The magazine which I have
designed has used a sufficient amount of code and conventions which other
magazines use.
The title is placed at the top
of the page to indicate to potential customers the name of the magazine “Underground” as this use of a unconventional name for the magazine produces a slight curiosity and
overall will make an impression due to this retro typed name. The magazine title
was created to show how indie music started mostly away from the lime light and
played out of sight or ‘Underground’ as other main stream music magazines
produce more popular genres of music leaving indie music to be unheard from, lately this has shifted and indie music is beginning to become more popular with time this is one of the reasons i produced the magazine on this genre of music as it is today on the rise.
The title has also been
created using three different colours, this allows the title sync in with the other pages throughout the magazine and not to be isolated away. The front
cover title is in bold text due to the rich colour scheme making it more
attractive to target audiences eyes. The
magazine has other conventions such as anchorage text, buzz words and others.
The anchorage text helps hold the view of potential customer as placing the other stories in smaller text around the main image teases the customer into wanting to take a deeper look
and find out more on the story. Buzz words across my magazine are not used as
much, I have only included a couple buzz words, one is “Free” in my research I
have found that most mainstream music magazines ultimately use these words to
attract in customers with ‘Freebies’.
My Main image is placed
directly in the middle of the page; this is to be the second most noticeable
convention on the front cover. The main image of the magazine has been altered
in many ways, the reason why the magazine is in black and white makes it a more
effective image for the front cover even though it’s quite bland and dull yet
this might attract the target audience due to the manor which has been produced
in as the background is a blur of colours to represent ‘Life in Black and
White’. I have used three different colours within my magazine, Red, White and
Black as most music magazine which I have studied has a colour scheme of three
to four colours. The colours which have been chosen balance out each other.
The contents page carries on
the house style which was made present on the front cover. The main image upon
my Content page is of the person on the front cover, I wish to establish that
he is the main artist within my music magazine and wish to state that to the
customers so that they know he is going to be the next best thing in the music
industry. The title of the magazine is also included on the magazine’s content
page I have done this due to the fact that it keeps the image of the magazine
to stay professional. Another convention I used upon my magazines content page
was buzz words, much like on the front cover I used the buzz words to advertise
and offer different sections of the magazine such as the ‘Features, News and
win sections’. Another convention I used on my contents page is including the
graphic feature to advertise how to subscribe to the magazine.
The Double page article has
also continued the colour scheme as the use of red and black colouring creates a boundary between the main image and the title of the page. The titles are coloured this way to completely separate it from the main image. The main image upon my double page article take up across the entire double page article as this shows that only the artists upon the pages will be talking about.
The artist ‘Rickie Merton’
which I have used as my selling point for my magazine “Underground" is of a young
age, he can personally relate to the target audience whom are aged between sixteen to twenty one as himself is quite a young artist showing that he can mix within the styles and trends which the audience will be using.
The artist is also a top musician in the music industry in this moment of time so his
face upon a magazine would instantly cause a spree of buyers. The style of my
artist is dressed in an quite a unique way, I have placed him in a thin coat with a pink shirt, this style suits the way an indie pop artist would realistically look, as
most of these artists go for an unconventional way of dressing.
The Media institution which
I am picking to publish my magazine is Bauer Media. Bauer Media produce famous
music magazines such as Q magazine and Keerang. This institution I believe
would establish that the magazine is intending to become a
My magazine in production
gave me many challenges as at first I was surprised that cameras had such a
difference, as using a digital camera meant I could easily upload the photos
which were taken straight away to the computer for editing. Photoshop was also
a big game changer for my A level work as I could easily remove a green screen
background from my main image and incorporate a better and more professional
back drop, this is a tip which I have picked up while doing A-level work.
Photoshop also allowed effects to enhance the images used for my magazine.
The task given to me allowed
me to make to think at a higher level for going to more of A-level way of thinking instead of the GCSE branch of thinking which dramatically changed my attitude and skill to work. The task also allowed my skills in photography and
Photoshop to increase due to the higher expectation which i was being face with.
