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

When first creating my magazine I used vogue, oh comely and clash magazine as my main inspiration, however there are many magazines that influenced choices throughout the making of my cover/contents and double page spread.

My photography generally went along with usual conventions of artist photography as the angles were portrait and landscape but weren't unusually taken with many props or positioning of the artist. The most unique photo that I used was the large image of peony Nebraska as I decided to include a sitting position as I think it linked with the intense idea of an interview. The close up and mid shot photos that I used on the cover and double page were fairly similar to that of pictures on vogue and harpers bazaar, with the only difference of this example being that I decided to keep my photo in colour, this is how it would of looked if I had of copied the idea completely and kept the greyscale colouring.

Many of my photos including positions and facial expressions that are common in the photographers work of victor Demarchelier, Murt&Marcus and Steven Meisal. This is an example of how I incorporated Demarchelier’s style into the photographs that I took; although this photo is not included in the final magazine it shows the development that took place whilst trying to incorporate the photographer’s style.

The styling of my artists was similar to styling used by smug and vogue magazine, although these are both primarily fashion magazines their audiences are wide and link well with my magazines theme and genre. Here I have shown the styling on one of the covers of smug that I tried to recreate when making my first school magazine and then a cover of vogue that’s styling is very similar to the artist on my front cover and double page as it is very formal and all black.

The heading on the cover page generally goes against typical conventions of mastheads as it isn't your usual white background with a bold thick font in black that attracts the audiences attention straight away such as that on magazines like ID and loud and quiet. Mine is similar to headings by vogue as the font is thinner and easy on the eye. It is also similar to the idea of oh comely’s title as it uses a much softer font that although being more difficult to read to artistic style attracts the readers just as much as a bold black and white masthead. I wanted to keep it simple and not look too harsh or take away attention from the artists photograph. I think it's still bold and easily readable because of the White on the dark grey background.

The title of the magazine is ‘prevalent’ which is a synonym of the word current- this gives the idea that the magazine is on Trent and current which attracts a wide variety of audiences. I think that the title follows general conventions of magazine titles because it is simple, has alternative meanings and is a polysyllabic one word. It is very similar to magazines titles such as clash, dazed and wonderland.

The contents page was based around contents pages by oh comely as I was inspired by the simple layout of text and minimalistic fonts and theme. I decided to use the idea of the magazines name underneath the content title, in between two lines to separate it from the informative text below. I also used the idea of the subtitles for each section of the magazines contents to be set aside from the details and page numbers, which makes it easier for the reader to navigate around the magazine because of its clear layout. The only part that specifically goes against typical magazine conventions is the fact that it is not actually named ‘contents’ instead I decided to call it ‘inside’ as I think it makes it more unique and less formal, attracting a more modern audience.

The double page spread was the main part of the magazine to go against conventions- the neat and orderly columned text on the interview is very similar to that of more formal magazines like vogue or Elle, however the highlighted quote on the opposing side is more informal and looks almost like a scrapbook style. I did this to create a sense of mixed formality, taking inspiration from the layout of many double page spreads from clash as they have used a similar format in previous issues. Another choice that I made that challenges general magazine conventions is the oversized page numbers- this links again with the more retro sense of style that I created through the use of some of the photography and artist styling that I created as it fits with the Art Deco style of exaggerated text and font size, I think it makes for a great unique quality that many other magazines haven't used, it also makes it easier for the reader to find pages when using the contents page.

The colours that I used generally follow magazine conventions as the monochromatic text, backgrounds and styling that I used is very popular with magazines like smug but to make sure that the magazine was still eye catching I included a blue/green colour font to they contents and double page to attract the audiences attention similarly to how magazines like vogue have done in the past. As the magazine generally appeals

The genre that I decided to use is very popular with younger markets and females so I think that it generally goes with conventions of a specialist genre magazine and works well with the styling associated with this genre that I used.

Because of this chosen genre, I have made my magazines style and theme appeal to this large target market with the points mentioned above. I think it's really important to have a wide target market as it increases popularity of the magazine quickly and create a larger number of sales for the magazine. I have used research throughout making my blog to evaluate and analyse what choices and sections of my magazine need to appeal to my target market and what they want to see.