In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products? I feel as though my magazine has gone against ‘normal’ conventions as I have used fonts, photo styles and magazine layouts that aren’t commonly seen on the market. This was done on the cover through the sell lines all being positioned at the bottom of the cover page as this isn’t commonly done and usually goes around the main photo subject. I choose to have the sell lines at the bottom of the cover page however as with them going around the main subject area I found that it made the magazine cover look messy and could have potentially prevented people from wanting to buy the magazine as they might think the rest of the magazine was messy like it was. The contents page goes against ‘normal’ conventions as the text goes around the edge of the photos which are positioned in the centre of the page (this isn’t usually where the pictures are placed and are usually at the edge and corners of the contents pages) I however wanted to place them in the centre of the contents page as it represented the layout of a blog and seems as one of my target audiences was ‘Tumblr kids from the UK tribes youth groups site I felt that replicating the Tumblr site layout wold help to attract the ‘Tumblr kids’. In a brief explanation the Tumblr site has all of it images and post in the centre of the blog and all other information around it which is similar to my contents page layout. On the double page spread this also doesn’t follow ‘normal’ conventions as its layout has the heading of the article overlapping one of my pictures. However this was purposely done as I wanted it to be very unique and for its different features to make the magazine stand out against the rest of the available magazines. Not many traditional magazines use a joined up font but do however use bold and big sized fonts for the masthead on the cover page, that also tend to be the biggest writing on the front. The font I used was Brush Script MT Italic a set font that comes with the Photoshop package. Although not many magazines use the joined up font, the Oh comely magazines do and this helped to inspire my choice as it is a life style magazine that targets at women. As they target at women I felt that gaining inspiration from their magazine would help to attract the female audience for my own magazine and therefore used this bold joined up font to help attract the female audience.

Here you can see that I have been

inspired from the Oh comely

magazine from their joined up

writing used for the cover

masthead. Both my magazine to the

left and the Oh comely magazine

follow traditional conventions of the

magazine masthead being big and

bold compared to the rest of the

text on the cover. I decided to use

this traditional style feature as

almost every magazine has a bold

masthead as it helps to make its title

stand out.

My magazine masthead goes over the top of my cover image, as through doing research I have found that many famous magazines such as vogue are able to have the cover image overlapping the masthead as they are well known and have an easily identifiable font due to their popularity. As of this I designed my magazine so that the whole masthead is visible as it is new in the market and therefore people aren’t familiar with the font or the name of the magazine. It is also seen in industry that less popular magazines tend to have all of their masthead visible like mine for similar reasons, that their names aren’t as well-known as some of the more popular magazines such as Rolling stones.

Above are popular and well known magazines which can afford to have part of their masthead covered up due to their now recognised font and name due to their success and popularity. Below however are examples of what some consider to be less famous magazines which have all of their masthead visible, with nothing covering them, following traditional conventions of

less famous magazines. I decided to use this research of less famous magazines having all of

their title visible as it will help the new audience of my magazine to become familiar with the

title, for future reference. For the first few issues if letters are covered up then the readers might

not be able to make out the magazine name which could potentially be a drawback for the

magazine as it would result in the readers not being able to give the name of the magazine when

talking about it through word of mouth or on social networking sites but also they won’t know

the name of the magazine if they wanted to buy the magazine again.

I feel that the magazine name fits the country music genre well and speaks to the reader as it gives the reader a good idea as to what the magazine is about. Dixieland is a nickname for the Sothern states of America which is where country music originated making the title follow the common conventions of real magazine products. This is similarly done with the magazine vogue as its name matches the content of the magazine and means ‘the prevailing fashion or style at a particular time’. My magazine name is quite long and perhaps doesn't match the traditional conventions of a magazine however I have taken inspiration from existing magazines such as dazed and confused, Wonderland magazine as well as a current country magazine called Maverick as these all have relatively long names for their magazine yet are still memorable as they are catchy. Despite the magazine name being long I still feel that it is memorable and catchy which is what traditional magazine mastheads aim to be. In conclusion to this I chose Dixieland as it reflects the magazine genre due to its meaning as stated above, its catchy which is important for it to be memorised if the customer wanted to buy it again and also visibly comes across well on the magazine cover as it covers the top of the magazine and because of letters such as the ‘L’ the font used makes it vary in letter sizes creating a more interesting font instead of it all being the same size. These previous points all create positive aspects for the magazine.

Layout and photography

When it came to the layout of my magazine I was taking inspiration from the current country music magazine called Maverick as I wanted the magazine to follow a country style in both the way it was styled and laid out. From the inspiration I made my magazine quite minimalistic bringing in some country elements such as the artist styling, county/western fonts and stereotypical country language such as y’all and howdy in the magazine article. I used all of these previous features in my magazine as they brought across the country genre of the magazine which was a main priority as I wanted the magazine to be strongly associated with country music. The minimalistic aspect reflects the country genre as country artists are brought across as being very much like any average person. The artist styling was minimalistic as like I previously said they are very much like everyday people and therefore dress casual and don’t wear anything to unusual. The fonts bring across the country element as some of them used are classed as country/ western fonts that are used on signs in western movies. The language brings across the country element as this is how country artists are brought across and is the idiolect that people from Nashville speak which is the stereotypical way that country artists speak.

I made my magazine quite creative in trying to attract the audience of ‘Tumblr kids’ as from doing research on UK tribes this was the youth social group that best fit my idea of how I wanted the magazine to unfold. In making the magazine creative and appealing to the ‘Tumblr kids’ I made the photographs look similar to the recognised Tumblr pictures and made the layout of my double page spread interesting to look at visually. I did this through presenting the Double page spread in a unique way having the title of the article in a box covering one of the photos. I have not seen this done on any other magazine making it unique and creative which is what the Tumblr site is all about. This would therefore be seen as challenging conventions but I do however feel it is necessary to help make the magazine unique on its creative approach. The way I have created strong effects for the pictures results in them not following traditional magazine conventions as the photography has been edited with different style effects on the same page whereas many magazines on the market seem to have the same photo effect across their whole double page spread, there are some occasions though where there are multiple phot effects used on the same double page spread such as in the cosmopolitan magazine picture to the right. The picture to the left however is how most magazines tend to have their images, with all of them having the same effect applied to them. I made my images all have different effects as I wanted to make the magazine imagery a focal point/ main feature of the magazine that would help people to associate with the magazine. I felt that this therefore helped to create a unique approach for the magazine to make people remember it for its creativity.

My contents page follows a conventional layout as I have been inspired from a vogue magazine contents layout due to its creative yet simple layout that I thought would suit my magazine well as it follows the simple layout I wanted yet still makes it creative. In choosing to be inspired from a popular and famous magazine this helps me to feel that my magazine would be successful in the industry as vogue tend to use very conventional layout that are considered traditional and are very successful because of it.

Artist styling

I have styled my artist in a variety of clothing with two different outfits I have dressed her in a way of making her stand out from the crowd. This was done through dressing her in clothing that is fashionable and attractive to make people remember her. This also helps for the male gaze which can attract people to her and make them want to read the magazine, through using tight clothing this helped the male gaze as it helped to define the body better and make her look more flattering. I styled her with a country style hat in order to bring across the country element of the music magazine as this is an accessories highly accosted with country girls/artists. The hat was to significantly emphasis the magazine genre through as it is the most stereotypical item however I also brought it across in the artists top and dress, in the two pictures, which are both casual garments. The casual garments reflect that country artists are seen to be much like everyday people, it therefore was suitable for the magazine pictures, in bringing across the magazine genre. The clothing used is a bit different in its style, this helps to give the artist a personal style that get the audience of the magazine talking about the different look. Artists also tend to have a unique look to try and create an image for themselves, this is why I have styled my model/ artist so that it created a style that isn’t like any other country artist. This would them bring publicity to the magazine as new artist styles are newsworthy. The clothing was kept a similar colour for both outfits to help keep a constant theme and flow throughout the magazine pages. I have done this as it helps to make the magazine look continuous and keep the theme throughout. I have used this from existing magazines as they tend to have an artist in the same outfit for a series of photos just like the magazine below. In comparison with my artist styling I have developed the artist styling to fit my genre of magazine but have also edited the photos to give them slightly different looks to capture the Tumblr style and as a result it has made the photography more interesting also make the clothing more interesting as it is displayed in a different effect in each picture. Like in other country music magazines they tend to use a cowboy hat to instantly bring across the country element of the magazine and artist genre. I have taken this and applied it to my own model/ artist from inspiration from magazines, such as the ones below, as I want my magazine to instantly be associated with country music.

I have used quite monochrome and natural colours for my magazine colour scheme but then

contrasting colours which standout, such as the white and black wording. I have used black and white

wording for the reason that it stands out well but also as it is easy on the eye unlike bright colours like

yellow and red which for significant amounts of writing would strain the eyes when reading. Natural

colours have been in my magazines photographs and some of the font colours as I have picked up on

this from existing magazines such as the ones below as all of the country magazines follow a similar

trend of having photography taken in the country or outside to get a country element brought into the

look of the magazine. I have used this research of the existing country magazines and taken some of

my photography in the country in order to follow the conventions of existing magazines. By having the

pictures taken outside in the country it reflects where the music genre originated from which creates

a country feel for the reader when reading the magazine. The natural colours in these magazines tend

to follow similar patterns of having green and brown I have also done this in my magazine through

having a similar colour scheme within my pictures and masthead. I have taken a colour out of my

photography and used it in the masthead to make it fit in with the colour scheme. I did however use a

dark colour in order for the masthead to stand out easy against the white on the picture in order for

it to easily be seen on magazine stands. I also used a complimentary colour box for the main sell line

which is what country weekly has done on the Taylor swift cover issue as it stands out from the rest of

the cover yet doesn’t look out of place I have used it for the same reason as this.

My magazines contents page fits conventional layout and design as it has the

photography with in boxes which is how magazines tend to set out their contents

page. However my contents might challenge convention s in some ways as the content

text goes around the pictures which are placed central to the page, whereas in the

magazines below the pictures are placed so that the text is next to them and not going

around them. I chose to set out my contents page like this as it is creative and not

commonly used in successful magazines making it memorable which is good to generate a fan base. Contents pages tend to have the biggest stars on their cover and

main contents highlight, however I haven’t used my Taylor swift photography as she is

branching away from country and therefore I felt it wouldn’t be suitable to have her as

my main star featured for the magazine. In doing this I have also made Taylor swift’s image smaller on the contents page as for the same reason of her branching away

from country music and not being considered the biggest artist in this genre as much

anymore.

As for the placement of the contents heading it is at the top of the page following

convention but is central to the page challenging conventions. I decided to put the

heading at the top of the page so it’s clearly seen therefore easily identifiable. I then

placed it central to the page to continue the main elements of the page being in the

middle.

For my double page spread I have

used existing magazines to help

follow the traditional conventions of

magazines. These include using a drop

capital for the first word used in my

article as many magazines tend to do

this on their double page spreads. I

decided to use a drop capital as it

helps to bring the readers eye to the

start of the article attracting the

reader’s attention. I have used over 2

columns as traditional conventions

tend to use over a couple of columns

in their layout but also by doing this it

make it look like there is less text for the reader which would attract them to read it. The alignment of

text used on my double age spread could be considered as challenging conventions as it is aligned to

the left where as there are many magazines that are justify aligned where the left and right sides of

the columns look neat where the words touch the edge. However there are a couple of popular

magazines that also haven’t followed this conventional design. Company magazine doesn’t follow the

conventional design in the image below. I decided to use the right aligned text as I felt is suited my

teenage audience as I found the justify aligned text too formal which wasn’t the approach I wanted

my magazine to go, as it was aimed at teenagers/ young adults who don’t tend to be interested in

formal text. Because of this I didn’t want the readers being put off reading the article from their first

glance of the double page spread. I decided to use a pull out quote

as I found that by using one it helps to grab the reader and act as a

plug to make the reader want to read the article. I used this from

existing magazine double page spreads, such as the one below, as it

is very effective and eye grabbing and acts as a great way to draw in

readers.