Research & Summarise

Front cover

An image based cover is the most commonly used style, but it's important to get it right. A typical successful cover consists of one or a few main images with the main one having a model that gives direct eye contact with the camera, preferably smiling. In many cases it is the cover image that sells the magazine so it has to be right.

Another important thing is the interaction between the words and the picture. some magazines of for a few cover lines, some fill almost each empty space with the cover lines. It all depends on the character of the publication.  
A cover line needs one line set in big type and it has to be the best cover line. It can be call for action, solution to problems, a powerful statement or some word play. 

When choosing a proper body text font, you should choose one that suits your publication. The most popular font for a magazine is a serif font, they use this because it makes it easier for line to line eye transition. However from doing further research into this most magazines use a vary of different fonts within their articles so I will vary my text to follow the common conventions.

Contents page

Each paragraph of text can have a horizontal indent in the first line of the paragraph. The paragraph just below the subheading doesn't have to have to be indented, the indent should be from 3-5mm depending on the width of the text column.

The heading should be situated somewhere easily visible as people read the contents page to find out what the main feature story includes. It also has to be one of the biggest things on the page, then followed by the main image. The other images need to be smaller to show that they are the less important ones that don't belong with the feature article.

With the other smaller images should have mini coverless that include the sub heading of that story, they should also have the page numbers that they appear on so that its easier to navigate to. The text should be in a 5-9pt size font as it's a common convention for magazines, the text should also be written in sentence case.

Double Page Spread

The heading should be the biggest thing on one of the pages and should only typically feature on one side of the page. Subheadings should introduce the different parts of the article and also have pull quotes from the interview, this is to show some of the main interesting things that they reveal.

The other side of the page should be filled with one main image of the featured artist. This image should represent the theme and style of the magazine but also show the colour palette used throughout the story.

The by-line should also be quite small as it isn't an important part to the article, however it still should be quite visible as the writer would want recognition for his/her work.