In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
FRONT COVER
Here is a real front cover from a real Rap Magazine (XXL) in comparison with mine.
This is my front cover:
MASTHEAD
My masthead is very similar to the one I got inspiration from and the ones on other magazines which follow the same genre. As we can see, I used the same colors of XXL's masthead trying to be as conventional as possible, the font is pretty the same as well. I've also placed my masthead at the top-left hand-side, as it is a convention for many magazines of any genre in relation with the front cover.I have also add a black stroke, which makes the masthead more noticeable and readable, although there's the main image which covers a good part of it. I wanted to add an issue' number too, as in many front covers it was present. Finally, in additional to all these factors, I've added the "r" which is present in XXL's masthead too, but also because it gives something special to the masthead.
SKYLINE
As it's possible to find them on most front covers, I've also added a skyline to give to my magazine a factor which may easily catch readers attention and which gives to my magazine a professional element. In fact, a phrase like this is very conventional and is very useful to attract potential readers.
MAIN FEATURE STORY
My main feature story is very conventional as well: as on many front covers, the main feature story is written with a bigger font than the secondary stories. This is to attract readers' attention to the main story, which will lead them to buy the magazine. As we can see, I've also used a very common font, which represents very well the genre that I've chosen. I've also added a stamp, this underlines the main story and its relevance. Another factor that reinforces its importance is the bigger font that I used for the name of the rapper, in fact it is a bit bigger than the rest of the phrase ("speaks out").
MAIN IMAGE
My main image is very conventional as it represents the main object in a position used many times by several rap magazines. It also represents very well the genre I've chosen by the props used (Mise-en-scene): as we can see there are the hat, a typical object that many rappers wear, as well as the t-shirt and the sweater, and then there's the music player which reminds us the music genre, and the music world in general. Another factor which makes it very conventional is the white stroke that I used to make it more conventional and more evident, to give it a greater importance.
SECONDARY FEATURES STORIES
I used many secondary stories on my front cover, following the convention of rap magazines. As we can see, there are many popular rappers' names, this helps the readers identifying the type of magazine and the music genre. In additional to this, I've added also two music events, or concerts, this reinforces the genre that my magazine represents.
COLOUR SCHEME
The colour scheme is a very important element for any magazine. The conventional colour scheme of rap magazines is a mix of cool and warm colours, as blue, black, red and white, and as we can see I used all these colours giving and reinforcing the idea of a rap magazine.
PRICE/DATE & BAR CODE
As most of all magazine, even not rap magazines, mine as well has these elements. They are very important as they allow the readers to know what the price and what the issue' number are. The bar code is very important too, by allowing the magazine to be scanned and to be registered by the magazine house, it helps know the actual sales of the magazine and so the revenue made by selling them.
PLUGS
A convention of rap magazines is to have plugs which introduce promotions of the magazine, as sales promotions, or social media contacts, or subscription deals, used to attract its target audience and try to maximize their sales revenue by offering deals, or free gifts. In my case I've chosen a free contest, giving away a suit case, a t-shirt or a hat, as I found out through the use of Monkey Survey, the brands (Vans and Nike) are the most appreciated from my target audience (15-35 year-old male people).
CONTENTS PAGE
Here is a real contents page from a real Rap Magazine (Vibe) in comparison with mine.
This is my contents page:
MASTHEAD
My masthead is a very conventional one, as we can see from the comparison I tried to be as much conventional as possible, this similitude reinforces the idea of rap magazine. As on the contents page of Vibe I placed it at the top-right hand-side. It underlines the importance of the main image and so of the main feature story. I've written the masthead with a black stroke, it reinforces the relevance of the masthead, and underlines the contrast with its white overlay, which makes it more noticeable and readable.
ICONIC "B"
Large "B" represents the Boss Magazine and is important as it is a form of iconography for the music magazine, and so it is very conventional as well. It has been outlined with black stroke. It reminds to the Magazine logo.
MAIN FEATURE STORY & DESCRIPTION
A very conventional element is the main feature story. On many contents pages, we can see it a bit distant from the secondary feature stories part. This distance helps attract readers' attention and makes them more interested in reading the magazine. As we can see the name of the article is written in red and with a black stroke, it underlines its importance and make us understand that it is more important than the other feature stories, since they are written in white. A short description is also represented and we can say it is very conventional as well, as on many magazines we can find it, it gives a short piece of the main article trying to attract the target audience, which is normally made by 15-35 year old male people, to read it. Another element very conventional is the page number, it is useful to make the readers know where they can find the main article.
MAIN IMAGE & DESCRIPTION
As on all Vibe's contents pages, on mine as well, the main object is represented in the foreground to underline its importance and relevance in relation to the main magazine story. We can also say that it is very conventional as there are props (mise-en-scene) which are related to the music world, we can see the hat, the music player, and the casual clothing which are very used from rappers. In order to make it more relevant and to create a sense of 3-D, I've added a white stroke, which is in contrast with the cool colour of blue of the background, and a shadow, which gives this effect. I've added the description of the photo too, to give a more realistic image of my contents page. All these elements make it very conventional.
SECONDARY FEATURE STORIES & DESCRIPTIONS
Here I used a very conventional way for representing these secondary stories, which even if secondary are very important to make a magazine a wide-ranged magazine. A feature list might seem very simple and for this not very nice for a professional magazine as Vibe, but I think that sometimes simplicity is the best way to look the best compared to others: it gives space to the main story to be represented on the page, but on the other hand the position gives to this list more relevance even if it's made by secondary articles.The short description, present for each article, gives the readers those few information about them which may likely get their attention and so make them leafing the magazine. Finally, I used two different fonts to separate the real article from the titles (Features and Events), it is a very conventional way to do it, as we can see also on Vibe's contents page.
PAGE NUMBER & BOSS MASTHEAD
For the page number I used a very common manner to do it: placing next to the number (in this case is 8, which means that this page is located after seven other pages, which might be adverts or something else), the Boss Masthead. It helps make the magazine more professional and realistic and well designed, with care for details, this is important for readers, they want to read an accurate magazine, and even this small detail counts.
DOUBLE SPREAD PAGE
Here is a real double spread page from a real Rap Magazine (Q) compared with mine.
This is my double spread page:
All the technical elements on my double spread page are pretty much the same as the ones used for the front cover and contents page. I've just wanted to balance my colour scheme used on the other two pages, by using both red and blue, white and black. This makes the readers understand the line which connects all these three pages and the main article. The capital "S" is also a very conventional elements, as we can see from Q's d.s.p., it is used to attract readers' attention and make them start reading the article. Its colour is related to the scheme colour. The main image follows the editing that many magazines use to make it more interesting to the readers. What I've done is that I have put the masthead and the main image together, in order to underline their importance. I have chosen to highlight the relevance of the masthead by stroking it with a black stoke, it defines better its meaning. My masthead is a pull quote, seeing artist's quotes makes the reader more interested at reading the article, because it makes him feel like it's the rapper (or any other artist) who is talking. Here is the link that shows how to do the effect that I used for my Double Spread Page image (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_iwNgv8aQ).
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