Evaluation Question One

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media products?

My front cover has being designed in order to fit the conventional pop music magazine front cover. I will compare this to an existing front cover that is already very popular in music magazines aimed towards a younger audience.

Double Page Spread Ideas

In this double page spread I have made the figure bigger and changed the way that the text is presented. Even though the background is quite plain I think that it looks good because the text adds the colour to the page. 

I have changed the quotes that I have included in my article instead of having the love hearts to show the quotes I have taken a quote out the text and made it size 11 and in bold. I don't really like this one because it takes away a bit of the colour away from the page.

In this layout I have added a pink gradient to the background behind the figure and moved the main image to the other side. I have wrapped the text around the figures hand and spaced it out across the page.

I have kept everything else the same and changed the background to white to see if it looked any better with a simple colour.

I have gone for a more colourful background using both of my main colours as the background. I think that this looks okay but its really in your face bright. 

Double Page Spread Idea

This is an idea for my final double page spread, however I think that it can be improved and can be made more consistant with the rest of the magazine

Testing Different Ideas

I will use black body text for the main part of the article. 

This is using blue writing for the question text and blue hearts, this sticks to the colour theme with the blue and pink however it doesn't stand out very well as blue can connote sadness and not a happy article about a new artist. 

Next I tried pink hearts with blue writing for the article, Even though it does stick to the colour theme I don't think that it works very well. 

Finally I have gone for pink writing and pink hearts. I think that this suits the article a lot better. 

The Article

I have made my article using published, this means that I can have a drop cap letter at the beginning of the article which is conventional. It also means that I can have columns in my article that are spaced out evenly. I have used size 10 font and the font used is the same font which I have used for my front page and contents page, I have used "Segoe Print".


My Article

Alexa Parks has taken the world by storm with her hit single “Unfaithful”. She won over her fans in an overnight sensation. After 10 minutes of the song being released worldwide it has 2 million downloads now reaching into the 10 million.

Did you know how fast you would hit 2 million?

No I am hugely surprised by how quickly people took a liking to my music, I took a chance and it turned out amazing.

“Unfaithful” is quite a deep song with lots of meaning how did you come up with these ideas?

I recently went through a tough time with an ex who got me into a lot of trouble and was unfaithful to me. All the emotion I was feeling I added to a tune and wrote a song. I had some help from a couple of friends and producers but it’s all very personal to me and I think that’s how it touches people and how they can really relate.

Where are you from? Has this influenced your music?

I am from quite a small town near Hull, it is quite unknown to quite a lot of
people as the population is very tiny. Being one of the only girls there that is my age I had a lot of time on my own therefore I started to write music in order to pass the time.

 Have you felt like you have given a message across to the audience? If so what message?

The message behind this song is that you don’t need a boyfriend or to be in a relationship at such a young age
 because you are still very young and don’t understand. You need to live your life first before you get busy in the
relationship zone.

Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?

I love Taylor Swift and Meghan     Trainor, they are both huge inspirations in my work as they have both become hugely successful. They show that if you work hard you really can achieve.

Have you ever embarrassed yourself on stage?

OMG yes!, I was dancing along to the instrumental part of the music and my lace was loose on my shoes, I caught it by accident and nearly ended up on my bum in front of thousands. Thank god for the dancers behind me who caught me when I fell. I went red in the face.

How do you handle college and music?

At first I still attended college as I was not travelling around but it soon got difficult therefore I am now doing online college.

Did you sing when you were younger?

I sang at my local church as part of the choir, I then got into more modern
music when I joined the school singers who sang covers of songs. I’ve always loved to belt out tunes even from a young age. “ Always live up to your full potential.

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

No I wouldn't go back in time because my life is perfect right now. I love going on tour and travelling the country. I can’t wait to go to another country and explore all the things that the world has to offer.

Have you ever been caught at an embarrassing moment if so what was the picture?

Yes I have being caught at an embarrassing time when I was doing my shoot I was messing around and the photographer took a joke shot.

Questions For My Article

The questions that I will use for my article will be

1. Did you know how fast you would hit 2 million? 
2. Unfaithful is quite a deep song with lots of meaning how did you come up with these ideas? 
3. Where are you from?  Has this influenced your music? 
4. Have you felt like you have given a message across to the audience? If so what message? 
5. Which famous musicians do you admire? Why? 
6. Have you ever embarrassed yourself on stage? 
7. How do you handle college and music? 
8. Did you sing when you were younger? 
9. If you could go back in time what would you do differently? 
10. Have you being caught at an embarrassing moment, if so what was the picture? 

Double Page Spread Plan

This is a quick plan made using paint. This is an idea of how I could set out my double page spread, I have gained inspiration from the research that I have done before.

Double Page Spread Research

I have looked at a few pop magazine double page spreads in order to gain inspiration. I have found that a common theme running throughout the double page spreads is that the article isn't a full article written about them it is more like an interview showing the questions asked and how the artist responded to those questions. Some of the questions are quite generalised and others are about their music. I think that this has being done to make it easier to read and so that it wont get boring quickly for a younger audience. The tend to have one main image with one smaller image included in the article. The common way to have this layed out is to have the image on one side and the writing on the other.

Final Contents Page

Steps To Contents Page

Different Compositions - Contents

I have tested a range of layouts for my contents page in order to find the one that I like the best. 

In this layout I have moved the text and the smaller images, I like this one because all of the images are kept together in one place. 

In this design I have stretched the text to make it longer and moved the images around making my main image centre of the page.

In this design all the smaller images are bunched together, I think that it makes it look to crowded.

I really like this one the most out of all my contents pages because it is nicely laid out and easy to follow