To attract their target audience, the author researched popular rock magazines to understand common design conventions like colors, masthead styles, and fonts. They found that many magazines consistently use the same color scheme and masthead positioning in each issue. However, some magazines like Kerrang vary the colors and positioning to suit each article. Based on this research, the author used darker colors for the cover image but brighter colors for the text and masthead to make the magazine stand out. They also themed the magazine by making the masthead and main cover line red.