Evaluation Question 1 - DRAFT

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

 My media product uses Loud and Quiet magazine as a style to base on, to ensure that I capture my target audience in the right way. I did this because from looking at years previous, the students who tended to follow conventions rather than challenge them, gained more marks.

The specific style of alignment and bold features such as the masthead and border around the cover's image was emulated on to my magazine and used as a way of increasing the professionalism of the product. Also, Loud and Quiet uses the rule of thirds effectively to frame and  present the cover in the best way to which it will stand out on a shelf. I adapted this technique, to ensure that three main features stood out - the masthead, the image and the content. This is a very well known convention for many magazine designs, as well as the spiral effect, which is generally used to present an artistic image, ensuring it is the main focal point. Another convention which accompanies the layout is the colour, and depending on the genre and layout of the magazine, will determine what colours work, and which ones don't. For a design such as Loud and Quiet, black and white commonly feature as a part of a house style, along with a few other colours, which fit the theme of the photo, or which work well alongside it to ensure it stands out, and is more aesthetically pleasing.

When I began designing my magazine I took into account the main conventional features to ensure that when producing the layout, and particularly choosing the photo, I was able to ensure it was clear that I used inspiration, but only took out specific elements so it still attained individuality.

My masthead, however not as bold as most magazines, was in 'Perpetua Titling' font which I believe gave it the elegant factor. This worked well alongside the thinness of the lines which separated each section of my cover. The positioning of my masthead slightly challenges the convention of it being across the top of the page, as I have slightly lowered it with the context of the product above it to indicate what type of magazine it is. I ensured that the masthead was in a clear space, with nothing overlapping or surrounding it purposely due to the fact for my particular style, as it is simplistic, with not much going on. This keeps the neat and tidiness effect, which will sell my magazine to my target audience. My masthead particularly relates to the Loud and Quiet design, in relation to the position of it on the page, as well as as the colour. The reason as to why I decided to keep it black, was because it not only goes with all other colours, but it increases the aesthetic as well as the professionalism.  I did however slightly challenge the convention with regards to the masthead when comparing it to such magazines like Clash, due to the fact that my masthead wasn't displayed in bold, even though comparing it to the Vogue masthead there isn't much of a distinguished difference.

The graphology of my pages is unique, and taken from different sources of magazine layouts, the reasons as to why I have used different sources of inspiration for each page, was to adapt and develop  the use of different styles, to, in a way, challenge the conventions, to see if there was a continued theme, without being purposely conscious of linking them together. I thought this brought variation to my magazine, and was a technique used to ensure that my readers don't get bored when flicking through. I carried a theme of black lines through my pages, however, the thickness of them varies. My reasoning for having thinner lines on the cover was to represent elegance as said before, however I ensured that I kept the thickness of the lines on the contents the same as the border on the double paged spread, so they looked as a part of the same magazine, rather than different pages pulled out from multiple documents.

My favourite page with regards to graphological features is my double paged spread, as i feel i have successfully gained a more professional aesthetic, after completely re-styling post to my draft, which wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I believe the use of negative space works, emulating a coloured version of a Loud and Quiet article, and adapting it to making it fit with my house style. I believe the fonts work, the colour scheme compliments the overall aesthetic, and the photo brings out the pages character. When creating this page, I had no intention of displaying more than one image after finding inspiration post to my draft, as I felt, as long as my photo had something about it that made it stand out it wouldn't look boring, sadistic or even miserable, meaning that it would work, providing it was intriguing.

When using conventional features regarding photography, in particular mise en scene, it tends to be overwhelmingly difficult to meet the standard of a professional photographer, especially one with experience. Thus meaning, taking plenty of shots, with a wide variety of different outfits that worked in my opinion, supporting my genre, were important to almost be confident of success. I decided that having a female band would attract my prime audience of females aged 16-26, however could sway the male gaze in a way which could potentially attract a different audience as well. Without the unnecessary 'half naked shots' they use across most pop/indie magazines in this present day, I had to really ensure my models most photogenic features were displayed across their faces in order to attract attention. I did this by reducing levels of make up, so that hair stood out on both girls as a characteristic itself, as bands such as Little Mix always present themselves in this way. Due to my models being particularly photogenic without makeup, I decided that it was mainly needed around the eyes, to enhance those as a different focal feature, which would attract an audience, this time perhaps the male gaze effect would occur, regardless of them not being my target audience.

When following conventions of a 'perfect' photograph, it is said that the model looks directly into the camera to ensure that they connect themselves with the audience. I however decided that for my double paged spread, in order to create a photo with charisma and character I needed to break this convention to defeat the boring element.

However, I believe that I have challenged the conventions of the Loud and Quiet style model, because my magazine is a singer songwriter/ pop genre, where as Loud and Quiet is an alternative indie rock style of magazine. 

My magazine has slightly challenged the conventions of a music magazine in one or two vague areas, the reason as to why I decided to avoid technique such as this was because I felt it wouldn't attract my particular audience in the way it should, and therefore, I avoided many risks.