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1. Front Cover
It was hard for me to create my product based off
current conventions of a Reggae magazine; so I had to think of most of it by
myself. There aren’t any Reggae magazines which are considered ‘big’. The front
cover of my magazine uses the conventions of ‘NME’. I used the layout of the ‘NME’
magazine because it typically looks like another music magazine meaning that
the audience will instantly recognise it’s a music magazine, I had my Logo at
the top which is conventionally placed there. I had skylines which is another
convention of a Music magazine, the skylines included offers and vouchers that are
included in the magazine which is another convention of a music magazine, I had
my main feature story in bold, larger than other text and in a different font
and colour so it stood out more for the audience which is another convention of
a music magazine. If I was to do
it again I would make it look a bit more appealing and make the logo a bit more
‘recognisable’; I would do this by placing a background behind the logo, I
would make this a Jamaican flag because Reggae is widley associated with
Jamaica because it’s where it orignated.
The contents page was again based on the music
magazine ‘NME’. I decided to use that layout again because there aren’t any
‘big’ reggae magazines to gain conventions from so I thought that I should use
conventions from another music product. If I was to do it again I would
definitely research more into the Reggae Industry; I don’t think I researched
enough, I could have tried to buy a
physical copy of a magazine in an actual music store. I decided on placing the
Logo ‘Dope’ at the top of the contents page which was again based on the Music
Magazine ‘NME’; I think that having the logo on the contents page means that it
has a higher chance of embedding the logo in your memory meaning that people
will begin to recognise your magazine on shop shelves. Also on my contents page
I followed the conventions of ‘NME’ by placing different headings for my
contents page; this makes it easier for the audience to find the page they want
to view, I used the headings ‘On the cover’ and ‘In dope’. If I was to do it
again I would add another heading called ‘Exclusive’; this is where I would put
articles like Exclusive interviews and Exclusive pictures. I would do this
because a minority of the audience may want to read about ‘exclusive’ items which
other magazines won’t have; overall it makes it easier for the audience to
locate specific articles; this doesn’t follow a convention of Music magazine so
therefore it would be totally new.
The double page spread was not based on any
convention really; it’s mostly quite simple. One convention it follows is that
the text is laid out into a column which is a common convention of any
magazine; it makes the text easier to read and allows you to fit more
information in. I used this because without it, it wouldn’t look like a normal
traditional magazine. If I was to do it again I would still use this convention
because it’s a crucial convention which makes it look like an ordinary
magazine. Another obvious convention that I’ve used is page numbers; I have
placed two page numbers on the Double page spread which are in the bottom
corners of the page; this stops the reader from becoming confused and they’re
there for obvious reasons. If I was to do it again I would still use page
numbers because they are a must for all magazines for obvious reasons.
