Q1. HOW HAVE I USED/DEVELOPED/CHALLENGED THE

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF A MUSIC MAGAZINE?

USE OF FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

Magazine Cover• Short memorable title- making the reader

familiar with the genre of the magazine.• Bright colour scheme- appeals to the reader and

makes them take interest in their magazine. • Cover image- showing the person/object directly

associated with the main feature or article. • Selling line- an introductory headline to the

featured article. • Bottom strip- this gives the reader further

information as to what is included in the magazine.

• Date and price lines- this is legal information which informs the reader which article they have and the price of it.

• Cover lines- this essential piece of information shows the reader what will be in the magazine.

Contents Page• Eye contact- this engage the reader in the piece and

keeps their attention so they read the rest of the page. • Contents title- this title is coloured red and black, to lift it

off the seemingly stark background. It has been conventionally placed at the top of the page, which ensures consistency with the front cover and colour scheme.

• Section headings- like the masthead, the section headings are in a bold font with contrasting colours to the background, making them stand out on the page.

• Page numbers- these are used to help the reader navigate around the magazine easily and without any problems.

• Smaller image- this image has been used for the review section, near the end of the magazine. Again, it interests the reader to read the magazine.

• Main article description- this gives a quick description of the main article to entice the reader to look at the mentioned article.

• Article image- this is medium close-up shot of the person in the main article. The artist/person has a passive aggressive look reflecting the genre.

• Small cover thumbnail- this is a small addition I added that may not usually be seen. It keeps the format and colour scheme the same as the cover.

Magazine article

Analysis of article• Article title- this title is an important convention because it

signifies to the reader what or who the article is about and it gives a good start to the article.

• Pull quote- I have used a pull quote because it is another convention used to draw the reader in and it clearly stands out from the page, making it noticeable.

• Article lead in- this usual convention has ben added to my article to slowly introduce the reader to the article and the person they’re about to read about.

• Magazine name- I have included the name of the magazine on the top right corner (and bottom left corner) to adhere to normal conventions as well as use it as a focal point for the reader; the colours make it more likely for the reader to remember the magazine name.

Analysis of article continued

• Article questions- the article questions are in a different colour as they need to stand out from the page, a signal to the reader where a new point has begun. The same has been done with pull quotes.

• Page number- the page number is mandatory, as it gives the person reading a signal as to where the article has been placed, referencing the contents page.

• ‘Exclusive’ banner- this is an important convention/marketing point because it gives the reader a sense of importance; that this is the latest news and they have the honour of having it before anyone else.

• Article picture- the article picture is an important convention because otherwise, the article would seem incomplete and the audience can get a reference as to who the article is featuring and has an image to associate the name to.

• Eye contact- this draws the audience in and makes them feel like they are more connected to the person in the article. The eye contact is important because it gives a better effect to the article and is a unique selling point for the magazine.

•DEVELOPING FROM REAL MAGAZINES

• With my music magazine, I decided to keep all the traditional conventions of a rock magazine and match them to the example of Rolling Stone’s cover which features Ringo Starr from the Beatles.

• I decided to follow the conventions of Rolling Stone’s cover for my magazine because it produced an effective and aesthetically pleasing cover which fits in with my genre. 

• Hence:• The cover lines have been moulded AROUND the cover

artist to give a fullness to the cover and a professional look

• A passive aggressive look has been copied as it seems to be a convention associated with the rock genre

• The masthead has been made the largest text on the page, partially hidden by the artist to create a 3D look to the magazine cover

• The ‘Exclusive news’ has been put in a different colour to make it stand out more

• All fonts used are blocky and clear, with bold fonts to make them easy to read from a distance

• The masthead has a bold outline around it, making it clear and easy to read

• The name of the artist and a short description has been layered on top of the actual cover artist to create a more enticing and 3D look to the cover

• For the contents page, I used ideas from a contents page from NME, because the layout was simple and gave a professional look.

• I decided to follow the conventions of NME’s magazine cover because the end product is effective and well presented. Also, I believe that this layout would prove to be the best for my genre and everything I wanted to put on it.

• Hence:• The name of the magazine and the word ‘contents’ has

been put in the largest text, with an outer stroke and inner glow added to make them stand out on the page

• The sub headings e.g. ‘NEWS’ and ‘NBR REVIEW’ have been put in white text with a red graphic behind them to lift them off the page and make them clearer

• The colour scheme of red, black and some yellow has been conveyed onto my magazine cover, creating a contrast between the text, graphics and pictures creating an over-ally pleasing look to the contents page

• The main image from the most prominent image has been made the largest, as it draws the reader’s attention to the main feature of the magazine

• The title and description of the main article has been put in a larger font than the other articles to again attract the reader’s attention the main article

• The columns have been laid out in a clear and ordered fashion

• Page numbers have been used so the reader finds it easier to navigate through the magazine

• With my article, I combined conventions from Kerrang’s Halloween edition magazine which featured an article about Andy Biersack and Alice Cooper and another article from Rock Sound magazine.

• I decided to use the base of this Kerrang article to produce my article because it is a simple layout that appeals to the audience and keeps them interested in the article with the large pull quote and collection of pictures. As mentioned before, I also used an article from Rock Sound as inspiration for my article because it offered a well-organised layout of columns and photos which could easily be produced and would fit in with what I wanted for my article.

• Hence:• The pull quote has been enlarged and highlighted with different

colours to make it stand out • The columns have been separated to give a definitive line for

the reader to read down • The article image has been enlarged to present the reader with

a clear idea of what/who the article is talking about, helped by the pull quote and the title of the article

• Each question has been highlighted to show the reader where the questions begin and it has deliberately been put in a separate colour to keep the reader’s attention as well as give some variation to an otherwise long text

• The title and page number have been made bigger to help the reader locate the article

• NO props were used as I felt that they may complicate the picture too much as I was aiming for an effective (or simple) layout and design

•CHALLENGES TO CONVENTION IN MY MAGAZINE

• On my cover, the only significant challenge to convention that I can pick out is that I do not have direct eye contact with the audience because of the way my head is tilted (left eye seemed to wander to the left).

• To combat this and keep the readers interested, I have to mould the texts and fonts around the artist to move the focal point of the magazine to the middle of the page, where said photograph is located. The main text body (my name and a short pull quote from the artist) has been placed over the artist to draw attention to them and create and effective and aesthetically pleasing magazine cover.

• There were two challenges to conventions in my following contents page. One was that I used a small thumbnail of my cover in the top left corner of my contents page to make colour and design references to the cover.

• The other was that I had created a completely separate review section, entitled “NBR REVIEW”. I decided to create this because I wanted to show that I could use alternative graphics and text to make an effective footer piece for my contents page and to give more emphasis to this review, as it will be important to the magazine. 

• I found that there were more challenges to conventions contained in my article. First of all, I had placed the name of the magazine on the article twice; once on the bottom left and the other on the upper right index tab. I had done this so that the name of the magazine was more likely to stay in the reader’s mind.

• Secondly, I placed one of the pull quotes for the article nearly ON the article image. I did this because the article image and its circumference and the places where the readers will usually look first and I thought that creating this ‘new convention’ would spark the reader’s attention.

• Next, I designed my lead-in to be very large, larger than it would usually be. This happened because I thought it would be a good idea to enlarge the lead-in to draw the reader’s eye to the start of the article after they had seen the image and masthead.

• Lastly, I made the interviewer’s responses to the interviewee almost ‘chatty’ as this genre and style of magazine/article would already allude to a more relaxed feeling and it felt more comfortable to write it in that style.