2. NME Masthead, with NME it is always in the top left corner of the front cover. Always in large red font (except for special editions) the red stands out against the black giving the magazine a sense of identity, allowing the audience to be able to easily identify it in a shop amongst many other magazines. Special offer enticing the reader, containing incentives to buy the magazine. NME constantly use the same colour themes, red writing on a dark, contrasting background. This allows for their headline features to stand out. It also coincides with their brand colours, again, allowing the audience to easily identify it in a shop situation. Predominantly, NME run their cover lines down the side of the page, however, as this is a ‘special edition’ the main focus is In the centre of the page with their main cover line, where it states the magazine includes “World exclusive”, enticing the reader into picking up the magazine, therefore a potential sale. The picture is of Liam Gallagher in the band Oasis, they are standing in a arrogant pose replicating their personalities . The picture us shot at eye level, or slightly below, giving the band a sense of power. As this is a Christmas edition, the front page is decorated with festoons, in which contains more details on what the magazine contains – cover lines. NME always overload their front covers with text, or pictures. However, they always have the one major story (like many magazines), featuring within the main cover image. Price & barcode always in small print bottom right corner. This is because the front cover does need to contain this information, however, on any magazine cover a large barcode & price wouldn’t work.
3. Clash Clash also follow the conventional rules for the use of a Masthead. Again it is situated within the top third of the page, and in the left corner. Clash also constantly use their iconic brand name on their magazine covers. This is to, again, help the magazine be easily identified in a shop amongst many other magazines. Clash’s logo is a simple bold and in lower case. However, the ‘a’ is illustrated as a back – to – front s, this works well because the following letter is an s, allowing the a (back – to – front s) to link up with it creating the a effect. This gives the logo another feature to help stand out before competitors. The colour of their logo is always white, this to keep the consistency between editions, and again for the brand identity. Again, another special offer is used, containing the word ‘free’ which will encourage the reader to buy it. This time the list of extra features are placed at the side of the page, usually they are found at the bottom. They have been placed there purposely so that it doesn't distract from the dull, dark colours of the clothing below. The colour schemes which Clash predominantly use, frequently coincides with the style of the band, or the attitude portrayed within the picture. For example, as I have said with this image, the dull faces is enhanced by the grey background. However, if they use a band/person with a colourful character, Clash will change the colour scheme of the front cover. Not many other magazines do this. The cover picture is of the English ‘Alt-rock’ band Arctic Monkeys, pictured up against a dark, grey wall. The facial expressions of the members replicates the colour of the magazine cover. All band members portray glum/bored faces, which is enhanced by the colour of the clothing. The reason why I feel these colours & expressions have been chosen is to try and persuade the reader to view the article to try and find out the meaning behind the front cover Clash follow the conventional way of placing the price & barcode, always in small print bottom right corner. This is because the front cover does need to contain this information, however, on any magazine cover a large barcode & price wouldn’t work.
4. Q Masthead, Q magazine always place their logo in the top left hand corner of their front covers. This follows the conventional way of producing magazine covers. They use their symbolic colours, a white Q with the red background. This is to give the brand an identity which stands out from other magazines allowing the audience to immediately identify it on a shop shelf – instantly recognisable. Special offer enticing the reader, containing incentives to buy the magazine. One feature you do notice with Q magazines, is the lack of colour, and the over-crowdedness compared, especially to NME (in particular the one featured in my research). Q prefer to give their magazines a sense of ‘class’ about them. This is in stark contrast to NME, who seem to try and ‘cram’ as much information/text as possible into the cover. The Q magazine featured above is one of their special edition magazines, in this case featuring Paul McCartney and stories about The Beatles. As it is a special edition, the text on the page is minimal, because they only want to focus on the Paul McCartney exclusive. Q also follow the usual way of how images are used on a magazine cover, for example, this one of Chris Martin (Coldplay) is spread over the whole page, allowing the extreme close up image of Chris Martin’s face to stand out against competitors. Again the picture is used because he is the main feature within this edition. Q also follow the standard way of the use of cover lines. As we know, their feature story is about Chris Martin, and his life in Coldplay, they also run many quotes around the outside of the picture . This is to lure the audiences attention into picking the magazine up off of the shelf, giving them a likely chance of a sale. One feature of a front cover which Q dont follow, is the consistency over the placement of their barcode. On this edition it is in the bottom left corner. However, in other editions it can be found in other corners of the front page. This is because, Q change its position depending upon the photo on the front page and where it would look best. Small list at the bottom front cover bringing to the attention of the reader what other features are contained within the issue.
