Forms and conventions

The ways I used , develop or challenge forms and conventions of

my music magazine ?

My cover of my music magazine

Conventions of -POPULAR

Eye contact – I have developed the convention of eye contact by giving my cover artist sunglasses that cover their eyes but still remains facing the audience giving a connection between the audience and artist.

Artist central in the cover – The cover artist is central to the page which covers ¾ of the cover with text hugging the image on the left, right and above

The artists face is not covered – I have placed the masthead tactically behind the image ensuring that ‘Zeppa’ (cover artist) is the main focus of the page

Block color background- I have a plain background which is white that is very recessive towards other colors making the graphics and text stand out and create focus

Mast head

I have implemented my mast head at the top of the cover and the reason I have placed it there is that typically magazines in general are sold on shelf's and the point of the cover that will be most visible is the top of the cover.

The largest font on my cover is the masthead that has a different color scheme then the rest of the cover making it stand out and to be one of the text that a person will look at first.

The mast head also uses ¼ of the page which only reinforces the dominance it has over the other smaller texts and graphics on the cover.

Cover lines

• The cover lines are on the left and to the right of the image ensuring that they do not overlap the cover artist. This is very typical as most magazine covers have an artist central on the cover.

• The other artist’s names are clear to see and this is important because the other artists name can attract people towards purchasing the magazine

• There is graphics that act as dividers that make the magazines writing look more spaced out making it easier for the reader to read. This can happen a lot in magazine covers when the cover has a lot of text in it.

Selling line

Typically the name of the artist is on the selling line as people who might not know them will now know who they are.

It is Typically the second largest text on the page that usually has writing underneath it in my cases I have used Rollingstone Rick Ross edition as inspiration with the selling line. As you can see from the two images above I have used the concept of the characteristic of their genre of music which in my case is electronic dance and then add the love at the end of it to create effect.

I have ensured that the Name of the artist is bigger than the sentence below as it is has more importance. Also I have made sure that the text Is two completely different colors making it stand out.

Also the text is not perfectly aligned like the Rick Ross Rolling Stone cover and It breaks up the writing very well but this method isn't always used as you can see below with Adel's Rolingstone cover with the text underneath directly correlating to her name.

My contents page of my

music magazine

Page title

In relation to the page title I haven't conformed to convention on the page title as it has lots of graphics layered on top of each other acting as a banner and I believe that this makes my music magazine contents page different and this would be the USP.

The name of the magazine ‘POPULAR’ is also a convention and the font and color scheme is exactly the same so it is recognizable to the reader so the reader doesn't necessary have to read it but will know what it is.

The date of the issue is Cleary placed on the page title and is smaller the the “POPULAR” and “CONTENTS” and this means that it doesn't draw lots of attention but allows the reader to see what the date of the magazine is without having to flick back to the front cover making it more convenient.

The website URL for the magazine is the smallest font on the page title placed underneath the date of the issue and this makes it clear where the extra information is placed out of focus but their for the reader if they look for this information.

Preview of the magazine cover on the banner showing that the information will correlate from from cover through to contents.

Features what's inside:

I have used this layout from mix mag as inspiration as I thought the design looked very professional and clear to read for the reader. I have used the technique of making the article headline being bold and the short summery underneath being normal and smaller. The font I have have used for the columns is the same as the selling line keeping with the house style. The size of the numbers are larger then the text and the reason for this is because they need to be more visual and focused so the readers know where to look on the page.

Colum's

I have used three Columns and I believe that it makes the contents look busy but the large photo and graphics our able to break up the text ensuring that each Colum is visible for the reader. I believe that the page being busy fits with the genre of electronic dance because electronic dance is a very busy genre of music that has lots of different factors.

Photos

Contents Photos

On the contents page I have included two images one of

A female that has an article about her and the other one is a smaller version of the cover artist on the front cover. The convention of images on contents is that not all the photos are of the cover artist and this is why I have included a different photo of a artist to ensure the reader has more visual stimulation as my magazine isn't all about my cover star. By including more images of different people it makes the magazine seem more energetic and diverse as the photo of the girl is a less professional feel where ass my cover artist image looks very professional.

Article

The main image of an article is that of the cover artist and I have achieved this. The article’s background is plane white and the text and graphics are mostly black and I have a small splash of color with the color red for my name.

I wanted the whole focus of the article to be about my cover artist that’s why my design is so minimalistic and plain but the main image of the article has color about it and I have enhanced the cover artist skin color to add more focus to him. I have copied the layout from Mark Ronsons article but have altered it by having more color in my cover artist with his color being enhanced.

Article image

Added information-information such as the website of the music magazine enabling readers to see what the website is and this indicates that there is more information to see. I have placed it on the top left of the page

I have included the name of the cover artist of the article and the date of the year that the photo was taken. Also I have a famous quote from the artist giving the viewer a insight of the personality of the artist.

The article

My article consist of two columns with the beginning of the article giving a brief summery of Zepa and his career then the remaining article is a question and answer session between the reporter and the artist. In this section my article has a quote that is enabled within the text but is bold and a larger text then the rest. The quote also extends that of the quote on my front cover.

• I have not followed out the same color as the house style on the article but the reason that I have done this is to make the article stand out but it still has the professional feel with a crisp image with a plain white background. I have also included the title ‘ZEPPA THE DJ OF LOVE’ this title gives the reader a slight insight of what's to come in the article.

Forms

• The color scheme to my magazine is white black and yellow. White and black are typically seen as very sophisticated colors but the yellow that I have implemented gives it more energy representing the electronic dance genre of music.

• I have used four images that were all taken and directed by me. I have not included video clips as it’s a magazine that will be printed out so a video clip would not be suitable

• I have considered different fonts. The font I have chosen has been downloaded and is very bold and clear helping the viewer of my magazine read the article more clearly making their experience more relaxing.

Developing ideas

I saw the article from vibe magazine and liked the clarity of the photo and how the text standard out from the white background and uplifted the image so I used this idea for my front cover but instead of their being lots of color on the cover artist I chose to stick with a black and white theme. The image still stands out as it is center of the cover and being a lot larger then all the text creates focus on it. I have also used the idea of the title covering the majority of the top section with the mast head and selling line above it but I chose to highlight the selling line more by adding a black graphic rectangle.