2. Cover Conventions
I structured my cover around the conventions of a Kerrang! magazine cover. This focused on the
general music magazine conventions such as a masthead, cover lines, a main image,
advertisements, a selling line, headline, price and barcode. As my magazine is a rock one, it
seemed appropriate to follow the structure of Kerrang! to keep in with the conventions of a rock
magazine I took a range of images and chose from the most aggressive. I also added in some
inappropriate language to engage the particular audience and link to the title ‘UNETHICAL’.
Inappropriate language to follow rock magazine
conventions.
Artist eye contact is conventional of music
magazines to make the magazine feel more
personal to the audience.
I decided to follow conventions, rather than break them, because it is what an audience is used
to. They are familiar with the structure and like it. They know their way around it and feel
comfortable. It is popular. However, if I had broken conventions people may not understand and
like to stick with what they already know.
3. Cover Forms
My cover’s forms follow a house style throughout each of the pages in order to show a
connection and to make the audience feel comfortable. These forms include:
• Colours
The colours used in my cover are featured throughout the rest of my magazine. The colours are
black and white, as they re contrasting and have a conventional rock association. And also a light
blue, which is the same colour on the artist’s clothes.
• Images
I took my own images in a photo-shoot and manipulated them in Photoshop to add into the
cover. It is then conventionally positioned central in the page.
• Text
I used a range of sizes for the text as the larger and bolder text is the most interesting and
engaging to capture the audience’s attention. The smaller text is slightly more detail of the main
titles and Headings.
• Fonts
I used a house font throughout each of the pages for the smaller text and a bold, unique and
edgy font for the Masthead, which is conventionally positioned at the top of my magazine.
Black, white and blue text, linking with house
style colour scheme.
HEADLINE FONT INITIAL IDEAS
5. Contents Conventions
The layout of my Contents page has followed a similar structure to one of Kerrang!’s contents
pages. I did this because Kerrang! are the most popular rock magazine and know how to
appropriately appeal to the particular audience. It is conventional of a contents page to feature
the name of the magazine, the date and issue number, a variety of images and follow a house
style and colour scheme. As the contents is a navigation page it tends to feature page numbers,
references and small snapshots of particular articles. Each article or feature tends to come
under a particular category which is clearly stated.
An editor’s letter is
conventional of a contents
page. They are not always
TITLE OF PAGE AND
featured every issue but
MAGAZINE NAME
certainly on the first issue
and perhaps special editions.
ISSUE NUMBER
AND DATE
THE
KERRANG!
ISSUE I
BASED MY
STRUCTURE
ON.
PAGE NUMBERS AND CATEGORIES
6. Contents Forms
My content’s forms allow it to stand out to my audience and
fit the conventions that they are used to in rock magazines.
• COLOURS
I used the same colours as in my cover to keep in with the
house style. This then gives more of a comfortable feel to
the magazine.
• IMAGES
I used a large range of images in my contents to make it
look as visual and busy as possible. I used large and small
images that related to the information in the contents page.
This meant that the audience can infer what each
article/section is about and makes it look more wild and
jagged.
• TEXT
The text I used related most to the information within the
magazine in context but visually linked to the font used in
my cover. It is bold and simple so it is easy and clear to read.
I focussed more on what it looked like rather than the
context because the audience who like this style of music
tend to prefer images rather than text.
8. Article Conventions
I wanted my article layout to represent more than the genre of rock but also have a serious and
quite dark twist to it. An article page I found was about a band break up, was simple but
represented sadness so I decided to follow its structure. My magazine article follows the
conventions of a title, a main image, quotations, an article, a sub heading (possibly more of a
revelation into the article).
HEADLINE
SUB-HEADDING, LOCATED JUST BELOW THE HEADLINE
QUOTATIONS
LOCATED
THROUGH
ARTICLE
PAGES
MAIN
IMAGE
FOR A
SERIOUS
EFFECT
9. Article Forms
The forms in my article page are similar to those in both my cover and contents pages. They
allow the page to meet the needs of the target audience and appeal to them.
• COLOURS
I used the same colours as in my cover and contents to keep in with the house style. This then
gives more of a comfortable feel to the magazine and allows the pages to all be connected.
• TEXT
The text is the main focus of this page so I used a clear
and readable font in a colour that allowed it to be
easily read against the background. I changed the
colour of the quotes to the blue colour featured
throughout the magazine. This was so that they would
be separated and different to the rest of the text. The
main article is smaller in size than the heading so that
the title stands out clearly and is the first thing noticed
on the page. It is also conventionally positioned to the
top-left hand of the page.
• IMAGES
I used one main image as it is
conventional of music magazine
articles to have one main image. It is
positioned to the right hand side and
the text is positioned to the left.
WHITE TEXT WITH BLUE
QUOTES
ONE MAIN
IMAGE
10. Challenging Conventions
The aspects that make up my magazine cover, contents and article pages tend to follow the
conventions of a Rock magazine. It follows the dark, aggressive and wild nature of the genre.
However, it does challenge the conventions of music magazines in general.
For example the inappropriate language used on the cover is not subtle and is quite bold and
obvious. This breaks the conventions of music magazines as they tend to ‘play it safe’ and don’t
take risks such as this, but rock is not afraid to as it is expected from the readers… It’s what they
like. The audience like the rebellious features and it’s what they specifically look for in a rock
magazine because they don’t get it anywhere else.
Furthermore, some of the images of weird characters are unexpected in normal music
magazines. The idea of a clown or zombie may put people off, however in rock magazines the
strange nature draws them towards it.
11. Existing Magazine Conventions
I based my work around many different aspects of existing rock magazines. The main one I used
was Kerrang! I did this because Kerrang! uses conventions that the audience I was aiming at like.
Its what they are used to and expect.
Kerrang! feature a range of bands and artists throughout all following a particular style. They
make the cover look busy and jam packed with cover lines, and freebies etc. I wanted to make
my magazine busy and wild like Kerrang! in order to meet the needs of my target audience.
These three images are the ones I based my pages from. There are some similarities in structure
and style but other aspects I wanted to change in order to make a more personal stamp on it.
