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

Within my project, I wanted to ensure that I developed my work around real media products in order to maintain a look of professionalism. Researching real magazines allowed me to discover popular and professional ideas for colour schemes, font and page layouts. Using conventions of real media products enabled me to adapt my work.

My research was split into two different sections: General research of magazines and extra photo research.

Using the general research of pages allowed me to create three more professional looking pages. As shown below, finding real magazines allowed me to adapt the different parts into my work such as: 

• Bold titles and headings
• Features
• Bar codes
• Box headings
• Photo position 

FRONT COVER: I gained a lot of ideas from SPIN Magazine for my front cover. Including the idea of a black box behind white writing, making 'Alice Hall' stand out. The 'featuring' aspect of the cover is also something I think is very professional and stands out to the reader. It also makes my contents page easier to relate as I am able to mention each of these artists.

CONTENTS PAGE: I struggled with this the most. In terms of ideas, I was able to adapt many by looking at the KERRANG Magazine. It gave me a lot of ideas such as the headings of 'This Week' etc and also a note from the editor. I think this note makes my contents page seem more personal and makes the magazine seem regular.

DPS: I found my double page spread a lot easier to create then my Contents and Front. I believe this is because it was revolving around one focus. I looked, again, at the KERRANG magazine and saw many features that I could use. This included the Red 'Exclusive' sign on the top left hand side of the page. This was an effective feature as I believe it makes the article stand out to the reader as important. As well as this, I developed the idea of using one big photo as the background to the page and then used three miniature photos. This gives the reader more to look at and adds a sense of professionalism. 

Below is a online scrapbook I created in order to present question 1 more clearly:

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The use of the 'Extra Photo Research' enabled me to fully focus on the photos I needed to take. I was able to use the photo research to:

• Find outfits that will compliment my models
• Find backgrounds suitable for a magazine
• Make up and hair styling