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

I feel as though my media product has gone against 'normal' conventions, this is because I have included fonts and styles that are not commonly seen in music magazines that are traditionally on the market today. The font I used for the masthead of my magazine was called 'Never Let Go' from 1001Fonts.com; this was a font that I think was more inspired by the likes of Oh Comely magazine which is a lifestyle magazine that includes both this kind of layout and also this style of font. I have never seen a indie/alternative magazine on the retail market that uses a 'swirly' font on the cover. I have seen throughout my research that they traditionally use a thick, bold font on the masthead to really get across the dramatic nature of indie and alternative music and the boldness of the music that they are representing. What I wanted to do however was to push those conventions and do something that I certainly haven't seen on the market before. This choice of doing a more 'swirly' font on the cover was a creative decision by me as I was not really inspired by anything (I had used a bolder font on my first draft) and I just thought that with the new pictures I had taken that this style of font was the best decision I could make because of the fact that both the image and the font really compliment each other and they both represent the individuality of the genre very well. Also I feel as though this font fits in well with the black and white theme of the image on the cover as they are both quite serious and 'stylistic' and that is what I wanted to accomplish with my magazine. 

Also the actual name of my magazine, 'Iconoclast', is very different to anything that I have seen on the market and I am very pleased with the originality of the name as I feel as though it speaks to my market because of the rebellious nature behind the word. Even though it is quite a long name for a magazine, it is not that short or catchy such as Clash; however I am in this case taking inspiration from Dazed and Confused and Wonderland magazine because they also have reasonably long names for their magazines and they look at pretty much the same things as my magazine does so they are pretty much on par with one another. However in saying this I find that my magazine name is still catchy and memorable for readers to purchase it again.

The layout of my magazine is something that I really payed attention to the most. I have a very critical eye on my work and I was able to criticise my work to the point that I can see every flaw with it and I was aware of how I was styling my magazine. I tried to keep the layout fairly minimalistic because when looking at magazines such as Clash and The Wire, I found that they didn't really exaggerate the layout too much and I feel as though this is something that I have done to conform to conventions of real magazine publications. I thought that by just keeping everything very simple and just using three fonts as well throughout the magazine has helped to really make sure that this magazine is exactly what I wanted, a magazine that is stylish and upmarket whilst keeping a very quirky and imaginative tone to it. I hope that by deciding to do this and not have the layout and background as busy as magazines such as NME that I have been able to make myself and my magazine come across as credible and influential members of the magazine community.

Next the use of costumes and camera work has also been something that I am looking at because I feel as though they are good representations of how well the magazine fits into society because of the fact that within my target market I have seen many images and clothing styles that really do represent what I am trying to get across. In magazines such as Clash I have seen many inspirational images (with both clothing and camera work) that have given me ideas of how I want my final magazine to turn out. Also a major part of my inspiration has been Rankin, the photographer, his images that he has produced have given me ideas of how to reach my audience. His pictures as well are very different and unique and I have took this into consideration and have known that my audience would appreciate good quality and quirky images. When looking into which magazines I found the most inspirational  I was looking at mainly Clash and The Wire, both of these magazines were able to showcase their diversity with images and their different styles of images (especially Clash) and this inspired me. However that is not something I really incorporated into my own magazine because I wanted all the images to be very similar, just including different poses and styles within the magazine.

Another thing I had incorporated into my magazine was i-D Magazine's tagline "The.........Issue" because I felt as though this was a really interesting feature to include because it really adds a mystery and just 'something else' to the page. I included the tagline on my magazine 'The Psychedelic Issue', this is because I though that it really showed the readership what my magazine was about and what would be covered in the magazine. I am a big fan of psychedelia as it is so if I was catering my magazine to myself then it would really intrigue me and make me buy the magazine.

Another convention I decided to challenge was having different artists on my contents page. I kept it the same all the way through. This again was a creative decision that I decided to make because of the fact I thought that the images that I had chosen and taken were images that I was really proud of and I wanted to showcase that photography, as well as showcasing the artist that I was promoting. In my magazine they were a new band that were getting a lot of public attention, or at least starting to. Therefore I wanted to show them off and use them in all aspects of my magazine because of the fact that they were integral to the main story in my magazine.  

Final Magazine:

This is final magazine cover that I have made. I have changed so many aspects of this design as you can see. For example, I have cropped the picture (and it is also a new picture that I took from my second photoshoot) and I have also made it black and white because I thought it worked better on this cover than if it were a full colour picture. This is just personal choice for me and I only did this because of creative preference. However I think this works because it allows the reader's attention to be drawn in to this duo and the distraction of the colours are not there and you can just focus and appreciate what is there in front of you. I have also changed the font and where the text is set. Such as I have changed where I put 'The Psychedelic Issue' text (I have also changed it from 'unique' to 'psychedelic' now which I thought looked a lot better)and I have moved it from underneath the masthead to underneath the picture because I feel as though now I have a border around the picture that this looks better and everything looks like it belongs where it is. Also I have moved the barcode and the writing that accompanies it, this is mainly because of the addition of the border and I felt as though this was more subtle than if I had left it in the bottom right hand corner. I have also moved the text that goes next to it slightly more central and I have placed that underneath the picture because of the fact that I wanted it to be noticeable but without anyone really noticing it completely. It needs to be there but not in a obvious way. I have changed all of the font as well, using 'Never Let Go' and 'Quicksand' from 1001 Fonts. I feel as though these fonts fit better with my magazine because of the fact that they are more in keeping with the style of magazines that I most admire and I feel as though both of these fonts work very well together. I prefer working with just two fonts rather than three because of the fact that it looks neater and more put together like I wanted it to in the first place.

My contents page has changed a lot since my first draft. I feel as though I have developed more skills and understanding in how magazines are put together and also I feel as though that my magazine looks cleaner and more sophisticated. Everything is connected in my magazine now. As you can see now, I have developed the whole contents page and changed the font, the layout, the picture, and I have also added more writing to the page with the addition of the contributors and also who works at the magazine. I feel as though the addition of these extra features have enabled me to achieve a more precise and professional finish to my magazine which I have been striving for since I had completed my draft task. I also like the addition of the lines onto the page rather than leaving everything in the free space. It adds structure and centres everything on the page. Overall for this page I am very pleased with the outcome of this because of the fact that I feel as though it looks like an actual magazine and I would probably expect to this in one of the magazines that I am interested in.

This is my double page spread, I am very pleased with this. I didn't have to change a lot to achieve this outcome. I didn't really change the layout at all, just changing the margin in the middle of the page to make sure that if in a real magazine that the writing or the pictures wouldn't be overlapping the crease in the middle.I have changed the font on all of my pages, this is because I felt as though they weren't really what I wanted or expected my magazine to be like. I am more pleased with these font choices because of the fact that they are more subtle and more in keeping with how I expected my magazine to be in the first place. I am also more impressed with the outcome of my images as well because I feel as though that I had got the hang of the lighting and how to generally take pictures to achieve a crisper look and finish to my magazine. I have also changed the separation line of my page number to the bottom rather than the top; I prefer this look because I feel like it makes the page look cleaner and simpler. Rather than everything being squashed on the page together therefore making it look messy. 

Editing Pictures for my Magazine:

Here I have edited pictures for my magazine, the one on the left is the original picture I have taken. As you can see the crease in the corner of the screen is not something I really want to be seen on the cover of my magazine because it would distract the reader and probably put them off the magazine as a whole because it would look as though it isn't really cared about as much because the work would look more just thrown together. That is not the style of my magazine because I want it to be perfect and show off the style and genre of the magazine by showing class and showing the simplicity and sophistication that these artist exude. I have also made this picture black and white because I felt as though this was a different look than to my draft magazine, it was something that I was incredibly proud of and I hope that this picture enhances the look of my front cover.

Targets for the Week Commencing: 10/03/2014

For this week I am planning on finishing my magazine ready to hand in on Friday, I have pretty much finished by this point and I just have a few tweaks and layout movements to do just to finish anything off. I am pleased with my final design because it is exactly what I wanted to make. The only thing I am struggling with now is the contents page still because I want it to look as realistic as it can possibly be and that is very tricky to achieve because it can easily look fake and too simple. I am continuing to look at my magazine even though it is finished however I just want to make sure that everything is perfect and up to my standards, which unfortunately are quite high, although this gives me an advantage because that means I can look at things more critically and with an analytical eye which allows me to see where I have gone wrong or where things just don't work or look right in the style and genre of my magazine. 
Another thing I am concentrating on doing this week would be the remaining blog work that I need to do because I have been concentrating on my draft for a while I have not really as much effort into my blog work and I am going to rectify that this week because I still have so much to add and develop for my magazine before the deadline.
I don't have to add a lot of features to my magazine now but I still want to tweak a few more things before I have to hand it in on Friday.

Plan for Week Commencing: 03/03/2014

For this week what I am planning to achieve is to be continuing with my final design for my magazine, after taking my pictures again on Friday I feel more confident that I have found the right pictures for my magazine, that both fit the style of my magazine and also they look reasonably professional as well. I am excited to get my magazine finished now because it is coming along well and it will be nice to feel the satisfaction when it is finally finished. Also what I am going to do is to pick out which photos I am going to use on which page because I am going to change all the photos that I currently have on my magazine for the ones that I took on Friday because they look way more how I want my magazine to look, and the style I am also trying to replicate within the magazine industry. I am trying to make sure I am not changing too much of my magazine because I was generally pleased with how my draft turned out last time. However in saying that, I am changing my contents page completely and that page will definitely be done by the end of the week so that I have got all the major changes out of the way so I can concentrate on the smaller and less noticeable changes within my magazine. I am also going to look more closely at more magazines that inspire me because I think it's important to keep finding images and designs that are inspiring because it gives me more ideas that are crucial to achieving the best finish on my own design.

Second Photoshoot For Magazine:

Created with flickr slideshow.

This is the second photoshoot I have done for my magazine, I have concentrated more this time on perfecting the pictures rather than trying to be overly creative and take pictures at jaunty angles. I have to hopefully organise the styling of my models more so this time, so hopefully now the styling isn't so much of an issue than it was before. Also with the problem with the white t-shirt, I have used it again however I am going to look for any creases that I really don't want to be there then brush them out using Photoshop. I am more pleased with this photoshoot because I feel as though the pictures are more slick and in keeping with my magazine, because it is an upmarket magazine however I want a slightly 'grunge-y' edge which hopefully I have managed to achieve. I am going to change all of the pictures that I have done in my magazine so far and replace them with the pictures I have taken today. They are more what I wanted to take in the first place and even though they are not the dark pictures that I was planning to take I still think these ones are a million times better and will be better than what I have done before.

Style Models:

After my draft I have been looking at other magazines to see which are the ones I have taken the most inspiration from, also the ones that have given me ideas of what I want to create in my magazine. This is important for my design because it enables me to realise what components of the magazines I'm reading will go into my own magazine and what I love the most about magazines of the same genre that are already on the market. Also with my style models I have been able to recognise what other magazines are on the market that are the same as my genre, because most shops only stock the really popular magazines such as NME and Q; I have been able to look beyond those and see the new and more quirky magazines that are more in keeping with the ideas that I have had originally. Magazines such as Clash, Dazed and Confused, etc have inspired me to think outside the box and push the boundaries on what is normal inside a magazine. My final magazine design will be slightly different due to the fact that I have thought of new ideas and those new ideas have sparked other features that I could possibly add to my design, and this is due to the fact that I have been able to look at different magazines and their layouts and features and by looking at them critically I have been able to see which aspects of that magazine I like the best and apply them to my own design.

The magazine that has influenced me the most would have to be Clash (in particular Issue 91, featuring both Earl Sweatshirt and Banks on the front covers)

For me this is how I would want my magazine to look, more so the front cover with Banks on the front because I love that photography (that is something I was intending to re-create however I struggled with finding a suitable way to do it within a studio) I also love the choice of font and how that was incorporated and laid out on the front cover because it looks so effortlessly placed on the page. For my next draft I might try and get a similar font and re-create this layout of the coverlines.

Also another aspect I like a lot is the different names for the issues (from L-R: The Festival Issue, The Tech Issue, The Fashion Issue, The Denim Issue), this is something I have tried to re-create this on my magazine already however I think I am going to alter it slightly (by just re-naming it). Also on these slightly earlier issues I really like the font used and again, the placement of the coverlines, I think it looks really classic and understated which is the look I would like to re-create on my final design. I have already started to develop my final design, it is a lot different than my first draft (implying to the front cover) and it also looks a lot different to these magazine covers, however I am still playing with ideas and I think I have time to experiment and see which design I prefer and see what fits the style of my magazine and genre the best.

Even though this magazine isn't quintessentially a music magazine (it is a women's magazine for fashion) I am still very inspired by the design of this magazine and it is one design option that I am thinking of because I think it could work in a music magazine context. The photography is something I am looking at as well and it is something that I am going to re-create; for example I am going to take the pictures and apply a black and white effect over the top to create a similar effect to 'The Gentlewoman'. Also with how they have different colours as the background with the white border surrounding the main image, I might see if it works on my front cover and whether I should include that on my magazine at all.