First front cover analysis; Q Magazine - Amy Winehouse

1. Masthead > the font used in this area is ‘Serif’ font. This is
used to make the magazine look formal. The letter Q is
made of colour [Type text]
white mixed with a red background to
make it recognisable and easy to read. This is being used
in every issue they publish for consumers to become
familiar with this product, and it would be easier for them
to find whenever needed. The letter Q can also be read as
‘cue’ that gives people a clue that this magazine is about
music. Another is, ‘cue’ can be known as a thing said or
done that serves as a signal for musicians to begin
performing.
In addition to Masthead, the line “The World’s Greatest
Music Magazine” is used to make it more interesting and
pleasing to the reader. Giving another clue that the
magazine is all about music mentioning that it is the
‘Greatest Music Magazine’. This then gives people an
attempt, particularly the targeted audience to buy it.
Main Image > there are quite a lot elements used in the
main image such as Rule of Thirds, Medium Close Up Shot,
and Direct Mode of Address that perfectly fits the
magazine. The model used a direct mode of address that
gives audiences a fascinating but seductive look, and this
is also one factor that adds interest to the magazine. Using
a popular artist, and specifically Amy Winehouse as seen
in this front cover as the main image can persuade people
to buy this magazine. Moreover, looking at the mise en
scene, we can see that she used dark shades of make-up,
her spotted small tattoo, and also the clothing used
portrays that she isn’t as girly as others. Her eye was
covered with her hair which can be commonly seen in rock
singers. This then shows that her genre is some kind of
indie or rock music.
Lead article/Model Credit/Cover lines > the cover lines
surround the image without overlapping through her face.
This allows the reader to easily read the cover lines and as
well as allowing the reader to see the model properly. The
magazine has plugged pieces of information such as
bands’ names and other artists, giving just another idea
about what’s inside the magazine. Highlighted are the
most interesting topic inside to simply persuade their
readers to purchase the magazine. Also, the EXCLUSIVE
makes the readers believe that they will be given a chance
to have Amy Winehouse’s tribute CD. Moreover, it can be
seen that AMY was emphasised and it doesn’t include her
last name which shows that people are familiar with the
artist with or without her full name. And also the last line
which says “And how we lost her” is an interesting topic
that would attract the reader. In addition to this, the word
‘VINYL’ was changed in another colour to emphasise the
suggestion that it can be an alternative to love the vintage
way of listening to music despite having modern society.
Target audience > According to Bauer Media Magazines,
68.3% of readers of Magazine are male, and only 31.7%
are female readers. It also stated that the in terms of age
range, 35.5% of readers of Q Magazine are 15-24 years
old. And the rest of other ages shared spontaneously on
the remaining. (Source:
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/
detail/Q) The magazine is generally made for readers who
love music, they offer articles that come with different
genres and this attracts people with the age mentioned
above, giving them intuition to buy these magazines.
House Style > the magazine’s colour scheme consists
of simple colours such as red, white and orange and
a little bit of black. This was fairly used to make it
quite simple yet appealing. Some of these house
styles were made common since the magazine was
popular that they have to make it similar to the
previous and upcoming issues to create familiarity
for the audiences to recognize it easily. However,
different fonts were used to make the front cover
more creative and as we can see formal fonts were
used and this supports the idea that the targeted
audience are adults.
Guttenberg Design Principle > in the primary optical area,
we can see the logo of the magazine and as well as the
buzzword which also indicates that a freebie was
provided. As we proceed to the axis of orientation, we can
see the main article about Amy and as we go through the
reading gravity, we can see the barcode but above this are
some key ideas of what’s inside the magazine so we can’t
assume that it supports the Guttenberg Principle.
However, in the strong fallow area supports it in a way
because we can see something interesting on that part
and not so much on the weak fallow area.