How house style is esatblsihed

How house style is established

House style is a key component in making a successful magazine as it involves making your magazine consistent in terms of its design and layout in order to make it distinctive and recognisable for the reader and that means that certain element of the magazine must stay consistent throughout in order to estabslih this house style and attract your target audience. There are several different ways of achieving a unified house style and many different magazines use different techniques in order to achieve this buyt the one thing they all have in common is that they all do have a house style in one way or another and that is one of the main reasons why they are successful.

Masthead

All top magazines are known for their consistent masthead, this is used in every magazine in order to make the masthead stand out to the viewer as it has gained a reputation. It also allows the magazine to be clear to the viewer. Another thing that remains consistent it the placement of the masthead. Some companies always put one of the main image overlapping the masthead in order for the image to stand out to the viewer as it is clear and attracted by the large/bold masthead. One key element that many magazines have also introduced now is changing their name or masthead style in order to make it resemble a logo, for example Q magazine has made their masthead look as if it is also a logo and therefore is can be noticed easier and clearer which is what a magazine is looking for.

Images

The type of shot used for images can contribute to house style as a lot of magazines like to use the same type of shot fairly consistently, for example Q magazine is commonly known for using model shots which mean that the artist on the front has been set up in this position like they would do in a photo shoot. A lot of companies like to place their images in the same spot in most issues and this spot may sometimes be in front of the masthead which allows the publisher to get across the idea that the artist on the front is the main part of this issue and should therefore gain the most attention.



 NME
I also researched NME magazine during this process and discovered that they have developed a house style through their front cover images being large and over powering, they also are commonly facing shots where the image itself almost acts as a background effect as it is so over powering space wise and take up almost all of the room on the front cover. This is so that the image and main topic that links with this image can become incredibly emphasised to the reader from the beginning before they have even started reading and therefore give them an idea of what to expect and this constant theme is developed through their house style of front cover images.

Layout

Layout is very important to establishing a house style as there are certain things that you can do with a layout consistently that eventually allow your magazine to be commonly noticed for this specific element. One element that a lot of companies are known for is their use of framing. Q magazine for example like to use framing around their images in the centre in order to make their images stand out to the viewer. By giving a magazine a consistent layout which contributes to your house style the it adds an element of professionalism to the magazine and simply allows the magazine to come across as finished and well made which can cause a viewer to be more interested in it.

NME

 During my research into NME's layout I looked at their contents pages and how they are laid out and I established that their house style is very consistent throughout and involves the index always being set out on the right hand side of the page in a small black/red font whilst the news, radar, reviews and features are located on the left hand side and all four sections are highlighted with a b lack rectangle and written in white font.  Their is also always and image that takes up a substantial amount of the contents page and is of the main topic which was also featured on the front cover and this is again used in order to empathises the topic and get it across to the reader in the easiest way possible which is through images and visuals.