MAGAZINE

CONSTRUCTIO

N

CHERYL CARTER

CHERYL CARTER

CONVENTIONS

WHAT YO

U GET O

N FRONT COVERS

Masthead

Kicker

Cover Line

Secondary Lead

Graphic Feature or Puff

Selling Line or Banner

Tagline

Feature Article Photo

Anchorage

Flash

Bar Code

Date Line

Headline

Caption

Masthead

Kicker

Cover Line

Secondary Lead

Graphic Feature or Puff

Selling Line or Banner

Tagline

Feature Article Photo

Anchorage

Menu Strip

Bar Code

Date Line

Headline

Caption

Web-link

FREEFREE – – Live music Live music downloadsdownloads

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Masthead

Kicker

Cover Line

Secondary Lead

Plug

Graphic Feature or Puff

Selling Line or Banner

Tagline

Feature Article Photo

Anchorage

Flash

Menu Strip

Bar Code

Date Line

11. Headline

Caption7.

Web-links?

Ears?

Throughout the music magazines that I have looked at and analysed what the covers all include the same things. The masthead is obviously the biggest text on the whole cover, however as music magazines become more establ ished and wel l known the need to make the masthead the main feature disappears and the focus is on the main cover story. As I am looking at Bi l lboard I have noticed that the actual masthead itself has colour in as the ‘b,’ ‘o,’ ‘a’ and the ‘d’ have a coloured c ircle inside as a way of st i l l making it stand out, f i t in with the colour scheme and keep things fresh and different. Even though it is sti l l a very important feature of the magazine sometimes it is more of a fun aspect to change it up with every cover and adapt it with each changing cover story.

In addition, the interaction between anchorage and photos add emphasis and send a cryptic message to the audience which wi l l make the reader question the declaration of the anchorage and buy the magazine in order to f ind out what i t is talking about, i t adds a sort of promise that the artic le wi l l be gr ipping and worth reading which in turn suggests the magazine as a whole has exclusive information and is a must read.

Generally , the l i festyles that are hinted at in taglines, kickers and the use of language is aspirational. On magazine covers the people who are involved in the issue are mostly famous people or people of interest in the media of that t ime, regardless i f i t is good or bad as they can put their own spin on the interview and artic le to get their point of v iew across to the readers. For example, Rihanna’s Bil lboard cover came with the anchorage ‘My fans don’t really know who I am’ which is an extreme declarative as Rihanna’s fans would be immediately drawn to the fact that this artic le wil l include information exclusively from Rihanna and they want to know what i t is and get to know her properly in the art ic le to change the declaration that the anchorage suggests, which in turn wi l l sell a lot of magazines as Rihanna is a world famous superstar and media glare and attention on anyone of such stardom is always idol ised and interesting to the publ ic.

CONVENTIONS ANALYSISCONVENTIONS ANALYSIS

As far as the cover goes, I actually think the masthead, feature art ic le image and anchorage goes hand-in-hand with what is the most important feature in a magazine in association with the stages of the magazine itself . As a starting magazine, the main focus of the cover wil l be the masthead in order for people to identify the magazine and get the magazine and its name established and well known. Then gradual ly as a magazine has managed to claim such dominance and comfort in readers and being well known by the publ ic the attention is less on the masthead but more on the feature artic le image and anchorage. Again, Bil lboard are an excellent example of this, their f irst issues were focused on the masthead and gaining the status of a best sell ing music magazine, then as the years went on, the masthead was sti l l the biggest text on the cover but began to be covered sl ightly by the feature artic le image as that dominates the page in order to make sales. By that point, the sel ler of the magazine is the person on the cover – in this case a music artist- and the anchorage adds extra juicy information about what the artic le covers in hope to sell the magazine further.

In association to the language that is used in magazines i t is sl ightly formal but has a more informal tone as the language doesn’t want to come across as ‘hard reading’ or intimidating to the readers because the aim of the magazine production is to sell and for entertainment. It doesn’t have a completely informal tone as the magazine needs to be categorized and separated from gossip magazines such as ‘chat’ or ‘us weekly.’ As it is a wel l established music magazine it has to be high end and professional without coming across as arrogant or intimidating to its readers. The anchorage helps with this as it delivers a short cl ipping of what is featured in the magazine and allows the reader to know what they are paying for in the issue, however the cover does not include all of the information and artic les in the entire magazine which is why the featured cover story has to be an interesting one and the anchorage has to act as a ‘teaser’ in order to entice readers to purchase the magazine. The cover deliberately covers all the main features as concise information and allows the other interesting artic les as a stand back not used on the cover to give readers the idea of the magazine being worth whi le and you’re not just paying for what you see on the cover – that i t includes a lot more special features they wil l be interested in through synthetic personalisation being that they are the person they are trying to target.

FURTHER ANALYSISFURTHER ANALYSIS

DESIG

N

HOW FRONT COVERS ARE CONCEIVED AND LA

ID O

UT

THE FOLLOWING SLIDES ARE THE FOLLOWING SLIDES ARE A SERIES OF FRONT COVERS A SERIES OF FRONT COVERS

THAT SHOW HOW THAT SHOW HOW ADAPTABLE BILLBOARD’S ADAPTABLE BILLBOARD’S HOUSE STYLE IS AND YET HOUSE STYLE IS AND YET

HOW CONSISTENT THE HOW CONSISTENT THE STYLE BECOMES OVER THE STYLE BECOMES OVER THE

COURSE OF SEVERAL COURSE OF SEVERAL DIFFERENT ISSUES.DIFFERENT ISSUES.

Direct mode of address can appear ‘in yer face’, serious, warm…

Indirect mode of address can be mysterious, lively, sombre…

Creates a wacky, fun image, sharing an identity with the reader that offers the ‘independence’ of indie music.

Enigma – what are they getting up to now?

COLOUR - Is a colour scheme used? Is it the same with every issue or switch according to the images? Is there a pattern as to where colour is used? Does colour have its own meaning?

FONTS - Roughly how many different fonts (not sizes) are used? Can you l ink the same fonts with the same conventions?

STYLE - What look and feel is created? How much does the cover image contribute to this? What photographic techniques are used? Describe the mode of address and overall look e.g. invitational, mysterious etc . Is a theme used e.g. futuristic? Does an enigma prompt the reader to ask questions?

USE OF SPACE - How has the rule of thirds been used? Does the left-third dominate? Is the use of space typical e.g. masthead top-left, headline sitt ing at the bottom of the mid-third etc .? Is it spread out, blocky, chaotic? Is there any dead space or white space?

CONCLUDE – Why do you think it is designed as it is? Does it reinforce or challenge the typical conventions? Is it : poster-style, busy , loud, inyerface, smooth, slick, styl ish, fun etc .?

HOUSE STYLE & DESIGN NOTESHOUSE STYLE & DESIGN NOTES

HOUSE STYLE & DESIGN NOTESHOUSE STYLE & DESIGN NOTES

COLOUR - Is a colour scheme used? Is it the same with every issue or switch according to the images? Is there a pattern as to where colour is used? Does colour have its own meaning?

FONTS - Roughly how many different fonts (not sizes) are used? Can you l ink the same fonts with the same conventions?

STYLE - What look and feel is created? How much does the cover image contribute to this? What photographic techniques are used? Describe the mode of address and overall look e.g. invitational, mysterious etc . Is a theme used e.g. futuristic? Does an enigma prompt the reader to ask questions?

USE OF SPACE - How has the rule of thirds been used? Does the left-third dominate? Is the use of space typical e.g. masthead top-left, headline sitt ing at the bottom of the mid-third etc .? Is it spread out, blocky, chaotic? Is there any dead space or white space?

CONCLUDE – Why do you think it is designed as it is? Does it reinforce or challenge the typical conventions? Is it : poster-style, busy , loud, inyerface, smooth, slick, styl ish, fun etc .?