Evaluation Q1

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

My masthead ‘Faction’ uses the font ‘Athelas’. This is a serif font that is not popular in the music magazine industry, and therefore could be seen as a feature that challenges forms and conventions regarding masthead font. The only well known music magazine that uses this type of font is ‘Q’. A magazine that despite using a serif font in the masthead, is not made apparent to a sizeable effect, due to the title being only one letter. This is another different feature, as my magazine’s title is ‘FACTION’. This means a small organised dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics, the meaning of the word was the main reason i chose the name, as it shows rebellious trends and different ways of thinking. Both of which are traits in the indie rock music genre (my chosen genre), as they tend to defi musical conventions that are typically set in the genre of pop.

The graphology on my front cover is that of a simplistic nature; as all images and text apart from the issue number and price is centered. This allows the reader or potential customers eyes to first start at the top, where my masthead is situated, then directly downwards towards a portrait image of my featured artist ‘Jake Goodfeller’ and text stating his name and the band he is lead singer of, and further downwards to a brief summary of the contents page and the date. Both the masthead, cover line and main body of text are in the same font (‘Athelas’). This font offers a crisp, intelligent look to the magazine, which is likely to attract the eye of potential customers on a shelf due to the colour of the text mirroring my monochrome colour scheme set for the rest of the magazine, as all text is black or white and features on contrasting backgrounds, to make text easy to read at a distance, something that is important if it is going to attract my target audience.

The white background used in my front cover pulls the page together, by making all of the text stand out. The size of the various bodies of text used on my front cover is linked with importance. For example the masthead, the most important piece of text that is on the page, that allows customers and readers to identify the brand and the magazine, is 86 pt. Whilst the cover line, of which describes  the main featured article of the magazine, is in font size 30, and the brief summary of the contents page is 12 in font size. All of these features i have used (background,text colour and text size) on my front cover follow typical conventions. This is due to the effectiveness of these methods that result in an aesthetically crisp and an image that draws attention, this is why it is adopted by many popular music magazines and magazines that focus on other areas e.g. fashion etc, covering a wide spectrum of genres. For example magazines ‘Loud And Quiet’ and ‘Fantastic Man’ both adopt this method, to attract potential customers eyes and appeal to the target audience. The overall design of my front cover fits together rather well, the sizing of most elements including images, text and the barcode replicate that of other successful magazines and therefore follows typical conventions.

In my magazine i have two models, Jake Goodfeller; of whom my double page spread focuses on, and Josh Harrow, who features on the contents page and would also have an article about him further in the magazine. ‘Jake Goodfeller’ is styled in 3 different outfits all of which include ‘casual football’ brands, that are worn by and appeal to my target audience (as explained in my research). The items worn include; navy Fred Perry long sleeve polo, white Pretty Green short sleeve polo, black Pretty Green festival jacket, black and white Adidas Originals superstar track bottoms and black and yellow Adidas Originals Hamburg.Whilst my second model/artist, ‘Josh Harrow’, is wearing skinny black jeans and a black Fred Perry hooded jacket. The clothing modelled in my magazine is also modelled by numerous artists in the same genre, with Pretty Green being ex oasis star, Liam Gallagher’s own brand. Younger artist, Jake Bugg, is also seen regularly in Fred Perry. My featured artist Jake Goodfeller does not look out of place in an indie/alternative rock magazine, his features do not differ substantially from other indie/alternative rock artists (despite ageing), whilst his build is also similar to these artists.