Evaluation of Magazine Front Covers

Magazine Cover 1What your intentions were when you took the photograph? My intensions when taking this photo was to make the theme of the magazine very clear via the image and to make the magazine cover as inviting as possible by using direct address and ensuring the model has a happy facial expression. The clothing of the magazine fits the genre and location of the image as I ensured the model was wearing sporty clothing, additionally, I ensured the majority of the photo is focus however made it clear the main subject is the model. By using a high angle, I made a reflecting effect on the table tennis of the model which I think looks very professional.

How the final image fulfils your intentions?It fulfilled my intensions very well, however I changed to create a higher aperture so the light focuses more on the model, additionally, the bright lighting helps to create a positive atmosphere, which is essential for a sports magazine as people who play sports are very passionate about it and very much enjoy it.

How the image is appropriate for the front cover of a teenage lifestyle magazine; and the specific issue you have created?The image is appropriate for the front cover of a teenage lifestyle magazine most notably due to the fact that the model used in the cover is also a teenager, this immediately makes the magazine relatable for the target audience of teenagers. Additionally, the table of which shown in the magazine is one from a college yard, I chose this purposefully as it is more relatable as a lot of people of which have played table tennis have experienced it casually in school or college etc. I did not want to go down the cliché route of using a football or rugby magazine cover to represent sport as that is very common and I wanted my magazine cover to stand out from the crowd.

What is the meaning created in the image?The meaning created in the image is to express more than just a simple sports magazine cover, however to be more specific to my target audience of teenagers and therefore have a setting of a college courtyard, therefore directly appealing to both sports fans and students correspondingly.

How well does the combination of image and text work?The combination of image and text works very well in my opinion, firstly, the masthead is a bright red colour and additionally I thought it would be a clever, appropriate idea to give my masthead a shadow effect, which relates to a sports theme as for the most part, sports is done in the sun or at least is more enjoyable in the summer. I decided to keep the rest of the writing black as I believe it looks more professional, I tried a variety of summery colours, as such as yellow, orange etc. However, they just didn’t look very fitting and took away from the main subject of the cover, that being the model, another thing I did to ensure the focus was on the model was not putting any text over the models face.

The meaning created?The colours, font and size of the text I used are very bold which gives an exhilarating and therefore reinstates the reason of the magazine cover which is too encourage sports. Also the mise en scene of the bike in the background, fortunately, was black, which therefore contrasted very well with the black text and black and white outfit the model is wearing.

How well does the combination of image and text work?The combination of image and text works very well in my opinion, firstly, the masthead is a bright red colour and additionally I thought it would be a clever, appropriate idea to give my masthead a shadow effect, which relates to a sports theme as for the most part, sports is done in the sun or at least is more enjoyable in the summer. I decided to keep the rest of the writing black as I believe it looks more professional, I tried a variety of summery colours, as such as yellow, orange etc. However, they just didn’t look very fitting and took away from the main subject of the cover, that being the model, another thing I did to ensure the focus was on the model was not putting any text over the models face.

The meaning created?The colours, font and size of the text I used are very bold which gives an exhilarating and therefore reinstates the reason of the magazine cover which is too encourage sports. Also the mise en scene of the bike in the background, fortunately, was black, which therefore contrasted very well with the black text and black and white outfit the model is wearing.

How it is appropriate for the target audience?This magazine cover is appropriate for the target audience of teenagers as several of the cover lines include some sports stars as such as ‘Max Holloway’, who is very relevant to sport at the moment as UFC is one of the fastest growing and most relevant sports in the world due to superstars as such as Conor McGregor therefore it is relatable for the target audience due to recognisable names. Additionally, my target audience is teenagers therefore I understand that the magazine cannot cost a lot of money as the social group of which I am appealing to typically have low spending power.

How it fulfils your intentions?Firstly, as previously mentioned, the image, text and the colour scheme in my opinion clearly combine to represent a sporty feel, however it is more representation via the mise en scene, as such as the outfit and the table tennis racquet in his hand. This mise en scene clearly portrays not only the theme, but also the target audience is made clear via this as the location of the photo is in a college, which is made clear by the quality of the table tennis table, racquet and the background. Also, the masthead full fits its intension of which is to stand out and be eye-catching however the use of not covering the models face ensures no attention is taken away from the image itself.

Magazine Cover 2What your intentions were when you took the photograph? Simularly to the first magazine cover, my intensions when taking this photo was to make the genre clear from the image alone and to make the magazine cover as inviting as possible by ensuring the model has a happy facial expression uses direct address. The clothing of the magazine I believe is very suitable as I instructed the model to wear plain, yet comfortable clothing, I asked this as I didn’t want to take the attention away from the main subject of the image which is the wolverine cardboard cut out. Additionally, I ensured the that both the model and the cut out is in focus yet made sure that around half of the image was of the cut out. By using a low angle, I made both the poster and the model look larger, which makes the cut out look more intense, lastly, I did not feel I needed to get the whole of the word ‘Wolverine’ in the shot as it is a very famous movie and I believe it is clear to understand what it is without the ‘E’ which highlights how popular movies are.

How the final image fulfils your intentions?It fulfilled my intensions very well, the bright natural lighting coming from the window helps to create a positive atmosphere, which is essential for this cover as the models facial expression is also very positive and films are made to entertain therefore it makes sense.

How the image is appropriate for the front cover of a teenage lifestyle magazine; and the specific issue you have created?Much like the first magazine cover, the image is appropriate for the front cover of a teenage lifestyle magazine as the model used in the cover is also a teenager, this immediately makes the magazine relatable for the target audience of teenagers. Additionally, I chose to do this image in front of a Wolverine card board cut out specifically as although not everyone is fans of the film, or even watched the film, almost everyone has heard of it and this fact alone highlights how popular films and TV programmes are and can be.

What is the meaning created in the image?The meaning created in the image is to express more than just a picture of someone smiling next to a card board cut out, the models excitable facial expression symbolises how much emotion films can provoke and highlights that films are there to entertain the audience and I believe this magazine cover represents this very well.

How well the combination of image and text works?The combination of image and text works very well in my opinion, firstly, the masthead is a bright red colour, which is very similar to the cut out behind it, however I believe this looks very professional and to ensure the colours didn’t clash I again included the shadow effect, therefore the masthead fits the red and black colour scheme. I decided to white as I simply believe it looks very professional, I did however decide to change the cover line under the title a different shade, which was somewhere in-between red and black to create a maroon colour, initially all of the cover lines was this cover however it just didn’t look very good and ruined the colour scheme. The focus was on the model and the cut out therefore I did not put any text over the models face or over ‘The Wolverine’.

The meaning created?The colours, font and size of the text I used are very bold and have a clear colour scheme which looks very neat and professional, a code and convention of most TV and film magazine is the fact that they are very organised and neat therefore I believe using an outgoing colour for the cover lines simply wouldn't fit with the conventions of a magazine of this genre therefore the meaning is to represent elegance of watching films however kept some colour in the title and ensured the cut out was bright as the target audience is teenagers therefore it must appeal to them.

How it is appropriate for the target audience?As previously mentioned, I ensured that I used a bright coloured card board cut out to ensure the poster was visually appealing for teenagers. Additionally, as also mentioned earlier Wolverine is a very popular film due to the bunch of franchises it relates to as such as ‘X-men’ which when combined with others it is related to, is a wide variety of target audience, this Wolverine film in particular was released on 26 July 2013 therefore assuming my target audience are 13-19, this film came out when people was 9-15 therefore they are most likely familiar with it.

How it fulfils your intentions?The text and image work very well together as the colour scheme is made very clear via them which fulfilled my intensions, the elegant and neat them I believe clearly work together to represent a film and TV magazine. The mise en scene of the huge card board cut out makes it clear what the genre is as it is the main subject of the image. The masthead and main image colours work well together to stand out and get peoples attention.

What your intentions were when you took the photograph?My intensions when taking this photo was for the model to clearly make it obvious what the genre of the magazine is by simply using something as small as a game case alone. I believed the most effective way of doing so was to simply point at the game and give the camera direct and begin talking, this makes the audience feel as though the model is taking to them about the game, this is a very simple, yet effective concept. The body language and facial expression of the model is very inviting and makes it seem as though he wants to converse with the audience which is very appealing for those looking at the image.

How the final image fulfils your intentions?The image fulfils my intensions very well as I did not want much of the focus to be on the background what so ever and wanted all the focus on the model and the game in his hand, I had the intension of making it seem like the model was speaking about the game and this was very successful in giving that feeling. The dark lighting helped the aura be calm and makes the magazine poster very casual which is not what I initially wanted as I believed it would look more inviting if the lighting was bright however It looks much more fitting with a darker lighting.

Magazine Cover 3

How the image is appropriate for the front cover of a teenage lifestyle magazine; and the specific issue you have created?The image is appropriate for the target audience of teenagers as gaming is huge part of the majority of teenagers lives, as a result of that, they also spend a lot of time talking about games and gaming therefore this image makes a lot of sense, as it is as though the model is inviting the audience to converse with him about the game.

The meaning created in the image.As mentioned several times previously, the meaning of which I wanted to create in this image is the idea of conversing about gaming, I believed this is an interesting, original idea instead of simply using a picture of someone actually playing a game, as although that is the most obvious option, teenagers spend just as more time talking about gaming as they doing actually playing the game so this is just as, if not then more, relatable for them.

How well the combination of image and text works?The combination of the image and the text works well on this image, the main subjects of this image are the model and the game. Firstly, I had the game therefore I looked at the colour of the game case and based my colour scheme around that, therefore I asked my model to wear black, white and grey also, which he did. From this I decided to have black and white text also as it fit with the colour scheme perfectly, however, I understand that these aren’t the most appealing colours therefore to ensure the cover still stood out, I stuck with the red masthead with the shadow effect, which looks very professional and the contrasts works very well.

The meaning created?The meaning created via the black, white and grey colour scheme is fairly intense, which is very suitable as those who have played the game in the models hand ‘Shadow of Mordor’ will know that it is a very intense game. Additionally, the main cover line tells us that the game in the models hand is in fact his therefore meaning he will be knowledgeable on the subject of the game and would be willing to have an intellectual conversation about the game which surprisingly is very appealing to gamers as they like to get nerdy and talk about games in a lot of detail.

How it is appropriate for the target audience?It is appropriate for the target audience as all the cover lines combined essentially ensured that one of the cover lines will be related for the audience, as the majority of people enjoy and participate in gaming however there are several ways to do so and mentioning almost all of them ensures that atleast one of them is relatable for someone.

How it fulfils my intentions?The text and image work together very well as there is a clear colour scheme, the image combines with the text and the colour of it combine clearly represent gaming as the game follows the same colour scheme. The masthead and main image stand out to get peoples attention however do not take the focus away from the main subject of the image, that being the game, and if that not clear enough then those who believe the model is the main subject will see where he is pointing.

What your intentions were when you took the photograph? My intensions when taking this photo was to highlight how music and singing makes people feel, therefore I wanted my model to act as though she was singing with a delighted expression on her face to emphasize the feelings of which music provokes.

How the final image fulfils your intentions?The final image fulfils my intensions very well for the most part as it is very clear what the genre of the magazine will be via the image, however I believe it would’ve of portrayed the happiness of which I wanted to express if I requested my model to wear brighter clothing as this reflects on the mood it creates. Despite this, the mise en scene works well as the chair is colourful and therefore adds some personality to the image and makes the image look a lot more positive, as does the lighting.

Magazine Cover 4

How the image is appropriate for the front cover of a teenage lifestyle magazine; and the specific issue you have created?This image is appropriate for the target audience of teenagers most obviously as the model featured in this image is a teenagers herself therefore it immediately gives some relatability for the target audience. Additionally, instead of me having a picture of somebody playing an instrument, or in a huge studio with loads of a equipment, I simply had my model singing into a microphone. Singing is a simple concept of which almost every one can relate to, including teenagers.

The meaning created in the image?The meaning of this image is to symbolize the emotions of which singing can provoke and the simplicity of it, the model is simply singing into a microphone with headphones on her happy looking extremely happy, which is something everyone can do, whereas if I was to ask the model to hold a guitar or other instrument, only those of which has the talent to play these can relate.

How well the combination of image and text works?The combination of the image and text compliment each other very well. As previously mentioned, the clothing of the model is not as bright as I wish it was and is actually very dark and bland, therefore for me to have lots of outgoing colours in the text would be fitting with the theme, however would not be fitting with the image. Therefore, I did decide to add more colour to the image, under the masthead, the black and grey writing looks very good, as does the white writing. It wouldn't make sense for the text to be a different colour as it would look strange and I like the colour coming from the chair alone.

The meaning created?The meaning created via expression on the models face and lack of colour but clear representation of positivity via the model and additionally the colourful chair fits the cover accordingly. Additionally, the main cover line tells us that the model of which is featured in the magazine has an important which should be took seriously therefore the direct address and smile is very inviting and the audience will want find out more about her.

How it is appropriate for the target audience?It is appropriate for the target audience as all the cover lines are very brief and not specific what so ever therefore they will most likely appeal to everyone in some way. As previously mentioned, it also appeals to the target audience of teenagers as the model is a teenager herself so it is relatable immediately.

How it fulfils my intentions?The text and image work together very well as there is a clear colour scheme, the image has a very positive aura about it and the colour from the mise en scene fits the masthead nicely. The masthead and main image stand out to get peoples attention however this genre of the magazine is made clear via them both, rule of thirds is used here as I positioned the model in the middle with the mic so the audience understand the genre.