Why do conventions exist?

Conventions for magazines exist because it helps the reader and the audience to understand what is going on in the page, if the writing and the images where in completely different places in every magazine then the audience would not be able to make sense of it easily and know what is happening. It also means that if the audience wants to know what date the magazine was released they know they can easily find this on the front page or if they want to get an idea of what is going to be in the magazine before they buy it they can go to the contents page, this sort of thing also gives the producers of the magazine a chance to lure the audience as they know a typical audience member is going to look at the front cover and the contents page before buying the magazine, this means that the producer of the magazine can make these two things interesting and exciting the consumer will be more likely to purchase their magazine. These conventions and codes can also give the text meaning, this continues to make it easier for the audience to read and understand, most consumers are not going to want to read something that is hard work and difficult to grasp.

Forms and Conventions

For my magazine I went for a R&B/Lifestyle styled magazine, I chose this type of magazine because I thought there was a niche in the market for males and an R&B magazine would be a suitable input with how the music scene is at the moment. I also felt that most men care a lot about how they put themselves across to other people and want to live life to the fullest without just turning to drugs as a lot of people presume all young people do. I drew inspiration for this mainly from the magazine Vibe which played a big part in the production of my magazine but also after looking at magazines such as billboard and flavour magazine.





















By looking at a few covers of each of these magazines I came up with an idea of what I wanted my magazine cover to look like and from there it inspired me to come up with new ideas for my dps and contents pages. By doing a magazine related to R&B I knew my cover needed to have some sort of controversial look to it to go by what the group of people interested in this type of magazine would want. I came up with the idea for my picture after looking at some pictures of people like Eminem 50 cent and Jay-Z the over use of the “middle finger” made me feel this picture was going to attract an R&B fan straight away!

DPS conventions

Double page spreads aswell as front covers have many conventions in which most magazines follow to make it easy for the reader to know what is happening in the magazine. Most double page spreads are set up in a similar way to this in which there is a large image on the left side and an interview on the right about the person, this sort of set up makes it clear to the audience who the interview is about and gives them a chance to see their favourite band/artists up close. Smaller details such as drop capitals are common conventions of double page spreads and therefore i have included in my page for the "S" which is used for the name of the person 'Shane' and the word 'Says' to create a professional looking subheading. I have also pointed out in this image a few of the other common conventions seen on a double page spread, Gutters, Drop quotes and the body text are all parts of the lay-out that are expected to be seen in many of the double page spreads in real magazines. Through analysing these sorts of magazines i could get an idea of what my magazine needed to look like.

Front cover conventions

My front cover follows nearly all of the convetions of a cover you would see on a professional/real magazine. The lay-out and the things included on the front cover is what you would expect to see on covers of magazines like Kerrang or FHM. The large image in the middle of the page is the sort of image you would see in all magazines, it gives the audience an idea of what the magazine is going to be about and an image like mine is going to instantly tell the audience that my magazine is rebellious and probably for a younger generation. Things like the masthead and the main cover lines are often set out and seen in the way in which i have produced them, although these are following conventions which my audience tend not to do it also goes against them with the size and colours of the words so that my audience can see how obviously my magazine is going against stereotypes. Other conventions of magazine front covers are things like the barcode or the dateline and synergy whether this is an e-mail adress or a website or a TV program all of these. All of these things are included as they are important to give the front cover a professional and quality look. Some magazines have started to change and go against these conventions but they generally only do this once they have become famous and widely known to avoid risk of losing audiences.