Double page spread analysis 5

Double page spread analysis 4

Double page spread analysis 3

Double page spread analysis 2

Double page spread analysis 1

Contents analysis 5

Contents analysis 4

Contents analysis 3

Contents analysis 2

Contents analysis 1

Textual analysis 5 mixmag

Textual analysis of mix mag

Mix mag is a popular dance and clubbing music magazine. It is written about a few specific music genres that are all related to dance music. The mast head of the magazine is very bold and looks smooth and flowing. They have written it all in lower case so that it looks a lot more unified and stands out more. The masthead of the magazine also includes a tag line above it saying ‘ the world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine’, this is added to the masthead because the magazine is proud of this status above other magazines of the same genre.

The main cover line is a 10 page special edition in this issue. The focus of the main cover line is simply a DJ called sub focus and that is all that the main cover line says. This shows that the magazine does not feel they need to add any more detail than that, this shows that the DJ is quite famous in his genre and simply his name will sell the magazine.

The main image used on the cover is of the artist mentioned in the main cover line. The image has then been edited quite a bit to make it seem very blurred and disorientating, this could be linked to the music he produces because of the fast passed music that he plays at his concerts. The image stands out a lot from other magazines who don’t edit their main images in such a big way, this allows mix mag to look very different from most other music magazines.

This issue also comes with a free CD of Sub focuses tracks. This adds more value to the magazine and gives the reader more incentive to buy this particular issue as they are getting more value for money. The free CD would also help for the reader to know a bit more about the music and the artist the reading about in this magazine, this helps the reader to understand what sort of genre they are reading about in this magazine. This might bring in more avid weekly readers of the magazine and increase sales.

The colours used on the cover of the magazine are very saturated to make the cover lines stand out against the sepia background. The cover lines surrounding the image are all in with boxes in black text, some of the boxes are different variations of those three colours. This creates a very unique and bold look to the front cover of the magazine.

To conclude I think this cover is extremely good at attracting the reader’s eye. This is because the cover is so completely different to any other music magazines; this is because of the highly edited main image and the overall style of the cover. The colours used on the cover are quite unusual for a magazine, this is because most magazines use very bright colours.

Textual analysis 4 KERRANG

Textual analysis of KERRANG magazine

Kerrang is a popular rock ‘n’ roll themed magazine and interviews a lot of famous bands and singer. In this particular issue the cover is dedicated to Green day, a famous rock ‘n’ roll band. Kerrang is aimed at rock ‘n’ roll fans generally aged 14+ over.

The first thing the reader notices about this cover is the main image of Billie Joel as it takes up most of the cover apart from the left third, this is to capture the readers eye and make the cover look very interesting. The image is of the main singer of the band (Billie Joe) pointing at a sign saying ‘GREEN DAY’ followed by ‘answer all your questions’ this tells the reader exactly what they can read about in this issue of the magazine. The main writing on the sign is bigger to stand out more and in red to grab the readers eye, it is also bigger because it is more important than the rest of the sign as it is the band’s name featured in the article.

The next thing on the cover you notice is the masthead, all the wording is in capitals saying ‘KERRANG’ even though the masthead is slightly obscured by the main image you can see that it is meant to look liked cracked glass, maybe symbolising the rebellious nature of the magazine. The fact that it is in capitals could be linked to the fact that the magazine is straight to the point and is a big thing for its readers. As for the colour of the mast head it is a simple yet bold yellow, this is so that the mast head can stand out against most other colours you’d want to use on a magazine cover.

As for the background of the cover it looks very rough and scratched. This makes all the cover lines and images on the cover stand out a lot more than they would against a colourful background. The colour of the background is made to look like rough and destroyed metal; this is so it can look very grimy and destroyed. This goes with the rebellious theme of the cover.

The rest of the cover lines are all in a box of the same yellow as the masthead. This makes the cover look a lot more unified and makes them stand out quite a bit. The writing used is either white or red so that the writing is easy to read against the yellow background of the cover. The rest of the cover is very empty and doesn’t really have anything on it, this is because the main image is quite big for a magazine cover. The big image is very bold but then takes away a bit of detail from the stories that surround other magazines main images. This is a good idea as it makes the magazine quite unique from many others in the same rock ‘n’ roll genre.

To conclude this magazine is very bold and rebellious, I think this is unique from other magazine covers and fit very well with the genre of the magazine. I also like the way the main cover line is included in the main image, I think this is a very unique way to have the main cover line. I especially like the font used for the main cover line as it looks very rushed and like it is painted onto the placard being held by the model (Billie Joe).

Textual analysis 3 Q

Textual analysis of Q magazine

Q magazine is a popular rock ‘n’ roll magazine that is bought and read by young people interested in the genre of the magazine. This particular cover for the issue looks very powerful for a lot of reasons. The first is the main image, but the masthead is also very bold and stands out a lot.

The main image is extremely powerful for lots of reasons; the first main one is the fist coming forward from the man. This symbolises power as he is almost challenging the reader to open the magazine. The second way the image is powerful is the way the model is looking down at you showing that he is more important than you. These two points make the image stand out a lot from most other main images because of the fist and positioning but the clothing of the model also makes the image different. The model is wearing quite dark clothing which makes his face and fist stand out more against the rest of the cover.

The cover line is quite powerful as well and is linked to the main image. It says ‘Noel: still pulling no punches’ this is related to the fist punching out in the main image. This also tells us that the main article in the magazine will be about Noel Gallagher. The cover line stands out quite a lot from the rest of the background as it is a completely different colour to the background.  The other thing that makes the cover line stand out is that it is in a white box that is then a different colour from the back and red writing of the actual cover line.

The background of the cover is quite different to other magazine covers. It is faded from the centre outward meaning the colour is stronger around the images and the outline of the model is white, this makes the image seem more important and bold. The background also helps to make the cover lines stand out more because of the faded background. All of the cover line has a bit of red in to be like the masthead of the magazine. Red is a big theme throughout the cover of this magazine, this is quite a good idea because it looks very pleasing to the eye.

The cover lines look very busy around the edge of the picture; this is because there are lots of cover lines right next to the image. This makes the cover look quite fast and up to date. Overall I think this is a good magazine cover, because it looks quite good and uniform but at the same time it is quite unorganised by the way  the cover lines are all jumbled and in different colours. The image used on this cover is very powerful and looks extremely good surrounded by the red and black cover lines, this means the reader can pick out this magazine at a distance.  

Textual analysis 2 NME

Analysis of NME magazine

NME or new musical express is a popular music magazine created and printed in England, the magazine generally focuses on chart music. This is one of the reasons the magazine sells so well as it appeals to a great number of people as the music it writes about is extremely popular. 

The mast head of this magazine is very simple and easy to read, this is quite useful because it is very useful as it is straight to the point. It also allows a reader to find the magazine easily again if they enjoyed it the first time, the boldness of the masthead also helps the magazine to stand out a lot over most other music magazines in a shop. The masthead also fits in to the general colour scheme of the magazine very well, the writing is yellow and the rest of the main writing is written in either red or yellow to make the points stand out against each other.

The main image on this cover is quite unique as the model also appears as the main article in the issue. This allows the reader to know what they can read about in the main article in the magazine before they buy it to see if they are interested. As for the actual image it is of Kurt Cobain a famous musician, he is wearing a hat and glasses as if to cover his face or identity. This could show that he is normally a secretive man but is allowing the magazine a look into his life. The front cover also includes quotes from him saying ‘My lyrics are contradictions. Ill write a few sincere lines then make fun of them’ this extract of the article gives the reader an insight into what he will be talking about in this interview.  

This magazine has a very unique style and looks quite unorganised and neat at the same time. They achieve this look by using very rough and unorganised lettering to get the unorganised or jumbled look on the front cover. For example the cover line is in yellow with the letters all at different heights to one another. This gives the cover a rough and not organised look which looks very good in contrast the rest of the magazine, which is organised and on a grid. The left third of the cover is quite organised and in boxes within boxes. This adds a separation on the cover from the left and the right hand side, this divide is about a third from the left hand side and makes the cover stand out. They use two very opposing colours; this makes the text and the background stand out against each other. This is useful as the magazine will be sold on a shelf with lots of others, so using colours that stand out will help for avid readers to find the magazine.

The popularity of this magazine is based on readers buying the magazine or subscribing for a weekly issue to be sent to them. This helps to keep the magazine popular because it has a weekly amount of buyers. The main reason people subscribe to the magazine is because it is about popular music of the time, this helps to make the magazine popular as thousands of people listen to that sort of music so the magazine will always be read.

To conclude the magazine cover works very well even though it is quite plain. This is because of the powerful imagery used in the main image. This helps to make the image stand out against the background and look more powerful.

Textual analysis 1 Rolling Stone

Textual analysis of Rolling Stone magazine

From the cove of this magazine you can tell you are meant to feel bad for the celebrity. One of the main reasons is because of the way Robert Downey Jr looks very unkempt and rough in an orange hoodie as you wouldn’t normally see him in such casual clothing for a photo shoot. Another reason is his facial expression, he is looking directly at the camera and doesn’t look like he is posing at all for the picture. The model is also not smiling at the camera but he also isn’t frowning or making any facial expressions at all, you could say he looks quite spaced out with the glazed over eyes. The final point is the cover line ‘To hell and back with Robert Downey Jr’ which tells the reader that he has been through a rough patch or is struggling to handle something. This can be related back to the image and explain why he looks so rough and unkempt.

The main image of the celebrity is make to stand out a lot on this issue of the magazine, we can see this by the way the cover line and branding don’t cover much of the main image, this shows that the image and the story about the picture is obviously quite big and needs to stand out. The other main reason the image stands out so much is the colour scheme used around the picture, all of the text and even the masthead are done in either black or white and contrast the orange of the image in a huge way, this leads back to the point that the image is meant to be the most important part of the magazine cover.

This particular magazine is aimed at younger people interested in the rock ‘n’ roll genre of music portrayed by the magazine. The cover lines are about politics and murders which would not appeal to very young people as they wouldn’t normally be interested in. This is why the target audience is probably around the age of 25+ as they would be more interested in the issues mentioned by the cover lines. The other reason the target audience might be older is because of the price of the magazine, £3:50 is quite a bit of money for a younger person to spend on a weekly magazine, for that reason we reader might be older that 12+ so they would be working to earn money.

The fonts used on the cover are very bold and stand out a lot from most other magazines to make them stand out and easy to read, this is probably so that shoppers can quickly and easily skim the cover lines so they can see if they are interested in the articles in the magazine. This is also so that the different cover lines stand out on their own and don’t just blend in together. The other reason the cover lines stand out is because the background of the image is white which makes the image and the text stand out a lot from the blank white background.

To conclude I think this magazine cover is very powerful and works quite well at attracting the eye of the reader. It is also good because you can easily see what articles are mentioned in the issue before you buy it. The magazine reaches out to its target audience very well with the articles inside and the cover image. Overall this cover is well designed and works very well.

Magazine cover and contents

Preliminary magazine evaluation

Evaluation

To evaluate my preliminary task I started by taking a relevant picture to represent the college students. This cover was design to be for any gender age or ethnicity. The issue is not aimed at any particular areas of college it is a general magazine for most people at college and is not subject specific. This way it will appeal to all of the different people at college e.g. sports, mac users and art students.

In making this preliminary task I have learnt a lot of technical skills in Photoshop. First I had too crop and resize all of my images so they were an appropriate size. I also learnt basic Photoshop skills as I had never used Photoshop before, I learnt to use the layers effectively and how to manipulate text and colors to make the page more visually pleasing.

As for feedback I asked Joe to evaluate my work this is what he said; ‘I like the range and varieties of colors used in the cover lines. The image is both relevant and appealing to the target audience. The contents page is a little plain however; this does mean that the colors do not clash.’

To conclude my evaluation I think my preliminary task went quite well as I learnt a lot of new skills and made a reasonable looking cover and contents page. If I did this task again I would change the cover image to make it a bit more towards a social college rather than just one man. I would also make my contents page a bit more interesting as it is just black and white.