Magazine Front Cover Analysis

William Lee Johnson

The image of Bob Marley has a shallow depth of field which puts his face in focus an the background out of focus. This makes the reader associate with the artist as he is in focus. He is also looking directly at the audience which appeals to the target audience.

Along the top of the front cover, there are other bands and artists names, which suggest to the reader that they will also be included somewhere in the magazine. If the reader see a band they like, they will want to purchase the magazine to read the article.

The barcode is in a slightly unconventional place for a magazine as it is generally normally put in one of the far corners of the front cover.

This front cover has a very basic colour scheme. The whole page is black and white except for the writing in yellow of the magazines name – ‘Rolling Stone’ and the main artist feature of the magazine – ‘Bob Marley’. This yellow immediately stands out from the black and white, therefore, the readers attention is drawn to the writing.

‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine.

The artist on the front cover is central and is looking directly at the camera which directly addresses the reader. He is also standing in a position that suggests that he is respected.

This magazine front cover has a very colourful appearance. This reflects the genre of music the artist on the front cover is associated with which appeals to the specific target audience. The colours will also make this magazine stand out on the shelf.

There are only several puffs on the front cover, therefore the readers attention is not taken away from the main image.

The reader can be involved in the magazine by entering a competition to win festival tickets. The reader will also be intrigued by this as it states that they are the ‘last pair’ of tickets.

Puff that informs the reader about an article of the ‘greatest guitarists alive today’. This article could be a sub-article to the main article as Jimi Hendrix is considered by many music fans as the greatest guitarist of his time.

Writing around the main image of Jimi Hendrix. The writing is in a style which reflects his genre of music even further.

‘NME’ Magazine.

The name of the magazine is tucked behind the bands heads. This makes the band appear much more in the foreground and closer to the reader, leaving the word ‘Uncut’ in the background, but still clearly visible to the reader.

The band are not wearing colours that greatly contrast with the colour scheme of the magazine.

Main image of the band ‘Fleet Foxes’ looking directly at the reader. This is common for most magazines to have the people on the front cover looking directly at the reader as it establishes contact between them and the artists.

There is a much more loose colour scheme on this magazine front cover. There are several different colours that generally are not expected to be put together. The main colours however are red, blue and mustard yellow. These colours suggest a slightly traditional feeling which gives the front cover the appearance as if it is from a previous era.

There are many other artists names on different places on the cover. When the reader sees a band that they like and follow on the front cover, they will be drawn to read the article on that specific artist.

There is a ‘Free CD’ inside the magazine which will influence the target audience to buy the magazine.

‘UNCUT’ Magazine.

The name of the magazine is very clear and stands out to the reader. The ‘Q’ logo is very recognizable as it is a popular magazine among music fans.

Puff saying ‘50 Best Videos Ever’. Articles that contain lists and ‘Top 10s’ etc are usually very popular among music magazines as they are very easy to read and are also enjoyable and entertaining.

This front cover has a simplistic colour scheme consisting of black, white and red. There is also some text in blue in the bottom right corner of the cover which the audiences attention will be drawn to as it breaks the colour scheme

Name of the featured band is directly in the middle of the magazine front cover. This is most probably the first thing the reader will see after the name of the magazine.

As with other music magazine front covers, there are other artists names on the front cover which if the reader sees a band/artist that they like, they will be intrigued and be influence to purchase the magazine.

The readers attention will be drawn to the uppercase words such as ‘NEW’, ‘UNSEEN’ and ‘THE STORY’ as these are intriguing words that make the target audience wonder what they do not already know and want to read the article.

‘Q’ Magazine.

Bold colour scheme of black, red and white. These colours may reflect Led Zeppelin’s Mothership album as that also has the same colour scheme. On the front cover of other ‘Classic Rock’ magazines, the colour scheme is not usually determined.

Following regular conventions of magazine front covers, there are also several bands and artists of the same classic rock genre features on the front cover.

The image of Jimmy Page has him central on the front cover and is looking directly at the reader. This creates a connection between him and the reader Half of his face is in shadow which makes him almost blend into the background of the front cover.

Barcode in a conventional bottom corner of the front cover. The barcode rarely is in much of a different place but turned sideways on the edge of the cover.

‘Classic Rock’ Magazine.

The letters ‘O’ and ‘C’ of ‘ROCK’ are obscured, however the reader can still tell that it is the ‘Classic Rock’ magazine due to its style and layout.

Magazine Contents Page Analysis

William Lee Johnson

Date of issue lets reader know when the magazine was published.

Main image draws the readers attention to it as it takes up a large portion of the contents page. The people in the image are also looking directly at the reader which I have established is a regular convention in music magazines.

Page numbers clearly indicated next to the headline of the articles. This directs the readers to their chosen articles that they would like to read.

The articles have a bolder headline and a brief summary of what they are about. This gives the reader an insight to what they can expect from the article.

The colour scheme of the contents page matches the rest of the magazine. This magazine has a very simple colour scheme consisting of red, black and white.

‘Q’ Magazine.

The brown colour breaks away from simple colour scheme of black and white so the audiences attention is drawn to it.

Large grey scale image has a classical effect making the page appear sharp and sophisticated.

Simple colour scheme does not draw the readers attention away from the purpose of the contents page.

This contents page has the usual style of the page number being in a certain colour, then the article name in bold writing and a description of the article in a smaller font.

The main article of the magazine takes up a large proportion of the contents page. The audience will be intrigued and want to read the rest of the article after reading the brief summary of it. The audience are then directed to the page of the article.

‘Rolling Stone’ Magazine.

Very organized and simply laid out contents page. With the main text on the left and the images on the right, the lay out is not complex and does not confuse the reader.

Large heading of the magazine name, ‘Q’, and the word ‘contents ’. The issue number of the magazine is also incorporated into this picture. This created an organized and tidy feel for the audience when reading the contents page.

There is an image that overlaps two other pictures. This links all of the pictures together for the audience.

The contents page follows a simple colour scheme of white, red, black and grey. When the colour scheme is broken, for example the mans green sleeve, the readers attention is immediately drawn to it.

Heading of article with the page number directly next to it. There is also a brief summary of each article.

‘Q’ Magazine.

Very colourful ‘contents’ heading. The colours are repeated a couple of times throughout the rest of the contents page. Otherwise, the colours

A long appeal from the editor of the magazine. This connects the reader to the publication as they know who is making the decisions on the magazine that they are reading.

Three articles are grouped in a yellow box. This will draw the readers attention to it as it is in a different colour to the rest of the headings.

As with most other magazines, there is the article headings, their page number next to them, and a brief summary of the article.

Quite cluttered contents page as it has a very large amount of writing on. The reader could be disheartened when seeing this contents page as it seems to be very long winded.

‘Uncut’ Magazine.

‘Metal Hammer’ Magazine.

The colour scheme of this contents page reflects the target audience. heavy metal fans can relate to the colours black and red. The white in the page is to break up the darkness of the page.

The heading of the page consists of the name of the magazine, the word ‘contents’, and the issue date of the magazine. I have seen this also in ‘Q’ magazine.

The images on the contents page are overlapping and there are many of them. This appeals to the target audience of the magazine as they do not want a magazine that looks exactly like the other magazines on the market

The magazine does follow the regular convention of having the page number, the article name in bold, and then a brief summary of the article. However, in this magazine the font is very gothic which reflects the target audience.

Similar to the ‘Uncut’ magazine contents page, there is a word from the editors of ‘Metal Hammer’ magazine. This connects the readers to the developers of the magazine.

Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

William Lee Johnson

For my first double page spread, I have an article on Jimi Hendrix. This article has a large image of Jimi Hendrix taking up the whole left page and it is overlapped slightly onto the right page. As a result of the image overlapping the two pages, the pages are tied together for the reader. The colour scheme largely consists of purple which has a fade from being darker at the top right side of the pages to being lighter at the bottom left side. This also seems to link the two pages together, making this double page spread appear as if it is an enlarged single paged article. The large image leaves a smaller space for the writing of the article. However, the layout of the text boxes prevents the writing from appearing cluttered and too much.

This is a double page spread on the anniversary of the murder John Lennon. Similar to the double page spread on Jimi Hendrix, the main image of the artist is on the left side of the pages, whilst the writing is found on the right side. The colour scheme of this article is mainly black and whiten with some sparks of red which highlights the fact that the article is for the anniversary of John Lennon being murdered in New York. This is a very simplistic layout for the double page spread which I believe is very effective. I believe this because if there were multiple images in several different colours, the article would appear cluttered and tacky.

This is another double page spread that has a simple layout of the main image being on one page, and the writing of the article being on the other. This article is on The Notorious B.I.G and is also promoting the film based on his life, ‘Notorious’. Similar to the other double page spreads I have analysed, the article has a very basic colour scheme. The orange of the article heading stands out strongly and ensures that the double page spread keeps to the simplistic style of the article. Their is a play on words with the article heading as ‘The B.I.G Picture’ is referring to the artists name, The Notorious B.I.G.

This is another example of a double page spread with its classic layout. With the main image on the right and the writing on the left, the reader can easily read the article without having too many distracting images on the page to sidetrack them. This article also does not have a complex colour scheme, as it only consists of white, black and green. I have decided that my double page spread in my magazine will have a similar layout to this article, with the image mainly being on one side of the double page, and the writing on the opposite side. My double page spread will also have a simple colour scheme, consisting of only two or three colours. If I choose to include any more colours than this, the article will begin to appear untidy and unprofessional.

This double page spread is slightly different to the other articles that I have analysed. This is because this double page spread has multiple images that are purposefully scattered across the pages. The style of this article is made to make it appear as if someone has laid several photographs on top of each other, almost as if it was in a notebook. This style reflects the articles genre of heavy metal.The colour scheme of this article is black and white, which with the images on top of it, they are emphasised and the readers attention are drawn to them.