When designing my magazine, I needed something to look up to for ideas. I thought that if I followed the style of one magazine along with its basic conventions, then I would be successful. I used NME magazine as I thought that it's a very professional and a popular magazine in the indie/rock genre. I also think that the house style works extremely successfully and fits in with the target audience.
My cover image of my magazine fits within the usual photographs that NME magazine uses. A close up image of the artist giving direct eye contact to the audience. This attracts the audience as it appeals to all different social types and draws them into purchasing the magazine as it grabs all of their attention. NME successfully uses this technique therefore I felt it was necessary to use as it is a magazine convention.
I have used the same colour scheme of red, black and white. The masthead however, is very different as I chose not to use a logo and just stuck with the simple word stretched across the main image; I chose not to go for the Black, red and white title as it's famously associated with NME magazine and I wanted to create my own feature that stood out and was easily associated with the magazine. I can use this masthead on any cover with any photo and it would still look realistic and professional. Black tends to compliment most colours so having it permanently in the house style makes the magazine very consistent and well-known. I decided to use a edgy font that isn't regularly used on front covers, I have capitalised my masthead to make it jump out from the page and catch the audience eyes. The typeface looks extremely scruffy however it fits in with my target audience.
The thing i liked most about the NME contents page was the band index. I have chosen to stick to my colour scheme and use a chunky, bold font with my title 'GRANITE contents' on the top right hand side of the double page. This stands out amongst the rest of the cover as
the black and red stand out on top of the white background. I like the fact that bands and artists are featured in not only my contents but some of them are also listened in the NME contents because it allows the audience to know which artists are going to be in the magazine that month, and immediately attracts fans instantly instead of them having to
guess or flick thought the whole magazine to find out.
I also featured the page number and artists name in two different colours, to make the artists names stand out the most. By having this feature it was a quick way to make my magazine appear different and effective as it's not a consistent feature in NME however I would continue to use it. Because i think it's a unique part that makes GRANITE.
It was important that I included the main artists head-line in big, bold writing which was placed at the bottom of the page underneath Charlotte in big black capitalised font. I decided to make this sell line the biggest on the front cover; my whole article inside my magazine is base on Charlotte and her life.
I think the magazine would look very bare and boring without the main headline appearing larger than the rest of text; it wouldn't look complete. Similar to NME, I featured the artists name in larger text of a different colour to draw immediate attention to it. Her name is also featured in a different font to the rest of the text to grab more attention.
The contents page included all of the conventions of a magazine such as the regulars, features and on the cover. I included plenty of images in my contents page to make it look more interesting as most contents pages look quite plain and actually turn the reader against looking at them. I chose to include an subscription box as I wanted to break up the text on the contents page so things popped out to the readers and it wasn't all just one big heap of writing. I included a social networking area on the bottom right hand side of the page as I want the magazine to interact with it's readers very regularly, which fits in well with their interests and the personal relationships of the uses and gratifications theory
The main article features many conventions of a magazine such as the big, bold pull out quotes, full bleed images, small single photos to one hand size of the page that where to do with Camden round house, Charlotte and some live gigs images. All images that are related to my article and strongly appeal to my target audience. From making some final adjustments I was able to make my magazine look more realistic and professional and most importantly appeal to the audience more. I chose images in this article that stood out well and represented the type of language that was included inside it; for example taboo language this fits in perfectly to the image of where Charlotte is standing leaning on the trolley pulling a aggressive face. This conveys that Charlotte is very careless and rebellious. I used 3 columns for the articles layout as it makes the magazine easier to read whilst giving it a professional look. I also used pull out quotes which grabs readers eyes even before they read the article. Using these conventions simply and easily allowed my magazine to look more successful and professional.
Generally speaking, by basing my magazine on an existing magazine (NME) and using its main codes and conventions, I think it has helped me to make my magazine look professional and realistic.
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