The Technical Design Conventions Of A Magazine Cover

Reflection

Here I have annotated magazine cover, this allows me to see the importance of each element within the design. I analysed the formal and technical conventions of a magazine cover. For example most magazine cover include all of the following conventions-

  • masthead
  • main coverline
  • plug
  • main coverstar
  • issue/date
  • price
  • captions
  • coverlines
  • pug
  • issue date
  • barcode

All of these things together are what make up a good and informative magazine cover as well as being key to meeting audience expectations. The point of the cover page is to attract your magazine to your target audience at a simple glance before they have started reading. Therefore, the use of colour, your chosen image and titles are very important as they are going to be the main attractions  to your magazine. The front cover should give a simple idea of what your magazine includes therefore making your readers want to read more and be interested at your content. In order to entice readers into your magazine your masthead and main cover line should be in large bold text so that it stands out. The other elements included in a magazine cover such as barcodes, issue date and price are essential piece of information needed to purchase the magazine and keep record of which issue it is. Captions on magazine covers always anchor insets to add detail and in order to add complex unique design photos and pugs have a graphic shape with them (circle).

Focusing Forward

This research into the main elements of a magazine cover are going to be very important when creating my own magazine cover as I will need to include all of the conventions as well as remembering the key purpose of the magazine cover which is to attract people to your magazine. If my magazine looks boring from the front cover it is not going to be very popular and therefore will not be successful, this demonstrates the importance of little details such as text size and font.

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