(AT2) Magazine Colour Scheme & Masthead Research

I have researched and studied the masthead designs and colour schemes of some popular magazines, I have chosen to only look at these particular three magazines as they are the most popular and well known music magazines so it would be most useful for me to see what the typical design and colour schemes are used on their covers, or if any colour schemes are used at all and most of all what effect the design and colour schemes have on their audiences.

From looking specifically at masthead designs I have found that, it is important to make sure the masthead is not over complicated, although one of the most important things on a cover it cannot distract the reader, a minimum of two colours are to be used in a masthead to create a professional look, most typical colours used in mastheads are black white and red. It is important to keep a balance between it being simple and hectic. Many logos will have one feature that makes them different and makes it more appealing, for example the kerrang logo is simply white or black block letter but then featured the cracked pattern over the top, but that is it any more would overcrowd it. The NME is also simply red block lettering but then has a black border to make it different. When creating my own masthead this is a technique I will use, making my masthead simply at first and then adding one possibly two small alterations to make it more appealing. I also found that some mastheads sometimes invert their colours with different issues like both kerrang and NME; this is something I would consider with my own magazine.

From looking at the colour schemes, I found that overall colour schemes very drastically form magazine to magazine some are simple with one basic colour other feature one or two very bright vivid colour but there were a few clear similarities between them. I found most importantly that the colour schemes must reflect one the genre of the magazine, e.g. dark colours such as black and grey be used on a pop or more upbeat indie magazine.  These common colour schemes of a magazine cover often come from the magazines logo, shown in the Q colour scheme coming from the Q logo of red and white this is also true for the NME logo, it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a blue logo and a colour scheme of yellow and red. This is something I need to be aware of when creating my own cover, that my logo colours and magazine link. It was also apparent that not overcrowding the cover with colour is important, sticking to a set colour scheme is vital, one or two colours should only really be used to not confuse the audience. I also found that the colour schemes are sometimes linked to the artist featured in that issue for example, green day a green and yellow colour scheme was used. This is something that will help me create a better magazine cover; I can now make sure my bands identity is shown on my cover through the colour used.