Codes and Conventions

Did my magazine follow them?

The elements of codes and conventions

• Photographs• Articles• Layout• Masthead• Barcode• Text• Colour

Scheme

• Price• Page

Numbers• Date• Writing Style• Issue

Number• Fonts

Front CoverThe photograph I have used is a mid shot like the one used for NME. My model is looking straight at the camera as are all of the models in the magazines I researched and it has a bright tone like NME.

My image is placed in the centre of the page with the logo placed in the top left. Her name is placed over the photo similar to “Oasis” on the cover of NME. The band names and features I placed around the image in order to not take any attention away.

The barcode is situated in the same place as the magazines I researched but at a different angle to cover up an unattractive area of the photo.

My colour scheme is yellow and black, going against music magazine conventions as they are stereotypically known to use red, black, white and blue.

Price is different for every magazine and mine was cheaper than both Q and Mojo but more expensive than NME. This was because my content was similar to NME however it was more up market and aimed at a slightly older audience who have more disposable income.

I placed the date and issue number together under the name of the magazine so that it could be identified straight away. The date was placed on the barcode of each of the magazines I researched but the issue number wasn’t revealed at all.

Similar fonts have been used on each magazine I researched, which were bold and all capital letters. I kept the capital letters but I felt when the text was bold it stood out too much, taking focus from the image.

The text “Chloe Shepherd as innocent as she seems?” used on my cover was based on Q magazine’s “Is Johnny Borrell finally as good as he says?” tagline.

The text I have included is about the Brit Awards and other bands included inside the magazine. This is very similar to NME and Q.

Contents PageI have used several photographs on this page as have NME and Q. They are a mixture of black and white, live and studio as requested by my target audience and this is used in Q.

I have used a simple layout much like Q but the text and images are on opposite sides of the page. All of the magazines have their images and text in a straight line so I have gone against convention in placing a cut out image where the text would usually go. This was based upon the image of Chris Martin from the Q contents overlapping the other images.

The headings are based on NME’s contents. “News”, “Reviews”, “Live” were the ones I developed into my own contents.

The colour scheme of this page is red, black and white. This is the same as Mojo and similar to Q.

I have placed page numbers at the bottom right which is a major convention of all magazines.

Titles are all in bold and large with text underneath regular. Simple and easy to read. Features is in red to distinguish it from the other text

The text underneath each act gives a small explanation of what they feature as is done in both Q and Mojo.

The masthead is placed at the top of the page as usual and I have included the date, issue number and logo here as well like Mojo.

Website placed at the bottom of the page like Q

Double Paged SpreadPhotographs are arranged in polaroid photos like in Mojo and NME contents page. Mixture of black and white but all live photos like NME.

My article is quite long, taking up the majority of the page. This is different to the other magazines as although they have a lot of text it is made up of more than one article.

The layout of each magazine I researched was different leading me to believe that there are not as many conventions for these pages as the contents and front cover. I put the title at the top of the page. One side was focused on images and the other on text like Q.

The page numbers are still in the same place so the reader always knows where to look.

Writing Style of the article is not too formal but is informative about where the bands are from and what type of music they play

Starts with a large letter as does every article in NME.

The black lines down the side of the page were a continuation of the contents design to make sure they looked like they were from the same magazine.

The colour scheme is black, white and red to match the contents.

The title is done in a simple font with capital letters like the NME page