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

My front cover applies similar conventions to my influences including the placing of the image in the centre and the keeping sell lines to the side.  The reader would be quickly interested in reading the magazine due to its use of shapes such as a plus sign and circles which are conventional in magazines as they make the sell lines appear to be more than just listings.  I have also made my product professional by putting part of the image over the masthead which is conventional of established magazines as they assume the reader knows the magazine's name.  Another convention which I found interesting when deconstructing an issue of 'Q' magazine was the range of font and text size.  This helps the reader identify what is most important and I carried on this idea as my target audience will buy a magazine that stands out to them on the shelf.

The cover of my product develops the convention of the main image being in the middle of the page as the headline and strapline that accompany it are on the right hand side.  One of my cover influences, 'Vibe', did something similar to this, but put far more emphasis on the image.  My other influence, 'Clash', placed the headline in the middle, again putting more emphasis on the image.  The cover that I have created uses the headline and strapline as a companion to the image as it complements it.  I don't believe I have challenged conventions.  I think it follows the expectations of regular magazine readers who will be able to identify the conventions.

The contents page of my magazine uses the conventions of divided columns for the listings and a separate box for the competition section.  I have used three columns which are 'Features', 'Regulars' and 'Album Reviews'.  This appeals to regular readers, new readers and people who don't care what magazine it is, as long as it is a music magazine.  The competition section is kept to the bottom right hand corner of the page.  It is kept out of the way, but still serves its purpose by using colours that are not on the rest of the page, including yellow and a light shade of blue.  The influence to do this came from 'NME' which became an influence of mine after I deconstructed a contents page from one of its issues.  The effect of this convention is that it separates what is actually inside the magazine and what you have to compete to get, making readers feel like they have gotten more out of a page which is essentially a guide.

It is not necessarily a challenge to the conventions of contents pages, but the way I have used colour certainly develops them.  The primary colour scheme is blue, green and red, however I have used a darker shade of yellow for the title, 'Contents'.  This enables the colours from the cover to be passed on whilst still having its own scheme of colour.  For many magazines, it is conventional to change the colours on the contents page depending on what is inside the issue.  I have developed this by using colours from my cover in text boxes on the contents page.

My Double Page Spread has the full article on the second page.  All but one of my deconstructions did this.  The one that didn't was an issue of 'Kerrang', however it still kept the full article on one page, it was just that it was the left page.  Both my influences which were 'NME' and 'Q' kept the article to the right page which I feel my helps my double page spread as it makes the composition organised and allows the audience to navigate easier.  The fact the article consists of the traditional three columns keeps the reader interested they feel that they can follow the interview easier as it is not squashed together.  As blue is not classed as a particularly 'bright' colour like pink or yellow, I wanted to add a colour like that.  I chose to add a little splash of orange because it prevents the reader from looking at the page as unhappy.  'NME' chose to do this for a double page spread which influenced me and it really fit in with the colour in the image on that article.

A challenge that my double page spread presents to the conventions is that the headline and sub-headline which accompany the image are in their own box underneath the image, instead of over the image.  I  made this decision as I wanted to give it a more vintage look to try to make a statement that the artist being interviewed does not fit in with most current singers as he has his own unique style.  This challenges rather than develops conventions as it brings forward the idea that magazine design depends on the style that best fits the article, rather than the style that is used conventionally.