7. My music magazine uses conventions for most of the
time but it also challenges them too.
The main conventions I have used are, the
masthead, lead article and a medium close up. I think
these are the most important things in a magazine
and by using them I have created a magazine that
people would buy.
I wanted the masthead to look quite loud and bold so
it would be well noticeable and would relate to the
music and the house style that would be carried out
throughout the magazine. To make It look loud, I
decided to have the colour as black. I think by having
the word ‘GENERATION’ in black it shows how bold
the teenage generation are and it relates well to the
audience of the magazine, which would be teenagers
aged 15-19.
For the medium close up, I decided to have a male
model. Most teenaged magazines would either have a
good looking male or female on them, depending on
the style. I think by having this photograph, the
magazine might relate more to a girl audience.
8. I used the same font for the lead article as I did for the
masthead. It was important to do this, not only does
it keep to the magazine house style but it would be
obvious that it was just as important as the masthead
itself. I changed the colour of the lead article to white
so it would show the biggest contrast between all the
other colours and would show the individuality of the
teenage market.
I decided to challenge the convention when doing the
lead article by putting it on the right hand side instead
of the left. I done this to make the magazine more
interesting and different. By not having a left third it
did not effect the magazine much, and the front cover
still looks as it should.
I think this is because the model on the front cover is
looking to the left, and therefore there is not such a
space to be filled. I didn’t want to go over the models
face with text like I did with the lead article, just to fit
a left third in because it would have become too
crowded and difficult to read.
9. On the contents page I continued with the house style
by keeping ‘GENERATION CONTENTS’ THE same font
as the masthead. I also included the word
‘GENERATION’ in to it so the audience would know
that these two pieces are the same magazine.
Keeping the name of the magazine on each page is
very important in a magazine.
I made the main colour scheme on the contents page
red and white because white on black always stands
up, and again, has the biggest contrast and red is a
bright colour, and relates to the front cover.
I split the page in to two sides so I could write in the
regulars and features. This would a convention that I
definitely had to put in the contents page, otherwise
it would have been hard to understand, and the
audience wouldn’t know what part to read first.
Also, I kept the wording of the text simple so it would
be simple to the audience and would not cause
confusion.
I added three websites at the bottom of the contents
page to make it look more realistic and to cover up
the white space that would have been there instead.
10. I think I went against only a few conventions on the
contents page.
Looking at KERRANG contents, the text and pictures
are set out to separate the regulars and features from
being too close together and becoming confusing.
I did not add pictures around the contents page
because I wanted it to look simple. If I added anymore
images or text I think it would have looked too
overcrowded and would be harder to understand and
follow.
Also, I did not write page numbers next to the
features because they’re would be changed, where as
the regulars could stay on the same numbered page
each issue. I believe that the feature pages would be
noticeable enough to recognise when you’re trying to
find it that it would not need page numbers.
I made the colour of the background Dark and
black, which is unusual on a contents page. Usually
they’re a light colour so the contents page would not
seem so demanding to look at, but I thought that the
colour relates to the masthead, and will show the
magazine off as being bold.
11. Again, on the double page spread, I kept the font of the heading the same as the font of the masthead,
so the audience would know that this piece is also part of the GENERATION magazine. The colour
scheme on the magazine is generally quite weird and doesn’t stick to a theme apart from being bold
and noticeable, so having the word GENERATION in each of the headings makes it much more likely that
the audience will know these magazine pages are linked.
The layout on this double page spread is quite different. I done It this way so I could have medium close
up photographs above it, making the photos more interesting and more people would look at them
first, rather than the text, which is good, seeing as the article is about the person being photographed.
12.
13. These results are hard to read because every
person who took the survey picked different
magazines. But looking at the two highest
scores, NME and Q magazine, I think that they do
relate well. I tried to add a pop star atmosphere like
a Q magazine would have, but also a bold, rock kind
of atmosphere, like KERRANG or NME
14. From these results I have been given good feedback. On this
question everyone has agreed that I have kept to a continuous
house style by keeping the same font and coloured
theme, which is what I was aiming to do on the magazine to keep
it looking the same.
15. Most people here have spoken about the masthead and how
bold it is, with the contrast and the lines going through the
letters, which is what I tried to do to make the word generation
seem so much more stronger than it would have been.
Someone gave me feedback about there needing to be more on
the front page, which is true but I think that adding text over
the models face would decrease the interest on the artist itself
and focus more on the headlines around him.
16. I have been given a lot of criticism about the contents
page, ranging from being too dark, having problems with the
colour scheme and not have paged numbers. For all three I
agree and will change if possible. I find that the colour
scheme for the background is quite dark and colour probably
be lighter, and the ‘generation’ word should be white instead
of blue to show another contrast like on the front page.
17. I am pleased with the results about the double page spread
because they said what I was hoping they would. Most people
have said that they liked the layout, the design and the
photography which is great seeing as that’s what I wanted more
people to focus on before reading the text.
18. I realise that this question is quite biased towards
my magazine, but I did add a ‘other’ box just in
case anybody wanted to use it. I like the fact that
everyone has chosen at least one each on this
question. This shows that people like my magazine
and find it interesting and different but at the
same time it isn’t too wild and it is still
classic, stylish and formal, while being loud, which
is what I wanted.
19. I think if I am able to improve my magazine, I will take all these
general comments in to account as they all hold very good
criticism. I understand that there was a lot of the same
model, but I kept it like this seeing as the magazine was focused
on one certain artist and as expected, their face is usually all
over the contents and double page spread on most magazines. I
am glad that my audience noticed the colour scheme I tried to
create and have a little understanding on why I done it the way I
did.
20.
21.
22.
23. My aim for this magazine was for it to be for the teenage market. People
like me, and therefore I would know what kind of opinions they have on
particular magazines. I would have thought that this magazine would
relate more to girls rather than boys and at a particular age range or 15 -
19. I think this because at this age, people begin to mature and enjoy real
music 24/7. By this survey result though, more boys have taken it than
girls, which could mean that more boys are interested in music magazines
than boys. The music my magazine relates to would be for both male and
female.
24. From this survey result I believe that you can tell what
kind of audience the magazine is suitable for. When
sending out this survey, I put it on Tumblr and
Facebook, where I have teenagers at the age of 15 –
19. Seeing as most of the people that took the
survey, apart from one said that they liked the
magazine, shows that the teenage market would buy
it.
