Ancillary text research - Magazine front cover

There are two main film magazines in the industry these are Empire and Total Film, respectively produced by Bauer and Future. There are other film magazines such as 'indie' alternatives and Sky Movies magazine. There are also film magazines for different age groups.

After researching various film magazines I have discovered there are certain basic codes and conventions for the design of a film magazine front cover:

• It can help to personalise a story, one of the conventions of journalism is 'hang it on a person' this means linking your story to an individual or a group of people
• The basic design elements:
• Text - stories and articles
• Headlines that highlight each story featured on the cover
• Photographs, articles are either text lead or image lead
• Captions that accompany an image
• Text boxes, quotes or summaries from the article

Layout Options

• Text to image ratio
• Formal layout with symmetry or 'cut and paste' look
• The appearance of the images, such as blending into the background or standing out
• Text can either accompany image or be separate
• You can break up the text so it's more appealing on the views eye, this is done by: using short paragraphs, missing lines between between text, using mini headlines for each paragraph and the use of bullet points
• Don't 'crowd' the cover, leave some spaces so it isn't too overwhelming
• Use a boarder of at least 1/4 or even 1/2

Typography

• Choice of text is an important factor to reach a professional look
• Don't use too many font types as it can be confusing for the reader
• Consider using two text types: one for the headlines and subheads and one for the main text
• Serif fonts are easier on the eye than san-serif font, although san-serif font is usually used for headlines as it has a greater impact on the reader's eye
• Use bold instead of CAPS to bring emphasis to a headline as its easier to read
• Font sizes tend to depend on your audience, the young the bigger the font
• Headlines are usually bigger than the main text
• The average text size is between 9 and 12
• Column width of between 8 and ten words is usually appropriate for a magazine front cover as it is easy on the eye

Below is a labelled image of a magazine although it isn't a film magazine it still has roughly the same features that a film magazine has.