Rough Cut ComparisonMy magazine DIVISION compared to NME and Q

Cover pages

Cover ComparisonThe image composition on my magazine is of the same distance as NME’s as I thought Q’s was too close-up and it would leave me space for content to be put on without having to go to much over the picture. I chose the eye line however to be the same as Q’s because I thought it would appeal to the audience in a better way because the artist/model is looking directly at them, making them engage with the artist and attract their attention. It’s a straight on pose because usually women are represented different on other magazine covers therefore by comparing it to Q it shows that they look at women as equal to men but also I feel it looks better because it’s just a simplistic pose so refers to the genre because they focus more on the artist/music/clothing than how they are portrayed on the cover.

The layout of my magazine is similar to NME as in my opinion I feel it has a better overall layout that looks tidy and professional. Both magazines go for the main headline as being the artists name so I also did that, but the other two have the title of the magazine in the left hand corner, however I chose to put mine all across the top because the right hand side would look bare and it would look to close together as it’s a longer title. I replicated the sky line of my magazine to NME’s because I feel like it stood out more as the writing contrasted well with the background rather than just putting it over the top of the picture. My text to image ratio is similar to both magazines because my main headline is very large like NME’s as I wanted it to stand out but my smaller stories are similar to both as they’re smaller than the image to make the main headline appear larger and also more important as the main story.

For my cover I used the standard photography studio because if I used a different background the writing wouldn’t stand out against a background that was a certain location eg. outside. I ensured that my model was wearing suitable clothes to match the genre of my magazine and also the correct makeup and hairstyle. I had my lighting above the model rather than copying the other magazines of having it to one side because her facial features stood out more.

Contents Pages

Double Page Spread

I have used a constant house style throughout my magazine using only red, white and black on my cover, contents and double page spread, comparing it to NME and Q, NME sometimes differs in what colours they use but always keeping it the same throughout, Q usually uses red. By using red it makes the writing stand out as it’s a bold colour but also it becomes easily recognisable as the standard colour for the magazine.

I have incorporated genre into my work by using simple fonts, colours and props like guitars in pictures to show that the people in my magazine perform there own songs using instruments rather than backing pre-recorded music. I have used the clothing in both models to represent the genre and also the facial expressions as in my research of the two other magazine the artists look serious. My contents page has been influenced by both magazines but mainly NME as it’s different to what you would usually find the layout to be. I have still followed the house style on my contents page, and also used a simple font type.

My language is appropriate for my target audience on my double page spread because both of the magazines use subject specific language when describing the artists, they don’t use the normal words they use complex language like “lackadaisical” and this shows that it’s for a matured audience as they would be able to understand this language otherwise they wouldn’t use it.

I don’t think there’s much range of font, but I do use different ones, for example on my cover to make the more important information stand out. I used a simple font for my double page because it has to be easily readable for the audience, but also represent my genre. I think my font does represent my genre as it’s like the font used in Q and NME which are of the same genre as my magazine.