Summary Of My Research

From the preliminary task to the research and planning, everything up until now has helped me to come up with the final idea for my music magazine, 'Current', a new, fresh magazine that features upcoming bands and artists. I know what i would like it to look like, who it will be aimed at, what codes and conventions i need to have on the magazine and what will feature in it.

Firstly I have learnt that the cover will contain all of the codes and conventions of music magazines, like a masthead, selling points, anchorage text, barcode, blurb, cover image and possibly a freebie. I have learnt that an important factor is the eye contact, if the eyes are looking at you it can make it more inviting, making you want to look inside or essentially pick up the magazine, however, if the eyes are not looking at you it makes it intriguing, that makes you wonder, 'what is in the magazine?'. Additionally i have learnt that the positioning of the masthead is very important, if it is put behind the cover image, it means that the magazine is a very established brand and they don't need to put the whole name on because people know it as well, respectively if it is put in-front of the cover image it can suggest that it is not know that well. Furthermore, by analysing the typography on front covers, i have learnt that using a bold font can make the audience, most importantly, look at your magazine, on the other hand using a thin font can make it look handwritten and sometimes a little hard to read. Using serifs can make it look older/traditional, although they wouldn't fit in with the codes and conventions of the music magazine I'm going to make. Using the right colour typography is key, each colour can represent a different mood, e.g. blues can make it feel cold, but it is crucial to put across the right impression of your magazine to the audience, e.g. using a black colour can make it look like a rock magazine, because black is associated with dark/mysterious emotions. Making sure that the typography of the anchorage text is clear is very important, the anchorage text is what tells you, in only a few words, what the article will be about, it can be a quote from the article or their name, but it needs to be really clear.
The sizing of the components on the cover is another really important thing, i have learnt that you can strategically place all of the components to make your reader, see the whole cover and understand the genre, what will be inside and crucially if it is aimed at the reader, because the masthead is positioned at the top you can place the anchorage text in the middle, below and smaller to draw your eye down the page, to read the anchorage text then any text in another colour the readers eye will be attracted to that next, it can be the selling points with what is in the magazine, the reader will know straight away if it is aimed at them, also depending on the colour of text, as i have talked about, it will tell the reader again if it is aimed at them.

From my analysis of contents pages I have learnt a lot of things which I need to do to follow the codes and conventions of music magazine, also I have learnt many things about the components and how they are made up to attract the audience.

Firstly I have learnt about how the page should be made up, it should include a title, images of some of the featured articles, sometimes adverts, all of the featured articles and their page numbers, a blurb, the page number positioned at the bottom of the page, further in formation like a website address and sometimes a note from the editor. My magazine will feature all these conventions in my magazine and I have to keep in mind my audience the whole time, making my articles really relevant so that my audience will want to read them and the advert will need to be relevant to them too, possibly a clothing/technology company. Most of the contents pages that I looked at have large numbers at the pictures, used a bit like anchorage text; they sometimes have some opacity on them to make the image behind still visible. Additionally, the contents page sometimes has a ‘note from the editor’ which would explain what the magazine contains and a little about the main article, I will probably have a ‘note from the editor’ to make it look more professional and to make it look more like a music magazine.

From my analysis of double page spreads I have learnt many things that I can use for my magazine, and to make it clear to the reader that they are reading a music magazine.

The codes and conventions of double page spreads are, they must have an article (obviously), have a series of pictures, sometimes a box out with another article and a title. The article is often about the artists’ life, their recent tour etc. but it must always use quotation marks to make it more personal, making you believe that the artist is talking to you. Also the pictures of the artist will need to be in different costumes and in different locations; I will need to take this point into consideration especially because the pictures are what ‘sells the story’. A box out can come in handy to divide the page up and provide something else for the reader to read, if they are in a hurry, they can read little snippets. Another useful technique that different institutions use is that they use a ‘drop cap’ to make your eye be drawn to the beginning of the article to start reading it.