Masthead Ideas and Conventions of a front cover.

Here I have tried out a variety of different font styles and unique designs for ideas for my masthead. I created all of these by using the programme, fireworks. I found out that using one letter to represent a single word made it confusing for you to understand what it stood for, for we example, 'P B S M' is PlantsBrook School Mag. This idea for a masthead also looked really messy and unprofessional. I personally think that the mastheads I created were very different and all stood out due to different reasons. I think the mastheads with a bold colour and a big bold stroke around them worked best because they stood out more and were more noticeable than the others. I also think the mastheads that had a shiney effect on  them also worked really well as they looked extremely professional, unique and stood out from the crowd. In the end I decided I wanted to use the #PBMAG masthead. I decided on this masthead because i felt that it would fit in with the magazine more. I feel as though  it would fir in with the house style of Plantsbrook school, Red and black.I feel as though the stroke also made my masthead  look very professional and organised as it looks very neat and easy to read. My masthead is quite simple but i personally think that's what makes it look better because its not too over the top.

Conventions of a front cover.

Masthead

Headline

House Style

Stroke

Visual syntax

Pug

Barcode

Large central

superimposed photo

Sans serif style font

Issue date

Billboard Magazine.

Masthead: A masthead is simply the name/ logo at the top of the magazine cover and is usually the largest font on the cover. This masthead is a simple white text with the middle of the b,o,a and d filled in with different colours. The masthead is simply ‘Over 250 charts Billboard’

Headline: A headline is put in place to identify the most important. This is usually in the largest font after the masthead. The headline on the cover of this magazine is the word ‘NEW’ This is trying to tell the audience that something new is going on.

House Style: The house style is blue, white, red, yellow and green. A house style is in place so an organisation or a company will agree that all its published material will use the same font, colour scheme, layout.

Stroke: A stroke is put in place to make text or objects stand out more. Here we can see several strokes have been added on to this text ‘NEW’ so it stands out more to the reader.

Visual syntax: A visual syntax is a way in which the readers eyes is led through the covers layout. Here we can see the layout is very simple and all in line with each other. I have put guide lines on the cover to show how the readers eyes lead through the cover.

Pug: Here we have a pug, a pug is a shape that has text within it. A pug is in place to catch the readers eye to promote something that is in the magazine. Here we have another pug, we can see that they are trying to promote ‘the year in music’ .

Pug:  we also have another pug, a pug is a shape that has text within it. A pug is in place to catch the readers eye to promote something that is in the magazine. Here we can see that they are trying to promote a ‘top new artist’ One Direction.

Barcode: We also have a barcode on the front cover.

Large central superimposed photo: We have a large central image so our attention can be drawn towards the magazine. A large image also stands out a lot more.

Sans serif style font: This is when a font doesn’t have hooks, brackets and feet. This text is white and bold and doesn’t have hooks, brackets or feet.