FRONT COVERS
VIBE MASTHEAD
My masthead is very conventional as it is a third of the page and goes
across the full width of the page. It is positioned behind the head of my
artist which is conventional as it shows that my magazine is well established
as the readers will already know the name of my magazine, so don’t have to be
able to see every single letters in the masthead to know what the name of the
magazine is. The pale pink colour of my masthead sets the house style for the
magazine. Above my masthead you can see my puff which is positioned
conventionally as it is placed above my masthead, which is one of the first
things a potential buyer will look at, so therefore they will see the puff
quickly after picking up the magazine. I used a superlative for my puff
in order to grasp a readers attention.
Q MASTHEAD
Q’s masthead does have conventions however it is not fully conventional.
The depth of the masthead is a third, which is the conventional size for a
masthead however it doesn’t spread across the whole page, it is in the left
hand corner. Due to the large size of the letter Q and the contrasting colours
of the masthead compared to the rest of the front cover, the masthead is still
a very prominent feature, even without being the conventional size. It is able to do this
as
Q has a strong brand identity and is
well established. The artist’s
heads are still positioned in front of the masthead which is the company’s way
of portraying that they are a well-established magazine company. Their red a
white masthead sets the house style for the magazine. Their puff is positioned
in the same way as mine which is above the masthead in order for the potential
buyer to notice it quickly.
VIBE PHOTO
My feature article photo is a teenage girl pop artist. I chose a single
person and a medium close-up shot as I believe it helps the reader or potential
buyer to engage with the artist. To emphasize this point I also made sure that
my artist is making strong eye-contact, which is conventional of a feature
article photo. My photo is in the centre and her shoulders go close to the
sides of the magazine and her head is just over half way up the masthead which
is a good and conventional size for a feature article photo. She is showing
attitude in order to attract potential buyers to the magazine.
Q PHOTO
Q’s feature article photo is of a world famous band U2 which shows that
Q are a very accomplished, well known and significant company as U2 are one of
the biggest bands in the world, that everyone knows of. Their photo is unconventional for a feature article
photo as the image has not been cut out so therefore all the mise-en-scene is
visible behind, which gives the reader a greater understanding of their location which
gives a hint to what the article may be about. They are also not all making eye contact which means the reader can
only engage with the two that are.The camera is just below eye level so that
the members are slightly looking down to make them look more intimidating,
which is conventional of a ‘rock star’ style.
VIBE COVERLINE
My coverline is conventional as the
font is a lot larger than that of the fonts of the plugs making it stand out to
the reader and therefore making it clear that it is the main subject of the
magazine. It is also in bold and completely capitalized which emphasizes the
importance of it to be seen quickly by the reader. I used a slightly
unconventional technique of giving the letters an ‘outer glow’ as I believe
that this works well with the glitter of the cover stars dress and connotes
glowing lights, such as spotlights, which link to fame therefore representing
the star featured.
Q COVERLINE
Q’s coverline is very unconventional as
it is tilted and goes over the centre of the feature article photo. As the
photo is a long shot, this doesn’t block the artists in the photo, or draw all
the attention away from them, so although unconventional - it still works well.
It is also unconventional due to the font used, the coverline is written in the
same font that is used for the U2 logo, and therefore helps it relate to the
artists. Where my Vibe Magazine used a glow to represent my artist through the
coverline, Q used a font. Although most aspects are unconventional, it does
still follow conventions such as the font being much larger than the font of
the plugs and being bold so that it stands out straight away to the reader.
VIBE PLUGS
Vibe has three sets of plugs that are
flushed right, flushed left and along the bottom.The plugs along the bottom
unconventional as it is rare for plugs to be central on a front cover as this means
going over the feature article photo. As my strip is only thin it doesn’t block
the photo too much and I also changed the opacity so the rectangle going across
is transparent and therefore the photo can still be seen through the plug. The
plugs at the sides are conventional as they are flushed left and right and do
not obstruct the feature article photo. It is also conventional that I have
used a variety of fonts and colors in my plugs, but have still managed to stick
to my colour scheme of pink, yellow and white.
Q PLUGS
Q’s plugs are unconventional as they
going across the entire width of the page and over the feature article
photograph. This portrays that even though Q are conventional, they can be
‘rebellious’ and ‘break the rules’ which represents their demographic. All the
plugs are in the same font as the U2 logo font which means that whilst a reader
may be reading about another artist, the attention will still be on the main
feature article. Q are unconventional here as their font or colour doesn’t vary
at all in the whole of the yellow strip, except for a few slight font size
changes. Another thing that is unconventional is the fact that there are small
photos with the plugs, which is unusual as a front cover usually only has one
photo, but this gives Q a sense of individuality and makes it unique and
different to other magazines. However the plug running across the bottom is
conventional as two different colours are used and it is written in a different
font so there is some variety.
Overall I believe both Q and Vibe are
conventional music magazines, with unconventional features which makes them
unique in the magazine industry.
CONTENTS PAGES
VIBE TITLE
My
title is unconventional due to the font I have chosen to use. I chose the font
‘Finger Paint’ as I wanted to portray how my demographic are fun and creative,
and don’t always stick to the rules. The position of it however is conventional
as it is in the top left-hand corner which is the first place a reader would
look.
Q TITLE
Q’s
title is conventional due to them using a sophisticated font that is bold,
capitalised and clear to read. It is also conventional that they have
positioned it in the top left-hand corner as it would be the first place that a
reader will look. They have also been conventional by using their colour scheme
of white, black and red which means that they’ve immediately carried their
house style through to the contents page, and a reader will see that from the
first word they read.
VIBE (COVERSTAR)
PHOTO
The
photos on my contents page are fairly unconventional due to the amount of
photos that I’ve used, however my cover stars photo is slightly larger than the
photos of the other artists which is conventional as it shows to the reader
that she is the main focus of the magazine. However the size difference isn’t
really obvious as I believe that the article was already highly promoted on the
front cover and I wanted to make sure I covered many other artist articles as
well, to make my magazine appeal to a wider group of people. I used a posed
shot with a lot of personality and attitude to create energy in the photo and
make the reader intrigued to see what the article is about.
U2 (COVERSTAR)
PHOTO
Q’s
magazine is similar to my magazines and is again quite unconventional due to
the amount of photos they have used. Again, unconventionally, the cover stars
are not the biggest photos on the page as there is another band that have a
’21-Page Special’ in the magazine and therefore have the biggest photo. I
believe that this is done due to U2 already being highly promoted on the front
cover, and therefore making this band bigger gives them the chance to be
promoted as well. This photo of the band New Order is unconventional as it goes
across the two pages of the double paged contents, but I believe this works as
it quickly catches the readers attention as it is in the centre of the contents
page. The photo of U2 is very similar to the photo on the front cover, it is
from the same photoshoot which is a conventional thing for a magazine to do.
But this helps any reader who looks inside the magazine to find U2 after
looking at the front cover as they will recognise the photo quickly which means
that it doesn’t matter that the photo itself if smaller than how it
conventionally should be. VIBE GOSSIP
COLUMN
My
‘Gossip Columns’ are conventional for pop magazines and are often used in
magazines such as ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘We Heart Pop’ however they are
unconventional in magazines as a general. Even though the columns aren’t
particularly about music, they’re about the daily lives of the people who make
the music which attracts readers as they like to know what the artists are up
to.
VIBE REVIEW
COLUMN
I
have included Q’s idea of a review column. This is unconventional for a
contents page, however I thought it would be a good thing to include as I
believe it strongly appeals to my demographic. The social groups of my
demographic are new affluent workers and emerging service workers, both of
which are into concerts, festivals and clubbing, which is what the reviews in
this columns are about.
Q REVIEW COLUMN
Like
the review column in Vibe magazine, it is unconventional. However, again I
think it works as it appeals to Q’s demographic and brings originality to the
magazine.
VIBE GENERAL
LAYOUT
Vibes
layout in general is fairly unconventional as it is a double page spread, and
also has more photos than typically conventional. However it does have
conventions such as clear page numbers and headings for the artists and the
actual photos themselves are fairly conventional in terms of size and poses.
Q GENERAL LAYOUT
Q’s
layout is unconventional as it is also a double page spread and has more
writing and photos than that of a typical contents page.
DOUBLE PAGE
SPREAD
VIBE TITLE
The
positioning of my title is unconventional as it follows the shape of my models
body. It is also quite short as it is only one-word long. I decided to create
my title to be quite unconventional in order to bring originality to my
magazine and also so that the reader sees the photo and title as one so there
is a clear link that they are connected. Although unconventional, l I did
follow a few key conventions such as my title being big, clear and bold and
also it being positioned at the top of the page.
Q TITLE
Q’s
title is conventional. It is big and bold, and the colour contrasts to that of
the background so it is very clear to read. It does its job of giving the reader a brief idea on what the article is going to be about. The font used is also conventional as it is bold and formal so clear to read.
VIBE PHOTO
Vibes
photo is unconventional as it goes along the top of both pages of the double
page spread instead of just taking up one whole page. It is also unconventional
that the photo is not cut out and that all the mise-en-scene is visible. I did
this so that the reader would have an insight into how the artist made her
album, as the photo is taken in a music studio. Although the positioning is
unconventional, the size is still conventional as it is still the same large
size, it is just landscape rather than portrait.
Q PHOTO
Q’s
photo is very similar to Vibe’s so again is unconventional. It goes across the
top of the two double pages rather than just being the size of one of the A4
pages, however it is still just as large as it should be, so the size is
conventional.
VIBE COLUMN
(MUST KNOW)
This
column is unconventional, however I got this idea from Q magazine. I believed
that it would be useful for my demographic, who would be serious about music
themselves, as it gives them an insight into the steps a successful artist has
took to create her album. It also gives them the names of producers and
songwriters to help give others a starting place when trying to produce their
own album.
Q COLUMN (MUST
KNOW)
Like
Vibe’s Must Know column, it is unconventional. However I believe that it gives
the double page spread a sense of originality and makes it unique to other
magazines. It offers its demographic something that other magazines don’t – and
that’s the information they need if they want to become a successful artist,
like the star shown, which helps the reader engage with the magazine.
VIBE PULL QUOTE
My
pull quote is a conventional feature, as it is a part of the text that is
pulled out and enlarged. I chose the quote ‘This life I had been living wasn’t
me’ as I knew that a potential reader would read that before anything else, so
needed something that would intrigue them to the article. I thought this quote
would be suitable as it makes the reader want to read and find out, what the
life she had been living was like, why it wasn’t who she actually is and who
she really is.
Q PULL QUOTE
Q’s
pull quote is conventional as it has been pulled from the text and been bolded
and enlarged. They also chose a suitable quote that would intrigue a potential
reader as ‘I was on tour drinking too much and going off the rails’ makes the
reader want to know what caused her to do this and what she did exactly that
was going off the rails.
VIBE DROP CAP /
STANDFIRST
My
drop cap is conventional as it is much larger and bolder than any of the other
letters in the text and goes down the conventional depth of 4 lines. This means
that it is bold and eye-catching and directs the readers eyes to the start of
the article. It also follows my house style of pink, yellow, white and black
and it is pink and white and the pink matches the pink of my masthead. My
standfirst is conventional as it is a lot bolder than the other text in my
article however, it is unconventional as I have used two different colours. I
did this because I wanted the artists name ‘Aaliyah Hart’ in a different
colour so it could stand out boldly so
it is clear what the article is about.
Q DROP CAP /
STANDFIRST
Q’s
dropcap is conventional as it is at the beginning of the article as is the
conventional size of a dropcap. It also sticks to the colour scheme of the
magazine as it is red and white and therefore continues the housestyle. Q’s
standfirst is also conventional as it is a lot larger than the other text in
the article and is also a different colour so it stands out.
VIBE COLUMN
My
column is unconventional in general of a double page spread, however it is
quite conventional in pop genre magazines. Not all artists can have an entire
article written about them so this feature gives them a bit of advertisement
and also gives the reader an insight of other artists and what they will be up
to soon. This range of artists and information gives Vibe the opportunity to
wider their demographic and expand their magazine.
Q COLUMN
Q’s
column is unconventional for a double page spread however it gives lots of
extra information. It gives information on other artists which don’t have a
whole article to themselves which helps readers and their fans know what
they’re up to and what they can expect from them soon, which adds originality
to their magazine and also gives them a chance to expand their demographic.
VIBE RUNNING
HEAD
My
running head is conventional of a pop-magazine. It carriers the house style
immediately through as well as giving the reader a brief sense on what the
articles on. I used the pink that I used for my masthead so that the house
style is clear and also changed the opacity of it so the mise-en-scene of my
phot is still visible behind.
Q RUNNING HEAD
Q’s
running head is conventional of a music magazine. It continues Q’s house style
through to the double page spread as it carries on the read and white colour
scheme. It also gives the reader a brief insight into what the article is
about.
VIBE PHOTOS
It
is conventional for a double page s[read to also include some smaller photos.
Although, unconventionally, I positioned them all together, this was to show,
in order, the journey the artist went on to create her album and the different
steps she took. Then below these photos I included a captioned photo of her
album cover that I made to show the finished product of her hard work, and to
portray to my readers that this is what you can achieve if you don’t give up.
LI’S SIGNATURE
Including
an artist signature is an unconventional feature however it is a unique feature
that I have decided to use as I believe that it gives the reader a personal
engagement with the artist and highlights that this article is her story, from
her personal point of view.
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