The document summarizes and compares two front covers of NME Magazine from 1985 and 2011. Some key differences noted are: 1) The 1985 cover has a lower printing quality and simpler masthead compared to the 2011 cover, which has clearer photography due to advances in technology. 2) The 1985 cover uses a coupon to attract customers during a post-war economic period, while the 2011 cover no longer needs incentives, showing the magazine's increased sophistication. 3) Both covers feature the artist prominently at the center maintaining eye contact with the reader, demonstrating consistency in NME's cover design over time.

1. NME MAGAZINE 1985
To the left is an image of NME’s front cover issue 8th April 1985.
This issue was produced 30 years after the magazines first
release yet before I compared it to a present day issue I
assumed this was one of the earliest issues. The quality of the
printing obviously isn’t of today’s standards and the masthead is
very basic. It lacks depth and looks fairly flat in the top left
corner. However, there is a money off coupon in the top left
corner that would have attracted customers because as the
country was only just beginning to regain itself again after the
war, spending money on music was not a priority to most
people. A further strength to this cover is that the main
anchorage font ‘NIRVANA’ is the same colour as the masthead
therefore creates a house style immediately. The image here
works to establish the genre as people of the time would have
known that Kurt Cobain, the main figure of NIRVANA was of the
American rock sound therefore we know that the genre of NME
is rock. After doing further research I found that the image was
taken by French photographer Renaud Montfourny which shows
that the magazine had established itself by the 1980’s as they
were able to use a foreign photographer which would have
been an expensive affair.

2. NME MAGAZINE 2011
Here is an NME Issue from 2011 – I am going to compare it
to the 1985 one on the previous slide. The first convention
that stands out to me is that the NME masthead is still the
colour red and the biggest anchorage text is also the same
colour. Red is clearly a strong colour towards NME and may
convey their strong love towards music. NME clearly feel it
important to keep a constant colour running through all
issues to help advertise the magazine as readers will
become knowledgeable to the idea that NME is red.
A second thing I noticed when comparing was that NME no
longer advertise a free coupon/gift etc. This shows that as
the years have gone on, NME has further established itself
so much that it no longer needs to give away free gits to
lure in the audience. This shows how the magazine has
become more sophisticated and classy. The final
convention I want to mention is the front cover
photography and how it is similar to the 1980’s issue in the
sense that both images are in the centre of the page and
the artist holds direct eye contact to the reader. The image
on this issue however is clearer but I put that down to the
fact that technology has developed incredibly since the 80’s
therefore can produce clearer more intimate images.