Planning the house style

Use of colour: I have chosen to use the colours red, black and white for my front cover. I chose these colours in particular as they don’t sway to be associated with a certain sex. For example, these colours are all associated with males and females. I chose to use the colour red against the white and the black as I believe that it would stand out well and attract the audience’s attention. Red also holds connotations of danger and death which is well associated to my chosen genre and meaning to the music that is produced. I believe these colours would also work well together as all of the information that is important and ‘exclusive’ could be placed in red so that they will stand out against the other two colours. This will also highlight what information on the page is important and will attract the audience’s attention. Yellow will also help to reinforce the chosen target audience of males and females as it is a colour that isnt associated with either males or females.

Font: I have chosen to use a font that is simple and bold. I have chosen this particular style in particular as the bold element to the font will emphasise the shouting that is associated with punk rock music. This will also make the magazine seem dominant and superior to other music magazine as the font will be eye-catching and bold.

I believe a font such as the one above would work well on the front of my magazine. I think that a font like this would work particularly well as the bold and dark font relates well to the chosen music genre.  This font is also easily read which works well for the teenage target audience as they can just read the puffs by a glimpse and do not have to read the front cover in detail. This style of font is also dramatic through the use of block colour and capitals; this makes the font appear dominant and loud as the words are making a statement in catching the audience’s attention.

A font such as this would also work well as it relates back to the cracks that have previously been incorporated in my masthead. This works well as the readers are constantly reminded of the genre of the magazine and the cracks in the lettering connote the emotion well-known to the music genre. This particular style also makes the magazine appear edgy and includes elements of danger which is well associated with the punk rock genre. This style also emphasises to the audience what the music is about within the genre as the cracks within the lettering connote shattering glass, this could suggest that the music within this genre is based on shattering and things disruptive.  

Looking at other rock magazines

I particularly like this front cover as I believe it shows the genre of music really well. Elements such as the cracking in the masthead represent that the genre of this magazine is punk rock. This cracking in the text relates well to the genre as it suggests that the music is disruptive and loud. The use of colours within the front cover represents the mixed target audience of male and female as they are light-hearted pastel colours. The layout of the magazine works well as its striking. The main image makes the magazine striking as it stands out over the masthead. This works well as it makes the reader instantly look at the image, this also tells the genre as fans would know who he is. The masthead is covered but still looks effective as it is the biggest piece of text on the page and is well-known to the audience. The use of different colours besides white make the layout seem effective as they stand out to the audience and make the puffs more enticing and exciting to read. Overall, I believe the layout is effective through the use of colour and font styles.

This issue of Kerrang is a bit more hectic and relates better to the genre. I believe that this is due to the layout of the front cover and all of the conventions used. The colours used in this layout present the chosen target audience of males and females through the use of blue and pink. The tattoos on Oli Sykes represent the genre as it shows that he is daring and has a dangerous/edgy personality. This layout works well as all of the conventions such as main image, puffs and sell lines overlap other elements on the magazine, this further emphasises the hectic and busy associations to the genre. I overall believe that this particular kind of layout would work best for my magazine as the genre of the magazine is emphasised more dramatically. The colours also indicate the chosen target audience of males and females and make the magazine more attracting and eye-catching.