Answer 1

My front cover uses a lot of conventional features found in magazines that are already on the market. There are the obvious features such as a title, photo and features but there are also other features such as banners, smaller feature photos, barcodes, prices and issue numbers. It also follows a common colour scheme of many magazines. Red, black and white was chosen by my target audience and I chose to follow this in order to make it more appealing to my target audience and their age range. It also represents what I want my magazine to portray, the colours are usually associated with rock and indie music which is what is featured in my magazine so I intend for my audience to be able to look at it and know exactly what type of music is in it before they get close.

My contents page uses features such as titled introductions, feature listings, images, subscriptions and social media contacts. These are all found in every single magazine already on the market and I again followed my house theme through to this by sticking to red, white and black. I also have an added feature of a band index which is common in magazines such as NME, I chose to do this so my audience have a feature that is not found in every magazine however my target audience will probably already read NME therefore it is a feature they are used to and they know how to use effectively, it is also a feature that is simple enough for people that are not used to them to be able to use.

My article has conventional features such as the artist name, images, columns and a story. I think I have developed the idea of a two page spread by dedicating one side of my page to images of the band rather than spreading them out across the two pages, this makes it look neater and follows the conventions of my magazine. The images were put in line and are arranged which I think represents the story written on the opposite page as they are talking about finally getting their lives back in line and they’ve straightened themselves out. The story is similar to those found in other magazines; it talks about a band finally making it after years of struggle with drugs and alcohol which is common in rock magazines. The layout is similar to that of other magazines as it all arranged in columns under a bigger heading introducing the band.

I challenged the conventions of pre-existing magazines on my article by putting the band name above the images on the left hand side of the page rather than above the story on the right like most magazines do. I chose to do this as I felt it looked better and fitted better than it did when I originally put it on the right hand side. I don’t think this would have any effect on my reader and their enjoyment whilst reading a magazine as it doesn’t have impact on the story, just on the layout.