Magazine front cover conventions

The conventions of magazine front covers are:



-Masthead
-Large image in the centre of the page
-Coverlines either side of the image
-Often famous stars on the front
-Image of star is usually medium close up
-Barcodes in the bottom right corner
-Background often plain to make image stand out more
-Well known brands cover some of the masthead with main image
-Issue information
-Colours stand out off the page
-
What some of these conventions mean.

-Masthead = Title of the magazine, usually at the top of the page
-Coverlines = little snippits of articles that are inside the magazine
-Puffs =


Magazines follow these conventions for the front covers because there target audience and general public can see just by the way the front cover is laid out that its a magazine. without these conventions people may struggle to identify the magazine for what it is. Just looking at the image i have posted above you can see that kerrang follow the basic conventions of a magazine front cover. these being that they have a large image in the centre of the page. The image is of a famous person "Billy joe" and they are able to cover part of the masthead because they are a well known brand. either side of the image they have a few coverlines and issue information to give the reader a preview of what will be on the inside. finally they have the barcode in the bottom right hand corner of the page like every other magazine.

In class we looked at a number of different magazine covers. these are the notes i made on the different magazine covers and the conventions that these magazine covers follow.


GQ magazine Conventions

-Masthead - partly covered by image
-Medium close image
-Image in the centre of the page
-Image is of a famous person
-Coverlines
-Masculine colours because its a male magazine
-Barcode in the bottom right corner
-Plain background and writing standout more
-


Company magazine conventions

-Masthead - partly covered by image
-Coverlines either side of the image
-Issue information
-Medium close up image
-Image of a famous person
-Femine colours because of the target audience
-Barcode in the bottom right corner
-Image in the centre of the page
-Plain background so that the iamge and the writing stand out more

NME Magazine conventions

-Masthead
-Famous star for image
-image in the centre of the page
-Coverlines either side
-Different background, means image isnt as pronounced
-Barcode in bottom right corner
-Issue information
-More neutral colours because its a different target audience
-Close up image



Good Housekeeping Magazine conventions

-Masthead
-Medium close up of image
-Famous star in image
-Image partly covers up masthead because brand is well known
-Coverlines either side
-Barcode right hand side
-Feminine colours to go with target audience
-Issue information
-Image in the centre


Even though i have shown completely different magazines above. Most of them have the same or simlar conventions. Magazine companies do this because the general public are used to seeing this layout on frontcovers. if a magazine was to come out with a completely different layout to the ones already out there, it would probably struggle as people wouldnt know what it was from just looking at it.