Front cover analysis of a modern music magazine

So - what to put on my front cover. I will analyse a music magazine now to understand the conventions of a music magazine.
I am looking at the 16 February 2008 edition of NME. I will analyse NME because it is the biggest selling music magazine that shares my target audience.



The layout is very messy. There is not one thing that first catches a potential readers eye - the sweet spot is not utilised. Everything is crammed onto the page, and although this means you can see all the features of the magazine, nothing seems like the most important thing. It is also hard to take in all the information. When I develop my front cover, I think it will be simple, and this will be the main difference. In this way, it will challenge music magazine front cover conventions. It is interesting to note that the designers for music magazines such as NME actually keep the front covers much more simple, much like old 'NME's which I will talk about later. However it is the owners of NME that put all the information onto the front cover, and sometimes when they are ordered in the post, they come with out many of the captions, because the magazine is bought in a very different way. So from a design point of view, a simple front cover will be much more aesthetically pleasing. Also, it will be unique amongst other music magazines, and so will be given an image.
It is not just the captions, but the colours on this NME may also be too numerous. The logo of NME is red, white and black, but the text across the page varies from yellow, to white, to blue and black. There is only a little red. This confuses the cover even more, again making it hard to focus on one thing. I will keep only one or two repeating colours, that will represent my magazine.
However the colours and the photo make it clear that the magazine is for young people - the colours bright and the band on the cover three young men.
The background is a photo, which I agree with. However, the photo itself I don't think is a very effective one. It is not clear what the three are doing, and the poses they do make them look slightly silly and ridiculous. They also don't look like musicians - I will make sure my photo will show an instrument. Again, the confusing amount of captions does not work on the front cover, as although they are on the front cover it is not clear if they are important or not.
The font used on this NME I think is effective, as it is very neutral, and in this way reflects the music in the magazine, which is fairly non-directional. It is very simple and easy to read.