MAST HEAD: The mast head is the name of the magazine, ‘Sound Burst’. The large sans serif display font is typical for a pop magazine and reflects the fun vibe of the teenage targeted magazine. The absence of any hard sharp lettering makes the mast head appear more feminine. The word Burst has exciting connotations along with being a similar onomatopoeia to the word POP which is the magazine genre. The word Sound makes it instantly obvious that this is a music magazine. I plan to use shades of pink for the masthead because pink is stereotypically a female colour. However I plan to use a darker pink compared to a bright neon pink to avoid the childish connotations. This will help make the magazine appeal to older teenage girls.

MAIN IMAGE: I plan to use a medium close up of the model acting as the artist which the magazine features. The MCU allows the makeup, accessories, hair and clothes te be seen which follows the conventions of a female targeted magazine because that is a topic of interest. It also will clearly show direct address with eye contact which looks inviting to a reader and creates a friendly feel to the cover. The plain white background will work well with pink and black (text colours). The use of props like headphones also emphasises that the genre of magazine is music based. I want the cover lines and pugs to be placed behind the main image which subtly suggests the model is very important. The main cover line which relates to the artists will be in front of the magazine to show they are connected.

COVER LINES: After looking at a number of pop magazines I chose to not over load the front cover with a large amount of cover lines. Magazines like ‘Top of the Pops’ have a large amount and appears to look less mature and targeted at a younger age group. By keeping the front cover quite simple I feel it looks more appropriate for the older teenager audience. ‘Ariana Grande: kiss and tell’ targets girls because Ariana is a very popular pop singer and females are stereotypically interested in the love life and gossip of celebrities. ‘Top 40 pop downloads of 2014’ is commonly featured on music magazines around the end/start of a new year so I thought I would follow this convention. Music magazines also feature festival and concert reviews which is why I chose to include ‘V FEST…yay or nay?’. The use of colloquial language in this cover line will catch the eye of teenagers (who are the ones who use the slang#) and helps them connect to the magazine if similar informal language is used. (Yay or nay means if something is good or not).

SKY LINE: Although the skyline in this draft is advertising an iTunes voucher, I have changed my mind and plan to have it feature something which will stay constant on each issue of the magazine, for instance; ‘REVIEWS – NEW ARTISTS – TOP HITS – INTERVIEWS’. This gives a very brief over view for the magazine and will also keep the house style constant which creates a brand image along with the constant mast head, font and colour scheme.

PUGS: As this magazine is targeting teenagers, who typically don’t have much money because they’re in education, the presence of freebies and offers will attract them to buy the magazine for their benefit. The Itunes discount is placed in an eye-catching ‘bursting’ shape which connects to the magazine mast head while being placed in the top left third which is visible to the reader in a shop. Teenagers typically use the internet far more than adults therefore featuring an offer for an online song shop will appeal to teens more than a CD discount would.

MAIN COVER LINE: My man cover line is going to be a key quote from the interview on the double page spread. This is often used in magazines and it follows the conventions. The main cover line will be significantly larger than the rest of the cover lines and probably a different colour to highlight its importance and to catch the reader’s eye. I chose to place it in the left bottom third of the page because I think this is where it could be most visible if it was stacked on a shop shelf. By using a key quote from the artist it will catch the interest of the reader and –hopefully- cause them to buy and read the full article which is important for magazine sales.