Real media artefacts- NME

NME music magazine Front Cover:

The branded name for this magazine is NME. It is placed in the top left side of the magazine in a bold, bright and clear font. This is to make it easy for the consumer to see, and straight away recognise the brand identity of the magazine. The colours used for the name are red, black and white, these three colours contrast well with each other and fit with the genre of music this magazine specialises in. The colours also reflect the name as NME can also sound like ‘enemy’ and the connotations for an enemy and danger are blacks and reds.

A medium close-up of Lily Allen dominates this front cover. The reasons for using such a close up and large image are to make it eye-catching and make it stand out from other leading magazines. Another resin being to pre mote her as an artists. Not only is the size important to this front cover but the angle in which Lily is looking at the camera. As the consumer we immediately become drawn to her eyes, as she is looking direct therefore as the consumer we feel emotionally attached and therefore want to read. The appearance of Lily Allen is key as it keeps to the genre of the magazine but also represents the man subject to her story. She has wild messy hair, a lose checked shirt, dark black heavy eye make-up and her facial expression is very plain to show her attitude as if she doesn’t care. This fits with the writing to the left of her face reading. “I can’t keep on living like this. It’s doing my head in”. The writing is also used to frame Lily’s face to again make her the focus of the front cover.

The cover lines on the front cover fits with both the genre of the magazine and the article on Lily Allen. The first cover line is carefully positioned on the blank area of the magazine and is a bold, clear red font, this makes it stand out and easy to read. The Second cover line is larger and printed in the style of newspaper cuttings. This gives it an edgy and quirky look, representing the style of magazine. The writing is wobbly and different sizes and on a slight slant making the words look wild and messy again representing the article on Lily Allen. Most of the informative text on the front cover is in basic colours, white, black, and red fonts, to link in with the colour scheme of the magazine name.

The magazine also incorporates the colour yellow into it, as it’s bright and stands out against the other colours. The areas that our yellow holds key other information that is in the rest of the magazine. This makes it standout against the main colours used in the rest of the front cover for example red, black and white.

NME music magazine contents page:

At the top of the contents page it mirrors the front cover of the magazine by placing the name in the top right hand corner. This helps to keep the flow of the magazine and the style/genre of music. It also does this by keeping to the same colour scheme on the front cover, red, black and white, and a small amount of yellow, All o f these colours are strong and bold which makes it standout, easy to follow and entices the reader to look further on in the magazine.

The title on this contents page reads 'NME this week' this suggests straight away to the reader that the magazine has the latest updated gossip and news on the music that is current. Its also in a bold font and coloured white so it stands out against the black background.

There is a lot of information on this contents page and appears quite busy, however all of the information on this page is a good quality as it shows the reader just where to look for what they want. The layout is simple and easy to follow with the page numbers on the left hand side in a clear bright red font, a large image in the middle and a final column with bold subtitles almost like bullet points and arrows adding more information in an interesting and eye catching way. Also by using arrow shapes it encourages people to move onwards to the next page, shown by the bold red arrow in the bottom right hand corner. As you can see this contense page is full of text however it is broken down by the large image in the centre. It also draws attention to the main article in this specific issue of NME, I think this is good because it brings out the biggest article in this issue as there is so much text on the page and shows the consumer just where they need to find it, making it easy and practical for them. At the bottom of the page we are drawn to the text in the black box’s as it stands out from the rest of the page as the background is white, it also incudes bright yellow text which is the only yellow used in this page, I think it is a good place to promote subscribing to the magazine as this is where people firstly look when reading a magazine therefore they wont miss it.

The contents page holds other key information to inform the reader. For example underneath the title of the page is the date of when the magazine is issued, this is a key and important piece of information for the consumer as it allows them to see they have purchased the most recent and up to date issue of the magazine. Where the date is placed is to make it easy for the consumer to find and straight away see as it is at the very top of the page and underneath the large bold title as this is where people will first be drawn to when looking at the page.

NME music magazine double page spread:

Once again this page consist on the 3 main colours that are used throughout the 3 pages I have analysed, (red, black and white), this is to piece the magazine together and create a consistent flow and keeping to the genre of the magazine.

This page is linked very clearly to the front cover of this issue of NME. We are again immediately drawn to the image and the ‘cut out’ writing, just like on the front cover, this is then linking the two pages to tell the reader it’s the main article.

The layout of the page is very simple making it easy and clear to follow. The whole of the right hand side page is covered with an image very similar to the one on the front cover. She has an edgy look portrayed by her appearance, for example her checked skirt, rough messy hair, and her pose suggests that she is rebellious and doesn’t care what people think, which is shown through the large and bold cut of letters, which also catches our attention and reads “people think I’m an attention seeker, but in just honest.” The style of writing fits with the genre of music this magazine specializes in and portrays Lily Allen’s story before the audience has read the story, giving them an insight to the article, making them want to read it. By having these two large structures on the page it fills the space meaning less writing is used which may appeal to the audience reading the article as they will not get bored and move on, this is also true for the way its written. The article is laid out in order for the reader to follow easily; it does this by firstly starting off with a drop capital. This shows the reader exactly where to begin reading and addresses the audience directly. The text is in four same sized columns separated with an even space in-between each one so that the reader doesn't get easily bored.