3. Conventions Analysis of My Front Cover
SKYLINE
Distribution and marketing details have been added within the footer area to support
the purpose/use of the footer in terms of a music magazine’s conventions. The
consumer and sellers are able to easily recognise this information fro the physical
layout of these texts spread alongside the centre of the footer in bold white colour
which both matches the colour scheme and contrasts nicely against the black in the
background.
My main feature story offers an effective approach
within the features of my magazine as it informs the
reader of other major content inside based on news of
big artists within industry. I ensured that the texts and
backgrounds followed the colour scheme to use
conventions effectively, but placed different coloured
backgrounds against the texts to make each word vivid
and eye-catching for the consumer.
FEATURED STORY
I had designed my masthead with the most popular font of within a survey
created previously within my portfolio as I felt that this met the EDM genre
more clearly and was more visually captivating. I have met the conventions
of this feature as it has been placed at the top in bold above and in front
of my artist. It also appears as the most prominent text on the page which
makes my magazine successful in that it would be easily recognised within
marketing.
The feature story of a typical music magazine is a prime
convention as it offers more content within for the reader
to endure into their favourite artist’s alongside the main
feature story news. I had offered an inclusive of a real
major EDM artist to also feature within my magazine to
further engage the reader with broader content of the
genre and make it eye-catching to the fans of Don
Diablo. During 2016, I had attended a gig featuring Don
Diablo and therefore decided to include him within as I
had original images for my contents page, making the
entirety of the product more advertising.
MAIN FEATURE STORY
MASTHEAD
The plug of a typical music magazine is located within the top right corner, below the masthead. The
positioning of mine here clearly demonstrates that it uses the conventions effectively. Furthermore, the
colour scheme has been applied alongside the challenging of conventions through the fact I have used a
colour outside of my chosen colour scheme, green. Green had worked very effectively in terms of
connoting a prize or successfulness and was therefore used as an advertising feature with the wireless
Bluetooth studio Beats. This prize in itself would match the conventions of my chosen genre of EDM as
these are professional kit used within industry by major artists such as Alesso and Don Diablo as also
featured within my music magazine. Finally the peel of the sticker design is also a conventional feature used
on the front cover of a music magazine as it makes it more immersive for the reader, another advertising
technique used.
MAIN IMAGE
FOOTER
In terms of a typical EDM magazine, the placement of the footer has been implemented within the bottom
horizontal strip of the front cover. It contains information such as websites and follow links so that my
readers/fans of the magazine van connect/have a relationship with the artist and the brand of Plugged-in.
this would tempt the reader to buy the product more, then therefore makes this aspect of my final
product successful.
BARCODE/PRICING/ISSUE NUMBER/WEB ADDRESSES
PLUG
I felt like my final product offered a successfully designed skyline. The development from the
Google-Mock up was vast in terms of that I had decreased the amount of artists labelled and
made the texts bolder instead, contrasting against a consistent DJ instrumental piece as also
recognised within the footer. It also fits the chosen colour scheme too through the white,
black and blue colours being apparent across the top. The physical contrast of colours across
the top allows my colour scheme to seem more visually captivating for the reader which
would mean that the conventions here have been successfully used. Capitalisation also
allowed the texts to be easily read.
I think the main image used for my music magazine was successful in terms of fitting the conventions of the
EDM genre, my artist DJ Reform modelled by Will Cross has made a profound effort in appearing rather
superstar-like/iconic. Moreover his costume clearly stands out within the page which would also make his
identity easily recognisable for my potential target audience of teenagers/ young adults between the ages of
17-25. I feel the quality and the lighting within the image makes it appear aesthetically captivating in addition
to the fact his face is clear, indicating a perfectionistic style. The physical size of the image matches the
conventional material for an EDM magazine/music magazine as it takes up most of the space on the page, in
addition to following a similar stylisation of EDM Mag’s Carl Cox issue from 2016 as I have adapted the
striped style and placed my artist behind the largest stroke of blue.
4. Conventions of my Contents Page
I have positioned the page numbers within the images of my contents
page to advertise Don Diablo and DJ Reform’s content within
alongside within the storied and features to early guide my reader to
texts they wish to read. I have used the same colour scheme as used
throughout the entire body of my product and made the colour of the
page numbers contrast to the backgrounds to make them more
visible.
The title of my contents page can be clearly labelled within the top left
corner of the page which is great for advertising as it means that this is
the very first text that the reader looks at, then giving them an
understanding of the purpose and which particular section of the
magazine this is. It’s simple font was used consistently across the other
texts as also seen within my DPS and front cover to keep the
conventional material accurate all the way throughout, its boldness
allows it to be the very first text seen on the page.
The issue number and cover date is really important in marketing, distribution
and advertising as it offers a weekly issue of the magazine type to meet the high
demand of fans of various music types to keep them up to date with the latest
news of artists. This also gives the reader a clear indication of which particular
issue they’re reading and which week it sources from.
ISSUE NO. & COVER DATETITLE
IMAGES & CAPTIONS
INTRODUCTION TEXTS
To keep my reader intrigued instantly with the contents page, I
had offered an introduction from the editor as if it was a letter
from the editor (myself) to create a relationship with the reader
and myself as the producer. Though I didn’t meet the conventions
fully by including an image of myself here, I felt that the amount
of detail in the texts made up for it as it introduced the reader to
what it going to be offered throughout my EDM magazine,
Plugged-in.
STORIES & FEATURES
PAGE NUMBERS
MAIN CONTENTS PAGE IMAGE
The stories and features of a music magazine are some of the most
significant factors in terms of conventional and informative material. I
have formatted them in a small but easily readable format by using the
consistent texts and bold numbers to be more convenient for the
reader when guiding them to different page’s contents. I feel like his
was highly successful in terms of conventions as it also met my colour
scheme and house style, alongside it being highly informative through
the capitalisation of the texts to make them more vivid on the page.
I have placed the most successful contents page image of my artist DJ Reform
over a bright kaleidoscopic background to really make the genre apparent
through a mixture of abstract and performance like visuals as seen within a
typical EDM video. This promotes my artist as stated within my main feature
story and is a captivating feature for my reader to be instantly engaged with.
Original images used from the Don Diablo concert can be visualised
here to advertise this artist as part of a broader spectrum of the EDM
genre, offering visuals of a real EDM performance. I had also offered
an instrumental image on the page to also reinforce the genre
strongly and keep the reader’s eyes moving across the page. Captions
and texts relating to the images give an insight into the content
offered further within Plugged-in.
5. Conventions of my Double-Page Spread
MAIN IMAGE
ARTICLES
PAGE NUMBERS
COLLUMNS
DROP CAP
PULL QUOATATION
DPS TITLE
I have positioned the page numbers within the images of
my contents page to advertise Don Diablo and DJ Reform’s
content within alongside within the storied and features to
early guide my reader to texts they wish to read. I have used
the same colour scheme as used throughout the entire
body of my product and made the colour of the page
numbers contrast to the backgrounds to make them more
visible.
As seen within the vast majority if not all of
music magazines, I have included articles based
on the main feature story and feature stories to
create consistency across the body of my
product and meet the conventions required to
suit the genre, alongside meeting my audience’s
needs on the ‘news’ of my focus artist and
others from the same genre. I have followed the
same white, black, blue and grey colour scheme
as visualised throughout the entirety of my final
product alongside including interviews and
reviews from music industrial company
coordinators and directors.
The fact that my main image is bold (dominating
most of the page) and has been placed within one
of the sides of the page means that I have
successfully positioned and scaled it in terms of
EDM magazine conventions. Furthermore, the
colour scheme may have differentiated in terms of
using lots of different ones to my original colour
scheme (conventions challenged) however within
the design it represents/signifies the genre
thoroughly through it appearing rather futuristic
and ‘space-like’.
The purpose of a drop cap within a magazine or newspaper is to introduce an
article, I have included one within the opening of my Plugged-in article as
seen by the arrow’s pointer. I feel like it could be larger to capture attention a
little more however it was effective when reviewing it within the final product
post of my blog.
The column design of the background and text
placement is a conventional feature used within
magazines and newspapers to compact lots of
information within a stylistic method, easier for the
audience to read. I have placed rectangular backgrounds
within all of the texts to keep them in one place and for
them to appear more visually captivating for the reader,
following the same colour scheme as used within the
contents page and front cover of my magazine.
My title of my DPS covers and introduces my artist
within a bold form through each of the words having a
different size to represent their significance within the
title itself. I had purposefully formatted ‘top and
Reform’ as larger words to convey how my artist will
become the next major EDM superstar, advertising his
identity. I feel like my title follows all of the conventions
of a typical EDM magazine’s DPS title as it’s highly
engaging and placed to one of the pages above the
articles.
The typical purpose of a pull-quotation of an article is to draw the reader in
through that it’s a quote from a major artist or celebrity, making it more
intriguing to read. I had designed my pull quote within an italic stylisation of my
chosen font and had focused it around my main feature story and a U.K tour
that my artist DJ Reform has been on. It matches the conventions of a typical
pull quote as it’s located below the artist’s main image within the double page
spread and contains speech marks.
6. Preservation of continuity through the House Style
of my Final Product
Before initialising my final product, I had planned through the Prezi ‘Colour Scheme Ideas, Name Ideas
and Feature Story Ideas’ to keep a sense of consistency in a persistent form across the body of my
final product in order to meet the convention of not only an EDM magazine, but a music magazine in
general.
Within my final product, I had accurately used the same fonts across all of the texts except from the
masthead of ‘Plugged-in as identified in the front cover of my music magazine. This was to make the
product original with its own unique text design for an ‘outstanding’ text appearance; the other texts
all vary in size and formatting (bold, italic or standard) to engage the audience with significant
headlines and to guide the reader’s eyes across the entirety of the magazine rather than just one
place.
Keeping a consistent colour scheme allowed the entirety of the product to appear professional and
not overly busy which can sometimes disappoint consumers in terms of it’s design looking over-done.
I was consistent with my originally chosen colour scheme of black, blue, white and grey.
When reviewing other ways in keeping consistency across the final product, I had used my main artist,
DJ Reform on my front cover, contents page and double page spread wearing the same costume to
make his identity and the genre highly recognisable.
Finally within my house style, I've used an apparently similar structural layout as other EDM magazine’s
so that I had full control of matching all of the conventions, this is one of the prime reasons my
product was successful. The expectations of the potential consumer/reader have been met through
using all of these conventional features within inspirational influence from EDMmag.com and my own
unique designing methods.
7. Comparing my final product to existing EDM (and other genres) magazines
As seen from the professionally branded music magazines contents and front cover
images by the side of my own I have been inspired greatly by the overall design and
conventional inclusive features used across these products. I have both challenged
and conformed to these conventions in various different ways:
EDM Mag front cover Plugged-in contents page NME contents pagePlugged-in front cover
8. Table of challenges and conformations of my final product’s front cover and
contents page compared to inspirational material
ChallengedConformed
Masthead (front cover): The masthead has clearly conformed to the conventions
of a typical EDM magazine through it being placed above the artist, in bold
within the centre and top of the page (below the skyline) in terms of position
and format. The original Plugged-in text has been used too which would be
apparent across the other issues, like EDM Mag ha within their other issues.
Artist Name (front cover): Centralised within the lower half of my artist’s main
image as seen in EDM Weekly.
Main Image (front cover): Dominates the front cover in terms of large size and is
placed behind texts of significance across the page, as also seen in EDM Mag
Weekly.
Contents Title (contents page): Placed at the top of the page, located to the right
so it’s the very first text the reader visualises, above the articled texts and is bold,
followed by the same colour scheme.
Stories and Features (contents page): Flowing in downwards and labelled with
page numbers for easy guidance to specific information for the reader based on
the issue’s content, follows the same colour scheme and it bolder than the other
texts such as the introductive and captions.
Main Image (contents page): Larger than the other images across the page and
features my main artist similarly to the DPS and front cover within the top area.
Letter from the Editor (contents page): Though I had not had the title of a ‘letter
from the editor’ labelled within my contents page, I had still covered the textual
requirements of that I had introduced the magazine’s brand and expressed how
it would benefit my target audience.
Plug (front cover): Though my inspired magazine doesn’t include a plug, I have used
the conventional feature within the top right side of the front cover, advertising a
special branded headphones in relation to the genre and the brand of magazine
itself as people would want to win an expensive pair of headphones being given
away for free.
Main Feature Story (front cover): Unlike the EDM Mag’s front cover, I have included
lots of texts including a main feature story and featured stories to keep my reader
engaged with the content advertised of what's to be offered within my product.
Skyline and Footer (front cover): EDM Mag has also not used a conventional feature
of a plug, I included one to ensure that I had met the expectations of the potential
target audience and to meet the conventions offered for a typical music magazine.
Barcode, Price and Website (front cover): Again, the EDM Mag issue of which I had
used an inspirational material for design didn't contain barcodes or pricing which
made it lack in content offered within the front cover. I had included them within
the footer area to include all the conventional material possible without
overloading.
Secondary Images (contents page):
9. Comparing my final product to existing EDM
(and other genres) magazines
Plugged-in double-page spread EDM Mag double-page spread
10. Table of challenges and conformations of my final product’s double-page
spread compared to inspirational material
Conformed Challenged
Logo Background: To make my artist’s identity clearer to the audience, I
have applied his original logo within the background of my magazine’s DPS
within the main image section. This flows nicely across the product and
gives it further vibrancy.
Wider Range of Colours: Within the background logo, more colours outside
of my original colour scheme such as yellow, red and purple have been
applied to really reinforce the genre of EDM and express how diverse the
target audience is as it’s very open to almost anybody. Each colour
represents different cultures, ages and sexes.
Secondary Images: Due to the fact I had a broad range of texts based on my
articles for my DPS, I had decided to not include images as they would be too
small for the reader, the texts included support the featured stories and main
feature story. I felt that too many images would create a rather non-professional
look as it would be overloaded.
Title: The title of my DPS has been placed to the right page above the articles
and has been formatted to a bold font of which is also consistent across the
entire product.
Drop Cap: One of the most important conventional features of a Drop Cap
has been applied to my initial/introductive article within the smaller text,
areas.
Articles: Articles are another significant convention used throughout music
magazines, I have applied all of my texts containing information of the brand
and follow ups of the main featured story and featured stories to create
persistent consistency across my body of work.
Main Image: The main image contains my artist as also seen within the
inspirational EDM Mag issue’s DPS, in a large form to dominate the righty
page containing a logo-like design behind him for artistic effects, reinforcing
the genre.
Pull Quotation: Sourced from the original artist himself as seen within other
music magazine’s, the pull quotation has been implemented below my
artist’s main image in a large, italic format to convey the conventions of this
text type.
Page Numbers: Page numbers increasing in one from left to right appear on
both pages to make it easier for my audience to track where they are within
the magazine and within guidance.
