1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
When planning the design for my product I intended to make it
equivalent to a well-known hip hop music magazine brand such as
Vibe, in order to do this I needed to take inspiration from existing
products so I created a mood board, this gave me a rough idea of
what I should aim to make my magazine look like. After observing
various hip hop magazines I selected a few of my favourite
conventions and combined them with conventions I made myself to
make my music magazine; I used many conventions but the main
conventions that make my magazine stand out are: the colour
scheme, the tag line, the position of the main image, the font, the
quote from a famous popular hip hop artist and the main story
being mentioned on the front cover, not all hip hop magazines have
all of these conventions but majority of them do have at least 3 of
these conventions, so by combining all of these conventions I have
made a unique front cover that appeals to the target audience as
the reader is likely to be attracted to a variety of conventions rather
than a few similar conventions.

2. Here are 2 of the sources I used as inspiration for my
magazine cover. the layout for the text and the sizes of the
different fonts and styles are closely mirrored in my cover,
this is to create an identity of a general Hip-Hop magazine.
However, the image I have used in my cover is slightly
different from a typical hip hop magazine. This offers my
magazine the uniqueness required in order for a new
magazine to be picked off from the shelves. It also challenges
the stereotypes of the way Hip-Hop artists are represented in
magazine covers. Sports cars, jewellery, guns and half-naked
girls are very common in these magazines, which portray
achievements/desires. Therefore the image I have used
represents a new generation of hip hop as it converts from
the normal dress code. By this, I hope my front cover will help
unveil another side of the Hip-Hop world.