FOLLOWING AND CHALLENGING CONVENTIONS: INSPIRATION FROM EXISTING PRODUCTS

FRONT COVERS

MASTHEADSWhen creating my masthead I took inspiration from existing products. To the right is my own masthead and three others from existing music magazines NME, Q and Billboard. I made my masthead conventional by using some of the features that the existing mastheads use:• I chose to use one word – Strings – as

these mastheads are all one word or a few letters and thus memorable

• I only used one colour because the existing mastheads only use a maximum of three, excluding Billboard who deliberately break that convention to be unique

• I placed my masthead at the top of the magazine like all three other mastheads and to the left like Q and NME.

I have also chosen to challenge conventions here by placing my issue date within my masthead. Although this is not typical of a magazine, I think it adds to the aesthetic of my cover and suits the more alternative/indie genre.

FEATURE STORIESI also took inspiration from existing magazines when creating and positioning my feature stories. I followed the convention of placing them down the sides of the cover and using a variety of fonts and colours as demonstrated here by my own product and three other magazines – Kerrang!, Q and Vibe. The magazines use font and colour to highlight certain stories and distinguish between different articles so I attempted to replicate this in order to be conventional. I also included a list of bands inside which is another convention that Q have made use of here.

MAIN STORIESConventionally main stories are advertised on front covers in a large font using the artists name or a pull quote. In these examples from Top of the Pops, Q, NME, Vibe and Billboard we can see this convention being followed successfully. I have used this convention myself in my own product, advertising my main story in a large font and including a pull quote from the article inside to encourage potential customers to purchase the magazine. This makes it obvious which feature story is my main one, and ensures that the article looks interesting and enjoyable to read. By including the artist name I have also highlighted the main selling point of the product.

FOOTERSAlthough not every magazine front cover includes a footer, it is still a convention that I wanted to follow in my own product. The examples here from Kerrang!, Q and NME demonstrate how footers at the very bottom of the cover are used to advertise more feature stories or just list artists that are inside. I used mine to advertise more feature stories and also include a second plug that would hopefully attract more readers to my product. Footers are conventionally a block colour that follows the magazine’s colour scheme which is what I have opted for, or transparent to show more of the main image. I made it purple so that it would stand out on the page more.

BARCODESBarcodes are a necessary convention of magazines but not a selling point and so are typically placed in a bottom corner where they are not as noticeable. I followed this convention, placing mine in the bottom right corner. As you can see from these examples from NME, Billboard and Kerrang!, magazines often combine other features with the barcode and print them together – things such as web addresses, issue date and price. I chose to place my price next to the barcode because it is similar to the barcode in that it needs to be on the cover but doesn’t add anything to the aesthetic so can be placed in a position that isn’t as prominent. This follows conventions.

MAIN IMAGESMain images are conventionally framed as midshots and depict one artist as shown on these covers from Billboard, Q, and Vibe. I used an image framed as a midshot on my own product in order to follow conventions. However I challenged conventions by using two models as a girl group duo. This is because I wanted to break conventions slightly in order to appear original and appeal to a readership who are more attracted to an alternative style of music. This isn’t a radical breaking of conventions though, because the main image is a huge part of the cover and I didn’t want to make it too unconventional at the risk of it looking unprofessional and not selling.

CORNERS & PLUGSCorners are a convention of magazines but do not appear in many music-specific magazines. They are usually used to advertise a plug or an exclusive story. Plugs are another convention that most, if not all, magazines use to attract readers. I have chosen to include a plug within a corner in order to really make the plug stand out and to follow conventions. These examples are from magazines that aren’t necessarily music orientated, just to demonstrate how the industry uses them in general; the images are from Vogue, Elle and Q. I think using a corner that follows my product’s colour scheme has helped improve the overall look of the front cover and also helped to attract readers.