2. • Extremely strong and eye catching images
• Bright, strong, eye catching colours
• Colour co-coordinated
• Fairly busy front cover
• Bold text
• Often a picture of an artist/celebrity/band etc
• Masthead
• Taglines
• Left third
• Cover lines
• Bar codes
• Image bleed
• Eye catching cover lines
• Splashes

3. Magazines I first looked at on the internet. Front Covers
Contents Page and Double Page spread

4. Within my Music Magazine I have stuck to the guidelines criteria that
most main music magazines use or stick by. On my front cover, and
throughout my magazine I have used similar conventions to other music
magazines. For example my Masthead is on the left side (left third) at
the top, so that when it is on a shelf it is the first thing you read. It is also
clear and bold enough to read. Like all music magazines the logo would
be noticed and remembered. I have also used the same colours on my
front cover as Q magazine. This is because the big red box stands out a
lot with the white writing on top. However I had to make my box smaller
because the title of my magazine is a word not just one letter.
I have also used a central image, like Q magazine. It is important that
the central image is the main story of my magazine The central image
on the front page also determines what the genre of what the
magazine is going to be, for example on my front cover the image is of
a strong bold woman who looks very serious about her R&B music. My
central image is quite close up, which I found similar to typical music
magazines. I decided to copy how other magazines shot their image
because it gave a stronger more mature look to my magazine. I came
to the discovery during my research that most but not all pictures in
music magazines were usually taken as a mid-shot or a long-shot.
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5. I also kept to a particular colour scheme like a standard music magazine
would, Particularly NME magazine and Q. These colour schemes both interested me
because they looked mature and professional. Therefore I decided to use the Red, White
and Black theme on mine. The red was chosen because it was a bright and bold colour
that can stand out when used with black and white.
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6. The front cover of Q magazine was the magazine When I started to plan out my magazine, I thought
layout I copied and used for my front page. Q it would be easier to copy another leading
magazine follows the same kind of style magazines layout so that I have an idea of what it
throughout each issue of the magazine. The style would look like and what size I should make things.
follows the same rule that the Masthead is always On my front cover I kept a big and bold masthead
in the top left hand corner of the cover. The because it looked sophisticated and mature. The
masthead is always the Q logo and is always red convention that I have challenged is the cover
and white. There is a banner at the top of the lines on my magazine cover. For example on my Q
Cover stating that Q is ‘The UK’s Biggest Music magazine I though they had to many cover lines
Magazine’, From my own knowledge and so I moved mine to the left third so that it was not
research I can say that this true, Q is the best covering the main image and so that the white
magazine for music fans. This particular issue and red writing was clear on the black
of magazine has Cheryl Cole as the Primary background. When researching R&B and even
Image. This is telling me that there is going to be a Hip Hop music magazines I found that the cover
big article or interview with Cheryl Cole. There are lines looked quite packed and jumbled up,
also various small cover lines which in my opinion although it showed the magazine contained a lot
get the buyer/reader interested in this issue of Q. it proved to be quite confusing to read. So for my
The Primary image of Cheryl Cole would magazine I decided to change the positioning of
also be a very good selling the cover lines and the amount
point because Cheryl Cole I wrote to make it look more
is a very famous pop artist, mature and aesthetically
so many readers would be appealing, wanted it to look
interested in what the article more mature so that it wasn’t
is about. It is a very busy yet Like your typical R&B magazine
understandable front page. this was unique.

7. Again when it came to the layout of my contents page I slightly copied Q’s
Contents page. The masthead for this magazines contents page is more
conventional but fits in very well with Q’s smart theme, which readers have come to
expect and will activly look out for. It then has a tidy column which contains the
features listed further within the magazine, it has a small heading pointing out that
this is the features section, a photograph of one of the feature artists, and then
smartly and orderly listed headings for other features of themagazine. Each heading
is underlined, and has a short description of what it contains below allowing the
readers to find articles that appeal and interest them. At the bottom of the contents
page is a picture of music producer italso has several pictures coming out of it of
artists featured in other pieces inside the magazine. Each picture also includes a
large font page number in white on the image so that readers know exactly where to locate it.
On my contents page I copied the layout of Q’s magazine to see if I liked it and I
did. As the masthead I thought it was only important to put ‘Contents’ but ‘Tune’
to so that my target audience were constantly reminded of the brand name. The
conventions I decided to look at were the headings and short story line and the
number of images. I decided to reduce the number if listed headings because I
felt as though there was already enough going on and enough to read on the
contents page. By reducing the amount of headings I wrote about changed the
amount of images I used. For my magazine it was important to put a similar main
image on the contents page as well as the front cover so that people recognise
their face for the inside story. I also included images of people the were other
main story lines inside the magazine. I gave my contents page an issue number
to make it look more professional

8. This is a double page spread designed my NME. The photograph is
situated on the left hand side of the page. It is a big image that takes
up almost half the page of the double-page spread. It prevents it from
looking too busy with too much writing. The effect this has is that it
draws the reader in. Double page spread has a The title for the double-
very simple layout which looks somewhat page spread is ‘you got
Old fashioned. It also has USA in very the love’. This is a very
large writing to fill up the extra space in good idea because it is
the background. It is in a pale, light font. the name of one of
The paleness of the font prevents it from Florence's songs 'You got
standing out too much. This isn't needed the love'. This makes the
because it already stands out due to the heading look stylish and
size of the text. The text is also in capital adds some glamour to the
letters which makes it stand out even page. The font for the text
more. This heading implies that the text is a small sized font.
has something to do about This allows the article to
the USA. effective look.
fit onto the page. It is also black, which makes it look professional
as it stands out against the white background. Also, the font is very
clear. This makes it readable. It
also makes the double-page spread look professional, because if it
was in a fancy font the whole page would look overdone.

9. I loved NME layout with Florence
so I decided to create on just like
it using similar conventions and I did edit her picture to make her skin slightly darker
forms. I kept the background and the black deeper so that it stood out to create
simple and white this was so I this strong image. .
could create a strong and mature I used a big bold text across the back that read U.K.
main image. The image on the in the same red that I have used throughout the
left page is of Megan Homer who magazine.
is the main artist in my I changed it from pink to red
magazine. because I felt as though it
was important to keep the
same colour theme, On top
of the U.K. read ‘kiss the
stars’ which is a lyric I had
made up that relates to
Megan Homers story line
The double page
spread is laid out in
three columns as this
is the average amount of columns music magazines use, and I
decided to do just an interview and not an article. In front of the
interview I used a different font for the big ‘M’ this gave my
double page spread a professional look as most magazines
have a big letter to start off with.