My magazine has many features in common and differences with the ‘CLASH’ magazine.
The masthead on my magazine has a rough look to it and has pieces missing at the bottom of the letters, this shows that the magazine is quite urban and rebellious, this is emphasised by the fact that the colour of the writing is black, which is conventionally seen as a rebellious colour. The reason my masthead is similar to the masthead from the ‘CLASH’ magazine is because both magazines are big, bold and eye-catching this is good for the magazine as it draws the attention of the audience. Both magazines have sell lines, this mixes with the rest of the magazine such as the main image’s appearance, the masthead and colour scheme as this all demonstrates a type of representation which will attract the main target audience, this links back to what the sell lines are like as they must keep the same representation and play on the representation that the magazine is conveying. But there are some differences in the sell lines of the magazine, one being that the ‘CLASH’ have big titles for their sell lines whereas my magazine is in quite small writing, and other reason being that their sell lines are spread across the front cover and the ‘ALT’ magazine has them all in one place. The reasons for why I have done this is because I wanted the main image and main headline to have more room on the front page which meant that the sell lines couldn’t be to big this way the audience would be more attracted to reading the main headline which is the bigger article in the magazine and not to focus more on a smaller story that they may not like. The barcode on my magazine is in the bottom left hand corner which is a very different position to the one on the ‘CLASH’ magazine, the reason I did this is because I believe it is more conventional for it to be at the bottom of the page rather than at the top, also, I didn't want the barcode to take any attention away from any of the other features and receive more attention than it should. The price on my magazine is on the barcode, I believe this is conventional to a magazine, plus if the price is on or near the barcode the audience will look towards the barcode as this is where the price is usually found on a magazine. The date on my magazine is on my barcode, I did this because having the date there is conventional to an music magazine. The main cover line on my front cover is very big and bold which draws the audience’s attention. Another feature that makes the main cover line stand out is the colour as it is in bold white which contrasts to the red and black on the rest of the magazine. I decided not to put a skyline on my magazine as I thought that it would ruin the positioning of my main image, masthead and splash as they are at the top of the magazine, this is one of the differences between mine and the ‘CLASH’ magazine. My main image on my front page has been made to represent my target audiences and the type of music that my magazine includes; this is shown by the clothes she is wearing and the acoustic guitar. The colour scheme is also included in giving off a certain representation; the colours black and red are conventionally associated with being rebellious which is what the target audience are stereotypically known to be like. The splash is a record with bold yellow writing on I which makes it stand out and catch the audience’s attention, the splash needs to be able to do this in order to interest the audience with what it is promoting/advertising whereas the ‘CLASH’ magazine does not have this feature. My magazine also has a footer, this is used to give additional information to the audience, the ‘CLASH’ magazine has also got the same feature and is conventional to a magazines front page.
My contents page uses many conventional features such as several images, features section, news section, reviews section, editors letters etc.
The use of several images allows the audience to see what people are going to be in the magazine, the reason I put the images in their positions is because I wanted the different ‘sections’ of the magazine to be on the right, as they are conventionally put on either the left or right. The other magazine has used more images than me for their contents page but the reason I didn’t use this many is because I didn’t want to take all of the attention away from the writing. I have also used a ‘features section’ this is conventional to a magazine, the contents within the features are also within the representation of the magazine sticks to the same genre, this is important that I do this as the audience expects the magazine to represent them and the music they listen too, this can affect the magazine hugely because if the magazine was giving them information about gigs, live performances etc. about bands and artists they don’t know or like then the magazine will receive a bad reputation and will not be purchased again. There are some differences between mine and the other contents page, one being that my ‘features section’ has a heading to it whereas the other contents page is just one big list. The ‘News section’ and ‘reviews Section’ also has to represent the music genre of the magazine because if the magazine talks about things that are not interesting for the audience then they will stop buying the magazine.
In my magazine, the editors letter is conventionally at the bottom of the page, this means that when the readers are looking through the contents page they will be interested by what the editor has to say, and as the magazine is represented to them as a collective audience, they will want to find out more about the stories about what/who they like, whereas the other magazine has not used an editors letter which is not conventional to a contents page. The colour scheme has been red, black and white which conveys the conventional representation of, indie and rebellion. The reason I chose this is because the target audience is indie/indie rock which is stereotypically quite rebellious so this appeals to them, it allows them to have an attraction to the magazine, but still depends on whether or not they are interested by what is in the magazine.
In my double page spread I have used many features such as, large main image, large main headline, drop cap, pull quote and a subsidiary headline.
In the other magazine’s double page spread, the large main headline is at the top, above the text, this is conventional to a magazine. The large headline on my magazine is at the bottom, this is unconventional to a magazine but I did this as I did not want to interrupt the main image or the area I wanted to put my text as the image has to give the correct representation to the audience. The large main headline on my magazine is playing the guitar which gives the representation of the indie look which the audience is all about, the reason I did this was to let the audience relate to the genre of the magazine and contents of what is in the magazine. The reason my image is on the right hand side is because I did want her face or body on the crease of the page as this would have ruined the image and would not be conventional to a magazine. The use of drop caps in my work are used to draw attention to the writing within the page, in my double page spread I have used a main drop cap on the first question and have used smaller drop caps on the other questions, the reason I did this was to keep a continuous flow from question to question as it allows them to identify (along with the different colour of text) which part of the text is the question, but the reason I made the first question drop cap bigger than the rest is because I wanted it to stand out and catch the readers eye. The use of several drop caps is not hugely conventional as only few magazines do this (for example, the magazine I am comparing too), but I wanted to use more than one because it makes my magazine individual which is what the magazine tries to portray to the audience. The use of my pull quote is to intrigue the readers, as the pull quote is a bigger font than the rest of the text, the audience will be drawn towards it, this gives the audience a taster of what is in the text which makes them want to read more. I also have a subsidiary heading at the top of the page which has the use of two colours (red and black) which allows the audience to be drawn the important word in the different font which grasps their attention and makes them want to read more.
The reason my drop caps, pull quote, page number, subsidiary heading and the text in the questions in red is because this colour sticks with the conventional colour scheme I am maintaining throughout the magazine of red, black and white.
