Summary of Front covers

(pics)



All of the music magazine covers make a huge statement; they are all very appealing to the eye and look very dramatic. Most of the colours used are bright and bold but still relate back to the colour scheme. If we look at the top three covers from Mojo, they are very artistic and fun looking. They relate well to their target audience and to the person on the front cover. The bottom three are also very bold and colourful especially the cover with lady gaga on, the bright colours and strange dress code relate to her personality and what she is like in real life.


Summary of front covers
Overall it is clear that most of the music magazines are similar to each other. The first aspect that is similar on all of the magazines is the use of the image on the front cover. Each magazine uses a famous person to grab the attention of the target audience. The ‘celebrity’ is normally looking straight into the camera as if they are looking straight at the reader helping to grab the attention of readers. The picture is more often than not an upper body shot so much more detail can be seen on the face of the main image. The position of the main image will vary from issue to issue depending on the type of message the magazine is trying to portray that particular week or month. The eyes of the model are normally positioned in the centre of the page to help attract the reader, and being a music magazine, it is very important the ‘celebrity’ stands out because it may convince the consumer to buy the magazine.

The second greatest aspect is the text. The text is very important because it supports the main images on the cover page in telling the consumer what is going to be in the magazine and once again convincing them to buy it or not depending on if they find it interesting. The text and main titles will be formatted depending o the target audience as its clear a teenager would not be attracted to the same text as a mature adult. The magazine will often have a colour scheme to give the cover consistency and help it to flow and fit together.

The final aspect is the general balance of the whole page. As I mentioned before the cover must have consistency for it to fit together and look appealing to the consumer. Magazine editors will look at the magazine form the consumer’s perspective and decide whether the look works well. It is well known that images are more appealing than text but it is important to get the right balance.