In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products? (I.e. of music

magazines)
The font I used for my masthead, LA CORDE, was Gill Sans MT which was available to me
on Photoshop. I ensured that the font was bold and in capitals to draw in the attention of
my reader. In between La and Corde I placed a red circle to make my masthead stand out
and become original. However the boldness is a convention used by many magazines
available. I decided to call my magazine LA CORDE which is French for The Chord. This was
a change developed after my first draft where my magazine was called CHORD. As CHORD
is a musical term I thought it was a relevant title for my music magazine although I thought
it would be more memorable. My masthead is similar to LOUD and QUIET however it is
more spaced out but I think that adds uniqueness to it. My LA CORDE masthead is on the
highest layer in order to create the biggest effect. This is important as it needs to be the
most memorable piece of information on the cover as it will appear on every issue. I made
the masthead quite simplistic to appeal to my target audience.

The graphology I have used on my cover is very varied. My fonts change from bold and block
capitals to an elegant lower case. Gill Sans MT was used for my masthead. My main cover
lines Fractured Hearts are in the font Elephant. I began using a monochrome colour
scheme but decided to add a crimson red into my fonts and layering of shapes to make my
cover seem more effective. I thought that the white was very effective against my bands
dark clothing as it easily stands out to the reader. The black masthead is effective as it is
carried on in future copies of the magazine and therefore a bright colour might clash with
colour schemes on future covers. It also needs to be readable and black on white is the
easiest colours for text to be read. I also had the fonts Accord Light SF and Gill Sans MT
again for my other cover lines. I incorporated the use of italics as I thought it would fit the
elegant theme. The cover lines all had to be readable as they highlighted to the reader what
would occur in the magazine. Therefore I kept to the monochrome colours as well as using
the crimson red on the white as it stands out effectively.

I chose to have White as my background colour and make my picture smaller as I felt it
made the masthead seem powerful and stand out to attract the audiences attention.
Obviously I made my masthead the biggest piece of text on the page as it needed to stand
out the most. I chose the sizing of my texts depending on the overall importance it had. For
example, the next biggest piece of text was Fractured Hearts as it will be the band that
features heavily in my magazine and appearing on my main double page spread. It was
placed near the bottom of the page and on a higher layer than the picture as it explained to
the audience who the image was of and pointed out their importance. I think the red line in
between Fractured and Hearts adds a level of importance and urgency to the text as if it is
important for the audience to read it. My front cover used a lot of the conventions used by

Loud and Quiet magazine as I felt that indie audiences would enjoy their technique. For
example my use of cover line placement and style is used in many copies of Loud and
Quiet.

I wanted to ensure that my front cover was not over crowded with information as it would
make it difficult to read and it would look messy. Therefore I used a similar structure to
Loud and Quiet and only included the information necessary.

My band/ models styled a couple of different outfits, mise en scene and poses before the
final ones were decided. I thought that this would prove to be effective as it shows the
examiner different shot lengths and photography skills needed for the magazine I was
creating. My models looked a lot better in darker clothing as it was less likely to clash and
meant that I could experiment with colour in my text and other elements. Their clothing was
all from shops that are influenced by vintage and alternative garments meaning their style
would appeal to the indie genre and therefore my target audience.

I framed my band to ensure that Emily was at the centre of attention as is the most
important member of the band regarding the article. Therefore she was always at the
centre or front of frames to ensure the audience were aware of the importance and she
could stand out to the camera. For example, on NME, the lead singer is placed central and
in front of the other band members to highlight her importance.

My band is represented as a three piece, girl-boy band that have recently emerged in the
world of indie music. I wanted them to seem relatable to other upcoming bands and able to
inspire them. Therefore I thought it was important for their clothing and attitude to be quite
simplistic as bands that wear outgoing clothes can appear very distant to their fans.

On my double page spread I wanted the article to appear digestible to the reader and
structurally attractive which is why the text is very boxed. Although my double page spread
is quite busy, I still wanted it to have a simplistic edge which is why I left the white boarder
to run across all of my pages. I think the quotes such as KEEPING IT SURREAL add an indie
edge to the magazine as they tend to be quite memorable for the reader and often
inspirational. I used a

Loud and Quiet also keep a

white border on their double
page spread. They use quotes
that are likely to draw the
readers attention due to their
uniqueness. The alley
between my columns is also
neat and in line like this
magazine.

I used a drop capital/ kicker

similar to Loud and Quiet as it
draws the readers attention to
the article. It is used at the
beginning of the copy.
The headline had to be appealing
as well as the use of pull quotes
which I got inspiration from
magazines such as NME.

I would say my layout is simple yet effective for the reader. I

used a lot of images to make my pages visually appealing. This is
used my magazines such as ID as they make the audience seem
as there is less to be read and therefore the magazines is seen
to be more digestible. I thought this would appeal to an indie
audience as they are a genre that enjoys pictures as well as
quotes and smaller pieces of text rather than big blocks of
information. This inspired me to make my contents page very
simplistic adding only vital information and the most important
images.