Magazine Codes and Conventions

Front Cover Codes and Conventions:Following is a collection of magazine covers from three different genres:• Pop• Rock and Roll• AcousticFor our magazine, we intend to choose acoustic, so the following is a comparison of how the different genres use the different codes and conventions

Masthead – Clearly shown at top of page. Some letters are filled in with different colours to form a unique logo. Central image overlaps the masthead, suggesting that it belongs to a well known magazine

Main cover line – Relates to the central image as a way of advertising the article

Central image – Uses Bruno Mars as a main focus due to his popularity status and his link to the main cover line’s article

Barcode and issue number – Barcode stands out with the white on blue background as well as fitting with the colour scheme. They are both situated in a visible place, without interfering with the layout of the page.

Cover line – smaller than the main cover lines as an attempt to stand out, but not take up too much of the page

Puff Pieces - four small points all placed together. All probably relevant articles or information that links together, but isn’t strong enough to carry the magazine. The white text for the second point is used to stand out against the yellow points as a significant point.

Masthead – Rolling stones is a well known magazine, yet they opted to keep it in the foreground instead of having the image overlap. The Masthead is a lot higher than the traditional layout for a magazine and may become confused with the main cover line directly below it.

Central Image – The central image of Madonna takes up the entire page and is practically a background on its own. The Main Cover line refers to the specific picture.

Main Cover Line – An equal sized font to the mast head which could become potentially confusing. It’s clear that the main focus of the magazine is actually Madonna so it makes sense to put a large cover line and image to promote the topic.

Additional Cover Lines – What separates this magazine to most others is the lack of detail on the front. There are no issue numbers or bar codes and there is only five cover lines and the four that aren’t the main article are squashed into the bottom corner of the page, potentially to make the central image more prominent

Masthead – Probably Because of its specific target audience, Acoustic has no problems with putting the central image over the mast head. Seeing as it is only a small portion of the masthead covered, it’s still clear what it says. The white masthead stands out against the darker background. The simple design and small character spacing fits the basic design of the rest of the magazine and the genre

Central Image – The central image is of a well known acoustic musician, meaning that the appeal of the magazine will increase. A well known musician will usually sell the magazine more than an up and coming artist. The background has been cropped out so the artist is the main attraction on a blank background. The mise-en-scene is typical for an acoustic magazine, due to the use of an acoustic guitar and a casual look typical of an artist

Main Cover Line – Linked directly to the central image, the main cover line is clearly about the artist, Passenger. As it is more unique and specific to this magazine edition than the masthead, the main cover line overlaps the image so it is visible and shown to be related to the image.

Cover Lines – Besides the main cover line, all the others are limited to the bottom right corner of the page, showing they are significant, but not as interesting as the main headline

Contents Page Codes and ConventionsThe next few slides are of contents pages from acoustic magazines. To find the best ways of designing a contents page, we chose to analyse three contents pages that follow different designs, looking for the overlapping themes amongst them

Masthead – The box which holds the masthead also has the logo and issue number. Because the contents page is a double page spread, it makes sense to use all the space provided instead of leaving it blank. Whilst the issue number matches the red and white colour scheme being used in the logo, the heading stands out with black text on the red background.

Central Image – The main image is numbered and related to a certain article