Analysing a magazine for its codes and conventions.

Firstly I must think about 3 key areas which will be:

- Text

- Images
- Layout

Here I will be using a popular Indie magazine, NME. I will be analysing their house style and their codes and conventions.

Text: The font they have used is 'sans-serif'. This is so it is easy to read and also done in block caps so it stands out bold. This is kept throughout their issues so readers are recognise the house font and therefore can afford to overlap the text with the main image.

Colours: NME has 5 didferent colour schemes (red, black, white and gold). In a way they have broken the convention as typicaly, magazines use 3 colours in their scheme. The NME logo is always red with a white outline which is their house style however may change for special edition issues. Gold is also picked up on this cover and it is conventional that other bits of text will carry the same colour. Also, the colour of the anchoring text can be reflected onto what the main image. Here it is not picked up that much however the cover person's skin has been made to look very tanned and almost golden.

The red from the title is also picked up subtly on the top and bottom right hand corners. This can indicate something exciting (competitions) or outrageous ( most overrated bands)  

Layout: It is conventional to have a banner going across the top or bottom (here it is on the top) and to have a full image some what in the centre. Many magazines also follow the Z shaped layout which entices the reader to scan their eyes across the top, diagonally down the image and finishing at the bottom. In this magazine I can clearly see the Z layout as my eyes were drawn from the top banner, on to the face and the bigger text on the left also helps to lure the eyes in a certain direction and then the hand brings our eyes back down to the bottom of the page