Skyline Masthead
Main Image
Cover-lines
Main Article Pull-Quote
The codes on this Music Magazine Front Cover all work very well together, while keeping the traditional Q magazine house-style. The colours, font and the main image all work really well together. The main image connotes the wild attitude and music style of The Prodigy. For example they have Keith Flint clothed so you can see his tattoos, which connotes rebellion and attitude. Also, the way the way Keith Flint is posed in the main image screaming and holding a speaker connotes anger and fury. Also the way the other two band members are posed makes the band seem threatening, they also look fuming. Q magazine have cleverly also made it see as though the ground is splitting beneath The Prodigy in the main image showing that his scream is so loud it’s cracking the ground. This connotes how angry Keith Flint is, and also connotes the anger in The Prodigy’s music. I think the main image connotes The Prodigy and everything The Prodigy’s music stands for anger, fury and rebellion. Another code that helps connote anger and fury is the colour of the fonts, black and red. Like the band is ‘seeing red’. The main image and fonts connote anger because this represents the type of music The Prodigy make and what The Prodigy stand for. The cover-lines have been put in a different font, and this makes them stand out and grab the reader’s attention. The skyline ‘The UK’s Biggest Music Magazine’ is promoting the magazine and will attract readers. All the codes meet the conventions of a magazine, as there is a masthead, main image, skyline, cover-lines and an effective pull quote to attract the reader more. The coverlines and Pull-quote gives the reader an insight into the article so the reader will want to buy or read it.
Q magazines contents double page spread is very similar to the Front-cover; it has the same fonts, colours and same overall house-style. It is easy to follow with the different captions and you can tell the articles Q magazine thinks the reader will be interested in as they have an image, such as the main article on The Prodigy with the image of Keith Flint, which is similar to the one on the Front-cover, connoting anger. The articles all go in number order, also there are two sections, regular and feature, so the reader knows what Q magazine normally has included in its contents. Q magazines contents double page spread makes it easy for the reader to navigate through the magazine, which is the basic role of any contents page. However, this could be made easier by condensing the contents page in to just one page instead of a double page spread, most magazines only have one page for their contents page, for example Mixmag and NME only use one page for their contents .However, the codes in this contents page meet the basic conventions of a magazine contents page. The page numbers are clearly laid out, there are large images and all the articles are underlined and easy to follow; Also, the of graphics used in this contents page are the same as the graphics used in the front cover which is not the case for the contents pages of NME magazine and Mixmag magazine. The use of graphics in this contents page is excellent.
Standfirst
Columns of Body Copy
Lead Image
Headline Drop Cap
The layout of this Double Page Spread is very effective as the lead images grab the reader’s eye but also only takes up half of the DPS, it is very effective how Q magazine has split the page in two, half with the lead image, and the other half with the columns. Also the house-style and graphics of this double page spread are consistent with the rest of the magazine. The standfirst is a drop cap; it would have been more effective with a standfirst as this introduces the article and helps the reader understand what the article is about. The lead image gets across the bands angry, rebellious attitude. It makes them seem frightening which helps promote their image as an angry, raging band, the lead image also goes really well with the graphics and layout of the DPS This double page spread would be more effective with a standfirst, pull-quote and a headline that stands out. The DPS would be more effective with Pull-quote as it would give reader an insight into the article and given the reader an idea of what the tone of the article was. Another code that would make Q magazines DPS more effective would be a standfirst instead of a drop-cap at the beginning of the article because this introduces the article and helps the reader understand what the article is about. Also this DPS would grab the reader’s attention more if the headline was in a bigger, older font that reflects the band instead of italics. Most of the codes on this DPS meet the basic conventions of a magazine DPS as although the headline does not grab the readers attention the lead image and the graphics do. Also it does not give an insight into the article. This DPS does not show the Prodigy in a good light however it does make The Prodigy look interesting and the reader would want to read about them, this could have been helped by a pull-quote to draw the reader in.