Evaluation: Question 1: In What Ways Does Your Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products

In both my magazine and the NME magazine featured above there are several forms and conventions which I think my product has used, developed from and challenged.

The first few examples of forms and conventions that I have used in my magazine are the obvious things such as the Masthead, the use of coverlines, barcode, a 'plus' bar along the bottom, all of which make my magazine seem more legitimate and make it seem like a real magazine that is on sale. On the other hand there are several things that are missing from my magazine that NME has, the first main thing is the 'WIN!' bubble, my magazine doesn't feature anything you can win, and the other thing I think my magazine could do with is a bright banner, showing off and grabbing the attention of the reader as to what is currently in the magazine, especially as in NME the cover is mainly black, white and red, so the yellow text at the top in large lettering certainly helps to improve the ability of the magazine to grab the potential audiences attention when they are looking at the shelf. Another thing that both my magazine and the NME product shown have in common is the use of a black and white image. I feel that this was essential to get the required look for my magazine, which was aiming to get an old school look whilst getting the indie feel, I feel that my magazine did this successfully while also using forms and conventions of a real media product.

I think that as far as development is concerned my magazine doesn't build on many points that the current NME product does, but nevertheless there are still a few. The first main point being that I feel NME's logo and design is fairly outdated, having the same masthead and logo since 1978 (albeit with slight variations to get to today's masthead/logo). I feel that my masthead/logo is something new and fresh, and the versatility and simplicity of the logo/masthead means that I can use it almost anywhere.

In my opinion my magazine challenges the NME product on several different levels, and this time it is more focused on the contents page. The NME contents page is very bland, using only black and white, with a little bit of red, this makes the information cluttered and isn't particularly easy to read, yes the titles with the black highlight and the white text is very effective, and do make it a little easier to find information, but I still feel it is very cluttered. The slight use of red makes it a little easier, but even then I think there is too much information on the page split into too many different categories, I feel that mine is simple, ordering the information by their page number, having the beginning of the magazine at the top, and the back of the magazine at the bottom. I also feel that using a large image and using the front cover to describe and show what the main feature of the magazine is links both the cover and the contents a lot better, whilst at the same time making it easier to find the main feature of the magazine - in the magazine. The idea of using the front cover as a small image in the contents page came from an issue of FHM, which had a description with the cover next to it, I felt that this added more of an impact to the page, and visually improving it, having less in the way of words and more in the way of images.

 As far as the double page spread goes I feel that mine is a vast improvement and challenges the NME double page spread to the left. I think the first point are the colours used, although Oasis are seen as an old school grungy and outgoing band, that don't really do modern talk, I don't see a reason why the colours need to be so bland, the browns and blacks in the photography make the whole double page very bland and unappealing to a teenage audience, this is where I feel my double page spread for my magazine - Cardinal, is a lot better, because I was also going for the old school look, with the 'no modern talking' attitude, and I think I achieved it with a few visual attachments, that weren't originally meant to be there, the first example are the little Ramones inspired logos, it was a spur of the moment thing when I was working on the page, I saw the opportunity and put a British twist to it, using the three lions and Tom's made up stage name, whereas on the NME page there isn't much like it, they have the '2013 long range forecast' badge, but it doesn't bare much relevance to Beady Eye and Liam Gallagher. I feel that the direction of both my magazine and NME is also reflected in both of these covers and other small hints as well. For some reason NME feel the need to report everything from 'Beady Eye', 'Noel Gallagher', 'Liam Gallagher' and any possible opportunity for an Oasis comeback, whereas my magazine is reporting on something different every week, it is very versatile, which is the main challenge that my double page spread is making against NME, it's new, different, and isn't repeating itself.

College Magazine Flatplans

Below you can see my flatplans for my college magazine, this will outline the basic idea for my layout of my Contents page and Front Cover:

Music Magazine Flatplans

Below are the flatplans and basic idea for the layout of my magazine:

Front Cover Alterations

I decided that after altering my contents page and double page spread that although individually all of the pieces looked good, the front cover didn't match the double page spread and contents page as well. The main issue was the colours used. I tried to use orange because at the start I felt that it is quite a versatile colour that I could use almost anywhere in the magazine, but as constructing both the contents page and double page spread went on I felt that instead of orange, I felt that a maroon/red colour would suit the magazine better.

This meant that the front cover didn't match the rest of the magazine, a simple colour alteration meant that the whole magazine matched each other with the colours, fonts and the way each page was set out and presented. The one thing that I didn't change was the small 'PLUS' section beneath the masthead on the left hand side, this is because I felt changing everything to one colour would make the front cover boring, it also meant that the particular coverline stood out over other things on the page that were less important

This slight adjustment meant that my magazine was now complete and ready for evaluation, the following posts will be the evaluation posts question by question.

Contents Page: The Complete Redesign

As well as the Double Page Spread I also thought that the contents page wasn't up to scratch, so I decided to redesign that as well, below are the old and new versions (old=left, new=right).


















I decided I didn't like the contents page of my magazine, it was too dark, and as I thought about it, how many magazines have a black interior and exterior background colour? none that are successful, I thought it was too dark and needed a bit of light. I felt that some of the tacky things needed to go, like the subscribe widget/section, and treat it more like a contents page, with everything that is of interest to the reader on the right hand side, not splitting apart the regulars and features, because it could give off the feeling that in my old design - the top half of the contents of my magazine is what you came here to read, the bottom half of the contents is all the rubbish that comes with it as a filler, which isn't true, so I decieded to keep them all together instead of splitting them apart, which may be seen as a problem as far as showing what I know about magazine design, but I also know what looks better, and in this case I went with what looks better and more presentable.

I got my inspiration for my contents page from an older edition of FHM magazine, I felt that the coloured box with the front cover and the feature artist was a main feature I wanted to include in my magazine, and the coloured accent of the page number I wanted to be a coloured page number and page description title, with the actual description of the page in black. In my magazine I decieded to make a background by getting a standard image of crumpled, brown stained - white paper and making very opaque over a layer of white that would fit the page, that way it isn't just white and black but a bit of a variation - something different. I decided to go for the headline I did by taking an example from the FHM header lines, which are in groups of 4 or 5. There were a few things I thought suited the FHM contents, but on experimenting with my magazine I felt they didn't work, for example the row of images in the middle of the page, I felt I didn't have space for them, and the dotted lines that the individual pieces of writing on the contents page just didn't work with the font and the way I lay my magazine.

I'm now happy with my contents page after completely re-designing it, I'm happy with my front cover the way it first came out, with just a few things altered to make it perfect in my mind, and happy with my double page spread after completely redesigning it as well, overall I think they all fit together quite well, the fonts and the colours making them the linking factor, I feel after changing my contents page, and changing the background colour especially I have made it a lot better, the layout is a lot more clear, and easy to pick information from, it's a vast improvement from the old contents page, it just took time to get there.

Double Page Spread: The Complete Redesign

I looked at my double page spread and I wasn't happy with it, I felt it didn't match the rest of the magazine and it wasn't something I was happy with, the colours were dingy and horrible, nothing really fitted together and it was quite boring. I took some inspiration from a few NME and Q magazine double page spreads, such as the Pete Doherty feature, the Lady Gaga double page spread and a few other slight influences and eureka moments to get to where it is, I felt this double page spread came together a lot easier than the rest of the magazine.

I think straight away comparing the old double page spread to the new one you can see a clear difference, I made sure I changed the background colour by fiddling around with the contrast and brightness settings in Photoshop  I also applied a crispy paper effect to make the image look more old but using layers and the opacity settings on the layer bar. That was the first main improvement, I also saw a trend with other double page spreads that already exist, that either they have a black or white box to contrast the text so I decided I would use that to split the page up and make the text stand out more than it already did. I also added some colour (cardinal red) because black and grey with one teal accent in the text is probably the most boring thing, and it also seems to be a trend with magazines at the moment, it makes it look sophisticated but interesting to read.

I made sure I changed everything I thought was wrong with the old photo, text, accent in the middle of the text, headline, the tag line underneath the headline and the missing page number on the bottom right. I gave the pages a brighter feel, because the dark colours didn't reflect what I originally wanted from the double page spread which was to feel like it was from the 70's, especially the image, which I feel I sorted with the paper opaque effect - for this I took a photo of old, ratty and dirty paper, layed it over the top of the image, then played with the opacity until it was right, overall I think it was a success and worked very well.

Another thing I also thought would be a great addition was to edit a Ramones logo, with the three lions instead of the eagle that the Ramones have, also instead of their names, I put Tom's name in. I think that it added to the feel of the football firm age music, the old style music which is what Tom actually plays - he's a guitarist interested in anything from the 60's, 70's and 80's, and especially in the 70's and 80's men took to the streets for their football club, Milwall and West Ham is the main rivalry that springs to mind.

Overall I am very pleased with how everything turned out, and it is a vast improvement on the previous double page spread, and I think it will be the final double page spread, I think also that the final sweep of final touches to every element of this magazine has improved it greatly overall, I'm very happy with how it came out and I will evaluate it in a later post.

Inspiration For My Magazine

There were several things that influenced the look of my magazine front cover and the house style of the magazine, one magazine in particular 'The Albion' BMX magazine is one that was always in the back of my head when I designed all of the individual bits of my magazine, although the link isn't strongly present, I wanted my magazine to look as much like the albion magazine as I possibly could, this didn't work so I went to plan b, and all of the results shown on this blog is the plan b, which isn't always a bad thing.

the font for the front cover masthead ‘CRDNL’ is a slightly different font of that used in ‘The Albion’ BMX magazine, I like the way that the Albion is set out, especially as most of the things they do as a magazine is different, for example the paper quality is second to none, some of the best paper I’ve ever read off in a magazine, it’s more like card than paper, it’s a free magazine, profit comes purely from advertising, and the way it is layed out, the front cover hasn’t to my knowledge ever been just a photo, usually an elaborate cartoon, or one of the latest issues was a map which was put over a street with BMX ride-able spots on it, The map came from a torched car, which was burnt while a few guys rode an indoor skatepark up north, the map was the only thing that remained, and it’s small anecdotes like this that make me like The Albion even more of an experience. Overall even though the style of my magazine and The Albion are totally different I think the use of the font which appears to be quite similar (the font in my magazine is ‘Theano Didot’ and in The Albion it is ‘Albion Didot’) worked quite successfully.

Another magazine which I feel had an influence, this time on my contents page is NME magazine, I liked the way that it managed to squeeze so much information into one page without it looking desperately cluttered, it also matched the rest of the magazine quite nicely, which is why I decided to take some sort of layout from this and alter it to fit my magazine, overall I am quite happy with how it turned out. I think I might make a few changes to the contents page, alter the placing of a few things and make a few things more obvious, but overall I am quite happy with how it all turned out.