Question 1: In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine is very similar to other magazines in print in the terms of conventions and how females are portrayed in a musical context.

My masthead (top left) is very decorative compared to the likes of Q and Rock Sound's masthead. I wanted my masthead to visually indicate to the reader what genre the magazine was rather than creating enigmas with being vague and/or stating the genre in the title. My anarchy sign connotes a old school style of punk and "Take it to 11" is to make the style more formal and for easy association. I used block colours so the masthead is quite strong and pleasing to the eye without being overly fancy or confusing. The font is also distorted which is slightly similar to the Kerrang style of typography but it compliments the main image. I also used the wording to show the magazine is slightly more feminine than other mainstream magazines, I also used a pink glow around the font to portray this style of femininity.



For my main cover image to represent and attract my target audience I had to research how females were portrayed on other alternative magazines such as Rock Sound and Kerrang. The main convention was the mis én scene, most covers had a dark plain type of clothing, a serious expression and quite heavy eye makeup to exaggerate direct eye contact with the audience. The style of the left third also works around the main cover image, whereas some male orientated magazines have a very busy left third to show variety, female covers tend to focus on the female rather than the left third.

My back drop was changed after my audience response was mainly about how bold the background was by being purely white and made the magazine cover look empty, at first I tried with the gradient style both Revolver (right) and Kerrang (top right) had but I felt it was too plain and made my main model loose alot of her depth making her very weak compared to my left third. I chose on some lined paper under a grey gradient to break the background up a bit.

My main cover line also seems to be a lot more fancy in typography and colour theme compared to both magazines, the font of "Yaz Von Z" has been enhanced with effects in both Photoshop and InDesign to bring it forward and make it the most eye catching on the front. It also contrasts with the other two covers where the main cover line is hard to distinguish -particularly in Revolver- what the main article actually is alongside other left thirds. The quote underneath also stands out against my models mis én scene, this was easier for me to use a basic font (which then became consistent throughout all my pieces of work for content and titles).

Overall I feel that my magazine works more artistically compared to other magazines in print and to a target audience of a alternative genre having a magazine that experiments with different styles to suit the theme I believe that this will give my magazine a competitive edge in the market.