Evaluation Question 1

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

The music magazine market is very competitive; meaning it was easy for me to look at the wide varitey of magazines and take certain ideas into account for my own music magazine. Looking at other music magazines allowed me to create a brand identity that would appeal specifically to its genre and the type of people who would be reading the magazine.

This is the title for my music magazine 'Sync'. When creating the identity for my magazine I wanted something short and catchy which would fit in with the music scene which is when I came up with 'sync'. This masthead is usually assosiated with mp3 players when you sync your music to your computor; this opened up a varitey of opportunities for me as I could offer things such as free mp3 downloads which would fit in with the mast head of the magazine. This sort of promotion would be used to entice readers to buy the magazine. I went with the colour blue for the masthead as it is quite a universal colour, it is a prodominent colour throughout my magazine with the addtion of white and gold to give it that feminine touch and not single out any one gender. I added a line under this elegant type face to draw attention and define the title. I used the eraser tool on photoshop to erase the line which orignally went over the 'y' of 'sync'. The black background of the mast head helps the text to stand out more which again draws attention to it. The other 4 famous magazine names show the similarities between my magazine and my

This is my magazines strapline; using 'sync' as my magazine name gave me the opportunity to play on the word 'sync'. Sync has connotations of being informed or in the know which meant I could use 'Be in SYNC with today's top charts' playing on the word sync allowed me to make this slogan catchy and fun. It informs readers of the genre of my magazine by using the word 'chart' giving away that it is a chart magazine. Similarly other music magazines such as billboard use 'experience the buzz' and VIBE which uses 'real rap'.

This sticker is a unique selling point for my magazine as it was voted number one UK chart Magazine 2010. To be voted something such as this means it must be good which will then entice people to buy the magazine. I made this sticker on photoshop by selecting the eliptical tool which allowed me to draw the cirlce shape. I then pressed ctrl and the back space to fill in the cirlce black. To give me the blue outline I put a drop shadow on it and created a new style which then allowed me to choose the colour and opacity of the outline. As you can see the outline is the same colour as the mast head which links its house style together. The font I used was 'love ya like a sister' I felt this font gave the magazine a quirky look as it is not your basic arial font. I used a hash (#) instead of using number because this gave the magazine a younger feel and also meant the text fitted much more comfortably within the sticker.

I used this idea from other magazines which used the same style and layout....

The magazines above use the same style as the sticker I used; it enables the magazine to either promote whats inside the magazine or state any awards the magazine may have done. It is easily readable and will draw attention for the reader. The idea is that the will see the image and want to read inside the magazine.

This is the main image and coverlines of my magazine; this is typical of any magazine in which they use coverlines to promote the magazines contents. I have three main coverlines on the magazine 'exclusive interviews' 'uk TOP 40' and 'Your chance to win an Apple Ipad'. The UK top 40 also suggests that this is a chart magazine. This is an abrieviation of the UK top 40 music charts; those interested in this sort of magazine will have seen this before and therfore know what it means however it could entice those who want to know what the UK top 40 is. Linking in with the music theme there is an offer to win and Apple Ipad which is also a music device. I have a wide variety of exclusive interviews again used to entice readers. There are exclusive and so can only be read in my magazine. My artist is wearing a smart grey suit, by changing the lighting the suit has been made to look almost gold like. It is hear that I colour picked his suit to get the golden colours for certain text and images. The full image is of him holding a beam with his left hand and looking at the camera. This enabled me to define his chin line giving the photo that professional look.

These three magazines also have their coverlines down the left hand side; this is typical for magazines. Like my image it is placed towards the right hand side of the page so that the coverlines stand out more. As well as this you will find that most artists are looking directly towards the camera lense. This is a technique used so that when someone picks up the magazine the image is looking at them drawing them in. I tried to use the same technique in my magazine even though my artist is placed at an angle.

This is the lower half of my magazine; it shows the main headline of the magazine with a section of the double page spread printed just beneath it used as a lure. When readers see this they may think to themselves 'what was he being saved from?' and therefore will buy and read the magazine. Sebastian and Gold are in two different fonts. The Sebastian has been put in a bold font with a silver chromed effect which is similar to the Gold which is in a gold colour which therefore represents the name well. At first this text was plain but I felt it just looked as if it was pasted onto the magazine so using this effect gives it a 3D feel. At the bottom of the page is another strap line which shows the other artists included in the magazine. The font 'courier' is prodominent throughtout the magazine. This is similar to other magazines which use a specific font and use it throughout their magazine. The strapline at the bottom is used by numerous magazine such as Kerrang and NME to promote the contents of the magazine.

This is an example from Kerrang magazine using a strapline to show the artists that are included in the magazine. The type of artists represent the type of magazine it is.

Here is a narated video of my contents page

My double page spread still represents my unified house style. I have used the same golden colour throughout and lightened the 's' and 'g' so that it stands out. I have used pull quotes which is a typical convention of any magazine. These quotes will entice the reader into reading the double page spread.

This is an example from an real magazine, it shows how other magazines also use this techinque to draw readers in. The idea is to use the most interesting phrases which will therefore interest the reader into reading the whole double page spread to find out what it is talking about.

This is my drops caps and a drops caps from NME magazine; as you can see they are presented in the same style. You enlarge the first letter of the article to start it off, almost like a guidence for the reader. They know that this is where the article starts from. This feature is used by almost every magazine because it makes the article look much more attractive to readers and so this is why I chose to use it on my double page spread.

This is my music magazine compared with my school magazine, as you can see they have been made in different styles because the theme of the magazine is different