Double page spreads.

I will now look at double page spreads to determine the typical conventions of these. The one above is taken from NME magazine and features the band MGMT.

This double page uses a large image that takes up most of the space. The picture is a simple one of two men sat in a hotel room. The setting is plain, with dull coloured walls and a lamp lighting the room, and the figures featured look quite moody and troubled. This would interest the audience as they may wonder why the band are placed in such a setting. One of them makes eye contact with the audience which intrigues them into reading the article positioned down the right hand side. On top of the image is placed a quote from the text which is another feature used to intrigue the audience into reading the full article.

The title text is positioned on the left side of the page in a large, white font. The band name is cleverly included, each letter coloured red to be easily recognised by the audience.

This is a recent double page spread from Q magazine, focusing on the return of the rock band U2.

The image, which is taken from a low angle causing the band to look dominant, takes up the full double page and features all four band members stood in a line, each one looking directly at the audience to engage their attention. Behind them are an array of bright lights which are eye catching and enhance the fact that the bands return is something special.

The text 'Did you miss us?' is placed over the image in the red font which is a knowable feature of the band and so becomes easily recognisable to their fans. Smaller text is positioned underneath this which is introducing the band and members and informing the reader of what to expect over the next few double pages which also feature U2.

Music Magazine - analysing covers

Today I will start work on the main task of designing the front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a new music magazine.

I have decided that the genre my magazine will focus upon will be rock. I will begin by researching the genre and looking at current magazines that feature this type of music. The magazines I will look are NME, Kerrang and Q. Like in the preliminary task, I will analyse these covers to look for common conventions.

This is the cover of the Christmas edition of NME magazine. The word 'Christmas' in the headline is the largest piece of text on the cover, along with the masthead. The masthead is also the brightest feature of the cover and is positioned in the top left of the page so that it is eye catching and unmissable. It matches the Christmas theme too, as the letters are topped with snow.

The image is the main feature of the cover, like with the college magazine, as its purpose is to attract the audience. This picture is a long shot of the Arctic Monkeys all dressed in elf costumes to match the Christmas theme. They all make eye contact with the reader to intrigue and interest them and bring them into their world.

The cover features a list of all the bands and singers that will be found inside the magazine. This establishes the genre of the magazine as well as enticing fans of the listed bands into buying the magazine.

The buzz word 'free' is used to attract attention in the top right corner of the cover, showing the audience previews of the posters they will find inside. Another plug is positioned in the bottom right corner next to the bar code, advertising the 'NME Big Gig'. Another buzz word, 'win', is used just below the masthead to capture attention, as the audience are instantly drawn to these commonly used buzz word techniques.




This is a cover of Kerrang magazine. Like NME, the largest pieces of text are the masthead and the headline, both of which share the same font style. Across the top of the cover there is a bar featuring the names of bands that will be featured inside the magazine. There are small images and names of other bands positioned down the left hand side to attract the attention of their fans who may be inclined to purchase the magazine.

Underneath the headline there is a line of text which says "Your votes are in! And the winners are ..." By not revealing who the winners are, the reader becomes intrigued to buy the magazine.

The image is a medium shot taken from a low angle of a man playing guitar, which appeals to the readers of Kerrang, a teenage to adult audience, and fits the rock genre. The man does not make eye contact with the reader as he is concentrating on playing the guitar which gives him a moody yet determined look.

The tagline of the magazine is 'Life is loud' which is positioned on top of the masthead, but as you can see , is not fully visible as the image blocks out some of the letters. This causes the image to appear more dominant and reinforces the fact that it is the main focus of the cover.

This is a cover of Q magazine, featuring Madonna all dressed in red which connotes passion and makes her stand out. The red also matches that of the background of the masthead, becoming the dominant colour of the cover. The image engages the audience by the use of eye contact, appealing mostly to a male audience.

Q magazine is aimed at an older audience, as we can tell by the bands featured, Paul McCartney and David Bowie for example. It also has a wider selection of artists from different genres, from the legendary rock band U2 to the female singers Beyonce and Britney Spears.

The masthead is the largest piece of text on the cover, positioned in the top left corner of the cover to make the magazine instantly recognisable to the audience. The other pieces of text all share the same font and white colour.

"1 of 20 special covers to collect" gives the reader an additional reason to purchase the magazine and may persuade the die hard Q fan to buy the next 19 issues just to collect these special covers. This text matches the masthead, as it is written in a white font on a red background.

The text "20th anniversary special" is positioned in the gold bar at the top of the cover. The gold bar frames the cover, enhancing the 'special' theme.

Final design!

This is my final design which I will now analyse and discuss like with the previous covers. Firstly, I decided to use a bright yellow background as it obviously makes it very eye catching and would attract the audience's attention in a shop or around the college or wherever else it may be sold.

I used Word Art to create the masthead, which is written in a bold, slanted font and coloured red so that it stands out on the yellow background. I placed the strapline, 'Written by students for students', just beneath this which reflects the ideology behind the magazine and also the institution. This text is written in an orange font which harmonises with the yellow and matches the orange text of the price. The price is placed in the centre of a yellow star shape which attracts attention. The star has thick black edges so that it stands out against the yellow background and it overlaps onto the image.

The image is the main feature of the cover as it takes up most of the space. I enlarged it further on this design. Its purpose is to intrigue and involve the target audience to get them to buy the magazine, therefore it is the most important aspect of the cover.

The plugs are also used to intrigue the audience. Like on the Secondary Teachers magazine, I used a question, "Finding college hard?", to interest the reader. The font I used is called 'Palatino Linotype'. I chose this font because it is clear and easy to read. I had to alter the font colours of the two plugs to ensure they would be readable over the image. I also coloured the bar code white so that it would stand out.

Designing the cover.

This is the first design that I produced for the magazine cover. The masthead is the largest piece of text and underneath it I have included the strapline 'written by students for students'. The price is included to the right of this using an eye catching star shape to make it stand out to the audience. Moving down the page, you can see the headline which is also in quite a large text to make it stand out, but not so much as the masthead. The image takes up the bottom left quarter of the page so that it becomes the main focus of the page. Then, down the right hand side I have positioned three plugs that would be used to intrigue the audience and persuade them to buy the magazine. The bar code is included below these, as most existing magazines would have one on their front page.

After looking at the first design I made, I decided to make a few changes. I thought that everything looked too spaced out. Firstly, I enlarged the image since I thought that on the first design it was way too small. Now it takes up almost the full page, becoming completely the central focus of the cover. I re-organised the positioning of the plugs and bar code, mainly because I had to ensure that they would be readable when placed on top of the image. I also decided against including a headline as the other magazines I have looked at don't actually have this convention. I kept the masthead, strapline and price the same as I thought they looked eye catching and worked well on the cover. I used a font called 'Palatino Linotype' because it is clear and easy to read. However, I will probably make a few more changes before printing the finished design. Then I will scan it to my blog and discuss it in detail in the same way as I have with both of these designs. I will also explain the reasons for the colours I have used, as I couldn't do this with these two screenshots as they would only appear in grey-scale on the screenshots. Also, I am aware that the text in these images appear small, so I will discuss my choices in that area of the cover in more detail aswell, once I have scanned my final piece of work.

Contents page mock up.

This is an example of a layout that could be used for the contents page of the magazine. By looking at other magazines I have seen that this is quite a simple but common design used.

The images would be of other students taken from stories and articles inside the magazine, complete with captions and page numbers so the reader would know where to look to find the full story. The plug would be of the most interesting story in the magazine.

The title of 'contents' is the largest piece of text like the masthead on the front cover. This is so the audience can clearly see what the purpose of the page is - to inform them of what they will find in the magazine. The list of contents is positioned on the left hand side as it is in most other existing magazines that I have seen.

Image.

This is my student model, Nathan Madsen. This was the best picture of the several that I took and I think that this image will work well on my magazine cover, as Nathan is looking straight at the camera, like on the other covers that I have looked at, which is a common convention to involve the audience. He is smiling in this picture which shows that he is having fun at college. The 'thumbs up' pose is used to show that college is good and even if the reader is having a hard time, things will get better for them.

The background of the picture is quite plain, and there is only a pile of books on a cabinet in the mise-en-scene. I chose to take the picture like this because I wanted to use the figure as the main feature to attract the audience.

Magazine cover design.

Here, I have produced a basic design of what my magazine cover could possibly look like, using the same conventions as the three magazines that I have looked at. A large masthead at the top of the page, plugs down the right hand side and the image and headline on the left, taking up a majority of the splash. I also included a bar code at the bottom of the page on the right hand side.

For the next stage of the project I will take a picture of a student to place on the cover. I will then start to design my cover using Microsoft Publisher. I'll produce a few more design ideas and then print the best one. I will also produce a mock up of a contents page using Publisher.

Final analysis.

I will now analyse the magazine cover of People to see if the conventions are similar to those of the other two covers. People is not a college magazine. It features news and stories only on celebrities.

Firstly, like the other two magazines, the masthead is positioned at the top of the page in a large bold font, outlined in blue to make it stand out. The headline "I'm gay" is also written in large text, in capitals and coloured yellow. This causes it to appear to be very eye catching, as the yellow is the brightest thing on the page, and attracts the audiences attention. There is a short summary of the story underneath this headline, which intrigues the reader.

There are many plugs on the cover, in the sidebar on the right and another on the left. The text for these are bold and in capitals to be easily read and noticed by the audience. They feature small pictures and pull quotes from the stories inside. The word 'exclusive' instantly attracts attention as it is used as a buzz word, grasping the reader and making them want to find out exactly what this exclusive news is.

The main feature of this splash is the image, like on both of the other magazine covers. The man featured is smiling and looking directly at the audience, inviting them into his story and his world.

In conclusion, I have found that this cover shares the common conventions of the two college magazines, especially the cover of Secondary Teachers as both use plugs to attract an audience.

Conventions.

By looking at Bounce and the Secondary Teachers magazines, I can now identify the conventions of magazine covers. Firstly, they must have a large masthead that stands out in bright block lettering. The masthead is one of the most important features of the cover, as the audience have to be able to recognise the title. The image is also very important, as it is the central feature of both of the magazines I've looked at. It engages the readers interest and immediately attracts attention. Another convention are the plugs, however these were very different when comparing these covers. The plugs on Secondary Teachers are bright, eye catching and easy to read, where as on Bounce, the text is small and plain white. It is due to the plugs that Secondary Teachers looks so interesting and colourful, so I will use plugs like this in my design. These plugs also intrigue the audience to buy and read the magazine by using questions, another thing that Bounce doesn't do. However, Bounce does have an appealing cover, although I think it is relying on the image to ensure magazine sales. This works though, as the target audience of college students would be more interested in the image, looking at the people featured in the picture and the style of clothes they're wearing. So this cover didn't particularly need large, bright plugs to attract an audience.

Analysing another cover.

I am now going to look at another magazine, but this time one that is aimed at college students rather than teachers. I have taken the cover of Bounce, a magazine focusing on college culture.

Like the Secondary Teachers magazine, the main focus of this cover is the image. We see two young people, both looking directly at the audience, engaging their attention, also like the previous cover. This makes us feel more involved with the people in the image. The girl and boy look as if they are walking, possibly to college. However, neither of them are smiling. They both look quite serious, but this could tie in with the word "Chillax!" telling students to relax more instead of worrying about college related things.

The text "Chillax!", which I assume is a made up word combined of "chill" and "relax", is written in a light blue font that almost matches that of the girls top. The font looks as though it has been spray painted across the image. The fact that it is blue matches the theme of "chilling" as this colour connotes relaxation. The font of the masthead is different from this text. It is written in green and each letter is capital. The font used is thick and bold which makes it stand out, like a masthead should. "Culture on the rise", the strapline of the magazine, is positioned just above the masthead in the top right corner, using the same font style. There are also some smaller words just below the masthead that share the same font. They look like they have been written in this way to make it look like the word "Bounce" is bouncing.

The bar code and plugs are positioned at the bottom of the cover. The text is white and the font is quite small, which is different to the Secondary Teachers magazine, as it's plugs are brightly coloured and spread out across the page. The plugs here don't really capture the attention of the audience very well, but are essential as they tell us what we will find inside of the magazine.

Analysing a magazine cover.

I am now going to analyse this Secondary Teachers magazine cover. By looking at the conventions of already existing magazines, I should be able to get some ideas for my college magazine.

The purpose of this magazine is to inform and give new teaching ideas to secondary school teachers.

This cover has quite a simple layout. The text and images stand out easily on the plain white background. The colour of the block lettering of the headline is light blue which is a neutral colour to appeal to both male and female teachers. The font is easy to read and this font is continuously used across the whole of the cover, for every piece of text. The headline is the largest piece of text on the page, which is a common convention of magazines and newspapers, as the headline is an important part of the cover.

The main focus of this cover is the image, positioned in the center of the cover showing a teenage boy participating in a lesson. He looks straight at the reader, engaging their attention. The boy is smiling, which shows that he is having fun learning.

Plugs are positioned along the top of the magazine cover and in the bottom right corner, giving the reader snippets of information that would be found inside the magazine. Each plug is presented in a different colour, which makes the cover look more appealing.

Leaving unanswered questions, such as "Do boys and girls learn differently?", entices the audience to read the magazine to find the answer to a question that they may be interested in.

Introduction!

Hey. Welcome to my blog!

This blog will keep track of all the work I do for this project, which consists of two exercises. For the preliminary exercise of the assignment, I will be producing the front cover of a magazine aimed at the target audience of college students. The second will be to create the front cover, contents page and two other pages of a new music magazine.

The Preliminary Exercise

So far, I have identified the common conventions of other existing magazines to apply to my own work. These include a suitable masthead, headline, picture and a plug. I have also used LIIAR (language, institution, ideology, audience & representation) to begin to plan how I will create my college magazine.

Language - formal, but not too formal. The type of language that all students will understand without verging on being informal.

Institution - the magazine will be produced "by students, for students" which will be the strapline of the magazine.

Ideology - the idea of the magazine is to inform students of events that are going on within the college. It is also there to help first year students get to know about their new surroundings and ive information about courses.

Audience - students, both male and female, so the magazine will have to appeal to both genders. To do this, I will use neutral colour schemes and the magazine will feature subjects that both genders will find interesting.

Representation - representing college students as hard working and fun loving young people, shown in the text and images.