Wire magazine research notes

For a smaller magazine I looked at Wire Magazine for May 2019. Wire is a small music magazine based in Hackney, London with emphasis on Avant-Garde/ experimental music and alternative musicians. The magazine sells copies in limited stores and on their online

Wire magazine May 2019 edition front cover

• In this edition the cover star is a musician called Tanya Tagaq. She is a experimental artist and is what could be considered an underground artist as she hasn't one any mainstream music awards or had any of her albums sell especially. The cover star being unknown is unconventional for a house style magazine since a cover star can advertise a magazine but because Wire is a alternative magazine she fits because she is an avaunt-garde artist and the Identity of the Magazine focuses on avaunt-garde artists.

• The magazine uses a Sans-Serif font with bold white text for the masthead. This makes the magazine seem more sophisticated since it doesn't use more colourful or softer colours which could be seen as fun or positive (which is also unconventional since most house style magazines use those type of colours for their masthead) but since the magazine is about artists who make more high-brow art and music it fits the tone the magazine is going for.

• The colour scheme of the cover is very dark and focuses on secondary colours such as the black and white text, the background which is beige, her outfit is dark blue etc. This darker colour scheme also creates also a sophisticated tone because darker colours can present maturity. I also the dark blue outfit on the beige outfit brings out the cover star a lot since those colours even though think they're both dark they still contrast each-other and this makes the cover star stand out more.

• The cover's anchorage text is spread apart and is also white. This isn't like most house style magazines since most house style magazines use the anchorage text to advertise the cover star and for that reason they make it stand out by making it a different colour. But I think whilst unconventional this is good as it sticks to the colour scheme of the page which makes the cover seem more visually consistent.

front page of magazine

• On the first page it displays new albums. All of the album covers displayed have no photo of the artist who made it. This is unconventional for cover arts which normally would have a representation of the artist on the album cover. Also many of the albums are described as "soundtracks" or "experimental"which are smaller less popular genres of music. This shows the magazines emphasis on showing unconventional and unique musicians.

• The border of this page also has a purple border purple has connotations of wealth and knowledge which could indicate a wealth of knowledge through reading the albums.

• first page is used to advertise a small records store which fits with the identity of the magazine since they are also advertising small creative artists who appear on the advertisement

Contents page of Magazine

• The magazine contents page...