I’ve presented numerous front-cover examples of typical music-themed magazines to analyse some of the general common layout techniques and methods that make a magazine bold and attractive.
From the above images I can almost instantly conclude that a good high quality image is absolutely necessary in order to demonstrate a consistent professional quality. Medium-close-up shots are very common, usually focusing on the main story or interview within the magazine based on a band, artist, musician etc.
Bold fonts have to be used throughout to emphasise particular headlines, stories etc. Other additional information is normally less significant to the issue and as such, the font is then much smaller. If we look at this issue of MOJOwe can see that the number of colours used for the fonts are limited to 2 or 3. This helps to contain the bold and attractive nature of the cover without taking too much focus away from the main image. In this case, the background image is greyscale (black and white) and so the use of red and white font colours works as an effective contrast from the image. Quotes from the main story are also very common to give the reader an inside preview of the story, in this case, that of Bob Dylan – “I don’t break the rules…because there are no rules!” The font type and positioning here relates to the rebellious nature of the quote. The banner across the top of the cover looks as though it was created to seem external to the content of the magazine, given that it refers to a free CD offer. The colours used also differ quite dramatically from the rest of the page to detach from the house style a little.
From the above front covers, I can assume that the target audience of majority music magazines would generally be music-lovers, musicians and artists and possibly people interested in general pop culture, both male and female, aged around 16 to 30. Given that I am basing my design on a similar type of magazine, I should probably aim it towards a similar target audience as well.
From the above images I can almost instantly conclude that a good high quality image is absolutely necessary in order to demonstrate a consistent professional quality. Medium-close-up shots are very common, usually focusing on the main story or interview within the magazine based on a band, artist, musician etc.
Bold fonts have to be used throughout to emphasise particular headlines, stories etc. Other additional information is normally less significant to the issue and as such, the font is then much smaller. If we look at this issue of MOJO
From the above front covers, I can assume that the target audience of majority music magazines would generally be music-lovers, musicians and artists and possibly people interested in general pop culture, both male and female, aged around 16 to 30. Given that I am basing my design on a similar type of magazine, I should probably aim it towards a similar target audience as well.