Target audience and need: NME has a very wide

mainstream audience as many people enjoy music

however there is a larger percentage of male readers

(65%) compared to (35%) of women who read the

magazine, it mainly targets an audience of 16-24 year

olds as (50%) read the magazine compared to (23%)

25-34 year olds. Therefore it shows the magazine

spreads a large interest to the public.

House style: The house style of NME is to have the

masthead in a very large bold sans serif font, as for all

the cover lines are also in sans serif font but smaller.

Each heading is in red highlighting them to the

audience so they stand out. The front covers are also very compact with lots of

information within the magazine The red black and white all contrast black and

white uses binary opposition as the indicate good and bad where as red suggests

danger all these combine together to show that NME is a magazine with a mixture of

all genres. It places the price/date and barcode at the bottom right of the page as it’s

visually missed by the audience no one realises the price till they pay etc.

The Guttenberg design principle: In the bottom lefts dead corner they attract the

audiences attention by placing the cover stars name in bold letters to advertise they

Liam Gallagher is the main headline for the magazine, in the top right dead corner

they place an incentive (free posters) this generates attention as the audience are

getting something for ‘free’ within the magazine.

Main image/images: There is a main image of a well know mainstream artist (Liam

Gallagher) this occurs on all NME magazines to interest the audience into buying

them. The main image is in black and white connoting the classic genre of the band

Oasis. Liam Gallagher’s images takes up the whole page this could indicate his

importance to the music industry and how successful he’s been.

Masthead: The mast head is in a very large bold sans serif font, it’s red to make it

stand out and appeal to the audience, the masthead is a very classic signature design

which is used on all NME magazines it similarly compares to the main headline

which uses the same font to attract attention. The sans serif font shows is informality

which also represents the target audience as its made up of all different followers.

Masthead Splash Incentive

Cover star Main cover

line

Cover lines

Lead article/model credit/Cover lines: Cover lines are use all over NME front cover

to establish there messy disorganised affect as they attract a large audience who

listen to all kinds of music genres. They all use sans serif fonts too and the cover line

headings are read in comparison to the masthead however the cover line explanation

are in white or black contrasting each heading.

Target audience and need: Mixmag targets an

audience of ages 16+ specifically people who

listen to dance music. It also targets many

dance artists as there isn’t many stories within

the Mixmag it is based on DJ careers and short

interviews etc.

House style: It uses a tag-line to emphasise

what the magazine is about ‚The world biggest

dance music and clubbing magazine.‛ The

gold and black colours represent the black as in

the bad of things and gold the good of things

like money/riches.

The Guttenberg design principle: In the primary optical area it has the masthead

and the splash, as the eyes reach the terminal areas the audience will see the cover

lines on the main articles within the magazine, in the top right dead corner there’s a

tag-line to describe the magazine, and in the bottom left dead corner there is a small

font incentive to attract attention as the audience will want to know what it says.

Main image/images: The gold colours in the background are shaped as silhouettes

of people dancing this indicate the genre of Mixmag directly to the audience. As

there is no main image they use a splash within the centre of the page to direct

attention it also asks a question ‚Dance winner of all time?‛ which will make the

audience intrigued to find out who’s won especially regular readers of Mixmag.

Masthead Tag-line

Main

cover line Cover lines Incentive Barcode

Masthead: The masthead is large and bold using a sans serif font which stretches

across the top of the front cover; it stands out as its coloured white contrasting with

the black and gold within the background. The masthead is also a compound noun,

for example (mix) could represent the use of mixers on a DJ deck or mixtures of

sounds, and (mag) is a shorter version of magazine.

Lead article/model credit/Cover lines: The cover lines are very short and simple on

the front cover there also isn’t many covering the page this is because the genre of

magazine is only on dance therefore the target audience now what will be inside so

there is no need for it to be busy or look messy, it also makes the magazine more

formal looking which indicates the purpose of it is more sophisticated which links in

with it targeting more dance artists to help them with their future careers. The cover

line headings are all in gold where as the coverline description is white these colours

contrast each other.

Comparison: In comparison NME and Mixmag have rather different target

audiences as mixmag is more specific to the genre of music it contains whereas

NMEs audience is very mainstream as it contains many different genres, however

similarly both NME and Mixmag use a informal masthead as there both sans serif

and very bold this advertises the magazine professionally as its noticeable from the

boldness and the choice of colours red/white. Both magazines follow the Guttenberg

design principle they add incentives and splashes in dead corners to attract attention

therefore they both use the rule of thirds to present their magazine covers. A

difference between both magazines is the use of a main image NME uses a famous

cover star whereas Mixmag uses a patterned background, this may be because

mixmag only focuses on dance and some artists will not be famous enough to be

recognised by the audience whereas NME have a large number of artists to use.

There is also a difference in the use of cover lines, as NME have many on the front

cover which makes the magazine seem busy which represents the use of all different

genres whereas Mixmag only has a few in the terminal area to attract attention.