Evaluation-Question 1

In what ways does yout media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think 'Sinewave' is similar to existing products as it follows forms and conventions of a typical music magazine and does not try to challenge any of them.

                                                                

Front Cover-On the left is my magazine and on the right is an existing product, Mixmag. As you can see they are different  but both follow the conventions of a magazine. Sinewave has a mast head, cover lines, an image, barcode and issue number, like any other magazine does. Some magazines do feature the website on the front cover and i have done so, i have also featured the website on the contents page and double page spread.

Unlike this front cover of Mixmag i have chosen to use a picture of an artist featuring in the magazine, i think by doing this it grabs the readers attention more and as i used a female on the front cover it appeals to both male and female audiences.

Bold titles are normally used to make the name of the magazine stand out and the titles are usually situated at the top of the cover, in the centre, this is done so when the magazine is on a shelf it can easily picked out. My magazine follows this convention as the title,'Sinewave' is in a bold font which i downloaded from 'dafont.com' I chose to use this font as it is quite electronic looking, which goes well with the genre of dubstep and is eye catching. Also the title/logo will be unique to the magazine so the audience can associate that font with Sinewave. 

Magazines will always have cover lines as they sell the other stories featuring in the magazine. As you can see i have also followed this basic convention.

The front cover of a magazine will normally only use 3 colours as it is more aesthetically pleasing. My chosen colour scheme is Blue, White and Pink because in my market research i found that people associate bright blues, pink/purple and whites with dubstep.

Contents Page- On my front cover the lighting is quite dark around the edges of the model as it is supposed to represent a club scene, as they are normally quite dark. I have tried to re-create this effect on the contents page by using the gradient tool on Adobe Photoshop. 

I have used blue, pink and white on the contents page to keep it consistent with the front cover, by using these colours it shows continuity and makes it aesthetically pleasing. Also it shows that there is a clear genre of this magazine. 

The writing on the contents pages is usually set out in columns of 2 or 3, as you can see mine has been set out in 2 columns. Also i have used the same fonts i used on the front cover, on the contents page so there is continuity and aesthetically pleasing. Normally the word 'contents' is on the top of the page so it is the first thing the audience reads. This is another convention my magazine has followed.

Another convention is that on the list of contents, the page number will come before the text, and a few words about the story will follow, as you can see from the image above. A subline gives a bit more detail on the article in a smaller, calibri, size 11 font.

i followed another convention which normally appears in magazines, using smaller images along side the text. These images normally link to other stories featured in the magazine. I decided to use 4 images instead of 3 because they fit in a column better, which makes it look more professional.

Double Page Spread-

Double page spreads typically have an image covering one page,the left, and the article on the next page, the right. As we read from left to right, the image is the first thing you notice, I have followed this convention. 

The artists name is usually in a bold font, which tell sthe audience who the article is about. I used a bold font, which I used on the front cover and used a pink/purple which is part of the colour scheme. This shows continuity throughout the magazine.

As you can see I have followed a nother convention, the page number and website is situated in the bottom left and right hand corner, which is what you would see in any magazine.

The writing is usually in 2-4 columns, my writing is split up into 2 columns and a third column is created by 3 images of the artist. This is not a typical convention but i have done this as it is aesthetically pleasing. I think my double page spread has followed the basic conventions.