4. NME COVER CONVENTIONS
MASTHEAD
Behind subject
SUBJECT
Looking ‘through’ the
camera, connecting
with the reader. Studio
image and lighting.
ISSUE & PRICE
Small print, above
masthead
PROPS
Relate to the main
cover line. (Broken
trumpets:“no more
trumpets”)
EYEBROW
Features both text and
imagery.
COVER LINES
Running down the
left
COLOR SCHEME
Limited: sticks to 3/4
colours: orange, pink,
black and white
BACKGROUND
Plain and simple with a
slight upwards gradient
BARCODE
Bottom right corner
MAIN COVER LINE
Bold and domineering
LAYERS
3 to create a depth
and sense of realism
5. HIT COVER ANALYSIS
MASTHEAD
Behind subject
SUBJECT
Looking ‘through’ the
camera, connecting
with the reader. Studio
image and lighting.
ISSUE & PRICE
Small print, above
masthead
PROPS
Relate to the main
cover line. (War face
paint:“her battle to
become a pop star”)
EYEBROW
Features both text and
imagery.
COVER LINES
Running down the
left
COLOR SCHEME
Limited: sticks to 3/4
colours: hot pink, black
and white
BACKGROUND
Plain and simple with a
slight upwards gradient
BARCODE
Bottom right corner
MAIN COVER LINE
Bold and domineering
LAYERS
3 to create a depth
and sense of realism
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
7. NME CONTENTS CONVENTIONS
ISSUE DATE
Italic font, below heading
RANGE OF
IMAGES
Use of close up, mid
and full length shots
each relating to their
article. Images are all
boxed
HEADING
Bold, central and top
PAGE NUMBERS
Bold in a white box
placed in the corner of
an image
BACKGROUND
Plain, white
LINES
Nicely separating
each individual
section of the page
RANGE OF
FONTS
5/6 various fonts. Use of
italic, bold and light type
faces
PULL QUOTE
Gives the reader
incentive to read the
article
ARTICLE
DESCRIPTION
Gives the reader brief, to
the point info about the
article
HIGHLIGHTS LIST
“Plus” box listing additional
features within the
magazine
8. HIT CONTENTS ANALYSIS
ISSUE DATE
Italic font, below heading
RANGE OF
IMAGES
Use of close up, mid
and full length shots
each relating to their
article. Images RANGE
from boxed to ‘cut out’
HEADING
Bold, central and top
PAGE NUMBERS
Bold in a white box
placed in the corner of
an image
BACKGROUND
Plain, white
LINES
Nicely separating
each individual
section of the page
RANGE OF
FONTS
5/6 various fonts. Use of
italic, bold and light type
faces
PULL QUOTE
Gives the reader
incentive to read the
article
ARTICLE
DESCRIPTION
Gives the reader brief, to
the point info about the
article
HIGHLIGHTS LIST
“Plus” box listing additional
features within the
magazine
CHART LIST
‘The HIT chart’: a vibrant
list of the magazine’s top 10
songs this week
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
DEVELOP
CHALLENGE
9. HIT CONTENTS ANALYSIS:
TOP 10 CHART
I decided to go against the conventional
layout of an NME contents page by
including a chart list. I thought that a top
10 hit list would be a great feature to
have on my contents page as my
magazine focuses on the pop genre and
so naturally chart music and being up to
date with the latest hit songs is hugely
important.
Another pop music magazine is
‘BILLBOARD’ and I noticed that they
include a full length official chart on their
contents page. I did not like the style of
the chart and thought it took up too
much space of the page so I decided to
base my chart around one I found
within an ‘NME’ article which would
match the look and feel of my
magazine.This is another way that I have
managed to incorporate pop genre
content into a layout and style
traditionally associated with rock genre
magazines.
11. NME DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
CONVENTIONS
PHOTO CREDITS
Small print, below lead
FULL BLEED
IMAGE
Right page uses the same
background so it appears
the image continues.
STAND FIRST
Article Description,
italic
HEADING
Bold, runs across the
entire spread
FOOTER
Issue date and page
number
DROP CAP
Large, same colour and
font as the heading
BACKGROUND
Plain and simple
PULL QUOTE
To grab readers
attention, bold
GUTTER
MARGIN
Creates an even boarder
COPY
Small standard font
size of 9
12. PHOTO CREDITS
Small print, below lead
FULL BLEED
IMAGE
Right page uses the same
background so it appears
the image continues.
STAND FIRST
Article Description,
italic
HEADING
Bold, runs across only
one side of the spread
FOOTER
Issue date and page
number
DROP CAP
Large, same colour and
font as the heading
BACKGROUND
Plain and simple
PULL QUOTE
To grab readers
attention, bold
GUTTER MARGIN
Creates an even boarder
COPY
Small standard font
size of 9
HIT DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
ANALYSIS
RANGE OF PHOTOS
I wanted to utilize free space
the best I could and so
included a sequence of
additional photos.
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
USE
DEVELOP
DEVELOP
13. 3.WHAT KIND OF MEDIA
INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTEYOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT AND WHY?
14. IPC Media are responsible for the production of over 60 influential media brands. With
their print based media reaching 2/3s of UK women and their websites attracting 20
million users every month, IPC Media would be the perfect kind of media institution to
distribute my magazine. Their ability to reach the majority of British females and their
understanding of a forward thinking cyber aware audience would be useful as my
magazine is targeted at women, also their website production would allow me to produce
my magazine as a virtual product as well as in standard print form. My magazine is
targeted towards a young, female audience and focuses on the genre of pop music, unlike
many of IPC’s current magazines, and therefore would appeal to a ‘mainstream’ audience
and could be sold in main cities such as London and Manchester in large chain stores such
as WHSMITH. IPC Media already distributes ‘NME’, my case study magazine, which leads
me to believe they would be interested in also distributing my magazine which follows the
layout and style of ‘NME’ whilst catering to a different, more popular music genre, filling a
gap in the UK market. It would also be possible to create a brand of ‘HIT’ magazine due to
IPC’s cross media ownership which would allow me to set up a website and possibly radio
station for ‘HIT’. It would also allow me to advertise my media product across a range of
media such as print, tv and radio advertisement; effectively boosting sales and profits.
16. SOFTWARES
- Wordpress.com - used as a virtual portfolio (blog)
- Slideshare.com - used to publish evaluation powerpoint
-Youtube.com - used to publish a video online
- Surveymonkey.com - used to gain audience feed back
- Google.com - used as a search engine for info & images
- Photoshop - used for photo editing, cropping ect
- Indesign - used for layout and typography
- Pages - used to write the article
- Keynote - used to create the powerpoint presentation
- iMovie - used to make my evaluation video
HARDWARES
- Digital SLR - used for capturing my artist images
- Studio lighting - to ensure minimal shadows (3 point)
-Tri-pod - used to help capture a steady image
- iMac - used to access all the listed software
- iPhone 5 - used to make notes throughout the process
- USB flash drive - used to transport files between
college and home
LIST OFTECHNOLOGIES USED
17. Although I was already familiar with photoshop before starting this
process, I have developed my skills and feel I am no longer a
beginner. Using photoshop to edit my images before placing them
into my magazine pages has taught me the importance of imagery
editing when creating a professional magazine and I don’t think my
final piece would be to the same standard it is without photoshop.
Unlike photoshop, InDesign was completely new to me and I found
it difficult to adjust at first. Once I stopped being reluctant and
started to use InDesign to construct my media product it quickly
became clear how easy it was to use and also how useful it was.
InDesign was crucial in the typography and layout of my magazine, I
learned how to create a unique masthead from scratch and with
practice, managed to assemble my final product.
Although InDesign was hugely important in creating my media product,
Wordpress.com has perhaps been even more essential as it has allowed
me to bring all the stages of this project together.Wordpress has acted as
a free virtual portfolio for my work and no paper has been required for
the entire project. Blogging was a new concept to me as I had no past
experience, but thanks to the simplicity of Wordpress I have learned to
create posts and then categorize them accordingly through a menu
system. I have enjoyed Wordpress so much that I have gone on to set-up
my own hobby based blog.
18. Throughout the production process of my media product I organized three photo
shoots using two different DSLR cameras: my own Panasonic Lumix G2 (£330) and
my father’s Canon EOS 5D mark 3 (£2340). I learned that the quality of the camera
has a huge impact on the quality of the image and I definitely preferred working with
the cannon. I also learned that as well as studio lighting, natural light is a great source
for photography as my images taken outside looked crisp and bright. It was also useful
to take some location shots to ensure I had a vast range of images for my magazine.
19. 7. LOOKING BACK ATYOUR
PRELIMINARYTASK,WHAT DO
YOU FEELYOU HAVE LEARNT?
20. PRELIMINARY VS. FINAL
I feel I have learnt a huge amount about
not only the magazine and music industry
but also about producing my own media
product. When looking back to my
preliminary exercise it looks highly
unprofessional in comparison to my final
magazine which, in my opinion, matches the
standards of official music magazines. This
was mainly due to my lack of knowledge
about elements of style and layout such as
margins, studio imagery, positioning,
typography and also as I was very
unfamiliar with Adobe InDesign. Before
starting this project I was fairly comfortable
using photoshop but had no knowledge of
using InDesign. What initially would have
taken me hours to accomplish using the
software would now take me 5 minutes
and it is through learning how to use page
construction software such as indesign that
I have been able to achieve my final
product.
