Research - NME

Before trying to create my own magazine I first had to research existing magazine styles, the first magazine that I am researching is NME magazine. It is a pop/rock magazine with a large variety of music styles in it.

The first double page spread that I looked at was one about David Bowie, it is a relatively simple layout with several photos and some different coloured text boxes. This style would be quite easy to recreate because there are no fancy editing effects as such. The use of colours is also effective because it is attention grabbing but still clear and easy to read.

The second double page spread is of Lilly Allen, It has one large photo of the artist with a large title in a complicated font. The writing in this article is a small amount which is underneith the title at the very bottom of the left hand page. I think this style would also be quite easy to recreate if I use a good quality photo and a large fancy font (I could either make or download one).

The contents pages are also quite simple layouts, they have one or two large photos in the middle with a band index on the left, and a contents list on the right. Its use of simple blocks and shapes is really effective because it uses bright contrasting colours like red, white, and black.

The contents pages also have a short story on them and also a section advertising a subscription to the magazine.

A standard NME magazine has the red and white title at the top left of the page, however the layout of the rest of it often varies. This particular one has lots of musians edited together because it is an albums of 2010 special edition.

This particular cover of NME is a different layout to the standard ones, the usual red and white title has been swapped for a light blue one which gives a cool feel to it which matches the background behind the musician. It is rare for NME to do this, as they usually use neutral coloured photos that will match their colour scheme.

This is a more typical NME layout, all of the headings and sub headings are in the typical black white and red, and the title is in its usuall place.

I quite like the the style of most NME magazines so will most probably use a similar colour scheme and house style within my task.