Jarad Tansley! Specialised Front Page Analysis

Front Cover AnalysisJarad Tansley

Computer Shopper

Name of magazine and subtitle. Computer Shopper has a different font and a red background to make it stand out from the other parts of the magazine. The subtitle advertises its selling point as “Britain’s biggest technology magazine”. Also seen is the issue of the magazine.

Main article of this magazine’s issue. Their main article is about finding powerful computers and laptops with Windows 7, so they have the article advertised on a large portion of the front cover with a photo of a computer and laptop with the Windows desktop on them.

Smaller stories advertised on the front page. These are smaller articles for people who want to see something more specific, for instance the Android Special portion is for people wanting to switch their phone or tablet to Android. They all have different fonts to make them stand out.

The reviews are advertised on the top of the page. These allow the reader to find out how many reviews and what is being reviewed.

Red, white and black colour scheme. This colour scheme is good for a computing magazine as it can relate to the audience, who is typically male, but it can also be seen as a neutral colour to some. Yellows and greens are used to make certain parts of the front cover stand out, creating sections of the front cover and allowing the reader to look at what they want.

Advertisement for free software. This may convince the reader to pick up and buy the magazine, as they may want free software for their computer.

Photography of a computer and laptop. This will bring the reader’s focus to the main article. The photographs may have been edited in the way that the screen is a screenshot of Windows 7 pasted onto where the screen would be, because screens can be very reflective and inefficient for photography, so the images may have to be edited on photo editing software afterwards to include the Windows desktop.

Barcode and details of the price, issue and title of the magazine. This is intended for distributors, such as computing and electronics shops, to give information to the customers.