3. Conventions of my music magazine: ‘Indie’
• The artist has eye-contact with the reader making them
more likely to buy the magazine due to it feeling more
personalised to each reader.
The artist is the center of the cover making it the main image
and background of the page. The image is bold and eye-catching
with a clear background, creating the main focus of the page.
The image also links to the headline, showing the featured artist
(Sanah El-Gadi). This enables the reader to associate the image
of the artist with the headline getting an immediate idea of what
the featured article may be about.
The masthead occupies the top section of the cover,
using a bold colour and font to stand out within the page.
I have arranged for the masthead to be behind the artists
head, so that she is the main focus of the page.
4. Masthead
• The masthead is at the top of the page , therefore making it
more visible for the readers and creating an obvious brand
name that can be easily recognised by my target audience.
• I decided to use a different font for the masthead as it
would be unique to the rest of the magazine thus
reinforcing the idea of a brand.
• The masthead is larger than the rest of the font within
the magazine making it easy for the reader to see and
recognise within the page.
• I decided to use a bold colour (blue), as it would stand
out against the other colours used in the house-style of
the magazine such as the oranges and white.
5. Masthead
• I used the magazine ‘Rolling Stone’ for inspiration for my masthead as it used a
similar theme to my magazine.
• To begin with, my masthead was bland and blended in with the background of
the cover, to improve this I used a similar font to ‘Rolling Stone’ to make it stand-
out against and appeal to my target audience.
6. Coverlines
• I put the coverlines to the right-hand side of the page,
making them easily visible next to the main image. I
used bold colours and text for the coverlines to make
them easily visible to the reader and also to make them
stand-out and become eye-catching therefore making
the viewer want to read on.
• I decided to use bold lines between each story, to
separate the text and make the page appear organised
and clear.
• I used Rolling Stone magazine as inspiration for my cover-lines,
adapting the idea of lines between the separate stories and the
differences in font size between the main feature and the
smaller detail beneath it. I also modified the idea of putting the
cover-lines to the right-hand side of the page.
• I decided to feature a smaller amount of cover-lines as I
believed this would look more effective on the cover and less
crowded.
7. Headline
• The headline features the name of the artist mentioned – in this case Sanah
El-Gadi.
• I decided to use a bold and unique font to the rest of the cover, to make the
headline stand-out within the page. In addition to this, the use of a bold
colour and font would catch the readers eye which is what I was trying to
achieve.
• I chose unusual fonts for my headline and detail as the ‘Indie’ genre itself is
quite unusual therefore it would attract my target audience more and fit
the genre I was trying to create.
8. Detail
• I decided to use language that would appeal to my
target audience and entice them to buy the magazine to
read the story.
• ‘Bad Girl’ may make the audience buy the magazine due
to them wanting to find out why she was the ‘indie
scene’s newest ‘bad girl’’.
• I used a separate font for the detail beneath the
headline, to show diversity within the page and to
follow the genre of my magazine.
9. Selling Line
• My selling line is small and beneath the masthead, making it easily visible
to the reader without being too bold.
• It uses positive language to entice the reader to buy the magazine.
• I decided to overlap the main image and selling line to make the
conventions of the cover link together while improving the aesthetics of
the cover.
11. Features
• For my contents page I used 2 separate columns, thus
making the page more organised and clear for the
readers.
• I decided to put my columns on separate sides of the
page to incorporate my image and to keep the page
interesting for the reader.
• I used lines to separate the stories and page
numbers to make it clearer for the user.
• I used a different colour for my headings and
detail to again make the page clear and to give
the page more colour instead of it being
monochrome.
13. Page Title
• I decided to use the same colour for the title as my cover therefore creating
consistency and a house style.
• The bright colour is appealing and adds more colour to my magazine, I
decided to use a pastel blue as it features in magazines similar to my own
such as rolling stone.
• I decided to use the same font to reinforce the idea of a house style and to
have some variety in fonts.
15. Main Image
• For my main image I decided to use a photo
that would have an impact on the reader
which also related to the article.
• I decided this image strongly linked to the
indie genre due to the tie-dye shirt.
• To edit the photo I decided to keep the ti-
dye in colour and to adjust the vibrancy to
make it stand-out within the page, while
turning the background to black and white.
• I decided to make the image a side of A4 as I wanted it to be eye-catching
and interesting.
16. Quotes
• I decided to only feature one quote that I believed would
be enticing for the audience.
• My quote features a part of the article that features
another famous artist – Ellie Goulding.
• The familiarity in the artist would make the audience
more likely to read the article and buy the magazine.
• I put my quote over my main image as that would
be the part of the page that the audience would
be more likely to look at first.
17. The article
• For my article I again
decided to use 2 columns
and only used 7 Q&A’s.
• I used a standard font
therefore making it easier
for the audience to read the
article similar to magazines
from my research.
• I decided to put the
questions in italic making
them clearer and bolder for
the audience to read and
understand the separation.
• I decided to put a silhouette
of the artist behind the
article to improve the
aesthetics of the page and
make it appear more
professional.
18. Article title
• For my article title I used a similar blue to that of the contents and cover,
however I used a different font to make the article separate from the house
style of the magazine.
• I used an unusual but legible font making the article appear more exciting.
• I underlined the title to make it stand out from the background, the lines also
link to the contents page thus making a link between the article and the rest of
my magazine.
19. Forms
• The colour scheme of my magazine Is black, white, orange and blue. I used
black and white to make my magazine look more professional and to fit with
my theme of alternative.
• I have used images taken by myself, while not being able to use videos
and sound due to the magazine being a paper publication.
• I considered a variety of different fonts choosing the best suited fonts to
my magazine and genre. These were generally eye-catching and bold to
entice the reader.
20. Challenging conventions
• The only convention that I have decided not to include within the
magazine is the editors letter. I decided not to include this as my genre
is not mainstream such as pop and dance, therefore it typically does not
follow all of the conventions.
• Other magazines similar to my own also do not include an editors letter
such as ‘Q’. This was the magazine I used for inspiration therefore I
decided to copy the way they challenged conventions due to it being
successful.
