Evaluation Draft: '1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)'

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)'

I feel that 'Awe' is a suitable name for a magazine of a folky, acoustic, indie genre as it's quite memorable and original. I have tried to keep the title of my magazine a small amount of letters this could be seen as a convention as it is used on lots of magazines. I originally thought that 'Awe' could stand for 'Acoustic Weekly Entertainment' using the same idea as NME magazine, but after developing the style of my magazine I decided that I wanted to make it a monthly magazine.

Graphology is important to consider when making a magazine, as the way in which you layout the page determines where the readers eye is drawn to first. I think I should have considered this much more than I did when producing my magazine, and considered the use of the convention that is the golden spiral, as this would have attracted the reader to certain features within the magazine.

I have included lots of generic conventions on the cover of my magazine such as:

• A masthead across the top, starting from the left.
• The featured artist in the centre of the page, looking at the camera. 
• The artists name central in a bold font, with a quote from the article underneath.
• Other features either side of the artist's image.
• Barcode doesn't stand out, with price, issue and date in a bottom corner.

My contents page layout does challenge some generic features of other magazines as I have included the images of the features of the magazine over the top half of the page, most other magazines would have text down one diagonal half of the magazine and images down the other and The contents title in the centre of the page rather than across the top. Yet, I have included some generic features like the content of the magazine is in columns.

On my double page spread I have included an image, which takes up one of the pages. Looking back on this now, I wish I didn’t spread that image across the whole page as I could have included a bigger article with more pull quotes. Also, I have challenged a convention by using two columns instead of three, after looking through some magazines; most use three columns to make the spread more aesthetically pleasing and quicker to read.

When I was photographing the model, she wore three outfits. But all the images I have used in my magazine include her in a black top with a patterned skirt. Looking back on this now, I should have chosen an outfit, which reflects the folky genre much more. Yet I feel that I have made up for this by the way in which she is posing, with her long hair trailing off her shoulders, this helps to reflect the folk genre. I have included an image of her with a guitar on the contents, this definitely is a convention used on many magazines of a similar genre, as most singer/songwriters and artist of the same genre are represented through acoustic guitars.

The way in which an image is framed and the quality of the image will determine where and whether the image is placed in the magazine.  I chose a mid-shot image that included the artist central and looking at the camera. This is a lot more conventional than my draft, yet I think the image on the cover of my draft was taken with a higher quality camera, which I think made the image look more professional, even though it was outside rather than against a white background.

I have challenged a convention by using the artist’s name as the title of the article rather than a phrase or quote. Yet, my article is very conventional as it is set as a Q&A, which most magazines use to enable the reader to read through it quickly without loosing interest. For the title of the article (the artist’s name) I used a font called VTS Chalk as that I thought stood out among the article and looked very interesting. For the article I used a font called Champagne and Limousines, which is a simple yet effective font. The use of contrasting fonts is used on many magazines as it draws the eye to the title as it stands out.

I chose to produce an acoustic, indie folk and singer/songwriter magazine. I think that this was quite hard to do as there are not many magazines in the market with a similar genre, so I had to take other magazine layouts and put my own twist onto it. My magazine suggests that it is of this genre; as the font that I have used for the title looks very folky, the image of the artist does not make the reader initially think of mainstream pop as the model is posing in a very natural way, without a ostentatious outfit on.

Most magazines use the three-colour palette; I have done this too, and carried it out throughout my magazine on the cover and Double page spread. Yet on my contents, I have kept the font Black on a white background, as I did not want to attract the readers eye away from the top images as they are what the reader will see when they open the magazine.