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

 There are many similarities between Spin’s magazine cover and my magazine cover. For example, we have both used a recognizable masthead which means the readers are able to notice the magazines easily. Above both mastheads lay the cover lines; I have developed from Spin's cover line by making a list of the artists mentioned in Diverse, they both have just as much attractions as each other as Spin's cover line will make the readers believe it is a special edition whereas Diverse will attract readers who are fans of the listed artists. The main cover lines on both magazines are black text with a contrasting white background, same goes to the taglines beneath the cover lines. The main images are similar in a way, as the models on Spin magazine are showing their genre of music mainly through the instruments they’re holding whereas on my magazine, the genre/artist’s history is shown through the mise-en-scene. However, no dates, prices, bar-codes as well as plugs and puffs were shown on the Spin magazine, therefore I have challenged this particular magazine by creating my own plugs and puffs plus the other elements.

Comparing my music magazine to these magazines above, I can see that Diverse uses many forms and conventions that are seen in real media products. For example, my main cover line is the name of the artist featured on the cover, it is a very bold text which the colour is contrasting against the background, this element can also been seen on the cover of real magazines. In all the real magazines listed above, I noticed they all have the colour of red (or shades in the same colour family) on the cover, this is because red is a vibrant and bright colour which will catch the reader's attention, therefore I decided to use an amaranth red on my cover as this will not only brighten up my cover but also bring the cover to life. Not many of the real magazines have much of the background of the photograph visible on the cover, so I decided to challenge this by including a section of the background that is behind the model. I believe the background will also reflect on the youthfulness of the magazine because the model is at a park sitting at the top of the slide.

There are some similarities between Under the radar’s magazine contents page and my magazine contents page. Both magazines have a smaller version of the masthead that was seen on the front cover, this allows the readers to recognize the magazines when they read the contents page. Also the date can be seen near the masthead to show which issue it is. The layout of both magazines is very similar; they both have models at the bottom of the page and the list of contents above with a clean simple background. However, there is a contrast between the two main images, Under the radar’s main image has the models sitting passively on a sofa whereas the models in my magazine are being very active which suggests they’re fun and youthful. In addition, I decided to only include featured articles in my list of contents because I don’t want the readers to be bombarded with a whole lot of pages and numbers. By changing the page number colours to red as well as underlining the title in red which is a colour that can be found on the main image, it allows the contents page to look more uniformed and professional. I have additionally created a list which gives credit to the people who were involved in the photography of the front cover as there may be readers who would wish to find out that information. The above examples all use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

There are a lot of similarities between Spin’s double page spread and my double page spread, we have both used the title of “Artist of the year” to draw the reader’s attention. Our headlines are both in black and bold text with an interesting font that is bigger than the rest of the text in the article. We also have a subheading on our articles to give a summary of the text. The layouts of the articles are both divided into two columns with a drop letter to enhance the text. However, I have decided to use a pull out quote as well as another image within the article to allow the readers to have a better understanding of the artists featured. The above examples all use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products.