Hello everybody! Today I’m going to be reviewing the conventions of a magazine, which includes the cover page, table of contents, and feature articles. They will be on the more general side but will occasionally be more food based depending on what we are going over.
Admittedly today’s post will be a simple but important post, since being able to go back to a fully explained reference while creating my brief will be extremely helpful. So, let’s get started!
Cover Page
1. Masthead
- In simple terms this is just the title of the magazine
- It’s usually printed in a large font and spans across the width of the cover
- Different kinds of colors, fonts, and weight will help with the connection to a specific brand or genre (This will be expanded upon in a later blog post)
2. Cover Image
- Most magazines use celebrities or models, but in the case of food magazines it is a picture of food carefully crafted to look very appealing to the viewer (Some magazines actually do have models on the cover, but it is a lot less common in this genre).
- Food magazines tend to have a lot of overhead shots, since many foods come in bowls, pans, or other dishes. They also tend to use closeup shots to create intimacy with the audience.
- The image is usually connected to the subjects of the feature article(s)
- The image is often taken in the setting of a studio photoshoot in order to completely control the mise-en-scene and portray the meaning of the image in a certain fashion.
3. Cover Lines
- They are catchy phrases to tell you about the articles.
- They use bold and italics to emphasize certain parts of the sentence.
- The coverlines “tease” readers and encourages them to buy the magazine.
- Color is also used for emphasis and cohesion.
4. Puffs, Plugs, and Boxouts (It was impossible to get high quality photos of this so please bear with me)
- Puffs/Plugs: Graphics that aren’t squares, used to draw attention.
- Boxout: Box used to place text on that provides contrast for the reader.
5. Strips and Banners
- Strips usually include information on smaller articles and features in the magazine
- Banners are just a larger version of strips
6. Datelines and Barcodes:
- Dateline: Contains the month and issue number of the magazine
- Barcode: Usually sits nexts to the magazine price, it is also small and tends to be in the bottom of the cover page (they tend to be vertical in food magazines)
Table of Contents
1. Masthead
- The title of this page usually just says contents and is often the same color as the cover.
- The largest image on the page is known as the main contents page image, in the case of a food magazine this image can vary more related dishes, but also has ingredients as photos
- Any smaller pictures are known as subsidiary images and can range in amount and size.
2. Structure
- A contents page is often arranged in columns to be organized and make finding specific information much easier on the reader.
- The page number tell viewers where the article is, it is large and bolded.
- A feature article is a piece of writing that is specific to that issue, which is why they are emphasized on the front page, these articles have celebrity cameos, advertisements, and other unique stories.
- A regular article however is an article that appears in most magazines, this includes reviews, rankings, and more.
Feature Article
1. Masthead/Title
- The title is typically a brief, attention-grabbing phrase that sums up the topic of the text. It is bolded and larger than the rest of the piece.
2. Images
- This is usually where more photos of people appear since feature articles are usually where personal stories are located, this inclusion of people adds to the emotional effect.
- Most images will also have a small caption underneath it to give context to viewers
3. Structure and Topics
- Most articles are arranged into vertical columns of text; this helps break up information and make the page look more visually appealing.
- Article feature topics heavily range but some of the main ones are interviews (commonly with chefs, bartenders, or celebrities), recipes (many of which come with anecdotes of the dishes origin or the meaning it brought to the author), tips/tricks, quick meals, general advice (etc.)
- Recipes are usually set aside from the main article and encased in their own graphic for emphasis.
Reflection
In the grand scheme of my blog, this post takes a slight step back and goes over the basic conventions that magazines follow. While it was full of information I mostly knew, it will be convenient to be able to come back to a single, reliable source that is broken down in a way that I completely understand, compared to a bunch of different and convoluted references. In my upcoming posts I will be doing an more in-depth analysis of design features such as color, typography, lighting, and more. I believe this will help me visualize what my brief will be like. See you all on the next post!
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/the-codes-and-conventions-of-a-contents-page-53874668/53874668
https://www.elucidate.org.au/content/feature-article-conventions
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