Analysing Existing Magazine Front Covers

Analysing Existing Magazine Front Covers

I will first be analysing a Bodmin College magazine that is aimed at the primary audience of student’s aged 11-18, and the secondary audience of teachers and parents, who are likely to fall into band C1-E in social status demographic, all of both genders. The medium is a print item that is given to inform and entertain the audience with updates of progress of the college and its students.

The masthead of this particular magazine is very unclear and doesn’t fill the requirement for a conventional masthead. It is not enticing to the target audience in any way so it does not attract their attention, especially the primary target audience of students who would prefer bright and large headings to make the magazine feel less formal and more aimed at them. The typography used for the word “magazine” shows an attempt to attract the attention of students by using a less formal style. However, it does not achieve this because the use of the Bodmin College logo makes the cover feel formal and very education-based, therefore not appealing to the primary audience. An example of a masthead that is successful and more relevant to the primary target audience here is displayed on the cover of “Kerrang!” magazine, which has a style that is more attractive to the young, less mature audience.

A common convention in magazine front covers is to have one main image with smaller images, however, this cover goes against this convention and uses three larger images filling the remaining space under the banner. Not only does this not give the cover a single focus in terms of looking at the cover, but also the images used are of poor quality due to the lack of focus and poor lighting within the photographs and could represent a dance theme throughout the magazine, which may not appeal to the majority of the target audience.

Unlike the common convention of a three or four colour palette for magazine covers, with the exception of soap magazine covers, this particular cover has far too many colours. The images used do not conform to the main colour palette of red, white and black and instead uses a range of colours that do not work together and it gives a “messy” feel to the whole cover. Furthermore, the use of green on a cover should only be used for a specific reason, otherwise it should not be used, and this cover ignores this and uses green for an attempt at a seasonal banner image, which goes against the colour palette and makes the entire the cover very unprofessional looking, therefore not appealing to the older students in the primary target audience and teachers in the secondary target audience.

The left third and the top sixth of a magazine cover is generally where the most significant information and teasers are situated in the magazine’s layout because these places would usually be the first parts of the cover that are seen and therefore need to impact the audience so they will pick up the magazine in the first place. On the Bodmin College magazine cover, there is no information in the left third at all, and a very small amount in the top sixth, which is merely relevant to the magazine issue information and not teasers or magazine content, showing that the layout of the magazine has not been thought about in order to attract the target audiences and instead seems as if it has been quickly put together in order to construct the rest fot he magazine. Additionally, the magazine “sweet spot” is the area in which some researchers believe the eye of the reader is immediately drawn to, and a good example of the use of the sweet spot is Cosmopolitan magazine, however, this cover has nothing in this area but one of the large images and therefore does not use this to entice the reader.

The use of a single cover line in the centre of the cover is unnecessary due to its lack of clarity making it illegible because of the poor lighting in the image itself and the images surrounding it. This also makes the cover look “messy” and unprofessional which a lot of the target audiences would find unappealing. There is also a lack of any other lines, teasers or a menu bar on the cover outside of the top sixth and left third which means the only assumption readers can make about the contents of the magazine are that it may be about dance and this may decrease the chances of the majority of the target audience taking the time to read the magazine.

There is no cover mount with the magazine, which could be due to the fact that the magazine’s main purpose is to inform and therefore a cover mount would seem out of character for a magazine of this type.

Overall, this Bodmin College magazine cover is not very effective in that it hardly abides to any common conventions of magazine covers and doesn’t appeal to the target audience very well.

Secondly I will be analysing a Skive magazine front cover, which is a student made magazine with a target audience of sixth form students in Bodmin College, so males and females aged 16-19 who will fall into bands D-E in social status demographic. This medium is also a print item that is used to inform and entertain, however more towards the entertainment side due to the target audience and the general nature of the magazine to be about teenaged topics of interest.

The masthead of this magazine is much more aimed at the target audience with scruffy, unfinished styled typography, which creates a very distinct and original brand for the magazine. The visual effects of fire and smoke connote a rebellious theme possibly smoking and burning things, but not completely advertising this behaviour. The fire could also connote heat, for example that the magazine is “hot off the press”, meaning it’s brand new with an original idea.

The colour palette of this cover is a lot clearer with main colours of black, white and orange. S Hall’s theory stereotyping young people can be applied to this cover, with the use of black connoting depression and criminal behaviour, the use of white possibly connoting drug use with white text in lines, and the orange connoting more criminal behaviour such as arson and fire in general. Pink is also used on the cover, which contrasts with the main colour palette, however it is used well in order to attract females due to the possible lack of interest in the rest of the cover and it works because of the red/pink colour in the main image.

The main image used is a highly photo-shopped and exposed medium close up of someone’s face, which has an expression that looks slightly scared and stressed, (stress being a main feature of adolescence life represented in the magazine cover and the magazine in general.) The image has a sense of horror, which makes the image unsettling to the reader, furthering the main emotion of stress that the magazine tries to highlight. This appeals to the target audience because the magazine is therefore showing empathy with the reader and showing the intent to help adolescents whilst they’re growing up, with stories and information that would appeal to as many different people as possible.

Furthermore, the cover looks really busy, which, to me, is unattractive and makes it seem like the creator was trying too hard to fit all the relevant information on one page. However, this works because it uses a range of different stories to appeal to different audiences. For example, the taglines "Africa Trip", "Music Reviews" and "Tartan Style Is back" have all been used to represent the broadness of interest that is evident within the target audience.

The lexis shows an attempt to denote the thoughts and emotions within the target audience and therefore gives the reader something to relate to which draws their attention to seek empathy or refuge in the magazine. However, the word "monogomy" may not have been a good choice because, after a class study, not many of the target audience have come across the word and this may put the reader off carrying on with the magazine. In general, I think the lexis has been chosen well, although slightly wordy for a cover.

The different typography used is very good in appealing to the target audience because it's mostly clear and easy to read, however the range of fonts seems to make the page look messy and indecisive. Also, the fonts could be more original and unique to give the target audience something different to read as opposed to fonts that look like the regularly looked at fonts of computer programs.

Overall, I think the magazine cover works really well in catering for the target audience's needs and it represents them in an attractive way, through typography and image, and I especially like the choice of masthead. Furthermore, it abides by many common conventions of magazine covers of it's style in comparison to the more professionally made cover in the first analysis.