In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?When designing my magazine I looked at a range of indie/alternative existing magazines, such as Loud and Quiet, Dazed and Confused, Clash, etc. for inspiration and to see what was happening in current industry. I took ideas from a combination of these popular and well known magazines which each use, develop and challenge typical conventions themselves, varying from issue to issue. I chose to adopt a variety of ideas from the pre-existing magazines as they successfully and effectively appealed to the target audience and represented the indie genre clearly and consistently throughout the whole product. Inspiration for the front cover page of my magazine came predominantly from Fantastic Man along with the idea of creating something which would stand out on the magazine shelves inside stores through innovative styling but at the same time conforming to the minimalistic style adopted by most magazines within this genre.CONVENTIONS OF CONTENTSWhen producing my final version of the contents page I based the design and layout around successful, pre-existing magazines such as Clash and Fader, yet I decided to develop ideas presented from these magazines and create a more unique approach for the contents display; I used Faders idea to feature chunks/blocks of text based on the main features within the magazine as I felt this looked stylish and professional. I also felt that it allow the reader/audience to gain a more detailed insight into the pages and what to expect from the columns displayed. In terms of the layout, again, I used ideas shown in Fader, despite this being a hip-hop, RnB genre music magazine I felt that it was still suitable to take and alter conventions from as it appeared stylish and edgy which was something in intended to achieve with my magazine. The straight columns ordering the features appeared neat, minimalistic and professional and ensured the reader was not overwhelmed at a glance of the page, also ensuring that everything on the page was organised and neat. I then adopted a similar style font to that used in Clash. I wanted to achieve the stylish, vintage style appearance of the page overall which I feel adds to the effectiveness of presenting my chosen genre of indie clearly. I like the edgy feel that the Clash contents page achieves and therefore wanted to create a page which resembled this, which influenced me to use font style Orator on Photoshop. As shown in Fader, I sized the titles of the feature pages slightly larger (9) than the text which followed (7) as I feel the title is the main piece of information which would grab the attention of the audience and lead them to developing interest and want to read the section of following text and find the page in the magazine. Fader features a Soundcheck and On Location area on their contents page inside every issue to ensure maintained consistency; this is something which I decided to use as I feel these subjects would be points of interest to the target audience (16-24) and would be something which would encourage them to buy the issue.

MASTHEADUsing font Tennessee SF to type the masthead Original in size 88, I ensured that the front cover would make a statement on the page and garb the attention of the public as they pass by the magazine stands in stores and appears aesthetically pleasing to the target audience, fitting in with the indie genre and overall design of the front cover. The Tennessee SF font type appears vintage and stylish, enabling the front cover to represent the indie genre successfully and effectively. As well as this I had to ensure the audience were able to clearly read the masthead without having to look too closely to identify the magazine and strengthen branding and recognition; this is something which is also considered with real media products in industry as they need to ensure product recognition to maintain sales, etc. The masthead featured on the front cover is similar to that of Dazed and Confused, Loud and Quiet and Clash music magazines in the sense that the lettering is displayed in a basic font, capitals, bold and thick to ensure it stands out on the page and makes a statement. I feel that by using this convention of real media products I have allowed Original magazine to create a sense of professional branding and the basic style font of the masthead allows the main focus of the audience to be kept on the image and the cover lines which would be the main factors drawing attention to the product and encourage sales through appearing aesthetically pleasing and interesting; as well as this I feel that the cover of each issue of Original should speak for itself and represent the indie genre clearly and effectively, therefore it was important that the masthead did not give much insight into the content of the magazine away, like on many magazines in this industry such as: Loud and Quiet, Dazed and Confused, i-D, etc. I do not feel that the audience should make assumptions about the magazine itself based on just the masthead and its design on the page. My thoughts when creating the masthead were that I wanted something which would ensure original stood out amongst other magazines on the store shelves through being large and bold, but yet would not overwhelm the page in the eyes of the audience. I decided on formatting the masthead text as black and bold to allow the colours to contrast with the white background colour of the page and ensure it was clearly readable. Due to being centrally aligned on the page ( a convention taken on many pre-existing magazines such as Clash, Loud and Quiet, Dazed and Confused, etc.) my design appears neat, symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing.

FRONT COVER PAGE LAYOUT AND CONVENTIONSIn terms of the front cover layout, I used many conventions of fashion magazine, Fantastic Man as I found this style effective at portraying a sophisticated, stylish look which I intended to achieve with my front cover. As I felt I was able to change the fashion orientation of the magazine into a suited indie music genre through altering wording etc. I employed conventions of this real media product including: using of image and surrounding borderline of image, bottom central cover line, placement of the barcode and issue date and price, as well as bottom brief introductory text. Elaborating on the upper left side of the page barcode placement being a convention used by many real media products, it has been shown to look effective on issues of Indie, Bullet, Clash, Dazed, etc. GRAPHOLOGYI aimed to adopt the minimalistic approach on the front cover as I did not want to overwhelm and deter the audience from purchasing a copy. I felt that after looking at industry pre-existing texts, a basic simple approach appealed more to the indie target audience and looked more aesthetically pleasing. Magazines including, Clash, Loud and quiet, i-D and many more have chosen to adopt this minimal approach frequently, therefore showing it is a successful and effective idea. Due to the basic cover layout, as inspired by Fantastic Man, I feel the audience are as a result more able to focus on the important pieces of information displayed on the cover which would be enough to influence the likelihood of a sale. I liked how the layout allows for continuity on every page and can be adapted to suit any specific topic as it is not suggestive and is not too complex to adjust to suit.The font use predominantly on the front cover page (Orator Std) displaying the band/artist features, profession of artist Jack Wolf and bottom introductory information about the contents, is also featured as the dominant style of text on both the contents and double page spread. The maintained consistency makes the magazine seem well constructed at an industry standard as it fits well together, each page following onto the next with a continuous colour theme throughout, creating a high level of continuity.On the front cover, the font used stating the name of the featured cover artist is Adobe Devanagari which is different to any other fonts featured throughout the magazine; this could be considered as using conventions of that used on Clash and Dazed and Confused as this has been done by the brands multiple times on various issues where the cover line(s) are shown to be formatted in a completely different text. I feel this has allowed the name of the artist to stand out on the cover and is likely to draw the attention of the audience as they pass by due to not entirely fitting in with the rest of the design. Although despite being a different font from others used consistently throughout the magazine, I do not feel this negatively affects the overall look of the magazine as I do not think it appears out of place on the cover; everything works well together, creating the intended image for the overall product representing indie and classic style themes within the magazine. The front cover features black colour filled boxes to allow the band/artist features to stand out effectively; to ensure this was kept consistent and fitting in with the design as a whole, I also applied the use of the black filled box behind the singer text item to ensure this text stood out to the audience and after it has grabbed their attention, they would understand the purpose of the magazine (music orientated) and those audience members who were less aware of Jack Wolf as an artist would develop knowledge of his profession to potentially want to purchase a copy of this issue and read more about the featured artist. The boxes add to the dramatic and edgy feel to the product and are a convention I used from real media product, Spin music magazine as I came across the cover featuring Lana Del Rey during the research and planning stages of the task and felt I could interpret this idea and apply it onto the cover of original. On both the contents page and double page spread I created for the task I made sure of consistency of design and branding through the use of page numbers and the name of the magazine (Original) placed directly underneath the number; the font size of this remained the same on every page it was featured size 6 as well as in font style. This was something I took from Dazed and Confused as I liked the professionalism and strengthened branding it creates- the audience is constantly reminded of the brand of the magazine whilst reading as it is displayed centrally at the bottom of every page to avoid distraction away from the content of the magazine. To further the branding and consistency, I formatted the left page of the double page spread in white to ensure the text was clearly visible and contrasting with the black colour from the image.

A variation of high and low language register is used appropriate to engage the target audience who would be literate (as they are interested in print media in the first place) and intellectual as they are fans/listeners of indie music which often has meaning behind the lyrics presenting a narrative and would require thought to understand in many cases- there is usually a need for understanding with this genre of music. This combination of language registers is typical in many magazines of this type as the readers would potentially be put off overly formal context as they would want an easy, interesting read at the same time as not insulting their intelligence and flowing nicely throughout. ARTIST PROFILE/ IMAGE CONVENTIONSThe image featured on the front cover uses conventions of real media products as the close up shot of the artist is something which is commonly employed by most music magazines in industry, such as Clash; this ensures the audience can clearly identify the artist featured on the magazine, strengthening the artist profile in an aim to encourage fans/ target audience to develop and interest as a result and purchase a copy. The use of a close up shot of a solo artist is used by pre-existing magazines in industry including, Loud and quiet, Dazed and Confused, i-D, etc. My artist, Jack Wolf, represents the indie genre effectively; I aged the artist at 19 as this is a typical age for an artist in the music industry creating clever and catchy songs to interest and engage the target audience When creating the artist profile I used information and appearance of real indie musicians of present including Jamie T, Artic Monkeys, The 1975 and Tom Odell. In relation to the mise en scene, I chose to keep the styling of the artist on the front cover colourful and eccentric to some extent as the floral shirt is bright and bold, whilst fitting in effectively with the indie/alt genre of music. I based the colour scheme of black, red and white around the colours of the artists shirt displaying a level of consistency. I feel that this styling conforms to the stereotypical image of indie artists and indie followers as they are often seen to be wearing smart attire and expressing personality through their choice of clothing. Expressions and stance were very important during the photography stages of the task to set mood, clearly present the indie genre and allow the audience to understand an element of the males personality through the images featured within the magazine. I used a variety of shot types across the whole product as the cover displays a close up image of the solo artist, contents page showing two examples of medium close-up images and the double page spread features a mid-shot and long-shot of Jack Wolf to effectively show a level of skill which is something used within all magazines within industry to prevent the magazine looking very similar on each page I intended to create an engaging, appealing and interesting product as a whole. My choice of a solo artist plays well with the design of the front cover and is something adopted by many magazines within industry including Dazed and Confused and Clash magazine; this may be due to the fact that often more than one person inside a shot has the potential to make the front cover seem overcrowded and unappealing- simplicity is often chosen by magazines in industry to effectively appeal to the audience. All images used within the magazine are conventional for a typical indie music magazine, and based on research conducted on style models inside this genre, such as Clash and Loud and Quiet.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD CONVENTIONSMy main source of inspiration for the design and layout of my double page spread came from King Krules feature inside an episode of Clash. I found the unusual structure of the right aligned text interesting and wanted to replicate this idea to achieve a similar look of incredible style and boldness. The page layout in general develops typical conventions combined and presented in many pre-existing text as pages of text are often shown to be in neat columns following a left to right structure; this demonstrates the ways in which I have developed conventions of real media products, although not entirely as the idea was inspired by Clash who are known to be experimental with placement of text, image and space on pages. The font used, Orator Std, is simple and easily readable, yet it helps develop a vintage appearance to the page which further defines the magazine as indie. As I wanted to portray a level of skill within the magazine I decided to feature an image on the double page spread which was taken in an outside environment to create an urban, edgy feel on the page; this idea came from the King Kruels double page feature in Clash where the mise en scene presents a rough, urban style outside setting with concrete and fences exposed. However it could be said that the variety of mise en scene shown on images within my magazine develops photography conventions of typical indie music magazines in industry as often the featured artists are captured inside a studio or with some sort of meaningful background, whereas my choice to capture my artist In a rough looking outside area was based around elements of creating drama and adding to the stylishness. I also opted to filter images on this page in black and white as I felt this achieved an edgy and bold appearance and allowed the page to make a statement. The use of monotone colours is used often in many real print media products as the image is made to appear more glossy, vintage and stylish. Styling of the artist for the image featured on the right page of the double spread was largely influenced by research and planning on indie bands: The xx and The 1975 as they adopt a minimalistic style of clothing which I felt was effective as it does not give anything away bout the artist or their style of music and creates a sense of mystery and interest. The text on the double page spreads reads as an interview of the artist; this is something used in pre-existing texts such as Clash and Q magazine frequently as it is known to be a point of interest for the audience and a chance for them to gain more knowledge on the artists/celebrities they are interested in. This allows an easy read as artist responses are easy to follow and information is not too complex to consider, encouraging the reader to read the entire interview.