Mastheads

My genre choice is Indie/Rock as two main stream magazines really caught my eye and inspired me. These two magazines were Q and NME. So now I have decided to look at front covers in detail to get a view of there house styles. I am also going to look at their mastheads and how they work for that magazine.

Masthead
A masthead is part of a magazines house style and appears on every issue of the magazine. A masthead is used by a magazine as something readers can recognise when the magazine is sold in a shop. The mast head is ALWAYS on the top of the magazine and usually stretches across the whole front cover or is placed in the left hand corner. This is so when the magazine is sold on shelves in a shop it is always visible.

This is the masthead for the well known magazine Q. The masthead is very simple and contains of a bright red square with a white upper case Q. I believe Q have decided to create a very simple masthead as it will be easier for people to remember and therefore easier to recognise when they go to buy the magazine again. The colour choice that Q have used works very well as the bold red stands out on their typical white or black background, however with the Q been so white and crisp it stands even further out on the red bold background. Overall making the masthead one of the easiest items to be seen on the front cover of the magazine. Q made the choice to place their masthead in the top left hand corner of their front cover. I believe by not stretching their masthead across the cover shows how confident they are that readers will recognise them.

The masthead to the left is the masthead of NME (New Musical Express). The masthead is still rather simple as is Q's however I think it is slightly more detailed than Q's. A similarity I have seen between the two mastheads is that all writing is in block capitals and there is no lower case lettering. The main colour of the text is bright red and is outlined in white and black. However unlike Q's masthead there is no coloured boxing around the masthead meaning it could be difficult to make it stand out on a front cover. This masthead also have three smaller sized words under neither the main lettering. This is showing the reader what the larger lettering stands for. NME also place their masthead in the left hand corner of the front cover and this is part of their conventional house style.

By looking at the two mastheads I have disscovered how important one is to a magzine and that magzine been recongnised. I have disscovered that I will defiently need a masthead in order to make my magazine complete and give it a greater chance of becoming a success. By looking at the two I have seen that the colouring and size of the masthead is two of the most important factors. Both of the two above have used a bright bold red which will easily satnd out on a plain coulored background. From this I now need to think what coulor I will want my masthead to be and if the coulor will suit the rest of my house style in order to look proffesional. I have disscovered from looking at mastheads from previous magazines that they hace two main placements in the top left hand corner or stretched across the top of the cover. Also looking I have dissocvered that more recognised magazines tend to have a smalller masthead in the left hand corner so therefore they have more space on the front cover for the story. As my magazine will be brand new I believe that a masthead stretching across the whole of the front ocver will be better suited as it will be easier for my target audience to spot when been sold. In my design stages I may choose took look back on this post to gain inspiration for my masthead.