Evaluation- Question 1

 In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines? 

In our magazine we aimed to add as many features as possible of a conventional music magazine in order to maintain professionalism while appealing to our target audience. IN magazine has many features that also differ from a conventional magazine, this is due to the fact that the genre of music is indie and there is a thirst within the indie rock music industry for a unique, intriguing and stylish appeal. 

The front cover was designed to be striking to immediately capture the audience’s attention to make our magazine stand out from others that fall under the same genre.  Being on top of trends is a large factor of the Indie music industry as the audience as generally the first to adapt to new styles due to their outgoing and individual personalities. It was very important in our magazine that we tried to convey a sense of contempory art through our magazine to appeal to the audience, we did this through the use of a close up shot keeping a minimalistic touch and using typography that was a strong indication of the genre of music that this magazine falls under. We chose to take a single shot of one of the band member because this shows individuality, especially through the clothing that is typically associated with the people who listen to indie rock. We took inspiration from a magazine called INDIE, we found the front cover to be trendy and eye-catching which are all positive features that we wanted our magazine to show case.  The original idea behind our masthead was taken from NME magazine, we really favoured how their masthead was bold and clear and thought that this would work well on the front cover of our magazine.   The cover lines were written in ‘Indie Summer’ we continued to use throughout the magazine, this is because it is artistic and unique which would attract the audience to our magazine because it differs from other magazines. We had previously done much research into what features on indie rock magazine front covers, and had found that it tends to be more artistic and minimalistic rather than flooded with information overpowering the cover image. I think that the colours work well together on the front page, with the main colours being blue appealing to both genders hence widening our audience.

Our contents page also has features of a contempory conventional magazine especially through the use of font. The font is clear and sophisticated making the magazine appear professional and authentic.  From previous research we found that contents page generally contains a few images of the band that are the focal point of the magazine. Within the font of the contents page we found that other magazines tend to highlight certain words hyperbolising them, which draws much attention to articles creating intrigue within the audiences and ultimately drawing them in and leaving them curious to explore the magazine further.  The colour scheme doesn't change from the front cover onto the contents page making the magazine flow well and look more together also it is good to have a house style so the audience associate this colour with the magazine. this is similar to the conventional magazine which tends to have a set colour scheme throughout the magazine. Our contents page would appeal to a wider range of people. The layout of our magazine is the typical generic layout that would be seen in most music magazines. We chose to follow a conventional layout to assert our professionalism and it also balances the composition of the contents page because information is equally spread across the page through both images and written information. The images that we selected were due to the edgy and grunge appeal to them. This is because the audience tends to be presented in this style, which I found from my readership profile.

The double page is presented in a purple colour scheme because it links nicely to the band members clothing. This also is very appealing to those who fall under the stereotypical category of Indie Rock.  We continued the ‘Indie summer’ theme through to the double page spread because of its artistic elements, however the body font of the double page spread was written in the font Ariel because it is clear and easy to read. The main image selected was due to the unity and friendship that it conveys because it puts the band in the best possible light. The main image is large and bold making it eye-catching and modern. Our results from our survey showed that bold colours were liked so we wanted to add bold colours so that it would appeal to our target audience.  Bold colours are not generally used with conventional indie rock magazine, instead monochrome colours are typically used but we wanted to be individual. We added Polaroid’s to the bottom left corner because this differs from the conventional magazine making IN magazine unique and stylish. The article doesn’t distract from the image, however I think that this page is not layed in a balanced composition but the use of Polaroid’s makes it more equally presented on both pages.  The main article is full of interesting information about the band with a contempory touch by announcing upcoming events and intertwining other contempory bands within the article to show variety, which widens the audience.

Overall the three parts of our magazine have the typical conventions of that of a generic magazine however have some leeway because we explore different elements which would not always be typically included with indie music magazines but with the recent collision of Indie rock and dance music we added a touch of modern and unique features.