In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Contents Page
On the left is my final contents page product and on the right is an example of a contents page published by the magazine INDIE. INDIE magazine, although no regional, was the biggest inspiration for my contents page design and layout as I felt it offered the most unique style which I developed and challenged to create my own. It was the general image college idea that inspired me and therefore the quirkiness of my page is similar to that of INDIE magazine. I also looked at The Crack whilst creating my contents page. This is because the Crack aims at a similar audience, genre and region therefore the content it provides is relevant and appealing to my own magazine. Although I used some similar conventions, I also manipulated features in order to make a unique and successful magazine of my own. In this evaluation, I will be making comparisons of all the features on my contents page to analysis how I was inspired by INDIE and The Crack and why I have subverted certain features.
Research and Planning
My research and planning stages really helped me to analyse real media products and find both the strengths and weaknesses to which conventions should be developed or challenged. This included deconstructing existing contents pages, finding out generic conventions and analysing what makes a content page successful. I came to these conclusions throughout my research. Firstly, the inspiration that I took from INDIE magazine is that my age needed to have a visually creative design that was well framed by text so that the page was appealing. My inspiration from The Crack was that the content needed to be witty and topical, have a simplistic background and text design and include regional conventions such as acknowledgments. I feel my creative look as been achieved using the image gallery and the minimalistic style is up kept with the fresh and clean background. The page is image led on the top half and then text led on the bottom which shows influences from both INDIE and The Crack on both sides. The top half is generally influenced by INDIE and the bottom by The Crack magazine. I feel the contents page is modern due to the contemporary style, youthful images and the language that I have used. By sticking to the conclusions that I made during research and planning, I have been able to follow real media techniques that are most popular and those that I have found to be most memorable in order to make my contents page successful. After deconstructing contents pages, I also found a lot of features that I could challenge for instance, I wanted a lot more image diversity as I felt The Crack and INDIE were both very limited by only using one image. I also think the layout of The Crack was not very creative and then the content in INDIE was far too minimalistic even though it was designed well. I therefore feel I have challenged certain aspects of both magazines through by research which is evident in my final product. I had to majorly challenged the content and topics of INDIE due fashion only being a sub-genre of my magazine and my magazine being regional not national. I feel my overall design and product is a combination of my inspirations of The Crack and INDIE but also is unique due to the developments I made. Evidence of the inspirations and challenges from my initial real media explorations are evident throughout all the conventions of my contents page.
LAYOUT
The inspiration for the general layout of my billboard can be seen in that of INDIE magazine however I did make my own dramatic changes in order to make my design unique. The development of my contents page from my initial ideas didn't really change that much as I felt I had created a concept that worked well without being too overcrowding. I took inspiration from creating a shutter blind like image gallery however instead of having the images horizontally I decided to have them vertically. I also decided to split each segment into a different image to show more diversity than using just a single image. I found a similar design to this on pinterest for a magazine called Trend. I think the image layout looked very effective on such however I was inspired to develop it further in order to make my contents page more unique and creative. Having a masthead at the top a contents page was inspired by the NME magazine as both INDIE and The Crack do not feature this. I wanted to keep the masthead present so that my brand is always being advertised and promoted. It allows all of the information to constantly be attached to the CLIQUE. I also kept my strapline at the top because I wanted to keep it attached to my masthead. This is a very conventional position. The columns are set out in 3 rows with 2 paragraphs in each. Each paragraph is headed with my sub-genre name which is a very unique convention that I have not found on any other magazine. Like most real media products, the page has a contents header which is positioned at the top but overlaps my images as a creative development. This is extremely conventional to have a page title on a contents page and therefore my magazine is successful in looking professional. Advertisements are always placed at the bottom of the page in most media products therefore I followed this layout design and positioned my adverts in the bottom left of the page. I have added the convention of acknowledgements yet I have challenged The Cracks layout of it. Instead of positioning it down the left thirds of the page, I have put it in the bottom right corner. this complimented my page better but also showed thats its hierarchy under the contents listings is less significant which is true. The amount of columns I have are a lot more than on other media products however I have set them out quite similar to that of trend magazine. Another challenging layout style I have used is adding an institution logo which is in the bottom right corner and replaces the conventional place for a byline or essential information. Overall, I feel the conventional layout features that I have challenged or developed make my magazine unique and those that I have taken inspiration from, help to aid its professionally. All of the conventions that I have used, masthead, strapline, images, columns, headers, page numbers, advertisements, institution logo and acknowledgements are all present on the majority of existing real media products and therefore I feel my final product is successful at reflecting such. My main development in my layout design is the use of imagery which completely challenged The Crack and INDIE magazines use of only one image. The layout of the columns however is very professional and although organised in a unique way, more than likely will reflect the content of other real media products. My page is unique due to the layout as although I use similar conventions to other products, they have been organized in a way that no other magazine has which is a major challenge.
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IMAGES
The most dominant convention of my contents page is my image gallery which is a very unique feature. I was inspired to create this by the dominant image on the contents page of INDIE which features a similar gallery style but horizontally instead of vertically. I liked how this broke up the page and didn't just look like a regular image. I did however think it was flawed as it only included one image which lacked a lot of diversity. I decided to develop this by creating a collection of vertical images with the same spaced style however using 6 images instead of just one. I found inspiration for this on pinterest in which there was a sketch for a magazine named trend which had a similar blind style gallery board. I think the vertical images look a lot more effective however decided to develop the style further by narrowing the images down to six instead of nine. This meant that I could focus more on the quality of the pictures rather than quantity which is much more effective in order to look professional. I also decided my images were going to be bigger and take up half of the page as I feel my modern audience like to be visually led rather than text led. By having less images, it meant that I could have bigger images which used more of the picture instead of just a cropped down version. I also feel that by doing this vertically instead of horizontally like INDIE magazine, I had more room to put more detailed contents listings. I also developed The Cracks image style here also. The Crack used a vertical image gallery on their contents page however this was in a list format. I have developed this by changing the composition and having the images at the top of the page with text below rather than images on the left and text on the right.
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I created the photo gallery using guides and rulers on Photoshop as I wanted the widths and sizes to be equal and therefore professional. I then added each photo individually and cropped it to fit into the image templates that I had created. The first image is a of the big wheel which is featured at Sunderland seafront during the summer. It is a well known landmark for regional audiences and therefore can be instantly recognised as it is the regional equivalent of the London Eye. I used a site called pixlr to edit my photo and give it a pop art effect which incorporates the colours of red and blue. I feel this makes the image stand out more and also is a continuity of the graphics I used on my front cover to show that all my products work together effectively. The image represents the sub-genre of events as this is a local place you can visit. The next image I chose is of the stained glass windows in St Peters Church, which again is a Church famous to the North East. I have edited this photo on Pixlr to make the windows seem more vibrant and dominant against the church walls background. This image links to the sub-genre of art and the overall genre of culture. With the two central images, I tried to strategically place them in a way that looked creative and quirky. The first is a picture of my male model, aged 24 therefore fitting with that of the target audience, who has his mouth wide open in a surprised like expression. He is of a multicultural background which has connotations that my magazine is diverse and welcoming of all cultures. His facial expression is intriguing and inviting which shows the quirky aspect of my magazine. The image leading on from this is then a picture of my cat yawning. When combined, the half model and half cat create a full face which makes the images look like the same picture. Both open mouths connect together which I think looks very humorous and witty. I feel this will show my magazine doesn't take things too seriously and is quite lighthearted which will therefore intrigue the reader. It also adds a bit of creativity in the way the images have been ordered which I did not see in that of The Crack or trend and therefore is unique to my own brand. The next image I have used is of my female model. My model is aged 23 and therefore reflects the audience of my magazine. The image of her that I have chosen is very crazy and quirky therefore again follows an upbeat and non serious tone. She is wearing quite quirky clothing such as a unicorn t shirt, aztec leggings and a blue shirt. This links to the colour scheme of my magazine but also to the interests of my audience which is why they will find this image appealing. This image links to the sub-genre of events and music. The final image I have used is of myself. I took this image using a snapchat filter which most people from my audience will be able to recognise because snapchat is extremely popular in modern day society and has become one of the leading social media applications. I feel the image is very bold and creative which shows continuity with my theme of using graphics. It would link to the sub-genre of either fashion or technology due to the use of design and snapchat. My images were inspired by a range of media products combined. For instance, The Crack have used make-up pictures, male and female models and pictures of local landmarks.
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All of my images are effective in being unique and using certain features/ graphics to make them stand out. I spent a lot of time deciding on the order of the images as I wanted them to look diverse and for at least one image to appeal to everyone which I feel I have achieved. I was inspired by The Crack to include a range of different image styles as they have incorporated images, illustrations and graphics on their contents page which I feel is a convention that shows diversity. To make my gallery successful, I had to crop the images down which means that only certain aspects of each can be seen for example the half a face. I feel this creates a greater sense of mystery which will encourage someone to turn to the specific page in order to find out more. The Trend magazine also did this as you can see this in the first image which only has the nose of someone in and not the entire face. I think this looks successful as it makes people want you find out more and therefore look further into the magazine. I therefore feel that by enhancing the range of images that INDIE used but using a similar diversity to The Crack, I have both challenged and confirmed to real media conventions. I think however the design of my images matched with the style is very unique and therefore a development from any other product I have looked at.
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