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

There are basic conventions included in most successful or mainstream magazines which are used as helpful ways of including information and attracting the auidnece to to product. The most common conventions are:

• Masthead
• Menu bar
• Burst
• Sell lines
• Blue line
• Font scheme
• Colour scheme

Conventions I have used:

Masthead

- I have included a masthead to the cover of my magazine for the conventional reason of drawing in the audience. The red masthead against the black and white image makes it stand out even more, and therefore draws the audience's attention to the title of the magazine, which is included in the masthead.

Menu bar

- The menu bar I have included is at the bottom of the cover, which is where it is often found on popluar magazines. I have included it as a way of advertising two of the main stories in the magazine, so that any potential members of the target audience may be interested in buying the magazine.

Burst

- I have included one burst on my magazine as a way of filling a large amount of white space on my cover, and again it can be used as a way of attracting people to a story in the magazine.

Sell lines

- The sell lines I have included are a way of introducing the featured band in the issue of my magazine. Whilst there are two seperate lines used, they make up the same story, and are there as a way of enticing the audience.

Blue line

- The blue line is the barcode, price, issue number and date. I have chosen not to inake a lot clude this convention as I felt it may take a lot of space up on my cover, and as I was going for a more minimalist look, I thought it would be best to not include this on the cover. However this information is necessary so I would include on the back cover as that is looked at less by the target audience, and will therefore not affect how they view the design of my magazine.

Font scheme

- I stuck to the normal convention of using a three font scheme for my magazine. I have used one font that is for the masthead and page numbers, one font for general text within the magazine; such as story titles, and one font for the main page text. The reason I have limited myself to three fonts is so that it my magazine has a unified style and doesn't look too cluttered. Also because each font has been used for a specific type of text, it becomes easier for the reader to know the importance of each section.

Colour scheme

- Throughout my magazine I have stuck to a simple colour scheme of black, white and red, again using the rule of three. Due to the simplicity of the colours black and white, the pieces of information that I want to stand out from the page are put in red, this sticks with my minimalistic design, whilst allowing me to highlight keys pieces of information.

Comparison

- This image is the cover of an issue of Kerrang! magazine. It shows the usual conventions of a real media product, and as this text is successful in a genre similar to mine, this can be used as something to compare my cover to.
- My text has a similar style to this, as the main mage is of a guitarist playing their instrument live, there also seems to be a source of light illuminating him in the same way that I have used a lens flare.
- The header is also similar in the font style and size, and there is also a menu bar, although mine is at the bottom and this one is at the top.
- I have challenged the conventions of this magazine due to the fact that I have approached it in a more minimalist way, meaning that I haven't included as many bursts or sell lines as are on this text.
- I have also not included things like the barcode for the same minimalist reason.