefore stands out to the audience and will grasp the reader’s attention. This convention is similar to the majority of other magazines as they all want to get an audience’s attention just from looks on top of the content. The reason why I chose the title ‘CONFIDE’ was firstly so it was easy to remember. On top of this the definition of ‘confide’ is: ‘tell someone about a secret or private matter while trusting them not to repeat it to others’. I feel that this makes my magazine seem more private and exclusive therefore the audience will presume that the magazine is also exclusive to only them with more private and exclusive content about the musical artists that they like. I felt when I decided on this name that it would make my audience feel important and that they could relate more to the chart artists as the content in some cases was a lot more personal. Furthermore my target audience would most probably have secrets about themselves and friends therefore having the title ‘Confide’ meaning secrets could match the identity of my target audience. My masthead and title font in my opinion would be quite similar to other magazines in the market, like COSMOPOLITAN and BLISS magazine. I think this because they are also very bold titled magazines that stand out on the cover of the magazine. My ‘CONFIDE’ masthead is layered behind my central main image but on top of the background and this makes my model look more eye catching however it also relates back to the definition of Confide itself, secrets and hiding things from another and the masthead is theoretically ‘hiding’ behind the main image. I tried to make my magazine quite full so that my target audience saw straight away that it would be full of content.

 

The graphology of and on my front cover for my magazine is quite busy compared to some other magazines as for one, I have used a few different fonts including, ‘impact’, ‘candara’ and others. These fonts were used for my masthead and then also my surrounding text informing the audience of the content within the magazine. The fonts that I chose to use are quite simplistic and this means that they will easy for my target audience to read and also so that they are bold and eye catching. The colours that I have used for all the text are also quite bold as they are, ‘black’, ‘blue’ and ‘white’. These colours complement each other when on top of each other and also pink which I have also included on my cover (no text written in pink). These colours were chosen also as they went well with ‘HUMAN’s’ logo which is white and pink and they are also the main feature of this particular magazine. The reason why I chose to use black for the masthead is so that it is clear and bold when layered on top of the grey/white background. My masthead needs to be bold and eye catching as it needs to gain the attention of my target audience, potential customers and it will also help to promote my magazine. I used a white text layered on a black background below the masthead and this makes this piece of text ‘exclusive access’ stand out to the audience further as it doesn’t match the title too much. However below this I have also used black text for the price, issue number and month of the issue. I have made this piece of text black and chose to put it on the grey background next to the barcode as this is important information that doesn’t need to stand out the page but does need to be readable as its information that the audience would need to know on purchasing the product. For example, they would need to know the cost of the magazine straight away. Also on the cover I have included information about what is going to be featured inside the magazine. These pieces of texts are highly important factors of a/my magazine cover page as it is what will initially gain the customers attention and engage them into buying my product but it also informs them about what artists are going to be in it. This means that this information is important to stand out and this is why I have chosen bold colours to use for my colour scheme and I have layered the colours on top of each other so that they are easy to read. For a lot of my text I have put a shape like a box behind the text so that the text is easier to read rather than putting it straight on to the main cover image. The majority of the text on the front would be the main features of my magazine therefore it is important that they stand out the most.

 

The black colour being used is one of the most powerful and prominent colours on the page however I feel the most powerful colour overall on my cover page would be the blue and pink as they add impact to specific features of the cover that will grasp the attention of the audience and further potential customers. The choice of the size of the text was generally down to the importance of what was being said and was to be noticed first. For example; having the text about HUMAN in a bold circle makes it more visible to the audience and this means they will pick up on this being the main feature. Having the larger text, like the masthead, as the more important features helps will branding and labelling my magazine or product. Furthermore, it is the cover lines which express the main topics and content of my magazine therefore it is important to engage the audience’s attention through graphology related features on the cover e.g. text size. The cover layout was slightly influenced by the BLISS magazine layout and this is because of the fullness of the page engaging the audience’s attention. However on my magazine I have rotated my barcode 90 degrees and made it smaller as on BLISS magazine the barcode is actually on a larger scale. My barcode is just below the masthead of my magazine and I chose to put it there so that my target audience wouldn’t be faffing about looking for it before purchasing the product. I also chose my barcode to be quite skinny so that it didn’t take up too much space on the cover page that could be used for the content. I kept developing my idea to get this final result because previously I had put in a larger barcode but I then had audience feedback and felt that it stood out slightly too much therefore I reduced the size. The overall layout of my magazine is again similar to the cover of BLISS magazine but also COSMOPOLITAN magazine and this is due to some of the similar conventions like the large bold masthead and also the mass of the content on the cover page itself. I decided that I should keep my magazine cover busy as I felt this is what my target audience would be looking for and they would want a lot going on, on the cover page. As a result I felt that this has met the needs and interests of my particular target audience.

 

My model and musical artist ‘Charlie Dickins’ (cover girl) was styled in two different dark coloured outfits in the photo shoot for my magazine and this is so that the colours didn’t clash with the content surrounding the image. ‘Charlie Dickins’ is my cover girl but she is also part of the band ‘HUMAN’ which is the featured band on my double page spread. On these pages you can only see her wearing two different outfits however they are of similar colour. Her first outfit is a grey bodycon dress with black panels down both sides and her second outfit is black jeans and black crop top with a high neck line. This made my model stand out when next to all the text as if she was wearing colourful clothing her outfit may have been less noticeable next to the vibrant content and colours. Her clothes are the type of thing you would find in a high street shop that is very popular therefore as an audience that would be interested in fashion and having their own look they could relate to the models style. This style also relates to artists you may see in other magazines like BLISS or COSMOPOLITAN. My model is styled to look around the age of 18 or 19 and this is so that she is of an age of who would be setting an example and being a role model to the younger female target audience. I am using conventions from real magazines and products to make my artist look as realistic and as suitable for my magazine genre which is pop/chart. I have found that my model does look suitable for my magazine and this is easily seen throughout my cover, contents and double page spread. Continuing through my magazine I kept my two main models (HUMAN band) in similar dark colours of black and grey. Having these two colours for my models meant that I could easily have different bolder colours around them as you can see on my double page spread.