Music Magazine Research Write Up

What I've learned

Front Covers

On music magazine front covers a simple colour scheme is usually the most effective with three or four colours. Many magazines such as 'Q' and 'NME' use a simple colour scheme of red, white and black. The background is usually white with red and black text used in different areas. Different backgrounds are also used in contrast with the text to make it stand out more. This also gives the magazine a more professional look, a professional look will make the magazine more appealing to the audience. For example on the magazine to the right you can see that the skyline has a red background with white text on top of it. This text isn't the first thing to draw your eye but it is very effective at keeping your attention on the magazine. Furthermore the text that is displayed on the front cover can also be effective at getting the audiences attention depending on the font type, style and colour. On the cover to the left there isn't much variety of font type but most of the font is bold which grabs the audiences eye and is a solid font type as when it is used in a larger font it seems loud and empowering. The colour of the text can have an effect when one word is presented in a different font than the other parts of the sentence. For example the word "Coldplay" on the cover above is in yellow text while the other text is in white. This makes the word "Coldplay" stand out much more and with the bold and large font, this is an excellent way to grab your audiences attention and to get them to buy your magazine. Also anchorage text on the front cover should always be bigger than the sell lines to get the audiences attention more and so that it is able to be related to the main image more easily. The font size, colour and type should also be taken into account.

Contents Pages

I have learned that contents pages need not be too cluttered and by doing so my look unprofessional. The contents pages that I have analysed have some sort of housestyle. The contents page to the right ('Q' magazine) follows its housestyle on from the front cover with the red bar with the white letter 'Q'. This housetyle is what the magazine is known for and by continuing it onto the contents page makes the magazine look more professional. I have also learned that contents pages have more that one image that come in all different shapes and sizes. Some magazines separate different types of articles into different sections but the most popular section that is used the the featured section. This section allows the reader to quickly find an article that may have been advertised on the front cover of the magazine and this article may have been the reason that the person has bought the magazine. By including this section you are making the magazine look more professional and neatly layed out and may attract the reader into buying the magazine again because of this. Another feature of contents pages is that the article titles and page numbers are sometimes in different font colours to make the page number stand out from the article. This allows the reader to quickly find the article that they want to read and avoids any frustration that my arise when looking for the correct article.

Double Page Spreads

During my research I have learned that double page spreads don't always need to be full of text. Both pages don't even need to have text on them. Some magazines have one page with a large image on and the other with text. Double page spreads come in all shapes and sizes some are layed out very neatly whilst others will look more like a collage. The one to the left is a good example of one that is layed out neatly the image on the left is eye catching and the text is layed out is three neat columns that make the article more appealing to the target audience. The article below is from a magazine that has a slightly different target audience to the other double page spread. Many magazines are like this and are successful at keeping the reader interested. Double page spreads also have large mastheads to either fill space or to make the article look more appealing. Some double page spreads have many images but most will have one main image. Some double page spreads will try to add unique touches such as the world exclusive banner on the magazine below. Also there will be a variation in font styles, colours and sizes. The font size can vary in magazines for example the masthead is much larger than the text. Also the colour of the font is varied to make the text stand out more mostly in double page spreads the font colour is one colour in the article itself but other text on the page may be in different colour. This makes the page seem more professional and gives it a wider range of colour.