Evaluation activity 1

Upon completing my magazine I have evaluated it's design and and formatting against a pre-existing published magazine of the same genre and style. I have challenged many of the standard themes with my featured artist, I have challenged these conventions overall with by having my artist entirely fictional to the point when she is hand drawn in a gorillaz esque style and by having my artist as a female this challenges the male dominated genre as it is uncommon for there to be a female DJ or at least it not really heard of.

The masthead is clearly different to the image as the simple white font stands out against the background and the Image but unlike most mastheads this one has placed in the corner whilst most generic mastheads cover the top of the page. The simple formatting to the masthead clashes with the image and I have challenged this by creating my masthead with the same font style as other headers within the magazine and I have stretched the masthead accross the top of my front cover. This front cover features no 'cover lines' where as I have challenged this and have included various cover lines accross my page. The colour scheme is relevant to this style of magazine but as my target audience is almost entirely different I have reversed the colour schem and have used a blue and white colour scheme. The title of my magazine was decided after utting it to a vote, alongside the other possible titles, so besides 'Shutdown' their were 'Hex', 'Vinyl-Scratch' of 'Vinyl Countdown', the name Shutdown has priority as it is short but rememberable. For my front cover I have illustrated my DJ wearing a simple but raver costume with neon blue hair to match the electro/ rave genre, and to appeal to the iconography my DJ is posed behind a set of decks, she is stanced in a smug but almost mighty pose as DJ's are generally known to 'own' the club as they are always above the ravers whereas she could also be seen as aggressive as her agitated expression on the DPS shows. I have related every aspect of my magazine to it's rave/ Dubstep genre and I have done this by using neon colours and patterns whilst using appropriate language that applies to an easy going Indie scenster. All of the images that I have used apply to this genre aswell as they are either bright and energetic or monochrome with artistic effects. I have followed the generic music magazine conventions by having the name of the band written in the largest font across the page this is to demonstrate that the magazine has enough infamy for it to have a lesser font and that the name of the magazine shall catch the customers eye when it is stacked in a store. Unlike most music magazines I have challenged the pricing as commonly the price could go from three to even six pounds but I have chosen a more reasonable price one that even someone on a students salary could afford.

The date is placed in a less obvious position but at the same time the date has also been incorporated with the image, I have challenged this by keeping my date in a less obvious position.. The image is funky and cartoony and would appeal to the Indie scenster or a craft kid so this is why I have incorporated the cartoon design as my front cover and overall style of my magazine. I have used the pages Graphology but I have made slight alterations, for example my masthead goes accross the header and I have included cover lines.