Magazine Front Cover Conventions.

They are many magazine front cover conventions which all help sell the magazine.


Masthead title piece- the masthead is basically the magazine name/title. The masthead is usually displayed in the top left hand corner. This is so when they are stacked on a shelf the people who are buying the magazine can identify it quickly and easily.


Price- The price is how much the magazine is going to cost. It is generally in a small font that stands out to the buyer and the price may be in a bigger font if they is a special offer on.


Date- The date is important specially for magazine which you can collect on a weekly/monthly basis. If the magazine is monthly the date's are generally Saturday to Friday. However if the magazine is monthly it is dated a month ahead.


Issue Number- The issue number is also important for people who collect magazines. The issue number is basically a tally of magazines.


Barcode- The barcode is read electronically and decoded into usable information, this happens when the magazine is bought.


Teaser- The teaser is one word/phrase which acts as an attention grabber to the people who are buying the magazine.


Main Feature: Headline- A headline is a phrase that may summarise the main point of the main feature. In large print, different style and bold colours in order to catch the attention of the reader.


Subtitle- The subtitle is a smaller headline that may summarise the feature.


Smaller Feature- The smaller feature is features which are included in the magazine.


Images- The size of the magazine image will either be CU (close up) to Med CU. Ranges from one main image to x amount featuring one main image and smaller images. Helps make the page look more interesting. It can add understanding of a story and/or entice someone to read the magazine.


Font- The font is the style and size of the text used throughout the magazine.


Colour- The colour is the specific/stylistic/thematic types of colour throughout the magazine.


Graphics- The graphics are graphical shapes which highlight the feature(s)


Offers/adverts Blurb- Banner-style shape featuring free products/promotions.


Other Conventions;


Left Third- A lot of important information designed to attract potential readers is placed in the left-hand sidde vertical third of the front cover page. This is in case the magazine is displayed in a horizontal shelving system rather than a vertical one.


Cover Lines- The cover lines are information about the major articles given on the front page of the magazine.


Sell Lines- These are lines which sell the magazine.


Splash-  Is the whole magazine and what has been put into it. This is a story or photgraph in a prominant place in a magazine.
 Kicker- The kicker is a short phrase found set above the headline. Usually set in a smaller type than the headline, the kicker can serve as an introduction or as a type of section heading to identify a regular column, for instance.

Teller-  teller is a line that tells you what the Headline is about.

AS Media Brief.

AS Media Brief.
Preliminary excercise: using DTP (desktop publisher) and an image manipulation program (photoshop), produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and masthead (name of magazine). Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.


Main Task.
The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images amd text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.