EvaluationQ1 )In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real magazines?

a) Discuss the conventions you found through researching magazines within your chosen genre- link this to images of the magazines.

b) Explain which conventions you followed, developed or challenged using detailed examples and reasons for your decisions-compare images of real magazines to your own to show what you did

Front coverbefore creating my music magazine, I needed to design a layout that would help me figure out where things best fit to cover the general codes and conventions that I recognised in the majority of the music magazines which I found during my research. I used magazines that were successful in the rap magazine market such as VIBE and XXL, during this process I tried to correspond what I saw in similar product into my work. I started by designing my front page as I felt that this would help me give my magazine a theme. I done a lot of independent research into other magazine to make sure it was easy to identify as a rap magazine. I was particularly inspired by ‘VIBE’ due its simplicity but also consistent in colour. although I wanted colour to be its unique selling point as the majority of colours were repetitive. I particularly liked the style of the image and positioning of the subject in XXL magazine as the audience were able to emotionally connect with the artist through facial expressions. I then decided to use a medium close up of my artists, as I found that many of the rap magazine used a medium/close-up shot to only attract the target audience to the magazine and used the information given on the cover-lines equally as important. The shot type enabled the target audience to focus on the artist rather than the background.

Front coverRap/hip-hop

magazine inspiration

My media product

Front pageMy design for my front page was inspired by the XXL magazine featuring LIL Wayne and many other rap magazine. I chose to use my teachers advise and combined different features from other magazines. I followed many of the key conventions and codes used in a rap magazine to help my target audience identify my product as a rap magazine. The topics that were mentioned were relevant to the magazine genre, I also made sure that it contained a masthead, a large image of my subject in the centre, cover-lines a main cover line, an ISBN including the price, barcode website and date. However there were a few things I felt were missing in many rap magazines which I chose to challenge such as a tag-line which I struggled to find in a lot rap magazines. As my target audience were mainly young adults I took the advantage of social media being a main source of information which they are familiar and decided to include on the bottom left corner, this is something magazines in general tend to miss. The colours used on my front page seemed too colourful for a rap magazine, (Orange, Blue and Yellow) I chose to do so to make sure that my magazine was unique, exciting and stood out compared to the thousands out there.

Contents pageI then started to work on my contents page. During my research I noticed that the majority of rap magazine contents page were very similar, even though they carried the main purpose of a contents page. I felt that the lack of images and the strict colours meant that it was too plain and simple for my target audience, I challenged the typical layout of a rap magazine whilst making it suitable for my target audience and following the key conventions of music magazine. My idea was inspired by a rock magazine which I studied, Kerrang which often use a similar layout

Contents pageI knew it was important to follow some conventions to identify the contents page as a the genre rap which was the reason why I included the typical features, I used famous rappers and styled the language according to the common phrases used by rappers and young adults such as “turn up”. A typical colour used in a rap magazine are black & white/dark grey which is the reason I chose it as my background colour throughout my magazine. I also included a photo of the editor working on the magazine to show that the magazine is created with edited professionally for any new readers.

I chose to challenge some of the conventions used in a rap magazine, this included the layout of the page were I separated the text and images using boxes/lines I felt that this made the magazine more exciting compared to the typical layout used in magazines were the text is on the right side and the page number is lined by dots. I also increased the use of images as I felt that images were as equally as important in a contents page as the text as images is also another way for the audience to identify a person . i noticed that colour is a feature rap magazine tend to repetitive using white text, black and white images which I followed in parts of my magazine, however due to my contents page being full of colours I wanted there to be a clear house style so used the exact same colours used on my front page, this also built the excitement in a contents page which isn't often seen in a rap contents page. A particular colour which I felt was very uncommon in a rap magazine was orange, this colour is not often used in magazines in general which is a colour I wanted to test, I felt the connotations behind it really suited my genre so decide to include it in a section. I noticed most contents page had a large image of the main subject which I felt was unnessary

ContentsINSPIRATIONS: Although the genre of my magazine and Kerrang! are very much different, I enjoyed the use of various images and the fact that each topic had sections.

CHALENGED: I often saw similar designs in contents

page with a large image a and a the simple text which I

challenged.

MY CONTENTS PAGE

Double Page SpreadI completed my product with the double page spread because I felt it would be easier to create when I had a theme in terms colour, images and layout after completing my contents page. The main feature was the article and the page consisted of two double pages which is used in all magazines. The first page contained a large image of my subject and a quote to grab the readers attention as it was a way for the readers to interpret into their own meaning. the second page contained two columns of text with smaller images of my artists on the bottom left and top right corners. I decided my interview was a Q&A between the artist and the interviewee, I kept it short to ensure that my target audience were kept interested to read it all whilst wanting more.

I think that the first page of my double page follows the conventions found in many double page spreads as it contains an image and a quote although it is very uncommon fro the image to be the same colour as the background, the text to stand out to readers, I also decided the colours to be this way because I wanted the house style to be clear and used Photoshop to make the image look as though it pops out. I used informal language to make my target audience feel comfortable.

DPS & inspirations

My double page spread was not inspired by a particular double page spread. I designed it based on my contents page and front page.