NME Front Page and Double Page Spread

The foundation portfolio main task requires me to include a double page spread for my music magazine. Here is an example taken from the NME.

The NME is a British weekly music magazine. Featuring 'agenda setting' news, the UK's most comprehensive gig guide with definitive reviews of the weeks hottest gigs, tours, artists, tracks and albums making it the weeks essential guide to the music industry.

It is Also well known for its content of fiery commentary from the nations most opinionated writers, as seen in this double page spread featuring commentary from Beth Ditto. I have displayed both the front cover and the issues double page spread to show the links made between the two.

Punk band, 'The Gossip' are the main feature in this issue of NME. Beth Ditto dominates the photo over her other band members suggesting she is the main singer. This band is well known for being differnt to the other stereo typical bands that are out there and taking the music industry by storm, this is emphasised by the sub headline, 'How three punks smashed the mainstream' this indicates the content of the article.

In the double page spread, although the group photo of 'The Gossip' is situated on the right hand side and the main body text on the left hand side by expanding the love heart background to overlap onto the other page and like wise with the main headline this brings them together giving it a sense of being all in one instead of two separate articles.

On the cover 'standing in the way of control' is in the main headline and has been used as a play on words as it could be indicating literally but is also the name of one of their well known songs. In the double page spread the first line of the headline reads 'standing in the way of... ' and then instead of simply writing control it is written what the band stand up to. For example 'body fascists' as Beth Ditto is not the stereotypical female band member (thin and attractive) but in actual fact is proud of who she is which is what the headline is getting across. Amongst the text a pull quote is displayed in a love heart of which the main body text is made to wrap around this. Also the big background is a love heart on the next page and therefore a link can be made to make it appear more as all one page. The fact that the love heart appears in black also represents 'The Gossip' is different from the 'norm' as a love heart would be expected to be coloured red or pink.

There is a cd type symbol in the middle of the background love heart which re-enforces the music side of things. In the conventional way it is made up of three dominant colours, black, pink and white. Beth is wearing a pink and black outfit and the men are wearing black with one of them wearing white framed glasses, these choices have been made to tie in with the music genre. Pink is a colour normally associated with girls which is why pink has been used to reinforce the Beth's gender. If you notice a drop cap has been used on the beginning letter of the article. This is a common feature used in all types of articles used to stress where the article begins, this particular one been in pink to emphasize further.

The explicit language used it the headline, 'bullshit' shows the strongly opinionated attitudes of the band and by including this type of language the magazine shows it feels confident its audience will not be offended by this but rather on the same wave length. In both pictorials on the front cover and double page Beth is situated in front of her other band members suggesting she plays the most important role. More effectively on the double page spread she is holding his face with the back of her hand facing the reader, indicating that she is more in control and has more dominance within the group.

After analysing both the front cover and double page spread I was able to make key links between the two. I realise that many of the key conventions are similar between the two and I now know how to create a double page spread without it looking like two separate pages and this will help me when it comes to designing my own.