Prior to the construction of my front cover, contents and double page spread it was essential to analyse popular existing music magazines in order to recognize typical conventions and use them ideas for my own magazine.In my front cover, contents and double page spread i have interpreted conventions of magazines from my research and used or added my own print on them.
Front Cover
The first obvious way in which my front cover follows typical conventions of existing
music magazines is the masthead position. Like several magazines such as Q and NME the masthead is situated in the top left hand corner in order for the masthead to appear pronounced and professional, it also makes it clearly visible so the buyer/reader can identify immediately with the magazine. I used a black, red, white, and grey colour scheme for my magazine not only because it
was the most popular voted colour scheme from my questionn
aire but also because it follows the convention of typical music magazines. For example Q use this colour scheme and it is effective
as typical rock colours are used and
therefore it was important to used it on my magazine to portray the rock element and also make it look more realistic. In addition to this also decided to use a pug on my front cover, this is a clear convention as it was used on
both Q magazine and NME magazine. Pugs are an effective selling point as they attract several buyers through the usual advertisement on them. In my pug i decided to advertise the countdown of top 100 rock anthems voted by the public,
this would appeal to an indie/rock audience as its about rock songs over time as well as the present day. I chose to use a grey colour for my pug in order for it to stand out against
the other colours on the page yet also keeps in tune with the conventional
colour scheme. Fog on with conventional traits, i also positioned a strap line at the top of the page. This is a typical convention of a music magazine as nearly all of them consist of a strap-line at the top or bottom of the page, they also all advertise something about the magazine or in Q's case and what i decided to do was advertise the magazine but highlighting the successfulness of it. For example i chose to put 'The number one music magazine in the UK' this in effect highlights the success of the magazine, proving it must be good and therefore is conventional to most magazines. I followed this convention to give the impression that this is an established magazine and also to reinforce this professional look. It was essential in order for my magazine to have an reality to include the barcode, date and price on the front cover as every magazine has this on it. If i did not include this on my front cover the reality of the product would have been seriously affected.
Also i decided to follow another convention as used on NME's front cover of positioning the models name in the center of the page. This allows the importance of the model to be emphasised and when using my model i assumed Lola was a celebrity. Therefore her name printed large and in bold red writing would attract a large amount of buyers and fans.
The ways in which i challenged typical conventions of music magazines including using a long shot image of the model as the front cover image. Using a close up or medium shot of the model is conventional as eye contact is essential in attracting buyers and establishing a relationship between the readers and the model. However i used a long shot as i wanted to portray a sexy image from the model to attract a male audience so i chose to show off her elongated legs and also i wanted to clearly show her fashionable yet indie/rock style outfit in order for the model to act as a role model to women. However i feel that by the model having dark smokey eye make up allows her eyes to look captivating and powerful and therefore still getting the buyers eye contact. I also deliberately positioned text and boxes over some of her body but left her face and shoulder area clearly on show, this draws the readers attention to her face and therefore would capture the eye contact needed. Another way in which i challenged conventions on my front page is by using a very bold background. After analysing existing magazines it is clear to see that all backgrounds used are usually block colours to focus the readers attention onto the main model and text of the cover, however i felt by using a bold unique background would not only make my magazine stand out clearly if on a shelf but in unconventional and quirky and therefore reflects the stereo typical indie/rock style of being different.
Contents
The ways in which i followed conventional traits in my contents include printing the mastheadsmaller and at the top of the page again lik
e in the contents of Q and NME. This emphasised continuity within the contents. I also used the same colour scheme in the contents as i did on the front page, this is a very typical convention which was used on all of the magazines i analysed and agai
n provides continuity. Continuity within a magazine is essential as it holds the magazine together discretely so it is not notic
eable. Further more from my reasearch i discovered that Kerrang! used a
good selling technique in creating an editors
column, which is commonly used in magazines. I there
fore decided
to interpret this into my own version in my contents allowing the reader to feel more welcomed to the magazine as they peo
ple behind it are also talking and establishing a
relationship with the reader. I also ensured that i took and used secondary images on my contents page as i felt this was important to follow this convention in order for the magazine to look realistic. This also makes the page look more interesting and helps to maintain the readers interest within the magazine as oppose to a page full of writing which would bore my
target audience of 20-25 year olds. I used a plain white background so the page was not too hectic and the text remained readabl
e, this was a clear convention as all the contents pages i analyzed consisted of white background. Further more i separated the text into sections and for each story gave a bolder heading for the actually story and then a small amount of
writing to give the reader an insight about it, i also followed the convention of using number pictures so the reader can easily navigate there way
through the magazine. Finally i made the largest picture on the page consits of the model on the frotn cover, a clear convention shown from my analysis and also adding an advertisement for subscribing to order magazines weekly in order to save money. This is a good idea for my magazine as it would be quite expensive to pay £3.20 a week.
For my contents i did not challenge a lot of conventions i mostly followed the conventions recognised in my analysis, however i did make my contents page with a very neat layou
t which is slightly unconventional as the indie/rock music magazines i analysed such as NME and KERRANG! were hectic and chaotic so there young target audiences would be attracted. However i felt i should make the contents page neat as i am targeting a more maturer audience as oppose to teenagers and also i felt it allowed readers to easily see where they could find something in the magazine. I also developed a convention of NME magazine in which they used arrows to show stories that were mentioned on the cover in the contents page, i used this idea and decided to do a 'on the cover' bit in my contents which by using red stars i could show which storied were on the cover if a reader just wanted to read one of them stories.
Double Page Spread
My double page spread follows the conventions of
a music magazine through several different ways. Firstly i positioned the text into equal columns which is undoubtably always used on a double page spread interview, this forces the text to look neat and in affect more appealing to read as oppose to a big chunk of text. I also constructed an introduction to the interview which is also used in mostly every interview in magazines and this helps the reader to follow the text while provide a summation to
what the main concept of the interview is about. Further more, i used pull quotes from the text which breaks up the large amounts of text in double page spread and is used in the Q , NME, and Kerrang! double page spread , compelling me to follow this convention for my double page spread. The pull quote gives a flavour about what the interview is about from a quick glance and also entices the reader to read further for example my pull quote is 'this is not the new me this is the real me' adding an element of confusion to the page as the readers are thinking that she is a 'good girl gone bad' yet she is saying that is the real her. When constructing my magazine i used a center line to ensure no text went over this line as writing wouldn't be possible to read, this is also visible in all the magazines i analysed as you can visualise where the crease in the page would be. Again i ensured that i followed the convention of continuity within the colour scheme to portray a professional look to my double page spread. The background used was of a white colouring so the text is clear to read another convention of a double page spread and i also put the page numbers in the bottom corners of the page to again reinforce this professional realistic look. I followed the convention of having the text on an opposing side to the main images on the page which allows the page to look neat and tidy and slightly sophisticated which is what i wanted for my target audience. I took inspiration from the NME double page spread which had the text and images opposing horizontal unconventional of typical double page spread layouts.
However as i used several images on my page, i challenged the conventional style of a double page spread as they tend to just have one or two large images filling the majority of the page. I also made a slight collage of the photos and positioned a red colour over time which is very unconventional. Yet i wanted to portray a unique and arty look to the page in order to captivate the rock fans as they would stereotypically like something out of the ordinary.
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