Conventions and Social Representations

I had an idea of responding creatively to all the CCR questions that also connected to the whole blog/magazine. I wanted to do the same thing I did in the magazine, answering the questions in a way that represented different genres of music (Rock, Country, Classic, Hip-Hop). Therefore each of the questions will have an answer with a resemblance of music.

When answering the question of: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?', I decided to do a presentation on Canva that answers this question using rock and roll inserts.

Respecting conventions

The Fashion Groove 2024 magazine has been a project incredibly important to me. It has allowed me to experience something new, making me realize just how much work can go into a fun yet tiring project. I tried shaping the product as for it to resemble a fashion magazine by its looks, while still being original and including articles relevant to its topic. Starting with the cover, its overall look is certain to be that of a magazine, but in my opinion, I would have liked to have more control of the creativity I could apply to the magazine. The use of conventions in the magazine was hard as the minimalistic theme challenged me to involve conventions. I managed to respect conventions such as the number of pages, dateline, barcode, masthead behind the head, layout (frame), women models and good positions in photos. The most interesting out of those was putting the head of the model behind the masthead as it gave my cover an industry look right away. The dateline was inspired by another magazine made by another student which I found to be very unique and interesting. The number of pages didn't mess with the initial idea of the magazine as it is simple and discreet in the corner of the page. I also added a barcode to give the industrial look on the back cover of the magazine. The models did a great job as they were very cooperative and blended perfectly with the vision of each genre. This can be seen in each position they took as they represented a different genre.

Challenging conventions

Other conventions were challenging to implement as I tried to keep the minimalistic look. I still managed to keep the focus of the magazine and implement conventions such as the main cover line which had 10 different designs till a decent one was found. My magazine addressed the connection of music and fashion therefore I wanted to create suspense to make the reader want the magazine. Another thing I went against is the missing cover lines which would have ruined the minimalistic and simple look the cover has. In the inside of the magazine, a difficult part was to insert the text as it did not match the vision how I expected it to

Social groups

Different social groups would be attracted to the magazine for fashion and music as I had addressed 4 genres of music which all have different audiences. In most of the feature article pages, all genres were represented the same. To give an example of the rock genre conventions of the rock genre, as described before, represents the culture that many people across the world identify with especially people from America in this case as their culture has rock as well as country music in it. Some people might also want to be kept up to date with the trends and new artists and therefore be interested into the magazine

Social issues

The magazine provides examples and support to people who want to express themselves by dressing the way they like. Music is a great source of inspiration for style and clothes but the problem is that people may feel discriminated because of the public perception of their style. The magazine empowers people who want music related styles and shows them an example of some existing genres by which they can even be inspired to create new outfits. Therefore my magazine offers inclusion. Also it provides knowledge and culture about different topics which can further inspire and empower its readers.

This is the link for the presentation made on Canva and exported in pptx

Matei miko (1).pptx