In this task we had to analyse a magazine and find and annotate all the technical conventions. The main design features in any magazine are the masthead, main cover line, plugs, cover lines, issue date, price and barcode. I find these technical conventions useful when creating a magazine because they attract the audience for example the master head is important as it’s one of the first things the buyer looks at. For example vogue is such an iconic master head that even if a model was covering most of the master head people would still know what the magazine is. Another good technical convention is cover lines which help show the buyer topics that are in the magazine.
Masthead – Usually at the top of the magazine, the name of the magazine
Main Cover Line – A headline on the front of the magazine advertising a story
Cover Lines – A smaller headline on the front of the magazine that advertises a story
Captions – Brief text over or under a image or bigger piece of text that describes what is happening
Plug – Selling points of a magazine which are made smaller then cover lines, usually on the side of the magazine
Pug – Usually on each side of the magazine at the top, could be advertisements
Main Cover Star – The main person on the front of the magazine
Inset – An insert in the magazine
Issue Date – Tells you when the product came out
Price – Tells you how much the product is
Barcode – On the bottom right of the magazine, you scan it when you buy it
It is useful that I have learnt all the conventional features of a magazine as now when I make my own music magazine I will be able to use all the technical conventions and make a successful magazine.