Front Cover Conventions

 The front cover of a magazine is the most important part of a magazine because this is the first thing the reader will look at. At first glance the reader needs to see something that is eye catching to keep them interested for when they look carefully at the sell lines to get an idea of what is included in the magazine. Magazines must have a similar style and theme throughout each issue to become recognisable but must also differ to keep the reader coming back and buying each issue, for example the logo will be the same on every issue but the colour scheme may vary due to the artist being featured or it may be a special issue. While creating a front cover you must keep the target audience in mind as well as the genre of the magazine in order to create the most professional magazine

The masthead usually the most eye catching convention as it is generally the first thing we look at. The masthead usually has the biggest font on the magazine front cover so it is the first thing that the reader sees and the colour of it is usually different to the cover lines/ sell lines so that it stands out from everything. The masthead also needs to stand out from all the other competitors on the shelves otherwise the potential buyer will look at the more attractive magazines on offer. Sometimes well known magazines like 'Rolling Stone' or 'Kerrang!' will have part of the masthead covered with the head of whoever is on the front of the magazine this is because the magazine is so well known that the whole masthead doesn't need to be seen because people should already know what magazine it is, especially if the potential buyer is a regular reader. This is an example of Kerrang! covering part of their masthead with the band 30 Seconds to Mars.

The 'Z' formation rule is also an important because in a 'Z' formation the reader will see the logo (if there is one) in the top left hand corner and then read the masthead followed by the most important cover lines, sell lines and images which leads the reader to end up at the bar code in the bottom right hand corner allowing the reader to decide if they will buy the magazine or not. When creating a magazine the 'Z' formation rule is extremely important because it could determine whether the reader will buy the magazine or not, therefore whoever is designing the front cover of the magazine needs to put the most eye catching images and intriguing cover/sell lines to tempt the potential buyer to buy the magazine.

Q magazine is a good example of using the Z formation rule Starting at 'Q' then following onto '100 most shocking moments in music' which is intriguing then there are a few cover lines, then moving down to more cover lines which leads us to end up at the bar code where we then decide if we want to buy the magazine or not.

The Main image is the most important image on the page. Most magazine companies use their main image to show what that issue of the magazine is about, in the music magazine industry there will be an artist or band on the front cover usually from the waist up. The artist or band on the front cover will usually be the most popular artist from that week/month/year so it attracts more customers. The main image should be centred so it creates enough room around the outside for the sell lines and cover lines and the artist will be looking straight into the camera so it creates eye contact with the potential reader. If the potential reader is interested by what images are being shown then they will carry on to read the captions and if the captions interest the reader further then they will carry on to look at the article names and pages so they can read what its about.

The colour scheme, one of the first thing a reader will notice is the colours on the magazine and decide how attractive the magazine is, the more attractive the magazine is the more interested the reader will be. Having a colour scheme makes the overall magazine look more professional which will attract more customers.The colour scheme can also affect the readers mood for example bright colours like yellow can make the reader feel happy and cheerful while dark colours like black can make the reader feel depressed and upset. However in the music magazine industry the colour schemes are used to show what genre the magazine is and the audience they are trying to attract.

for example The Fly use dull colours in their background such as white, grey and black because it is an indie music they is trying to attract indie music lovers. Dull colours such as black are considered 'cool' by indie people as many of them only wear plain, dark and dull colours, their music taste ties in with their fashion style therefore indie magazines would want to use these colours. Similar to the Kaiser Chiefs on the front cover that are wearing plain colours like black, grey and brown.

Typography is the font and text on the page, the text needs to be eye catching and attractive in order to attract someone to the magazine. Most of the font should be the exact same, apart from the sell lines which can be different to attract the reader, this is because if there are too many different fonts on the page then the magazine will look messy and unattractive. The arrangement of the text includes font, font size, line length, leading and kerning this is important because the wrong arrangement could result in the magazine looking unprofessional.

A front cover and a contents page are very closely related, the front cover gets the reader interested about what else will be in the magazine therefore the contents page goes into more detail about what is on each page which interests the reader further. Both pages have images which makes the magazine more exciting and aesthetically pleasing rather than just a block of text.