Monday, 22 November 2010

Front Page Conventions & Analysis



Above is the Front Cover of IDJ magazine, I am analysing the key elements and conventions. The magazine features house style colours of Orange, Green, Black and White. These are used well to demonstrate consistency one the cover and on many other pages.


Language
The mast head is crucial in the use of the language, it sometimes informs the reader of the type of genre or sometimes is just a Magazine name with no kind of connection to the genre. Examples of meaningful mast heads would be;e

  • “IDJ”
    I believe this connects to the type of genre association because Disc Jockeys usually offer a night club vibe, and a clubbing vibe is seen from the mast head.

  • “MixMag”
    Again associated with dj’s and night life atmosphere. I think this connects to the mixing of different tracks and artists.

  • “Q”
    Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine.




Something else I noticed is the use of words to make the reader feel special and feel as if they are having the chance to read something other people will not. Also this is a suggestion that you wouldn’t find information and sources from any other magazine, making this magazine unique and gives the reader another reason to purchase it. Words used in the cover lines such as;

Secrets
Exclusive
Special


Main Image
This main image of the artist like most front covers acts at the background. The text and other elements are then layered over the top of this front cover. The artist shown would always fit into the Genre of music that the magazine covers, in this case ‘DJ, Clubbing and House Music’. The picture features the house style colours.

Position Signs: The camera & The viewer
·         The main focal point of the shot (lens centre) is the artists face wearing glasses to portray an important person hiding behind the glasses.

Here is a picture of the shoot performed to get the final shot.


·         The point of view is high up within the shot and very close to the camera itself.

·         The picture looks like it has been taken lower than the artist to represent how the audience sees the artist. This could be showing a hierarchy betweens fans and artists importance.






Masthead
The size is perfect, large and bold. This masthead is white, which is captured in the main image, although the layering of the masthead then falls on the section of white is it still distinctive and recognisable. They could have used a different colour on the logo this time, however then that would not be classed as consistent from one magazine to the next. The house colours for each magazine can be different, however if the masthead should remain the same throughout every magazine.
An example of that is shown here:

 


Masthead consistancy is shown in all of the 3 images.


Selling Line
The main selling line for IDJ magazine is 'International DJ 100% Dance Music'. This makes a clear statement as to the intended genre of music chosen for the magazine. I plan on making my sell line refer to the music genre of my choice. It varies precicley in location from magazine to magazine and occasionally it varies in size.


Main Cover Line
Something not so easy to do it differenciating from the Cover Lines to the Main Cover Lines. The only thing making them at all different is the size of the text, and size of the surrounding coloured box, as shown below. I will ensure that my cover lines and main cover lines can be easliy distingusished between. 


Cover Lines
The cover lines I would say are very eyecatching because of the use of different house style colours. Although the text is the same colours and font, the background colours are different, orange and green with black writing or green and black with white writing.

An example of that is shown here:





The location of the cover lines do differ from magazine to magazine however usually tend to be somewhere of the top left hand side layered like they are over lapping each other. I think this could represent the connection from one article or featured artist to another. Nothing is randomly included within this magazine without it having some connection to another part of it, the content must all by relative and



 

1 comment:

  1. Anna,

    You seem to be quite behind with this (though I know that you lost a lot of work the other day).

    You need to:
    - remember to post your choice of genre (step 3).
    - Complete steps 4, 5, 6 & 7 by the start of next week (make use of your free time and work from home when possible, to avoid falling further behind.)

    Good luck with the rest of the coursework,

    Emma x

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