Magazine Cover AnalysisAlex Clare

Mood board of different music magazine covers

• Before I started to design my magazine I thought I would look at different magazine covers to see what techniques have been used and where text and images have been placed. I looked at magazines such as Rolling Stones, Q, Billboard and Vibe. I have noticed on all music magazines that there is only one central image of the a person with text on either the left or the right had side of the magazine, furthermore rule of third and balancing elements, for example if you have your text going down the right had side, balance it out by putting a competition bubble there for example.

Vibe• On the left is an American magazine

company called Vibe. This magazine cover is something similar that I want to aim for as it has a similar target audience that I am aiming at. My target audience range is 16-25, with having the picture of Eminem so big on the front cover of the magazine will grab people attention and want to read about it.

• The text underneith the picture of Eminem is big and bold which is easy to read and draws the readers eye too it.

Vibe • The Masthead of this magazine is

covered slightly by the main picture. This is okay to do when you are a well known magazine make, because people will able to make out what it is, even though you can only see the ‘V’ and the ‘E’.

Another good thing about this magazine that I could use in my magazine is the little side text talking about what else is inside the magazine, I think this is good thing to do and balances out the magazine nicely so text isn't just all up one side.

Vibe• The main image of most music

Magazine covers has to be big and eye-catching and appealing to the right target audience. On the Magazine Cover to the left is a picture of a well known Rap Hip/Hop artist Eminem who has a huge fan base, so has a huge target audience. When people see him on the front cover they will want to read what they are talking about, and so people will buy it.

Comparing with a different magazine• By looking at this magazine

you can clearly see that they have a compleltly different target audience yet they still use the same rules such as a big main image in the middle with text down one side and just a little something on the other side to balance it out.

Ideas for my magazine• I have been creating some of

my own masthead designs using different fonts, by looking at different magazines I can now get more of an idea in how I want to layout the front cover and what colour scheme I would like to use