MAGAZINE FRONT COVER ANALYSIS

EMPIRE MAGAZINEEmpire is a film, television and gaming magazine from Britain, and is one of the biggest magazines for film. It is published monthly, where they showcase and promote any released or upcoming films, along with reviews from critics and interviews with both cast and crew. This is what helped Empire become so successful in Britain as this is what an audience of film lovers, or even interested customers, usually look for – as Empire contains pretty much everything you need to know about soon releasing/current films and TV shows. Furthermore, the aesthetics of the magazine are eye pleasing as they use a selection of colours that compliment each other to the main film’s genre. For example, their magazine for INCEPTION (show below) is a science heist thrill film, so shades of blue, red, white, grey and black are the main colours used and match with the theme of the genre. The title of Empire magazines are commonly seen in red too, which helps grabs attention of readers. This is important as the first thing majority of people spot with a magazine is it’s title, and because Empire’s one is of a bold, vibrant red colour, it is sure to capture any viewer’s attention.

Their first issue was released in July 1989, and was edited by Barry McIlheney. Before being bought Bauer in 2008, the magazine was published by Emap. Empire is also distributed internationally, involving the United States. Other European countries included Australia, Turkey, Russia, Italy and Portugal.

EMPIRE MAGAZINE - SKYFALL

MASTHEAD

MAIN IMAGE/MODEL

COLOUR SCHEME

COVER/SELL LINES

FONT STYLE AND LAYOUTThe masthead is in a bold, vibrant and red colour in capatalised text and is the first thing that captures the reader’s attention as it stands out amongst the other colours involved for the front cover. To follow conventions of a magazine, it is placed at the top, with a skyline right above. The use of the colour red could also suggest a ‘meaning behind’ to it, as usually this colour is commonly associated with danger or love – which is exactly what James Bond film’s theme is as not only is Bond always in some sort of danger, but he always has a woman to accompany him being his love interest. Adding onto this, the masthead is also behind the model, which perhaps could imply how he is superior.The main image is of Daniel Craig, a famously known British actor who’s role is playing as James Bond for the last couple of years. Since Bond is such a successful and globally known film series (based on the novels), readers would straight away know who he is and the film the magazine is promoting. In this image, he is wearing a suit to make himself appear professional and business – like. However below you see he is holding a gun, which breaks the idea of him being an innocent/normal man as he is a spy. The black suit also helps the model appear more bold and powerful against the light grey background, adding authority too. Further there are bullet holes over the magazine, giving an illusion that he, or an enemy, were shooting at the magazine itself but is protected by it. This added editing gives the front cover a more unique look, and really brings in the theme of police crime to the readers. Little images of other films such as fantastic four are also added to show other films included in the magazine, but are smaller in size as Skyfall is the main one.

The font used varies in size and style that go well together, to look aesthetically pleasing and prevent the front cover from looking boring if they were to use the same font style. The cover line ‘SKYFALL’ is in white, which contrasts against the model’s black suit. It is also slanted, giving a sophistic look and feel to both the magazine and genre of the film. “New pics! The full story” and “50 years of 007” are inside a red box, matching the colour of the masthead and also separates these sell lines so that readers will know it is specifically for anything to do with Bond. The barcode is situated at the side, next to the cover line. Usually this would be placed more towards the corner, but in this case it would look odd as the the bottom section of the magazine is dedicated to 50 years of Bond. The issue number and date is paced in-between the ‘M’ of Empire, allowing to make full use of the gap, and is also small so it is not very distracting.

The colours used are simple: red, black, grey, white and a hint of gold. All this compromised creates a modern and sophisticated appearance, which matches with the genre of the film as it is a modern Bond film. Adding on to this, the target audience for this magazine would be more aimed at those of a young adult and over age, manly because of the colour scheme used is more associated for a mature age. Additionally, the use of the red colour also alerts readers and grabs attention more as suppose to if the colour were red – as red is usually used to ‘break news’.

Cover lines are usually placed within the middle of the front cover, commonly placed above the main image. It is the 2nd biggest font seen here, so can still be read from afar and the white colour helps readers see the cover line more easily from a distance too. The sell lines are placed at the sides of the magazine, and are used to inform readers what articles can be found in this issues. Articles in the gold colour, such as avengers and burgundy, could suggest special articles that readers can see, since the words special or royalty connects with this colour. It also separates each sell line, and prevents the appearance of looking basic and crowded. I think that by having colours that are not complicated, gives a really nice effortless look to the magazine, as well as having a polished, sleek look. I would like my magazine to have a similar vibe to this, so would take front cover magazines such as this forinspiration.