Planning - Conventions of a Magazine Cover

Conventions of a Magazine Cover

Ø  Promotion banner

A promotional banner most commonly features at the top of a magazine cover; it is usually exclusive to the target audience and would interest them most. This is seen in the ‘Total Film’ magazine. It is usually in the same typography as the rest of the magazine and is not in bold font due to it not being the intended focus on the cover.

Ø  Mast head

The mast head is the name of the magazine and should be the most recognisable feature on the magazine cover. The target audience can easily recognise it and the more general audience can familiarize themselves with the brand. All three magazine covers have the celebrity layered on top of the masthead as all three of them are popular and well known magazines and therefore the style of the cover and the few letters used will be recognisable by the audience.

Ø  Headline

The purpose of a headline is to attract attention to a magazine. It also conveys the biggest story featured in the magazine and the most anticipated. This is seen on the cover of ‘Vogue’- Beyoncé is arguably the most iconic woman in the media, so just her name alone stands as a headline. It is clearer on the ‘Empire’ cover as the font is larger and bolder than the other text on the cover and corresponds to the main image. Sometimes the headline has a caption to further the information about the story inside. This is again, seen on the ‘Vogue’ cover.

Ø  Main image

The main image is the magazine cover background and corresponds to the headline. The picture conveys what stories will be in the magazine and also, along side with the headline, grabs the audience’s attention. Usually it is a photo, from a photo-shoot exclusive to the magazine and the celebrity acts as an endorsement because it is exclusive. The celebrity normally poses in the form of ‘direct mode of address’ so that the audience can get a feel for the tone, this is also done through the body language, facial expressions and colour scheme. In ‘Vogue’ the colour scheme is neutral colours which suggest a calm and relaxed tone. Whereas ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ have contrasting and bold colours to convey the tone of ‘excitement’ and that it is packed full of exclusive interviews.

Ø  Secondary image

The secondary image is a second image on the magazine cover that leads to another story in the magazine. It is much smaller than the main image and isn’t seen at first glance. This is due to the Gutenberg theory which suggests that an audience will read the front cover from right to left and top to bottom; the secondary image will be one of the last pieces of information that the audience will see, despite being a series of pictures. In both ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ the secondary image is in the format of a film strip going horizontally and at a slant across the cover, and is at the bottom. This fits in with the general house-style of both magazines and gives an insight into information featured in the magazine. This isn’t seen on the ‘Vogue’ front cover due to the tone being more formal and it being a more ‘sophisticated’ magazine genre whose target audience is mainly girls/women. Therefore, doesn’t need a secondary image to convince the audience to purchase the issue.

Ø  Colloquial language

Due to my target audience being male and females between the ages of 15-19, keeping them interested in the subjects being raised on the front cover, and them being able to relate to the language being used, it is important to create the correct tone. I don’t want the tone to be too formal as it will lose the target audiences interest and may come across as patronising when addressing some important issues, such as some education tips. If the tone is informal and relaxed then the target audience will be inclined to purchase or read the magazine in the future. An example of a magazine that does this is ‘Empire’, as the vocabulary is targeted at film enthusiasts it reviews films in stars but also with colloquial adjectives, such as ‘epic’ and ‘ultimate’.

Ø  Punctuation

The use of punctuation can make the cover seem direct to the person reading the magazine. For example, rhetorical questions engage the audience and usually contain the answer within. Exclamation marks are used to emphasise key information, and excitement. This is seen in all three magazines as they all include exclusive stories and coverlines.