Evaluation: Forms and Conventions

My music magazine fits into the genre of ‘new music magazine’ because it contains extended interviews that contain a lot of description and quotes from the interview, aiming to make the reader feel acquainted with the band/artist. It also fits into the category of ‘Reviews of new releases’ because it claims to have all the latest information on the newest bands, which are labelled ‘Indie bands’ hence the name of the magazine, ‘Indie Band Review.’ The magazine follows a house style which contains a distinctive colour scheme of reds and white on black. This allows many features to stand out and be recognised by readers who will associate the contents of my magazine to the magazine itself. The magazine contains articles concentrating on up and coming bands as well as already established bands which allows for the audience to read about their favourite bands and new bands that they may like. A magazine that already exists in the same category is NME magazine which is very popular with my target audience. Because of this I have used the conventions set by NME to help with the production of my magazine. To ensure that my magazine can compete with NME I have attempted to gain more access with artists by including more interviews and reviews. The increased amount of interviews aims to allow the reader to feel as they can relate to the band more and in turn purchase my magazine over competitors.

The masthead of my front cover is in a bold font which looks slightly cartoon like. The red letters have a white stroke which allows them to stand out from the black background. This connotes a vibrant and fresh feel about the magazine. The colours correspond with the overall colour scheme of the magazine. This colour scheme contains the house colours that appear throughout the magazine. These are red, white, black and gold. The strap line is a red strip containing information about the contents of the magazine. The word ‘Reviewed:’ is coloured gold which connotes the fact that it is valuable information, as gold is considered a precious metal and colour. I have ensured my cover lines are an appropriate size so that they can be read at a fair distance. They are arranged so that the main topic of the cover line is larger and red; with a small piece of information about each, in a smaller font and coloured white. This allows potential buyers to have a quick glance at the larger font and then if they wish to do so, they can read the smaller font to find out some more information. I have included a graphic that resembles a sticker to give the impression that the magazine has so much inside that a sticker has had to be placed on the front to let people know that as much information has been squeezed in as possible.

I have used a close up image for my double page spread to make the reader as more engaged with the article. I feel the fact that direct address is being used in the image also contributes toward making the reader feel more engaged. I have paid taken a lot of care when making sure the colour of the font is correct when the font crosses from the darker background to the white shirt worn by the male in my image. I have gone into as much detail as to have half a letter white and half a letter black to ensure a more professional look. I have used a drop cap to catch the reader’s eye and draw their attention to beginning of the article. Although in principle it should work, I feel that the red could be much brighter in order to really catch the reader’s attention. This dullness of the red could also be said about the stand first, which really could be brighter so it could compete with the white of the article title. For the by-line I have used the same technique that was used on the front cover where a white box contains black font and the black box below contains white font. This connotes a gritty feel that coincides with the wall in the image to create a stereotype of youth. I have included a side bar to break up the page and bring information that is relevant to the article but isn’t completely relevant, to the attention of the reader. In the article I haven’t included pull quotes and I feel that using these would improve my double page spread as it would look more professional. I have used large gutters to give the article an elegant feel. This elegance contrasts with the brick wall and the harsher feel that the rest of magazine has whilst still maintaining the house style of red, white, black and golds.

For my contents page I have reproduced the house style and have also taken the masthead from the front cover and used it again at the top left of my contents page, further continuing the house style. I have used a large image, slightly off centre so that the contents could be place along the left hand side. The image shows a stereotypical youth wearing a hoody and smoking a cigarette. This connotes the gritty and urban feel of the magazine which attempts to appeal to the youth of today because they feel they have a music magazine that relates to them. The image and background contain a lot of black which further connotes this representation. I have used another graphic that resembles a sticker, but this time it has been tarnished around the edges to give a rough and worn look. This could be seen to represent the artist shown in the image behind as the image relates to the sticker. Its coloured gold which continues the house style.