NME magazine has been published since 1952 in the UK, starting as a music newspaper before transitioning to a magazine format. It was the first British publication to feature a singles chart and now has over 7 million online users per month. The magazine maintains a consistent red, black, and white color scheme and house style across its covers and contents pages that follows design principles like the rule of thirds.
2. Analysis on cover page
MASTHEAD: Red, bold and bright, this clearly stands out and its aligned in the
top left hand corner following the concept of the rule of thirds. Boarded around
with black and white connecting with the theme of the cover page.
COVERLINES: The main cover line of Dizzee Rascal’s name and quote is in
white, portraying that his new and fresh. The quote uses slang, this shows the
connection with the way he talks, his lyrics and music. The other smaller cover
lines are in red and black connecting with the NME masthead theme, these are
in a smaller print to emphasise that the bigger white cover lines are more
important. The font is son serif and doesn’t have flicks and tails. The flash is in
red, this connotes that its important, the way it says news also portrays that
even though the magazine is quite informal, they are still quite serious about
music giving it a sense of formality with the word ‘news’.
MAIN IMAGE: Long shot, this allows you to see the whole image, his body
posture and the action. The way his coming out the image in excitement, draws
the audience, it shows that he’s expressing himself through the image to relate
with his quote, and it also represents his image being ‘Dizzee’. He is also wearing
black and white to match with the chequered floor and also, the white connects
with the main cover line. The gold chain and loud graffiti style trainers, shows
the stereotypical view of what a hip-hop artist wears.
BACKGROUND: the background is a graffiti style, this shows the stereotypical
view of hip-hop artists always in the streets, its also quite loud and
busy,, conveying a compact magazine cover and this also connotes with his
Bar code on the name being ‘Dizzee Rascal’ as the background portrays a sense of dizziness .
bottom right
hand corner.
3. • Masthead: is aligned to the left again just like on the cover
Contents page •
page, following the rule of thirds,
The theme: is red, black and white this is following the masthead
colours, and are used through the whole of the contents page.
• Main image: is on the top centre of the page, slightly angled to the
left, this shows informality, breaking the rules, it is a medium shot of a
woman standing in front of a tour bus and pointing behind her
towards the bus to portray that the main focus is on the tour bus, the
picture also links with theme of the page, for example the tour bus is
red and black with white curtains inside the bus.
• Subheadings on the right columns are shown as engraved white capital
letters onto a black boarder this emphasises the subheadings, getting
the readers attention.
• The page numbers are in red, this stands out next to the black
writing, red is also seen as important and urgent, so the red page
numbers makes the readers want to urgently turn to them pages,
• On the left side of the page, there is an index column in very small
print, the fact that its small, means that its not as important, however
the colour of the font is red, this is so the readers are aware that the
index column is there and not forgotten. Where as if it was black, it
would blend in and look ordinary,, allowing the audience to not notice
the small black print.
• The main image is framed in a camera shot style and underneath the
Advertisement: bright bold and image, is the editors note, the contrast between black and white is
yellow, gets the readers attention portrayed, where the text is white and on top of a black
background, the connotation of this is that it shows sophistication
and informs them about subscribing through the editors note and the fact that its white, portrays that he’s
to get a cheaper offers in the next got something new to say about the magazine.
issue.
4. Caption saying
Dizzee
Double page spread
• Main image: medium long shot of the artist doing graffiti on
the wall behind him, this shows that he’s rebellious
, stereotypical view of hip-hop artists are rebels, breaking the
rules, Mise-en-scene is created through the graffiti wall in the
background, the image takes the whole pace of one side of
the double page spread, emphasising more on the image and
his action, he is wearing a red leather jacket, to stand out and
show a street wealth, which is another stereotypical view
being portrayed that artists wear bright pricey clothes to
stand out. He is looking away from the camera, this connotes
that he’s looking out because he doesn't want to be caught.
• On the right side of the double page, bold black capital text as
the heading is shown across the top of the page, ‘from tags to
riches’ this connects with the image on the left hand
side, portraying how he was before and how he is now.
• A by-line in small print is on the right hand side in-between
the main heading this shows the readers who the author and
Page number photographer is
• Underneath the heading, there is a subheading to inform
NME title
readers about an interesting fact highlighted from the article,.
Date • Copy (text) begins with a large letter Y using Drops Cap in the
first column, next to the first 6 lines , the 4 columns are
used, and wraps around the radio, to portray that this article is
to do about the artists music, and bottles are placed next to
the radio, this becomes the background on the right hand
side.
5. All about New Musical Express
• NME was published in 1952 in the United Kingdom. It
started as a music newspaper and slowly developed
into a magazine format in the 80’s.
• It was the first British paper to have a singles chart in
the 50’s.
• An online version was launched in 1996, it is now the
biggest standalone music site and has 7 million users
per month.
• Kirissi Murison was the original editor but was then
taken over from Mike Williams who is now the editor
of NME magazine.
6. House style
• NME magazine seem to have a red, black and
white theme quite consistently in their magazines
• The masthead on NME cover magazines are
always on the top left hand side, keeping the rule
of thirds in mind.
• The front style of son serif is used on a lot of their
cover lines
• They always have a main cover line linking with
the main image
