Form research

FORM RESEARCH

“They will help you in getting order and structure of your magazine, but do resist to imprison your thinking into

standard format because rigidity dulls the creativity. To avoid that trap you can play with column width and shapes. You should treat each story as a separate unit and mix the number of columns in each story. One story can be laid out

on a two column grid while the other can be laid out in three, four or more column grid”

From this quote it is clear that I need to consider the use of some sort of columns to make the magazine neat and the

text easy to read and follow, however to avoid the magazine looking boring I will use different lengths of columns to make it look like it’s less to read which encourages the

audience to read the article.

COLUMNS

1.Content – always use interesting ideas, do not use anything that doesn’t look appealing to the reader

2. Know your audience – make sure you aim your writing at your audience

3. Typography –

4. Spacing – Find out what line-height and letter-spacing people use to make their text more readable

5. Maintain a hierarchy – We should all know the difference between serif and sans-serif fonts. Titles should be written in sans-serif fonts, where as serif fonts should be used for

body text.

6. Maintain structure – make sure that your typefaces are legible and your content is readable.

STEPS

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

The picture follows the house style, it has the same dark colour scheme.

There is a quote from the main story this gives insight of what the article is about, and they feel like they are more involved in the magazine through direct address.

The title of the band is big and colourful to draw attention

The text is in columns that give it the appearance of smaller amount of writing to read

MASTHEAD

Rocksound placed their masthead at the top, in front of the main feature, to make it clear what the magazine is called and so that it draws attention to it and sticks in the readers mind.

In comparison to Rocksound, KERRANG! Put their mast head behind the main feature meaning they do not need it to be recognized and that their audience know which magazine it is just by the house style.

ANCHORAGE

The anchorage text is the largest text on the front cover right after the masthead, it is used to attract the audience and inform them of what’s inside the magazine making them want to buy it. Many magazines do this to make the edition seem more just like it’s focused on one band making it more personal.KERRANG! Is different in this way as their

anchorage is more to the left and slanted instead of being in the middle, meaning the main picture is more in focus of the cover.

FEATURES

The other features on the front page are a lot smaller and usually on Sides, in comparison to the anchorage and the masthead. They are not as likely to catch people’s eye as they are walking past but They are important to the target audience as after their attention isCaptured they need to find out if they will enjoy the magazine or not.

KERRANG! Is different in this case asTheir other features are not a lot smaller than the main features and they are in bright writing and bubbles to attract attention, also they are not all in organised columns on the side, they are at different angles to stand out more.

Smaller versions of the front covers are used to advertise subscription to the magazine, it’s an effective form of advertising as if someone already bought the magazine once they will be more likely to subscribe.

The heading is bold and follows the colour scheme of the house style. This makes it stand out so the audience are aware what page they are on.

The contents page is split into Columns of different length Which are also in numerical order, this makes it easier for the reader to find pages and articles.