My media product was to design a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a magazine of my choice. It challenges the conventions of real media products by its layout. It contains a vibrant central image. The genre of my magazine is Reggaeton, which instantly challenges the conventions of typical music magazines, as this is not a well-recognised music genre. I decided it would be crucial to target this niche audience as I thought it was essential to bring it to the public attention and essentially increase awareness and diversity of music as a whole. I have represented this music in the title of my magazine being ‘Low Down’ which is a play on word for a type of dance and also the slang term ‘Low down’ meaning the ‘dirt’ or ‘gossip’. Having researched Mixmag for my magazine, (one that is similar as it is dance and DJ related), I understood typical forms and conventions for the front cover, contents and double page spread. This Cover archive gave me a lot of inspiration and the confidence to be bold with my designs, http://www.mixmag.net/category/cover-archive/. Noticing these conventions allowed me to challenge them through the use of font on my front cover, my masthead has a specific font, which has palm trees within each letter to convey the exotic nature of the music and reflecting the ethnic girl on the front as well. This is a non-conventional masthead due to the vibrant colour red connoting passion and also femininity. My main image could be seen as slightly controversial due to the sexuality exposed through this, the fact the models mouth is open with a playful sweet in her mouth however lightens the severity of this and makes it appear flirty and fun. This image is specifically targeted at the male gaze. This image is very contrasting to such plain and straightforward covers but also similar The mode of address is very informal and used colloquial language which breaks certain magazine conventions. I have used some slang vocabulary in certain aspects of my magazine because this suits my target audience and will make them feel as if they are speaking to a friend.
However on my front cover I thought it was crucial to follow a vast amount of typical conventions such as one main image on the front, which is eye catching and vibrant, the image reflects the youthful age of my audience which is typical due to the sweets being used ad the primary colours. I use a rhetorical question as the cover line, which is unconventional, ‘Where have you been?’ which indicates to the audience have missed out on something, making them want to read more and get the ‘low down’ inside.
My contents page was based on other inspiring contents pages I saw in Mixmag. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3199/3018173771_eef74e0a09.jpg . I followed conventions such as a further image of my featured ‘celebrity’ inside with a larger font beside it revealing the page number to break up the amount of writing. This makes it easier and more efficient for the audience to find what they want. Each category has its own heading with the featured content below, helping the audience to familiarise themselves with the magazine and content that is regularly used. I have used a freebie at the bottom, a CD giveaway used as a lure for my audience, used to reinforce my genre of music and promote specific artists.
My double page spread holds a very typical layout; I decided to keep it simple in the beginning and then observing other double page spreads I noticed mine was too plain where I have shown my step by step process in my previous post. I decided continuity was a crucial factor and altering the colour code from green to a more attractive pink and red scheme would link in more to my female audience, although stereotypical it will also reflect the artist used, an attractive female. The colours connote her fiery attitude and sexiness.
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