Name of the artist presented in a big, bold font; highlighting the fact that a big names musician is involved which will ensure sales for the magazine.

Masthead including area of publishment, date of the issue with a website address.

Barcode along with the date, price and additional websites. Placed at the corner of the magazine.

Image of artist as the main background, overlapping the magazine logo with the head. This is a common convention in a music magazine.

Lure / Pull quote; not enough meaning or detail. Just a piece of quote pulled from the article available inside. Noticeably quite leading, mysterious and controversial.

Headlines and sub-lines underneath showcasing features and main stories, located on the left side of the magazine. (one-sided)

Headline and description in different font formats – headline in black font w/ white background while the descriptions are bg-less. Done to differentiate both texts. (Black headline would decrease readability and leaving it white could make the headline look part of the descriptions.

A clear, set colour scheme and theme which is red, feminine and floral.

Contents title with pictures underneath of additional featured artists and their dedicated page numbers where their articles are located.

The main image of the page: the featured artist located alongside the contents with a dedicated page number under her to direct the readers where her section would be located.

Box-out showcasing online exclusives, (promoting convergence) with descriptions provided along with their dedicated website links towards the end.

Billboard’s official logo present on the contents page showing consistency throughout the magazine and highlighting the fact that it’s Billboard’s contents page.

A side-bar chart displaying what’s charting where on the official Billboard charts. Categorized by albums and songs. (Artist/band name on the left, chart position in the middle and the song/album title on the right) This is highlighted because Billboard is the US’ official chart company.

Date, website address and page number located at the bottom-right corner of the page.

Simplistic colour scheme. The red, yellow, blue and white represent the brand image of Billbloard.

Image caption mentioning where the picture below was shot and what the people in the picture are doing.

Main feature picture of the issue, biggest in size and pretty eye-catching with the bright colours

Essay type of interview as opposed to the regular question / answers. Forman. Text in clear background, ensuring readability and laid out very neat.

Pull-quote of something the artist has said. Usually the most controversial part of the interview to attract attention from the readers Page number, magazine name

and date. On the other side of the page: date, Billboard’s official website and page number.

The font used are all simplistic, neat and clear. Some of the fonts for individual paragraphs are displayed in slightly differing styled which helps separate the sections for easier reading.

Different types of images. Even though, this article lacks imagery as it’d filled with mostly text, there are still different different pictures with a variety od different types of shots.

These are some other examples of double page spreads. As seen in these pictures, they all have a simplistic look to them involving huge images as the background, covering one whole side of the page, traditionally left. On the other side consists of the actual article / interview of the featured artist.

The images are indicators of what the interview is themed upon. For example, Amy Winehouse’s double page spread is in black & white, and her facial expression looks as if she’s unhappy or lost as expressed in her emotion. The article mainly focuses on her troubled life and this shows that the image and text go hand-in-hand. These pictures don’t only resemble the focus of the interview, but also relate well to the headlines, pull-quotes and the actual message emoting off of the words. Likewise with the Miley Cyrus spread expressing her coming-of-age story and the T.I highlighting the “summer time” edition with him posing as a free bird in the picture. The background also possesses maturity in Miley’s spread and the bright colours in T.I’s spread articulates the summertime.

Going through the front cover, contents page and double page spreads of all these magazines, I have realized all of them somehow linked to each other. Every page in the magazines had the signature colouring of the front cover, whether it’d be from the logo or from the cover page. I’ve realized in order to create a successful magazine, I’d need to follow the regular common conventions which means I will have to include kickers, side bars, box-outs, and so on which will help me form a sense of professionalism.

I’ve realized that colour schemes are also distinctively important in magazines. Especially in double page spreads. Usually double page

spreads would include different colour schemes to the ones of the front cover and contents page as it’d be focusing on the artist and reflecting their

image. However, there still needs to be a distinctive style and/or logo representing the brand and the brand image of the magazine in order to

present all the pages as they’re from the same company. .

Most of the front covers also include the main image overlapping the title of the magazine which is evidently a regular convention used by professional music magazines out there. If this wasn’t the case, the main image would have been

covered up by the title which would cause my magazine to look undeveloped and done without thought. I’ve noticed that most contents pages I’ve looked at don’t follow the regular “traditional” forms of displaying a headline, description and page

number anymore. They are more evolved with pictures, higher lever of detail and explanation. This research has helped me form a better understanding of what professional magazines consist of and how I can higher the quality of my own magazine.

Going through the front cover, contents page and double page spreads of all these magazines, I have realized all of them somehow linked to each other. Every page in the magazines had the signature colouring of the front cover, whether it’d be from the logo or from the cover page. I’ve realized in order to create a successful magazine, I’d need to follow the regular common conventions which means I will have to include kickers, side bars, box-outs, and so on which will help me form a sense of professionalism.

I’ve realized that colour schemes are also distinctively important in magazines. Especially in double page spreads. Usually double page

spreads would include different colour schemes to the ones of the front cover and contents page as it’d be focusing on the artist and reflecting their

image. However, there still needs to be a distinctive style and/or logo representing the brand and the brand image of the magazine in order to

present all the pages as they’re from the same company. .

Most of the front covers also include the main image overlapping the title of the magazine which is evidently a regular convention used by professional music magazines out there. If this wasn’t the case, the main image would have been

covered up by the title which would cause my magazine to look undeveloped and done without thought. I’ve noticed that most contents pages I’ve looked at don’t follow the regular “traditional” forms of displaying a headline, description and page

number anymore. They are more evolved with pictures, higher lever of detail and explanation. This research has helped me form a better understanding of what professional magazines consist of and how I can higher the quality of my own magazine.