Identifying key coventions of a front cover

The front covers on magazines are used to draw the audience in and give them a brief insight to what will be in the magazine. There are key things that will be on the front cover which will do this.

One convention is the main image. Every magazine front cover has one, it usually is of the person/people that the magazine is featuring in that issue. For example, Drake being on the cover of Vibe magazine. This is one of the first things the audience will spot and will straight away catch their attention if they like who is on the front cover. This is also a reason why magazines tend to like using well established people on their front covers as it will entice a wider audience.

Another key convention is the masthead. This it the brand of the magazine for example, NME or Billboard. The masthead is usually found at the top of the front cover. It will incorporate fonts, colours or shadows etc. in order to make it stand out so that people can spot what brand magazine it is easily.

A headline is another convention which is found on front covers. It is the main article in the magazine and due to this, it tends to be the biggest or second biggest font on the front cover other than the masthead. It being the biggest article on the cover will mean that it is the first article which will be caught by the audiences attention. The headline typically goes along with the main image. For example, if Justin Bieber was the main image, then the headline would relate to him. The headline is also often found in front of the person on the main image; typically on the body, never the face.

Another key convention is a pug. This is the shape on the cover which has a bit of text inside. The shape is used to make it stand out on the page from the rest of the text and the main image. Not all magazines have this however, it is a great way to catch the audiences attention as the shape makes it pop out on the cover and therefore is hard to miss.

A banner is another convention often seen on a front cover. This is the rectangle at the bottom of the cover with typically around 3 pieces of text in. The text in the banner is used to show the type of stuff the magazine contains. For example, it could say inside the banner 'interviews, quizzes and much more' etc. The fill of the banner is usually a colour which stand out compared to the other colours on the magazine cover.

Another key convention is the house style. This is sort of like the theme of the magazine. It makes the brand of the magazine recognisable to the audience as there will be things which are styled the same or in a similar way in each issue. For example, the font of the headline and cover lines might be the same or similar in every issue. Another example is the magazine might use the same range of colours in their issues etc.

Cover lines are another convention. This is text which often goes around the people on the main image. There will usually be around 2 to 5 of them on a cover. They tell the audience what articles are in the issue. The articles chosen to be on the cover will be the ones which will most entice the audience to read/buy the magazine. Furthermore, these will be the more important articles in the magazine.