Evaluation Question 1

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

To start, I decided to use lowercase writing on my front cover. I have read that every magazine without question has uppercase font for the majority of the cover. I decided to use lowercase font to symbolise the beginnings of the ‘unsigned’ bands. Apart from my article showing a famous band in collaboration with a new band, the vast majority of people in my magazine aren’t famous (Hence the symbolisation of lowercase letters - that in a sense, the bands featured haven’t achieved stardom yet). This could be considered a development in the form of conventions, instead of challenging them. As well as this, the addition of drop shadow to the various headings makes them look effective. What I later noticed was that the article subheadings look like they are traveling into the distance into the background, following the path which steers off to the left. The effect of this could perhaps give the reader the impression that the artist is following the light at the end of the path to becoming famous. The lower case font looks the part in accordance to the target audience. Magazines such as Cosmopolitan use a vast amount of lowercase words on their front cover, which, in the right font, can look sophisticated. However, I possibly should have put ‘Autumn Review’ on the front cover in capitals to attract a readers attention more solidly.

I didn’t use the space in the contents for an editors note. I thought that the wording placed in correspondence with the picture of the chandelier worked very well. The top of the page needed to be left alone in order for the dramatic picture to have maximum effect. I didn’t use many article subtitles in comparison to other magazines (e.g. NME) because I wanted to create a more handbook feel to the magazine. That is to say, without losing the feel of an industrial magazine altogether. The way in which I haven’t challenged a form of media is that the general layout of the whole magazine still looks like a conventional once; with some classic pieces changed around (e.g. with lower case font).