Week 11

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

My media product is a Bhangra music magazine. My product uses, develops or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. The two magazine covers I have used as research have helped me get an idea of the codes and conventions of a real magazine cover. Here they are below:

This is a fashion magazine called Bazaar. What inspired me about this magazine was the house style. The cover of this magazine is very simple and elegant, and it uses only 3 colours; black, white and pink. The models are placed centre of the magazine covering 3/4 of the page.  The clothing was also based on the house style and it made the magazine look more professional and appealing. 

On the right is invincible magazine. This is a music magazine. The cover of this magazine is very detailed and appealing. It also uses a base of 3 colours; black, white and orange. The thing about this magazine I found the layout interesting. It was more detailed and gave the reader more information on it's content. 

My magazine cover uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products as both these magazines have helped me come up with a hybrid. Therefore my magazine will use a colour scheme of 3 or 4 base colours like Bazaar magazine and have a detailed page layout like invincible magazine.

2. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

My media product is a Bhangra music magazine front cover. I have learnt a variety of things about technologies from the process of constructing this product. The software I have used is Adobe InDesign to create my magazine. I have also used Adobe Photoshop to edit my images. I wasn't familiar with Adobe InDesign but going through the process of creating my product I have learned to place images, and organise my work. Organising my work has helped me a lot, as this way I could move and edit my work easier. I organised it by placing everything in different layers and naming them. They also appeared in different colours, which also helped identify the layer I was working on.   

3. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task was to create a school/college magazine front cover. From what I have created, I have been given feedback. This helped me progress my work and give me more knowledge on what I can do better to improve my cover and future magazine covers I create. The feedback I have recieved from my preliminary task was very helpful.

Overall I learnt about the consistency of the house style and how this has a huge effect on the magazine. A good house style, a good colour scheme and image graphics, and fonts enables the cover to be more efficient and appealing. Also colours used should resemble the theme or genre of the magazine. It has helped me with the planning and helped me understand there is a lot of depth behind magazines and what it means and its resemblence. The layout is also very important, and should be done according to the theme of the magazine.