Byline/bar code

5.Byline/Bar code 

Here I have showed the comparison between my byline and the byline of a published magazine. I have contained the popular and normal conventions of a bar code, web address to allow readers to gain more information about the magazine, one of the articles or enter a competition, as well as the price of the magazine. 

Similarly, the example published magazine I have shown also gives its web address in the same area of the page as I have placed. However, they have added the date it was published, and a quoted example of anchorage text. Some magazines do add the bar code on  the bottom right hand corner of the page, but some also place it on the back cover instead, perhaps to give the cover more room or to make it look more tidy. 

One convention I did miss out was the date the magazine was published, I did not add this anywhere on my cover or inside my magazine and this may be a downfall as it is a common and important convention for magazines to contain.    

sell lines/anchorage text

4.Sell lines and Anchorage text 

I decided to keep my sell lines fairly limited, which does not stick with the normal conventions of music magazines. I did this because I was influenced through my research and planning by certain magazine issues who limited there text for special issues different from the rest (exclusives) 

I strongly believe that I can use this to my advantage because it makes much more of an impact, rather than overwhelming readers with too much writing on the front page, when in fact all exclusive information should be kept inside to avoid spoilers, making readers feel they have to buy the magazine to gain more information, and also gives those who are part of the main story the full spot light, proving that the main article about them is an 'exclusive.' 

  

Main image

3. Main Image 

The convention of a main image on the cover of a magazine is of great importance, the photography and the technology behind it make a big impact, and is very affective if done correctly. A main image can vary from each article using different angles and shot sizes to create different messages/moods. 

If the aim is to focus on a certain artist/celebrity a close up is popular to give them attention and importance, but when using band members together it is popular to use a longer shot to show the whole band equally which was my aim for my photography.  

I have slightly gone against popular convention by using software to edit the colouring of my photography dramatically, where as most photography is simply structured and colouring is only slightly edited. My photography also has an open, real and colourful setting backdrop, when it is common practise for magazines to use a shooting studio with green screens etc. I did this to stand out and be unique as much as possible.

   

Strapline

2. Strapline

This is an example of a strapline you may regularly see on the top of published magazines. These can help to attract a reader by sticking out of a magazine rack, with its use of splash colour and bold writing. It can be used as anchorage text/sell line or used to display the magazines slogan, price, date etc.

However, I have decided not to clutter my strapline with sell lines and stick to the simple use of the NV's slogan, this then allows the photography to have a bigger impact and keeps focus on my main anchorage text and main article.

Q1

These are some of the typical conventions of a magazine which I have used for my final product, similar conventions are found on popular published magazines. However, I have not added all conventions that typically appear on a magazine cover, and I have changed the conventions I have used to fit a more unique individual style to stand out from all the other music magazines similar to my genre.

1. Masthead

Arguably the most popular colours used in music magazines are red white and black, these colours are neutral in gender and can create a bold statement with many connotations surrounding the rock genre. Examples of this are NME, Q, KERRANG, Rolling stone and MOJO magazines.

Because I believed these colours were so popular, in fact too popular, I believed it would be best to go against the normal trend, this way my magazine is much more noticeable on a shelf compared to others of similar colouring blending in to one another.
I decided on a dark shade of orange which is eye catching and can fit in well with most colours on a colour pallet, its white lined boarder allows the masthead to pop out of the page giving it a bold finish against to contrasting dark background.

I have placed the masthead in the top left hand corner of the cover which is the most common choice for all magazine covers, however some spread across the whole of the top of the page. But because my masthead only consists of 2 letters it is best to keep it to a corner in a good size rather than stretching it across.