Evaluation activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
My product challenges and also makes several developments to the already existing magazine
known as Mixmag which is a popular magazine and the largest in the dance music genre and so I
used this magazine as inspiration to create my magazine. I analysed what sort of fonts they had used
and the way the magazine is laid out in order for it to be so successful and for it to apply to the
dance music audience. I looked at the type of font they have used in their magazine for their
mastheads on their front cover and we see it is very bold and it stands out so I decided to adopt a
similar style by using a font that stands out and is bold. The font I used was Bebas which I thought
stood out best to suit my style of magazine, I did lots of research into what fonts to use by using
websites such as www.dafont.com and www.1001fonts.com so I could get a good idea of what
fonts are out and available for my use and I looked into which ones would most likely suit my style of
magazine. As we see below both of the fonts used for the masthead were very similar as they are
both blocked and clear, this shows that my magazine uses similar concepts to Mixmag as this is
what is popular on the current market place.

As we see above I have used the name Residence for my magazine title, the reason I chose
this title is because the meaning of it is the place, especially the house, in which a person
lives (http://www.dictionary.com). Residence is usually linked to a home or a house and the
genre that I am using for my magazine is house music so I saw a link between the two, also
when people think of home they may think about family and friends and so I thought that
this may relate to customers as being part of the Residence
family and the magazine its self. We see that in this issue of
Mixmag they have their title stand out from the background
so I decided to adopt this style but I developed my title by
having it white so it looked different and I thought it stood
out better on the background that it was on. We also see
that the other text on the page stands out as they have used
a black and red so it is clear from the back ground and this
helps make it clear for the customer. I have used a similar
style but I have used the colour pink and white to make my magazine and writing stand out
to the customers.
The graphology of my general magazine was similar to Mixmag but I did make several big
developments so that it met the style I wanted it to meet. I used a similar layout for the
front cover as I thought that it flowed well but I did change the stance of my models so that

they were more central to the page, I also changed where the text is around the front cover
as on Mixmags front cover we see that it is central where as I had my text to the left of the
models so that it looked neat and smart, I also moved where I had the artists name as I
chose to have a large cover line in the centre of the page across the models so that it was
clear that these models where Memphis and Belle, these were the larger developments I
chose to make to my layout of my cover. They used bright colours to advertise their cover
line and I decided to use this style by using a dark pink colour to have the text in. The reason
I have chosen to use this style on my front cover as I feel it relates to my genre audience as I
think the majority of the audience like colourful colours such as lights when at a gig and so I
wanted to add an element of this to my magazine.
For my contents page I adopted a similar style from that issue of Mixmag but I did make a
few developments by changing it from double page content to one but I used some of the
ideas in my magazine. I used a similar style of how the columns for the magazine were laid
out with sub-titles to make it clear where each section could be found in the magazine so
that it was easier for the reader to find. We see that the contents page of Mixmag has a
darkish background so that the other colours and the reason they have done this is because
it could be seen as similar to a nightclub due to it being dark and having light colours and so
I wanted to use bright colours and dark colours in co-ordination together as I thought that
this colour scheme would relate to the customer and audience I am aiming to appeal too. I
also decided to add a corner with social media links as I thought that this would relevant to
my audience that I am aiming to appeal to as I thought that this audience would be younger
and that they would use social media and so I thought that this would relate to them the
most.

For my double page I wanted to use a different style I challenged Mixmag as they have used
a large single image that has an interesting background where as I could not get an image
like this so I used a similar image by changing the mise en scene of the background so that I
could have a similar effect as by seeing the large image in Mixmag would make the audience
and readers enjoy it more and interact better with the article as they will be interested in
the images and it will not seem as if there is lots of writing. Another reason why I did this
was because I thought that my audience would relate to this the most as I did not think that
they would want to read massive paragraphs of texts.

The costumes in my shoot were very basic and the main reason I chose to use this clothing
scheme is because the audience I am aiming to apply to would usually where similar clothes
which would be classed as casual when they go out clubbing and so I thought that this
would be most relevant to my genre. In comparison to Mixmag the artist are also seen
wearing casual clothing and so I realised that this clothing scheme would suit my magazine
best. I wanted my models to looks smart as well so I made a few adjustments to the scheme
by asking a model to wear a shirt so it had a level of class about it. I decided against using
any props in my photo shoot as I did not think it would suit my style of magazine and if I was
to use props it would have to be when they were performing in an actual club as otherwise
the props such as DJ decks or headphones would look out of place and so I thought it would
make the magazine look cheap. I have challenged my audience with this as they may expect
to see a photo with a prop in or in a club and I have gone against this style. I did not use a
lot of iconography in my shoot other than having my models close together so that it was
evident that they were the compilation and not single artists.
To complete my photo shoot I hired out a studio with walls purposely painted white so that
photos could be taken professionally in their and so I gathered about 150 photos so I had a
wide range of options to choose from when I was selecting the images to go into my
magazine. I have chosen to use this background as I thought it looked smooth on the page
and I also thought it gave a professional look to the magazine. In comparison to other
magazines such as Mixmag I saw that they used large background and backgrounds with lots
going on so I challenged this style by using a plain style background for my photos in two of
my photos I used bushes and trees to change the mise en scene. I used a camera stand for
my shots so that the camera was steady and so there was not a blurred effect on the image
and so this helped me generate better looking photos. When I was shooting outside I used a
strap so it was still as steady without the stand. The reason I chose this way to work the
camera was because I thought that a smart but plain look would appeal to the customer of
my genre the most.I chose not to have a border around my image is I thought it looked
scruffy but on my contents page I used a similar technique to Mixmag as I used large
number in a box on the image as I thought it looked professional.

The genre that I chose to base my magazine on was hard to represent as with genres like
Indy clothing can suggest it where as house music is very much casual and so to make
people aware what my magazine genre was I used popular artists within my genre to
suggest it and the descriptions and headings I used on my contents page heavily suggest
what genre I am trying to match. My double page spread suggests it as I mention a
collaboration,festivals, nightclubs and DJing in general to make it clear what genre I was
using and these topics are all related to dance music or house music.
My artists/models are presented in a smart but casual way as I thought that this style would
suit my models and relate to my audiences the most as this is a similar style used within this
genre and so this made the magazine relatable to the customers. I wanted my artists to be
seen as upcoming and young as my audience like hot prospects and upcoming DJs so I
thought this would appeal to them the most.
This is the colour palette for my front cover of my magazine and as we can see it
is very dull and the colours I have used are dark but the reason I have done this
was so that everything on the page such as my title, artists and cover line all
stood out to the public and so this means that it was clear and presentable. The
reason I chose to use this style was because I thought it looked smart and clean
on the page although it may appear slightly bland. I think that this style and
colour scheme is relevant towards my audience as it looks neat and it also has
the bright writing as well which stands out. I developed Mixmags magazine as I
still made sure the key information stood out but I changed the way they stood
out by using darker colours and lighter fonts.

This is the colour palette for my contents page and as we can see it follows a
similar scheme to my front cover as there is several dark colours, we see that
there is a few lighter colours like white and pink the reason I chose to use this
scheme is because it is similar to the Mixmag contents and I used their this as
inspiration as I thought it looked plain but yet really smart and so I used lighter
colours than the themes they used as they used a black background which I
thought would look un neat in co-ordination with my front cover and so I
developed the Mixmag magazine.

Finally this is the colour palette for my double page spread and we see it has lots
more powerful colours such as green, pink and black which all stand out . We
see that I have used a similar scheme as my other pages and so this helps create
consistency throughout the magazine. The reason I chose this scheme was to

relate to my audience as I thought that they would like interesting colours as it will keep
them interacted. In comparison to Mixmag they use mainly 1 solid colour which is the
background so I have challenged this by using a variety of colours.