The Technical Design Conventions of a magazine

Music Magazine, Year 12 Coursework 
KEY TERMS: Technical or Formal conventions, audience expectations:
…masthead, cover lines, main cover line, main cover star, barcode, price, plug, pug, insets and captions.

The Design Elements of a Magazine Cover

You need to learn the TERMINOLOGY to describe EXAMPLES of print design. You need these terms to:

  1. ANALYSE professional examples
  2. ANNOTATE ONE FOR technical (formal) conventions

Here is a film magazine with the main design elements labelled.

TASK

  1. In pairs,  choose one photocopied cover and annotate it with the main technical design features.
  2. You will then take a good photo of it and upload it to your blog.
  3. In the blog reflection: list and explain the main design features: masthead, cover lines, main cover line, main cover star, barcode, price, plug, pug, insets and captions.
  4. Focus forward: why is it important to understand the basic conventions/rules of layout for a magazine cover?
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