Research & Planning: Music Magazines

Magazine Covers - Copyright their respective owners

 

In this post I will look at a selection of music magazines that I think will influence my own magazine design/layout choices. I have chosen these magazines because of their simplistic layouts and not overly-busy front covers.

The first magazine I will look at is the Classic Music magazine

ClassicMusic Magazine ©2013 Rhinegold Publishing

As you can see, the front cover is very simple and employs the three colour rule. In this case, the colours used are blue, white and a 'washed out' yellow. The colours work well together and create a mellow atmosphere for the reader - this is because the colours are calm, this is further emphasised by the use of clouds in the background (replacing the conventional model on the front cover).

The cover features only a couple of cover lines, which are well presented and proportional to their importance. There is a main story, which is shown through it's typographical features (such as the size of the font and striking graphic of the year '2012' made out of clouds, to match the background).

Overall, I like the style and the layout of the magazine. It matches the same style I hope my own magazine can achieve.

The second magazine I will be looking at is the Cross Country magazine

Cross Country Magazine © 2012 Cross Country Magazine

Again, I have chosen to look at this magazine cover as it is very simplistic. This magazine conforms to the conventions in magazine editing; the mast head is in the top left corner, there is a publishing line close to the masthead, the magazine features a barcode, clear price and a couple of cover lines.

I like the idea of using a medium close up shot on the front cover of my magazine, I think it creates a more personal connection between the reader and the model. Although the photograph in this photo isn't the best example of this, I have created another post showing examples of various shots I may use on my cover.

I like the idea of using a the font size/thickness as a way of showing a stories importance. On this cover, there seems to be three levels of importance in regards to stories. The least important ones are displayed on the right in a thin font, the slightly more important stories are displayed on the left in a bold font, and finally, the most important story is displayed in the bottom left corner in a bold, larger font which is also in a different colour to seperate it from the rest of the stories.