Popular Music Journalism: Topic 12

12. What have you learned about magazine design and the way it communicates meaning?
(Discuss examples from the music press).

'At its simplest magazine design is the way in which words and images and physical elements such as paper and binding work together' (McKay, 2006). Throughout the process of creating a magazine during Tri-Media, and particularly during Popular Music Journalism Practice, I have come to learn a lot more about the semiotics of magazine design and what this means for the consumer.

I've learnt through my work in Tri-Media that magazine covers play a key role in advertising themselves to potential consumers; 'what's more, the cover has to do this more or less instantaneously...if it's doing its job really well, then the cover will tempt readers away from those rivals [re; regards to other magazines]' (McKay, 2006). As I've discussed previously, the design chosen by the group used to front our issue of Vibe magazine was a clear winner and clearly its design struck a chord with the students, but why was this? I believe there were two specific reasons for this. The first; 'Make certain the cover logo (the name of the magazine in type or art) is easily identifiable' (Mogel, 1998).
Clearly we can see from the design on the left that the design in question accounted for this, as it did the second reason; 'Think of the cover as a poster. Would the reader want to hang it on his or her wall?' (Mogel, 1998).


What is particularly true is if you apply these rules to the majority of current music magazines such as NME and Kerrang. In addition to Q and Mojo, the covers of these magazines have a strong sense of direction. Such is the case using the front cover of the NME (right), as whilst the easily recognisable title connects with the consumer, who is generally able to identify it almost immediately, I feel their contrasting use of colour for each issue creates a strong sense of identity to each different cover story they run with. 'The choice of colours for paper and ink can affect more than the straightforward look of a page...like all other design choices these carry additional significance' (McKay, 2006). We've touched on the imagery of magazine design previously - we see here that in conjunction with the mug, cigarette, the overcast shade of blue and bold, dry stark use of black text as a choice of colour, all these semiotics collectively gather; providing the consumer with an idea of what they may expect the content of the magazine to include.

MCKAY, 2006. The Magazines Handbook. 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge
MOGEL, L., 1998. The Magazine: Everything you need to know to make it in the magazine business. 4th ed. USA: Graphic Arts Technical Foundation