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

Conventions of existing texts like this Q magazine quite often have the masthead either to the left or in the centre top of the magazine cover with the slogan placed just underneath so that it appears they are meant to go together.
A skyline is often used, which gives extra information about special offers and competitions that are inside the magazine, which is intended to draw in a reader and make them more intrigued into buying the magazine.
Also, they usually have sell lines on the left or right of the cover with information on what is inside the magazine. Sometimes for less empty space, a front cover will have anchorage text relation to the main image so that the target audience have information on what the artist is featured on the magazine for and the magazine has this hoping that they will be more likely to want to buy it.
The main image tends to be placed in the centre of the cover as it is more noticeable here and almost every time it will be of someone who is the main feature of the magazines issue because the magazine knows that the target audience will be intrigued and especially if it's someone who works within that specific genre that the magazine is based upon.
A barcode is usually very small and placed in the bottom corner of the cover because the magazine doesn't want it to be large enough so that it takes up space for text or images that could potentially be the selling point for the reader.
My own masthead on my music magazine is big enough so that it can be seen if the rest of the magazine was covered by another magazine on a news stand. Being white it stands out even more because it is a bright colour and the Sans Serif font used makes it different from all the other magazine style titles. I placed the slogan just below the title as when I researched into other music magazines I noticed they had all done this and  I liked the way it appeared on the page. Unlike magazines that I researched such as Q, I decided to use a different colour for the masthead and the slogan because that way they wouldn't look strange if they were to be placed in different parts of the magazine although I would definitely keep them together in future issues too.
I didn't like the idea of a skyline as I thought it took away notice of the masthead and made the magazine look slightly cheaper than it was meant to be and by having the title stand broadly by itself along with the slogan, I thought it looked professional and classy. Also, I wanted to have minimal amount of information so that it didn't look overcrowded but also so that the target audience had more curiosity as to what was inside and this would make them look and hopefully buy the magazine. Therefore, I included a total of five sell lines that started just underneath the artists head and ended slightly before the bottom of the cover finished. I felt that I included the right amount of information so that the reader knew the basics but had to look inside if they were to find out everything. Moreover, I tried not to make it obvious that I really wanted them to purchase the magazine because this way they wouldn't feel pressured into buying it but also if every other magazine on the shelf was trying to lure the target audience in but then there was one that was just simple, they target audience would be more intrigued in this one magazine because it was bright but didn't have anchorage text with multiple exclammation marks to try and grab the readers attention as an Indie style tends to be laid back and calm and this is what I wanted my magazine to portray.
I chose to place the barcode on the back cover as I felt this was unconventional and meant that the reader had to pick up the magazine in order to check the price, which means they are twice as likely to look inside and want to buy the magazine.
The main image I chose was an artist that fit well with the genre Indie/Rock because of their appearance. I was very happy with the background edit that I chose because it went well with the colours of the artists top and the colours almost look as if they have merged into the background making that colour itself making the background and the artist convey an Indie effect, which looks almost effortless.
Unlike other music magazines, I didn't include any smaller images or snippets of information around the edges of the front cover because I wanted the main focus to be on the artist and the title so that the target audience would be familiar with the house style in future issues and also to attract other readers who aren't familiar with the magazine but are fans of the artist who is being featured.
In my questionnaire that I produced and gave out to some people in my target audience, I asked whether they had any ideas of colours that I could use within my magazine as a house style. The most common suggestions I had were blue, purple, green and red. Black and white were also suggested but I didn't think I would be able to constantly use just two colours within the magazine as I feel the reader would get bored quickly because there would be no burst of colour to make the magazine look interesting and appeal to a modern day young generation. By using different colours I have given it a modern and quirky look so that it does appeal to my target audience of 15-25 year olds, as well as giving it a retro style to also try and appeal to an older generation who enjoyed a similar genre of music when they were young.

The contents pages that I had researched before creating my own were NME and Q and I thought these two showed two very different ways that I could have as my own. The NME contents I felt was a little too crowded and if I was to buy that magazine myself, I wouldn't want to spend my time reading through it all. I think that it is slightly overcrowded and extra information thats included such as the band index would have been better on the last page of the magazine so that once the reader had finished looking through the magazine, they could then search for anyone that was in the magazine.
I particularly liked the layout of the Q contents page because they had placed an artist as the main feature of the page with a simple numbered information column to the left of the page. I decided to base my own contents page on this and have a different artist to the one on the front of the magazine.
I wanted to title the contents page so that my magazine had a title for each new section. I thought this made the magazine look unconventional compared to other music magazines. In addition to this, the white text over the main image creates a good effect because it is a basic colour over multiple colours and by using white, the artist in the background are still easily recognisable to the reader. I used a different font to the font I used on the front cover because I didn't like the front cover font over this image as it was difficult to read. The Sand Serif font I did use looks stylish as well as professional and makes the magazine look quite expensive, which is what I was hoping for. Furthermore, I also included a smaller print font in the bottom right corner, which just gives a snippet of detail to the reader where the background image was taken and this will hopefully make them more intrigued as to whether there are any more photos like this further into the magazine.

For my double page spread, I had researched and found this double page spread of Taylor Momsen, which I thought looked very Rock style and this made my final decision of having a girl as the main artist for my own music magazine. This is because usually it's typically a boy that's in an Indie/Rock magazine because most girls like the perform Pop genre songs and as I wanted my magazine to be quite unconventional I decided that it would suit my magazine quite well to have a girl artist as the most featured. I wanted to carry on with the idea of having the artist as the background and not on a separate page from the text so I did slightly alter my magazine differently to this NME double page spread. When researching, I found that a lot of magazines such as Q, had three columns on their double page spreads apart from this NME one, which I actually preferred because it didn't make the page look too crowded due to less columns used. I decided that I wanted to use two columns but space them out even more so that I looked more like a story than an article and also to place the text on both sides of the double page spread. Moreover, I used the same text font for the title of this page as I did for the contents to show the house style that was throughout. By having blue text, not only was it suggested by someone from my target audience but it also stood out from the rest of the text on the page and this was useful because the blue text was what the artist had said and not what they were asked by the interviewer and by making their answers more visible than the rest of the text, it would hopefully make the reader want to read the whole article because they are interested in what an artist who works within the genre of music that they like have say.
The background colour is a neutral colour so that the text is easier to read and by blurring out the artist, although they are still recognisable as they have the same appearance as the front cover due to the colours they are wearing and this is why I didn't want them to change outfits for each section they featured in. I thought that the colours throughout the magazine were similar with the main background colour being a neutral colour with different coloured effects over the top to make the retro look more prominent and this implies the style Indie/Rock genre very well.