Magazine Conventions Research

Today I did some research into magazine conventions, and learned a lot about how front covers, tables of content and articles are built. I would say the elements were of two types: intuitive elements (such as a title for the magazine) for which I learned the specialist terms (masthead) and elements that are meant to make your magazine stand out and make someone want to buy it, like catchy titles and interesting pull-quotes.

While I am sure some people genuinely want to use these, I am generally a fan of minimalism and would like to make a magazine that appeals to me artistically rather than following the conventions to build a brand of some kind or satisfy readers' desires to get as much information as quickly as possible without presenting it in a proper context. Although it wasn't specifically mentioned or advised, things such as click-bait that deliberately are dishonest about the content of the article (or the magazine as a whole) in order to get more attention really bother me, as it feels dishonest and takes the 'oomph' out of what could've been a decent article. As such, I will build my magazine while being wary of these tendencies and built-in assumptions of how to approach a magazine.