How many "artists" will you need? (based on NME 9.3.13)

Based on NME, how many "artists" will you need to create for your own magazines?



First off, on the cover this uses just one image so the focus is on the main cover artist. HOWEVER, by my counting 14 items in total are alluded to on the front cover.

This NME cover from February also focuses on one artist only. But there are also four different items featuring on the front cover, so as you can see it varies from issue to issue. The plus sign gets used by NME quite often as it connotes "added extra" or getting something else for your money. There is also the badge iconography that is followed through in the double page spread.

 There are 7 different artists pictured here, in a variety of different poses etc.

7 images of artists again! You only have to read a few of the pullquotes to see how they intend on hooking the reader in. You'll find that many will have swearing or links to risqué content, as this will appeal to the target audience - it has a reputation of danger and daring in the content covered!

On the first two pages of the Cribs feature (the cover story of 23.1.13), you will see main image on the left and then the simple badge motif breaking up the wad of text on the right, which is meant to symbolise the band's punky roots.

 

The second page of the spread is more varied visually. Instead of text-images being separated into one page each. Here they are separated along the horizontal, with pics occupying the top half and text getting the bottom half. There are nine images of the band in various different settings and poses. There is the repetition of the Cribs badges breaking up the text on the bottom half.

 

 

To conclude:

How many artists will you need to have?

1 main artist for the cover and spread - Examiners have been critical if you do your spread about an artist who did not feature on the cover. You will need one large photo for the cover, preferably filling the whole page and then you can work with the space around it.

How many for contents page?

Then you will need around seven artists for your contents page - any less than this, you run the risk of making your magazine seem empty when you want to achieve the opposite and make it seem as jam-packed as possible. To direct readers to where your cover story is located, try to use a different pic from the front cover, however it is often from the same photo shoot so costume and mise en scene are often the same but it is another shot of your artist.

How many for double page spread?

This will come down to your own personal research. As you can see I am using NME for my example so if I was copying NME, like I did for my awful Daughter DPS design in the week, I would use one full page image that would take up one page. This may well be complemented by a few other pics that may illustrate parts of your article - eg. the Cribs talked lots in the article about playing live, hence several pics of them performing. In the second DPS of the article there is the yellow box-out to give you another point of entry into the article where there is an NME award pictured.

 

So you may well use up to 10 pictures of your main band/artist but potentially you will need seven other artists as well for your contents page. However, this guideline is a mere example of how your research should be influencing your page designs as this is taken from NME, so make sure your own deductions on artist amount come from your own research material.

For more research material click here.