Forms and Conventions
- 1. On my front cover, I have used a variety of different conventions that make it look more like a professional magazine. A magazine with similar conventions to mine is NME. My magazine has the typical layout for a music magazine which is to have the Masthead at the very top of the page looking bold and standing out, and the cover lines are positioned on the left hand side of the page. My main and only image takes up the entirety of the right hand side and some of the left hand side, but still leaving room so that the text doesn’t overlap the image. This is also evident on this issue of NME because the masthead is bold, stands out and catches attention and the image and text positioning is similar. The cover lines that I decided to use are relevant to my target audience and to the genre of my magazine which is important because if they don’t like what they see on the front, they won’t want to purchase or subscribe to the magazine. For my colour scheme on the front cover, I decided to go with a dark neutral colour scheme because I felt that it was nice to look at and it suits the target audience and genre. I used white for the masthead so that it would stand out as the brightest part of the page, and then used a dark, dull red and white colour scheme for the text. My main cover line is bigger than the other cover lines and so it stands out more and becomes bolder because of the larger text. Also, I have placed the main cover line beside the main image to show that they relate to each other.
- 2. On my contents page, I have used conventions to make it look like a legitimate magazine and not like something that has been thrown together in a rush. I started this by looking at a variety of contents pages because my knowledge of how to create one was extremely limited. I found one by Q Magazine and I liked the layout so I decided to expand from it for my magazine. I placed my masthead at the top of the page, images on the left and the content description on the right. My images that I used are clear representations of the type of people that would buy the magazine and the type of people that would be associated with the genre. I did this to assure my target audience that they would enjoy the magazine and that it would be suitable for them. My content is relevant to the genre of the magazine and would appeal to the audience because the topics are based on what I have stated my target audience would be interested in. I have used bold and contrasting colours on my contents page so that the titles stand out and they can easily see the most important parts of the page and the more detailed small print.
- 3. For my feature article, I tried to stick to the forms and conventions as much as possible. I wanted to make it look realistic, and like it belonged in an actual magazine. I started this by making sure that I had a large main image that took up half of the double page spread to show clearly that she is the topic of the article. Also, when the reader is flicking through they will see her and want to know what is on the other half of the page. I then made sure that my masthead was large, bold and stood out from the rest of the page. I did this by making the colours contrast with the background, and making the size and font of the text bigger and bolder. The actual content of my article is suitable and would appeal to my target audience because it talks about the band which play music that my target audience would listen to on a regular basis and introduces them. Also, the band is new and fresh and so the audience won’t likely know about them beforehand and so learning something new about an up and coming band will interest them.